Farnborough 2 Antiques Roadshow

On 16th October 1908, Britain's first powered aviator took to

the skies, and this is a recently-made replica of his plane.

And the aviator's name - Samuel Cody.

He's the unsung hero of powered flight, and no,

I hadn't heard of him either. But his is a remarkable story.

Welcome back to the Antiques Roadshow from the home

of aviation - from Farnborough, in Hampshire.

The astonishing achievements

and inventions of British aviation began within sight of this -

the original HQ of the Royal Flying Corps in Farnborough.

The Army's Royal Engineer Balloon School began here in 1905,

bringing with it the latest in kite and glider designs,

dirigibles and the first attempts at powered flight.

By 1908, Samuel F Cody, a flamboyant Wild West showman,

not to be confused with Buffalo Bill Cody, became the first man

to successfully achieve sustained powered flight in Britain,

five years after the Wright Brothers in America.

Cody's love of photography means we have a great record of him

with his first plane, the Army Aeroplane No 1.

Cody's endeavours aren't generally well known, but the people here

at the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust are dedicated to

keeping his achievements, and those of the aviation industry, alive.

They've accumulated a feast of photographs, records

and 350,000 other pieces of flight history.

Everything from 150,000 glass plates,

designs for missiles and engines,

to the invention of a material we take for granted today -

carbon fibre.

The old Royal Flying Corps HQ

has proved just a bit too small

for the Trust's rescue efforts.

They've so much, in fact, they've bought 20 shipping containers -

it's a labyrinth of hidden curiosities just waiting

to be discovered.

There's enough here to keep the Roadshow going for years.

Mm, I wonder if there's anything in here I could take to the Roadshow.

A stone's throw from the museum are the wonderful

Heritage-listed Farnborough Wind Tunnels.

Thanks to a £20 million restoration scheme

eight years ago by the company that own the business park surrounding

the tunnels, this unique snapshot of our aerospace history will

survive and we're able to hold our Roadshow on this iconic site.

So for all intents and purposes,

it looks like just an ordinary 20th-century pocket watch.

What do you think of it?

I don't know very much about it at all,

it was my father's, who got it from his father.

It came over from Canada along with my father

during the Second World War and here it stayed.

Well, it's interesting that it's come over from Canada,

because it's actually rather a special watch.

Is it?

It might surprise you to know that it's only gold-plated.

-Mm.

-I can tell that, just from its colour,

but it has a very crisp and easy-to-read dial.

-It does.

-Do you know why that might be?

No idea.

OK, well, the instant giveaway is that it says "Ball, Cleveland".

Now that, to collectors of American watches, is a magic name.

The Ball Watch Company never made watches.

-Right.

-But they commissioned other people to make watches,

and this is actually made by a factory called Hamilton.

Now, a guy called Webb Ball was put as, if you like,

the official timekeeper of all the American railroads.

Oh!

And some time in the 1890s, there was a major rail crash which was

put down to a dodgy timekeeper, so he was effectively

commissioned to get the whole thing working properly to the minute,

so there were no longer collisions taking place.

The thing I can see immediately on the front of that dial is,

underneath Ball, it says "Official RR Standard".

Official railroad standard.

Have you ever opened the back?

-Yes.

-You have?

-Yes.

-Did you think it was pretty or not?

-I did.

It's a screw back, as all these things are, and a lovely

damascene nickel movement, and there it is, you've got the whole thing.

Ball tells you everything, it's a cracking good object.

Now, you said that your great...your grandfather....

-Grandfather.

-..had come from Canada,

and there we are, that is a Canadian gold-plated case.

Lovely.

And it makes sense, because Ball was also in charge of the railways

in Mexico and in Canada, so this would have been made

almost certainly for use on the Canadian railways.

The date of this is typically 1930,

so he would have got it before he came over.

As you probably have noticed - how on earth do you set the hands?

-I know.

-Have you discovered that?

-No.

OK, well, that is - if you were a railway employee,

-you couldn't mess around with the hands.

-Ah.

If that was in your pocket, you couldn't pull the stem winder

out and accidentally go backwards and cause another major

derailment, so you had to undo the front bezel, OK, and then at

the one o'clock position is a little lever, and then you can then move

the hands, so that stopped it being fiddled around with accidentally.

Ingenious.

It's a lovely thing. Railroad quality, very important.

Now, if it had been by Howard instead of Hamilton,

although retailed by Ball, Howards are many thousands of pounds.

But here we are, this is a gold plated watch,

still going to make you over £1,000 at auction.

Is it really? Wow.

I've seen a lot of Minton majolica over the years and just

when I think, "Well, there can't be many more surprises left,"

you produce a piece that I've never seen before.

-Really?

-That's right. Tell me about it.

Well, it came from my grandmother's.

I remember it on her sideboard when I was a little girl

and my mother inherited it and it's come to me, right down.

It's a family piece all the way through.

That's right, yes.

Because there's another little surprise inside,

-because when we look...

-Yes.

There is one bird looking out through the flute

-and his friend sitting on the top.

-Yes.

So what do you use it for, in the family?

It's just an ornament, it sits in the glass cabinet.

How strange!

Minton were very helpful to us all, they put so clear marks

-and told us all about it.

-Yes.

-So you've seen, I think, the clear marks there.

-Yes.

We've got the name of the factory, Minton, clearly stamped, a mould

number, and that rather big shape in the middle is the year code.

-Yes.

-And that's the symbol for 1871.

-Oh, right, that's very...

-It's quite old.

It's quite old, yes.

Now here, the majolica is combined with painting,

they've enamelled the bird on the top.

-What bird is that?

-I don't know.

I don't think they saw one of those in Stoke-on-Trent!

So it's quite a rare thing.

Right.

And that's good in majolica, because with Minton,

some models we see again and again and they're quite popular.

When you get something rare by the top makers of majolica

like Minton, that's quite a bit of money.

I can see it 4,000, 5,000.

No!

6,000...

Do you want me to fall over?

Not on top of the bird! I've never seen another one.

I don't believe that.

Well, it's a wooden column, doesn't look particularly exciting.

What did you used to think it was?

Previously we thought it was a epidiascope.

My grandmother, my father's mother,

she used it as basically a bedside table.

Do you know, it would make a mighty fine bedside table,

it's the right sort of height, right sort of dimensions.

Well, it is much more than a bedside table

-with knobs on, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

Because this is a stereo viewer, and because these photographs were taken

with lenses that were as far apart as your eyes, it means that when you

put these photographs into a viewer, look through the lenses, your brain

re-jigs the images and recreates the three-dimensional image.

Now, to all of us 21st-century people, we're saying, "Oh, yeah,

"and what's so exciting about that?"

But just imagine in the 1840s when this type of image was

first seen, it was revolutionary, it was Star Wars, it was the future.

It was impossible and it became an absolute craze.

And the viewers came in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Now, how much have you been able to find out about this particular one?

Not a huge amount.

I mean, I know it was my great-great-grandfather's,

so he was an amateur keen photographer

so these are his photos from a Grand Tour that he did back in...

Yes, I would think probably round about 1905-1910.

And this is absolutely what you would find in a conventional

Victorian collection of stereo photographs.

The one thing I would say is that

I don't think your great-great grandfather took them.

Have a look on the back.

These were commercially produced and you could buy them

as souvenirs and then you've got wonderful ones relating to the

Royal Family, you've got Balmoral and Osborne in the Isle of Wight,

so you can see this is a very rounded Victorian collection.

Before we open it up, what I'd like to do is to enjoy the object.

This fabulous burr walnut veneer here with the engraved brass

strap work. I mean, it really is a top-of-the-range model

and if I open the top, here and here,

this actually shines the light down onto what is inside which is a sort

of roll of stereoscopic photographs, which you can load up yourself,

and then you turn these knobs and you get the next one coming up.

But this is a special one

because you've got a viewer on each side, and that's called

a sweetheart viewer, because I think the idea was... And do excuse me,

but if you'd like to line up. In fact, I should do it with your dad.

-OK.

-OK.

OK, so, you know, the idea is that you'd be looking like this

and then every so often you'd be...

"Hello!" Exactly, this was

the sweetheart viewer, you see,

so you would depart to one corner of the drawing room,

everybody would ignore you because you were just looking at

the 3D photographs but, in fact, all kinds of flirtations were going on.

What a thought!

Well, I think the object itself, the actual viewer,

has a finite value, I mean, that is going to be £400-£500, but there

is also a significant additional value through the cards themselves.

So I would say that the whole collection - the cards

and the viewer - I would put it at between perhaps £800 and £1,000.

OK.

So it is a table-top stereoscopic viewer and not an epidiascope.

Yes.

-Lovely to have that finally clarified.

-Yeah, thank you.

-Thanks so much, thank you.

-Thank you.

So how long have you had this chair?

I've known the chair in my family since 1945 and then it was

handed down from my grandparents to my parents and then on to me.

And when you look at it, does it say anything to you?

It tells me a story that it's very, very old.

Such as what?

That it goes back to at least 1666.

So we think of 1666

as the Great Fire of London in the walled

City of London, that's when the Great Fire started,

and there it is carved in the back of this chair.

Yes.

This particular chair is known as a wainscot chair.

Right.

That's a high-backed chair with a panelled back,

but what we have to ask ourselves, is the chair of the period?

I have had a good look at it and when I look at the back,

the back is absolutely fabulous.

Then I saw the date 1666 and thought, "Wow!"

Yes.

But when I got more into it, I think what you'll find is,

it's old elements.

-Yes.

-You've got... The front rails are old.

The back unfortunately has been re-carved at a later date.

If this was the date it's purporting to be, this would be a museum piece.

-Right.

-It would be worth £15,000-£20,000 if it was right.

-Right.

-But unfortunately, it isn't,

so hopefully I'm letting you down gently.

-Yes.

-It's a nice family piece, it holds good colour.

Today, as a decorative piece, it's worth about £300 or £400, but as

I say, at first I thought,

"Wow, this is one of the most important finds

"we've found dating from the Great Fire of London on the Roadshow."

It's not quite there.

I must say it's really unusual to have somebody of your age

with a coin collection like this. Where did you get them from?

Well, we were tidying out my nanny's garage and under lots

of piles of rubbish, we found some old cigar boxes full of these coins.

They were my great-grandad's.

Oh, really?

I mean, it really is an extensive collection of coins

and I get quite excited when I see a collection like this. I mean,

really, you've got the history of coins in a few albums.

You've got some very early staters and Roman coins

and Greek coins, you've got Dionysus here in silver, and that

one's about 150 BC, you know, when you think 150 years before Jesus.

-I mean, it's staggering.

-Whereabouts would that be from?

This one is Greece, then you've got a Swedish coin here which is 1670.

That's not a particularly rare coin but the condition again is lovely.

But then you go to my favourite coin by a long shot,

is this Alexander III Macedonia,

300 BC.

Wow.

You know, it's staggering, you know.

And do you love them as a collection,

have you researched them or...?

Well, we tried to research them

but we couldn't really find much about them, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, this would take you three or four months to go

through all of these and catalogue them, and it will take...

There are so many variations and all that sort of thing.

But they're staggering and exciting to see.

I can see this is going to be a lifelong hobby for you,

but I'd really recommend getting some good reference books,

going to the British Museum. There's great books

like Coins Of The World, you know. Really do your research because

this will set you up in good stead, they're such a good investment.

Coins, even in these tough times,

have been really going up in price.

Is there any particular that you like?

Um, this one here is my favourite.

I can see why, but that's actually a medallion,

that's a religious medallion,

but probably Gdansk or German area, 1650, not really worth a great deal.

Pretty nice condition, when you think of something of 1650, when you

compare it in age to something two-and-a-half...or 2,000 years old,

they were making as good a coinage then, as they were in 1650.

What would that have been given out for, then?

This is to commemorate a baptism,

and they were really worn under the shirt as a symbol

of your devotion to religion and protection, all that sort of stuff.

I mean, you've got Yahweh - the name of Jehovah - at the top there,

and then a baptism scene.

That one is worth about £80 to a collector

because they're not that rare.

I would say you've got a few pounds on some of these,

you've got £10 or £20 on some of these.

You've got £200 to £300 on that one

and you've got about 15 of those.

-Have we?

-You've got... This one, I would say, is about £400.

I need to spend a bit more time working out the prices,

but overall here I think you've probably...

OK, let's work it out a different way.

How much pocket money do you get a week?

I get about £2.

OK, well, Dad you don't need to give him

-any more pocket money for a while.

-That's good to know.

Because I think you've got about £4,000, maybe £5,000 worth here.

-Wow.

-Brilliant.

-Thank you very much.

-A pleasure.

Do you read Russian?

No. Not apart from that bit on there.

I don't read Russian, but even I can tell what that says.

It's just saying Moscow 1881.

1881.

I mean, this caught my eye for that reason,

and what you've brought me is this really huge album,

which seems to be full of highly coloured pictures of Moscow.

Yeah.

Obviously in 1881,

well before the Russian Revolution,

and when I say highly coloured,

I mean really highly coloured.

This image here, this must be St Basil's Cathedral.

It obviously was once a photograph.

You can see down at the bottom here.

Just at the bottom, yes.

It's been very carefully finished with some kind of watercolour,

to bring the colour up to something really quite spectacular.

But what I also like about this album is that, yes, it contains

these amazingly iconic images of Moscow that we all know about.

-Yeah.

-But a couple of them are really much more homely,

and, to me, almost more interesting.

This particular one caught my eye.

It's a street scene, isn't it?

Yeah, just an ordinary scene, could be from the Wild West virtually,

before motorised cars, because you've only got horses and that.

I mean, just in that one picture, I feel that I've got

an insight into what it was like to live in pre-revolutionary Russia.

-Could be, yes.

-It's a very colourful scene,

I'm sure it wasn't always that colourful.

No, probably not, probably not.

Tell me about it, where did you get it from?

It's been following me round for about... I don't know, 50 years.

I don't know whether I found it or whether it was given to me,

I just cannot remember.

About the only family heirloom I've got.

Well, it's something that really does have quite a strong interest,

particularly for historians.

-Yes.

-And it's just the kind of thing that Russian buyers are very

interested in acquiring.

This is the kind of album that some people would very

dearly like to see brought back and taken back into Russia.

Brought back to Russia.

-It's certainly got some value.

-Oh, right.

-It's got some problems with condition.

-Well, yes.

Some of the pages are loose, but that can be repaired.

Yes.

I think this would very easily make £3,000-4,000.

You're joking!

Oh, right, OK, she might get a new kitchen after all, then!

Well, two completely different objects,

but actually they've got something in common, haven't they?

What have you brought along?

I've brought a mammoth tooth that my father dug up in the garden.

And the bowl.

I've brought along a marble bowl which

I found at the end of my garden when I moved into a new house.

I mean, quite extraordinary objects to find.

I mean, the mammoth tooth, fossilised mammoth tooth, it doesn't

look much from the top, but it is absolutely beautiful, isn't it?

And sometimes this is

sliced and then used

and set into the top of a box

and it looks almost like an agate,

I mean, it's really quite a beautiful material.

This is made of onyx and the onyx is probably from Italy.

But I think that the bowl would have been imported in the plain form,

and then these gilt metal mounts in the Gothic style have been

applied to it, and these absolutely lovely little pietra dura,

or hard stone, roundels have been set into them,

and they almost certainly would have been made in Derbyshire.

So the bowl has been assembled and created, if you like,

in Derbyshire around 1870,

so some time after the mammoth was walking on the Earth.

How do you feel about this tooth?

Well, I love it and I've had it all my life.

I would save it if the house was burning down.

-First thing you'd save?

-No, after my husband and my son.

OK, get your priorities right.

Good. And how do you feel about your find?

Well, I like it very much. Unfortunately, my husband doesn't,

he told me to take it to a charity shop.

OK, well, the next question is value.

The value of this bowl is in the region of £200.

Gosh!

So the question is, is the mammoth tooth more or less?

And it's more, at about £1,000.

-Wow.

-That is actually... Wow.

I think they are both extraordinary finds

to just be, you know, in your garden.

I mean, who knows what else lies out there?

The perfect accessory for a dapper chap in tweeds,

-but this is not what it seems to be.

-Absolutely not.

This is a stick gun, or sometimes known as a poacher's gun,

which came into my family's possession just after the war.

It came from an estate

next door to the RAF station that my father was commanding,

and they used to go and shoot on the estate

until, sadly, the lord of the manor died,

and his widow was left with a collection of guns, including this.

She didn't know what to do with them,

but thought, "Let's sign them over to the squadron."

So my father appropriately signed to receive them

-into the squadron armoury.

-Right.

And then the station moved on,

and then two years later when the squadron moved,

the armourer came to my father

and said, "Your guns are still in the store, sir,"

and he said, "No, I signed for the squadron."

"No, sir, we have 303 rifles in here and this is a shotgun

"and more to the point, YOU signed for it."

If you've signed for it, it's yours.

"It's yours," so my father inherited this, and another gun as well,

but this is the novelty.

It's made in Birmingham.

I can't see a maker's name on it,

but that's not particularly relevant.

A lot of them were made with no name.

Everybody refers to them as poachers' guns. They weren't.

A poacher couldn't afford this,

this is quite an expensive piece of kit,

this is sterling silver, but a gentleman...

And this is late...

Well, this is about 1890-odd,

but prior to that - and they were made prior to that -

Victorian collectors, who would collect anything

including wild birds... It was very handy to have this by your side

and if some little creature that you didn't know what it was,

poked its head out of the hedge, you could just bring it up and pop it.

Bang.

And would have these been fairly common as a gun?

Yes, you see quite a lot of them, they're very collectable.

This is on your shotgun certificate,

as they have to be, as it's a working weapon,

and you actually have to have a collector's status

to have it on your certificate, which you obviously have.

-I have, yes.

-Have you ever thought about values?

I thought it must have been worth maybe a couple of hundred pounds,

because it doesn't look in very good condition

and it's not a very elaborate piece, but is that so, or more?

You're pretty well...

I would put perhaps another 100, sort of £200-£300, but, yes,

condition-wise, it's a bit sad, but then again, given its age,

that's what you expect, so a very, very nice piece.

-Good, thanks very much, that's kind of you.

-You're welcome.

Do you not think you could be forgiven

-for assuming that this is a bit of costume jewellery?

-Yes.

In fact, what do you think it is?

-Do you think it is costume jewellery?

-We weren't at all sure.

-No.

-So we thought it might be worth nothing,

or it might be something really quite special.

Because it's colourful, but it looks pretty tatty,

but there's something about it

that I think is worth mentioning to you,

because it's not costume jewellery.

How old do you think it might be?

19th century?

At best. No, it's actually 17th century.

-Really?

-Yeah. I think it was made in around about 1650.

-That's lovely.

-Mm. Where did it come from?

An aunt, who came out of Austria in her 30s,

but she did stay in Belgium, we think,

as a companion for a few years just before that.

So might it be one of those pieces that someone says,

"Thank you very much, you've looked after me..."

-Could be.

-"..and here's a piece of jewellery as thanks,"

of which it then sprinkles through to you?

It is enamelled, it's not metal. It's gold,

in fact - dare I say? - quite high carat gold. North European.

It's difficult to be exact which country it comes from,

-but I tend to think more sort of, I don't know, Flemish.

-OK.

Possibly Dutch, that sort of thing.

At the bottom here, we have suspended...

three natural drop pearls,

and they're very, very distressed,

so it's been through the wars, this piece,

it's hardly in perfect condition.

It's suspended from three

tiers of gold chain

and in the centre we have

a little sort of miniature, I suppose,

and it's what we call a religious reliquary pendant.

So it's 17th century, North European, reliquary pendant.

What shall we say?

No idea.

£1,000 to £1,500.

Right, very nice, thank you.

Here on the Antiques Roadshow,

many, many people bring in their photograph albums,

and in the majority of cases, they're interesting to the family,

but to anybody else, they're of little interest

and therefore little value.

What's taken me with this collection is not only the age of these,

because they all date from the 1850s,

but some of the compositions, which I think are absolutely enchanting.

As an example, is these two gentlemen sitting,

playing chess together, their hats discarded on the ground.

Who are they?

Well, that's my great-grandfather's older brother

and that's his middle brother.

And do we know who was taking the photograph?

Well, I can only assume it was my great-grandfather

that took that particular one, but they all took turns...

-So all three of them were photographers?

-I think so, yes.

Cos that's amazing. And this dates from round about...?

I think it's 1857, or that sort of era.

Because in those very early days, a lot of photographs were portraits

and there wasn't anybody like a professional photographer.

And then we go further into the album,

-and again, here we are, family group.

-Yeah.

Wigwam in the garden, they're smiling, having a nice time,

those sort of portraits you really never ever see.

And here are some more family portraits

and the family name, obviously - Ellen Rayne

and William T Rayne.

Yeah, that's my great-grandfather.

-And a young man, wasn't he?

-He was, yes.

And he was taking photographs probably in his early 20s.

I think, well, possibly before that,

I think maybe he was a teenager when he started.

And there he is again, a sort of Beatles-looking cap on,

and further down, a family portrait, a double one this time,

and what I particularly like about these two is

here is a sort of formal tea party, it looks like, out in the garden,

and then down below, here are the farm workers.

Because again, you know,

taking photographs of the locality was not very popular.

They took photographs of each other, but look,

they've taken some enchanting photographs of these three guys

-and two girls, and they've got their hobnail boots on.

-Hobnail, yes.

So, again, very rare to see this type of social history.

So what was their history?

Did they travel at all or did they stay here in the UK?

In about 1860, I think, the elder brother went off to India as a...

-To India?

-Yeah, he was a railway engineer.

So another album, and where is this?

-That's Gloucester.

-And you can see

this cart that looks as though...

-Yes.

-..it's in trouble.

-Some chap standing in the road and sort of...

-Like a ghost.

Like a ghost, yeah, and there's a chap climbing out the window there.

-HE LAUGHS

-Oh, yeah! So early.

I mean, you just don't see images this early

and these are obviously of Indian ladies

relaxing on their carpet there.

And these family groups.

Well, I think a really important archive because it's so early.

I think the family were hugely talented,

and to a collector, ooh,

I think we're talking about an archive like that,

should you ever decide to sell it, which I'm sure you won't,

I think you'd be talking about

certainly between £6,000 and £10,000.

Well, that's nice to know.

But, as you say, we won't be selling them.

-We all love a really good film.

-Yes.

-And looking around here, I can see real Hollywood nobility.

-Yes.

What's your connection with this?

Well, my father was in the film business,

he was a director of photography.

His name was Jack Hildyard.

And what were his famous films?

He worked on Bridge On The River Kwai, he won an Oscar for that.

And these films, Antony And Cleopatra,

he worked with Elizabeth Taylor.

Millionairess, he worked with Sophia Loren,

and he worked with some of the actresses

that gave him some of these gifts,

just in appreciation, really, for making them look good.

-Of course, he was very important.

-He was, he was.

-They wanted to look their best.

-Yes.

-So obviously, Sophia Loren looking gorgeous.

-Yes.

-And your father behind.

-Yes.

So what is this one?

This was a goblet that was given to me

on my christening by Katharine Hepburn.

He worked on a film with her once, called Summer Madness, in Venice,

and she gave this to me, out of appreciation of him, really.

-And there's an inscription on the bottom.

-Yes. It says,

"Janine Elizabeth Hildyard," which is me,

"from her father's admirer, Katharine Hepburn," and then,

"Suddenly Last Summer," and, "Summer Madness, 1959,"

-which are the films they worked on.

-Fabulous.

And so all these other things - we've got...

That was given to him by Deborah Kerr.

I'm not sure which film that was.

This is Laurence Olivier.

Laurence Olivier, he was... That was the film called Henry V.

Very famous film of Laurence Olivier, so that's dedicated to him.

-Yes.

-And these...?

These are from Elizabeth Taylor,

he worked with her on a film called Antony And Cleopatra.

-Which was one of her great films.

-Yes.

So, fantastic provenance, and this one?

And this a watch that was given to him by Sophia Loren

and it's got just, "Love from Sophia,"

just written in biro on the inside, so you know.

But it's fabulous having all those with such provenance,

and, of course, that's the most important thing with these,

especially for you. You need to write it down

because, of course, a lot of the value of these

depends on the absolute provenance, which, of course, you've got.

Was your grandad working when you came along?

He wasn't by that stage, no, but I know that the cup that Mum

was given by Katharine Hepburn is now why my name is Katharine,

so something like that is really special.

Absolutely, and a lovely family heirloom.

Yeah, definitely, it's really exciting.

And was his favourite Katharine Hepburn?

I think possibly, yes.

I think you can see from the message on the bottom of the cup,

that she had a bit of a soft spot for him.

-Oh, well, we won't go into that, will we?

-Perhaps not!

And, actually, the values can be quite surprising too.

I think your little christening mug, that could be

-at least £1,000.

-Right.

And I think Deborah Kerr, maybe £500,

-and Laurence Olivier, about £500.

-Right.

The watch is quite interesting, it's a Universal watch,

which is quite a good make,

-it's 18 carat gold, but it's not a stunning watch.

-No.

-But even so, the watch itself is worth about £500.

-Right.

Of course, the real jewel in the crown, as we all know,

-is Elizabeth Taylor.

-Right.

Because, I mean, her jewellery's just sold and, you know,

-she is an iconic film actress.

-Yes.

And this lovely inscription and these birds of prey,

I could certainly see these going for £1,000, if not more.

But, you know, we're looking at well over £3,000.

-Right, wow.

-I mean...

-Yes, it's amazing, yes, thank you very much.

-Thank you.

What a lovely bowl! How long have you had it?

Thank you. It's not mine, actually, it's a friend's.

I'm here on her behalf. It was given to her as a present.

She was looking after an elderly lady for a few years

and she was allowed to choose an item

and that was the item she chose.

It's lovely, isn't it? It is very, very beautiful.

It's in the style of the Japanese Kakiemon.

Oh, right, OK.

Now, if it had been a genuine Japanese Kakiemon bowl

of the 17th century, we're looking at something like

-about £10,000 to £20,000.

-Goodness me!

-But it ain't!

-It's not.

-No, no.

A note on the back here.

Someone has made an attempt at dating and describing it.

It says Worcester, made by Flight's factory in the 18th century,

-but that's wrong, as well.

-Is it? Oh, OK. That's interesting.

Now, this pattern, Japanese Kakiemon, was copied by everybody

and was certainly copied by Worcester, copied by Meissen,

-copied by everybody.

-Oh, OK.

-They loved the design.

It's a beautiful, beautiful design, isn't it?

-It is gorgeous, yes.

-It really is gorgeous.

-OK.

It actually, because of its glaze, is a very, very blued glaze

-and the foot ring is rather small...

-OK.

..which indicates to me that it's made by

a firm in Paris called Samson.

-Samson.

-And it's an actual fake or a repro.

-Oh, no!

-Made in the 19th century.

-Oh, dear!

And, unfortunately, instead of being worth £20,000...

Oh, what a nightmare!

..it's actually worth about £150 to £200.

Oh, OK, never mind.

But it's still a lovely bowl, isn't it, really?

-It is beautiful, yes.

-But a great, great piece.

OK, thank you.

-So get your friend to look after it and prize it...

-I will.

..even though it is a fake!

Thank you so much. I appreciate that, thank you.

It's quite unusual to get Snaffles' subjects,

er, of the First World War.

He's particularly well known for hunting subjects.

So how did you come by it?

I'm from Ireland and I went to an auction on the border between

Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland in 1974,

the day after there had been a bombing,

and so nobody turned up to the auction except for antique dealers,

and I was lucky I was able to buy this for £17.

I think it's very interesting that you were drawn to it

at a moment of conflict.

It was conflict that got you the opportunity to buy it.

That's true, that's absolutely true.

And, of course, it's all about conflict.

Here we have the gunners in the First War. Poor souls,

it must have been an absolutely miserable experience.

Very miserable, yes.

And Snaffles, I think, has absolutely captured that,

-the misery of it all, really.

-Yeah.

You know, the tragedy of the horse dying at the bottom there,

the little vignette, this chap checking the hoof here,

it's a grim day, really, isn't it?

And he's sort of celebrating the nobility of the horse,

ears pricked and everything,

it's just a great evocation of the scene.

Wonderful, I think, and when you bought it,

did you think it was a print or a watercolour?

Actually, when I bought it,

one of the antique dealers who had been present,

followed me home and asked me to take it out of the frame,

and I did, and he examined it and tested the paint

and he was rather upset he hadn't bought it.

Well, he had every reason to be upset,

because you have bought yourself a watercolour by Snaffles

rather than one of the signed prints.

And I think it's a fantastic buy.

I think £17 in '74 was, I'm sure, as much as you were prepared to spend,

-but nonetheless, it was a jolly good buy.

-Thank you.

I think this is such an evocative and beautiful scene

that, you know, it should be worth at least £2,000 to £3,000 today.

OK, thank you.

And I think it may be even more, it's a very beautiful picture.

Thank you.

Well, looking down at us today

is one of the pioneers of British aviation, Samuel Cody.

And we learned in our introduction

how his pioneering spirit

helped in introducing aeroplane technology into this country.

-And I have to say, it looks a little bit like he's come to life.

-Yes.

Who are you?

I'm Samuel Franklin John Cody, the great-grandson.

In fact, you both have a similar look about you.

-Are you related?

-We're brothers, we're brothers.

You're brothers. So you're direct descendants of this great man?

That's right.

Tell us about him. He was a bit of a showman, wasn't he?

Yes, he was a cowboy showman that came over from America

and he was an American citizen

when he actually flew British Army Aeroplane No 1.

He designed, built it with his own money.

£50 was given from the War Office

and he achieved the first flight in this country.

He did hops and leaps in April and May of 1908

and then officially recorded on 16th October 1908,

the first powered flight in Great Britain.

Astonishing, isn't it? But he didn't start out flying aircraft.

-No, no.

-He started out as a Wild West showman, didn't he?

-That's it, yeah.

-Gunslinging, rope twirling,

lassoing, that sort of thing.

Yes, he was great friends with Buffalo Bill, he knew Annie Oakley,

all the famous people of the time, he toured around with.

And then he got interested, as a lot of people at that time were,

in aviation, but it wasn't powered aircraft, was it?

No, no, it was a kite design he had as a child.

The child's toy used as a weapon of war,

where you could get a man into the heavens

by putting five or six kites up and a bosun's chair underneath.

So how did he get into powered flight?

He started to make a kite, a larger kite with an engine in it,

that flew round on wires, to get the basic principle that it could fly,

and he thought, "Well, if I scale it up, I can sit in it."

And you've brought along today,

this wonderful silver model of an aircraft.

Yes, this was commissioned by the Shell Oil Company

in late 1911 for Mappin & Webb to make it,

and it was presented to Cody

at the Royal Aero Club dinner in 1912.

And what's the model of?

It's one of his late aeroplanes, it was actually a water plane

and probably the plane that killed him in the end.

He was killed in an air crash, wasn't he?

He was killed with his boots on, how a cowboy should die.

They gave him a full military funeral from his house in Ash Vale

and 50,000 people lined the funeral procession.

50,000! That's how important he was.

Yes, he was a very important person.

And you've brought along these two incredibly large,

-and I bet heavy, trophies.

-Yes.

Now, I recognise these as the Michelin Trophies.

That's correct, yes.

Now, the Michelin Trophy was an award given every year

by Monsieur Michelin for the longest flight,

longest duration flight, on a circuit.

-Is that right?

-Yes, that's right, yes.

-Two-and-a-quarter mile circuit.

These are commissioned by the Michelin Tyre Company

and there was a series of three of them.

Cody won 1910 and 1911 and then Tom Sopwith had 1912.

And they represent Pegasus, the mythical winged horse,

trying to escape from the gravity of Earth

-and Mother Earth pulling it down.

-Mother Earth, yes.

And the aviator climbing aboard.

-It's real flying, isn't it?

-Yes.

-They're magnificent objects.

-He was so proud of them,

-he was going to put them on the gate posts at Ash Vale.

-No!

-Yes.

THEY LAUGH

Well, now, let's think about value.

Because, obviously, these are fairly important historical objects

from the aviation point of view.

The silver trophy,

that, I think, would be worth today...

£20,000 to £30,000.

I think the Michelin Trophies EACH would be worth...

..£25,000 to £30,000.

They've got to be worth that,

I mean, they're seriously important items, seriously important items.

How do you feel about the fact that your great-grandfather

was a pioneer of aviation?

-It gives us a lot of pride.

-It gives us a big buzz, a great big buzz,

because I don't know a man that could

beat him nowadays, to be honest.

I get the feeling he was a boy who never grew up, actually.

-That's right.

-He loved every minute of it.

MUSIC: Theme from "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines"

We've had such a tremendous day here at Farnborough Wind Tunnels,

and look at this -

do you remember I showed you all those items associated with

the aviation industry, and those shipping containers?

Well, this is out of one of those containers.

It's a Eurofighter jet uniform

complete with helmet, leather gloves...

At least it shouldn't take me long to get home.

From the Antiques Roadshow, until next time, bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd