Stowe House 2 Antiques Roadshow

In the 17th century,

sightseers would come to this garden,

alert the head gardener, pay him a penny, and then set off

to explore 250 acres of sublime views and countryside.

This was one of the earliest grand estates in the land

to open its gates to tourists.

Welcome back to Stowe House and Gardens in Buckinghamshire.

For 250 years, Stowe House and Gardens were known as

the most majestic in Britain,

and the Temple-Grenville family, who owned them,

were considered more powerful and wealthier than the king himself,

thanks to marrying a succession of very rich heiresses.

They were well-travelled, and crammed their home with

the finest treasures and mementos

from around the world.

In the 1840s, catastrophic debts reduced Stowe

to a state of penury, and almost all its magnificent furnishings,

fixtures and fittings were auctioned off.

In 1997, the Stowe House Restoration Trust was formed

to restore the house and to find out where the contents had gone.

So, what did happen to the lost treasures of Stowe?

The major auctions of 1848 and 1921

were the grandest ever seen.

The original catalogues give details of every object, wall fitting,

fireplace and garden ornament for sale.

And they make fascinating reading.

Everything had to go - Chippendale furniture,

priceless tapestries, the state bed.

And these are the ladies and gentlemen of the auction house

who got rid of it all.

My goodness, they must have been kept busy!

I'm told that two of these copper urns have been found

and they are returning to Stowe.

Today, the house is home to students of Stowe School, who have kindly

opened the doors to our visitors.

I wonder if any have brought other lost treasures from the estate?

Do you know, this is one of the best rattles I've seen in a long while.

Really? Right.

What we need to check is, does it work?

Now we've got a good volunteer here. Can you...?

Let's try the whistle first. HE BLOWS WHISTLE

Brilliant, that's working. What about the bells?

BELLS RATTLE

They work, everything works. Wonderful. Excellent.

Now, may I have it back? Thank you.

OK, and then the coral - that was of course intended for teething.

Yes. So you've got the full works.

I think there are some teeth marks there. Yes!

Actually, you've got to bite jolly hard to make

an impression in coral - it is a very hard material.

The decoration actually is a lovely little bit of neoclassicism,

which of course does blend with the building we're in. Mmm.

And this was the sort of establishment where this

would have been in use.

Is it a family one? Yes, it is.

It's been in my mother's family for, well, as long as I can remember.

50 weeks. 50 weeks? A bit longer than that!

I think a bit longer than that. 60?

Because we've actually got initials there.

HM, yes. I know that that is my great-grandmother, Hilda Mary,

and I believe it belonged to her.

Yes, now, it probably belonged to her, but it wasn't made for her.

Oh, right. She was, you say, in the 1890s?

Yeah, 1885, I think.

Yes, well, actually, this was made about 100 years earlier than that.

Really? Gosh.

This is why it's so remarkable, the way it's survived so well. Right.

Because mostly when you find a rattle like this,

you find the end's been crushed where certain individuals bite.

Yes, yes.

They're supposed to bite that end, but they tend to bite that end,

but the whistle working beautifully there.

And then the bells - more often than not, those are missing.

You know what's happened, of course? You get a sleepless night.

And what we've got very nicely here as well,

we've still got the suspensory ring. Right.

Which of course makes this a health visitor's nightmare.

Imagine a ribbon round the child's neck. Not what you want.

And I think it's so lovely that everything is actually intact,

and we get the exact date there.

Oh, right. 1793.

Wow!

And then the maker's mark there of Peter and Ann Bateman.

Right, OK.

There's a huge disparity in prices with rattles... Mm-hmm.

..because most are in a very poor condition, for very obvious reasons.

This one - I'm going to keep it away -

this one is in such good condition.

This is what every collector of rattles actually wants.

Right.

So, at auction...

?1,000 to ?1,500.

Right, OK, we thought about ?50.

Seriously, I really did think ?50.

OK, right, we're keeping that out of your hands.

OK, shall we keep that a little bit more distant? Yes. OK. Wow!

What I love about doing the Roadshow is, it doesn't matter

how many times I do it, there's always something that arrives

that surprises and absolutely enchants me, and this is it.

And it's not obvious by looking at it exactly what it is.

I know what it is. Do you know what it is?

I know what it is. Good!

I know what it is, because my father told me,

and there was one here, framed, which I knew about,

and he was often telling me that was done by Anne,

one of two sisters, and she was 20 when she did this, and in 1738.

Now, he told me that it was a pocket.

You're absolutely right.

Your father was completely right in his instructions.

These are ladies' pockets,

and they were worn with the ribbons,

and as you say, tied around the waist, under the petticoat,

but just to confuse us, in the 18th century when these were sewn,

a petticoat was also the name for the outer layer of the dress.

Oh! So your skirt was also known as a petticoat.

Yes. And you've got to remember they were tight-waisted

and full at the side, and then, as you say,

you had these little slits and the pockets would be underneath.

Now I've always thought that this was for money,

but you could put a key in there, your fan. Whatever you wanted

about your person, you just popped it in your pockets. Fascinating.

These are made of linen, they are beautifully sewn,

and in the 1730s, this would have been a well-known image.

A sort of Chinese vase of flowers full of these,

what would have been very exotic flowers like the tulip and the

stylised carnation there, sewn in coloured wools, in chain stitch.

They're just very loosely sewn, so she might have drawn out

the outline, but she's just really gone in the shape of the purse.

And a pair is very, very unusual these days.

Beautiful - absolutely my sort of thing.

And, you know, they're quite rare these days.

I haven't seen a pair for a long, long time. Really?

When I first started working, I saw a pair,

but I haven't seen them since.

To put into an auction - a specialist textile auction -

I would say they would put an estimate of somewhere between

?1,000 and ?1,500.

Gosh.

When you see a work like this, which is done in enamel,

you get just a sense, just a taste

of what pictures painted at this period - which was about 1820 -

would look like if they hadn't faded, because enamel

has a marvellous way of retaining the intensity of the colours,

and you have a work by the greatest enamellist of them all - Henry Bone.

How did Henry Bone come into your life?

I was given it ten years ago on the death of my father,

and he was given it about 40 years ago by an elderly family friend.

My father used to do a lot of work for him in the garden, and DIY,

because he was elderly and unable to do anything.

Oh, that's rather touching. Fees for looking after the garden.

Yes, he was a colleague, a doctor colleague.

The subject is Mary, Queen of Scots, is it not? Yes.

Now, of course, she died a number of centuries before, but Henry Bone

made a speciality in going around finding ancient Elizabethan and

Tudor portraits, and then capturing them in this exquisite process,

first painting them, copying them, and then turning them into enamel.

He became then the great enamellist of the day.

I mean, he became enamellist to George III,

so, thus, you know, having royal patronage like that,

the man had done extraordinarily well.

So, how do you respond to it?

I just think it's beautiful.

The lace work, it's just so delicate. I love it.

Yes, and have you noticed the colour of those cheeks?

I mean, how rarely do we see cheeks with the pink suffusing with

the white so graphically as that?

And it's faded in so many instances, but not, of course, in enamel.

So what you've got here is, in art world terms, something very good.

You've got an extremely beautiful image of a very important

emotive sitter, Mary, Queen of Scots,

done, OK, a few hundred years later, by a very significant portrait

painter and enamellist, Henry Bone, by appointment to the king.

It's therefore worth approximately...

?12,000. Golly. ?12,000!

Gosh.

I think collectors in Germany and France might disagree,

but I'm from Worcester and I'm biased, so I think

the Stowe Service is the finest porcelain dinner service ever made.

And, I mean, just look at it.

I mean, how did you come to have two plates?

Well, I was at the school for four years

and I've collected one or two bits up to do with Stowe.

I've got a few things for the gardens and things like that,

and I always wanted one of the plates.

I always wanted that one. So you're an old boy from the school here?

Yes, yes. Right.

And a friend of mine was an antique dealer, and he found out for me

that there was a plate I could buy, so I purchased it.

When was that? 1987, so it's 25 years ago. Right.

Well, I mean, when the 2nd Marquess of Buckingham,

when he inherited his title from his father in 1813,

he inherited absolutely enormous wealth,

and he was determined to make his own impression

by addition to the building here, by filling it with treasures,

and he wanted a dinner service that really suited his place.

And he went to Worcester, he went to the firm of Flight, Barr Barr,

and commissioned this set.

That was in 1814.

This is just one plate from what would have been a couple of hundred

pieces, and every plate

was decorated with his full coat of arms.

There it is. I mean, so many different titles had all

come down to him, with their income and estates,

and so, how many quarters can you get in one coat of arms?

They're all there, aren't they? Yes.

As well as the wonderful lion and horse supporters.

And they were used!

Can you imagine entertaining at Stowe? Really, they were used?

I mean, when you were here at Stowe, I don't think you

ate off porcelain quite like this when you were at school.

Not quite, no, not quite.

It's fascinating to see, well, two different designs.

This one hasn't got the full coat of arms, it's just the...

well, just the crests. Yes, that's the one I don't understand.

I've never seen reference to it.

What you've got there is one of the samples,

because when you commission a set to be made - a very long process -

first of all, the factory would give you a specimen,

samples of different designs.

They would be submitted to the new Marquess.

He would then choose the patterns he wants

and then the set would be ordered, and this is one

of the specimens that he rejected, he didn't perhaps go for the crest.

It wasn't upfront enough like the other one. Wasn't enough.

This has the whole works, doesn't it? Yes, yes.

Absolutely everything squeezed in there.

And how much did you pay for one plate?

I paid ?1,000 for the one nearest you, and ?1,250 for this one. Right.

Today, a Stowe Service plate is nearly ?10,000.

Mmm, yes.

And the sample plate specimen is perhaps another 7,000,

so perhaps 17,000 together.

Yes, I must think about insurance!

Well, it looks to me as if you've contracted

a dose of glass-nutteritis.

THEY LAUGH

A serious condition, I understand. Yeah.

It came from my father.

He was a manufacturing optician, a trade he learnt in Birmingham,

and then he set up his own business in Cheltenham

and was a self-made man from that. And in his retirement,

his passion for glass still came through, and he started collecting

Lalique. And when he passed away, he handed me a number of items -

about 20 pieces of Lalique -

and from that, I sort of garnered an interest.

OK, so which is Dad and which is you?

This is Dad and this is me. OK. And I've collected these and handed them

to my wife as gifts for Christmas.

Presents? You're not a bloke who gives presents?!

You're letting down the squad!

Christmas and birthdays. OK.

Well, basically, I think you've stolen a march on Dad,

because his one is late

and not by Rene, and yours are.

Yours are Premiership and his is sort of...

And, in a way, I'm slightly...

We've had Lalique on the show so much that there's a sort of...

It's almost a cliche, but I have to zoom in on one piece.

The one is THAT.

And THAT is just absolutely fab.

So where did you dig that up from?

A little shop I just came across, not particularly expert in Lalique,

and I just thought it was lovely and would be a wonderful gift.

And how much did you shell out for that?

Maybe about ?400 or ?500.

Well, it's an ammonite and it's Rene, it's about 1930,

and if you were to put that into auction,

which is the price we give you, you've tripled up, maybe quadrupled.

This is best part of ?2,000.

?2,000?!

So next time you're thinking of a present, bear me in mind!

Right, the first question I want to ask you

is why is this box so distressed?

Because my mother kept it in a floor safe and it got flooded,

the floor safe. Oh, really? Oh, that was stressful.

SHE LAUGHS Yes.

In this little box, I'm going to take off that piece of paper,

revealing THAT pendant.

Now, that is a very interesting, colourful and kaleidoscopic gem

in a diamond frame, in the original fitted box,

made in around about 1900.

That's what I'm going to tell you.

Now you tell me as much as you know about it.

What I know is that it's been in the family now for a good four,

if not five, generations.

So shall we say around about 1890-1900? Yes, yes.

All right, so we've got quite a lot of background information

on this little scrap of paper.

Now, on this side, we have a harlequin opal

from Lightning Ridge in Australia.

Now, when we're talking about stones -

incidentally, the very best opals come from Australia,

Coober Pedy, Lightning Ridge - black opals,

that's the very premier level of quality of this particular gem.

This particular stone is interesting from a gemmological point of view.

Why? Because the play of colour is so incredibly uniform

right the way through the stone.

Then you look at the harlequin play of colour, because black opals -

which is what this is, a black opal -

the body of it is black, or very, very, very dark bluish-green.

And then it has a play of different flecks of fire that are tangerine,

yellow, greens, violets, blues.

It's got the lot.

So this was a specimen stone that was bought

and mounted up in a diamond frame.

The diamonds themselves... Can you see how white they are? Yes, yes.

So you've got this counterplay between the fire

of the principal stone and the diamonds going round the outside.

On a diamond loop, in the original fitted case,

which I know is distressed... It is.

..but the good news is

it hasn't done a jot of damage to the opal itself.

With regard to value, well, let me ask you a question about it first.

Have you got it insured? What's the story behind it?

It is mentioned on my household insurance. Which says what?

Up to the value of ?7,000.

Right, that's a problem I've got, actually. A bit worried about that.

You see, I think that that piece of jewellery,

in the right sale, in the right medium,

is worth ?15,000.

Oh, crumbs. Oh, dear! Mmm.

I wonder if, like me, you saw the film The King's Speech about

George VI and his stammer that he struggled with so much of his life.

We've got some documentation here which sheds new light on George VI,

something that you wouldn't have known from watching the film.

Now, your grandfather operated on George VI, didn't he? Yes, he did.

Why was that? He operated on the King because he had lung cancer,

and my grandfather took out one of his lungs. Just as a precaution,

he took out the whole lung to make sure that he'd cleared it.

And he did that, they had the operation in Buckingham Palace.

Why not it in a hospital? I don't think the King or the Queen

went to hospital in those days.

So he had to make Buckingham Palace sterile,

or the room in which the operation was taking place? Yeah,

and in fact, he made two operating theatres.

One as a, you know, back up, in case the first one, something went wrong.

And they operated on 23rd September 1951,

and when he was about to start operating, he said,

"Hang on a minute, the Changing of the Guard's

"going to go on underneath these windows.

"Can you stop that, please? Because that's going to interrupt me."

And so it was all sorted out, and then my grandfather also refused

to sew up the King's wound, because he said,

"I haven't done that for years

"and I'm NOT going to start doing it on the King."

So he got someone more practised to do it?

He got somebody with more practice to actually sew up the wound.

Now, the King was very grateful, and he knighted your grandfather.

Yes, he did. But in slightly unusual circumstances?

Yes, he was called in on 7th December -

and I have a letter to prove that -

he was going in for his usual checkup, post-op checkup,

and he said, "I would like to invest you with

"the Knight Commander of the Victorian Order."

This is what the King says?

This is what the King said. And so my grandfather turned up

and the King was, according to my father, because he was around,

still in his pyjamas. Obviously, he had a dressing gown on.

We'd like to think. We'd like to think.

You'd like to think he had his dressing gown on!

Yes, and he knighted my grandfather and his anaesthetist as well.

In his pyjamas and dressing gown? I believe so, yes.

And here is the medal here.

So this is the one he would wear on his chest.

And this one around his neck.

So, quite an unusual - in fact, a unique, I would venture to say -

investiture ceremony for your grandfather. I would think so, yes.

Now, you've got this letter as well. Yes.

Which is written by the King to your grandfather. Yes.

"My dear Price Thomas,

"in thanking you for your most kind letter, I feel I must try and thank

"you for your great skill in making me a healthy person once more.

"This you have undoubtedly done,

"as I do really feel a different man already."

He was clearly very grateful to your grandfather

and very fond of him, I think.

Yes, yes, they stayed friends for the rest of his life.

Well, it's a lovely, lovely letter,

and to have it written by the King to your grandfather about something

so significant and something which we now feel rather more familiar...

Yeah. Even the letter, the envelope, is done in his own handwriting.

And there we are, George Rex there. Yeah.

I did show this to one of our experts who specialises in this,

in letters, and in letters associated with the Royal Family.

Yes. And she felt that, looking at this letter,

with the story of your grandfather, the investiture, and the medals,

together, this is worth about ?5,000. Oh, gosh, right.

This is the sort of picture that

people call macabre,

because it's made of human hair.

What can you tell me about it?

It's come down from my father's maternal line,

and I think four generations wove their hair together to make

the picture, and mounted it some time around the mid-1800s.

Oh, my goodness, that's fascinating.

But what do you feel about it?

It's quite strange to see. It's always been there

and it's quite strange to see your ancestors' hair behind glass.

SHE LAUGHS Yes.

I suppose it is. I mean, I hadn't thought of it like that,

because if you think about the person who was wearing that hair -

and there are some bits in it that are so beautifully made -

I mean, that's what I find extraordinary.

I think that probably one woman or two or three women in the family

would get the hair from their children... Hopefully willingly.

Hopefully willingly!

..and weave and make these extraordinary, beautiful flowers.

It is a very difficult one to value, because it's such a wonderful

work of art, and if you look at it as part of your family heirloom,

if you like, it's probably worth more to you than on the open market.

There are people that collect them, particularly Americans,

and I believe this actually came from America.

Yes, my family is from northern Kentucky.

My cousin Cheryl sent across the family tree

so I could do some research.

Oh, lovely.

I would say probably a little less than 1,000, which is a shame,

because they were making more.

It's more than I'd expected for a box of hair.

BUNNY LAUGHS

Mid-19th century, Paris, porcelain, ormolu mounts, over-the-top.

It's about being bling. It's about looking flashy.

It's a bit like this place here, in a way.

It's supposed to be Oliver Twist. OK.

It's quite obviously a woman in drag, isn't it?

There she is, I mean, look at that hairstyle. I know.

This is very typical of the early 18th century, from the Kangxi era.

But a plate like this is going to be...

?600-800, maybe even ?1,000, so that's a nice thing.

The Marklin locomotive, it's play-worn, it's crazed,

but a lot of collectors will happily accept it like this,

and certainly in that sort of condition, you're going to be

looking at about ?700 to ?900.

Quite a nice thing.

So, a great little collection of removal men's perks.

Thank you very much. That is one surprise, thank you.

So this is a fabulous carriage clock, with some exquisite panels.

So tell me a little bit about the history.

How did it come into your possession?

Well, it was my grandmother's and we think probably

her father's before, but we're not sure of its age.

But we know that my grandmother had it when she lived in Malaya,

where my father was born, and he has the memories of her pressing

the button every night when he went to bed, on the top there,

cos it makes it chime, apparently.

And then of course there was the invasion of the Japanese,

and they were able to just grab a few things

and bring it back to England.

Unfortunately, not in its box, but they brought it back

on the last ship that returned from the Far East in the war.

That's an incredible story. To have the box would be fantastic.

Yes, well, at least we've got the clock!

Purely from the story alone, how it's survived,

and in incredible condition.

The panels are perfect, which is really important.

The clock is a little bit dirty,

but I wouldn't necessarily worry about that.

The clock itself is made by a maker called Margaine.

Margaine was a top French carriage clockmaker, based in France,

and it dates from 1870-1880.

This is a fantastic example, because it has got these exquisite panels.

They are Limoges-style panels, and when you look at them,

the detail is fabulous.

They really stand out. Now you say the button on the top, you push.

It is what we call... It's a French striking repeating carriage clock.

Right.

So the idea of the button on the top would be, at night-time, you just

push the button and it gives you the last hour that the clock strikes.

It just saves you having to light a candle at night,

pre-alarm clocks and things like that.

Oh, I didn't realise that. That's interesting, yes.

The clock is fantastic.

It's got all the elements that people really, really want to see,

and I imagine if it came up in a good auction,

you'd probably easily have an estimate, an auction estimate,

of ?3,000 to ?5,000. Oh, wow.

So it's a nice clock. OK.

Yeah, that's very good.

It's lovely to hear the history, that's the main thing,

where it's made, because we didn't know any of that,

so that's really good, thank you.

Sir Jackie Stewart, lovely to see you here on the Antiques Roadshow.

We're at Stowe, and of course, not far from Stowe is a very

significant place for you.

Just over the hedge, really, is Silverstone,

and in fact Stowe Corner is at the end of Hangar Straight,

so I'm really next door to where I did a bit of work.

Quite a lot of work! You were three-times

World Drivers' Champion, is that right? Yes, that's right.

And everyone knows you for your racing in Britain, around the world.

We asked you to bring along two of your favourite cups,

of which you have many. Yeah.

Now this one is for the British Grand Prix,

but this is nothing to do with Silverstone, is it? Well, no.

I think I'm the only person who's ever won a British Grand Prix

in two different sports.

Of course, I won the British Grand Prix driving racing cars

a couple of times, but this here is the British Grand Prix of shooting,

because before I was ever a racing driver,

my grandfather was a gamekeeper. I was brought up with a gun and

a fishing rod in my hand, and I won the British Grand Prix of shooting

way back in 1960, and I think again in '62, for clay pigeon shooting.

It was called Olympic trap. And we've just seen the Olympics.

I missed being in the Olympic team. I was in the British team,

a four-man team, but the Olympics is only a two-man team,

so I missed that, I was the reserve. Biggest disappointment of my life.

But this trophy here is the German Grand Prix,

which was won in the old days. It was the Nurburgring -

187 corners per lap, 14.7 miles around,

and it was in the fog and the rain,

and I won it by four minutes, a little over four minutes.

Well, that's a fantastic distance, to win by that.

Two very valuable trophies, at least in my life.

And I was reading - tell me if this is right -

that when you set off for the German Grand Prix,

you'd look at your driveway and think, "Will I see that again?"

I mean, obviously, it's a fantastically dangerous business.

It's true, because in those days, unfortunately, my wife and I,

lost most of our friends that were killed driving racing cars.

If you raced for five years in Formula 1,

there was a two out of three chance you were going to die.

And the Nurburgring, because there was 187 corners every lap,

it was certainly the most lethal racetrack in the world.

More people died there than on any other racetrack.

So, it was a great challenge. It was totally unsafe at the time,

and when I started to change the safety in motor sport,

we had to cancel the German Grand Prix.

You were involved in an accident,

and it took such a long time to get you out of the car.

Because the facilities were so poor in those days, medical facilities,

marshalling was never what it is today. Britain leads that today,

but in those days, it was very thin on the ground.

So this is the cup from the Nurburgring, is it?

This is the cup from the Nurburgring.

It was a little more gold at the time,

but my wife's polished it a little too well.

We take a very strict view about that on the Roadshow, you know!

People come along and say, "We've given it a great scouring

"with a Brillo pad," or something,

and the antiques experts throw their hands up in horror.

No, she's kept it nicely, but it was a little more gold, I have to admit.

It's lovely to see the cups and it's lovely to meet you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Well, these are the most stunning quality.

I can only assume you must absolutely love them. Yes, I do.

And where on earth did they come from? I don't know.

They've been in my loft for the last 11 years.

Prior to that, they were my father's.

I don't know whether they were my grandfather's before that,

but we've just put them in the loft with all the other bits and pieces.

So if you love them, why are they in the loft?

Well, I didn't really know what to do with them. Right.

Where do you put something like that?

Well, they are decorative, aren't they? Yes. There's a lot going on.

And of their type, they really are exceptional quality.

What you're looking at is a pair of superb, 19th-century Bohemian,

Historismus vases and covers.

The kind of glass that was coming out of Bohemia at this time -

and by Bohemia, we're talking about a central European band,

predominantly leaning towards what we now know as Czechoslovakia -

is this wonderful-quality enamel glass,

and these are hand-painted from top to bottom.

And the sheer level of execution and skill in these

just shouts out at you.

In terms of the maker, difficult.

There were a lot of firms working, some smaller key, some larger,

and to be honest, it's quite difficult to pinpoint down

because so many records were destroyed after World War II,

and we've just lost track of who some of these people were.

Well, Dad, or Grandad, had a really good eye,

because these are quality things.

And the market is actually quite strong for this kind of glass

at the moment. Really, at auction, a pair like this,

you would comfortably see them at ?2,000 to ?3,000.

Ooh. That's lovely.

So, are they going to go back into the roof?

No, I don't think so. Good.

How nice. That's lovely, thank you very much.

Well, continue to enjoy them, thank you very much. Thanks.

Well, you've got a very, very careful family,

because you've got the box, which is wonderful.

It's so unusual to have the box and the toy. Did you play with it?

Yes, a little bit, but Mother asked us - my sister and I -

to be very careful with it, so it didn't get played with often.

So it was your mother's, and before that... Her mother's.

Her mother's. So it's three generations. Three generations, yes.

Well, you've kept it so beautifully,

and it's actually one of my favourite tin-plate toys,

because it's by Ernst Paul Lehmann, of Germany.

They started in 1881 in Brandenburg. Oh, right.

And this is one of the earliest,

because of this extraordinary ratchet. Right.

A key, if you like, which is one of the earliest keys.

Afterwards, they'd have an ordinary key that you and I would recognise.

But what I love more than anything is that it was obviously made

for the English market, because it says here,

"The Promenaders. Mr and Mrs Smith in Hyde Park."

Isn't that marvellous? But it could also be Stowe, couldn't it?

Well, it could, yes, definitely.

And this is one of the great toys for collectors of tin plate,

early tin-plate toys. Right.

And I can see this making somewhere between ?600 and ?800.

Wow, that's fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. Thank you. Lovely.

So, with this wonderful ratchet, shall we get it going? Oh, yes!

Ah, success. Ooh!

THEY LAUGH

When you come across a portrait like this and you have,

standing next to the portrait, the subject,

the person who was painted, I love playing the game of trying

to work out what the artist has tried to draw out of the subject.

Now you were painted by someone called Mr Dunlop.

That's correct, yes. And when was that?

I should think it was about 1961.

And how did this event take place?

Because Dunlop is an interesting artist, he's a Royal Academician,

a prominent landscape painter,

not really a portrait painter.

So, how did the commission happen?

My husband loved to go to the Royal Academy,

and he would look at the paintings,

and apparently Mr Dunlop was there at one time when he went,

and they got in conversation.

And my husband invited him down to paint myself and him.

How lovely, so because of an encounter

in the Royal Academy, the artist is brought home. Yes.

And this is the result. Yes.

Do you think he's done justice to your mother?

I think he has done a very good likeness,

although Mother's always been very modest and she wasn't really keen

to have her portrait painted at the time, and she always said that

it was a Monday, and it was a wash day, and she wasn't dressed suitably

to have her portrait painted, but I think it looks very well.

Well, he's caught you "au naturel". What a lovely recollection.

Because you're dealing with someone

who actually didn't really do portraits.

He did things like this,

and you have a lovely landscape example by Dunlop,

who, incidentally, has a first name,

even though not many people know that.

No, what is his first name? Well, Ronald. Ronald.

But he signs himself "Dunlop", and in the many books he wrote -

because he was a writer as well as an artist -

often his first name doesn't emerge, so you have to sort of guess.

But he always sent us Christmas cards -

not ordinary Christmas cards, they would be a sketch that he had done -

and always signed it "RO Dunlop".

So, you never knew his first name? No.

So, he was always Mr Dunlop to you?

Well, let's unwrap a little bit about the story of Mr Dunlop,

because he was born in Ireland,

an Irish painter, in a great tradition of landscape painting

that existed in Ireland in the 19th century.

He was born in the late 1800s.

And having written a lot of books,

having become quite prominent as an artist,

he then developed a technique

which I think is very characteristic of a certain type of painter

who is good at nature, and this is a painting of nature.

Do we know where it is?

Yes, at our farm, and they are our Herefords.

I used to show them and I was...

won three firsts in one day at the Royal.

So, he not only recorded your face, he recorded your cows? Yes.

What a man! Yes.

So, the value of these paintings... Well, the portrait of you,

now, it's a lovely painting, but I think you have to ask yourself,

who would actually buy a painting

by an artist who's known for his landscapes,

of, albeit a beautiful lady, but not one necessarily

that is associated with the artist and what the artist does.

It's just a jolly nice painting and, dare I say it,

worth a few hundred pounds. Thank you.

I adore your landscape.

I would value this

at around about ?3,000. Thank you very much.

Now, this message terrifies me.

It says, "Notice: Louis Berrier, a resident of Ernes..."

Which I think is in northwest France. France, yes.

"..is charged with having released a pigeon

"with a message for England.

"He was, therefore, sentenced to death for espionage," and was shot.

Now, that was during the Second World War. Yes.

That is a frightening thing,

to release a pigeon and to be shot for it. Indeed.

But why was that?

Because the pigeons were carrying messages from the French Resistance

back to the UK during the war,

and the Germans actually employed snipers along the French coast

to shoot racing pigeons

to stop them carrying the messages back to the UK, back to England.

What's your interest in racing? My interest is,

I'm the general manager of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association,

and I look at these medals every day in my office and I think...

We brought them today because they need to be seen.

Rather than me look at them, everybody else needs to see them.

These are examples of the Dickin Medal, aren't they?

They are indeed, yeah, and there were 32 awarded to racing pigeons,

homing pigeons, during the Second World War,

and that's 32 of a total of just over 60,

so these are animal Victoria Crosses.

That's right. Tell me what some of these pigeons did.

This one, for example, what did this pigeon do?

What's his name, first of all? This one is a rare one.

This one's actually known by his number,

which is NPS - National Pigeon Service - 42,

and he came back three times,

bringing messages back,

and he was serving with the Special Air Service.

Three times he went across to the Continent.

Yeah, and they were parachuted in.

The pigeons were actually tied into a small bundle,

so they couldn't, obviously, fly away,

and they were dropped out of an aircraft

over to the Resistance fighters or the frontline troops and so on,

so they could use them again.

Astonishing. Let's look at this one. Tell me about this one.

Beach Comber, in '42, he actually sent the first message back...

back to the UK from the Canadian troops - in Dieppe, this was.

Dieppe - this is the 1942 Dieppe raid. Yeah.

A terrible raid. It failed dismally. Failed... Yes, exactly.

And this actually brought the message back home.

Good grief.

That's a very famous moment... Indeed, yes.

..or infamous moment, in the Second World War.

Did the owners know at the time

what these pigeons were doing?

No, they were actually enscripted.

There were a quarter of a million pigeons

in the National Pigeon Service, and every reconnaissance aircraft,

every bomber that left the shores of the UK, had two racing pigeons.

And here we've got some photographs... Indeed.

..of aircrew with little boxes here.

Yes. Presumably with pigeons in. With pigeons in, yes.

And there's a coloured photograph here, again with the two boxes.

And if the aircraft was shot down and the radio was lost,

the pigeons would be released with the coordinates,

they'd fly back and, basically, the aircrew would be picked up.

That's astounding.

They saved thousands of lives during the First and Second World Wars.

They were very brave little animals. They were indeed, yes.

And you've just... Not only the three, you've brought two more.

Yeah. You've got all sorts of other things as well?

We have, and what you've seen today

is only a fraction of what we've got.

No? Yes, and we're beginning to... we're beginning to collate it all

and archive it properly, because it's a fabulous story

and it needs to be told.

You love your pigeons, I guess. We do indeed, yes.

Do you think the owners of these loved their pigeons?

Indeed, they must have. Did they ever see them again?

Quite a few of them, yes, yeah.

Obviously many were lost in service and never returned,

but all these pigeons, you know,

the owners actually went and had medals awarded officially, so...

What about the value? Do you have them insured?

The whole group is insured at the moment for ?9,000.

For the whole lot? Mmm.

For insurance purposes,

this collection of five Dickin Medals,

plus all the ephemera that you've got...

..should be insured for...

?180,000 to ?200,000.

Wow!

Our members will be pleased.

Really? Wow!

Absolutely.

We'd just love to know where the other ones were.

Well, thank you very much.

Do you remember how I told you at the beginning of the programme

that so many of the precious objects that were once in Stowe House

were sold at these MASSIVE auctions

that took place in the 1800s and the 1900s?

Everything went, and we were hoping that some of those treasures

might just make their way back to Stowe here today

with some of our visitors.

Well, quite a few things have,

including this lovely silver basket

that once graced a table here at Stowe, and in fact,

the owners have very kindly offered to donate it back to Stowe House.

So, it will take its rightful place up those steps, inside.

What a wonderful way to end the programme.

From the Antiques Roadshow team here at Stowe, until next time, bye-bye.

I have developed a technique to help me deal with annoying idiots.

Lee, do you want to kick this one off?

LAUGHTER

I have trained my cat to wink.