Cheltenham Town Hall 2 Antiques Roadshow

Charles Dickens once said of today's Roadshow location,

"Rarely have I seen a place that so attracted my fancy,"

and do you know, I think quite a few famous residents would agree,

not least the late, great Arthur Negus,

founding father of the Roadshow, of course,

and who lived here for many years.

Welcome to a return visit to Cheltenham.

On the day before the Antiques Roadshow,

there are always 101 things to be done.

Lights need checking, miles of cables need laying,

sets need to be laid out...

Hmm, that sounds far too much like hard work for me.

Far below all this activity, I've been told there's something

rather interesting in the bowels of the building.

From 1903, when the town hall opened,

it was at the heart of Cheltenham's social life,

so you might expect, 100 years on,

to find something rather intriguing down here.

Let's have a look. What can we see?

Mm, what's in these books?

Wouldn't you know it?

It's from the local Echo, 1980 -

"TV Antiques Roadshow In Town," and, look, there's Angela Rippon.

This is the first time that the Antiques Roadshow

came here to Cheltenham.

It would be great to find something

from the town hall's famous musical past.

Here we go, "First Annual Festival.

"The first performance of works by Benjamin Britten

"conducted by the composer."

Gosh, so when it came to classical music,

Cheltenham was where it was at.

As well as Benjamin Britten, many great composers performed here -

William Walton, Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst.

And in the cultural capital of the Cotswolds -

also renowned for its exquisite silver, immaculate furniture

and rustic pottery - our experts are in position,

and hoping to make their own mark with some exciting discoveries.

Whenever I see a piece of painted enamel on an object of silver

like this, it always gets the pulse ticking a little faster.

What can you tell me about its past history?

Well, all we know is that when my grandmother died in about 1977,

we found it in her house.

My father hadn't lived with her as a boy, so he'd never seen it before.

We looked at it, it was a bit black,

it had been on her mantelpiece, I think.

It went on a shelf at home, and just carried on being black.

Then about a year ago, I've got a friend

who's staying in Amberleigh, and I took it to show her,

and while we were looking at it,

another friend of ours turned up for a cup of tea.

-She works at the Court Barn Museum at Chipping Campden...

-Yes.

..and recognised what it was.

So we went to Chipping Campden and showed this to the Harts,

and they agreed that it had been made there,

and that it was probably valuable.

Well, what you've hit on is absolutely right, because

when you look at how it's made,

it absolutely screams Arts and Crafts.

These rather crude riveted feet,

which are all done absolutely deliberately.

-Yes.

-You know, it's not just bad making.

-No.

-That's how they deliberately made it,

and then it's got this almost impressionistic enamel on the top.

And this period was probably one of the peak periods

for enamelling in the British Isles,

and, of course, this came out of the very famous

Guild of Handicraft workshop in Chipping Campden,

and there's one name... Do you know

the famous name associated with the Guild of Handicraft?

Well, Ashbee.

-Charles Ashbee.

-Yes.

He is an absolutely iconic name at the moment.

People are going crazy over his stuff.

So what I would need to do a little bit of work on, is to find out

whether this was actually designed by Ashbee.

If we turn it up and look at the bottom,

you can see it's got the Guild of Handicraft mark there

and the date letter is actually 1906.

Now, that's exactly the period

when Ashbee was running the Guild of Handicrafts.

Lovely box. Very, very stylish, and, do you know, 20 years ago,

I really disliked this stuff.

-Do you like it?

-I do now, yes.

-So do I.

-I mean, I don't think my father did, when he found it.

It looked old-fashioned.

And it's funny how tastes change.

I used to love Georgian coffee pots and simple silver.

Now I'm really into this Arts and Crafts silver

and I think this is a lovely little box, highly collectable.

Now, if it IS designed by Ashbee,

we're probably looking at

-£4,000 to £5,000.

-Wow.

So, not a bad increase.

Not bad at all.

What I've brought is two chairs and a table.

-What, these two chairs we're sitting in?

-Yes, yes.

I bought these at auction last year for £160.

-Yes.

-And they're from Laurie Lee's house

and I also got a letter from his widow stating the fact.

-That these are Laurie Lee's?

-Yes.

So Laurie Lee, the man who wrote Cider With Rosie,

that seminal book of the 1950s-60s

that we all had to study at school...

-Did you study it at school?

-Yes, I did, yes.

Yes, so, was it written on this table?

I'm not sure about that, but I'm sure he sat in these very chairs.

Well, Laurie Lee was born in 1914

and he was born in Slad, down here in Gloucestershire,

a few miles away from where we are at the moment,

and brought up by his mother's family.

His father went off to war in 1914 and he didn't get killed,

but he decided not to come back to his family,

so he was brought up in a female environment in this

tiny little Slad valley, which all figures in his little book.

But I'd love to feel - although it probably wasn't -

that Cider With Rosie was written, forged, on this piece of wood here.

-Yes.

-There's the coffee stain - tremendous!

-And look, you haven't cleaned it off.

-No.

You see here, this is all, this is all wax from the candle.

-Oh, from the... Candle wax, yes.

-You see the candle.

So this dim little cottage,

writing by the light of a candle,

mug of hot coffee to keep warm, writing Cider With Rosie.

I don't suppose it happened on this table,

-but indeed this was Laurie Lee's table.

-Quite.

An invalid table, late Victorian.

At auction - how much did you pay for it?

I paid £160 for the three items.

Well, I suppose if they went into auction now

and you forgot the Laurie Lee implications,

-I think that they would make, possibly make £100.

-Yes.

So you paid £60 over because it was Laurie Lee's.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I think catalogued properly

and with this wonderful association from an author who wrote

a seminal book of the 20th century,

we're talking about £5,000.

HE LAUGHS At least.

So where do you keep it? Where do you keep it now?

-Um...

-You obviously don't bother to polish it.

No, no, it's just kept in the house, just on the landing.

That's brilliant. Thanks very much.

My husband worked for The Beatles, he worked for Apple Corps,

and we were invited to the opening party of their new shop.

The Apple shop? Brilliant!

Yes, the Apple shop, which was on the corner of Baker Street

-and Paddington Street.

-Yes, right, exactly.

And they'd got The Fool, who were a Dutch group,

to design some amazing clothes.

This was just the beginning of the hippie,

slightly getting hippie thing.

Yes, I'm just trying to think, the Apple shop, which was this

-extraordinary edifice with a big mural...

-Wonderful painting.

..on the outside of it.

That opened, I think, in December '67, didn't it?

-That's right, yes.

-With a huge fanfare,

and it was full of these wonderful, sumptuous clothes

in extraordinary colours, extraordinary fabrics,

and the trade mark was the Apple logo.

Obviously, The Beatles set up the Apple recording label,

they called it, tongue in cheek, Apple Corps, spelt C-O-R-P,

and the Apple shop was a sort of offshoot

of the Apple Corporation, which was their record label.

-So you were there, lucky girl.

-I was there at the opening party.

-How was it?

-It was packed - absolutely packed -

and we were allowed to buy garments at the opening party,

so I bought this, a blue brocade dress,

and another top for my husband.

Where they are, I don't know, so this is the only remaining one.

And we were also invited to listen to, not the final mix,

but the final run-through of Hey Jude.

We went up to this tiny little studio

and I sat on a little banquette with Paul McCartney on one side

and out came this incredible song, which just went on and on and on.

And Paul was really worried, he said, "Is it too long?"

and we all said, "No, no, it's fabulous, it's fabulous."

-Extraordinary and exciting times.

-Yes.

-I mean, the... Let's just do the postscript to the Apple shop.

-Yes.

-Because the Apple shop...

-Didn't last long, no.

No, it closed in the July, the following year,

so it had a very short run.

Well, they had an awful problem with people just coming in

-and taking things.

-Shoplifting?

"Oh, I'm a friend of George,

"he said I could have six dresses," that sort of thing.

They had a lot of trouble with that, so I think they lost a lot of money.

-Right.

-But, um...

But the psychedelic dream sort of continues

when I look at this painting here.

Now, I had a look at the back of it, and it says, "Philip Sutton"

-and it's 1981, which is, you know, later than the psychedelic era.

-Yes.

But it has a sort of feeling of psychedelia to it.

Is that you?

That's me looking a bit like somebody from Trixie comic

-of the 1960s, but, yes, that is me.

-And are you wearing...?

I'm wearing this, yes. Wearing that.

And what's the background?

Because the background looks like a sort of scene

from Yellow Submarine in a way, doesn't it?

Well, it could be, but in fact, it's After The Flood,

-Noah's ark, after the flood.

-Oh, right.

-So there's the ark.

-Yes.

And there's Mrs Noah and Mr Noah, my cat and a dog.

And I'd made this for an American client because I was making

-applique and embroidered quilts and wall hangings.

-Yes.

And I made that for an American client, and Philip Sutton,

who's a friend of ours, saw it and he said, "Shall we do a swap?"

And I made him a bedspread and he painted my portrait,

and I decided I wanted to be painted behind this, which I found.

Brilliant, brilliant.

Well, Philip Sutton, he is a Royal Academician,

he's represented in Tate Britain,

he was a tutor at the Slade School of Art in the 1950s and '60s,

so he is well known

and I know that Philip Sutton himself says of his work

that he feels like he's a musician running through fields of colour,

and using each of the colours a bit like a musical instrument,

creating wild music... So, in a way,

that sort of psychedelic feel continues.

And even though this is dated 1981, it's still...

He still has that feel of the late '60s and early '70s, it's terrific.

OK, so it comes down to the nuts and bolts, which is the value.

And I think that the coat here,

I could see that

easily fetching £400 or £500.

Wow! Just the dress?

The Philip Sutton is slightly more difficult to value.

I'm going to be slightly cautious

-and put a value of £1,000 to £1,500 on it.

-Wow.

BUT it's got a long way to go.

But that's a portrait of me wearing this dress,

so my family are going to have a portrait of me and the dress.

They can set up - like Matisse had a museum -

the painting, the object from the painting next to it.

It'll be like a little shrine, a little shrine to you in the corner.

I've even got the shoes I used to wear with this,

I used to wear silver...

Not tights, because they didn't have tights in those days -

silver stockings, which scratched like mad,

and silver shoes, and I thought I was fabulous!

# Those were the days, my friend

# We thought they'd never end

# We'd sing and dance for ever and a day

# We'd live the life we choose

# We'd fight and never lose

# For we were young and sure to have our way... #

You may remember in our Antiques Roadshow in Wimbledon

that one of our visitors brought along a Bible,

which had that magic name in it - Negus -

and it once belonged to the Negus family.

And, of course, the late, great Arthur Negus is indelibly

linked to the Antiques Roadshow years gone by,

so we were very pleased to reunite the Bible with the Negus family.

-And, Ann, you're Arthur's daughter.

-Yes.

What did you think when you got the call about this?

Well, I was so excited, it's a wonderful thing to have

because I have very little of my history to go on,

so this told us everything. It's lovely.

-It's a real link to the past, isn't it?

-Yes, absolutely.

You've got "Charles and Harriet Negus".

-Yes, that's my great-grandfather.

-Your great-grandfather.

And great-grandmother, yes, and since having the Bible,

because of the entries, we have managed to trace back to the 1700s.

-Really?

-At the present time.

We hope to go further. It's lovely, wonderful to get it.

Now, even though it's a long time now since your dad presented

the Antiques Roadshow, but everyone remembers his name.

I mean, people keep coming up to me and talking about him.

I'm amazed, I'm amazed, yeah, I am amazed,

but I always thought he didn't have a proper job like other fathers.

He was always bringing home funny things and bits of furniture

and the talk, you know, but as I got older,

I appreciated how much he really was engrossed with it, loved it.

Well, what came through was his real passion for it, I think.

He had a... Well, as a boy, you see - father a cabinet-maker -

he just lived with antiques the whole time,

absolutely the whole time. It's lovely, really, to be recognised.

Well, it's lovely to have you back on the programme.

It feels entirely fitting to have a Negus back amongst our midst.

Well, thank you for asking me, it's been most enjoyable.

You know, a lot of people say, "Well how old does it have to be,

"to be an antique?"

And, of course, according to HMRC - Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs -

it should be 100 years old,

and, thankfully, we don't stick too strictly to that,

because if we did,

we wouldn't be able to see this wonderful cabinet...

-That's right.

-..which has come from the Gordon Russell Museum in Broadway

-and was made in 1925.

-1924.

1924. That's the first mistake for me!

Have you got the label in the drawer that we can...?

I think it's in this one, isn't it? Can we have a look?

Ah, there we go.

Oh, it does say 1925 on the label - that was the exhibition.

That was the exhibition in Paris,

where it won the gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1925.

-And designed by Gordon Russell, Sir Gordon Russell.

-Yes.

Now, there was another influence before him,

the Chipping Campden, there was a movement there of Arts and Crafts.

The Guild of Handicrafts brought down from Whitechapel in London...

-Right.

-..by CR Ashbee, the architect.

Right, now those people were quite exclusive, weren't they?

What they produced was expensive,

whereas I think Gordon was important because he thought that

machinery could help him make furniture for the average person

that they could afford, and that's his great contribution, isn't it?

It is indeed.

And it was his line of utility furniture which we see a lot of.

-Indeed.

-But it's always quite exceptional,

it always has that little bit of difference,

-but let's talk about this cabinet.

-Yes.

Because this is a chance for me to talk about a piece of furniture

which equates...

My field is 18th-century furniture,

and yet, when you see something like this,

this, to me, is the equivalent.

This is 20th century, 18th century. This is wonderful.

And he was so clever because he reversed what you'd expect to see.

A Queen Anne cabinet would have had this wonderful work

enclosed by a pair of doors, but he's opened it up

so you see these panels of inlay and marquetry - they're beautiful -

and inside, there are two things that strike straightaway, little details.

Now then, if you take that hinge strap up to there,

this is Queen Anne, it could be Queen Anne.

But this part is absolutely totally Arts and Crafts, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-Wonderful design.

-And then another revival are these oyster veneers.

-Yes.

Revival of the 17th century,

parquetry lined with boxwood and ebony. I...

-And the oysters are laburnum.

-Laburnum, yeah.

-May I...?

-Yes, please.

Oh...

Still works perfectly.

Oh! What a joy! Just...

Wonderful, er...

-Dovetails.

-Dovetails.

Just, just superlative.

Well, now, I know that the museum... This, of course, is without price,

there's nothing quite like it - it is priceless.

It is a priceless piece.

But, commercially, we have to look,

and I know everybody wants to know the sort of price range.

It would certainly be in the range of £50,000 to £60,000.

This sort of furniture is so sought after and so wonderful.

Who knows? I mean, that might be an underestimation,

but it is a great joy for me to see and talk about something

which I can enjoy as much as a piece of 18th-century furniture.

-So do we.

-Thank you very much.

-Not at all, you're welcome.

It's amusing to reflect that such a tranquil figure as this

was created by such a wild Bohemian.

Yes, she was known for her wildness and she would never

take no for an answer, so she'd go up to you at a dinner party

and say, "Oh, your face is so interesting, I must sculpt you,"

and she would introduce herself to everybody famous

and just push herself.

So we're talking about Fredda Brilliant, the Polish sculptress

-who emigrated to Australia, went to Russia, went to India.

-Yes.

And created a very considerable reputation for herself, not only

as a woman on the stage, but as a creator of sculptures and portraits.

Absolutely, absolutely.

She was my aunt, she was married to my mother's brother.

My mother's brother was Herbert Marshall,

famous film producer, theatre manager and all that.

They met in Russia, were married in Russia,

so they spent years in Russia.

So a lot of her early work was Russian.

Then she went to India, and did a lot of the Indian people.

-And there's a great story I recall about how she met Picasso in...

-Yes!

Picasso says, "Come to my house in the south of France, to sculpt me,"

and it would have happened, had he not pinched her bottom?

He pinched her bottom, but what was worse for Fredda,

he pinched her bottom when her husband was in the room.

-Oh, no, no!

-And this was just a no-no.

-Doubly bad.

So, you have this maquette, this preparatory bronze,

for what is arguably the most famous image of Gandhi.

-Yes.

-The statue in Tavistock Square.

-Yes.

-Which she created, she made,

and I think it was unveiled by Harold Wilson, was it not?

Harold Wilson, yes, yes.

And it's now a place of pilgrimage. I see it from time to time

and there's quite often flowers in front of it.

Yes, that was the whole idea,

for people to put flowers into the shrine.

Oh, I'm with you, so it's got... Right.

It was done for that and she was very proud of that,

that when Indians first came to England to live,

the first thing they would do would be go to Tavistock Square and put

flowers as a thank you for a safe journey, or having arrived finally.

And on his birthday, there's a pilgrimage

goes into Tavistock Square of the Indian League

and other dignitaries, and they lay all these flowers around him.

-Every year they do this.

-It's rather thrilling to think

your aunt has created such an emotive, almost divine image

-like that, isn't it?

-Yes, yes.

-Now how did you come by it?

-Well, in her latter years,

I used to go over to America where she was then residing,

and help her to try and sort out 90 years of mayhem, which wasn't easy.

Her whole life and all her chaotic...

Her whole life and all her bronzes

and all her paperwork that she'd kept for ever...

So I would go over there

and we became very close and then she became older and sick

and she ended up leaving me everything.

-Everything?

-Everything.

So, it's not just this?

No, I have a shed with maybe... at least 50 pieces of hers.

Now, they're not all finished, a lot of them are just plasters.

Well, that's exciting, the creative process.

And no direction. Yes. And no direction as to what to do with them.

Quite obvious to me that Fredda needs another,

another bit of exposure, another look at the world.

-The world needs to look at HER, indeed.

-Yes, yes.

Well, I think that this, as a one-off piece,

must be worth, given its significance

in the history of the representation of this man,

-£20,000.

-Yes.

But you have 50 other pieces.

Yes, they're not all as good as this,

but there are other pieces, yes.

I think it's about time that Fredda came out of the dark.

Had a look at the world, I think so.

She would enjoy it, by the sounds of it.

Ooh, she'd love it, she's been in the shed for ten years,

so it's time, it's time she came out of the shed and the world saw her.

-Thank you.

-Pleasure.

This is a very stylish centrepiece, possibly a fruit stand,

something like that,

and there are two things that intrigue me about it.

One is the design and the other is that it doesn't have a glass liner.

-What happened to the liner?

-Well, two friends of mine...

One of them owned it

and I always admired it, and one day they had a major spat,

as only queens can, and he threw it at the other one

and the legs bent and the liner unfortunately broke.

Ah, well, I've heard some interesting stories about history of objects

and that's one of the best!

The design is particularly interesting

and if we turn it up and have a look at the hallmarks,

it's got the maker's mark of William Hutton & Sons,

and the date letter for 1902.

Now, there's one very famous designer associated with William Hutton

-and that is the name of Kate Harris.

-Mm-hm.

And this design on the front, which is very stylish,

very Art Nouveau, is very much Kate Harris's style,

and not only that, on the sides here we've got pink tourmalines...

Oh, it is tourmaline?

..set in, so they're quite valuable in their own right.

The stones themselves are probably worth £500 on their own.

Ooh, very nice! Thank you.

But the whole thing, I would think,

has got to be worth between £2,000 and £3,000.

-Even better!

-BOTH LAUGH

We're here on hallowed ground in the hall,

where Captain Scott of the Antarctic talked,

where Edward Wilson, the doctor on the expedition, talked,

where Shackleton talked,

where Amundsen, who actually got to the South Pole first, talked.

-Yes.

-In this hall here. And we have holy relics

from the last expedition here

-and wonderful pictures from the first expedition.

-Yes.

Why have...? Why are you here? Why are these here?

You couldn't come to Cheltenham without seeing something of

one of his most famous sons,

who was my great-uncle, Edward Wilson of the Antarctic.

-Right.

-As you say, medical doctor on Scott's expeditions

and Chief of Scientific Staff.

But the family have just made quite a large donation

to the museum here of artefacts from the expedition

to mark the centenary of his death, which happened 100 years ago.

100 years ago, including this very holy relic.

Indeed. It's a compass which was used by him

on the South Pole journey and went to the South Pole with him,

and then was found on his body in November 1912 by the search party.

And it's a prismatic compass, it's got liquid in it.

It has some sort of oil in it. I'm not very sure what.

-So that wouldn't freeze.

-To make sure it didn't freeze, yes.

That wouldn't freeze, and then two watercolours,

which are so fabulous,

which are as fresh and as bright as they could possibly be.

-This one of The Discovery, which was the first expedition.

-Yes.

-Not the one he died on, but the earlier expedition.

-Yes.

-Discovery At Hut Point - with beautiful sky.

-Yes.

And this one here, of one of the great icebergs,

absolutely pristine, as though they've never come out of an album.

He had a very strong eye for colour, he had a sort of...

You know, musicians have perfect pitch,

-he had sort of perfect eye for colour.

-He had perfect eye.

Quite remarkable. He used to sketch outside with a pencil

and he made colour notes on his sketches and then

-he would paint up the watercolours in the hut, or on the ship.

-Yes.

Because he couldn't have done it outside

or they would have frozen. Yes, yes.

-Absolutely. And this wonderful hoodie here at the end.

-Yes.

That doesn't look used to me.

It doesn't look used to me either. It's a puzzle.

-It came down through one of his brothers.

-Yes.

It was passed to my brother as his South Pole balaclava,

but in those days "South Pole" and "Antarctic"

were used interchangeably, so, you know,

if you were to go by family,

you'd say it was taken to the South Pole,

but I don't think so. I think, my view... I don't know, you tell me,

but my instinct is it's an early balaclava

probably from the first expedition.

Well, no, I'm sure it's... I'm sure it's his balaclava.

-I don't think it was used.

-No, I agree.

He left it back at Hut Point and it went back home.

And these were all made by Jaeger, weren't they?

-I believe so, yes.

-All these warm goods.

I mean, that really is a nice warm...

It's beautiful, isn't it? I mean, it's in almost pristine condition.

And the other thing too, it has a certain style to it too, doesn't it?

-Yes.

-It's not just a piece of covering,

felt covering your face or anything like that.

-No.

-It has a certain style.

-Yes.

These are never going to come out of captivity, I hope.

No, well, they're safely stored in the museum

and these are safely stored at his old school at Cheltenham College,

so they're not going to come onto the market,

but it would be interesting to know what you think.

From his wardrobe, this wonderful Jaeger hood,

what are we talking about?

£2,000, £3,000?

It depends how much you attach to his name,

because it has a value as an historic object

and then something for his name as well, probably.

-I think easily that sort of price.

-Yes.

For the watercolours, which are really brilliant

and of the Antarctic itself...

..we have to be talking in the region of...

£20,000 each.

But this piece here, which I...

This relic, which I hardly want to touch - this compass.

How do you value something like that?

Found on his body. Yes, but I've got to!

-I would have thought about £150,000.

-Goodness.

You know, that is an incredible piece. This is wonderful, thank you.

Thank you.

Look, I don't know whether this is the smallest object that we've

recorded on the Antiques Roadshow, it's certainly the smallest object

I'VE ever recorded on the Antiques Roadshow,

and it takes the form of

almost a tiny finger ring, but it's so small, it wouldn't fit a baby,

it's absolutely minute, which means that, although it clearly is a ring

of some description, I wonder if it's not necessarily for human use.

I want you to tell me what you know about it,

because it's a very small object.

Well, as far as I understand, it's a vervel,

which was used in hunting with a hawk.

-Or a falcon.

-Or a falcon, yes.

-Yeah, so a vervel is a little tiny silver ring...

-Yes.

-..that is used as a kind of a slide piece...

-Exactly, yes.

..to go through the sort of leather lash that ties round

the foot of the falcon.

So the interesting thing is the age of it.

Now, what do you know about the age of this piece?

It belonged to Sir Henry Lee, who was the Champion of Elizabeth I.

And apart from that, I know very little.

Now, this kind of object is incredibly rare,

so how do you know that it was Sir Henry Lee's?

What makes you think it was Sir Henry Lee's?

Well, the other items that came with it

when I acquired it were Sir Henry Lee's seal -

there were several of these, this is the only one I still have.

Of these vervels.

Together with his will.

Which is pretty cast iron, really.

-Yes, it is.

-There's another reason that we can say with some confidence

that it was originally the property of Sir Henry Lee,

is because when we look round the tiny little hoop -

I need my lens for this because it is absolutely tiny -

it is engraved "Sir Henry Lee".

Interesting, now I never realised that.

-Did you not know that?

-No, I didn't.

I knew from the paperwork that I had, that it was authentic,

but I hadn't realised that.

It's also supplemented by a little crest on that.

Now, I don't know Sir Henry Lee's personal crest,

but I think the chances are, if you can look him up, check him up,

you'll find that that has got his crest as well.

So tiny as it is, it has an awful lot of information packed into it.

Yes, it has.

Now, I've never had to value one of these before and I defy

someone to be accurate with what something like this would be worth.

It is very old, 16th century, and very rare.

I would like to think that an estimate

of around about £1,500 to £2,500 for it would be the right quote.

-Yes.

-I wouldn't be surprised if someone came

and paid considerably more for it because it's just so rare.

It is actually - can I put it like this? - it is a national treasure.

I've seen most animals cast in bronze before and this is charming,

but I must say, I've never seen a monkey with a pair of binoculars.

No.

It was given to me

by a next-door neighbour as a graduation present

and she had a cabinet of curiosities and I'm afraid she didn't like

this monkey and I don't think she didn't like me, but I quite liked it

as a child, so she gave it to me, but I know very little about it.

And is it the fact that it's just charming, that you liked it?

Yes, I think it's because it's curious, and I thought about it

and wondered whether it was a bit of a skit on Darwin,

because it seems to be looking at its own toes,

which is quite interesting.

Exactly, but I think that's the charm about it.

I mean, it's so unusual to find a bronze like this.

I mean, a monkey - I think you're right, he's examining his foot.

-I mean, it's Austrian, 1910.

-Yes.

Very much in the Bergman style.

Bergman made all of the best bronzes, and they're cold painted,

so they're cast and then painted cold,

and literally made for export, sold all over Europe.

There was a huge craze for them, but this is actually quite a rare one.

-Right.

-I think you chose well out of the cabinet of curiosities.

-Yes.

-I would love it and I think anyone would love it

and would be prepared to pay £600.

-Wow, right.

-Maybe even a bit more.

Lovely, thank you very much, that's great.

Now, tell me the story of how this biscuit came to have a stamp

and a Cheltenham address on it.

Well, it was sent by my great-uncle to his mother.

He was in Ireland at the time, in the army.

-This was, what, 19...?

-1915.

And he sent the biscuit to her

and then it was followed up by a postcard, which says,

"The food is running short, so could we perhaps have the biscuit back?"

Well, let's look at this postcard, here it is.

"Did they get my biscuit at home?

"I hope, if you did, you did not mistake it for a dog biscuit.

"Food is running short,

"I hope if you have my biscuit, you will send it back."

Now, he was obviously a bit of a character.

-He was...

-What was he thinking of, sending a biscuit through the post?!

Well, I suppose they were reputed to be

very, very hard and presumably to be sent through the post

with a stamp and address on, it must have been.

I can tell you, I would never have expected to see

a stamped and addressed biscuit.

No, no, I think it is

a little bit more of a curiosity than value, really, but, yes.

Well, it's certainly unique.

Yes, I think it probably is. I hope so anyway.

This must be the very first time that anyone's brought

a brick to the Antiques Roadshow.

You're not a brick layer or something, are you?

Definitely not, no, I've never worked on a brickyard

-or anything else building bricks at all, so...

-What's the story?

Well, I used to be a soldier many years ago and in 1987

I was in Berlin when Rudolf Hess died,

and was there when they actually dismantled Spandau Prison

after Rudolf Hess had passed away.

And, basically, they tore down the...

prison into rubble and dust

and then got rid of it into the North Sea

and I just couldn't stand by and let all of history

just be deleted in a single go like that, so I...

This is a part of our... This really is a part of our modern history,

isn't it, our 20th-century history?

Yeah, it's the final chapter

of the Second World War, as far as I'm concerned.

But I was there - I took it and was in a lot of worry for a long time,

so it's been hidden for 25 years and now it has finally come out.

Well, do you know, this is what

we very often on the Antiques Roadshow never see -

a real, live witness to historical events.

This prison - Spandau Prison - which was famously

the home of the seven Third Reich Nazis who were imprisoned

after the Nuremberg Trials,

-and the last one of whom was Hess, of course...

-Yeah.

-..died in 1987.

-That's right.

And this is a piece of that history.

What did your comrades think of you taking a brick?

I didn't tell anyone.

You didn't tell anyone? I'll tell you something interesting.

My father was in the occupation army after the Second World War,

in Germany, in Berlin,

and he was one of those soldiers who guarded Hess

and I can imagine that he would have...

He'd have passed that at some point.

He may even have stood there having a cigarette or something,

-you never know, do you?

-No.

Quite incredible to hear about. Well, I mean, for heaven's sake,

what is something like this worth?

It's almost impossible to say.

I mean, it's actually a piece of history.

From the point of view of the brick, it's worth almost nothing -

what's a brick cost these days?

-40 pence?

-Something like that.

But actually, as a piece of history,

I reckon a militaria collector, a historian,

I reckon he'd easily pay you £100 for that.

Where are you going to find another one?

Nowhere, that's the point, so I'm lucky to have it,

and I will keep it.

You know, I've been waiting all day

for a fine piece of Winchcombe Pottery to turn up,

because it's not too far from here, Winchcombe,

and here it is at last, and in particular, it's joyful to me

because it's not only got

the Winchcombe Pottery - WP - mark on it,

but it's got the mark of the potter himself - ST - for Sid Tustin.

Right.

I knew Sid Tustin very well, he was a wonderful old chap,

-worked in the factory till he was 90.

-90?!

And he told me that he made, over his lifetime at Winchcombe Pottery,

-over a million pieces of pottery, most of them very small.

-Yes.

And this is a giant pot for Sid because he never made big pots.

How come you have it?

Well, I was in Moreton-in-Marsh, actually,

not very far from here and not very far from Winchcombe

and I saw it in the window,

recognised that it was Winchcombe Pottery

and went in and bought it, and it's been in the family ever since.

-And loved.

-And very much loved, yes,

and because my eldest son has grown up with it, it's always been there.

-That's jolly nice.

-Yes, yes.

My boys have all grown up with my pots

and so it's lovely to pass the knowledge on to them

-and the joy on to them.

-Absolutely, yes.

-Because it's a lovely piece.

-Yes.

Sid was a wonderful man.

I used to go and have tea with him quite regularly and he worked,

of course, for the Winchcombe Pottery right back in the 1910s,

and a wonderful chap, and with his brother, Charles,

they did most of the hard work making these pots.

A wonderful factory and they've left this legacy of great pieces.

-Yes, yes.

-And I think it's wonderful, it's got, I suppose,

twos in the shape of swans, twos and swans swimming round.

-Yes, yes, very, very simple.

-Very simple.

-Yes.

This is made in the earthenware body,

the clay dug up from the back of the factory site.

Really, was it dug up on the site?

Yes, dug up on the site, and I think it's great.

-Not of huge value yet.

-No, no.

-£100 to £200, perhaps, something like that.

-Yes.

-Not enormous.

-I think I bought it for £6, I think,

and that's all I had in my purse at the time,

so I rushed in and bought it, so...

But the joy that it's given is inestimable.

Oh, absolutely, yes, yearly, every year.

-So lovely to enjoy it.

-Thank you very much.

-There it is.

-Thank you. Thanks.

I have to tell you that's not the box for this piece of jewellery.

-Right.

-Now, I'm not entirely sure

whether we've ever done a tiara on the Antiques Roadshow.

I'd have to talk to my colleague Geoffrey Munn,

but I can't ever remember us having done a tiara,

and if we've ever done one,

it is never one quite as tremendous as this one is.

It is an extraordinary work of art.

Tiaras are meant to impress and, do you not agree, it impresses?

Yes, it does.

I want you to tell me as much as you know about it.

Well, my grandfather was Governor General of New Zealand

and his wife, for her public duties, would wear tiaras

and so this was hers,

and she wore it when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh

came to visit after the Coronation in 1953, their visit after that.

And then she gave it to her daughter.

So your grandmother wore it

-for this spectacularly important sort of occasion.

-Yes.

The Queen going to New Zealand, so it begs the question -

have you ever worn it?

Yes, I wore it for my wedding day, yes.

-Did people comment on it?

-Yes, they thought it was lovely.

-Did you feel special?

-Yes, I did.

Yeah, well, there we are, you see, d'you know what tiaras do?

-They make you feel special. They do.

-Yes.

Tiaras are made to look like crowns, really, and if you think about

the time when this was made, which is around about I suppose, what, 1900...?

-Right.

-And tiaras were worn for grand occasions

and there's not much better than the Queen going out to New Zealand,

-where you would wear your formal, important jewellery.

-Right.

The balance of it is terrific.

Turquoise, diamonds

and real salt-water pearls,

mounted up in scrolling formation...

And there is the base,

which is a sort of velvet lining,

-so that when you wear it on the head, it doesn't cut in.

-Mm.

So it's got to have that slight buffer.

So you get the idea of the formal frame if it's worn this way,

but you know the Victorians were incredibly practical people.

When you look at the back of it, you have these little finials.

-Can you see that little screw mechanism there?

-Yes.

You unscrew the screw at the side...

you can then dismantle the entire framework from this,

and if you can imagine it, you can then wear it as a necklace...

So either a tiara or a necklace and there, I'm delighted to say,

you have the original extension pieces that hook in to the ends

of the tiara and you can wear it as a rather splendid necklace, as well.

Very important to have those little bits and pieces

-because it's that that really drives the price.

-Right.

Tiaras are very interesting. They're very much treated as one-off pieces

and whenever they come into auction houses and they're sold,

you know, there's always tremendous interest in them.

Once upon a time, they were considered rather ostentatious.

Nowadays, young ladies getting married often will hire tiaras,

because it really does finish the outfit off.

So you see how things have changed.

Well, they're great diamonds, they're great turquoises,

it's a big, splendid look.

What do I think that will fetch?

£25,000 to £30,000.

Oh, my God! Really?

SHE LAUGHS

Gosh! I'm trying not to swear!

Yeah, I think so, that sort of money...

And don't forget, that's just what you can sell it for.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-SHE LAUGHS

-That's brilliant.

What a reaction!

A great way to close our event here in Cheltenham.

And our mission to find Cotswolds' treasures also came good.

Top marks to our experts in uncovering those exciting finds.

From Cheltenham Town Hall and all of the Roadshow team, bye-bye.