Aberystwyth University 2 Antiques Roadshow

The Antiques Roadshow team travels to every corner of the UK as we journey across Britain.

This week, our location is west Wales.

Once it was home to some of the most important antiques and artworks from England.

Welcome to a return visit to Aberystwyth.

BIRD SINGS

Towards the end of 1933, the heads of England's most important cultural institutions

were summoned to a meeting by the Government to discuss what should happen to their precious artefacts

in the event of a war in Europe,

the concern being that London would almost certainly be targeted

in any bombing campaign.

The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth was considered an ideal refuge

for many of the priceless paintings, manuscripts and books from English galleries, museums and libraries.

Keen to help, the library employed an architect to design and build tunnels and an underground chamber

in which to house them all should war break out.

Between May and September, 1938, as tensions increased in Europe,

the number of institutes seeking shelter for their precious artefacts increased to 11,

including the British Museum, the National Gallery and Corpus Christi College in Cambridge.

During the Second World War, the National Library of Wales was home to hundreds of pictures

by the likes of Da Vinci, Canaletto, Hogarth, Gainsborough,

as well as precious manuscripts and books.

As for scholars who couldn't bear to be parted from their valuable works,

they were evacuated here, too.

In case you're wondering why I'm whispering, I'm in the reading room!

After the war, every object was returned safely to its home following its Welsh outing

and who knows what awaits us here today as we throw open the doors at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre?

I had a very long drive here up the Welsh valleys

and as I was driving along the beautiful landscape and rivers,

I saw horses around me

and then you come in with this lovely watercolour of a horse, signed KW.

Now, KW can only mean one artist to me, one of Wales' most famous - Kyffin Williams.

And it's lovely. It's a personalised watercolour done for somebody.

-Was it done for you?

-Yes, it was.

We've got very good friends, James and Jo Jenkins, living in Swansea.

In the '90s, James said the up-and-coming artist, he said, hitherto unrecognised,

was Kyffin Williams. And I said, "I'll ring him up and ask him to come and paint our stallion."

James said, "You can't ring Kyffin Williams just like that!"

But, in fact, I found his number and Kyffin said, "Certainly. I'll come down."

-And the rest is history, as they say.

-Tell me about the horse.

The horse is called Derwen Replica, he's a Welsh cob.

And it's the best equine in the world, the Welsh cob.

I see there's a letter here, which Kyffin has written and it says,

"Dear Mr Lloyd, I have done a fairly reasonable watercolour of Derwen Replica,

"but I have given him a small, white blaze and now have a feeling that he hasn't got one."

-Is this the drawing that he did before the picture?

-Yes. That was it.

It went on for about a month to six weeks, toing and froing, but the result is very pleasing.

I see here that we've got a photograph of the horse with Kyffin here,

-standing on the right.

-Yes, with my wife, Myfanwy. What I liked

was that he was very much non-establishment.

He had his own mind, stood up for what he believed in

-and, well, he was recognised, of course, with a knighthood.

-Absolutely.

And I think, you know, it comes through in his paintings. This is a lovely watercolour,

but in 1990 he wasn't really recognised outside Wales.

In 2000, I remember some of his pictures coming on the market

and they started to make £10,000, £15,000. Today,

major oils by him are making £50,000, £60,000.

And rightly so, because he's a wonderful painter.

His oil painting style is very thick and fluid, using palette knife, almost,

but this is lovely. And the story behind this is so personal

and to have this information and the drawing...

And because people like him, this watercolour would probably make today

-somewhere in the region of £4,000-£6,000.

-That's pleasing to know, but it'll never go from us.

It will be passed on to our son, who hopefully will cherish it for the rest of his life.

I'm glad to hear that.

When I first saw this teapot coming out of your bag,

I thought it was going to be a silver teapot,

but you've disappointed me. It's just brass. Why have you brought me a brass teapot?

Well, I'll tell you why. My mother had it given her many years ago

-and she's had it for about 50 years sitting on the mantelpiece.

-Right.

Then a couple of years ago, my cousin came to the house and he's an antique dealer.

-He said, "That's quite valuable," and he offered her a substantial amount of money for it.

-Did he?

-Which she declined.

-How much was that? Let's get to the point.

-£700.

-£700, right.

Yeah. So when I heard you were coming to Aberystwyth, I said,

"Mother, can I take the teapot along to have it valued or looked at?"

-"Certainly," she said. So here it is.

-OK.

You must have wondered why somebody was offering

such a lot of money for a brass teapot.

We see a lot of brass and copper teapots and kettles on the Roadshow.

Most of them are worth £30-£50, we don't film them and we send people on their way.

This one is different because it is indeed imitating a silver shape,

but this is one of the rare ones that is made of brass. And brass ones are rarer than silver ones.

It also has a very early date.

One of the reasons I know it's early is because the capacity of the teapot is tiny.

You could only get two or three little cups

because in the 1720s, when this was made, tea was still very expensive and taken in small quantities.

So let's have a look at it because there's one surprising thing.

You've seen it and I had a quick peep.

It has some mock hallmarks on it,

which means that this was not originally brass,

but it actually had a silver coating on top of the brass that made it look more expensive.

These little bits of silver left over are the remnants of the French plating process.

So it's a teapot with quite a lot to tell.

And, potentially, if you imitated hallmarks, you could be executed for it back in the 18th century.

So they were on dangerous territory.

But what a lovely shape. It's called a bullet teapot

because it's in the shape of a bullet.

It's got a gorgeous original fruitwood handle, that sensuous curve.

The finial is original, made of ebony.

And look at that little spout. A nice little moulding on the end.

And to top the piece off, an original crest of a bull's head.

-£700, eh? Now, look, it's family who made that offer, so I've got to be careful!

-I know.

-Quite frankly, it's the best brass teapot I have ever seen of this period.

-Really?

I see far more coffee pots and sauce boats. It's a good one.

Auction estimate - £2,500-£3,500.

What?!

Oh, no.

You wait 'til I see my cousin!

What a badly battered plate! How did you come by it?

Actually, friends asked me to help them clear a house out.

They had a skip outside, throwing a lot of rubbish in,

-and that was going in the skip.

-Was it?

-I asked if I could keep it.

And they said yes! I'm always hoping to find things in skips,

but I wouldn't be allowed to look in skips, as a rule!

It's got the monogram IHS on it, the Jesuit symbol for Jesus Christ, Son of God.

-Right.

-It's got a cross.

-Yes.

And it's made in a body called Delft. Tin-glazed pottery.

-Right.

-That's very much tin.

-Where the tin bursts away, you can see the bare clay body under it.

-I see.

It's trying to look like porcelain, really, but doing it in a cheaper way

-because the English and the Dutch and Germans couldn't make porcelain at this stage.

-Right.

-The date of it is going to be somewhere round about 1670.

-Right.

-In date.

-Which is the time of King Charles II if you remember that in history!

-It's a long time ago!

A long, long time ago.

But the difficult thing to me is

-whether it's continental or whether it is English.

-Right.

If it IS continental,

-it's much less valuable than if it is English.

-I see, yes.

Now so much of this looks continental, Dutch or German,

but two things that look English

are this little squiggle under there,

which reminds me very much of the Delft bottles they made at the time of King Charles II,

English ones, made in London, and always with these little squiggles

under the name of the person who owned the bottle.

Also, these little ribs are very English in style. The whole look of it to me is a peculiar mixture

-of English and continental.

-I see.

Now if it is Dutch or German,

it's going to be somewhere around about the £400 mark.

Uh-huh.

If it is English, terribly, terribly rare

-and the value, you have to add a nought on the end.

-Oh!

£4,000. And I would like you to take it to a few museums, perhaps in London or somewhere like that.

-Right, yes.

-I hope it turns out to be English!

-I hope so, too!

And to think of you rescuing it from a tip! Marvellous!

Thank you, yes.

Well, we inherited it from my granny and she passed it on to my mother.

When my parents died, it came to our house. We were always led to believe it was a prison clock

-and a warder had to come round and knock the pin in or it stopped.

-Where does the prison bit come in?

She thought that the warder, if I was the head warder and you were the subordinate,

-you have to come and check on Mary every half hour.

-On Mary?

-She's the prisoner!

As you checked on her, you depress the handle to knock the pin in.

So the head warder came round and said, "He's done his job."

If he didn't come round to press the lever, the dial turned and the pin was still sticking out.

I would say you're pretty much there, you're almost there.

-It's called a nightwatchman's clock.

-Right.

What is interesting about this clock is that the maker, John Whitehurst of Derby,

invented the night clock. You're absolutely right -

the dial has pins set all around its circumference.

In this instance, you pull the lever on the side,

it pushes the pin in and it tells his supervisor

that that watchman has been awake at that time. OK?

This is the whole point of the whole exercise - to keep watchmen awake.

I think it was used in a mill. They were very popular up north.

They were very useful.

And it was terribly, terribly important.

They were subject to burglaries, to fires,

and the nightwatchman had to make sure he did his rounds. Very clever.

-How old is the clock?

-Quite right to ask. It's one of the earliest.

He invented, we think, this clock in about 1750.

-Good grief.

-And I think that this can't post-date that by very much.

-So let's say it's around 1760. It's a very early example.

-I love you.

-Well, early doesn't always mean money.

-It doesn't matter.

-Let's talk money.

-We wanted to know what it was.

-Nightwatchman clocks are not everyone's cup of tea.

My wife wouldn't have this in the house at all. And she allows me to bring back quite a lot of stuff,

but this she'd draw the line at.

As a result of which, it's really a die-hard collector's clock.

-And, nevertheless, you would have to pay as much as £1,500.

-Good grief! Would you really?

-£200-£300 I thought you'd say!

-Really?

-Honestly, yeah.

Thank you. At least we know what it is!

You'll forgive me for saying it looks a bit like an ear, doesn't it?

Have you heard of Cassis tuberosa?

-No.

-Cassis tuberosa is the name for a helmet shell.

-Oh, right.

-And that is what that is. Family piece?

-Been in the family for several generations.

-Now, the reason that we're looking at this today

is that it's transformed...

when we look at it on this side.

And it reveals a magnificent cameo carving

depicting a classical female head in profile. We'll call her Flora,

because the involvement of flowers in her tresses

is so beautifully done, it's executed with such subtlety and perfection.

I've seen these before over the years

and they're always broken. Do you know the reason why?

Because people hold them to their ear or drop them. And they crack.

But this one is in absolutely impeccable condition and when you think that the carving here

-was probably done in Naples, Italy...

-Oh, right.

-..in around about 1860-1870,

the detail of this, when you look at it, what you're seeing is

a carving in cameo where naturally the white would be solid.

And the craftsman has got these incredibly sophisticated tools to deftly pick out the white,

leaving some of the white in profile and then giving them the extra definition of flowers in the hair.

And let's not forget to look at the beautiful contour of that nose and mouth.

Then you carve down to the lower level, which is brown.

Then you polish it. So you get this caramel brown against the white.

That's really what a cameo is. The reason that they're interesting from a jeweller's context

-is they were frequently used as shop models.

-Right.

-On a shelf.

Typically, a shop would cascade pearls winding round and they'd become a fixture and fitting.

-Oh, right. Yes.

-All right.

Neapolitan shell carving,

1860s to 1870s.

Helmet shell.

Excellent condition. I'm going to be a little careful with the price.

They're very much for the purist,

but I would like to think if it was offered at auction, someone would pay £500-£800 for it.

-Oh, gosh.

-Are you disappointed?

-Absolutely not!

-That's a relief.

-I'm amazed!

I've filmed several Welsh Antiques Roadshows

and come across many Eisteddfod chairs.

The bardic tradition of poetry and literature has happened for thousands of years.

-We've got five Eisteddfod chairs here. Five is a lot to have in one place at one time.

-Yes.

-Whose were they?

-They were my great-grandfather's.

He lived in Aberystwyth for most of his life and he was well known in Wales. His name was Niclas y Glais.

He was a poet and a preacher and a pacifist and a dentist.

-Right. So he had his finger in a lot of pies.

-Absolutely.

-And so he won five Eisteddfods?

-No, he won up to 100, they think.

-Sorry?

-Up to 100.

-100?

-Yeah.

-Do you have more of them?

-There's another two in our close family. My brother has two in Cardiff.

-So where are all the rest?

-There's one in the museum in Aberystwyth

and some in the chapels, but he actually gave them away. He gave a lot to the chapels.

-So how did he win 100 chairs?

-By writing poetry. They're awarded a chair for writing poetry.

-Very specifically poetry.

-Yes.

And the chair is a very potent symbol because it was used at the final ceremony

-for the chairing of the bard.

-Yes.

-So he would have sat there and been chaired.

-He would have been.

-Over 100 times!

-Yes!

-He must have got rather used to it.

-I'm sure he did.

-I'm sure he just took it as granted.

-It's an incredible feat.

I can see a range of dates. Some of these chairs are far more elaborate than others.

What really interests me about Eisteddfod chairs is that they kind of used to recycle furniture.

There's the National Eisteddfod, which is an amazing institution, but there were little regional ones.

These small regional Eisteddfods possibly didn't have a very big purse.

They needed a bardic chair to award, so you get things like this - a continental office or cafe chair.

-Oh, right.

-And it was just what was available. And it's got a plaque on the back for a local Eisteddfod.

Now in terms of being a chair, it's worth £70 or £80, but it's the association.

In reality, we think of chairs like this as Eisteddfod thrones,

but I like these small, regional, recycled chairs.

He was obviously a man of great talent. We have a picture of him.

What's his legacy to the Welsh people?

Just the literature that he's given to people.

He's still very, very popular. He's coming back as an icon.

-You must be very proud.

-We are.

Value-wise, some of these things are not really that valuable.

You can happily buy a chair like this for £300 or £400. Not a great deal of money.

To you, they're far more valuable than that and given the amazing amount of Eisteddfods he won,

he really obviously is an incredible man who left an incredible legacy to your family and the Welsh people.

-It's a pleasure to talk about him. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-This kimono is in such fantastic condition, I can't believe it was ever worn.

-It was worn once.

It belonged to my three times great uncle...who was in Japan.

And he was presented to the Emperor wearing this very kimono.

-What sort of date would that have been?

-Round about the 1870s.

That's incredible because

had I not known your family's story,

and looking at the kimono, the colours are just so vibrant,

-I would have probably put it a bit later than that.

-Yes.

What we have is a lovely cream silk and then, as a second stage,

some of the design is printed on - this aubergine -

and then very carefully and meticulously these beautiful bright colours in the overstitching.

Overall, it's incredibly colourful, but it's also decorated with emblems that all have

-a tremendous significance and a language of flowers.

-Yes.

Like the trailing wisteria here.

The peach blossom.

And the language on this kimono, which is interesting for a man, is all about happiness

and peace and longevity, which you would have put far more for a woman than a man.

Tell me, why was he in Japan?

He was part of the British legation to Japan who went out soon after Japan opened to the western world.

And he was the medical doctor assigned to the legation, a group of diplomats.

But soon after he got there, he managed to gain respect for the medical work he was doing

and he ended up setting up two teaching hospitals which eventually evolved into the medical schools

-at Tokyo and Kagoshima.

-What was his name?

-His name was William Willis.

I have a photograph of him in this book here.

-So there he is.

-Have you had any contact with Japan since?

Well, I have a Japanese friend who came over a few years ago.

I'd had in my possession a book written in Japanese

and when my friend came over, I said, "Could you read this for me?"

And he came back the next day and said, "This is fascinating. I read it from cover to cover.

"This is one of 14 volumes written about your uncle. He is so famous, I learnt all about him in school."

-At school?

-At school. He's on the curriculum in Japan.

-How fantastic.

And he's attributed as bringing western medical practices to Japan.

-So he's very famous.

-That is an amazing story.

You might be pleased to know that the kimono is in such good condition,

-that I would put £1,000...

-Goodness. OK, right.

-But, historically, it's a fascinating story. Thank you for sharing it.

-It's been a pleasure.

Well, this absolutely beautiful figure of a ballerina,

who is glinting before us in the sunlight, represents for me

a pivotal moment in the history of one of the greatest European porcelain factories,

the Meissen factory. Do you love this figure as much as I do?

A lot more.

-Ah, you can't know that!

-I do.

-Well, tell me about it.

She belonged to my father.

-And she actually has travelled quite a long way in her little life of almost 100 years.

-Right.

She's been from West Germany, she travelled in a railway wagon to East Germany.

And she basically moved towards the Russians. And then, in 1948,

she was coming back the same way, back to the West,

and she's lost very little of her glamour.

-Right. And here she is in Wales.

-Indeed, yes.

-So she's danced her way across Europe.

-She has that.

I think she's pivotal because throughout a lot of the 19th century, before this was made,

the Meissen factory had lost its way a bit.

All it was doing, essentially,

was reproducing objects it had made in the previous century,

churning out 18th century-style goods.

But in the early 20th century, they took on exciting, new, adventurous modellers.

People like Max Esser and another chap called Paul Scheurich,

who modelled this beautiful figure.

And he understood the medium so well, which is why she really does seem to dance as we look at her.

She's actually moving. That's a really good figure.

And she represents a figure from a ballet called Carnival,

which Paul Scheurich actually saw in Berlin in 1910.

And it was performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company.

And from that, in 1914, he modelled five figures from the Carnival ballet.

And this is one of those. I think you know when it was made.

-I thought it was 1924-ish.

-Yes, well, it's in the early period.

-Not long after the original had been modelled by Scheurich.

-Yes.

And we turn her upside down. We can see the crossed swords mark and the model number there.

-Exactly what we'd expect to see from an early model.

-Yes.

So this is reasonably contemporary to the time Scheurich modelled it, so it's really exciting to me.

It's got everything - life, movement, colour, quality.

And that's, I think, why... why I'm smitten and in love.

-How lovely.

-So what's something like this worth?

I think it's safe to say, at auction, for a figure as beautiful and lovely as this,

-we'd be looking at £3,000-£4,000 for her.

-Right.

At auction.

Goodness. Gosh!

That I did not expect.

-Mark, I've brought someone to see you who's had an accident.

-Yeah.

-I think that's just general wear and tear.

-Shall we turn him round?

-Now do you want to tell Mark what you know about him?

-Nothing I know about it, actually.

-I bought it in a sale about 25 years ago.

-Right, OK.

It was in a cardboard box with a lot of other toys on top. We found him in the bottom.

He's been in the garden shed ever since. My wife hates it because of those teeth!

-So you have no idea who this figure is?

-I haven't got a clue!

-Right, OK.

-What do you think he looks like?

-A monkey!

-You think a monkey?

So would you be a little bit surprised to find he's a cat?

-Yeah, I would be.

-And his name is Felix.

-Never!

-The cat.

-Goodness me.

-So what you have here is perhaps one of the earliest marketable cartoon characters

in animation history.

His first incarnation was about 1919 and he had cartoon strips.

-He was like the Star Wars figure of his age.

-Oh, right.

-And what's he worth?

-He's worth about £250.

-Oh! That's very nice!

I had no idea. I just thought he was an ordinary monkey!

It's amazing what you can tell about families from the silver that they produce.

Now my immediate deduction with this dish

-is that somebody in your family was out in the Far East.

-Yes, you're right.

My grandfather lived in China when he was a little boy.

And when the troubles started, he had to be smuggled out with his family.

So they had to dress him up as a little Chinese boy.

That would have been around 1900

with the Boxer Rebellion

when all sorts of dreadful things were happening.

Essentially, civil war in China.

And Europeans were fleeing the country.

One wonders where they hid this particular dish

-as they were smuggling him out.

-They had big kimonos on.

-I suppose stitched into that.

-It could have done.

-Wonderful.

-The dish itself I would have dated around 1900 or so.

-Yes.

-And what we've actually got are the marks of the actual Chinese maker.

-Right.

I have to admit my Cantonese is non-existent,

-but it should be possible to work out exactly who made it.

-Yes.

-The three most likely locations are Hong Kong, Shanghai or Canton.

-Right.

Those are the China trade ports and that's where you had these Chinese silversmiths

making for the European market, which they exploited brilliantly.

So a wonderful dish and China trade is very much collected today.

So value...

I would have thought you'd be looking at, at least, £1,000.

-Really?

-Maybe £1,500 on this dish.

-It really is delightful.

-Lovely. Excellent.

This is a huge collection of Poole pottery,

but just as we were setting it up here, you confided in me that this is

just a small part of what you have. How much more have you got at home?

Oh, probably about another 300 pieces on top of this lot.

-Are you the wife?

-Yes.

-This is very interesting.

So we have a collection and an obsession?

-It became one, yes.

-You say it's an obsession. What got you started?

Unfortunately, I was in a really nasty road accident about 10 years ago.

And I ended up having a bad head injury with brain damage.

And I was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder.

-Which could have taken you in any direction really.

-It could have done.

Fortunately, it wasn't alcohol, drugs or anything nasty. It was Poole pottery! Much healthier.

-Extraordinary.

-And I'm a lot better now.

-Other than this!

-Yeah.

And my flatmate gave me this little cruet set here. And I just loved the colours

and the feel of it. Then I kept seeing bits of Poole everywhere and I was just like,

"I like that. I'll buy that."

Let's talk about Poole Freeform, which most of this is. I have to say that in a lot of charity shops,

-you find bits.

-Yes.

-It is not rare. Some of the larger pieces

and ones that have some of the bigger decoration on there,

they are more desirable and obviously so,

but if you are an obsessive collector, you wake up in the morning and have to buy something.

-Yes, I do.

-Yes!

-Don't you?

I've known a lot of obsessive collectors, let me tell you.

-But there is Poole and Poole. He is quite particular about the pieces he wants.

-Now.

-No, right from the beginning.

-That's interesting. Do you have a favourite?

I do. I'm just trying to locate it. Ah, here it is! This one.

-And you love it because...?

-I just love the shape, the colours and it's also very tactile.

-I really like the feel of the finish. It's very beautiful.

-Show her what you do to it.

-What do I do?

-Kiss them.

-I go, "Morning."

-Not to all of them!

-Not all of them.

-And how long have you been married?

-Not very long!

-Oh, dear.

-OK, well, I think you have summed it all up, actually,

because the Freeform is incredibly tactile and the feel is lovely.

It is like touching skin almost.

And particularly when it's blood temperature, as it is here in the sun.

Do you feel this has been therapeutic?

Very much so. Very much so.

Before I used to have to write everything down in a notebook of what I was doing that day,

but now I think it's helped me come back to a level playing field, really.

They are a terrific collection here that you've compiled.

They scream '50s to you.

I'm not going to go through every piece and value it, but I would say

that something like the vase or big platter on the floor,

the more wildly painted ones, we're talking about £200, £300, maybe £350.

The rest are just a few pounds each, but cumulatively, it is a wonderful collection.

It's a wonderful passion and obsession. Where to now?

Oh, I don't know. Get all the Freeform shapes in the blue colour, I think. This is my ambition.

-Excellent.

-I'm a few short, but I hope I'll find them.

-I wish you luck in completing the tick box.

-Thank you.

-And thank you for sharing your obsession with us. And for being such a patient wife!

-Thank you!

-Yeah.

The man responsible for this image, when he arrived in England completely changed the English face.

-Sir Anthony van Dyck.

-So it is an original?

-Not necessarily at all!

-You think it might be? How did you come by it?

-My father purchased it in 2004.

It was supposed to have come from a Scottish estate.

It has a sticker on the back to say it was attributed to van Dyck.

And it was put in the catalogue as "circle of van Dyck".

Apart from that, I found a full-length picture on the internet,

which I understand is exactly the same woman, wearing the same dress,

full length, which I understand was at Lennoxlove.

Well, you've dipped into the van Dyck industry, for that's really what it was.

When he arrived in England in the early 1630s,

you have to imagine how portraiture was. It was quite stiff, staccato, playing card in appearance.

And then it was almost as if he was an impresario saying, "Action!"

People began to smile and breathe in a different way. There was movement.

A feeling of romanticism begins to creep through portraiture.

As a result, everyone who had access to the court and to the artist wanted a painting by him

or, preferably, of them. He could just transform these people.

Now as a result of that, he had lots of studio assistants who did replicas.

And as a result of that, they're everywhere, so people copy them.

-Yes.

-And then you get in the next generation after the Restoration,

people trying to evoke the period of Charles I, when this was painted.

-Now this woman is the Duchess of Hamilton and it is indeed after a major work by van Dyck.

-Yes.

-The actual original is missing.

-Right.

-The Duchess of Hamilton was a lady to the bedchamber

to Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I.

And a pretty woman and a good-looking royalist image.

So you can see why, in later generations, artists were interested in this picture.

-Now this actually is not a 17th-century picture.

-Right.

It's an 18th-century picture. What happened in the 18th century is

because this great colossus of British art changed and influenced the way we paint so much,

there were artists who looked back in a romantic way to what he achieved. Thomas Gainsborough.

-What a lovely thing to have.

-Oh, yes. I have it hanging in my dining room.

-It looks very good on the wall and I enjoy it.

-Well, you have a painting which is

downstream of van Dyck, 100 years later. I could well see this in an antique shop

-selling for £3,000.

-That's nice to know! Lovely, thank you.

Walking along the queue here, I couldn't help noticing you've got something from the BBC here.

-These are LPs that we found in a skip in Aberystwyth.

-And what are they of?

-Sound effect clips

from the BBC Archives. We found 410 of these in the original packaging.

Oh, look. Wimbledon tennis - men's singles. This is the sounds of what it was like at Wimbledon.

-And then...FA Cup Final, goal scored.

-1966.

-And you found all these in a skip?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-You just sort of dived in?

-Well, one of my friends told us they were there.

-And he didn't have the transport.

-He didn't have the transport.

-And his girlfriend wasn't too keen!

-On diving into the skip? I don't blame her.

-It was right at the bottom under that much rubbish.

-So you've rescued them.

-We did.

-How fascinating. What other sound effects have they got on them?

They go into so much detail. One horse galloping. Two horses plus foal galloping. It's amazing.

Because now if we want sound effects, there's all sorts of digital archives you can go into

or you can get different kinds of mood music. Sad music, scary music, whatever it might be,

-but obviously in days gone by this is what we used.

-Yeah.

It's fascinating for me to see these. I wonder who should...

-I think Marc Allum is the specialist to see.

-OK.

-I'll catch up with you later and find out what he says.

-OK, great. Thank you.

-Thanks.

-You've got three very interesting pieces here. I assume you know where this comes from.

-I do.

These are three items of furniture which I inherited from my father

-who sadly died last year. I'd like to know more about them.

-Do you know the nationality of this one?

-Dutch.

Absolutely right. It works in the conventional way.

If you just open that, we'll just show... You've got two shelves like this that flap down.

-Then you've got this that opens as well. Do you know what it's called in Dutch?

-Not in Dutch!

-A butler's serving table.

-It's called an opklaptafel.

-Right.

-Any Dutch viewers forgive me because my accent isn't very good.

Very simple - upflap table. Opklaptafel.

The top comes up. It's made as a gentleman or lady's dressing chest. We'll shut the top now.

-In about 1800.

-Yes.

And what fascinates me with this is I don't think we've seen one on here before,

but there's one in a very famous house. In Lady Georgina's bedroom or dressing room at Castle Howard.

-Right.

-A very similar one. It's absolutely classic of Holland, so Dutch furniture of 1800.

But these are slightly more difficult. Tell me about these.

My father made this in 1968.

Along with three friends.

-So a set of four.

-A set of four for a total of £75.

-That's not each.

-That's extraordinary, isn't it?

-For four.

-So he was making antique furniture.

-He started as a French polisher

and developed into an antique restorer.

And in restoring it's very easy to make the next step into making.

And he made these for himself because he just loved the job and the end result.

-They're a lovely set of tables.

-But did he - a difficult question -

did he make pieces to pass on as older than they really were, shall we say?

These were normally sold to the local dealers as decorative pieces more than reproductions.

And maybe they did end up as antiques,

but we will never know.

-Looking at this, it looks to be 100% Georgian furniture.

-Yes.

Satinwood. What's this? Tulip wood, I presume.

Around the side. Lovely inlay on the front.

-This stringing, which is probably ebony stringing, exactly in the late Georgian style of 1780?

-About that.

-It is somewhat distressed.

-Yes.

-There's what looks like all sorts of bits and bobs. Part of his...

-manufacturing technique?

-Yes, yes. He had his box of dust

-for putting into the backs of drawers.

-He had his box of dust?!

And then the distressing was done. As a child, I used to have to go on the beaches

and search for rocks that could be used for doing the normal distressing.

It has to be nice to handle and that would be...

-Can I have a go with this?

-Not on here, though!

-I can make it a bit older! It does fit the hand perfectly, doesn't it?

-Yes.

-So you just knock it gently?

-Yes.

-I want to have a go on something!

Well, this one has not been done.

-Well, that to me is, even from a distance, a reproduction.

-Oh, yes.

-This is not so straightforward.

-No.

I'll give that back to you. That's wonderful.

It's easy with the benefit of hindsight. The construction is not quite right for the 18th century.

There's just something about the stringing, especially on the top.

It's millimetric, just slightly too thick for an 18th-century one, and that sounds an alarm bell.

I want to think about the values of these. It's very difficult.

This one has got colour, originality, age.

In a shop, £3,500. Possibly even more in the Netherlands.

-Yes.

-But what about these, though?

-£75 for four. I can't do the maths for that. 35...

-It's under £20 each.

-Shall we say £1,000 each?

-Yes.

-As opposed to £30,000 or £40,000 if they were old.

-Yeah.

-And that one, a pair of those, £7,000 or £8,000.

-Yes.

-Get your flint out - we'll have a go!

-Thank you very much.

-OK.

We've had a lovely, sunny day in Aberystwyth today.

Please tell me you are Mr Jones.

-No, I'm not. Mr Davis.

-Mr Davis. So was this...?

He is my great-great-great-great-grandfather.

-It was presented to them on their wedding day by the crew from the ship that he captained.

-In 1839.

1839.

We've got, on their wedding day, Hugh and Elizabeth Jones

and the verse, "Give me my health

"and a little wealth, A handsome house and freedom

"and at the end give me a friend and little cause to need him." What could be better? It's fascinating.

This is called slip decoration. They made the jug. Slip is liquid clay, so they've blended

clay and water to paint this on and, while it was wet, they've done this decoration.

You can imagine taking a sharp tool and cutting it all in.

He's had a bit of trouble with "handsome" and when he's come down, "freedom and the end", he's thought,

"God, I forgot to put 'at' in," so he's put a grammatical mark in to put 'at' in.

Obviously, very well trained. And it's all just lovely.

There's something so honest about it. It's a piece of craft pottery

and I think, you know, it's as fresh and as gorgeous today as it was when it was first made.

-So they're an Aberystwyth family?

-Yeah.

-Where might it be made?

-At a guess, Devon?

-Absolutely.

It was made in Barnstaple, Devon.

Bizarrely, there are at least three other jugs of this type all made for families in Aberystwyth.

-God.

-So there must have been a very strong trading link.

-On the boats.

-Between Barnstaple and Aberystwyth.

It's part of your family history, but, you know, it has historical interest and commercial interest.

I think if this was to come onto the market today,

-it would make a good price and that price would be £5,000.

-£5,000? God.

Do you want me to keep holding it or shall I give it back?

-Thank you very much.

-I'll let you calm down first. Thank you.

-Very nice.

You've got a group of Chinese and Japanese pieces here. Did they come together?

No, they're all separate buys and they're all car boot buys.

I'm a bit of a collector. I go through phases.

-At the moment, it's a Chinese and Japanese phase!

-All from car boot sales?

-Yes.

-Right.

Because out of the bits you've got, one stands out here. It's this jar.

-Was it a car boot sale locally?

-Haverfordwest, yeah.

-Right.

Tell me what you think about it. What have you found out?

Just that it's Chinese. That's all I know. I've looked for something similar in books, but nothing.

These colours leap out to me as something quite exciting.

It's not the normal rose of China.

These colours together, that sort of blue and turquoise green,

-those are a palette that goes back quite a long way to Japan, rather than China.

-Oh, right.

It's actually a Japanese one.

-And we're looking, I suppose, at 17th century, 1680.

-That far? Oh, yeah.

-And in Japanese, that's special.

-Yeah.

-A small number of these jars were shipped overseas to Europe

and they went into the great homes and great houses, where many still survive in old, special collections.

And end up at the boot sale!

-Go on, how much was it?

-£10.

-It's had a hard life.

-Yes.

-It's a bit broken, cracks in the base.

-It would have had a splendid lid on the top.

-Oh, right.

-You didn't miss the lid?

-No, I bought that just as it was.

-So chipped and cracked, that reduces it a lot.

-Yeah.

The market itself has changed a bit, but even in these more difficult times,

a special piece like this is awfully expensive.

-We're looking at £4,000, £5,000.

-Oh, gosh...

Seriously?

That is...

Honestly, £10 and I couldn't...

I hummed and hawed about £10 and nearly walked away from it.

-Go back and find more of these! Well done.

-That's excellent news. Thank you very much.

It's been a fantastic day here at the university.

Do you remember those records the students showed to me earlier on?

One of our specialists had a look and said they're probably worth between £400 and £500,

which is not bad if you're a student and you found them in a skip!

From Aberystwyth Arts Centre until next time, bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd