Scone Palace 1 Antiques Roadshow

In the year that Scotland decides on its potential independence,

what more fitting place to be than Scone Palace,

where the first Scottish Council sat over 1,000 years ago.

Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow, from Perth.

This is Moot Hill, in the grounds of Scone Palace.

And this is the legendary Stone of Scone.

Where exactly it comes from is a mystery,

but since the Ninth Century,

every monarch of Scotland has been seated upon it

for their coronation ceremony, including Robert the Bruce.

Except, this isn't the real stone, this is a copy.

The real stone - as all the guidebooks will tell you - is in Edinburgh.

But that's not what everyone believes.

After Edward I had conquered Scotland in 1296,

he ordered the stone be taken to Westminster Abbey.

There, it was placed into the Coronation Chair, upon which

every monarch of our nation has sat to be crowned ever since.

Of course, this isn't the real Coronation Chair -

the real Coronation Chair is in Westminster Abbey - but some

people believe that the stone in that chair isn't real either.

The story goes that when the Abbot of Scone heard Edward's men were coming, he had a copy made

and hid the actual stone somewhere in the palace grounds.

After all, it was one of the nation's most sacred objects.

If the story's true, it would mean that the stone that's been used

for generations of monarchs in the coronation ceremony, right up to

the present day with Queen Elizabeth II, that that stone is a copy.

And the story doesn't end there.

On Christmas morning, 1950, the stone was stolen

from Westminster Abbey by a group of Scottish students.

Four months later, it turned up at Arbroath Abbey

and, from there, it was returned to London.

So which is the real Stone of Scone?

Well, you'll never stop the rumours, but one thing's for sure,

this is probably the most contentious stone in Britain.

Out on the palace lawns, our experts are ready to take up

the quest of unearthing some treasures themselves.

And if you want to try your hand at valuing antiques, why not play along

via our app, or by pressing the red button on your remote control?

Best of luck.

The wonderful world of jewellery is always full of surprises.

Now, when I picked this out, the surprise on your face!

What did you think?

It's... I find it kind of hideous.

-Do you?

-I phoned Mum, and I said, "Mum, she picked the ugly one!"

JOANNA LAUGHS

Well, this is what's interesting,

-because you had, actually, a cameo and a diamond watch.

-Uh-huh.

And then you had this as well. Now, quite an eclectic...

Two very traditional pieces of jewellery, and then this.

So how did you acquire this? How did your mother get this?

Um, it was given to her by her godmother, who lived in Edinburgh.

And has she worn it? Have you seen your mother wear it?

-I've never seen her wear it.

-The ugly brooch.

-Yes!

Well, this is the beauty of jewellery, that we do tend to

think of jewellery being traditional,

with diamonds and silver

and the antique and gold, but there is a whole other

world of jewellery out there which I actually get very excited about.

And this is from the '60s.

After the war, jewellery wasn't really that exciting,

it was very traditional,

and then in the '60s, people were wanting to really break out.

They were breaking out everywhere else, in fashion and music,

but what hadn't happened was jewellery - it was left behind.

But there was one person that initiated innovative design

and creativity, and putting the creativity back into jewellery,

but he used stones in their natural way.

The '60s was all about being organic, going with the flow,

using rock crystals, not cutting stones to a traditional way.

So there was another person that was also of the same thought,

and he was called Charles de Temple.

Now, I'm going to turn it over...

..and you see this magic signature of Charles de Temple.

I got so excited when I saw that, I really did.

You know, he's quite an unknown jeweller of the '60s period,

but he had quite an exciting life.

He worked in very different areas of art.

He worked with Alexander Calder, the sculptor, Pierre Cardin,

with Paco Rabanne in the fashion world.

So these influences brought his designs into being something

very innovative and different, and this is one such piece.

It isn't about the intrinsic value there,

but do you see that he's used these topaz crystals, uncut crystals?

-Mmm, yes.

-And he's got two cultured pearls there,

and it's nine-carat gold. It was made in England.

It's quite stunning.

So, I mean, value...

In an auction at the moment,

I would say it's in the region of about £3,000.

LAUGHTER

-Wow! Mum said to me about 250.

-£250?

-Yes.

It's no longer an ugly brooch!

Oh, my goodness.

There are snuff bottles and there are snuff bottles.

You know, I think it's stunning work.

-I mean, what do you think about it?

-I think it's lovely.

And have you had it long?

Um, it belonged to my late husband's family.

I've had it for maybe about 20 years.

At the front of the bottle here -

I'm not sure which is the front and the back, the carving's so amazing -

there's a nobleman being served some food in a landscaped garden.

At the back of the bottle here,

we have a lady at her toilet,

being attended to. One of the attendants is holding a mirror

and another one's combing her hair.

Round the back of the figures,

there's detail, behind the figures,

and it's relief, but it's such high relief, it's amazing.

It's been polychromed, you know, it's been painted, as you can see.

-Yes.

-It's made of ivory. It's stunning, it really is.

It's one of the nicest I've ever seen.

It's a good size. Often, they can be dinky, tiny things,

but this one is very substantial and collectors love these.

-Do they?

-I mean, have you ever taken it anywhere to have it valued?

-No idea of its value?

-No, none.

Well, it's 19th Century,

and this is such a fine example of this relief carving.

It's got a little chip here and, of course, the lid of the snuff

-and the snuff spoon is missing.

-Yes.

-It would have had a domed lid, probably coral.

-Oh, right.

Coral and jet maybe, like a jet ring with a coral dome lid.

-That's missing, and that's a shame.

-Right.

-Some people

would probably value this at 800 to 1,200,

but I'm going to stick my neck out, and I think in the right auction,

to a collector that doesn't have an ivory bottle of this quality,

I think they could spend as much as £3,000 on this.

-Oh, my goodness!

-I really do.

-Oh, my goodness!

Coming to Scotland, the one thing I left at home this year -

-not expecting this wonderful day - was my sunhat.

-Oh, dear.

So when you turned up at my desk with this hatbox,

I thought, "Going to make my day," because you've brought me a sunhat.

-Very good.

-So, um, let's have a quick look.

If you'd just like to hold on to that.

Not a hat, but something that looks a bit like a hat.

-I think this is a hat maker's machine.

-Yes, I believe it is.

-How it works is that your customer would come in...

-Yeah.

..you would have very delicately placed this on your customer's head,

-something like that...

-Yeah.

-..and pressed it down.

-I won't do it now because it's quite delicate.

-That's right.

And all these little levers at the side would have moved out

to make an exact impression around your...where the

-brim of the hat would have gone.

-That's right, aye.

-And how did that get recorded?

-Well, as far as I understand,

the pins in this machine then formed the shape of the person's head

and these formed an impression on this piece of paper here,

and that was a way of recording somebody's head shape and size.

So I believe.

-But this is so beautifully made, isn't it?

-I know.

-I mean, it's not cheap and cheerful.

-No.

-It's made out of ebony, brass.

-Yeah.

-And all the little keys here are mother-of-pearl.

I know. It's amazingly complicated.

I think this was a first-class hatter, don't you?

I think it must have been.

It came from an old shop in Dundee that was being cleared out.

It was a gents' outfitters

and the people clearing out the cellar gave me a phone call, saying,

"There's something that you might be interested in."

-So I acquired it just recently, actually.

-Fantastic.

What I like about it also is that it has the name of the maker,

Allie Aine, of Paris.

And although you've got this miniature impression here,

how was that then transformed into the full-size hat?

-I see there's another piece in here.

-That's right.

So if we just take that out and ask you to put the lid back on...

So you've got this paper impression, which was in miniature.

-That's right.

-And then what happened?

Well, as I understand it, then they took this piece here,

and I suppose there were pins put in there,

and they would match the pinholes on the paper and then this would

then slide out and form a shape of the person's head exactly so.

-Clever stuff, wasn't it?

-Complicated stuff, yes.

But clever, so it made... It ensured that your hat was made to measure.

Yeah, absolutely made to measure and unique to that individual.

Well, I can tell you that this manufacturer patented this model

-in 1846.

-Oh, right, yeah.

-This was probably made a few years later, so 1850, mid-Victorian.

-OK.

I think it's a fantastic idea,

it's a wonderful contraption and quite rare.

-I'll tell you how much I paid, if you want.

-If you like.

-100 quid.

-You got the whole lot for 100 quid?

-Yes.

-Why wasn't I there?!

Well, I didn't really know what it was or what it was worth, so it was just a guess.

-But for £100, you're not going to lose.

-Well, that's what I felt.

-Yeah, well, I love it.

I mean, I think it's just a lovely piece of Victorian mechanism,

beautifully made, very high quality, top Paris maker.

I think at auction, you're talking between £600 to £800 now.

Well, that's not bad. I think I might sell it.

LAUGHTER

We've seen, inevitably, a lot of Monart come in today,

because it was made here and it's your glass. You know, it's really...

You can't get more Perth than Monart. So this is

a particularly nice one, and where did it come into your life?

Well, basically, it was my uncle's,

and when he died, I was his sole relative, really.

I had to clear the house and that was where we found it, 21 years ago,

and I was putting it to the charity.

OK, so why didn't you?

Because somebody told me it was Monart and my husband said,

"Well, no, we will keep it."

So the number-one rule

of recognising Monart is - turn it over.

And in the centre of the base, there is a unique... Over the years,

I worked out the other day that I've probably handled half a million

pieces of glass in my time, and the only ones ever that I've ever

handled that have this projecting mark there, pontil mark,

the raised pontil mark, only Monart,

in the history of world glass-making.

So if it's got that, then the chances are it's plain,

it's just polished off, and they put the paper sticker just on there.

That's how it was. This is known as the Cloisonne range.

Cloisonne is enamelling.

It means where little fields are filled in with colour,

and this reference to cloisonne are these little fields of colour here.

So it was a really a difficult one to make, and the orange

and the white field, they cooled at different temperatures

because they're different chemical properties, and they cracked.

-Right.

-So most of these were lost.

So they didn't make many of them because, really, it was a pain,

they proved a pain. They tried them, they didn't work very well.

About 1935, thereabouts.

So you've got a rare piece,

-so it's an extra pleasure that you didn't, you know, bin it.

-Yes.

And if you get the idea, what they do is, they dip it in the colour...

If you think of toffee apple, they put the orange...

-dipped the orange into some white glass.

-Uh-huh.

And then you blow it. It's like the creation of the world, you know,

all the continents parting from a single mass. That's what it's like.

And, as such, as a rare piece, even though these have probably lost almost half their value -

Monart as a genre has lost half its value over the last ten years -

this one, still, in auction, you selling it,

is between £600 and £700,

which makes it the most valuable piece of Monart I've seen today.

Well, I was offered 100 for it at the time, but...

No, that's excellent.

Gosh, it's been sitting in a cupboard!

Get it out. Give it some air.

Now, here's a very relaxed horse

after what I think must have been a pretty severe workout,

because we've got all the grooming materials here

and he's tucking into some

well-earned hay, by the looks of it.

And it's by John Emms, 1892.

-Was it your family's?

-Yes, it's a family picture.

My grandfather was a Royal Scots Grey.

He had an affiliation for any grey painted horse.

-It's a fine grey, isn't it?

-It is. Beautiful.

I mean, the thing about John Emms is, he was a superb horseman.

I mean, usually, you'd expect to see a few dogs around as well,

because he was very good at painting dogs.

They always have these extraordinary human characteristics about them.

But this horse does too. It's a splendid grey and it's...

There's a label on the back that says the grey's name is Champion.

-So that doesn't ring any bells with you in your family?

-It doesn't, no.

-So it's just a grey.

-Yeah.

Well, it's beautiful, and he understood the anatomy of a horse

so well, I think. You know, if you can imagine that he spent

some time in the abattoir - sorry about this - looking at dead horses,

I mean, it's the only way you understand about muscles and bones.

And then if you look at this horse, you can see that

every muscle - even though it's quite quickly painted -

is well understood, and this horse is superbly put together, I think.

Are you a horseman?

No, I'm not, but my wife used to be a pretty useful rider

when she was younger.

But I never tire of looking at this picture.

It's just so beautiful. The form, I think, is just...

-Yes, do you find it restful?

-It's almost alive.

Yeah, it is almost alive. He's got...

He uses a number of very clever visual tricks to do that, John Emms,

I've often noticed with him... I mean, it's almost photographic.

There's a sort of depth of field here.

The horse seems sharply in focus, but he's very cleverly just -

and really quickly - just painted the straw

and the hay around it, and this light that comes in across

this loose box, which presumably the horse is in, is well understood.

But the whole thing done with the utmost speed and brevity,

and only somebody who's completely confident of his anatomy

and of painting can do that, I think.

So, really, it's a very successful horse painting.

I don't suppose money is a thing that you've really concerned yourself with, but...

Because people love pictures, they just leave them on their walls for generations.

-I haven't got a clue how much it's worth at all.

-No, no.

Well, I would say between £3,000 and £5,000 at auction.

And, um, anyone would be glad to have it

and probably pay a bit more, especially somebody who liked greys.

-My daughter's already claimed it, I think.

-Children do that.

Looking at this face, I can almost hear my grandmother say,

"It's a face only a mother would love."

Is it something you love?

Yes, indeed. It's strange,

but I was most attracted to it.

So what's your connection to it?

Both my parents were Londoners and my maternal grandmother -

who lived in Kew, I think, at the time -

their family were friends with the Martins.

We had quite a lot in the family. When my mother died,

I certainly decided that's the one I was going to have.

-So from the family connection of Martinware, this is the one you chose?

-Indeed, yes.

Well, it is a lovely example.

It's a little imp playing a tambourine, and it's fully marked

on the back, as you'd expect, "RW Martin, London, Southall,"

and dated 1900, which is quite late in their time.

And Martin Brothers were a very well-known family of potters.

Robert Wallace Martin, who signed this,

is probably the man responsible for it.

And they made a small quantity of quite idiosyncratic pieces

which they're well-known for, as well as the ordinary vases.

But it's always these figures which are more interesting,

and they turn up from time to time.

But they are rare and they are special.

So, not that it's ever going to come on the market,

because I know you treasure it, if this did come onto the market today,

you would be looking to realise something like £3,000.

Really? Mm, lovely.

-So you picked all right.

-Thank you very much.

-It's a pleasure, look after him.

-Thank you.

Do you remember at the beginning of the programme,

I was telling you about the mystery of the Stone of Scone?

Well, we found out just last night that a member of our own crew -

Joe, here, who is our sound man - is connected to the Stone of Scone.

It was your father, wasn't it, Joe?

Yes, my father, John Manley, was a radiation X-ray specialist

with the Ministry of Defence, and his job was to build

the X-ray machine that you put your bag through at the airport.

-Oh, so it's all down to him?

-It's all his fault, yes.

Because it gave you the instant image,

rather than having to take the film and develop it.

But because of his knowledge of X-rays,

in July 1973, he was accompanied up to Westminster Abbey

by people from the Home Office and special policemen,

and he X-rayed the Stone of Scone

that sits under the Coronation Chair.

So they had to take it out from underneath the Coronation Chair,

take it to Poets' Corner, took five blasts to get an X-ray

strong enough to get through the stone...

-Because it's such a massive thing, isn't it?

-Yeah.

..and eventually produced an X-ray

which showed the three metal rods that are inside.

The three metal rods are believed to be inside

because when the students - those Scottish Nationalist students -

stole it in the 1950s, they broke it, didn't they?

They did. As they took it out, they dropped it and broke it,

and when they got to Scotland, it was repaired.

And these bolts were put inside to hold it together.

Because then there was a whole conspiracy theory -

I mean, there are so many surrounding the Stone of Scone -

that the stone that was then returned from the stonemasons

was not the original stone.

And what did your dad think?

Oh, he knew it was the real one, he had no doubts at all.

Very much a scientist. If there's an X-ray, it's the real thing.

How amazing. Well, there you are. Who'd have thought it?

-From within our own team...

-PEACOCK SQUAWKS

And the peacock thinks it's pretty amazing as well!

From within our own team,

a little bit more knowledge about the Stone of Scone.

Three pieces of Oriental porcelain.

Do they have a history?

Not that I know of. They've been

in the family for three generations.

Right. And was anything

said about them -

where they came from, what they were for?

They belonged to my grandmother.

The bowl was supposed to be a bleeding bowl.

I'll come to the bowl in a moment.

I want to start with these.

The shape, in China, is known as a "gu".

It's a shape that goes way back into the Bronze Age,

into the Shang and the Zhou dynasties, 2,000, 3,000 years BC.

And it's a shape that's survived all of those years.

For 5,000 years, the Chinese have been making this shape.

The decoration of these gu is in what is called

the green family of enamels - the famille verte, as it's known,

or at least was known from the 19th Century as famille verte.

These are transparent enamels painted onto

the surface of the glaze and they immediately suggest

the late 17th and the early 18th Century.

This was the prevalent colour pattern that the Chinese

painted all of their colourful porcelains at the time.

However, these are NOT late 17th Century, early 18th Century.

They are copies.

Oh. That's disappointing.

They are copies, made probably in the early to mid-19th Century,

but they have a decorative value.

Let's go to the bleeding bowl, as you know it.

There are three colours that immediately point us towards Japan -

the underglazed blue, the red and the gold.

Those three colours are the essential colours

in the Imari palette,

a colour palette which the Japanese started in the mid-1600s.

It became very, very popular in Europe.

This is not a Japanese shape, it's a European shape,

and so it was made in Japan for European consumption.

But actually, the elements are typically Japanese.

I particularly like this detail here.

-Look at this fellow here.

-Yes.

The little hare leaping across a stream.

And then the other motifs are just very stylised,

almost sort of fabric designs,

with a central design of a flower vase on a terrace.

I've always wondered why there were two holes in it.

Ah, the two holes here, because if you wanted to put this to one side

-when it had been used, you put it on the wall.

-Ah.

And you'd put a loop through here, a wire or a string loop,

and it would hang nice, nicely against the wall,

either backside facing forward or, more decoratively, that way.

Now, you called it a bleeding bowl.

Yes, it was always known in the family as a bleeding bowl.

These bowls were used by barbers as bleeding bowls. In fact,

they had two functions - one was to bleed a client who wasn't well.

One of his four humours was out of balance,

and so in order to relieve - or to get the balance back -

-you have to relieve a little blood from the vein.

-Yes.

But, of course, barbers did another job, as well as bleeding patients.

They did your shave in the mornings. So the gap for your bleeding arm

receiving the blood in the centre

-could equally well be used for your morning shave.

-Oh, yes.

If they could get it through your second chin.

-I'm finding it difficult!

-LAUGHTER

So these are multifunctional bowls for bleeding

or for trimming a beard.

And this dates from the early 1700s, so it's 300 years old.

These are early 19th-century, so much, much younger.

Value...

I think it's a rare object, it's in beautiful condition,

considering that it's tortured many clients over the years.

I think today, it's probably worth between £400 and £700.

As much as that?

So this is old and these are much, much younger,

these are basically copies.

But these, in today's market,

are probably worth between £3,000 and £5,000.

-Oh, my God!

-And...

And they've been sitting in the front hall!

LAUGHTER

-And that..

-They sit in my front window, by the front door,

for everybody to see.

-And now on television.

-Yes, I'll have to hide them!

I have to say, in the nicest possible way,

that that T-shirt looks like a snug fit.

LAUGHTER

Possibly because I haven't worn it for 32 years, probably,

something like that.

So, can I ask if you are a big Clash fan?

Massive Clash fan. I bought my first Clash LP

in Woolworths, in Perth.

As soon as I put the first track on, that was me hooked.

And there's not a day goes past without me playing a Clash record.

This, like, putting this T-shirt on

and thinking of the gig in Glasgow when I bought them,

the back of my neck is actually tingling, thinking about it.

And, as he's about to discover, one of these T-shirts is my brother's!

OK, well, we'll save...

-Maybe he'll be out when the Roadshow's shown...

-Yeah, hopefully.

..so he'll never know that you've actually stolen his T-shirt.

-That's right.

-And, you know, the thing is, your passion

and your enthusiasm is shared with so many people.

-I mean, The Clash are no more, but The Clash live on.

-That's right.

And, actually, what you're wearing -

and maybe your brother's, or maybe not your brother's T-shirt -

are exactly those iconic images.

You know, it was all about a new kind of design, it was all about,

you know, pushing the boundaries, it was about the bringing down

-the system, about waving things in people's faces.

-That's right.

It was about, you know, anarchy, let's face it.

They're rock history and they're design history

and they are made out of rubbish fabric.

They were not designed to last for 30 years, but they have.

And they have a value.

I've seen them going on the internet for about 300 apiece.

So, I mean, putting that into pound terms,

-let's say £450 for the two.

-Mm, yeah.

You know, they go, they go well,

so maybe before the programme is screened,

you could do a deal with your brother.

LAUGHTER

I'm looking at a box with a very, very famous symbol on it,

which takes me straight into wanting to know what's in it.

The Olympic symbol is so familiar.

-This can only contain a medal, can't it?

-Yes, that's right.

So there we are, two medals, so two for the price of one.

Well, the medal that should be in the box is this one here,

which has the German eagle and swastika and the Olympic rings.

Berlin, 1936.

Yes, it's dated 1936 and it comes from the 1936 Olympic Games.

And on the back, there is a commemoration for services rendered at the Games.

-The medal was given to my grandfather, Heinz Drecher...

-Yes.

..because he was an employee of Osram at the time, who provided

all the lighting for the Olympic Games.

Osram is a German company, or was at that point, formed in 1906,

and he gets that for being involved in the production values,

if you like, of the Olympics.

And it was terribly important that Germany should impress the world.

It wasn't just about making sure their athletes won, it was actually

about having the best spectacle, the best drama, the best lighting.

-Everything had to be better than anybody had ever seen.

-Yes.

And it was a very, very famous event.

Everything was done to make it completely memorable.

So the Germans were saying to the world, "Look, this is what we are,

"we've recovered from the First World War,

"we're now dominant in every area."

And, of course, technology was so important.

Osram has an interesting history.

The person in charge through the 1930s was actually Jewish,

and he survived, apparently, until the outbreak of war,

when he was booted out by the Germans.

So he may well have been there

-when your grandfather was doing the Olympics.

-Yes.

It's taken a long time for me to bring these things to anything

because of the connection with a very ugly history.

My grandparents were not Nazis - they were very frightened people

who were in a country that was run by them.

It's where you draw the boundaries. It's a very interesting story.

Equally, he fought on the First World War on the wrong side,

-as far as we're concerned.

-Yeah.

-We've got to move on from those worries.

-Sure.

-What's the other box?

These are ceramic medals, I suppose you would call them, although they

don't attach in any way, and they each have a swastika in the centre.

-Yes.

-And, like, a flag.

If I turn it over, I can see in the inscription

that these were made for another exhibition,

which was the German Colonial Exhibition held in Dresden in 1939.

That was one of a sequence of

colonial exhibitions through that period.

The French had one, we had Wembley in 1924.

And this, again, I suspect, was awarded to him

-because he probably did the lighting at that exhibition.

-Yeah.

What do you remember about him? Or did you ever know him?

I never actually met him. He died before I was born.

My father and my mother told me lots of stories about him

and I've got a wonderful collection of photographs of him,

so I feel as though I know him.

-Did he ever come to Britain?

-He never did, no.

-So there's no connection here.

-No.

-You are the connection, in effect.

-Yes, that's right.

-This is a totally German story.

-Yes.

So, you know, in a sense, why are we talking about it here in Scotland?

Well, my mother was a nurse with the Red Cross and she was in Austria

-at the time when the war ended...

-At the end of the war.

..the Second World War ended. And my father, who is still alive,

was in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

And the Argylls were temporarily disbanded,

-but there as a peacekeeping force.

-Yeah.

And they had quite a lot of time on their hands and they did things

-like put on stage shows for the local communities.

-And meet girls.

Yes, and my mother saw him on stage and fancied him and met him afterwards.

-And the rest is history.

-Exactly!

So it's a great sort of... You know, that component, you know,

love comes into it, occupation, all those things come into it.

So then it becomes a Scottish story from that moment on,

-and here you are.

-Yes, indeed.

Um, I think it's lovely because it sort of takes us into

that great drama of the spectacle of Nazi Germany

and all that it represented,

and he having no choice but to work for it, obviously.

-Yes.

-I think...because of the rarity of that particular medal,

we're looking at something like £1,000 or £2,000.

-My goodness. Really?

-Yes.

-Oh, good.

-They're rare things, but it's a great story.

-Oh, yes.

I love this sort of crossing of country boundaries,

-bringing it all together.

-Yes.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

So this wonderful architectural

and exotic bird cage

you've brought us in

today to look at,

what can you tell us about it?

Well, it came from Singapore...

Well, I bought it in the mid '60s in a place called Thieves' Market,

and it cost me about 25 Singapore dollars in those days.

I took it to an antique restorer and while it was there,

he phoned me up and he said,

"The American Ambassador's wife is here and she wants to buy it."

And I said, "I'm not selling it."

So she said, "I want it, I'm the American Ambassador's wife."

I said, "If you were the Queen of Sheba, I'm not going to sell it."

And that's the story, and it's been in the family ever since.

-Fantastic.

-You know...

I was told it was built for an emperor's birds

and the Chinese inscription is,

"A haven for my feathered friends." And it's said to be

a thousand pieces of bamboo, but we've never counted them, so...

I don't think we'll start today.

-No.

-We'd be here for a very, very long time.

We would be, we would be.

Well, you know, the Thieves' Market, of course,

is one of the longest running markets

on River Road in Singapore, dating back to the 1930s,

when a lot of the wealthy Europeans and Asians built decorative houses

within that sort of area and neighbourhood.

And, of course, the bird cage really, I think, you know -

early man's fascination with birds,

they've always realised that you actually have to cage them,

because they fly off or predators get them.

So bird cages have been around for a number of years.

I would have thought it's probably the sort of thing, to my eye,

that would have been mid 19th Century, 1850,

something like that, and if we look,

we can just sort of pull out the drawer here

and we can see that that's where all of the little droppings

would have been when taken out. It's quite well manufactured.

We identified earlier this lovely pair of palace-style doors,

and all of this gilt ornamented decoration and the carving

and, as you say, this inscription here. A great thing.

And very, as I said earlier, very architectural, with all these

little doors for the feed and the water and so on.

-And it's got this rather nice old painted surface on it.

-Yeah.

Which I really like, it's just been worn away, it's got great patina.

It's got good colour. And, in actual fact,

even the, you know, the gilding

is rather sympathetically faded,

which I think is all, you know, a good thing today. And I think

collectors, purists, want to see them in this type of condition.

It shows age, it shows it's been used,

it's been loved, and all of those things.

So if this came up for auction today, it would carry

a pre-sale estimate of between

£500 to £800, something like that.

Lovely, lovely. Well, that's great, that's absolutely great, thank you.

Well, when we first unpacked this item today,

we thought it might have been from a substance called

Britannia metal, but on closer examination,

it is solid silver, sterling silver.

Do you know much about it, or how it came into your possession?

Two years ago, before he died, my second cousin gave it to me.

He lived in Ely, was a bachelor.

Before the Second World War, he'd been a diplomat

and had been in the RAF.

-Right.

-During the Second War, he'd been shot down over Northern Italy

and had been a member of the Resistance,

and this was given to him by a good friend,

and the only good friend I remember him ever talking about was McDonald.

That's quite interesting,

because on the base, you've probably noticed the initials McD...

-Yeah.

-..which is presumably him, or refers to him.

But the curious thing is, it's not European silver,

it's actually made in America.

And it's made by a rather important American firm,

probably the leading silversmiths in America, they're called Gorham.

And it was the Gorham Manufacturing Company,

and they were based in Providence, Rhode Island.

So a very exclusive firm

and producing all sorts of very expensive wares.

And this is one of the things.

It's got this wonderful bark-textured handle,

three of them, and that's technically called

a loving cup, or a tig,

and the idea behind them would be that

at the end of a dinner, or a banquet,

you could pass it round and all imbibe from it, have a little drink.

Hence, it's got this gilt colour inside it, which is silver gilt.

Gorham started in about the 1820s, but this piece, I think,

was by a sculptor that they employed,

an Englishman called Thomas Pierpoint.

He worked for a London firm of silversmiths,

went out to work for Gorhams, and he did this sculptural quality,

quite monumental sized pieces of work, and the detail's just superb.

Not just the bark texturing on the handle,

but the roots, almost, of the tree.

We've got these pine cones and we've also got these fabulous pine trees

which are done by a process called acid etching.

We've also got a very pretty - amongst the trees -

there it is, almost like Uncle Tom's Cabin, isn't it?

-It is.

-Hidden away in the woodlands.

It's got quite a lot of value to it and we'll come to that in a second,

and the main reason being that American silver is very collectable.

-Right.

-This period is about 1880, we're going to say, circa.

It's got the quality of craftsmanship,

it's got desirability,

and that always commands a high price

if it ever comes on the market. From the point of view of valuation,

you'd be looking somewhere

in the region of £3,000 to £4,000.

Useful!

I think the proper thing would be to fill it up, wouldn't it?

-It would, shall we ask the Laird?

-Yes, why not?

Now, look at this explosion of colour - four pieces of chunky,

funky glass that could only be supplied by our glass guru,

Andy McConnell.

This is our Rogues' Gallery.

Three of these are made by Geoffrey Baxter,

in the 1960s, at the Whitefriars Glassworks.

They are much sought after, even though they're so recently made.

So sought after that they are sometimes faked.

And one of these is a little rogue in our gallery, but which is it?

Here's Andy McConnell with some clues.

This ruby piece is the hooped vase

and its textures remind me of Soviet brutalist concrete architecture,

but is it real Whitefriars?

The second piece is known to collectors as

the "mobile phone vase" - which obviously wasn't its name

when it was introduced in 1967 - but does it ring true?

Next up is the largest production piece that Whitefriars made,

in their most popular colour, but is it a tangerine dream?

Finally, this is the pineapple vase,

and it reminds me of a Second World War hand grenade.

It was a basic of the Whitefriars textured range,

but is it the real thing?

So, Andy, four pieces of glass and one of them is faked,

-even though they were only made 50-odd years ago.

-Yeah.

So they must be so desirable, if someone goes to that much trouble.

Yeah, I mean, you're talking about probably the most collected

range of British glassware from the 20th Century.

And there was an exhibition in '97-'98

where Whitefriars was presented at Manchester and London museums,

and it was like a lit detonator, Whitefriars just went mental,

and the greatest collector focus is on this stuff, which is '66-'68.

So Whitefriars Glassworks, then,

was where it was at in the '60s, was it?

Whitefriars was Britain's oldest glassworks.

It was off Fleet Street and it was moved into

a former Carmelite monastery, so they were the white friars.

-Oh, I see.

-So that's where they got their name.

But then they moved to Wealdstone in 1923 and when they closed

in 1980, they were Britain's longest established glassworks.

And these particular designers - Geoffrey Baxter being one of them -

were right at the forefront of design at the time, were they?

Yeah, he went to the Royal College in the early '50s,

came out as one of these phoenix people,

that Britain would rise from the ashes through good design.

And then in 1966, he went psychedelic - he did -

and look at this stuff. I mean, it's a beacon, original shapes,

original colours. And, boy, it was enormously popular.

This, in particular, was the sort of - I hate to say - iconic vase,

and the piece is now worth £800.

And what about the other values, then? I mean...

Not much, £100, £100, £180,

but still, there are some shapes being faked.

We don't want to blacken the whole group of Whitefriars textured glass

by saying they're all fakes, because they are very easy to clock.

-Let me tell you which one I thought. We all had a little chat about it.

-All right, OK.

-And everyone was going, "Blue, orange, green, red..."

-OK.

So the only thing I thought was, being all the glass is textured...

-It's called the textured range...

-Obviously, obviously.

I wondered about this one, it's like a piece of Lego, isn't it?

And the glass here was just much clearer

and I thought, maybe it's this one, I don't know.

-That one.

-You've given up?

-Yes, that one.

-Wrong!

-Oh.

You see, you were no help at all!

You've got to pick them up, you're not...

If I do this - look, look, look.

Now I need you to tell me, based on that...

Right.

-..which one's the wrong 'un.

-Oh, gosh.

If I get it wrong again, I'm going to feel like a complete plonker.

Right, that's a totally smooth disc, that's a totally smooth disc,

this is obviously not a totally smooth disc.

Oh, yes, this is smooth and this isn't,

-right, OK, so that's different.

-Got it, you got it!

It's really quite easy to suss it.

No help at all, is all I'm going to say!

Right, and also, it's got a "V" on here,

I didn't notice that was going to give it away.

-It's German for "vake"!

-LAUGHTER

So that is different, that is a polished pontil,

that's a polished pontil, polished pontil, and that isn't,

and really, that's not nearly as good.

-The top is really rubbish, actually.

-Is it? What's rubbish about it?

It's kind of wonky and they're not supposed to be that wonky.

But it's really the... The message lies in the soil,

or at least, the pontil mark.

So it's not like everybody's got to stop buying Whitefriars

because the whole area's become so dodgy,

because very, very few of the forms have been faked.

Right. Now you know what to look for - turn it over

and look at the mark on the bottom.

And there are tips on our website...

I hope you do better than I did!

Who is this chap sitting in the cockpit of this plane?

This is my great-grandfather, Graham Conacher Young.

-And all this material's to do with him?

-Yes.

How did you find it?

Well, my dad was the one who found it, he just let me look at it,

and I think it was amazing.

It was amongst your grandfather's effects?

-Yeah.

-You just sort of fell over it?

-Mmm.

-I mean, how lucky is that?

-Definitely.

-Do you know what sort of gun that is?

Would it be an early machine gun of some sort?

It's called a Lewis gun, and it was specifically made for aircraft use.

It has a big drum on the top

which held the best part of 100 cartridges.

The way that he would have used that - it's mounted over the wing.

It fires over the top of his propeller,

so it doesn't shoot the tip of his prop off.

-What was that little packet?

-Um, his medals came in here.

-Right.

-He got three medals.

-OK, do you want to show us them?

This one, he got for serving in Mesopotamia.

That's called the General Service Medal

and it was issued for smallish campaigns that people served in.

And it was from 1918 onwards,

so he must have been in there very, very late in the First World War.

-Yeah.

-And it says "Iraq", which is quite a current topic almost today,

-isn't it?

-Yeah.

This one, I think he got for serving in the Great War.

And do you know what that one's called?

Is it the General Service Medal?

No, that's the Victory Medal, and we know that it's victory

because there's a lady there with big wings, blowing a trumpet,

saying, "Ha-ha, we've won!"

So that's the Victory Medal, and what's the other one?

He got it for flying his plane, I think.

That always comes with the Victory Medal, and that's known as

the War Medal, and you always find those two together.

And we see a lot of those on Antiques Roadshow,

but yours are really special,

because those are to a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps,

which was the sort of beginning of the Air Force.

-Yeah.

-And in the year 2012,

that was the 100th anniversary that they set up

this Royal Flying Corps, because before that,

aviation had been managed separately

by the Army, which had detachments of balloons run by Royal Engineers,

or the Navy, which had its own planes.

But somebody thought - air is a really important strategic idea.

We're going to have one body that covers it

-and it's going to be called the Royal Flying Corps.

-Yeah.

And consequently, it wasn't very big, so a medal like those two

with Royal Flying Corps on it

makes them really very special. And together with that medal,

it gives that lovely sort of idea of his service.

-Yeah.

-This is an absolutely fantastic collection.

Have you done any sort of research about him?

I found the watch that he wore when he was flying,

and then we've got his log books here as well.

I think his log books will pay some very, very careful attention,

-if you go through those.

-Mm.

You've got plenty of school holidays! Go through those.

Of all this collection, those, I think, are the most important

bits about him, because they tell you what he did.

Have you ever thought about what it might be worth?

No, I think it's just a good family piece to have.

I don't think I'll ever sell it.

I think that's a very admirable attitude.

But I still think that you need to know what the market says

that these are worth, because if you had to go and buy this

at an auction, with all those fantastic log books,

the medals, the great pictures,

you'd be paying probably about £1,000 to £1,500,

-because it's just a fantastic collection.

-Yeah.

-I think it's great

that you keep this guy's memory alive, by this.

-Yeah.

-Congratulations, and thanks for bringing it.

Well, as a lover of really ancient books,

I can't tell you how excited I am

to get my hands on a book of such obvious antiquity.

It's clearly fantastically old, it's very charismatic.

I'm looking at it here on the table in its leather binding

with these tremendous locks on it. What is it?

It's called a Lockit book, a locked book, and it's a register

of all the members of the Guildry Incorporation of Perth.

Started in 1452.

The Guildry was an association of merchants and traders who controlled

trade in the borough and set trading standards, that kind of thing.

-So I'm looking at a 15th-Century book.

-15th Century, yeah.

And everything about the binding tells me that, in a way.

This wonderful dark leather is obviously characteristic,

but this tooling here is tremendous.

Very simple in its way, simple blind tooling, with these

crossed lines here, with some nice floral touches here and there.

This binding certainly dates from the very, very late

15th Century, perhaps into the 16th Century.

But you're telling me the actual contents of this book

-go back at least 14...

-1452 is the first entry, yes.

I don't know about you, but whenever I see a book with clasps

or locks on it, they almost ask you just to crack them open.

Is it OK to open them? I see one's already seen better days.

-Yes, yes.

-Let's have a look.

So, look at this, the very material from which the book

is made inside is also clearly medieval.

This, I think, is 15th-Century paper, and what paper it is!

Look at the thickness of that, it's absolutely tremendous.

In quality, it's really better than any modern paper I've seen.

Now, what about the content?

You can glean a lot of the history of the time from the entries.

The book also contains some very prominent autographs.

Notably, some Royal ones. Here we are, here.

That's really very exciting. I mean, for two pages of a book

to contain two signatures of such incredible import is amazing.

I mean, look, here we've got, this is James, 1601,

-this is James VI of Scotland.

-Yes.

Just a couple of years before he became James I of England.

Before the Union, yes, yeah.

And the good people of Perth managed to get a certain Charles -

this is 1650, so I'm assuming that's Charles II.

That's right, yes.

They managed to persuade him

-to sign his name on the opposite page to James VI.

-Yeah.

So this opening -

I mean, it's tremendous to see such important autographs in one book.

And I notice here, this brings us right up to date.

-That's right.

-You have Queen Elizabeth

and the Duke of Edinburgh, signing on the 6th July 2012.

-Now, you're from the Guildry Incorporation.

-That's right.

You're obviously in possession of something unique

and, of course, such a thing does have a value.

It's not only very old,

it's got some very important historical records in it.

It's got some tremendously important autographs in it.

And really, above all of that, it's just a very beautiful thing.

So I'm weighing up all these factors that we've talked about

-in my mind, and I'm adding in my head...

-Yeah.

..and I think I'm coming to a value

of £100,000.

HE GASPS

OK, right.

I'll have a word when I get back!

So a passion, clearly. Tell us all about it, share it with us.

Well, I started a passion, and this was the one

-that started it all off.

-Oh, and tell me why.

This was my father's, and it was presented to him

-on his 21st birthday, being 1923.

-And it's a beautiful case,

because with cigarette cases, it's important that they don't

show fingerprints, and this is what we call engine turning.

Which is actually not only decorative,

it has a function, in that you don't...

If it was polished metal, it would be like

touching a mirror all the time.

So the knack is to make the surface sort of different

so that one can't leave fingerprints all over it.

But equally, it's very decorative. It's wonderful, isn't it?

And the others, tell me about the others.

-Just collected on my travels.

-Fantastic, isn't it?

I'm going to follow you around, seeing this wonderful collection.

-Thank you.

-Wonderful, but there's one, of course, that my eye darts to

immediately, and it's the most beautiful case,

made of a green stone.

-And it's Siberian jade, nephrite.

-Wow.

Yeah, and it's an enormously chic object - in gold,

with a ruby clasp -

and it's a cigarette case. And cigarette smoking was

an absolute sort of epidemic in 1900, everybody did it.

And to elevate this rather terrible habit - now dangerous habit -

they would contain the cigarette in

the highest picture of luxury, really.

It's a very luxurious object, isn't it?

What do you know about it?

I just know that it's Russian and we bought it in an antique fair.

-Yes.

-And we thought - this is about three years ago - and we thought

that the Russian...all the artefacts were starting to come through.

-Yes.

-And we thought that it might be a bit of an investment.

Exactly how much did you pay for the case?

One and a half.

I think it was a great investment. Investment or not,

it's always going to be, you know, a most beautiful object.

Curiously enough, when Juliet first set eyes on Romeo, she said...

-Oh!

-..and it's a good claim,

and it's terribly relevant, you'll be surprised to hear -

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

And in a way you have, by default,

a Faberge cigarette case, but it isn't a Faberge cigarette case.

It's not one, but it has all the characteristics of it.

The lapidary work, paper-thin jade,

it has to be light for the pocket, it's got to be something useable.

And here, we can see the hallmarks for 56, which is 14-carat gold,

and the crossed sceptres for St Petersburg,

and the unidentified maker's mark here.

-I don't know who the maker is.

-Ah.

And frankly, I don't know that there's much hope of doing it.

If this were by Faberge, it would be worth £40,000.

-Sorry?

-£40,000.

Wow!

A paper-thin cigarette case in jade, by Faberge... But, um, sadly not.

No, never mind.

A tenth of the price, so maybe £4,000, but a joy forever.

Wow, that is wonderful, that is wonderful, thank you so much.

No, a pleasure, wonderful.

So it's a beautiful day in Scotland,

you thought you'd pop along to the Antiques Roadshow

-and you grabbed something last-minute?

-Yes, exactly.

And that was chosen at the very last minute to come here, yes.

So, in a china cabinet, in pride of place in the house, or...?

In a cardboard box, in the attic.

So it's quite old. It's older than you or I, made in the 1750s.

It's from the Chelsea factory, in London,

who were one of the first - if not the first - factory to make

porcelain in this country,

and the soft paste of Chelsea takes these flowers so beautifully.

And if you look at the colour of the flowers,

the free way that they're painted,

the way that only a very skilled artist can do,

and this, of course, this was a real object of desire,

and you've grabbed it from a cardboard box, last-minute.

Yes, my wife was going to use it for putting cakes on,

but thought it wasn't big enough, so it was never actually used.

Well, I'm glad it wasn't,

because if you go on a cake-to-plate ratio,

it would have to be quite a special cake to go on this,

because this plate's worth £800.

-Is that right?

-Yes.

So, perhaps... Shall I hold on to you while you recover?

You'd better, yes!

-It's the nicest piece of porcelain I've seen today.

-Thank you.

James McNeill Whistler.

-Yes.

-And there's his lovely little device that he invented,

-called the Whistler butterfly.

-Yes, that's right.

-Never see it anywhere else, do you?

-No.

-It's an etching.

-Yes.

Was it your family's?

No. I was given that as a wedding present.

Dare I ask how long ago?

Er... Well, yes, quite a long time ago, er...

-OK, we'll leave it at that.

-Yes.

OK, all right. But, I mean, you know,

these things were rare then, weren't they?

Yes, but I was working at Glasgow University,

cataloguing the Whistler letters...

-How extraordinary.

-..and it was fascinating.

Whistler made this etching, in about 1879-1880

when he went to Venice in order to try and recuperate

and do some work after this ghastly experience he'd had with Ruskin,

the famous critic, who had accused him of flinging a paint pot in

the public's face with his painting called "The Falling Rocket".

So Whistler sued him for libel, and won,

-but he only got a farthing's damages.

-Yes.

And it really did sort of dent him

and he was really downcast and his pictures weren't selling,

so the Fine Art Society - his dealers - sent him to Venice

to go and do some etchings,

and he was only supposed to go there for a few weeks,

but he took a year and a half.

He visited all the cafes, he knew all the boatmen, he would

drink with them, eat with them, and got himself thoroughly into

the life of Venice. I think that shows in his etchings, because that

is not an immediately recognisable Venetian view to most people, is it?

No, no, it's not.

Well, Whistler came back with 100 etchings and lots of paintings.

The Fine Art Society had an exhibition of his work

and it went incredibly well.

Over 40,000 paying visitors came to look at it,

and he came back triumphant. It was the launch of his career

-and, commercially, he never looked back.

-Yes.

Now, who was Whistler, and what makes him so important?

Well, first of all, he was American.

Second of all, he brought a breath of fresh air into English art.

But his famous painting of "The Little White Girl",

or even his portrait of his mother, have become icons in our time now.

You love it. It might be a valuable thing, do you think?

-I hope so.

-Oh, do you?

-Yes.

-Is it your retirement?

-No, I wouldn't sell it.

-No, no.

How much were they worth when you were given it, do you think?

Oh, £30 or £40, or something.

-That was quite a lot then, wasn't it?

-Yes, yes.

Well, if I said it was worth between £10,000 and £15,000 now...

My goodness, gosh!

I never thought it was as much as that.

Well, yes, you see, collectors are mad for them and they do have

this peculiar delicacy, and I think you can see it in this one.

-It's a very nice one.

-Thank you.

I'm absolutely speechless.

Where has this come from?

Oh, it's an old family piece

that was commissioned,

we think, for a wedding in 1838.

Presumably, it's unique, it has the family crest here.

So, 1838, that's the date on the...

-on the silver caddy here, is it?

-Yeah.

And BS for Benjamin Smith - even I know him, a well-known maker.

It's a tea caddy, it was clearly an important family piece.

-What is the family?

-We are the Cornwallis family.

Historically, we go back to

Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 1200s.

Then my ancestor was responsible for surrendering America in 1781,

which has always made us very popular over there.

And one of his children had this commissioned.

That's as much as I know, really.

So that was a wedding, 1838 is a wedding date, OK.

Well, I'm going to disappoint you - it's not 1838 at all.

It's George III, the 1780s, well, the outside is.

This is one of the most wonderful tea caddies

I've ever seen in my life.

It's the most extraordinary rectangular Bombay shape -

Bombay being this curved ogee shape - on all four sides,

with the most incredible marquetry.

Just take the front here, these lovely flowers, all hand-cut,

on what's called a harewood or sycamore ground.

This sort of fiddle back here, like the back of a violin.

It's the most expensive wood you could imagine.

On the sides and top, we've got a little bit of ivory,

little flowers, just to enliven it a little bit.

We're seeing it in its old, rather, shall we say,

sad, deteriorated condition. It's very faded.

When it was made originally, it would have been

very bright colours, and I think probably, we wouldn't like it.

I think it would have been far too bright, far too colourful and gaudy.

There's no doubt that the silver lid has been put in later,

perhaps to commemorate a marriage, that makes sense.

-Right.

-Let's look at the box itself.

Well, with time, I could probably find out exactly who made it,

but my initial reaction would be a firm, a London firm called

Mayhew and Ince, very important makers, the same time

as Thomas Chippendale, or slightly later than him.

I think Mayhew and Ince, with this wonderful marquetry.

When people recognise me on the Antiques Roadshow, they say,

"What's the best thing you've ever recorded?"

I've never really been sure -

I've come up with one or two wonderful things,

I've seen many wonderful things over the years.

This is, without doubt, the best piece I've ever seen

-on The Antiques Roadshow.

-Good Lord!

It appeals to me academically, aesthetically and historically.

Well, as an object with a crest,

dare I say £20,000 to £30,000?

Good Lord!

Hmm!

Thank you very much.

A glance at the time on this handbag tells me

it is about time to end the programme.

Look over my shoulder here -

the experts are just sitting around, exhausted.

We don't normally show you what it's like once the public

have started to leave, but we've had 2,500 visitors

to the programme today,

here at the Palace of Scone, in this glorious sunshine,

and everyone's feeling just a little worn.

So when I saw this handbag that was brought along by

one of our visitors, I couldn't resist having a little look at it.

One, it matches my outfit.

And two, looking at that watch tells me it's about time to go home.

So, from the Antiques Roadshow

and the team - what's left of it - bye-bye.