The Royal Ballet School, Richmond 2 Antiques Roadshow

Today we're making a return visit to White Lodge,

a former royal residence.

Amongst those who've lived here, our current Queen.

It's listed on her birth certificate as her home address

as her parents were living here when she was born.

So it's a royal welcome to the Antiques Roadshow

from Richmond in Surrey.

White Lodge in Richmond Park

was commissioned as a hunting lodge for George I in 1727,

and became a firm favourite with the royals for generations after.

It's only 12 miles from the centre of London,

but it's tucked away discreetly, with some stories to tell.

Queen Victoria despatched the party-loving Prince of Wales here

to study, away from the distractions of the capital,

and then years later he realised that its low profile was just what

he needed when he was looking for somewhere to install his mistress,

Emma Harper.

And during the Second World War, an American widow leased the lodge

and it was used by her son and other US military officers.

In fact, there's still a room here called Billiards from that time.

But it's believed that all that was actually a front

for undercover American Intelligence Operations.

For the last 60 years, White Lodge has been filled with the sound

of children and music as it's home to the Royal Ballet Lower School.

The ballet school, originally founded in the 1920s,

was the inspiration of Dame Ninette de Valois,

an Irish-born ballerina who danced with the Ballet Russe.

She also created The Royal Ballet

and Birmingham Royal Ballet Companies.

When she was young, there was no real British ballet tradition,

and the only performing ballet was by French or Russian troupes.

Establishing British ballet became her life's work and legacy.

The Royal Ballet went on to forge its national

and international reputation thanks to one of its pupils.

Peggy Hookham joined the Ballet School seven years after it opened.

It was immediately apparent there was something special about her.

She changed her name to Margot Fonteyn, and the rest is history.

She became the most famous British ballerina of all time.

And these are her tiny ballet shoes.

You can see where she's rubbed away the end from dancing on pointes.

And this is her costume from Swan Lake.

Today it's our Roadshow experts who will be kept on their toes,

as our visitors arrive.

Don't forget, to play along with our valuation game,

just press red on your remote control,

or go to the Roadshow app on your computer or on your smartphone.

Good luck.

Ooh now, what have we got here?

-Oh, how pretty. A lovely pair of cuff links.

-Mm-hm.

How did you get hold of these?

-These actually belonged to my husband.

-Mm-hm.

He was given them by his American godmother when he was a little boy.

-Ah.

-And he thought, "Ugh, I'm not going to wear those",

so his mother wore it for many, many years and then his mum passed away,

came back to him and he said, again, "I'm not going to wear those",

but from my mother-in-law's notes we knew that they were Tiffany,

so she said.

And also they were supposed to be sapphires of four different colours,

which is intriguing to us, so we thought we might see what they are.

-They have got the signature of Tiffany & Co on them.

-OK.

So they are by Tiffany,

and yes, you're absolutely right,

they are four different colours of sapphire.

-Oh, are they? Oh good, yes.

-Yes, they are.

Of course, the most times we think of sapphire, it's blue.

-One colour, yes.

-One colour blue, there it is.

They are also the same family, of course, as rubies,

-so you end up getting pink sapphires as well.

-Ah, OK.

-And we've got a little pink sapphire in there too.

-Yes, yes.

-We've also got a white sapphire.

-That's right, yes.

Which I have to say is sometimes used in jewellery to try

-and imitate diamond.

-Ah, OK, right.

-And then we've got a green sapphire, all the way over there.

-Yes, yes.

Now they're all chemical compositions of aluminium oxide,

but it's all down to trace elements that help to colour the sapphire

in different ways.

So that's basically how you end up with the different colours.

They date from the late 19th century under the Art Nouveau

style of jewellery, which started around 1890

-and lasted into the early part of the 20th century.

-Yes.

Tiffany & Co were really important at the end of the 19th century

-because, of course, they are American.

-That's right.

American jewellers, and we were getting so used to

- in England and obviously on the Continent - of the French

leading the way, and suddenly there was a bit of competition going on.

And there were a number of exhibitions at the end

of the 19th century where Tiffany got involved,

and Louis Comfort Tiffany started to show jewellery,

and that's how we end up with the Tiffany we know today.

They show all the signs of typical Art Nouveau style

with the chasing of the decoration. They're very delicate,

and I can understand why your mother-in-law

-wanted to wear them, they're really fantastic in many ways.

-Yes.

Of course, with them being Tiffany & Co,

it's a name that, as I mentioned earlier,

is very important in the development of the history of jewellery,

and these at auction would be worth between £2,000 and £3,000.

Right. Thank you. That's nice!

I think I'll wear them from now on.

These are East India Company paintings.

Do you know where they represent?

Yes, I believe this one is Canton,

-and this one is Macau.

-Yep.

They could have been ordered by any of the East India Companies,

of which there were a lot.

You can see the number of different flags there were, here in Canton.

And each country had its own...what they called factory, or building.

That view is very well known.

You get it on fans, you get it on porcelain.

You don't often see it painted on copper, as we have here.

The oil on copper technique is purely European,

it didn't exist before the Europeans got into China.

And, in fact, it was probably introduced by the Jesuits,

who were a great influence in the 18th century, and they introduced

a lot of things, like the rose pink for example, famille rose.

But these are fantastically well painted.

Painted by a Chinese who's been taught to paint by a European.

Macau is much rarer. You don't see that many views of Macau

because the traders had much less reason to go there.

This strip of land was only 100 yards wide

-and beyond that, the Europeans were not allowed to penetrate.

-Yes.

There was a fire, and most of the factories were burned down,

which I think happened about 1840,

but I think these are pre-that. Just from the style of the painting,

they look to me probably 1810-1820, somewhere around there.

Presumably you didn't buy them out there at the time.

-No, no.

-So where did they come from?

We lived in Hong Kong, but they were actually given to me

by an elderly friend of my mother's.

She died about 30 years ago and she'd had them

from her father and her grandfather,

who were in the Navy.

Well, they're the sort of thing

which has enormously risen in value recently

because of the interest from the Chinese themselves.

It wouldn't be difficult to see those making...

-£5,000 - £8,000 for the pair.

-Good lord!

Maybe even a bit more.

It seems crazy for a couple of postcards.

It must be a world record.

-Well, The Kiss of a Cossack, a wonderful Russian subject.

-Indeed.

What's your connection with Russia?

Well, it's actually not my connection.

The bronze came into my possession as a gift

from my father, who was a doctor, and he had some patients which I believe

were from Russian descent, and my father looked after the husband

for quite some time, and then unfortunately when he died,

the wife said to my father, "Would you please let us give you this bronze?"

Because every time he used to go and visit them in their house,

-and so on, he always used to admire the bronze.

-Yes.

So that's how basically it came into our family.

-Yes, as a token of gratitude.

-Yeah, yeah, indeed so.

-It dates from the sort of late 1870s.

-OK.

When the art market was really looking back several centuries

to these iconic images of Russia, the troikas,

the saints, the Tsars, the hunting, the shooting.

And this is a wonderful depiction of a Cossack,

he's obviously in... I think a farewell embrace.

Yes, you could say that.

It's funny, a lot of men say farewell to their loved ones,

-never to be seen again.

-In those times,

I should imagine that was probably more prevalent than anything else.

Absolutely. Traditionally, of course, the Cossacks were

the bodyguards of the Tsar.

-This was actually made under the Tsar Alexander II.

-Right.

And, of course, it's signed by a very well-known

Russian bronze sculptor.

I mean, I did try and look it up on the internet,

-but I'm afraid my Russian wasn't very good!

-Well, don't worry.

Trying to put in the characters was even harder.

-Well, it's in Cyrillic, and it's Vassili Grachev.

-Right.

-And he was St Petersburg-based.

-OK.

-And produced a huge range of very exquisite cast bronzes.

-Right.

We also have the name of the foundry.

Oh, yeah, I did wonder what that was.

Well, that actually says "fab", F-A-B for fabrique.

-So, that would be fabrique, yeah.

-So "made",

and the foundry is Woerffel, a very well-respected foundry,

and you can see how crisply it's been done. You know,

I just love all the detail, the traditional fur hat.

Yeah, I mean what tickles me

is that the girl's feet are off the ground in the embrace.

It's absolutely lovely.

As he's about to gallop away into the snowy regions.

There is a big demand now from wealthy Russians to repatriate

-some of their great...

-The oligarchs.

-That's right.

-Oh, right.

So, you know, it has a value that's much higher

than it would have been this time ten years ago.

Today at auction you'd be looking at about £3,500 at auction.

Really?

That's quite nice, considering it didn't cost me anything at all.

Well, exactly. It was a gift of gratitude.

Yes, absolutely, yeah. And it's something that I think

we will probably try and keep in the family.

What at first looks like

a really rather charming little Regency table,

a little drum table, it's got an inset top

and it's obviously got an interesting story to go with it,

so tell me about it.

Who is this chap in the middle, and why is he there?

He is Sir Edward Banks, and he and Mr Joliffe

were the constructors and surveyors who built Old London Bridge.

This purports to be timber from underneath Old London Bridge.

In fact, that is what the plaque on the side says.

So this timber could be a thousand years old?

Yes, yes. In as much that London Bridge, Old London Bridge,

-was started off with the Romans, and then of course it...

-Yeah.

And William the Conqueror actually rebuilt it, and it may well be

the timbers that were underneath when he rebuilt it.

-Could be, could be.

-Well, well.

A couple of things from my point of view. I love this period

because you can date with reasonable accuracy things made after about

1810, because they were publishing books of fashion and design.

And in 1827, a chap called George Smith, a very well-known

cabinet maker and funeral arranger, he drew the designs that were most

popular, which became the standard practice for about 15 years,

and if we start at the bottom, you see this marvellous sort of petal.

-Yes.

-And then this leaf here, formalised leaf,

he drew that in 1827,

so we know within ten years of that, that this would have been made,

just from that alone.

Because after that, it went out of fashion,

and the Victorians added their own sort of idea and interpretation.

The other interesting thing about it is that, first of all,

it's a little drum table, but here, see that little knob thing there?

-Yes.

-That is the hinge of a ring which sat inside there,

off a chest of drawers or off of a piece of furniture,

-which indicates immediately that you pulled it and lifted it.

-Really?

-Do you see what I mean?

-Yes, yes, I do, yes, yes.

So that tells me that the top is either hinged,

or it lifts up from the middle, and in fact it lifts up from the middle.

I'm going to take it right out, OK.

-Now, you see these dents here?

-Yes.

-Right?

Those are caused by... There's a screw under here, isn't there?

-Yes, there is, I've often wondered what it was for.

-OK.

You can tighten that screw

and you can lift the top and use it. This has been cut off at some time.

You could raise it to there and then you could get to

all your little bits and pieces in this work table, and it was

full of silks and needlework and satins, wonderful.

So it looked like a little treasure box when you opened it.

But it is fantastic.

Now, the interesting thing is, that this isn't oak, this is rosewood.

-Really?

-So it's veneered.

That's a bit of very early oak veneer, which they've put

onto a solid rosewood base. There.

I mean, apart from the history, which is without doubt correct,

because there were a lot of the early timbers, and there are lots

of pieces of furniture made from this oak

under the Old London Bridge. How is it yours?

-Well, my grandmother had it and she was very keen on auctions.

-Oh, I see!

She doubtless picked it up somewhere.

Oh, good for her. Well, as an attractive

and really pretty little piece of furniture, with that added history,

I have no question about putting £2,500 on it, as a valuation for it.

I think it's just charming.

This is an undeniably good-looking casket. Where did it come from?

I was in the Merchant Navy

and I went down to Australia in the early '60s

and I saw it in a junk shop there and I thought, "Oh, this is lovely".

-Junk shop?

-Yes, yes.

But it was hidden away, and at that time

I earned about 14 pounds, 16 and eight pence a month

and it cost me a fiver, so it was quite a large outlay at that time.

Had you any thoughts

when you first spied it in Australia as to where it might have come from?

-No, no idea.

-It doesn't look particularly Australian, does it?

-IN AUSTRALIAN ACCENT: Nah, mate!

-And it's certainly European.

-Mmm.

-But actually it's from, it's from two countries.

-Yes?

The panels themselves are pietra dura panels,

-almost like semi-precious stone marquetry.

-Yes.

-There were workshops in Italy, in Rome and Florence.

-Mmm.

And these five panels, because there's even a panel to the back,

-were made in the mid-19th century in Italy.

-Mm-hm.

And they then would have been exported from Italy to be laid

on a casket like this.

But the actual gilt metal, the ormolu, was not made in Italy.

-Uh-huh.

-The quality of the gilt metal, the ormolu, is so good.

Now, when I first looked at it, I sort of had this thing -

-is it France, or is it England?

-Yes.

-Because the French are so well-known for producing ormolu.

-Yes.

But looking at some of these features,

and I think almost the most revealing feature

is this beautifully plain, high-quality, chamfered border

-to the inside.

-Yes.

-I think it's English.

-Oh!

And what it reminds me of is the cases for carriage clocks

-that were made in England in the mid 19th century.

-Yes.

I think this was made around 1860, and the carriage clocks

that were made in cases that had these features, were the top ones

-made by Dent, McCabe, Cole, and we don't know who made this.

-No.

-But that is why I think it's an English case.

-Yes.

I think you chose well.

I think it's a very good choice

because your five pounds is now £3,000.

Great Scott!

Maybe £3,500.

Good lord, I think I'll faint.

Well, thank you.

This is a really lovely thing you've brought in here.

I'm kind of almost surprised to see it here,

although some lovely things have been brought to the show today.

I never thought I'd ever see one of these.

-You know what it is, don't you?

-I do indeed.

-I've been told it's a Maori feather box.

-Yeah, it is.

Called a waka huia

because it contained the black and white feathers of a huia bird,

which they used to put in their hair.

They were considered as treasure. Have you had this a long time?

It's been in the family a long time.

It was originally owned by Thomas Armstrong,

who was the art director of what was then the South Kensington Museum.

-The V&A?

-The V&A as it is today.

-Wow.

And it gradually it descended then through our family

and it's ended up with me, so I've known it for quite a few years.

I wonder how it got into his hands.

I suppose you don't know that, do you?

-Well, I think he was a great networker.

-I see.

And he had a lot of connections in the art world,

and a lot of things came his way, shall we say.

When did he work there as the art director?

In the sort of last half of the 19th century.

That's extraordinary, because this comes a long, long way, you know,

from the Southern Hemisphere, in the Pacific, you know,

the Maori were Polynesian people.

He had a large personal collection of ark work which...

How he got it, we don't really know.

That's extraordinary. It's a beautiful colour.

They didn't just keep feathers in them,

they kept jewels or things that they wore, anything precious.

I mean, the carving is curvilinear

and it's very beautiful with these teaky-like heads at the end.

I would put it into about 1810-1820.

I think it's got a reasonable value.

With good provenance, these can make £15,000 - £20,000.

That's fantastic.

But I think this one, without provenance,

I would value at something like £7,000 - £9,000.

Even so, that's fantastic.

I really think it is quite stunning.

Hitler's face at the bottom of a patriotic potty.

How did you come by this fine, fine piece of china?

It belonged to a very old friend of mine who died a couple of years ago

and I had to clear out his house, and I was given the pot

by the executors, because I requested it,

and it sits in our bathroom at home.

-And you requested it, you particularly liked it?

-Yes.

Let's have a look. It's a marvellous thing, isn't it?

So you've got the swastika here, "Have this on old nasty..."

Clearly depositing on Hitler's face here,

"...yet another violation of Poland"

so obviously his annexation of Poland, or his moving into Poland.

-And it plays a tune as well, doesn't it?

-It plays a tune.

I thought it played two tunes,

but I think it just plays Rule Britannia.

So when you lift it up and you've had a tinkle,

followed by another tinkle, you go...

POTTY PLAYS RULE BRITANNIA LIKE A MUSIC BOX

Recognise that? Very patriotic, how brilliant.

Do you know anything about it, and its value at all?

No, nothing at all.

I do know that the gentleman who it belonged to,

his father was a music hall entertainer in the 1930s.

But other than that...

Other than that, it was just in the house and I loved it.

Now the thing about this is, clearly it's a kind of,

a bit of a comedy item,

and you could think it's just another "fancy that",

but actually I've spoken to our experts about it and it's very rare.

-Really?

-It's very rare.

Because of its date, the Second World War,

this particular period when Hitler... Hitler's storm-troops

rode into Poland, and it has quite a significant value.

-£300.

-It'll still sit in our bathroom.

-It's actually £3,000.

-Oh, it's not? No, it isn't, is it?

Wow. It'll still sit in our bathroom!

But I will tell my daughter, who will inherit everything,

she's got to keep it rather than throw it in the tip.

And not to use it.

No, no, my husband doesn't use it, I promise you he doesn't.

Microscopes and wedding cakes,

they seem slightly at odds with each other. What on Earth is the link?

Well, they were both made by my grandfather, David Martin,

but he was a very meticulous man,

and you can see from the marvellous decoration on the cakes

and all the lovely twiddly bits here, that he loved ornamental things.

I can see. So his profession was as a what?

What would we call it? A confectioner, or a pat...

Yes, the family ran a bakery in Kerrymuir.

His brother Ratray was the bread baker

and my grandfather was the confectioner.

Fantastic, and you're telling me that he actually

made these microscopes?

Yes, he did, yes, but I think he must have bought the lenses

and the objectives, but he made everything else

and carved everything else, yes.

At first glance,

these look like early microscopes

from the 17th century.

The great names in microscopes, and the invention

and perfection of microscopy

are Robert Hook and John Marshall.

Both of them used this system, which is basically

-a system of cardboard tubes.

-Yes.

Which go in and out on the barrel to cause the coarse focusing.

Here you've got the reflecting mirror,

and that you could tilt then, to line it up with the sun

-to focus the beam directly onto the slide.

-Yes.

And they used this method to create those early microscopes

in the 17th century,

so your grandfather was following on from a very good tradition.

Now, when do you think your grandfather made these?

Did he, did he give a date?

Well, on the sides it says 1887, so I think that would have been about...

-He would have been a young man, in his 20s.

-Yes.

And I suppose what I like particularly is the fact that,

being a Scottish microscope maker,

he covered this particular barrel in tartan!

THEY LAUGH It's sweet, isn't it? Yes.

It's absolutely fantastic.

And I like these scrolling supports here.

They're wonderful.

Yes, he was a very good wood carver.

In here there's a commercial thing, the Lord's Prayer on the head

of a pin, and you can actually read it with this microscope.

-It has got damaged.

-There we go.

-But that's the head of a pin.

And it is absolutely...tiny.

-It takes a bit of fiddling.

-I'm sure.

But I've certainly read it myself.

What a wonderful party piece that would have been,

to have looked at that.

The very touching thing was that I became a bacteriologist

and my granny sent these down in a big box on the train,

saying that she thought it would be useful.

-So do you think the time that you spent with your grandfather...

-Yes.

-..looking at these...

-Well, maybe!

-..propelled you on to your future career?

-I wonder, yes!

Well, thank you, grandfather.

To me, they're absolutely charming.

I don't care if they're not optically the most sophisticated.

Because to me there's been so much enthusiasm and love put into it.

I would have said that the collection that we have here

would probably fetch something around £1,000 to perhaps £1,200.

-Goodness! Yes, well, that's...

-They're lovely.

Well, thank you very much indeed, thank you.

Does she have a name?

The Green Lady or The Little Dutch Girl. I think The Little Dutch Girl

is probably what she's been known as for longer than I can remember.

And where does she come from?

I believe she came from my great grandfather, who acquired her,

I think, from new, though I'm not sure. Family history

says 1851, the Great Exhibition, though I suspect she might be

a bit later than that, and she's been in the family ever since.

Yeah. One of the ways in which you can date a pottery figure

is through the face.

Our interest in human faces changes from decade to decade.

You can almost date her to the decade just by looking at her face.

This face is a face, not of 1851, The Great Exhibition,

but of some time around the year 1900.

Does that still square?

No, that absolutely squares, yes, that would make perfect sense.

My great grandfather was about 1890, 1900,

acquiring a number of pretty objects.

-So the story about

-The

-Great Exhibition

-could be a story about

-a

-great exhibition.

Far more likely, which is what I've suspected for some time,

because the date didn't quite tie in

with what the family history had said.

-Because exhibitions carried on from 1851.

-Exactly.

There was the first Great Exhibition

and then they carried on well into the early 20th century.

I'm not too good on national costumes,

so I don't know whether she's Dutch or whether she could be Breton.

But what I do know is it is an exceptional piece of modelling.

She's carrying panniers, and I wonder whether that's a clue to how

she was originally intended.

If she had been bought at an exhibition,

it's quite possible that these panniers contained, what,

flowers or cards or something.

But these go beyond a mere decorative function.

I think she was intended to carry something.

Very often when you see figures like this,

they were even intended in shop windows, which is, after all,

what an exhibition is, it's the shop window for the various potteries.

Let's just turn her around a little bit and look at the back,

and the sculptor has really understood human anatomy

beautifully, and...I think she's lovely, and down here...

She has the most beautiful ankle.

Yes, and there's this lovely contrast between the glaze,

the glazed part of her clothes

and then the matt enamel of her arms and her legs and her torso.

Depose, that means copyright,

and then down here we have a very Germanic-looking signature.

It says Borsdorf. I've looked him up in the book

and I just cannot find that name

and I'm really, really surprised, because a sculptor of this calibre

really you would expect to be recorded.

So Continental, early 20th century.

This to me is a show-off piece.

Oh, I love her, I must say. I absolutely adore her.

-You're not going to sell her.

-No.

But if I were to see something like this is an auction of late 19th,

early 20th century objects, I would be very surprised

-if you could buy her for much less than £2,000.

-Gosh, yes.

She is absolutely...

No, she is absolutely lovely,

and thank you very much, that's most interesting.

The word salver is derived from the Latin salvo, to serve, and in

the 18th century salvers like this were carried by a footman,

usually carrying glasses or a decanter,

and served to the assembled company.

But this isn't just an ordinary salver, there's something

special about it. So how did it first come into your possession?

Well, it comes from my great-great grandmother's family,

and it was probably in her family for quite a bit of time

before that, and she would have been born in the early 1830s.

And in the family it was known as the Princess Augusta plate,

and that's all I know about it really.

-Right, so the A here is not for Alastair, it's for Princess Augusta.

-THEY LAUGH

OK, well, historically

and from students of silvers' point of view, this is really interesting

because it's like the crossover from Baroque decoration

of the early 18th century, into the Rococo decoration,

which really came in in about 1730.

We've got these wonderful lions confronting serpents

on either side, but see how this bit is generally,

the engraving is symmetrical,

you've got these equal scrolls coming up here.

But if we look round the edge, we've got these asymmetrical scrolls

all round here, which are much more a feature

of the Rococo period, which lasted from about 1730 to 1760.

-Now, you think this initial is for Princess Augusta.

-Yes.

The problem lies in that

she was born in 1768,

and if we turn it over and look at the marks at the bottom here,

we've got a date letter for 1736.

The maker's mark is RA for Robert Abercrombie,

and he was a specialist salver maker.

So it would appear that this initial here was put on at a later date.

Normally, that would be a bit of a down point,

but the fact that she was the second daughter

of George III makes it a little bit more special.

The fact that it is made in silver gilt, which is silver covered

in a thin coating of gold, also makes it a little bit special.

So it's a lot better than just the average salver,

and trying to put a price on fabulous things is never easy,

but I think that we're probably getting somewhere close

-to £15,000.

-Gosh. Interesting.

I'm particularly drawn to your 1960s oil painting by Barbara Tate.

There's a really uncanny resemblance

between the little girl in your oil painting

and my daughter, who is blonde, seven years old,

has just got freckles from a summer holiday and has wonderful

blue eyes. And this painting is just exquisitely painted.

The face in particular is like a photo-realist painting.

I'd love to know a little bit more about how you've come across it.

Basically, my aunt left it to me about 15 years ago

and I was seven when it was... When I was dressing up, it was a hamper,

I had to put on a dress. I don't really remember too much about it.

But I think it was called The Hamper.

I was living at my grandmother's at the time, and she always said that

my face had got good bone structure and various different features,

and that she always wanted to capture that on canvas. And here it is.

-So hang on a second. This portrait is of you?

-Yes.

And it's painted by your aunt, who was Barbara Tate.

-That's right, yes.

-Oh, this is very fascinating.

Of course, there isn't a great deal known about Barbara Tate.

She wrote that rather wonderful book about the 1950s, didn't she?

Yes, yes. She wrote a book called The West End Girls

and it was published just before she died,

and it was a bit of an eye opener, I must say.

The book was very interesting, she lived a very interesting life

and the book was about various different characters in there,

with regards judges and lawyers, and rather seedy times

in the 1950s, which was when she...

The book related to the 1950s.

-So this was when she was a maid in the 1950s.

-Yes.

Living in Soho, obviously lots of prostitutes.

-She was a maid for a prostitute, wasn't she?

-Yes, she was, yes.

So she had the most extraordinary life.

She did. And she was a very eccentric lady, had lots of cats

-and very interesting, but a very good painter.

-Absolutely.

Now what I know about her, apart from she was a member

-of the Society of Women Artists and a president for 15 years...

-Yeah.

..is that during my 27 years in the art world,

I don't think I've come across many of her pictures.

No, she didn't really sell many paintings.

I think she had a few commissions

but she didn't actually sell them, she tended to keep them.

I think I saw about 100 in her house at any one time.

-I think this is a truly gorgeous portrait.

-Thank you.

Really, really beautiful, and that face,

it really pulls you into the painting.

If this picture came up at auction, I think lots of people

would fall in love with it,

-so in terms of value, £1,000 - £1,500.

-OK, yeah.

But I absolutely love it, I think it's a great 1960s portrait.

Thank you.

Diamonds and pearls have been associated with love for centuries

and it's beautiful to see so many items here today.

I understand that each of these pieces has a personal connection

regarding your children. How has that come about?

It certainly does.

When I had my son, my darling husband said,

"I will find you something you absolutely adore,"

-and with all his love he gave me this one.

-Lovely.

Which was absolutely beyond my imagination. And then,

when Hayley came along, another darling brooch arrived.

Super.

And then ten years after my first baby, Tiffany came along,

-and that's what he gave me for having her.

-The pearls.

-And the diamonds.

-And the diamonds.

-Fantastic.

So I've been thoroughly, thoroughly spoilt.

What about these two, the earrings and the ring?

How did you acquire those?

When my grandfather died, about, gosh, 46 years ago,

he left me £1,250,

which in those days was quite a lot of money for a newly wed,

and so a relative said, "Put the money into a diamond ring".

What a brilliant idea.

We were able to acquire a pair of diamond earrings as well.

Well, just a little bit of history about the pieces,

because although we know your personal history regarding them,

they are all antique pieces of jewellery, effectively,

and we've got this beautiful clasp on the pearls,

which dates from the late 19th century, which is set with old

-brilliant cut diamonds and also oval old cut diamonds as well.

-Really?

Which have got a lovely softness to them

-and they create that very delicate, almost star cluster, effect.

-Yes.

Which was popular in the Victorian period, but all the way through

into the '30s and '40s, and then the two brooches,

the one that you got for your son Ashley,

which is superb, this one is again from the late 1940s,

early 1950s period, when spray brooches

were at the height of fashion

and the larger the better, as we see here.

-Then of course your other daughter, and her name was...

-Hayley.

Hayley, with her beautiful spray brooch as well,

-slightly later in date, well into the '50s for this one.

-Right.

But the elegance is again being reflected in how fashion

was changing during that time too.

The single stone ring weighs approximately 2.8 carats

so we've got a lovely - again - old brilliant cut diamond,

slightly cushion shaped, but very well cut.

It's not got much colour to it, which is good when you're

-looking at diamonds. You want them to be as white as possible.

-Right.

Having looked at it with a jeweller's loupe,

-there are some flaws in there.

-Yes.

But it doesn't matter really, does it?

-Because you enjoy wearing it anyway.

-Oh, yes.

And it's a beautiful mount that it's set in as well, dating from the late

19th, early 20th century as well, so nice and delicate, set in platinum.

-Yes.

-Ticks all the right boxes for many ladies out there.

And then the earrings,

-slightly later in date, probably into the 1930s.

-Right.

Total weight of diamonds on each earring is about a carat,

so again good quality of stones in there too,

so overall a fantastic collection of jewellery. And I'm sure that

values are important, but it's the sentimental side, really, isn't it,

-that really does do it for you, definitely.

-Oh, absolutely.

But going through,

the antique Victorian clasp on the pearls,

which of course are later cultured pearls,

-you're looking at a total of about £3,000 at auction for those.

-OK.

And then Ashley's brooch here, again, round about £4,500, £5,000

for that at auction. And the smaller brooch here,

we're looking at about £1,500 at auction for that.

For the initial £1,250 that you spent,

the ring will now be worth around about £6,000 at auction,

and the earrings about £3,000.

Goodness, that's amazing.

My dear grandfather, bless his soul.

So a superb collection of jewellery

which I know you love wearing, with a total value of £18,500.

Oh, quickly into the bank, Frank, I think.

Oh, bless you, but it's not the value,

it's just the beauty that I love.

-Tell me, do you live in a Gothic mansion?

-No, sadly.

So how come you have these most magnificent

Gothic bat wall sconces?

Well, I found them at a local car boot sale,

and I collect animal sculptures, so I wanted to get them straightaway.

What did you actually pay for these at a car boot sale?

I paid £42.

You're joking! As you've probably spotted, they are stamped Liberty.

Yes, I saw that.

They weren't actually manufactured by Liberty.

Liberty, of course, have a very long history of retailing very small

sort of artisan-produced goods.

My feeling is they were probably manufactured by a company

called William Tonks in Birmingham,

who were metal workers in the latter part of the 19th century.

There's not an awful lot known about them, but I do know their work was

retailed at Liberty, and this is very typical

of the sort of work they did.

They do actually have a number stamped on the back of them,

which I'm not sure if you would have ever noticed, it's quite difficult

to discern, but that actually gives us a date for between 1890 and 1891.

The department store on Regent Street opened in 1875

and he was a great purveyor of selling small artisan works,

and we commonly more know him for the Art and Crafts Movement,

after about 1900-1910, but of course he was actually in operation

from the 1870s.

These, I think, are absolutely magnificent. They're fabulous.

They're actually... They're cast brass, and this sort of gold

highlighting on them, that's just a patination that's done on them,

-it's not that they've particularly dulled down to that.

-Ah.

It is actually a patination that they're meant to have.

I supposed it's to make them look rather kind of Gothic.

So you obviously love them.

Do you have them on display in your house?

No, they've been in the attic, actually.

You're joking? The bats are actually literally living in the attic?!

Because I didn't know how to organise the lighting for them,

whether to get candles or something else.

Well, obviously when they were manufactured they would have been

for candle light, and obviously people do electrify these,

but my feeling is that they probably should be

left as they are.

With regards to value, I think they're fantastic.

I have seen them come up for sale before,

but they are relatively rare,

and an auction estimate would be sort of £800 to £1,200 on them.

Pardon?

£800 to £1,200.

Excellent.

I wasn't expecting that.

I'll have to get a different house to put them in.

I'm passionate about Victorian architecture

and Victorian design, but also, what really excites me is,

in a sense, what the Victorians did for us.

You know, we turn on the tap, and water comes out, which we can drink.

We flush the loo and it all goes somewhere and gets dealt with.

That's right.

And that's one of the great legacies of the Victorian period.

So when I saw these drawings, I thought,

"This is exactly what I'm really excited about."

Because this is that whole process in operation, you know,

these are the great waterworks, the great pumping houses,

that made Victorian Britain a safer place.

Now, you've got lots of these, of which I'm very envious.

Where did they come from? What's the story?

I picked them up near some dustbins.

They belonged to the firm that I worked for,

I'm a chartered civil engineer.

-The firm I worked for was called Hawksley's.

-Yes.

-And...

-They were in this business.

And they were in this business. And these drawings were made

actually by the firm of Hawksley, and apparently what happened

was that they microfilmed them, and then, because they were short

of storage space, they decided to get rid of them.

And I spotted them before the dustbin men took them away.

How many did you get?

Oh, I don't know, maybe twice as much as I've got here,

but half were sold at an auction some time ago

and I kept the rest, and the rest are here today.

When you look at this, these are all watercolours. They're all drawings.

Every detail, somebody has worked out. And look

at the way the windows are painted, look at the way the land is painted.

Architectural drawings of the 19th century are just fantastic art work.

They are, I don't think they could be done nowadays that well.

Let's just lift this up and look at it.

It's just... Look, you've got the pumping engine,

all the boilers, you've got the whole detail.

This tells you how to build it. Let's move on.

This one is nice and simple,

but this is all about architecture. You know,

what excited the Victorians, it was architecture that drew from history.

This is the chimney for the steam engine.

It's actually straight into Venice.

-Yeah.

-This is a Venetian campanile or something out of Italy,

inspired by Ruskin.

These are functional buildings. But look how exciting they are,

look at all the iron trim.

These are a wonderful vision of a lost world to us.

And here are details for the same pumping house.

Look at the details of the architecture,

the wonderful way the doors have been configured.

Everything is just meticulous in the way it's drawn,

and with great imagination.

They're lovely to look at, and of course the other thing

that starts in the 19th century is long-distance water supply.

This is Liverpool Corporation Waterworks, but this is

-actually part of the supply chain from the centre of Wales.

-Yeah.

And that vast reservoir built with freshwater which can constantly

be drifting down to Liverpool, and Liverpool can grow

as a modern city, because it's got a water supply.

The only thing I can add to that perhaps it there used to be,

and I think it still is today, a ton of water delivered to

your door from the middle of Wales is the price of one pint of milk.

Yeah. One pint of milk and you get a ton.

A ton of water for it, yes.

And that's because we have this enormous network

-set up in the 19th century.

-Yeah.

So you rescued them.

I think, just going through the piles,

I mean, obviously this is a very small selection of what you've got.

Going through them, it was almost impossible to choose what to show

because every drawing is wonderful.

You've rescued something that takes us deep into

the great achievements of the 19th century,

but actually you've rescued something quite valuable.

The great drawings are going to be... That I've seen,

are going to be £500 each.

-Let us say I've seen 30 great drawings, which I have.

-Yeah.

So it's £15,000 for the best ones,

£20,000 for the lot. And you may have more, I don't know.

No, that's it, yes.

So you rescued something that is very valuable in every sense.

Valuable as history, and as it turns out now, many years on,

-valuable in money.

-Yes, thank you.

-Thank you.

I've seen some wedding cake decorations in my time,

never one like this. What is it?

Well, it's actually an icing sugar replica

-of a model of a gully emptier.

-A gully emptier?

A gully emptier, which is a tanker vehicle

-used for liquid waste removal.

-So removing stuff from drains?

Yeah, that type of thing, that's exactly it, yeah.

So this was on whose wedding cake?

It was on my parents' wedding cake, and they got married in July 1937.

-So this is...

-75 years old now.

Why did they choose to have one of those?

Because generally, you just have the man and wife on top.

-So why did they go for a vehicle...

-They wanted something different.

It's not exactly romantic, a vehicle used to empty drains.

I would have thought drainage clearance is romantic, isn't it?!

You're unusual.

But actually, no, the family business was running a fleet of vehicles

for this purpose, and my mum and dad actually met at the company.

My father was the accountant there,

my grandfather owned the company, my mother worked there as a

secretary. So when they got married in '37, that was it.

They owed their romance, and your existence, of course,

-to the gully emptier.

-In one way or another, yes.

You're never tempted to try a bit of it and see what it tastes like?

No, I'm not sure whether 75-year-old icing sugar would be that tasty.

It's a family heirloom, really.

And an icon of romance for your family.

In one way or another, yes.

We've got two French carriage clocks here.

This one was made around 1860-1870, this one a bit later, 1870-1880.

And they're both slightly unusual in their way.

Why did you buy them?

I liked the front of it. It reminded me of Breguet,

and the hands looked Breguet-like,

and this was the closest I'm ever going to get

to owning a Breguet. I just thought it looked quite pretty.

-I remember an old expert called Arthur Negus who said...

-Of course!

He said, "Always try and buy the best antiques you can".

And when I was a young man, I'd just started work,

I liked clocks, and I bought these clocks, and I spent

all my money on these. It wasn't much, but what I had, I spent.

Can we just briefly take through what they are?

Let's go for the smaller one first.

Here is a carriage clock by Drocourt,

famous carriage clock makers,

in a lovely gorge case. And we know it's called a gorge case

because the mouldings start at the top

and run all the way through to the bottom, and it's first quality.

Enamel dial with an alarm, day of the week and the date,

and on top of that, as you I'm sure know,

is that it's a grande sonnerie carriage clock,

so on the bottom here we have a lever

that allows us to have it on silent, to have it striking the quarters,

-or the hours

-and

-the quarters. And this we call grande sonnerie.

-Yep.

-And that is a great rarity.

But when you combine it with a beautiful case,

a lovely dial with calendar, grande sonnerie and Drocourt the maker,

it's just a bit special. And carriage clock collectors love them.

-Normally, small is beautiful.

-Right.

Large, in this case, is better.

What this has, as you rightly say, it has slight overtone qualities

to Abraham Louis Breguet's work, but Breguet died in 1823.

This carriage clock was made in 1880 or so

and it isn't in any way a direct copy of Breguet's work.

It is quite complicated and it is highly desirable,

just like the little one.

Like this one, it has grande sonnerie,

so it has the three position selection lever, which we know.

Like this one, it has the day of the week and it has the calendar,

but most of all, which is just what everybody adores,

at least I do, is we've got the moon face. And when the moon face sits

with this rather beautiful blue against this silvered engine-turned

dial, it stands out. And that's what gives this carriage clock

character, and that doesn't have any, in the same way that this has.

French carriage clock, 1850-1870, grande sonnerie with calendar,

-it has to be worth between £4,000 and £6,000.

-Wow.

Giant carriage clock, enamel moon face, grand sonnerie,

oversized platform, and it has to be worth between £10,000 and £15,000.

Wow! That's amazing.

So it looks like Arthur Negus did you a favour, then.

-He certainly did.

-Good old Arthur.

-Thank you very much.

-Nicky Henson, it's a pleasure to meet you.

-Thank you very much.

Well-known actor from an acting family.

Well, yes. My father was a very famous actor-manager

in musical comedy between the wars,

between the World Wars, and his name was Leslie Henson.

Not many people remember him now,

but he was a huge star between the wars.

If you went to Kent, London, for ten days,

you'd see the Noel Coward show,

the Jack Buchanan show and the Leslie Henson show.

But he actually started in the family business, a butcher.

He was a butcher in Charterhouse Street in Smithfield,

JL Henson & Son, which still exists, apparently.

And he wanted to be an actor, but he was fascinated by actors

and he used to go to the stage door, particularly places

like Sadler's Wells, and buy those postcards that you used to buy.

-We're talking about late Victorian, early Edwardian period.

-Right.

Buy the postcards, sit outside

and ask the actors to autograph them, which they did. And he kept

them in a book, the book starts with Henry Irving and goes on from there.

-Right.

-But then, when he becomes an actor, a lot of the people

-he's asked for autographs, he starts to work with.

-Yes.

-And become friends.

-Right.

And this went on from the late 1900s up to his death in 1957.

So we've got his friends and his colleagues working,

and he put them all in this book.

-So we start off, as you say, with Henry Irving.

-In the 1880s, 1890s.

Right, all of them...

-All of these ones are signed by the various actors and actresses.

-Yes.

Here's Ellen Terry.

The first of the Terrys, and Gielgud was a relation to the Terrys,

the great Terry dynasty that went through theatrical history.

We've got a nice shot of Noel Coward.

Who, again, was a friend of Dad's, so "Dear Leslie".

And here's a typical one, this is nice, we've got the two photographs.

-Yes. This is Gladys Cooper.

-Yeah.

When Dad met her and worked with her and knew her.

And he says actually, "When I was younger, I got your autograph,"

and she finds the younger photograph and writes in a different pen

"years ago" underneath Gladys, underneath her signature,

-Gladys Cooper.

-Yes, exclamation marks.

-Yeah.

And then it ends with two nice shots of your dad here.

Yes, that's Dad in 1917. I don't know what the play is,

that he's in.

He only keeps two pictures and they both make him look

very, very good looking. It's just a lovely thing that

I love to share with people, and when guests come and stay

-I'll get it out at dinner parties and stuff like that.

-Yes.

And a lot of old actors, because we're all dying off now,

will remember all of those people from when they were young.

Well, if something like this comes up at auction, and it's obviously

personal to you and their inscriptions,

some of which are personal to your father as well,

and I would say certainly £1,000 to £1,500.

-Golly. Thank you very much.

-Pleasure.

-Terrific.

This is really nice.

Daoist scholars in a mountainous landscape.

Sages, all of them.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

It's my brush pot. It's been with me for over 50 years.

-You're a painter?

-I am, yes.

-And what sort of things do you paint?

Watercolours, oils, bathroom ceilings, anything.

Well, the person that used this as a brush pot,

probably painted Chinese scrolls and things.

-I suppose you know that, don't you?

-Yes, he did. I do, yes.

I was told when I bought it that it was Chinese.

-In England?

-Oh, yes. In Lewes in Sussex.

-Lewes in Sussex, I know, yes.

I was there with my wife Neta on holiday, and it had lots

of brushes in it at the time. It was the brushes that attracted me.

-Oh, it had brushes in it?

-It had brushes.

-Amazing.

Well, it was outside a junk shop, on a table outside a junk shop.

So can I venture to ask how much it was?

-Ten shillings.

-Ten shillings in old money.

-Including the brushes.

-50p. I'm so glad you're still using it...

-I am.

-..for the function, the purpose it was made for.

-It's very beautifully carved.

-It is.

Very deep carving. The figures in 3D.

I mean, it's extraordinary.

You've got pine, you've got creepers actually wrapped round the pine

just here.

It's cut out of a huge block of a Chinese wood

called a Huanghuali wood,

-which is a wood that they make their best objects from.

-Yes.

I mean, you've got a stream running through here,

going under a bridge and going in and out of the landscape,

disappearing and reappearing again.

The scholars would have gone up the mountain to meet and drink

and write poetry. I mean, it really is a joy.

It's about from the mid 1800s, 1860. I mean, you know,

generally known as Qing, the Qing Dynasty,

And have you never had anybody look at it, or tell you what it is?

Well, my wife has looked at it from time to time

and said it needs dusting.

Well, I can see that, there's dust all settling in the ivory.

It's never been dusted.

Ten shillings you say it cost you? 50 pence?

50 pence.

Well, your 50 pence today,

in a sale, in the right place, would be £5,000.

-Really?

-Really.

-Gosh.

I could buy a lot of sable brushes for £5,000.

You certainly could. Thanks for bringing it.

You're most welcome.

This is Margot Fonteyn, the most famous British ballerina ever.

This is you, and this is the tiara that Margot Fonteyn was wearing.

-Yes.

-And this is a production of The Nutcracker, isn't it?

It was, yes, on television, I think it was in 1957-58.

-And you bought this at a sale at an auction room.

-Yes.

So you were at The Royal Ballet School

-and then progressed to become a fully-fledged ballet dancer.

-Yes.

And you danced with Fonteyn. What was that like?

Wonderful. She was the most charming person, she used to chat

to the cameramen, she'd chat to everybody,

whether you were the back row of the corps de ballet or whatever.

-She was just... Everybody adored her.

-What made her so special?

You know, she'd just come on the stage,

rather, I suppose, like Rudolf Nureyev, and you would go,

"Oh, my goodness" and when she first came on all our knees

were shaking, and she just looked so calm.

She did a lot for us, because we all felt so calm, because she was calm.

It's been remarkable to hear those memories,

and hear about your experience with Margot Fonteyn.

From White Lodge, the Ballet School, and all the Antiques Roadshow team,

bye-bye.