The Scottish Gallery of Modern Art 1 Antiques Roadshow

When Sir Walter Scott described Edinburgh as

"Yon Empress of the North with her stately halls and holy towers",

I think it's safe to say he would have included the setting of today's venue.

Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow from the Scottish National Gallery

of Modern Art in Edinburgh.

When this imposing building was completed in 1833,

it opened its doors, not as a museum,

but as the Dean Orphan Hospital for Poor Working Class Orphans.

The idea was to create a building

that would not be mean in its appearance

or resemble an ordinary workhouse or penitentiary.

I mean, look at it - it certainly does not look like a workhouse!

You can see why it was nicknamed The Pauper's Palace.

It wasn't really a hospital as such,

more a home and school for nearly 100 children.

This book of photographs was presented to every child as they left,

and it gives you a wonderful insight into life in The Pauper's Palace.

I mean, look at this one, the Matron's sick room,

I mean, it's wonderfully staged, but none the less,

it does give you an idea of what life was like.

All the children in their smart uniforms

were taught their three R's together in one big classroom.

The girls would then learn domestic duties like sewing,

laundry and cooking, while the boys looked after the garden

and grounds with a bit of spare time for PE.

They were long days. Up at 6am, in bed by 9pm.

Look at these matrons here. I bet they were pretty severe.

It stopped being an orphanage in 1947

and became part of the National Galleries of Scotland in 1999,

but there are still a few clues to its former life.

The banisters were especially high to stop children sliding down.

And if any child did manage to climb up here,

these studs would make the eyes water.

And windows like this were built into most rooms

so that passing teachers, or matrons,

could look out for naughty children.

Today it's been transformed into the home

for Scotland's leading art collection,

a perfect backdrop as our experts prepare to meet our visitors outside.

If you want to see your antiques knowledge is top of the class,

why not play along with our valuation game?

Press the red button on your remote control,

use the app or go to the Roadshow website.

Well, this is in marked contrast to today, really, isn't it?

There's obviously been a ghastly storm

and something absolutely horrendous has happened. What?

This is the Eyemouth fishing disaster.

It was painted in 1882,

-but the actual disaster was in November 1881.

-Right.

And Eyemouth is a little town just off the east coast of Scotland

between Dunbar and Berwick, and in this particular disaster,

the night before it was a flat calm, they all went out to fish.

Oh, because they thought it was safe and a good time?

Yes, and they were out fishing.

-With the tide.

-With the tide and so on.

It was low tide and suddenly this huge storm appeared

and all the fishing boats tried to get back into the harbour,

but there were lots of rocks and things round Eyemouth.

-Because it was low tide.

-Yes.

-Because it was a drying harbour.

-That's right, yes.

-And normally they'd wait for the tide to be up.

So a terrible storm in November at a low tide,

so a lot of the boats were lost actually on the rocks, they couldn't

get into the harbour, and Eyemouth lost about a third of the fishermen.

-That many?

-Yes, that many.

There were about 186 men who died, and the tragic thing was that

actually most of them were lost just outside the gates of the harbour.

Oh, my God, so their families could watch it happening.

Yes, they could watch it happening and they couldn't save them

because the rocks were just... It was just so bad.

So they were watching their own families being killed.

And this particular, I think this is probably the next day,

this is a dead fisherman being brought ashore,

but what really... Is the look on the woman's face

as she's looking out to sea.

-Oh, my goodness, it's searing, isn't it? Searing.

-And so, so sad.

In fact, the whole picture really hinges on her face, doesn't it?

Absolutely, the light here just seems to shine on her face.

This baleful light after the storm.

Yes, I think that's the composition of it

just absolutely draws you to that woman's face.

It's a remarkable piece of painting, that figure grouping there actually,

it's almost a pieta, if you know that expression,

it's when the Holy Family grieves over the crucified Christ.

But as you rightly say, her face is unbelievably expressive

and in a way, very theatrical.

-Mm, yes.

-Not melodramatic but dramatic.

-Yes, yes.

-And it involves us all.

-Yes.

And I wonder, too, whether this breaking light,

-so presumably it's dawn.

-I think it must be dawn.

Yes, because that's when they might have found

a washed up body on the shore.

-Yes.

-When the light comes.

And is it perhaps hope, do you think, a symbol of hope?

I think it probably is. It's a renewal, isn't it?

-And the children, the renewal.

-That's right, yes.

-So she has at least got them.

-Yes.

-It's heartbreaking.

The children that were left, there was a public collection

and a lot of the children, their education was catered for by the...

-By huge public sympathy.

-Yes, yes, that's right.

This picture might have been part of that public response, do you think?

I think it probably was.

We do have a signature down there, don't we?

Yes, it's painted by Michael Brown,

-J. Michael Brown, who's an Edinburgh artist.

-Yes.

I bought it on a whim, really. I went to an auction

and was going to buy a painting by a different artist

and it went for more than I was prepared to pay,

-but I paid four times as much for this painting.

-Ooof!

Because...I bought it on a whim, I'd never seen it before,

but I knew the artist,

I knew Michael Brown because he paints golfing paintings.

-And you're into golf?

-We're a golfing family.

What an extraordinary tangent to go out on, though.

So what was it... It just grabbed you?

-Absolutely grabbed me.

-Straight into your heart strings.

I just thought, I had to have it, I just had to have it.

-But it was exhibited in 1883.

-Right.

-In the Royal Scottish Academy.

-Academy, right.

So tell me, three times what you were prepared to pay

for another picture, was how much?

I spent, well, it was £6,000 plus the commissions.

Plus all the bits.

Yes, that's right, and about five years ago.

It is a very instructive picture and a very well painted one,

and an interesting one.

And for that reason I think I'm going to value it at what you paid for it,

which I suppose with commission is £7,000.

Yes, I thought you'd say that.

THEY LAUGH TOGETHER

Thank you very much, thank you.

Did you buy this up here?

No, I inherited it about 15 years ago, it was my parents',

they bought it in Somerset, about 1947.

Well, it is legal to bring this across the border

between England and Scotland.

Should you decide to go on holiday in Europe or America

and take this with you, unusual perhaps, it would be illegal.

It would need a special licence.

Go on.

The wood here, this lovely wood,

is Brazilian rosewood from the Atlantic forests of Brazil.

Mm-hmm.

It was imported into Europe in huge quantities in the 19th century,

and this table is mid 19th century.

It was imported in such huge quantities that it's now

an endangered species, so like ivory, turtle-shell,

-it needs what's called a CITES licence.

-Right.

To move it in and out of a country.

It's... You amaze me.

There must be hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands,

of pieces of furniture like this in the UK which people are perfectly

innocent about this, which is fine if you don't move them around.

But if you moved that to say...

If you moved to France, buy a house in France,

and you come back into England with it a few years later,

and it was spotted by customs and you didn't have the right papers,

you'd be in trouble.

Well, it's not going anywhere.

But this is a point I want to make, this wonderful, wonderful timber

which was so popular in the 19th century, and indeed popular today

as an antique, needs a licence to move it around.

That's very, very important, just the same as ivory or turtle-shell.

I do want to look at the table very quickly

because it's a very sweet, ordinary table of about 1850.

But there's something... The reason I asked you where it was bought

is it's got a Scottish feel about it, those barley twist legs.

Post Trotter of Edinburgh but you know, maybe that's coincidental.

We'll never know who made it, it's an anonymous piece,

and it's nice that it's continued in the family for a long time.

We always value pieces on the Roadshow.

This has got a little bit of damage on it, hasn't it?

But, you know, this was worth the same 30 years ago as it is today,

amazingly, it just hasn't gone up in price.

About £1,000, £1,500 at auction.

Well, that's certainly significantly more than my parents paid for it.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much, thank you.

-You've given me a little Wemyss egg, and isn't it a little sweetie?

-It is.

How did it come to be in your possession, was it an Easter gift?

No, it wasn't, I inherited it from my father.

He had a modest collection of Wemyss Ware,

and that is what I felt was the most unusual piece that I have,

and I was interested to know more about it.

My father wondered if it perhaps had been an apprentice piece.

-I don't think it's an apprentice piece.

-Oh.

And the reason I say that is because the roses are beautifully painted.

They're painted in such a way, and in the style of Karol Nekola,

-who was the head decorator at the factory.

-Yes.

What I do think it is, I think this has probably been what is

called a comfort egg, which has been put under a laying chicken when

they have no eggs to encourage them to lay, because it just doesn't have

the surface finish of a Christening egg and it's quite narrow as well.

And you do get eggs made for Christenings and I think somebody

has probably just said, "Could you decorate me an egg?"

How interesting.

So I'm not saying it's the only one, but I've never seen one,

and I've seen a lot of Wemyss. Wemyss is still very popular,

but of course, like lots of collectables, people want

the rarest things, and that little egg, if that came to auction,

a collector is going to want to have it and there would be a fight on,

and that fight would probably go to at least £2,000.

CROWD GASPS

My goodness me!

-So that's several dozens of eggs.

-Oh!

Interestingly, looking at these things here is a bit like being

home from home, because I've got a collection of these,

but I think your collection probably has the edge on mine.

You know what they are, don't you?

Well, I know that they are weights made in, I think in Ghana,

to weigh gold.

That's exactly what they are.

My cousin bought them when he was there in the 1940s,

and he came back and he brought all these.

And he particularly left them to me

because I did VSO in Ghana in the '60s.

-I see.

-I've a few more myself, but not as nice as these ones.

No, they are a nice, little, interesting, comprehensive collection.

Gold was central to Ashanti, they were a kingdom, obviously in Ghana.

-Yes.

-That became in the 19th century known as the Gold Coast.

Because gold was central to their art and beliefs,

and on a political level, it also asserted their power

over other regions, because gold always attracts power.

And they traded a lot with other kingdoms,

even as far away as North Africa and so on.

And the whole of the Ashanti kingdom was therefore

involved in the manufacture and producing of gold,

because they had their own natural resources in the south of the kingdom

and everybody involved in the industry would have to have gold weights,

which were a standardised measure, and they would know

what each measure represented by the figures very often, and the shapes.

And the early shapes were nearly always geometric, so this one,

that one, that one, they're probably earlier than the figurative ones.

How early would they have been?

-Well, they can be as early as the 17th century.

-Oh.

I don't know if there are any quite that early here,

and I think most of these are 19th century, if not all of them,

but they're still from early styles.

And the figurative ones and the animal ones

usually relate to Ashanti proverbs.

-Oh, right.

-Don't ask me what the proverbs are, because I don't know.

But they do. So sometimes you see figures doing strange things

and it will relate to a proverb.

And this is a wonderful little collection. Do you like them?

I do, I do, yes.

Because I love them, and actually I've got one of those,

that's one of my favourites, it's just a tied knot.

These are mud fish biting each other's tails,

-and these are boxes for storing the gold dust in.

-Right.

Look, that's very nice. And they would have had scoops

for putting the gold dust into these boxes.

-And these things have quite a reasonable value, actually.

-Right.

-Have you ever had them valued?

-No, no.

-No idea whatsoever?

-No.

Well, the one I've got like this cost me £30.

But there are about 22 items there averaging about £30 each,

that's... that's £700, isn't it?

-Good heavens.

-But that's just for the weights.

-And the boxes, £400-£500 for the boxes.

-Good heavens.

So that's something like £1,200 on this table.

That's a lot of... That's much more than I ever thought.

-It's a very nice little collection.

-Lovely, thank you.

I was hoping, when I came to Edinburgh,

I would see a work by Jack Vettriano, who is, without doubt,

one of the most interesting painters, I think, in Scotland,

painting at the moment.

And he's a very controversial figure.

I mean, he shot to fame in the 1990s

with these classic sort of Frank Sinatra,

almost cinemagraphic pictures and he became very popular.

Everyone tried to buy his pictures,

and yet the art world was a bit sniffy about his work

and felt that he wasn't a great painter

and that he wasn't original, he wasn't a modernist.

But somehow he captured the heart of the nation

and one of his most famous pictures is called The Singing Butler

and it has, you know, people on a beach

with the butler holding an umbrella and they're dancing

and it's actually an incredibly romantic picture,

but it's the number one selling reproduction,

certainly in the UK and it might well be in Europe.

And again, you know, it's the people that are dictating

that this is an artist they love and they respect

and here we have a wonderful portrait,

and I'm even more excited to know that it's you!

-Unfortunately, it is, yes.

-I think that's fantastic.

I met him in sort of 1990, 1991.

-Right, OK.

-So it was...

Well, it was an exciting time for him,

-because it was on the back of his pictures getting into the RSA...

-Ah.

..and then '92 was his first solo exhibition.

-First major exhibition.

-Yeah.

But I'm just really interested and I want to know more.

How did you meet him? Why did you meet him?

-I was living in a flat in the west end of Edinburgh...

-Right.

..and Jack moved into a flat downstairs and then I moved out,

but we kept in touch and it just really went from there.

I mean, as I say, it was an exciting time for him -

-he was getting ready for the first show...

-Yeah.

-..and he asked me if I'd take sort of photographs...

-Ah!

-..in his studio...

-Right.

..of his work before it went to the framers for hanging.

-OK. So are you a photographer by profession?

-No. No, no.

I mean, he was great and he always encouraged me in what I was doing.

-Yeah.

-I mean, I've got a few, I've got this here.

Look at that! What a cool photograph.

So I took a series of portraits for him and this particular one was used

in his first catalogue and another one I took was used

in his second catalogue for the London exhibition later that year.

That's a seriously good photograph.

-And that one is from the first show in Edinburgh.

-Oh, right.

And again it just shows the pictures in situ

and the famous Singing Butler there.

I think these are really interesting photographs

because it seems to me, in this exhibition,

I guess in '92 his works were worth what, under a thousand pounds?

-Yeah.

-And then it may have been, I can't remember exactly,

probably ten years ago,

I was actually the auctioneer when we were selling The Singing Butler

and I remember we had 24 telephones

and collectors from all over the world, from America, from the UK,

and they went mad and it made over £800,000, this picture.

Well, what a great... And this portrait,

can you remember it being done?

I can, yeah, I remember being sat in the chair

-and I was just in my jeans and T-shirt.

-Yeah, yeah.

And then it was my birthday in the October and he turned up with this.

Isn't that wonderful? Well, I think it's a fantastic portrait,

I love it, I mean it's quite sketchy and, you know,

I would have probably said it was worth a bit more a few years ago

when he was sort of at the height of the market,

when there was this sort of bounce off from The Singing Butler price.

-I mean, I think £6,000 to £8,000, something like that.

-OK.

Which is not bad, I suppose.

It's such a personal thing

and I want to be able to sort of live with it,

and enjoy it for what it was. It's just an incredible gift, you know.

Thank you.

Now I'm looking at a mountain of bits and pieces

which I know contain a great story

and the clue really is in this first photograph.

I'm looking at a photograph of a football team.

The key is on the top where it says "RRS Discovery II First XI"

which takes us straight into Antarctica, am I right?

You're absolutely right, yes.

And so why am I looking at this football team?

Because one of the handsome chaps in that photograph is my father,

-who is this chap here.

-So this chap, L. Thomas, is your dad.

-That's right.

-So he is an Antarctic explorer.

-He was.

-Was.

-He was, yes.

OK, now let's just look at a couple more pictures.

-I've got three very stalwart looking chaps there.

-Yeah.

Is one of them him?

Yes, it's this chap here looking like a fitter in a boiler suit,

all bundled up with I don't know how many jumpers underneath,

but none of your lovely cool weather gear you get nowadays.

Now how old was he then?

He would have been about 18, 19. He went to join The Discovery

at 17 and a half, so maybe this is a couple of years later.

I mean, what astonishes me is that they could be playing in the park

in Edinburgh, couldn't they, on a nice day?

Well, in those clothes, yes.

That's what I mean. We think of how amazingly hi-tech

-all that exploration is today..

-Absolutely.

-..and they were just wearing ordinary clothes.

-Yeah.

Anything they sort of bought in the Army surplus shop, it looks like.

-Yes, yes.

-How did they survive in those extreme conditions?

Well, I know it was pretty brutal, they were lucky -

at least they were beside the ship, they had the ship nearby,

they weren't trekking miles, he wasn't involved in that part of it.

-He wasn't doing a Shackleton.

-No, he wasn't.

But I think there was a couple of times

they were on a little rowboat and it got turned over as it landed...

-Yes.

-..and they had to spend the night underneath the rowboat

in their wet, sogging clothes in the cold, so I know he survived that.

-Well, that's a real Shackleton experience.

-It was, yes.

And just to get this straight,

-of course we're not talking about Captain Scott's Discovery.

-No.

We're talking about the later Discovery.

What was his job on this ship?

He was a humble engineer-room boy, I think,

and I think he'd read Scott's books

and been inspired and when Discovery was in Portsmouth,

he wrote to the captain and asked if he could join

and he was told, no, there was no room.

A few days later, a telegram arrives from London,

they have somebody ill, could he fill the space? And the rest is history.

What date are we?

He joined in '29 and did five trips over ten years from '29 to '39.

-To and from the Antarctic?

-That's right.

But he was working in the engine room

and I think that's a very good point again,

there's the ship, it's quite a modern-looking ship,

built for that purpose or adapted for that purpose,

and we forget, you know, it's not just about the great heroes

who do the great achievements and the great treks -

someone's got to cook the breakfast,

someone's got to fire up the engines,

someone's got to clean the lavatories - ordinary life goes on.

Now, the diaries are obviously very comprehensive

and I love them because they're so full of information,

everything he did written about, drawings about things he saw,

they really bring it to life.

I love it because it's a young boy's writing,

it's his 17-year-old boy's scrawl.

-It must have been so exciting for him.

-Oh! It must have blown him away.

And of course when we talk about drawings,

he was a great watercolourist.

Very much so. He won a scholarship, as a young boy of about 15,

to the local art school but because he was one of 11 children,

he basically had to go out and earn a crust,

and so his mother couldn't afford to let him go.

I mean, to me, these are actually the most exciting things.

-Cos what they tell us is it's not a white wilderness.

-No.

-It's full of colour and of course this is the summer, so you're seeing..

-At its best.

..summer landscape, the snow has dropped and the ice has dropped back

and these visions of what it was like...

I've always wanted to go there and I just think

now I know it looks like that,

I want to go there even more, you know.

What are you going to do with his story?

Well, I hope they will go into one of the polar archives,

the Antarctic, British Antarctic Survey or something.

Yes, that would be a natural place for them.

-And then I want them to be available to people, to come and look at.

-Yes.

Not to be in a stuffy box somewhere and never seen again.

As long as they're safe, as long as they're accessible, it doesn't really matter.

-Secure and conserved.

-The British Antarctic Survey is a perfect place.

-Yeah.

-Now, I know there's one more thing I've got here.

-Yes.

Which of course is a very exciting thing.

In this box is the famous Polar Medal with the Antarctica bar on it,

so it's a gallantry medal of a different kind.

It's recognition of the effort and time.

It's recognition of that extraordinary effort

and effort and cold and difficulties.

Now it's a very difficult collection to value,

because the obvious piece, that has a known value,

you know you're looking at £1,000, £2,000 or something like that.

-But that's neither here nor there.

-No.

The value of the totality is extraordinary

because this is, I think I'm going to use a dangerous word,

-I think this is a unique archive, because of who he was.

-OK. Yes.

And therefore how do you value it?

It must be £10,000, £15,000.

Oh, my word! Oh, gosh!

And it sits around in bags and boxes and...

-Yeah, but it doesn't matter, it's with you.

-Yes.

And it's your story and it's his story, thank you very much.

Thank you.

On a day like today, which is baking hot,

they're actually looking rather sort of cool in those silk robes.

-So they are.

-What do you know about it?

Well, it was supposed to be ploughed up in a field down in Ayrshire,

but I know nothing else about it.

I mean, what I love about it is the simplicity of its form.

It's so beautifully carved. I mean, the clue really is in the outfits,

-this to me is Indo-Portuguese.

-Right.

-So, who found it in a field?

-I don't know, I really don't know.

-How did it come into your family?

-I don't know, my grandmother had it years and years

and I can remember when I was small, and that's all I can tell you.

Because that's quite a story,

but then in some ways actually that works.

You can see there the arm is broken and the hand is broken,

but that's been done such a long time,

because there is actually ingrained dirt into there,

which would fit in with your story of it being buried.

But another sign of real quality is when you spin it round,

they don't stop at the front. Look at the child's arm,

just the way it folds round the shoulder, that's just another sign.

All of this pleating here, finished at the back,

-someone really wanted to make this as good as they could.

-Right.

But I think this actually would have been polychromed or painted,

-decorated.

-Right.

-You can see just little traces of colour.

-And the eyes would have been painted.

-Right.

And that's very typical of this type of work, carved in ivory,

dated from, I think, 1790, 1800, in date.

Gosh. I always thought it was a wee bone, not ivory,

that's why I brought it today.

Well, it's not bone, it's ivory, it's beautifully carved

-and I collect this sort of thing, but the damage...

-Yeah.

..means it's not worth a reasonable amount of money.

It's lovely, it's pretty, but...

..£500.

Oh, 500!

Wow! I nearly never brought it, my husband said, "Bring it." Gosh!

Iridescent Art Nouveau glass, and what is iridescence?

Well, if anybody ever wanted to know the answer to that question,

this answers it.

So where does it float into your life?

Floated into my life a few years ago,

when I was clearing my parents' house,

it had been in the attic.

They actually moved from a bigger house to a smaller house

and thank goodness it was kept in the attic

and, when I saw it, I just thought it was absolutely beautiful.

Erm, I had a neighbour who collected glass and said it was lovely,

and I should do something about it, but of course I never did.

And how long ago was all this?

It was about five, six years ago.

-So the glass coming to you has liberated it...

-Absolutely.

..from the dismal dust dungeon that it's been inhabited.

I mean, when I say dust dungeon...

It's funny, I've always thought that I could make a fortune

bringing up washing up liquid to Edinburgh

as you clearly don't have it up here.

CROWD LAUGHS

I'm really embarrassed, because it's been on a shelf in our sitting room.

Well, it does look more as if it's just come straight out of the loft,

and when I say it's floated into you,

see, it's actually flown in, because this is papillon.

-What's papillon?

-Butterfly.

Butterfly, it's called papillon.

The effect is the butterfly effect by Loetz,

they are Austrian/Bohemian glass makers.

This dates to pretty well 1900,

the style is Art Nouveau in capital letters,

and it's a peach. I mean, this stuff is popular and anybody who says,

"Why is that the case?" should have surgery, actually.

Or at least go and buy some glasses.

It's a beauty and 1900 Loetz, papillon effect and

well, your kind of "found in the loft" is, at auction,

£600 to £800.

Wow.

SHE LAUGHS

That's very, very nice indeed, I'm shocked.

-Sorry!

-It would benefit from some washing.

Yeah, OK!

THEY LAUGH

I'll do that as soon as I get home.

You'd better, because I'm coming round later to check ya!

There are a thousand reasons for coming to Scotland,

and one of them is of course going in search of Robbie Burns,

and I've found him already.

It's wonderful. A two-verse poem or song completely in his own hand.

-Yes.

-Is this yours?

-Yes, it is, it's my dad's and he left it to me.

My wife's no' dusted it for a long time

but it's been there hanging up and I quite enjoy it -

it's something unusual.

It's certainly something unusual. He is, he's the national poet,

but an original manuscript by Robbie Burns,

I find that really exciting.

In fact, I was so excited, I was just a little bit worried

that what I was looking at behind the glass

perhaps wasn't an original -

perhaps, it was some kind of copy, so good is it.

His hand is so bold, the signature's just perfect.

I was looking at it and thinking, "Is this a copy?"

But I've looked at it pretty closely -

the ink sits in the paper just right,

it sits over the folds absolutely perfectly.

Do you know anything else about it?

Well, I was told it was from Burns to his editor and that's all I know.

My mother sent it a long time ago to be framed

and I don't know anything else about that much.

-So, since then, it's sat on your wall, you've enjoyed it.

-Yes.

Do me a favour and give me a quick rendition of some of it.

I could read it, but it wouldn't sound as good.

Don't sound as good for me.

"O Betty will break my bread,

"And Betty will brew my ale,

"And Betty will be my love

"When I come over the dale".

-Thank you very much.

-Welcome.

He even gives us a lovely little sideline here -

he says "This is all that I could ever get of this song,

"but it's comparatively common in Ayrshire when I was a boy".

Takes us right back to his boyhood and that's tremendous.

I think at auction this would have

-to make between £8,000 and £10,000.

-Oh, dear!

CROWD CHUCKLES

That's a bit of a fright, is it not?

You'll look after it a wee bit better now. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

As we've seen over the years on this programme,

the antiques world can be a tricky place

when it comes to cunningly-made fakes,

and tea caddies are a particularly challenging area.

Take a look at these late 18th century,

early 19th century tea caddies supplied by our expert, John Foster.

Can you spot the rogue in our Rogue's Gallery?

He'll be taking us through the pitfalls in a moment,

but here are some clues to help guide your decision.

First, we've an 18th century caddy

veneered in ivory with turtle-shell banding.

But have these cracks been artificially added to suggest age?

Next, a George III sarcophagus shape,

opening to reveal a fitted canister interior,

but is the condition too good to be true

for a caddy that's nearly 200 years old?

Next, a mahogany caddy with the front inlaid

in the form of a fine country house.

But does the naive inlay suggest someone has tried to embellish

what was once a very plain example?

Finally, a Sheraton-period octagonal tea caddy

decorated with delicate urns and floral bouquets.

But is the quality of the painting good enough

for such a high-status piece?

Tea caddies are one of my favourite things

when they're brought along to the Roadshow,

they just speak of such a time when having tea was such a ceremony

and they have locks on because tea was so precious, wasn't it?

Tea was hugely precious and a massive status symbol.

I mean, you can see from the quality of the caddies that it was kept in.

I mean, 'caddies' is an interesting term in itself,

it derives from the actual amount,

a catty, which was just over a pound of tea

which fits in pretty much one of these.

And if you are anyone of note, you had your tea in your big house,

but you didn't have it locked away in the kitchen,

like we do now, you had it on the sideboard,

on show, to show how wealthy you were.

Why are they so difficult, though, when it comes to spotting the fakes?

It's a good question.

Basically, they are actually quite easy to make.

You've got all the materials that you could ask for

in old pieces of furniture which actually aren't worth very much,

and there's a huge desire to make them,

because, like you, everyone loves them.

But what should you be looking for

if you're thinking of buying a tea caddy?

Well, there's various things. And my...

"Always," I say to people, "go with your gut instinct,"

and, before you go and buy anything, just check it out -

go to museums, go to the best retailers,

have a look and don't be afraid to ask questions

and see exactly what's going on.

If you look at these, handling them,

you pick them up, you handle them and you just open it

and you can see that's an interior

that hasn't been touched for 200 years.

Everything about this, it just screams at you,

and it's one of those things

where people don't use their gut instincts enough.

OK, now, that is the one that I was going to say was a fake,

so I'm just quickly changing my mind. Erm...

Oh, you've thrown me now.

-Shall I give you a few more clues?

-Yes, go on.

When you have an ivory one,

if you see how beautiful that is,

this pique work is, you know,

just a touch more than they usually bother to go to.

But then this is looking a little bit forced,

you've got this cracking in here, which is very easy to do.

And these are the size of a piano key,

so they would strip old pianos and then use them to make it.

You could say, "Well, actually, that isn't the size of a piano key

"so maybe this one is all right."

Then I'll give you another clue just to throw you off even more.

This one, a beautiful country house, obviously incredibly wealthy owner,

why would they do...? Actually, you can see here,

you've got lots of filler in there, it's very naively done.

Is this just an ordinary tea caddy that someone has said,

"Right, for very little outlay, I can make this into

"a very expensive box, because these are so hot at the moment."

So someone would take an ordinary box and then put this on afterwards?

Oh, yeah, and you have to be so careful,

and that's why I say, "Never expect a bargain in this."

Pay the right price and buy from the right people,

-and you'll probably get the right box.

-And this one?

-This one...

..these spoons are later.

-Oh.

-So these are Edwardian silver spoons.

So, again, don't be thrown by that.

Is this marquetry just too good to be true

on a box which is...? Tea was used in daily use.

Well, now, I've no idea.

It's tricky, it's such a minefield.

Anyone got any ideas?

-The fake amongst this lot?

-This one.

-You think this one?

-Yeah.

-No?

-That one?

-Yes.

-Well, that's the one I thought was the fake,

-so I'll go with that one.

-OK.

You're absolutely, annoyingly, right.

FIONA CHEERS

CLAPPING

I really thought I'd get you,

but you went with your gut instinct

and that's what you should do.

No, but how much of a fluke is that? I mean it really is.

It never occurred to me to think about piano keys.

If it had, I'd probably have gone for this one.

Well, this one, actually, is interesting because this box,

like I said, and I wasn't trying to throw you off,

it is absolutely period.

But what they've done, they've actually embellished this

to make it look sort of Thomas Sheraton period,

painting all this, but a box that's two hundred years old,

the paint would be worn and chipped,

and then they've done an awful polyurethane lacquer over it.

This would be lovely French polishing

and the painting would be over the top.

Certainly, when I saw the painting,

I just thought that looks too good to be true.

It is too good to be true,

and on a box of this quality of that period,

this painting should be stunning, which this isn't.

So this is an original box of its time -

late 18th century, early 19th century,

but then all that embellishment has been put on afterwards.

Yes, probably in the last 20 years.

Well, I must say, I think they're all beautiful,

absolutely beautiful and it would make having a cup of tea

much, much more of an event

getting your tea out of one of these.

And if you are thinking of buying a tea caddy,

be very careful, because it is really hard to spot the fakes.

Have a look on our website for some information...

I'm sure most people will have a memory

of Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral in 1997

and you, perhaps more than others, because you were involved.

Now, I'm going to involve you now,

to explain what you're doing,

because today, on this particular occasion,

you are interpreting for your parents.

Yeah, that's right, it's something that I don't normally do

-and so, obviously, I grew up in the community.

-Yeah.

And that's where I learned how to sign,

but then I trained as an interpreter

and I work professionally as an interpreter.

Right, OK, well, we're grateful to you to make all this happen.

It's my pleasure.

You were involved as a signer, as an interpreter,

at the service, and just out of interest,

I know that the viewing audience for the funeral itself

was nearly 33 million people in the UK.

Were your parents part of that audience?

"Yeah, we watched it on TV. Very much so.

"Watched the whole thing. It was very emotional,

"all the way from nine o'clock right through the whole day.

-"Incredibly emotional for us, like everybody."

-Yes, yes, exactly.

So tell me your involvement,

because you have, obviously,

an entrance ticket for the funeral,

so tell me the story.

Well, Diana was the patron of the British Deaf Association.

-She could actually sign a little bit.

-Could she?

For the last three years before her death,

I was the interpreter for the Association's

first deaf Chief Executive Officer,

so I met her a few times and then, obviously, when everything happened,

they received, I think, ten invitations

so they appointed two interpreters, myself and my wife,

to accompany the eight deaf people to the funeral,

so we went along as interpreters for the those guests.

And did you know what people were going to say?

-Had you had a script?

-No, no.

Everything was very confidential.

We received that order of service when we arrived

and we had a very rough idea of some of the songs

that were going to be sung,

and the hymns. They sent us those in advance

and my wife and I alternated throughout the whole service,

taking about ten minutes each.

I have to say a big thank you to the woman

that Diana worked with in the nursery.

We were put in a block together,

which would have been terrible for the interpreting,

but they agreed to swap with us

so we went into the front row opposite the deaf people

so that they had good line of sight.

-It worked well?

-It did. It worked well in the end, yeah.

Nerve-racking, though.

Nerve-racking, and I was going to say, not only nerve-racking

but also, I could imagine, quite emotional,

because if you knew Diana as a patron of your charity,

to actually then be involved in the funeral must have been tough.

-Definitely.

-Was it tough?

Yeah, it was tough. As interpreters,

you often have to deal with emotional things that are going on,

but there was a lot going on that day, as you said, you can imagine.

Meeting her before her death I think just made it all the more poignant.

Quite, quite and your parents sitting at home watching,

did they actually see you doing your thing?

"Yes, just little quick grabs that we saw,

"and the next day, when I went to work,

"one of the people that I worked with...

"I worked at Doncaster School for the Deaf,

"and the next morning my boss said, 'If you look in the papers here

"'you can see a photo of your son.

"'Here he is', and there's quite a lot of photos,

"so all the staff and the kids at the school were saying

"'I can't believe your son was there.'"

-"I've kept all the cuttings, yes."

-Brilliant, brilliant.

So these objects - it's still our history, it's recent history.

Anything, somehow, that Diana, Princess of Wales touches

has this fairy dust on it, almost,

and I'm absolutely certain that these will be

hugely treasured in the future.

It seems slightly crass to put a value on her funeral items,

but I know that they will have a value.

There are a lot of people out there who would love

to own these pieces, so I think let's say a figure of around

£250, £300 for these and I hope, in a way, they're not worth more.

Well, we've decided we'll keep them in the family.

We have a daughter we'd like them to be passed on to

-so they knew that we were there.

-Exactly.

-That's the important thing.

-Exactly, you were part of the day.

Absolutely.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

-"Thank you."

I think this is so beautiful.

It's the most beautiful sculpture, I love the serenity of it.

It's just sublime.

Now, the sculptor - do you know anything about him?

Pilkington Jackson, 1925.

Well, I didn't know anything about him.

I had the sculpture for some years

before I thought of looking at the back and seeing the signature there

and the date and, as far as I remember, I think I'm right in saying

he had something to do with the Wallace Memorial in Stirling.

I don't think he did the Wallace Memorial,

-as far as I know.

-No.

But I do know he did, in terms of monumental sculpture,

the Bruce at Bannockburn.

Maybe that's what I'm confusing it with.

That huge, wonderful sculpture which he did quite late in his life.

He only died in 1973.

-Oh, right.

-But what I find fascinating about this man,

apart from the sheer magical beauty of the sculpture,

he was somebody, and I always find it very poignant

when somebody like him served in, I think,

the artillery in the First World War

-and then served again in the Second World War.

-Wow.

And I find that particularly moving,

that somebody had to do that twice in their life.

In the inter-war period, he did a lot of war memorials,

so as a soldier, a fighting soldier,

he contributed towards the graves or the memorials of these men who died,

-which I think is incredibly poignant.

-Yes.

It's nothing to do with this sculpture,

but there's a serenity about this.

I know he did one sculpture called The Dawn in 1925.

Is she Dawn? Is she just waking up, revealing herself to the world?

-Well, she could be.

-She could be.

I didn't know anything about that at all,

and she's just been in the family for a long time

and I've always loved her.

In fact, I'm going to be precise and say she must be Dawn,

because I've only just noticed -

the sun.

-Oh, wow.

-This is the sun rising, this is Dawn.

She's waking up, the day is waking up.

Here she is, the beautiful new day, standing on the world.

There's a lot of meaning in this.

She's beautiful

-and she's valuable.

-Right.

What are we going to put on her for value?

Well, I don't have a clue, to be honest.

More than £10.

Well, you're just about the figure I was going to say,

but I was going to add three noughts.

Oh, wow.

-£10,000.

-Really?

-Definitely.

-Ooh...

Thank you.

Occasionally on the Roadshow, we come across

an absolute bombshell of a piece,

but I find small collectables, when they're really good,

just as exciting as something very spectacular

and you've brought along a collection

of very pretty Vesta cases,

or old match cases,

called Vesta cases after the Roman goddess Vesta,

who was always depicted by a burning fire.

But what started you off collecting these cases?

Well, I'm afraid it was my mother.

She collected some silver Vesta cases

and she gave them to me before she died

and then I decided I would just...

I didn't want to build up a big collection,

so I just decided I would go for a few really nice ones.

You've got a very good eye, because on the table here

we've got some really stunning ones.

The earliest Vesta cases appeared in about 1840,

but towards the end of the century they really took off

in all sorts of different shapes and forms

and the ones which are most sought after

are very much like the ones you've brought here, the enamelled ones.

So these two here are French ones,

late 19th century, enamelled on metal.

This one here, from what I can see,

appears to be unmarked but it symbolises the naughty '90s

with lots of naked ladies, very popular subject.

I suspect that could have been made in Vienna, possibly France,

but beautiful case.

But the real Rolls Royces of the collection

-are these three in front.

-Oh, I see.

Mainly because they're made by one great maker.

-Do you know who that is?

-Sampson Mordan?

That's the one. He started off by making propelling pencils

-in the 1820s.

-I see.

But the firm grew and grew and grew,

and he diversified in the 1870s and towards the end of the century,

they became probably the best company for making Vesta cases.

Now, let's have a look at this one in particular,

because the painting on this is absolutely superb.

Beautiful quality. Every Vesta case has to have a strike plate there.

They would have contained the old wax matches,

-not like the wooden ones we have today.

-OK.

It's got a typical lid which is sprung,

so it will actually spring shut

and it's marked on the front here SM & Co, Samson Mordan and Company,

and the date letter for 1898

and that was really the sort of golden period,

from about 1885 up to 1910.

Produced some fabulous cases like that.

Where did you get these from?

All over the place or in auctions or from dealers?

No, no, I used to work abroad and I had to come to London on business

once a year, at least once a year, and I would take the opportunity

each time of just wandering around the antique dealers

looking for the nicest enamel case I could find.

Can you remember, for example, what you might have paid for this one?

That was quite expensive, actually, and I know my wife is near at hand

and I shouldn't really say it, but I think it cost be about £1,200.

-Right.

-And that was about 1994.

-OK.

-That was the last one I bought out of these six.

And what about the one with the scene?

I think that cost me 240.

Well, I think it's probably time to just update those valuations a bit,

because I think that is well over £2,000 now.

This one is so beautifully painted, I think that's close on 2,000.

This one, I think you could probably add a nought

-on the price you paid for it.

-Really?

Yeah, it's incredibly rare and that's what the collectors want.

-They want the rarest.

-I see.

And that is amazingly rare,

and this is also a very good one worth over £1,000

and I think, if we add them all together,

we're approaching at least £8,000, what's on the table.

Fantastic.

-As far as we know, it's a Seven Ages of Man clock.

-Right.

-Might be Royal Doulton.

-Right.

-I inherited from my nanny in 1978.

-Yeah.

And we've had it on our mantelpiece

until we didn't have a mantelpiece

and, sadly, it's been in a box ever since.

-We had it repaired, so it does work.

-Yes.

And it's really a bit ugly, really.

My children didn't like it very much.

I think the back's prettier, but we'd like to know more about it

because we've never seen anything like it.

OK, now you think it's Royal Doulton.

Let's just clock that straight away, shall we?

Because there is the mark of the Doulton factory

and quite difficult to see,

but that looks like a date code for somewhere around the 1880s.

The whole text of the Seven Ages of Man

is from Shakespeare, it's from As You Like It.

Just take me through the seven ages of man.

Well, it starts with the birth, and growing up,

-going to school, I think this is the lovers here.

-Yep.

This is the scholar again.

Certainly the soldier by the time we get to the top.

He looks as though he's wounded here.

Well, that follows the Shakespeare very, very closely.

And, obviously, growing old

and, sadly, coming to a timely end, I suppose.

Yes, on the stretcher, he's off to the next stage.

Beautifully done by Doulton

and there the story might end,

-but there's something a little bit more to this.

-Oh, right.

We actually know who the artist is.

-Uh-huh.

-Have a look just there.

Oh, there's a little signature.

-There is a little monogram.

-Monogram, yes.

-And it says "GT".

-Oh.

George Tinworth -

very humble origins. He trains at the Lambeth School of Art,

he's talent spotted and Henry Doulton

puts him in a corner of the factory

and he says, "See what you can do,"

and he's there for the best part of, I think, 40 years

and all the Doulton that you see,

all of the arty Doulton, really stems from the success

that this man made of Doulton as an art factory.

-It's worth something to a Doulton collector.

-Yes.

It's worth something to a clock collector

and, in particular, it's worth something

to a George Tinworth collector.

But I like the back, and I think you perhaps should show the people this,

the other side, because it is quite pretty on the other side.

I think most people would prefer the other side.

-You prefer this side?

-Yes, personally.

All right, we'll value it for this side then.

This side, if we had nothing else,

-a clock like this... Let's say the clock was in there.

-Yes.

This would be worth in the region of

-£150-£250, OK?

-Yes, fine.

-Shall we leave it at that, then?

No, I certainly think it's probably worth more!

This...

..well, I think it's probably somewhere between £5,000 and £8,000.

Oh, no!

It came here on the bus.

Carefully wrapped.

Well, in the immortal words of Henry Sandon, "It can go back in a taxi"!

So the reason that I've dragged you here

in front of the camera this afternoon...

..with three Mickey Mouse watches

is because I've always, always loved that phrase,

"Oh, it's just a Mickey Mouse watch"

and years ago, when I used to work for an auction house

and someone brought in a watch and the joke was,

"Oh, it's OK, it's just a Mickey Mouse watch".

But nowadays, the joke is slightly on the other foot,

because they're just a little bit more revered than they used to be.

How did you come by these?

Well, I've had them for quite a while

and I think this one I got from my dad.

I think he had it years and years ago

and because I had that one,

the other two I've just kind of picked up on my travels,

car boot sales, and I can't really remember how much I paid for them.

It wouldn't be a lot because I never got

a lot of pocket money in those days.

-Because they're Mickey Mouse watches!

-Yeah, exactly.

But I just really liked them.

I liked the fact that they're different

and the wee centre seconds goes round

and I've got their boxes, which I think is really nice,

but apart from that, I can't really tell you much more about them,

although I think they're maybe 1930s. That's about it.

Well, I think you're spot on. They are 1930s,

but I think the point to note about them

-is that the manufacturing company is Ingersoll, you knew that.

-Yes.

Do you know anything about Ingersoll?

Well, I always thought they were a British company

and I always thought they made watches in Britain,

but I see that these are obviously Walt Disney

-and they've got "Made in USA" on them.

-That's right.

So I was a bit confused.

They've taken many turns in their history

but when they first started in the early '30s,

they had this contract with Disney

which proved to be very satisfactory,

and just how satisfactory, I'm going to ask you.

How many, do you think, how many wrist watches,

Mickey Mouse wrist watches, do you think they made?

Oh, millions, probably.

-Exactly, 30 million of them.

-Wow, wow.

-It is an extraordinary number.

-Yes.

And, of course, they made other Disney cartoon characters

and Goofy and so on, and so forth.

Give us a guess as to how much

you think they sold them for in the 1930s?

Well, because they probably were for kids at the time,

they wouldn't have been expensive. I've no idea.

Well, actually, they were reasonably expensive.

-They were about 3 each.

-Right.

-So they were quite expensive.

-Wow.

-Still, they're relatively cheap and cheerful watches.

-Yeah.

If we took one of these movements out,

they are cheap and cheerful, there's no question about it.

And the phrase "Mickey Mouse" which I used earlier,

most of these watches were used by children as their first watches

and most of them have been chucked out

and despite 30 million of them being made,

there are very few of them around, especially with their boxes.

-That's what we like to see, so you've done good.

-OK.

You've done very well. So let's put a value on these three watches.

Firstly, the wrist watch with its original box,

-and that's going to be worth around £150 to £200.

-OK.

-The simple pocket watch is worth between £300 and £400.

-OK.

And the pocket watch with the fob is worth around £500.

Wow, fantastic.

So, in total, if we put them all together,

we've got a figure approaching £1,000.

I'm absolutely delighted.

I'll pass them on to my wee boy

for him to treasure as well.

The skill of a goldsmith, the skill of a lapidar,

the skill of an enameller

is the same, whether they're making jewellery

or objets d'art and this beautiful box is just wonderful.

Now tell me, why did it catch your attention?

How did it catch your attention?

Well, it was actually on an online auction down in England

and I just thought there was something really unusual

about it being rock crystal,

because I don't really see so many of these sort of items like this.

So you look at auctions a lot online?

-Yes, it's a bit of a hobby.

-Really?

I like to see if I can get a nice little bargain now and then.

-Really?

-Yeah, I do.

And does it show you... Was it all bright and sparkly

and in 3D before you bought it?

-No, it wasn't at all.

-Did you see it?

I think they described it as just being glass, a glass box,

and I knew it had something unusual about it with the designs on it

and things like that, so I couldn't really see much of the silver.

I knew it was silver underneath.

I had a sneaky feeling it might be that,

so we actually polished it all

to reveal the beautiful enamel on the surface, all the lovely colours.

So how much did you pay for it?

I actually paid about £32.

-£32 for this!

-Yes, yes, so I thought at that price

it was something special.

-Special at £32?!

-Yes.

I suppose you can afford to take a chance at £32,

-that's what you thought.

-Yeah, yeah.

Well, this is rock crystal which is of the quartz family

and you can see the inclusions inside the stone.

They're natural inclusions, there are no bubbles.

If you saw bubbles then you would know it would be glass.

Now back in about 1850 in Vienna in Austria,

there were a group of goldsmiths who also did a lot of enamelling work,

-sort of in the Neo-Renaissance style.

-Uh-huh.

And this is in the Neo-Renaissance style...

-..and there's Viennese marks inside.

-Mmm...

-So this is dating this from about 1860-1870.

-Right, OK.

But there was one person...

..that was really the head of this -

Hermann Ratzersdorfer.

He was the leading enamellist in Vienna at the time,

and he did Neo-Renaissance work

and, in fact, he exhibited in the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.

Yes.

I'm just going to open the box now to see the detail of the carving

of this rock crystal. I mean, look at that.

It is superb, isn't it?

It is superb, and you can see the inclusions

in the rock crystal as well,

and you've got a different type of style of enamelling going round,

very, very reminiscent of the Renaissance style.

£32?

I just can't believe that.

If that was in the right auction...

..I think you're going to be looking at

between £4,000 and £6,000.

No.

Really?

Enjoy it and well done! Well done.

Choked me.

While we've been filming here today,

you may have noticed a sign in the back of some of our shots,

"There will be no miracles here", and wondered what that's all about.

Well, it's an installation by a Turner Prize nominee

and it's deliberately placed here in Edinburgh,

the City of Enlightenment,

and it's a message about the triumph

of reason and intellect over superstition

and hopefully we've applied some of our intellect

to some of the objects that we've seen today.

From Edinburgh and the Antiques Roadshow team,

until next time, bye-bye.