Falmouth National Maritime Museum 2 Antiques Roadshow

Out there somewhere is a Morgawr - Cornish for great serpent.

Apparently, there have been many sightings.

Some 50 years ago a fishing trawler landed a great 20-foot long beast

with a beaky head and scaly legs and eight-foot long tail.

That's the story, anyway.

Welcome back to the home of seafaring mysteries -

the National Maritime Museum Cornwall here in Falmouth.

DING! DING!

The National Maritime Museum Cornwall was established in Falmouth

to bring to life stories of the sea in this part of the world.

It couldn't be more appropriately placed.

It's home to Ben Ainslie's gold-winning Olympic boats -

both called Rita.

And Falmouth is home to the record-breaking voyages

of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Dame Ellen MacArthur.

They both started and finished from here.

But there's another quite remarkable story.

A story of survival.

And the sort of tale we love on the Roadshow.

In 1971, the Robertson family and a friend

embarked on the sailing trip of a lifetime across the Pacific Ocean

when their boat was attacked and sunk by a group of killer whales.

They abandoned ship with little food or water and no prospect of rescue.

With only a bag of onions a tin of biscuits and ten oranges,

they tried to quench their thirst drinking the blood of sea turtles.

And to keep themselves hydrated,

they took seawater enemas using a makeshift rubber tube.

And they were so afraid of falling overboard they hardly slept.

After 38 days their luck turned,

when a Japanese fishing trawler picked them up.

Dehydrated and emaciated,

they clambered ashore to a hero's welcome.

And this is the little boat that saved them -

only nine feet in length,

the Ednamair is proudly on display here

at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

And as our experts prepare for another busy day

why not try our valuation game?

To take part, press red on your remote control.

We'll give you your final score

and roadshow rating at the end of the programme. Good luck.

What a perfect start to the programme on such a beautiful day,

as having this painting done about 80 years ago

of another perfect Cornish day.

Yeah. I didn't realise it was that old.

-I think it's about 1930.

-OK.

Because it's by Charles Walter Simpson.

He was known actually as a animal and bird painter,

and painted a lot of Cornish birds on the north coast.

Very Cornish, lived at Lamorna,

as did Laura Knight and Alfred Munnings.

Very much an artists' community here.

A kind of an offshoot, if you like, of the Newlyn school,

or a little earlier - it started in the 1880s -

and this picture is probably about 50 years after that.

-OK.

-Is this a place that you've ever lived?

No, it was a place that my father grew up. And also his brother.

And they spent lots of time down at Lamorna.

And...I'm not quite sure whether my dad first had the painting

or whether it was my grandfather's.

But I remember it as a child and have always loved it.

-And now it lives in my house, which is wonderful.

-Lucky you.

And did your father know the artist, then?

I don't know. He knew Lamorna Birch

but I don't know whether he knew Charles Simpson too.

It's painted in this very Impressionistic manner

which is one of the reasons I'm able to date it to the 1930s.

You know, dabs of very quick paint, making a patchwork down here

for all the foliage, and the occasional slab of white,

or very bright paint, picking out the top of a wave,

the roof of a beach hut

sparkling across the whole picture

and throwing all this stonework, down here of the jetty,

into stark relief.

Very Cornish light.

The artist also lived in Lamorna. First, I think, about 1910 or 1915.

And then later, having gone off to St Ives

and done a lot of other things in Cornwall and elsewhere,

came back to live there in the 1930s.

And I think, looking at the sort of quite coarse canvas

and the way that it's rather loosely and impressionistically painted,

that this is from that later period.

And he didn't die until about 1970, so it could be any time after that,

but I think 1930s. It has that feel to it, certainly.

Would that fit with your family history?

Yes, it would.

In which case, it may have been my grandfather, rather than my father.

But Lamorna's just a very special place to the whole family really.

-Yes.

-And I just love this painting,

because every time I look at it I see something different,

even though I've known it since I was a child.

-I love these beach huts.

-Absolutely.

-Great fun.

And these umbrellas - they're very jolly.

So, terrific picture, absolutely wonderful.

And you've grown up with it, you live with it, you love it.

I think if this was at auction,

it would be between £10,000 and £15,000 - put it that way.

OK. That's a bonus, I suppose. Thank you.

At first sight, you might be forgiven for thinking this

-was made of pewter, but it's absolutely black, this metal.

-Right.

But I've been looking at silver long enough to tell you that this

is actually a silver-mounted claret jug,

but how did it get into this sort of condition?

Um, well we found it in a chest that had been

left by my late great aunt and uncle.

And the chest was in a bank and this was part of it,

but since then I've acquired it and it's been on my mantelpiece.

Right, so you've not been tempted to clean it?

No, not really. I have other things that take priority.

But also, we were wondering whether cleaning would be advantageous

or whether it might affect the quality?

Cleaning silver is important,

because if you leave it dirty for too long,

the tarnish will eat into the surface of the silver eventually,

and it'll leave a sort of milky deposit

-which really spoils the reflective surface of the silver.

-Right.

But you've got a beautiful,

mid-Victorian, mounted glass, claret jug.

It's got a full set of hallmarks round the front here

and it's got the maker's mark for George and John Angell,

and made in 1846.

And this is typical, high Victorian silver, very naturalistic,

very ornate, but the overall quality is there, it's very well made.

Not only just the silver,

but the glass is also beautifully etched and engraved.

Got all the vines to give a good indication that it is made for wine.

-This thing that's been lying in a bank...

-Yeah.

..is actually worth a bit.

-Oh, right.

-Yeah.

I would think probably we've got to think of...

£1,200 to £1,500.

Ooh! Ooh!

-Nice surprise?

-Yeah, lovely.

You know,

there's some boxes

that you can't ever tell who the piece might be by,

but for those people who might watch

the Roadshow regularly, they look at this dark-red leather box

with the gold tooling and the name is instantaneous

and it's actually reinforced, because on the back - Cartier.

And within, revealed,

you've got this extraordinary Deco 1920s'-1930s' plaque.

It was presented to my grandfather by King Alfonso of Spain,

I think in recognition of his services

when he was acting as chauffeur.

And as far as we are aware - well, my mother told me, that it was...

there are only about six commissions from Cartier -

it was about the...

must have been about the 1920s, I think that it was given to him.

-So, it's very much of that period...

-Yes.

..with that very strong, linear, geometric-looking frame.

The frame itself is pure Deco, lapis lazuli,

enamelled panels going down the side in these little baton-like tubes.

Lapis lazuli in these conical finials

on each of these four corners.

But then, that suggests to me that we might have something

like a box or a photograph frame or somesuch piece, but it's not.

And you see revealed on the back of the plaque, are four little screws.

And that means that the back of the piece, quite clearly,

was to be screwed into a framework to take it, as a plaque.

-Yes.

-Decorative plaque.

And that story of yours about your grandfather being a chauffeur,

and it's a decorative plaque, this is something of a car mascot.

Now the main component here, apart from the frame,

is this rather wonderful gold, solid gold plaque,

with St Christopher,

so there you've got the St Christopher,

patron saint of travellers.

-Yes.

-And that dovetails in with the whole idea of the car mascot.

-Yes.

-But this is far too special

and valuable to go on the outside of the car bonnet.

This must have been screwed in, as a presentation plaque,

-on the dashboard of a very smart car.

-That's right.

Such as a Rolls-Royce or a Bugatti or some such vehicle in the 1920s.

Not easy to value something like that,

but it's Cartier, it's lapis lazuli, it's Art Deco, it's gold,

it's in this fabulous, original Cartier box.

£5,000.

Really?

Why not? It's got to be.

I think it's great. I really do.

-Should up our insurance, I think.

-You might consider it, possibly!

Well, we're in the most marvellous maritime situation

with the Maritime Museum behind and Falmouth harbour

just in front of us, and it was a remarkable

coincidence that the two of you, coming independently, queuing up,

have brought today a story of life and death on the high seas.

I'll start with your postcard, what looks a very ordinary postcard,

and it is printed on one side with a view of RMS Titanic in mid-ocean.

As soon as you turn it over, it's the postcard that's sent

just before the RMS Titanic set sail and it carries the name Jenkin.

-What's your relation to...?

-Steven Jenkin

was my great-great-great uncle and he wrote that

at Queenstown before it set sail from there,

the last port of call,

and this is his watch also which has been handed down to me.

OK, and the big question is, did he survive?

No, he didn't.

He went with a party of six and the three ladies survived

-and the three gentlemen drowned, lost their lives.

-Right.

Including Steven Jenkin.

Well, the postcard says it all.

"Dear Father and Mother, I've already sent you

"postcards from Southampton and from Cherbourg in France."

Of course, the last port was Queenstown, it's now Cobh,

in County Cork.

And he goes on to say that,

"I'm not seasick yet," and he says,

"It's a really nice ship to ride on and I'll write to you

"from New York, your loving son, Steven."

I mean it's very touching and very, very moving,

so it's a wonderfully powerful document.

And this is Steven Jenkin's gold pocket watch,

it's an American one,

-and in this floral cartouche is engraved his initials.

-Yes.

-Now this didn't go, I understand.

-He left it behind for some reason.

-Yes, what a family heirloom, I mean bearing his initials.

-Yes.

Yes, marvellous, now having gone through a rather tragic tale,

we turn to your item, which I'll quickly reveal,

is a cigarette case which I understand

-was a gift to your grandfather.

-Yes.

Who was captain of the SS Carpathia,

the first ship to arrive after the Titanic had gone down.

That's right, yes.

What an incredible story.

Yes, we're all very proud of him.

And he, as soon as they got the message,

-he made all haste to get there in time.

-Yes.

But, of course, it was far too late.

Yes, and there's a little thank you note from Mrs Arthur Ryerson.

-Yes, I think...

-She survived the sinking.

-Yes, and her...

-Picked up by your grandfather...

-That's correct, yes.

-..on board and safely taken to New York.

-Yes.

-Where she's obviously had this specially made

and engraved with initials.

The silver cigarette case, a gift to your grandfather.

We have, "SS Carpathia, April 14th 1912". And it says:

-Lucky survivor.

-Oh, well yes.

-Yes.

There were 700 and something survivors, so, um,

1,400 perished I think.

Yes, so two sides of the coin of fate.

Your item because it's post tragedy and is more a thank you

to your fantastic grandfather,

that's probably just worth hundreds of pounds.

-Perhaps, if I said £500 or £600.

-Yes.

But I know it's worth than that to you, your famous granddad.

-Yes, we wouldn't sell it.

-No.

-Now, because yours is depicting Titanic...

-Right.

..and was posted by somebody who went down with the Titanic,

it commands a pretty interesting value.

I'd have said to buy this today, retail,

you'd be looking at around £3,000 - something like that.

-Thank you to you both.

-Well, thank you very much.

-A most moving tale.

Thank you.

-What does the little heart do?

-Oh, this is great.

-Show me.

This says, "Love is in the air," and...

Yeah, it flutters.

-It's a heartbeat.

-Yeah.

-Isn't that wonderful?

-Lovely.

I am a real fan of automata,

whenever it was made,

whether it was 18th century, 19th century,

or, in this case, 20th century.

When I'm confronted with a table full of automaton

made by a local hero, Paul Spooner, it's a great moment for me.

I mean, these are very much things that will be collected,

not only now - which they are, hugely - but in the future.

He's a local man. Is he somebody that you know?

Yes, he's a friend of the family.

Originally, there was a shop called Cabaret

that sold automatas on the high street here

and my mother originally went there to buy these as presents

for my father. So, this was the first piece. But then

they got to know Paul Spooner and now he's a friend of the family.

And he made this one for my parents' anniversary - wedding anniversary.

What people love about Paul Spooner's work is this

-combination of elegance and simplicity.

-Yes.

That he has come up with, and I think that he says that

his automata are entertainments for people with short attention spans.

-Oh, right.

-Which I think is a...

Which is a great way of describing it.

Also, the motifs are very interesting,

I mean, this one, which is Olympia.

-Yes, Manet's Olympia.

-Manet's Olympia.

What... Is there a particular story to that?

Yes, the story behind it was that this was a European courtesan

and she was the courtesan to some Egyptian Pharaoh

and she, unfortunately, got some sleeping disease

and was very depressed, so her humble servant, Nubis,

brought a coffee substitute called Camp Coffee -

that was very popular after the Second World War -

so he brought this to her to help her wake up.

She doesn't look as if she's awake, she's certainly...

She's doing... She's certainly doing something there.

Um...

Maybe she's got a touch of Cairo belly.

When these pieces appear for sale,

which they do very, very seldom, they command huge prices.

-Really?

-I mean, the Olympia I would put at between

£2,500 and £3,500, without any question.

The heart I would put at perhaps £300.

So altogether, what's on the table, I would say £5,500.

Mm, won't be selling them yet, but...

It's a nice little nest egg to have up your sleeve.

Yes, yes, exactly!

The band and drums of any regiment marches at the head

of the column of that regiment when it's on parade

and it symbolises the regimental pride.

It has the regiment's iconography on there, its badge,

and we can see from this drum that it's got the badge

of a very, very famous regiment - the Grenadier Guards.

How did you manage to get this drum out of captivity of the regiment?

Well, it was actually sold by the regiment.

The story is quite simply that my father

served in the 4th Battalion and he took part

in what was considered to be one of

the great feats of arms of the Grenadier Guards,

it was at a place called Hazebrouck.

-And in which war was that?

-It was the First World War.

Nearly all of them, 70% of the men were killed.

So, effectively a battalion is wiped out with more than...

-Just about.

-And then your father survived it.

-Well, yes, here I am.

-Well, yes, that's always good proof.

He did, he was very lucky, he was shot in the jaw

and went sort of round the back and was fished out his back here,

but he was shot through the foot

while he was being carried away on the stretcher.

When he was wounded? That's not very sporting, is it?

Not in those days, I have to tell you.

And because there was no safety net for the men,

they sold off, or auctioned off, a lot of the regalia,

really to raise money for the wives and children

of the men who'd been killed.

So, this is a sort of really early example of military self-help

-welfare with...

-Yes, I imagine so, yes.

..with regimental property being sold to help those who were in need.

This is an absolutely fantastic collection of a group of medals -

a Military Cross, the two First World War medals

and then particularly interesting at the end

is a Second World War Defence Medal. What was that for?

I've no idea. The only one really that matters is the MC.

The rest was actually for turning up, I think.

I think you're a bit cruel.

The Defence Medal was actually a thanks for being there

on the Home Front and supporting Britain

on that very, very important front.

I wondered if he was in the Home Guard or something like that.

-In the Second World War he was.

-Yes.

He commanded a Home Guard.

Right, in that case that's what he would have got that for.

Perhaps that's what it was.

So he has this wonderful medal for gallantry

and the two for turning up - as you put it - and then

if that's not enough, a good dose of it in the Second World War, as well.

Your father got the MC

so I'm guessing that this is after he'd been to see

the King at Buckingham Palace and that's him and family members?

Yes, that was after his investiture, coming away

from Buckingham Palace and on the right, of course, is his father,

on the left his mother,

and on the very left is, I think, his youngest sister.

This is an absolutely fantastic collection,

it's a great treasure to you and if anybody wanted it

for their collection they would think it is also a great treasure

because this lot together is worth between £3,000 and £4,000.

It's a fantastic story and I hope one day it might speak again.

Thank you very much.

This is my favourite thing that's been brought in today

and I've had beautiful, big laborious stuff.

This is just so idiosyncratic, so, where does it come into your life?

Well, I keep poultry, I breed poultry,

and I collect any items related to poultry,

so I saw that years and years ago and I couldn't resist it really.

How many chickens have you got then?

-Probably about 40, between 40 and 50.

-Different varieties?

Different varieties yes.

So, what we have here is the Trebmall Age Egg Gauge,

and the idea is... You explain it to us.

-How does this work?

-Well, I think you fill it with water

and you put eggs in it, and if the egg is three weeks old

then it'll stand in a certain direction,

or if it's a very elderly egg, then it will float very high

because of the egg space in the egg.

-OK.

-So it's quite a useful object really.

-Amazing.

Well, I mean, just the idea that there was room

in the modern kitchen, in the '30s, I suppose, for this...

-Yes, yes.

-..is brilliant.

I mean, just such a wacky thing and the idea that,

you know, I've heard of breweriana,

where people collect stuff from pubs, and stuff,

but you are the first poultriana collector I've ever met.

-OK.

-What's it worth? It's probably worth £15.

OK, thank you. It's just a quirky object that I'm fond of.

It's funny, that's exactly what my wife says about me.

LAUGHTER

Now, I hope I won't cause any offence

if I say I can see a family similarity here.

-Brothers?

-Yes.

Right, so now, is this an inherited table

that one of you has ended up with or...?

I've actually ended up with it, but Joe was more involved with it

coming into the family in the first place, which was nearly 50 years ago.

Yeah, father, he used to go to all the local farm sales

and he used to love it.

And he went to this sale,

only about three or four miles away from the home farm,

and he came back and he said,

"Oh, I've bought a whole load of old junk." So he paid ten bob

for this load of junk, get it home and sort it all out.

So, I went and said to Mother,

I said, "There's a table in that lot Father got!"

So we brought it in and it was a bit wobbly

and the legs weren't very good so we put a block underneath

one of the legs and it served us as the family table for years.

When Father died, Nick's inherited the table

and, at that time, I think you did quite a lot of refurbishing to it.

Well, yeah, it was quite ropy underneath,

had a bit of woodworm and was very wobbly,

so didn't cost us a lot and we had it tidied up.

And you use it...a lot?

Yes, we use it for our evening meal every day

and we put hot plates on it,

we don't bother protecting it in any way at all, abuse it terribly,

and, yeah, we enjoy it immensely.

I love to hear that something like this

is really being used all the time.

Stylistically, it is stunning.

You've got these cartouches of scrolls and flowers

and very, sort of, naturalistic. You can identify most of the flowers

here and what's quite unusual, too,

is having this undulating edge to it.

You see lots of circular tables

but the undulation goes with the scrolling bits of the cartouches.

And if you look underneath,

you've got all the carving and flowers carrying on in the pedestal

and these extraordinary feet which to me always look as if they're

kind of glooping their way across the floor, and in fact there are

feet like this shown, very similar,

on a table by Holman Hunt in The Awakening Conscience,

which is a Pre-Raphaelite painting of, I think, 1856

or thereabouts, and that really helps give us a date for this table.

It's absolutely characteristic of that period, very naturalistic.

They made very similar sorts of table in Austria.

Sometimes you have to look quite closely to think, "Well, now,

"is this English?" And the base of this, particularly,

makes me think English because it relates to

the shapes that you see

in illustrations of the time, in the catalogues of the time.

There are obviously quite a lot of different woods in the top

of the table here, and interestingly, where there's a split

and it's been repaired, you can see that there's a difference in colour.

Yeah, bit darker there.

Yeah, and this is more the colour of the original table.

And I can't quite see the figuring behind here

but it looks like a very dark rosewood,

but on the other hand here, in behind the flowers,

-this is rosewood, you can see it's bleached-out rosewood.

-Yeah.

It's got these dark stripes in it which is very characteristic.

Elsewhere, the green-stained leaves would probably have been

something like sycamore.

Ten years ago, a table like this would have been £3,000 to £4,000.

Now, because of the way everything's changed,

-you might have trouble getting £1,500 for it.

-Yeah.

Which is awful when you think of the amount of work that's in it.

It allows us to enjoy it more, though, cos it's less valuable!

-Exactly, that's...

-It'll remain a family piece.

You won't say, "It's worth so much money

"we'll have to insure it and we'll never use it again."

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

Our Basic, Better, Best Challenge this week

is a bit of a teddy bears' picnic.

Our specialist, Bunny Campione, has brought along three teddy bears,

the basic one worth £80, the better one £600 and the best £4,000.

I don't know about you, but I think they all look lovely.

Let's try and find out which is which.

# Today's the day that teddy bears have their picnic... #

-How do you say teddy in Italian?

-Orsacchiotto.

-Orsacchiotto.

-Orsacchiotto, or orsetto, if it's a little one.

I think that's the basic because of the stitching in the hand.

I'd say the middle one's the best and that one's the better one.

# ..Every teddy bear who's been good is sure of a treat today... #

He's not so worn so he must be the newest.

-So, he's basic?

-Yeah.

Better and best...

I would go for this one because he's got a worn nose

and that means everybody's kissed him

every night to say goodnight, so he must be the oldest.

Now he looks really old and well loved,

but this one I think could be a Steiff.

There we go.

Sorry about this. You're still pretty!

# ..For every bear that ever there was

# Will gather there for certain because

# Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic... #

So here we are inside the Maritime Museum surrounded by all the boats

and you've brought something else very local to us, these tin ingots.

How did you get them?

Yes, these have been in the family for about hundred years.

My grandfather collected these in the 1920s

after he was invalided out of the First World War.

He was an accountant of a Cornish tin smelting company,

and as a family we're not quite sure exactly why he collected these,

because these were...

When consignments of tin were produced from the mine,

they produced traditionally an ingot, exactly as you'd see an ingot of gold

or iron ore. But at the same time they produce these more,

not quite ceremonial but more sort of fancy stamps.

The problem with these, though, of course, is that these are currency,

so when they were actually sold as part of a consignment,

we think a lot of these were just smelted down and sold.

These were effectively money in those days.

The other thing was, which I always find amazing, is that people

-were paid in tin or in copper and then they had to spend it...

-Yes.

-..in the local shop that was owned by the mill owner.

-That's correct.

So it was a really great way of actually not...

It was a continuous circle, the metal was constantly being changed hands.

Exactly, and you'd have to pronounce this for me

-because I'm going to get it.

-Yeah, that one's Bolitho.

-Bolitho.

-Bolitho tin.

-Because they were the biggest smelters.

-Yes.

-And they went on till 1912.

-Something like that.

I think the last tin smelting company was probably slightly later

than that, but as you see, there's quite a selection here.

There's the Pinfold tin smelting company, the Bolitho itself,

and then of course you have a selection of the mines

themselves, which carried their own crest.

This one here, Trereife, that's an individual mine,

so's Chyandour here, a separate mine,

whereas the tin smelting works here were almost like communal areas

which the tin was brought to before it was processed.

-How many do you have?

-We have 20 altogether.

And there are two types, the bar type or the more sort of plaque type.

Of course, we forget today just how important production of tin was

-to Cornwall, particularly in the 18th century.

-Absolutely.

And a lot of these ingots date to that period.

They are very difficult to value, but the collection you have

is going to be worth somewhere between £5,000 and £10,000.

We live locally and obviously it's kept with the family

and, you know, we've no intention of selling it.

This will go to the museum at the end of our days.

It's just to keep because they look so tactile and interesting,

-which they are.

-Fabulous.

What an amethyst!

Isn't it beautiful?

Look at those amethysts,

look at the colour purple.

Look at the whole splendid formal corsage quality of this piece.

That's quite a serious piece of jewellery, isn't it?

It certainly is, yes, it is.

So do I assume it's been passed through the family,

generation after generation to you?

It has, it was originally a love token to a member of my family

and then it's been handed down through the female side of the family

and ended up with me.

Can you imagine the sort of time

that something like this was made and worn?

It's very different from now. This is the kind of jewellery which you

-really don't have the occasion to wear.

-Not really.

But you would wear such a thing when this was first made,

at the time when there were grand balls and ladies wore

totally different dresses that would have been compatible with the colour

-and doesn't the purple go well with the gold?

-Beautiful.

-This is made at the start of the 19th century.

-Right.

So this is going to be something like

around about 1815.

-Right.

-And it's called cannetille work.

Cannetille work is a rather attractive name

that we use to describe very fine-spun gold,

which... Look, it's like filigree,

but it sounds a lot better when you

call it cannetille, doesn't it?

-Yes.

-Cannetille.

Now the stones themselves are graduated in formation

in these wire work frames, and then to reinforce the kind of

femininity of the piece, the extension pieces are very fine mesh.

Yes.

With a gold clasp and then the centrepiece is enamelled

with individual little flowers, suspending these little drops.

-Beautiful, isn't it, yes?

-It's very nice work.

Now, something that's not quite right about it is that,

-can you see the way that these drops here are suspended?

-Yes, right.

-I don't think they're meant to be worn at the end like that.

-Right.

I think that they're supposed to be hooked into the ears,

-they're drops for the ears.

-Yes, they would be.

And if I may say further, I think that there's a strong possibility

-that these are of a different date from the main necklace.

-Oh, OK.

I think this has been very creatively put together.

-Mm-hm.

-Another little problem.

-Oh, dear!

When we just turn it over and hold it up...

..there's the problem -

-the centrepiece has been converted to be worn as a brooch.

-Right.

Not good. Why? Because obviously you are then removing the integrity

of the original design by so doing.

And the people that buy these things look at these things,

and these are the factors that affect the individual value,

they can really reduce the value quite badly

if it turns out that the fitting has been done in a clumsy way.

-Right.

-But it's not too bad.

-OK.

-But it ain't good -

-I'd rather not see it there.

-OK.

-Right. Price.

OK, well now, if this were in tip-top condition, which it's not,

it would be worth about something like £8,000.

-Right.

-Well, it's not.

-I think as a set it's probably going to be worth about £4,000.

-OK.

-Thank you very much.

-You're welcome.

I always had a desire to have, in fact, a ship's figurehead,

living in this lovely part of Cornwall,

but I soon found out they were way beyond my reach.

It appeared that when they finished doing ship's figureheads,

they started doing cigar store Indians. The carving shops

in New York went over to.. And so I then thought, "Well, perhaps

-"I could find a cigar store Indian."

-And you did.

I got to talk to a guy in America that collected them,

and he'd got, I got quite friendly with him

and he was kind of advising me what to look for

and I persuaded him eventually, and it took me two years,

-to sell me one of his.

-Oh, from his collection?

-From his collection.

-Wow!

It's interesting you mention New York because that was pretty much

the centre of where you would buy something like this.

I mean, Indian chiefs, they were carved wooden figures

and you'd wheel them out in front of the shop to basically advertise

the fact that you were selling tobacco and cigars.

They're so well collected but I think I can actually put a name

to this guy. Samuel Anderson Robb - have you heard of him?

I have, yes. It was suggested,

when we had to sort the feet out, the Metropolitan Museum of New York

-seemed to think that that's where...

-It was by Robb.

-By Robb.

He was New York-based, I think he was 1850 to 1920s,

or around that date, when he was working.

And if anyone wanted one of these figures,

they had to have a Robb, you know, but there are problems with it.

There are some things

which you'd think would be a problem, like the nose.

-Yeah.

-I mean, the story is, and whether it's true or not,

is that children would knock the noses off. Have you heard that one?

I have. Children used to run down the street

and because the grain runs that way, they'd whack the noses off.

The production of these finished in about 1910, that's when this style

of advertising figure faded away and they just stopped doing them.

So this, I would have thought,

-is the last quarter of the 19th century, 1870-1880.

-Really?

-That sort of date.

-Really?

-But there are problems,

I mean, it's got goodness knows how many layers of paint.

The trouble is, they stood outside and although it's all hand-carved,

they were open to the elements and the paint would just be worn away,

worn away, and you wouldn't want a tatty figure, so they were repainted

-and repainted. The base looks new to me...

-Yeah.

..and along with the feet don't look quite up to scratch.

I don't know quite where the restoration stops

-and the real thing begins.

-Yeah.

-But just one last fact,

there are only about 1,000 known recorded Robb figures around.

-Really?

-Which is quite unbelievable that you've actually got one of them

and he's here in Falmouth.

I mean, it's bizarre because most of them would be collected in New York.

All that considered, I mean the good news is,

these are still really collected

and I would have thought an auction estimate of 15,000 to 20,000.

Really? Wow!

Well, that's... I'm really pleased.

These three gorgeous teddy bears are our Basic, Better, Best Challenge

this week. One teddy bear, the basic, worth £80,

the better £600, and the best a whopping £4,000.

I talked to our visitors and, to be honest,

no-one could really make up their minds.

We didn't come up with a definitive answer.

Bunny Campione, you are our specialist in all things toys,

teddies, automata, that kind of thing.

Before we start, I've got ask you -

we've worked together for five years now - where does "Bunny" come from?

It comes from a very long time ago when I was about two,

two-and-a-half, and my parents gave me a little bunny fur,

rabbit-fur coat with a hood and ears, and the moment I put it on,

I was Bunny from then on, and even my chequebooks are Bunny Campione.

-Are they?

-Yes.

-So can we ask, what's your real name?

You can ask.

SPECTATORS LAUGH

-Anastasia.

-Is it?

Anastasia Campione. What do we prefer, Bunny or Anastasia?

-PEOPLE ANSWER

-Oh, it's a bit mixed there!

It's Bunny this side, Anastasia that side.

-If it's on your chequebooks, we'd better call you Bunny!

-Definitely.

And why teddy bears and dolls and all that kind of thing?

I was in the furniture department in one of the big auction houses

and for some reason or other, the dolls and automata

were being included in the furniture catalogues, and I got interested

in those. And then one day they said,

"Would you like to open the doll department on its own?"

And I did, and the first sale had a very expensive black bear,

which happened to be an American one, but I didn't know anything

in those days, and that made 460 in 1982, which was a lot,

hit the headlines, so every three or four months

I had a new teddy bear sale, and then in 1994 the still auction record,

which is now in a Japanese museum, 110,000.

-For a teddy bear?

-Yeah.

Well, looking at these, what should we be looking for?

Because so many of us have got teddy bears at home, I know I have.

-How can we tell if it has any value?

-It's a very, very difficult one.

The most important thing is to have all its fur,

so the more pristine condition the better, but then it's the make.

Steiff is the name I hear you talk about time and time again.

Yes, yes. So have you spotted one here?

Er, well...

I was just wondering whether to make it up or not.

I'm assuming at least one of them is, but I'm not quite sure.

I mean, I thought this was the basic because actually he's got

the most hair, so I thought he must be the most modern.

I couldn't really decide between these two.

This one's lost a lot of hair, very sweet bow,

-this is a lovely one with a lovely shaped face.

-Yes.

So I went - this is the best. So I went, basic, better and best.

-Well, that's not bad.

-Right.

So, that is the basic.

-Why is that one the most basic?

-Right. He is by an unknown maker,

circa 1910, probably English, could be American,

but nobody absolutely definite.

No-one knows. It's before they put on their names, basically,

-but that's the sort of price he would make.

-So about £80?

Yes. That's at auction.

-And then the better?

-He's the better.

Now, he's by the firm of JK Farnell, John Kirby Farnell.

They started in 1897, making little sort of toys of material,

and this one dates to 1912

and this is their signature tune,

if you like, the way the stitching goes on the paw.

He's in very, very good condition and so he's the better one.

-And by sheer fluke, I seem to have got this right.

-Yes.

To be honest, I couldn't decide between these two

but this is the best. I'd like to say I knew

why I was choosing it, but I didn't, I just guessed.

Well, you chose right.

-So, is he the best teddy bear simply because he is by Steiff?

-Yes.

Because he's by Steiff. It's rather like a Dior dress

having a label in it, and without the label it's lost its value.

But in the same way you can tell, even though he hasn't got a button

in his ear, it's been wrenched out and so there's a hole.

So that's how you can tell a Steiff bear?

So this lovely teddy bear £4,000 and the record is...?

-£110,000.

-So we've got a way to go.

If you think you've got a teddy bear that could beat that record,

-we'd like to see it, wouldn't we, Bunny?

-Oh, we would.

Have a look on our website

because there are tips on there about what to look for

if you want to look at your teddy bear to see if it might be valuable.

Otherwise, bring it along to a Roadshow. That's:

SEAGULLS SQUAWKING OVERHEAD

People who collect medical instruments are sometimes doctors,

which helps me because some of these instruments,

I'm not quite sure how they work. Are you a medical man?

I'm a medical man, yes, I've been a doctor since 1976.

Brilliant.

So I've been fascinated by the quality of what was done

in the sort of pre-anaesthetic era, I think.

And what was the instrument that first started your collecting habit?

So we go back to 1979 and a friend rings me up and says

he'd been to an auction saleroom and in the sale, advertised,

was a medical field officer's set of the First World War.

He described it, I thought, "That probably isn't First World War,"

so I went to see it, and I thought it was wonderful.

And I didn't really know an awful lot about it,

but there was something about the quality I loved. And I left a bid,

and I didn't get it, I missed it by one bid,

and my wife very kindly pursued and found out who'd bought it

and rang him up and said, "My husband's talked of nothing else,"

and he very kindly said,

"Well, if I gave him a little bit of profit, I could have it."

And when I got it home, he said he'd discovered a small piece of paper -

in the paper it said, "This surgical set belonged to Wolfe's surgeon

"and was used at Quebec." And so Wolfe died in 1759

and this started this sort of interest,

and the thing I love about it is the pure quality.

The fact that somebody would go to the trouble

of making things out of silver.

I agree with you. I mean, it just breathes quality, doesn't it?

Shagreen, it's ray skin and it would have been made to go in the pocket

and didn't he die? Wasn't he shot by a musket ball?

-Yes.

-And could you have used that to extract?

-Yes.

-And that is a bullet extract.

-That's a bullet extract

and that started this interest in things that relate to bleeding,

because a lot of these are lancet cases, a scarificator.

So explain to me, why did you bleed your patients?

They had a belief in those days that people suffered from things

called bad humours and there were different sorts of humours

and sometimes people were bled for all sorts of reasons,

even anaemia they were bled for, and so these cases reflect that time.

This is probably mid- 19th century. This is called the mechanical leech

or scarificator, and it's got the name of the maker here.

It says what it is - Weiss's New Invented Scarificator,

62 Strand, London. And it has a trigger here, which I'll demonstrate.

Carefully.

See all the blades there? Can you just see as they come up?

They just come up and you go like that.

And then if I was doing it for real,

I would put it against your skin and just hit the trigger.

-Bet you didn't see it.

-No, no.

And you would've had all those blades going through your skin

-and you'd have bled profusely.

-Beautiful thing, isn't it?

-Wonderful bit of engineering.

-Fantastic.

I think it's an enchanting collection.

I just love the quality of all the pieces.

-And you obviously do.

-Thank you very much. Very much so.

I think that purchase was the best by far.

I mean, it is that date, you know, 1760, 1759 he died.

If you could make the connection

it would make a huge difference to the price.

As it stands, today you'd be talking about £1,500 to £2,000.

-God.

-So go back and do some research.

The other pieces, enchanting, we're looking at a group here.

We're probably thinking of well in excess of £2,500 to £3,000.

Wow! As much as that?

We must see lots of crinoline ladies on Antiques Roadshow

But there's something different about these.

These are meticulously made

and beautifully painted. Who did it?

-My grandmother, Ida Fox.

-Right.

And did she just decide, one day, to..."Let's make a crinoline lady"?

Erm, I suppose it's a long story.

My grandfather came back from the war.

She wasn't too happy about some of the things that she thought

-he'd got up to during the war.

-OK, can you tell us?

-They divorced...

-OK.

..and she was cut off without a penny, so the story goes.

And she had to do something, so she, first of all, learned to weave

and then she learnt

to paint china - Limoges china -

and my mother, at that time, was having lessons in modelling,

with clay, and my grandmother

picked up the clay and decided

that maybe she could do something with it.

And this is what resulted.

These are really little works of art, in clay.

She so beautifully captured the face, the spirit of movement in the hair.

I mean, nobody's hair's like sausages, really,

but she's just captured the essence. The lace, the little bow, the way

the movement is coming through the skirt.

Even the way she's painted this quite rudimentary pattern on the dress.

Look how it just captures the sweeps and the folds.

-Did she have any artistic training or...?

-No. Well, she did have,

I think, ten lessons in firing.

She had a friend who had a kiln.

-So, some basic lessons...

-Very basic.

..and then, basically, grabbed some clay and then made

these amazingly beautiful things.

I think it's a remarkable story. Did she sell many of them?

No, none.

THEY LAUGH

Well, it leaves me with a slight difficulty,

because they're almost impossible to value. To you, they're priceless.

I'm really going to give you two valuations, I suppose -

them as a work of art and, then,

as what they would cost to make. I think if something like this

came to the market,

we'd be looking at £500-£600.

However, if you had to pay somebody to sit down and make one,

as your grandmother did, you'd be looking at thousands of pounds.

-My goodness.

-I think it's a marvellous tribute

and good for the family she never sold any,

because they're lovely little works of art

-and thank you so much for sharing them with me.

-Not at all.

This is how I like to see a picture,

delivered here in totally original condition.

Original frame, rather dirty glass.

Where on earth have you been hanging this?

It's been in my morning room for the past 19 years.

I'm the fourth member of our family to own it.

I've owned it for about 35 years.

My mother gave it to me because she hadn't got room for it.

But she's always been a favourite of mine. I love the colour of the sea

in the background and there's

just a gentle hint of the poppies and she's got poppies in her hair.

And the lovely,

almost Italianate landscape in the background.

-Yes.

-It's a very, very pleasing subject.

I believe she was painted in about 1890, by Robert Fowler.

It's signed down on the bottom right, "Robert Fowler". Robert Fowler is

a Liverpool painter and very well known to me

for doing classical subject matter.

And here we have a sexy maiden - Grecian or Roman, possibly.

And he was very much

a follower of the famous artist, Alma-Tadema,

or Sir Frederic Leighton, as well. And they were the big classical

painters of the 19th century and he was very much in that

sort of mould. And it is oil on canvas.

And when you look at the style of this,

it's very late Victorian, almost Edwardian style.

It gets away from that stiffness of the mid-Victorian period.

It's quite loosely painted. He sold very well

in his time. And it's fairly marked this picture.

When you look around her head here, you see this white

and you probably think that's paint. But it's not,

it's discolouration of the varnish. It's bloomed.

But it's fantastic. Where did this originate from?

Well, it belonged to my great-grandfather

and he died in about 1914. His name was John Dempster and he was,

-I think, he was quite well-heeled.

-Where did he live?

He lived in Birkenhead, at a place called Noctorum.

Now that fits, you see, because he's a Liverpool artist and probably

Fowler would have exhibited at somewhere like the Walker Art Gallery

and well-heeled people would go to the Royal Academy

and the Walker and buy pictures,

And this was very fashionable, in its day. You know, if this

came up for auction today, it would make probably about £4,000-£6,000.

-I see. Oh, thank you.

-So, you know,

-worth looking after.

-Yes.

-I think I might have it cleaned.

-Yes.

Thank you. Thank you very much. That's most interesting.

This bronze horse is a remarkable survivor

from the ashes and destruction of Hiroshima.

It belonged to your father. What was he doing in Hiroshima?

He was part of a forces' crew that were breaking into

the Japanese bank vaults, to get the currency and bullion away

before any villains got there before them.

The British Navy went in to help the Japanese government after Hiroshima?

They did, yes. There was all sorts of assistance

given to the Japanese government at that time. And this was in

some rubble. He saw it poking out, picked it up and brought it back.

When you think about Hiroshima, you think about a city

flattened to the ground, houses totally destroyed.

And yet this survives somehow.

Yeah, it was so bad, my father had a job

to talk about it.

He couldn't because of the total devastation -

it left a mark on him

and, I suspect, anybody that had been there

-it would have the same effect.

-And who knows if the people

that owned this horse survived. Quite likely, they didn't.

Where do you keep it? Keep it on the mantelpiece?

No, I keep it on top

of a bow-fronted chest, on one side of the chimney breast.

The other side is a beautiful model of HMS Triumph, from the 1700s.

So when I sit in the settee,

I'm looking at these two beautiful things!

Well, it's... I find it quite moving to see it.

I never thought I would see something

from Hiroshima - and something as beautiful as this,

and that is intact.

-It's a lovely thing to see.

-Thank you.

This is a doll after my own heart and don't tell me that

you played with it, because you're too young! So, tell me, whose was it?

-No, it belonged to my mother.

-Yes.

And I've looked after it since my mother passed away.

-Her name's Snoozelums.

-What?!

-Snoozelums.

-What a lovely name, why?

I'm not sure. Mum just called her Snoozelums

and she's lived in a giant, silk Easter egg

-under my bed for about 25 years.

-Have you brought the egg?

-No, that's at home.

-Oh, my word.

-It's about this big...

It has to be, doesn't it, to get her in it?

I took her out, because she's getting

curvature of the spine,

-so I decided to...

-Ha-ha-ha!

-She's in a flat box now.

Now, do you know who she's by?

I think she's a Steiff.

How do you know that?

When I saw the Roadshow was coming, I thought, "I'll take the doll".

I looked at her and found the button in her ear.

I suddenly thought, "Oh, dear, she might be worth more than I thought".

-Right there.

-Yeah. I never saw it before.

Well, it's of a Dutch doll, with the right gear, if you like.

Made by Steiff in Germany.

Very, very southern Germany - Giengen.

And she was made in around 1912.

-That's before my mum.

-Well, then, it could have been your grandmother's.

-Yes, yes.

-And she is in

such good condition and all her clothes are right.

She's been loved, but not loved and rubbed. So Snoozelums...

-Yes.

-...is going to be worth around £2,000.

AUDIENCE MEMBER GASPS

Oh, dear.

Making me cry.

£2,000? Goodness, gracious.

It's easy to forget

that, here in Cornwall, we're actually at the cutting edge

of modernism. We are in St Ives and that's where this is from.

And who's it by?

-It's Barbara Hepworth.

-Absolutely is.

It is the most amazing thing. Oval Form,

it's called. 1965. And is it yours?

No, unfortunately not. It belongs to the school where I work,

-at St Ives.

-How come it ended up in a school?

We believe Barbara Hepworth was one of the governors,

for a short time, and she donated it to the school.

Just for decoration?

No, I'm led to believe that it was a prize for a house that had

won the most merits and was given termly, as the prize.

-Oh, like, "Gryffindor, ten points"?

-Yes. That sort of thing, yes.

Collegiate competition. I've got you.

-And is it still used for that?

-No, we have got a new house system

at the school, at the moment, and our houses are named after St Ives'

artists, like Hepworth and Wallace.

-But, no, it sits in the headmaster's office.

-Safely there.

-Yeah.

It's very nice to feel, isn't it?

There's a lovely sense to it and even though it's got a bit

of a problem with the patination and things, none of this is a real

problem and turning it around is fun, because it looks completely

different from all angles. So it's got a little broken string here,

but it can be easily mended and there, it's very nicely signed,

"BH - Barbara Hepworth, Number 9 of 9".

So it's the last cast in the edition.

-What do you know about Barbara Hepworth?

-Not a lot.

You know, that she was in St Ives in the '60s.

-Yeah, married to Ben Nicholson.

-Yes, yes.

Barbara Hepworth, of course, was that very powerful character

and she was really at the forefront of British modernism.

And together with Henry Moore and Herbert Read,

they really carried the flag of modernism to England.

It's easy to forget, actually, that the centre of it was St Ives,

not so far from here. She knew, and had met, all the people

on the Continent, in Paris,

who were very much at the forefront of modernism.

For example she met and knew Brancusi, she met Modigliani,

she met Picasso. She went to the studio of Arp.

I mean, it's extraordinary what she knew, who she knew,

and she brought these ideas back

and then they're very much her own. This is English modernism, you know.

You cannot confuse it with anything else.

And it's quite interesting, when we were setting this up,

everyone said, "Oh, look, Barbara Hepworth."

-It's an immediately recognisable thing, isn't it?

-Definitely.

The other great exponent of 20th-century sculpture

-was Henry Moore, wasn't he?

-Yep.

He was much more about the human form, but this is about

abstract form, really, and holding it's rather nice.

-Yeah, I like to... It's tactile, isn't it?

-Very tactile.

And made of bronze, of course. and I suppose it would have been

an edition and I suppose, too, that you must know what it's worth.

-No, I'm sorry, I haven't got a clue.

-You haven't got a clue?

-No.

It's sat in the headmaster's study for all this time and...

Lots of people have guessed.

-Do you want me to tell you?

-Yes, please.

-£60,000-£80,000.

Oh, my goodness!

We were wrong. We did have a little guess, of around ten.

Ten?! No, no, no. She's very important.

This is a wonderful thing.

And, also, its domestic scale. You know, anybody could have that.

It's not a huge thing in the garden. That's going to work anywhere

-and it's lovely.

-Wow. Beautiful.

And it's a very important thing.

A seriously exciting find, I have to tell you.

-Wow.

-It's great that you brought it.

-Lovely, thank you very much.

Thank you.

And yet another whopping value for a local work of art.

Talking of local treasures, this intriguing piece has been

brought along by a chap from Newlyn and it's a serpent.

And this was used in churches around the country,

if a church either didn't have, or couldn't afford, an organ.

It was used in services. I imagine it makes a rather lovely sound,

so I thought I'd give it a go. Here we go.

TUNELESS PARP WHICH TAILS OFF

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Well done!

That sounds like some...

Sounds rather more like some distressing bodily function!

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

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd