The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2 Antiques Roadshow

Galleries and museums often have to move as their collections grow,

as was the case in 1980

when the Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art moved here,

just a mile across the city in Edinburgh.

Somehow, though, I doubt they'll ever move this giant artwork

if they ever have to relocate again.

Welcome to a return visit of the Antiques Roadshow from Edinburgh.

Just across the road from the landscape by Charles Jencks

is our venue for today's show,

which houses many of Scotland's contemporary artworks.

When the gallery opened in 1999

as the Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art,

much of it was given over to a permanent

exhibition of Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.

Now, you might not know it from his name,

but he is Scotland's most acclaimed sculptor

and a favourite of many of our experts.

Born in Edinburgh in 1924, his parents were Italian immigrants

who ran an ice cream parlour in the city.

Paolozzi went on to become renowned worldwide

for his large, mechanical sculptures.

Like this behemoth of steel - Vulcan the Roman god of fire,

welded in the furnace and especially created for this gallery.

This isn't Paolozzi's studio, but it's pretty close.

It's a recreation of it with his permission,

specially for the gallery, and it gives you an idea

of how he worked and the kind of environment he worked in -

full of models and clutter,

and, in fact, his real studio was even messier than this.

Using anything he could lay his hands on,

junk he'd found, old toys, Paolozzi developed a new style of sculpture.

It wasn't in sculpture that Paolozzi first came to fame.

He took the imagery of consumerism and made it into art,

and, as such, he's credited with inventing pop art.

Take this collage, for example - "I was a rich man's plaything."

It's one of a series that's accepted

as the first examples of pop art back in 1947.

Paolozzi gave Scotland a real claim to fame long before artists

like Andy Warhol or Lichtenstein made their names with pop art.

And, who knows, maybe some of his artworks will show up today.

Outside, we've got plenty of Scottish visitors

to keep our experts busy.

And, remember, you can test your antiques knowledge

with our valuation game.

Just press the red button on your remote control

or via our app on your smartphone or tablet.

I think this bowl would brighten anybody's day.

You obviously love it.

It's absolutely gorgeous. I mean, you couldn't get a better...

We've got honeysuckle, we've got blackberries, butterflies,

it is absolutely beautifully painted,

and then we turn around the outside and we see it's a punch bowl

and here it is with a French inscription -

"La vie est breve, un peu d'espoir, un peu de reve, bonsoir."

Which in English means,

"Life is short, a little hope, a little dream, good night."

Oh, lovely.

So, as you're having your punch, having a sip,

you could make a little toast,

and it's decorated with this amazing bough of flowers in the middle,

and on the back we've got the mark here, "DW" and "Leaf".

Dolly Watson, Leaf was her personal mark,

and Dolly Watson was the sister-in-law of Elizabeth Amour

who had the Bough Pottery in Edinburgh.

But Dolly worked on her own and the little 18 there is for 1918

and I have to say this is the finest piece of her work I've seen.

How did it come into your family?

Well, we bought it in an antique shop in Edinburgh

about 15 years ago, and the people who sold it to us

didn't really know terribly much about it, you know?

So, we've had it all these years,

and that's more or less all I can tell you.

Well, you are obviously a lady of taste because you picked

a really good example, you could not... When collectors are looking

for something, they're always looking for the best example.

This is one of the best pieces I've ever seen.

It's a classic piece of Scottish Arts and Crafts pottery,

and I know that you're not going to sell it

because you bought it as a present,

but, if this did come up for auction,

I think £800 to £1,000.

Really? Yeah.

Because it's just super, super quality,

and, you know, who wouldn't want to have that?

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

-Look after it and love it.

-Will do.

I'm looking at a little leather-bound sketchbook

and I see on the front page here it says,

"The Reverend. E. Hicks", are you a relation of Reverend E. Hicks?

Unfortunately not.

I came across it about a year ago at a vintage fair and, like,

some person had it in his hand before me

and I was just, "Wow, that's just pretty beautiful."

So I was just... Luckily, I got it for like £15.

Fantastic, you got it.

And it says here,

"Thirty thousand miles and smaller sketches on the Greater Britain,"

and overleaf it says,

"A child's paint box were all the tools available,"

and so these little sketches were made

-with really very rudimentary materials.

-Yeah, yeah.

And the Reverend Hicks, he leaves from England.

Now, he says that he's on the Greater Britain.

I wonder if he actually meant the Great Britain.

And the Great Britain was the ship that was doing the Australia run.

Oh, right, yeah, yeah.

You know, the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel ship was doing that run

after the gold was found in Australia in 1851.

That was doing backwards and forwards like a shuttle,

so it could be the Great Britain.

So he goes, it says, list is here -

"Spain, Africa, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia,"

and then on back through Syria, Egypt, Spain and home.

I mean, I just love the man's sense of humour.

For instance you're going... You're starting on the journey and you hit

a completely blank page which says, "Fog".

THEY CHUCKLE

But it gets better, because you turn the page

and there's another completely blank page,

and it says "Fog continues."

Quite conceptual there.

-He was way ahead of his...

-Conceptualism before...

-Before the term was coined. He was way ahead of his time.

-Way ahead.

So, the Reverend Hicks, there he was,

he was going through all the usual places,

but, for me, the journey actually starts to get interesting

when he lands in Australia, and you start looking at these places.

I just love these boats.

Yes, exactly, he obviously did a tour on the Murray River.

And these trees are just...

Exactly, the boat is dwarfed by the Eucalypts there.

And I just want to find some named places.

Swan Hill, well that's on the Murray.

And there's this wonderful view of Swan Hill with, what,

-half a dozen houses.

-Mm.

I haven't yet been to Swan Hill, but I can assure you...

-Probably densely populated.

-Densely populated.

Here's a station, Albemarle Station -

and, of course, by stations we mean the large pasture holdings

were called stations, and some of them were the size of Wales.

-Wonderful.

-Just the colours, as well, are so... Still so vibrant.

Well, two things. You know, the fact that it's in its original journal

is wonderful, so it's been kept locked tight,

-but also it hasn't got damp.

-Mm.

And here he is driving into Ballarat in his pony and trap.

Well, Ballarat was the big gold town. I know Ballarat well.

-Oh, really?

-Full of really impressive,

high, Victorian buildings.

And then the journey is over all too soon and back through Gibraltar.

So, a really remarkable document.

I mean, there are two things that I really love there -

if one can say that it is the Great Britain that he was on,

-which I think is the most likely.

-Yeah, possibly, yeah.

And these views of Australia,

unknown views of Australia at that time,

it actually begins to look quite interesting.

Now, when that man put it down

-and you grabbed it on the antiques stall...

-Yeah.

..I wonder if you ever thought

-that that might be worth £5,000.

-No way! Really?

Oh, my God.

Is this a relative?

No, we were in the queue together.

That's crazy, yeah, 5,000... What? That's incredible.

-But that is because of Australia.

-Really?

These are unknown scenes of Australia and, let me tell you,

Australia is hungry, hungry, hungry to buy back its history.

Wow, that's amazing.

You know, these are really quite auspicious things.

Do you have any sons?

-I have a son.

-You have one son.

-I have one son.

-Is he here?

-Yes, he is.

-Where?

-He's there, that one in the blue shirt.

-That one?

Fantastic, because these figures here are...

They represent the wish to have many sons.

-Really?

-They do, they do. I'll tell you about that,

but, tell me, how did you get them?

Well, they were handed down to my father from his uncle,

and my great uncle was out in China, and I believe brought them home.

-When was he there? Do you know?

-Well, he was there around 1900.

-Ah, that's the time of the Boxer Rising, isn't it?

-That's correct.

The Boxer Rebellion when the Chinese wanted to basically boot out

all the foreigners, and I don't blame them, actually.

-So, that was 1900.

-1900.

So, you think they came out of China then?

Well, that's what I assume, but whether that's true or not,

I don't know.

-I think it's unlikely.

-Oh.

The reason for that is much of the loot that was removed from China...

-Yes.

-..by Westerners in 1900

were Imperial works of art from the palaces.

These particular figures, they're quite a lot older than that,

-they're 100 years older.

-Really?

These date from around about 1800, maybe 1790-1800.

-Goodness me.

-And these were made not for the Imperial court,

but these were made specifically for the export market,

so these were actually made for people like you and me,

-200 years ago.

-Yes, how interesting.

-Let's have a little look at them. This figure here.

-Yes.

This one here is holding a funny thing there. Do you know what it is?

-No.

-It's actually a sort of curious Chinese flute, or mouth organ,

and I think it's called a shong, and it has a specific meaning,

which represents giving birth, and this figure here is holding an ingot,

-and it's supposed to be a brush or a pen.

-Yes.

That represents the wish for attaining high achievement

and high rank in the exams,

so the idea of these figures is to have many sons who achieve high rank.

-Now, what does your son do?

-He works in the computer business.

-Well, you can't get much higher than that.

-No!

Well, I think that's pretty damn impressive.

-But only one, you see, you know.

-Well, I'm sorry about that.

Well, I only have one son as well so it's much the same.

I think it's a bit late to do anything about it.

THEY LAUGH

Anyway, anyway, they're just really lovely things to see and...

They're end of the 18th century, made for the export market,

they have a value.

At auction today,

-it's probably in the region of £500 or £600.

-Goodness me.

Well, I am surprised and very, very happy

to have heard the history behind them.

This is the most spectacular piece of royal, commemorative ware

-I've ever seen.

-Goodness.

-Tell me how you got it.

Well, I inherited it. My great grandmother apparently won it

in a raffle and really beyond that I don't know much.

Well, it's obviously from the Golden Jubilee of Victoria's reign, 1887.

-Yes.

-You've got the lion and the unicorn,

you've got all these things that were very significant to the Victorians

all on this quilt and the public were absolutely obsessed

with this jubilee so there was all sorts of commemoratives produced.

But this is a phenomenal piece of commemorative ware.

-I mean, it's obviously professionally produced.

-Yes.

A lot of quilts are actually done at home,

but this is a professional piece.

It would have been very expensive in its day.

This is a very, very expensive thing to win.

It's got these fabulous Stevengraphs, which are embroideries on silk,

and they're usually used as bookmarks or framed in little pictures,

but I've never seen them on a quilt,

and of course there's a lot of tartan used on this,

probably because of Victoria's absolute love of Scotland.

I think this is a really special piece.

What do you do with it?

Well, I'm afraid I keep it in a drawer,

and that's why the colours are so very bright,

and bring it out and show it to friends from time to time.

It's absolutely immaculate.

I mean, when we talk about condition,

this is absolutely fantastic, mint condition,

just exactly as it was in 1887.

-Yes.

-Which is amazing.

So, most Victorian quilts these days are between £100 and £200,

they've really gone out of fashion,

as with many things Victorian, but this is not that quilt.

This is a very special quilt with these very rare Stevengraphs on it,

and I would say this is easily £1,000 to £1,500.

Right, right, yes. Goodness.

Now, every now and then, working on the Roadshow, you get a real treat.

Now, we're often asked what do we collect?

And the answer is always "We don't."

We see so much stuff, why should you want to collect it?

But really the only thing I try not to collect but do

are commemorative medals.

I think they're wonderful things, because they're out there,

they've been made for a very long time,

actually since the Renaissance,

to commemorate great events and great people,

but they're accessible and they're often great sculpture.

Now I'm looking here at...

In a sense, I'm going the other way round

cos you made medals, didn't you?

Well, we're still doing that, yes, from a long time ago.

Tell me about it.

Well, I think James Kirkwood came down from Perth to cut...

engrave banknotes for an Edinburgh merchant banker

and his grandsons, Alexander and Robert, went their own way,

left their grandfather and went to work -

one as a map engraver, celestial globes and that sort of thing,

and Alexander founded our business in 1826.

OK, so they start in 1826 here in Edinburgh as medal makers.

Now, this, of course, is a great period.

Now, let's get this straight - we're not talking gallantry medals,

we're not talking anything like that.

This is about the production of what I would regard

as portable sculpture, and they were made for special events,

they were made for special occasions, centenaries,

great people, and they were seriously collected through the 19th century

on the basis as I see them - as great pieces of small sculpture.

-Yeah.

-The designers were often sculptors.

But, of course, there's two elements in it.

I'm holding one, which I think is absolutely terrific,

-which is about the 700 years of the Mayors of London.

-That's right.

-1189 to 1889.

-Yes.

So, you've got the design for that great event

and then, of course, you've got to make it, and that's your skill.

-Mm.

-You're still in the business.

We're still working, yeah. Shouldn't be.

But there's still a demand for medals, is there?

Yes, fortunately. It's a small business.

-I mean, let's look at a few more.

-Mm.

I think we need some help in opening this cabinet.

-Yeah, it's heavy.

-Great, thank you very much.

That's great.

Now, this is a display cabinet for presumably exhibition use

-or showroom use.

-Yes, it was specially made

-for the Edinburgh Exhibition of 1886.

-Here we have it.

-Yeah.

Here's the cabinet, there was the exhibition.

What did people who visited buy?

-They bought, as a souvenir, the medal.

-Maybe.

And am I right in saying they were made sometimes in bronze,

-sometimes in silver, sometimes in gold?

-Yes, yes.

We tend to have all the precious metal ones in the showcase.

But, yes, these are bronze and struck in copper.

Struck in copper. And how many would you make for an average medal?

Well, we'll make one or we'll make whatever the university

or the sporting organisation wants,

but we're more in the line of making small quantities.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Let's look at, you know, something I hardly dare touch.

This is the Livingstone Medal and this was introduced in 1901.

-It's about exploration really, isn't it?

-It is.

And it could be a great explorer, it could be something associated

with exploration and there have been great winners from 1901 onwards.

-Oh, terrific.

-Tell me who.

Well, I don't know, I mean, Sir Edmund Hillary,

Peary, Scott of the Antarctic.

-Amundsen.

-Shackleton, Amundsen. A wonderful list of...

-But it's not just Antarctic, it's exploration generally.

-Correct.

-Hence the Livingstone Medal.

-Yes.

Now, what I'm looking at here, this is a solid lump of 22-carat gold.

-It is.

-Now, it's my job to know things about gold.

I know the weight of gold and what it's worth today.

-This is very heavy.

-It is.

What am I holding? Thousands of pounds, aren't I?

I think two days ago it was worth £4,400 in scrap.

Scrap. Well, as it's scrap, I can have it in my pocket, can't I?

I haven't got this one in my collection.

Really? I'll get you a bronze one.

Thank you! It's actually a very great image,

it's a wonderful piece of 19th century sculpture,

by a Scottish sculptor, the flying angel,

all that detail is there and the sense of travel -

-there's an African scene at the bottom.

-Yes.

OK, values. I mean what we're looking at, disregarding Livingstone, is...

I haven't counted, but let us say there are 50, 60 medals here.

Yes, yes.

-Well, it's 50 times 50, you know.

-Could well be.

-Which is £2,000 or £3,000.

-Well, yeah.

But that to me is terribly cheap for what, by and large,

are wonderful things,

but I'm so pleased to meet someone who actually makes them.

I've not done that before.

-No, well, we're still doing it. I love it.

-Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, very kind of you.

Well, it looks like Fiona's question has been answered.

At the beginning of the show, she wondered, looking of course

at the replication of Eduardo Paolozzi's studio inside the museum

behind us, whether we'd see any pieces by him,

and here we have a plaster cast of a three-legged toad,

-and a rather warty one at that!

-Yes.

By Eduardo Paolozzi.

He's fun and he's called Puchan.

-So how did you come to get him?

-Well, I administered

the first Edinburgh International Science Festival in 1988

and Eduardo Paolozzi was designing a poster for us.

I wanted to bring art into the science festival,

and I met him at an art gallery,

and he wandered over, shambled over, big man, huge hands.

-He was a huge man.

-Yes!

-Big, thick set features, wasn't he?

Absolutely. And he'd obviously met me before and he said,

"Rosalind, do you like frogs?"

And I said, "I do, as a matter of fact, the inanimate variety."

And he said, "When you're in London, I would like to give you a frog."

And I thought "Oh, yes, that's what he says to people,

-"because he's such a famous gentleman."

-Absolutely.

And he gave me his card and he must have known that I wouldn't phone,

I'd be too shy to phone, so he phoned me the next day.

And I said, "I meant it, about the frog."

So we duly met in a restaurant in London and I saw him approaching,

shambling along with Puchan and plonked on the table.

Meantime, I gave him a book about frogs,

and I thought, "Gosh, it seems quite a humble gift,"

and Paolozzi's eyes welled up and he said to me,

"Nobody gives me anything."

And when I looked underneath, he'd inscribed it to me.

-May I have a look?

-Yes, please do.

-And there it is.

-Yes.

-"Puchan, for Rosalind, Eduardo."

-Yes.

I suppose that's very true,

when you're sort of a great artist like that, or a great personality,

people expect just a little chip off the block to be given to you -

-a little personal memento.

-Absolutely.

-He was incredibly generous in that way.

-Yes.

So I suppose that even adds more resonance to the fact

-that you gave him something.

-Yes.

-Because he was expected to do it, and he did do it, all the time.

-He did.

And, interestingly, they're normally always signed in pencil

-and often dedicated as well.

-Yes.

So he was quite keen on making that gift very special for the recipient,

-for you in this instance.

-Yes, it means a great deal to me

and I miss him.

We sort of associate Paolozzi's style with sort of mechanical forms almost

and you'll see sort of Star Wars and Return of the Jedi boxes

and there's an Action Man, or some form of Action Man,

with an arm pulled off and a sort of cybernetic type arm on it.

And he was interested in pop culture, a lot of people call it pop art.

-Absolutely.

-And bringing things from different cultures and for modernity

-and sort of combining them altogether.

-Mm.

But he was also fascinated in the grotesque

-and you've got a three-legged, warty toad here.

-Mm.

And other cultures come in, because the three-legged toad

in Chinese mythology is often a sign of greed, apparently.

I think it visited houses

just before something good might happen with money.

So you've got quite a lot of Paolozzi going on here.

Because of that you can sort of expect quite a high value

for something like this.

I mean, have you considered that, or is it just that wonderful memory?

It's the wonderful memory.

In 2010, a very similar example to this,

equally signed and dedicated, this time to a gentleman,

fetched £360 at auction in London, so they're very, very affordable things.

I still believe it's way, way too cheap.

I mean, for me, something like this should be £1,000 or so,

but maybe that's some time in the future.

At the moment,

I'd put a valuation somewhere between sort of £350 and £450.

Right, thank you, yes.

But, emotionally, it's just wonderful to me.

UNINTELLIGIBLE

We're all saying, "Wow!"

It's about this time of day that I could really do with a cup of tea.

I'm not sure this is going to do it, though.

Tell me about this tea, it's a sample of rare tea.

This is part of the gift of tea that the Emperor of China

sent to George IV to mark his coronation, so 1820.

It's all tied up with long leaves with beautiful silk thread.

Now, the interesting thing about this is that it was presented

to an Edinburgh medical professor in 1822.

Now, that was the year that George IV made his great state visit

to Edinburgh, he brought the court up

and there were all sorts of goings on.

-And that's when George IV wore tartan.

-Absolutely.

-And it had been a criminal offence for Scots to wear plaid.

-Yes.

And he was saying, "Look, we are one nation,

"you can wear tartan with pride and I'm going to wear tartan."

-There's a wonderful painting of him in his tartan.

-There is.

This was all orchestrated by Walter Scott,

who was the master of ceremonies for the whole visit,

so this was given in 1822.

And probably the reason that Dr Andrew Duncan Junior

got access to the king and his tea merchant,

who presumably brought tea to drink,

was because his father was the king's physician.

-I see.

-And that's quite a good connection, you can work on that.

And the fascinating thing is - this is just a sample of the tea,

and this was a time when tea was so precious

and nations were trying to curry favour with China in order to

get good trade relations, so they could import tea,

the sort of years of the Cutty Sark and all that kind of thing.

This is towards the end of the period

when China was still open to the Western world.

Not long after this, it closed down.

I was talking to our experts about this,

and, at the time, this would have been so valuable,

-tea of this kind of rarity from the Emperor of China himself.

-Oh, yes.

I mean, these days, about £300 to £500,

but that's still a significant sum,

-given that you've just got little, tiny bits of tea in there.

-Yeah.

And given that valuation, tempted now to break open,

-make yourself a brew?

-Absolutely not.

Well, I'm very excited,

not only to see some work by Stanley Cursiter,

but also to meet his granddaughter.

And what a wonderful grandfather you have.

Can you tell me a little bit about your life with Mr Cursiter?

Well, um, he was slightly distant as a grandfather.

I don't think he liked children very much.

THEY LAUGH

-Oh.

-And my father was in the Diplomatic Service

so we were abroad a lot, but when we came home,

we always went to Orkney and stayed with him, and we were usually

banished to the garden. But he did read The Hobbit to my sister.

I wasn't allowed, I was considered too young.

Well, what a great book. Well, I think, you know,

-he is such an important figure in Scottish art history.

-Yes.

I mean, he was Keeper of the Pictures

-in the National Portrait Gallery here in Edinburgh.

-Yes.

He was also, I think, Director of the National Gallery.

National Gallery, yes.

And he also had a little bit of influence on this

building behind us.

Yes, I believe so and I don't really know the history behind that, but

I know that he was very keen for a modern art gallery to be established

in Scotland and he was one of the first to put the idea forward.

Amazing. Well, well done. How did he have time for painting?

I mean, here we have three very diverse works by Stanley Cursiter.

Well, he's probably best known for his portraiture and his Orkney

landscapes, and maybe also for his group of seven futurist paintings.

These futurist paintings, all done in 1913, incredibly exciting.

-Yes, yes.

-And I think that was almost the zenith of his artistic

career because these seem to be more... I think he was working

-so hard to establish his reputation in the museum...

-Yes.

-..that these seem to be more part of his recreational life.

-Yes, yes.

I mean, I love this beach scene.

I assume it's somewhere here in Scotland rather than...

Yes, it is, yes. It's the beach at Ayr, yes.

And I love... As a watercolour, it's just so beautifully done.

And if you look very closely, he's left, sort of, blank paper here.

-Yes.

-Which is so clever.

But he's just conjured up the bath robes I should say,

so beautifully, but doing nothing basically.

And then we have, below, this rather nice landscape,

-which I assume is in the Orkneys.

-It is, it is the Orkneys.

Ah, OK, where he was born and retired to.

-Where he was born, and retired to, that's right.

-Yeah, OK.

-And it was in a folder marked "To burn..."

-Oh, no.

-..when I cleared out his house.

-In his handwriting?

-Yes.

Really? So he didn't like it, I assume.

Well, it's hard to say, I think

it was a sketch maybe for a bigger painting and the folder had

quite a number, which we sort of distributed around the family.

You didn't carry out his instructions?

-We didn't carry out his instructions.

-Oh, well done, you.

Right, well done, and then the third picture, which is an oil painting.

-Yes.

-Unsigned...

-I know.

..by Cursiter but, I mean, again, very different style.

-Yes.

-And then a bowl.

-And the bowl, yes.

I know absolutely nothing about this. Can you help me?

Well, the bowl's in the painting, and really that's about all

I know about it as well, except that it was...

-It was a prop.

-It must have been, and he obviously liked it

-because it was in his house.

-And you haven't got the vase?

And I haven't got the vase, just...disappeared.

Values, I mean, you probably know that Stanley Cursiter is

a pretty desirable item, as I said,

-because he's so important in the history of Scottish art.

-Yes.

So I would say this sort of watercolour,

which was going to be burnt, is worth, I don't know,

-mid-hundreds, 300 to 500, that sort of price.

-OK, mm.

I love this, it's so simple, so beautiful.

I'm going to say about the same, maybe a smidgeon more, 400 to 600.

-Right.

-But I think this is also incredibly nice.

You know, still life's always very commercial, it's bright,

-it's easy but it isn't signed.

-No, I know.

Which I think you'll find...but it's got the perfect provenance

so no-one's going to...

And it's got the bowl, not that that's part of it.

I would say that was probably in the region of £3,000 to £5,000.

-Right.

-So if we add them all together,

we're probably looking at roughly £4,000 to £6,000.

-Right, OK. Of course I'll never sell them.

-Quite right.

Well, growing up for me, Sunday nights was spent watching one

-fantastic programme, that was Poirot.

-Oh, yes.

And I can imagine a backdrop and a set

with this wonderful horse right in the middle of his drawing room.

-So, it is Deco, is it?

-Tell me a little about it from your side.

Well, I know nothing about it, I just fell in love with it,

when I saw it in an antiques auction about 40 years ago.

I bought it for very little money and I've loved it ever since,

-but I don't know anything about it.

-What did you pay for it?

-£10.

-£10, 40 years ago.

-Yes.

You asked, "Is it Art Deco?" Absolutely.

-This is a piece of high 1930s Art Deco style.

-Right.

In terms of what it's made of, when you look at it from a distance,

you perceive this to be a polished bronze. It's plaster.

-Is it plaster? Right.

-This is a cast plaster figure.

It's quite heavy. I didn't realise plaster would be that heavy.

Oh, no, absolutely, there's a good volume

and there's a good size of object here.

It's then had a patinated treatment to make it look like bronze.

And in fact there are areas, sort of here on its hind quarters,

you can see where it's just starting to patinate away.

Yes, I was rather hoping you'd be able to tell me

how I could make it black again, because that disappoints me.

I loved it when it was all black.

Don't do anything, do not do a thing,

because everything about the colour, everything about the form,

-is all about its history and what it is.

-Right.

So don't touch it.

Because it will just keep getting better with age. Who's it by?

-You shrug your shoulders.

-No idea.

-I don't know either.

-Right.

And that's because we've got to look at an object that falls from a bed

of designers who are now relatively...

Well, they've gone unknown. They are just making

-and manufacturing things that absolutely express the era.

-Yes.

The only little thing we do have is a registration code

-located round the back.

-Yes.

But even that doesn't really tell us anything, to be honest.

You don't even know what country it was made in, or anything like that?

-I would suggest that it's probably home grown.

-Right.

It feels like a piece that would have been made in the British Isles.

-I just feel like it's got this very home grown feel about it.

-Right.

But the fact that it is so pure, and the fact that it so elegant,

I think doesn't harm the fact of its value.

I think people will want to own this because of what it is.

They can't have it.

Well, you say they can't have it, you've then got to think,

what would it be worth? You paid £10 40 years ago.

Today, I think if you offered this to someone who is passionate

about this area of interior design, and this area of collecting,

and said to them, it's £500, I don't think they'd bat an eyelid.

Right. Oh, well.

-It's a lovely thing.

-I love it.

The splendid portico behind us and the windows are reflected

here in this fabulous object, my favourite object of the day.

A little Palladian treasure with its oval dome

and its columns in front. And it's just a thing of beauty.

How long have you known it for?

It was bought by my parents in 1950, which is before I was born.

As we were growing up, it was kept in the drawing room

where the four of us children were not allowed to be.

I think mostly because of this.

We had a bashed up dolls' house elsewhere in the house.

So this was a kind of present my parents gave themselves.

We'd been to Amsterdam, to the Rijksmuseum

and seen Dutch puppenhausen - or however they're pronounced -

and we always thought that it was a puppenhaus -

whatever the singular is - because it was never for playing with.

It once had a few fittings inside that have vanished.

And when my parents died, I of us four was the only one interested in

inheriting it, extraordinarily, so it's been mine for about ten years.

I'm so envious. It is a wonderful object to look at.

Forget anything else about it, it is just a spectacular object.

And it's sort of appropriate. Here we are in Georgian Edinburgh.

I mean, it's not quite Newtown but, you know, it's very grand

and of the period in style.

And let's explain what a puppenhaus - or in English terms,

a baby house was called. And you're absolutely right -

it was not about children, it was about displaying precious objects,

miniature precious objects in a room setting.

It's made of pear wood and it has a tin plate dome,

glass in the windows, and inside we've got a simulated tiled

floor on that side, but it's this, the grand oval room, which I love.

-I'm going to take the front off...

-Yes.

..so that we can enjoy the view.

So, inside - isn't this lovely?

And I can see what you mean about the fittings,

because originally, in there, would have been a lovely fireplace.

But you still have what is pretending to be an inlaid wooden floor.

-Yes, yes.

-Let's talk about when it was made, and where.

Have you done any research?

My parents bought it at Stowlangtoft Hall in Suffolk in 1950.

Stowlangtoft Hall is very close to Ickworth.

And this does have huge similarities to the architecture of Ickworth,

-particularly, I mean only because of its oval dome.

-Yes.

I want you to travel further. I want you to travel further east.

-Because I don't think this is English.

-Ah, goodness.

I think, if you think about Biedermeier-style furniture,

doesn't this just sing to you of that period?

To me, I have to confess it doesn't. But I'm a Georgian nut.

Well, to me it shouts Continental,

it shouts the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

-This is not a sort of English floor, if you think about it.

-No.

So my feeling is that it's not going to be 18th century.

-I think it was made in the 19th century.

-Ah.

-And I think it was Continental.

-Goodness.

But, actually, it doesn't matter.

Because it is such a beautiful object.

And I'm absolutely certain that you would start at £10,000 for this

and you would go up, and it would be whatever anybody was prepared

-to pay for it, but starting at ten.

-Goodness, how fascinating.

But it's a wonderful object and thank you so much for bringing it.

Thank you for telling me what you've told me.

It's my husband's father's and it was in a drawer

and I thought, I'll bring it in to let you see it.

-And that's it?

-Yes, that's it.

-That's all you know about it?

-Mm-hmm.

I think it's over to me to tell you a little bit about it, then.

Yes, that would be lovely.

Rolex were founded in 1910 by a man called Hans Wilsdorf.

He was a very clever man for grabbing certain moments.

And in - I think 1926 - his company Rolex discovered a way to

make a wrist watch waterproof. They called it the Oyster,

very cleverly, it's a fantastic, catchy name.

And then in 1927, they persuaded a German lady called Mercedes Gleich

- who was about to swim the British Channel -

to wear one of their Rolex Oyster wrist watches.

-Oh, that's interesting.

-She swam the Channel successfully,

the watch worked at the end of it, and they advertised it

all over the world and their revenue went from zero to hero.

It was a magnificent piece of marketing.

The second little feature that we ought to discuss

about your wrist watch is that it has what's called a bubble back.

Which, when we look at it,

it has this strange protuberance at the back.

And most wrist watches have a flat back.

But Rolex invented an automatic winding system which worked better

than any other maker. And because it was a large rotor arm that worked

on the back of the movement, they had to extend the back of the case.

Now they were a bit frightened that this actually would put

people off buying it, but what it did was,

-it made their watches into a cult watch.

-Oh.

Your watch has the combination of being an Oyster, so it's waterproof.

Well, that's good.

-A bubble back, so it's self winding, and it hasn't been restored.

-No.

Which is actually the main thing, because when you have a wrist watch

that's been restored, collectors aren't so interested in it.

But when you've got one that's literally been found

in the sock drawer, and hasn't been touched since the day it was made,

it's a bit more exciting. So let's cut to the chase, as they say.

Yes, please. SHE LAUGHS

Gosh, I hope I'm not going to disappoint you.

At auction, a collector will pay between £3,000 and £4,000.

Oh, never! Wow!

Somebody offered me... What did they offer me for that?

-500.

-500 for it, and I wouldn't sell it.

-Thank goodness for that.

-I know. Thank goodness for that.

Well, when I saw you with what is a very humble toffee tin,

full of what looks like treasures, I thought, you know, you could have

perhaps brought these along today in something a little bit more special.

Where did you get these fantastic looking boxes?

Well, I was left them by an elderly gentleman that my mum

used to keep an eye on in Tain, many, many years ago.

And he gave them to my mum saying, "These were for Denise."

Wow, let me just pop a few out.

This is quintessentially Scottish and, of course, it's a snuff mole.

And that's what people took before the mass addiction to cigarettes.

It's made of horn and the Scots have always been

brilliant at working horn into unusual shapes and carving it.

And, of course, in this case, they've put a lovely little curve on

the horn, they've got silver mounts to it, it has a stone on top.

Now, this is supposed to be a cairngorm -

that was the traditional stone for the top of the snuff box - or mole -

-but this is a foil-backed piece of glass.

-Oh.

So it's a little bit down-market, but it was a gift to

a Mr Gair in 1862, so it's lovely to be able to pitch the date bang on.

And, of course, that's where you put your snuff.

And it's a gorgeous, tactile, and sensible shape.

And, of course, they were sort of status symbols for the Scots,

you know, "Look at my snuff mole and would you like a pinch?"

You know, it's a great thing.

There's another one, again made of horn,

more simple in its shape somehow, or a little bit less curved.

But have you noticed, if you turn it that way, Nessie.

Nessie.

What's more Scottish than the Loch Ness monster?

I'm sure it's not specifically supposed to be the Loch Ness monster

but there was a little bit of a fashion for putting animal heads

at the end of the tip of the horn, and so Scottish with it.

-And there's also a little silver inlaid crown.

-Yes.

Just showing that it was meant for somebody of, you know,

quite high status, so this is a few ranks above that one.

But what else is there?

Well, look, we'll stay on the subject of horn because this -

what looked nothing at the bottom of the box there -

is also made of horn but it's in the shape of Napoleon's hat.

But it just opens, and again it's for snuff.

So the Scots were taking snuff,

and so were the French, and those incredible campaigns that

were led by Napoleon, and, in this case, it's actually commemorating

-the battles that Napoleon foolishly undertook in Russia...

-Oh.

..in about 1812.

It actually says in French, "Napoleon a Moscow."

Excuse my French.

But, there he is, standing full length, arms folded,

with his grande armee in the background.

-That's quite a rarity. Shall we look for more?

-Indeed.

This little box here...

Wow, look at that little swivel lid.

This is for a wax taper. This is a form of candle and

it's named after the French for candle - it's called a bougie box.

And that little lid, just the little hinged lid there,

opens to reveal a little aperture.

And, of course, inside here you would have a coiled wax taper.

And, of course, you fed it through the hole.

It was very portable and when you were finished, you could

then slice the head off the burning taper and get a good night's sleep.

But what is really glorious about what is a totally plain piece,

is when you turn it over, it's got the most gorgeous

inscription of the period. It says "Bath," so it's quite a long

way from Scotland, and it says, "Ye 1st May, 1744."

So this was made during the reign of George II.

It's quite possibly London-made,

but I've been over it with the eye glass, over and over,

and there's no marks I can find, but it's a good one.

And they're quite rare things.

I mean, I'm going to have to start to put values on these things.

Back to the first snuff mole, it's a fairly common or garden one

worth between £150 and £200 at auction.

We move swiftly to the Nessie one, which, because the animal head is

particularly sought after, and this is 1830-1840,

-so £400 would not be untoward for that one.

-Gosh.

Boney's hat, complete with a little carved cockade on the side,

-have you ever noticed?

-Oh, no, I hadn't.

Little cockade there. I think that's worth £300 to £400.

And the bougie gets the crowning individual value

-of about £600 to £900 at auction.

-My goodness. My goodness.

-So, you know, it's mounted up.

-Yes, indeed.

And then a swift waft of my hand over the others, you've got two

good silver boxes there, a nice late 18th century shell-form snuff box.

Overall, we're looking at between £2,000 and £2,500.

Oh, a pleasant, lovely surprise.

That's excellent, thank you very much.

Well, as most boys know, Lionel Messi is the world's greatest footballer.

He plays for Barcelona and he has won the Golden Boot for the highest

scorer in the world for the last five years, and he's just IT.

What not a lot of people know is he's this small.

CROWD LAUGH

Are you Lionel?

He's a shorty but it comes as a huge surprise to work out

that he's only 12-and-a-half inches tall.

And here we have, "Barcelona, I am Lionel Messi."

And there he is, and he's been very quiet today.

So, how does he arrive in your life?

Well, he's actually my brother's and my step-mother, her father,

stored a lot of things up his loft. After he died,

we kind of went through it all, and because my brother loves football,

we passed this to my brother, so that's all I know about it.

Oh, it's a winning item.

I mean, the fact is that on the back here we find out that

when Barcelona bought Messi, they got him for four pesetas, which is

pretty good going, because if Barcelona were to sell Lionel Messi

this season, he'd go for 100 million quid, which makes

this the highest valuation on the history of the Antiques Roadshow.

CROWD LAUGH

Oh, that's good. I'll need to tell him that then. He'll be pleased.

# I'm letting in the sunshine

# It's shining everywhere

# I'm letting in the sunshine

# For both of us to share

# I'm opening the windows

# For summer's in the air

# I'm letting in the sunshine

# For both of us to share... #

Where's Fiona? I've got to show this to someone.

Fiona, Fiona, Fiona. Look, look, look, look...

-Hello. Oh, A Negus.

-Who's that?

What, Arthur Negus?

I mean, his family were cabinet makers, he was a cabinet maker.

Does it belong...did it belong to him? We'll never know.

So what, someone has brought this along today?

Yes, a very nice plane - it's just so exciting, Arthur Negus,

-and there it is again, yes.

-It says here, it says it there.

So would, if this was Arthur Negus', would cabinet makers

customarily inscribe their names on their tools?

Very much so. They were very expensive tools and they handed

them down from one generation to another, but it's just so exciting.

-I mean, he might have used this.

-I've met his daughter

and now maybe I've met something belonging to the man himself.

So someone just brought this along today

and we think it could have belonged to Arthur Negus.

-Why not? It's a bit of Antiques Road show history, I think.

-Great.

The extraordinary thing about Japanese cloisonne is

that the Japanese didn't start making it until about 1860-1870.

Goodness.

And between 1860 and 1900, they reached the absolute peak

of perfection of anybody who ever made cloisonne.

And they produced pieces like this. Is this part of a collection?

Yes, a small one, mainly vases, a rose bowl and a cigarette case.

How come?

My father spent most of his adult life in the Far East,

-and he collected a few items.

-And that was when?

-Between the wars.

-And was he mainly based in Japan?

No, no, no, no, no, he travelled - China, Japan, Suez,

and points in between. He was in the Merchant Navy so...

And he brought back really rather good pieces,

I mean, to judge by this. Cloisonne is a wonderful material.

Especially in the hands of the Japanese, the detail is just stunning

and it all starts with a drawing on paper which is approved by

the production manager,

they say, "Yeah, let's make that in production."

And that's why the designs, they wrap round the pieces so beautifully.

You can see it is a watercolour.

And then the wire workers get to work.

You lay in the wires and then the wires are filled with enamel.

The very final process is the polishing off,

a subtraction process, and this is highly relevant to this particular

piece because in perfect condition this is worth £1,000.

In this condition...

-..maybe £100.

-Oh, really? Oh.

One day somebody's going to discover a really clever way of

repairing cloisonne enamel and a box like this - who knows - might rise

in value again, but at the moment it's almost impossible to restore.

Shame, but there you are.

What did you do with the frame?

-Well, there was no frame to it.

-Why no frame?

It was found by our son in a skip and there was no frame.

He saw it in the skip, it was still there the next day

so he decided to remove it from the skip.

So, it must have been a nice dry day, luckily.

Yes, it was, yeah, yeah.

So when he pulled it out of the skip,

do you think he thought that he'd got himself a find or did he...?

Well, no, I think he just was attracted to the painting as it was.

Very sensible, very sensible. Do you like it?

I like it, yes.

I think it's a fantastic picture. It's by a man called Charles Dixon.

-Yes.

-Who, as far as I can tell, must have got stuck in the Pool of London

and pretty much had a stack of paper the same shape,

because his pictures are always slightly long panoramas

of the Pool of London.

And he managed to capture the wonderfully busy atmosphere

of the Pool at that time.

I think it's particularly interesting to think,

-how were these... If you've been to London, the Thames runs fast.

-Yes.

How are you going to manoeuvre these things around with oars?

And, of course, he's waiting for the tide to change.

As the tide changes, there's a sort of slack water for a short period,

and at that moment they can scurry about. And I think he's

captured that moment as the tide changes absolutely brilliantly.

-He has, yes.

-And he's using both watercolour and body colour,

so you can see the white on the surface, he's laid onto the surface.

Whereas the watercolour has been absorbed by the paper, and there's

rather more body colour in his later work than there was earlier on.

And when he found it in a skip,

do you suppose he had any idea that it might be worth anything?

Because it appeared to be an original,

and given it was 1920 and signed, I think he had

a sort of an inkling that it might be worth something.

So he dumped it on us.

-And ran.

-And ran, yes.

I know, well, they do that to you.

Well, I'm sure he loves you dearly. If you were to sell this at auction,

it would make somewhere between £3,000 and £5,000.

Well, I will have some of it, in that case, definitely.

You know, this actually was made for somebody really quite special,

and what it tells me is,

really, you should come from a line of high achievers.

-Really?

-Really.

-I think my parents wouldn't agree with you,

-but I've had a happy life.

-Well, I want to hear about that,

but the large Buddhist lion dog together with a small

Buddhist lion dog actually represent the wish for high achievement.

-Oh, OK.

-So it does have a very specific meaning.

-Oh, right.

-Where did you get it?

It's actually my father's and he got in Japan in 1955.

My father was invited to accompany a gentleman on a cruise to Japan.

He was sent as the man's basic companion

and he was looking out for him, because he was an heir to

a baronetcy and he was a little bit light fingered.

And the gentleman was also gay at a time when it was illegal to be gay.

So what had happened was, when he was released from Saughton Prison...

-Sorry, which?

-Saughton Prison in Edinburgh.

For soliciting in about 1954-55, his aunt,

who was incredibly wealthy, decided the best thing for the whole

family would be if he just went off on a trip as far away as they could

send him, so they sent him on a round-the-world ticket to Indonesia.

-Mm-hmm.

-And they needed somebody to go with him,

to make sure that he stayed out of trouble, so my father said,

"OK, well, I'll go with him and look after him."

And he ended up in Singapore where he actually lost him off the ship.

He disappeared off the ship.

So my father was stranded in Singapore,

going, "Where has he gone?"

And there was another ship leaving to go to Japan, to Tokyo, so my

father went on that ship while the police looked for this gentleman.

I think my father was quite glad to get rid of him for a while.

And so he ended up in Tokyo on his own.

He did a little bit of collecting because he likes antiques,

and that's the only thing I know is where that came from.

Well, I don't know where to begin now. I mean, after all of that.

What would you like to know?

Well, I'd like to know basically as much as you can tell me

because I know obviously it's a Fo dog.

And I would have thought it was from China, which is why I'm

surprised he found it in Japan, but I don't know anything else about it.

-Well, it's a piece of Chinese nephrite jade, it is Chinese.

-OK.

And nowadays it would be called a pearl celadon, or white jade.

It's not actually really a white jade, but it's a nice colour,

very, very desirable colour, and this would have been carved

-somewhere towards the end of the 18th century.

-Oh, OK.

-So it dates from round, what, 1780. Maybe as late as 1800.

-Oh, right.

But the end of the reign of the Emperor Qianlong,

the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Jiaqing.

It really was very much a high point in jade carvings.

Huge numbers were produced, of a very high quality.

That's what it looks like.

SHE LAUGHS

-Right.

-Finding out whether it's a genuine piece or not

is a much more difficult thing, it takes an awful lot of experience.

A lot of it's to do with the stone used.

-You see these brown markings here?

-Mm, right, right.

-This is a good sign.

-Oh, it is?

-It is a good sign.

It's not that it's been cracked?

Something you can't ever tell from a photograph,

and probably not from a camera,

the surface polish is something that modern replicas just can't produce.

I mean, this has been hand polished, the surface, and the machine

polishings, the modern pieces, they just never manage to achieve it.

So it is an old jade, it's 200 years old,

or a bit more than that. As I said at the beginning,

this one does represent something in particular.

-It's a Buddhist lion dog, or Dog of Fo.

-Right, right.

And Fo is another name for Buddha, so it's a Dog of Fo,

or a Buddhistic lion dog.

-A brocade ball usually accompanies the male actually.

-Right.

And the female is usually accompanied by the puppy but...

So which is it?

But when they're together here, they have this particular meaning.

Oh, right.

And so it would be a gift for somebody wanting to achieve

excellence and high attainment in their careers and their prospects.

So it's Chinese jade and let's put him down there for a moment.

He's got a bit of his ribbon missing here at the back,

which is a bit of a problem. But he's a nice thing.

And he's got a value, I suppose.

And he'd certainly cover a decent night out in Edinburgh, I think.

I don't know, how are your night outs like?

-Well, um...

-How racy are you?

Actually, I've got one tonight, come to think of it.

I'll let you know.

-Well, he'd cover your costs I reckon, up to maybe £8,000.

-Really?

SHE LAUGHS

That's wonderful, but I love him. Everyone says this,

but I really love him, I do and I'm delighted.

Well, thank you very much, that's amazing.

-And I'm thrilled actually, I'm thrilled.

-I loved your story.

We saw this three-legged toad by Eduardo Paolozzi

earlier in the programme, and quite the thing it is, too.

And do you remember we were having a little look round

Eduardo Paolozzi's studio back in the gallery there?

I couldn't help but wonder, amongst all the clutter,

and the maquettes, and the moulds, and the plaster casts in there,

if the mould for this little chappy is inside.

So I'm going to go and have a look.

From the Antiques Roadshow team from Edinburgh,

until next time, bye-bye.