Sainsbury Centre, Norwich 2 Antiques Roadshow

We like a nice stately home on the Antiques Roadshow, and of course we like historical objects,

but occasionally we feature the odd contemporary item but how's this for a modern collectible?

Welcome to the sleek clean lines of the Sainsbury Centre

for Visual Arts in Norwich.

When it comes to finding a location for a Roadshow,

there are a few key criteria we need to ensure the day will be a success.

Most important of all,

the location has to be large enough to accommodate the thousands

of visitors that I'm glad to say come to see us, rain or shine.

The grounds of the University of East Anglia,

set over 300 acres of parkland, certainly do that.

And as there are normally 14,000 students on the campus,

I think our crowd shouldn't be a problem.

We like some interesting buildings to form a nice backdrop for

our shots and I'd say the student accommodation there, where we

stayed last night, while not luxurious, certainly ticks that box.

Known as the Ziggurat, they were designed by Denys Lasdun in 1967.

They're named after the pyramids of Ancient Mesopotamia.

Not only are they striking, they've recently been Grade II listed.

Ideally, there should be lots of arts

and antiques to keep our experts busy, of course.

This Henry Moore sculpture's not a bad start, but wait till you see the collection inside.

The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and the fabulous collection

it houses were donated in 1978 by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury.

They wanted the art works they'd brought together over

a lifetime to be enjoyed by students, staff and visitors.

Our own ceramics department will certainly get fired

up by the Japanese pottery from the Jomon period,

thought by some to be when ceramics was first invented.

Look at this Degas bronze of a little ballerina with her

sharp pointy little features.

Many people thought she was rather ugly at the time,

but I know our specialists will love it and I should say this is

probably my favourite piece in the whole collection.

So, with everything in place, all we need now are our visitors.

Our experts are preparing to meet them

on the suitably large south-facing lawns, just outside the gallery.

If you want to see if you have an eye for antiques,

why not play along by pressing the red button on your remote control.

Or use our app.

Details on how to download it

are available on the Antiques Roadshow website.

I'm very fond of good quality French clocks. Do you like this one, too?

-This one's very special to me.

-Why?

My aunt had it for the whole of her life and I remember it when I was a

very small child and when she died in 2011, I was the one she left it to.

So, it reminds you of her all the time.

It works perfectly and every time it chimes on the half hour or

the hour, it reminds me of her.

That's lovely. Now, do you know what it's made of?

I think it's porcelain

and I believe the metal is some kind of copper alloy.

-Well, I'm delighted to actually tell you that it's gilt bronze.

-Right.

-And that... You thought this was all porcelain.

-I did.

-The joy is that it's not, it's enamel.

-Really?

And just turning it round, you can

see these fantastic enamel panels here, absolutely beautiful,

and of course, they've been picked out with a little bit of gold.

And had you ever thought why the back of the clock,

the back of this lovely old finial, is also done so beautifully?

Yes, it did make me wonder, yes, because obviously it faces the wall.

Well, it faces the wall possibly in your house,

-but in the old days, it would have been back to a mirror.

-Right.

And so you would have seen the lovely back of the clock,

-as well as the front.

-Ah.

-It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

And just up there, it says Leroy et Fils A Paris,

so the company of Leroy and Sons went on for a long time,

Paris, and I also notice the movement's numbered, 781,

and look at that there, also 781, so you know it's the original

-movement for that case. It's all 100%.

-As it was.

-Yeah, dating from about 1870.

-Right.

-Possibly 1875. It's a great thing.

It has a certain price structure

-if it was porcelain, but the enamel is much scarcer.

-Is it?

-Yes.

Much, much scarcer.

So I'm going to say to you that retail...

-I know you love this clock...

-It's not for sale.

-I know it's not.

And I know you love it and I know it means a lot to you.

To replace it retail, you'd have to pay at least £5,000.

Quite a nice present, eh?

Well... It just works and it reminds me and that's the whole point.

Great.

I think I'm in love with these two chairs.

They are really extraordinary.

And they suggest that they come from a very large house.

Do you have a large house?

Our lounge is fairly large, but obviously,

these two chairs do take up quite a lot of space.

We saw these in an antique shop in South Africa in 1999

and we just decided we had to have them.

We just love the rounded arm rests and I call them barrels in front.

-They're just fantastic.

-Well, I'm with you.

When you see them, immediately, one thinks about Art Deco,

partly because of the proportions.

They're quite low and horizontal in character.

And they have this extraordinary sort of modernist character

to them really. In a way, it's '30s Deco, rather than '20s Deco.

I particularly love this sort of aerodynamic cutaway here.

And then these extraordinary barrels, as you call them.

-Is this the upholstery that you bought them with?

-No, no.

-That's not the original.

-But it suits them very well, I think.

Yes, a good choice with the fabric.

Right. Now, you bought them in South Africa.

Do you think they're South African chairs?

We just thought that they were English.

We weren't aware of any Deco movement in South Africa.

Now, I look at these and I say, "Great!

"Art Deco, not English in a million years,"

so I don't think they're English.

A lot of people don't think about Deco being more than

an European movement, but it was in America, it was all over the world, up to a point,

because styles travelled so much at that point.

But also, these barrels, as you call them... I almost call them drums.

-They don't open, do they?

-No.

-But they...

HOLLOW KNOCK

They do have a wonderful hollow noise. And in the 1920s,

'30s, ethnographical art was extremely popular and in

South Africa, you have a tradition of drums and all sorts of things.

Is there perhaps a reference to a local tradition with these?

But also, I've seen one or two examples of chairs, not exactly the

same, but like this, with similar sorts of barrel-drum features

-in South Africa.

-Oh, really?

-Did you pay a lot for them?

Well, in 1999, we paid 1,000 rand each, that's about £70 each.

Which was quite a bit of money then, but not a lot now.

If these went into an auction here in England,

you could expect to get, for the pair, 1,500 to 2,000.

And perhaps hope to get a bit more than that.

I think lots and lots of people would be absolutely thrilled

to have these. In fact, I can't help...

Ah! Wonderful!

Gin and tonic, please?

This is the most wonderfully florid inscription from the queen

of crime herself, "To Pauline and friends,

"thanks for your good wishes and good wishes to all of you.

"Love, Agatha Christie."

-Yes.

-And it seems to have been torn out of an exercise book.

Tell me how you got it.

Well, I was involved in a car accident back in 1971

-when I was 14 and I'd broken my back.

-You'd broken your back?

-Yes.

-And here's pictures of you.

-Yes.

-That one there.

That's me, that's right.

-Encased in plaster.

-Yes, I was in plaster from my chin to my knees.

Right. And you look almost happy there.

-I don't know why!

-So, tell me the story about you and Agatha Christie.

Well, I had a porter called Arthur and he used to look after me

and bring me things and Arthur also looked after Agatha Christie.

-She was in the same hospital?

-She was having a hip replacement.

-1971, she was quite old in 1971.

-Yes, she was.

-She was in her mid 70s, I think, then.

-Yes.

And she was taken backwards and forwards to physiotherapy,

she had seen me, just lying there, obviously.

And would I mind if she came to visit me?

So, she came in and visited you. Was she nice?

She was lovely.

She would talk to me and the nurses would put the knitting needles

to help scratch because I was so itchy and Agatha would also scratch.

-You've been scratched by Agatha Christie!

-Absolutely!

Few people can say that! That's a wonderful story.

-Absolutely tremendous!

-And she was lovely.

We'd talk about the weather

and just what was happening in the outside world.

-Did she talk to you about Poirot and Miss Marple?

-Absolutely not.

-Not at all?

-No, I've never read any Agatha Christie books.

That's a terrible thing to say! A wonderful inscription.

-She leaves you with that.

-Yes, she was lovely.

It's written in pencil, in my exercise book...

Your exercise book, yes.

Because I was upside down, lying flat,

I could only ever write in pencil.

Well, it doesn't say very much, but it is Agatha Christie.

It's got a lovely story behind it. What do you think it's worth?

I've absolutely no idea.

You've got it framed, it must mean a lot to you.

I always had it folded up in an envelope,

just because it's personal to me.

And my husband said, "Put it behind glass."

Well, as I say, it is not a letter.

It is a very nice inscription, it's got a great story behind it.

-Shall we say £250?

-Fantastic.

We've got to get it out of the sun because it'll fade.

Absolutely. Thank you very much.

So, how do you know this?

-I've known that for the last two years.

-OK.

-It's been sitting in my lounge, up on my shelf.

-Do you like it?

I do love it.

-OK, how did you get it?

-Found it in a charity shop.

Well, it's really interesting

because mostly with 18th century glass, this is 18th century,

it's 1765, its date, and with most of that, we don't know who did them.

You know, who made this? The answer to that is not a clue.

You ask me that? I know exactly. His name is James Giles.

And he's the best glass gilder in Britain in the 18th century.

So, you're dealing with serious stuff and his work is

extremely recognisable and I've never seen this before.

So, on one hand, we have a gilded rim,

this is gold floated on here, gilded. Do you know what that is?

On that side? Arms of the City of London.

-We know that. That's easy.

-Yeah.

-And what's that?

-I don't know.

-It's a freedom hat.

-Oh, wow!

-It's a freedom hat.

This is John Wilkes, a revolutionary who travelled

the length of Britain spouting revolution.

Don't be crushed by the rich! Stand for yourselves!

And he had an amazing impact in two countries.

United States, revolution, 1770s, France, revolution.

And it all stems out of Wilkes, whose symbol was the hat of freedom.

Now, is this glass something presented to somebody getting

the Freedom of the City of London? It could be.

Or this could be a reference to John Wilkes.

"Overthrow the establishment of the city, throw violent revolution!"

That's what he's on about.

And that has a bearing on value, so obviously you've put

a value on it because you put your money where your mouth is.

How much did you stump up for this?

-A whole 10p coin!

-A whole 10p coin!

-Yes.

-A whole 10p!

-Well, there are two valuations on this.

The lower one is that it was given to somebody to celebrate

the Freedom of the City of London.

That's...only £2,000.

You're joking!

LAUGHTER

-Do you want to know any more?

-Go on, then.

If it's Wilkes, if you can tie that down to Wilkes, double it.

4,000 quid. So that, if I get my maths right, 10p into up to £4,000.

Amazed. Absolutely amazed.

As someone who started in life as a graphic designer,

I suppose I've always had an interest in illustration.

And looking at these, it sort of takes me back to when I was very

much younger because they are so representative of a certain period.

And also, of a particular way of doing things.

-These are advertisements, aren't they?

-Yes.

These were drawings for Burberry, the fashion chain.

And I worked in an advertising agency in London in the early '60s

and they were actually being thrown away.

-They were put into a sack and...

-What date is that?

-Um... '64-'65?

-Right.

-So these were scrap, in effect.

-They were.

-And you rescued them.

-I did.

-I managed to get 11.

-11.

What excites me about them

is simply that we're absolutely at that point of change.

This must have been almost the last time illustrators did advertising.

And what happened, of course, was the photographer.

And while photographers had always worked for fashion magazines

and that sort of thing, they hadn't really gone into advertising.

-What date do you think these are? '58?

-The dates are on the back.

-They range from about '58 through to '62.

-Yeah.

Well, that's exactly that moment.

-People still thought illustration, rather than photographer.

-Yeah.

While you were there, you must have seen that change.

Well, this is why these were being thrown out,

because the agency I was working for started to do photography with

the famous models of the day,

-like Jean Shrimpton with people like David Bailey.

-For advertisements.

Yes. So all the artwork was just chucked away. Very sad.

Now, I can see these are by somebody called Shirley Thompson.

-Who was she?

-I have no idea.

I've tried to find any link with her through the various copyright

agencies and illustrators' societies and so on,

but nobody's heard of her at all, or any members of her family.

-In a sense, she's sunk without trace.

-Yeah.

-I'm sure she must be traceable somehow,

but the real point is that actually again, she was suddenly out of date.

-Her work would have stopped almost overnight.

-Yes.

Nobody wanted drawings any more.

What I like about them is this wonderful use of black

and white, white space, solid black, all these extraordinary details.

And, of course, that super sort of almost Jackie Kennedy, Chanel,

style of fashion of that period.

So you've got 11, you rescued them. What happens to them now?

I've had them 50 years and it's time to let somebody else enjoy them.

-You've never framed them up.

-No, because I was worried about...

I didn't want to hide the backs, which have the...

And the backs are important cos we've got the Walter Thompson

label, the dates, it's all there.

These are very desirable, in the sense that they're so stylish,

they're so elegant, they're so much of a period. We look back,

in a sense, with excitement at the elegance of this time.

As they are, they would easily sell at £50-100 each, framed up and

looking smart, they could be two or three hundred pounds in a gallery.

So, I would say £1,000-1,500 for the lot. Well rescued.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

This collection.... Can I just say I found it a little bit daunting...

-Yeah.

-..when you first brought it along?

So you must first tell me, did you buy it?

What was the story behind it?

My father's cousin Betty left us a bungalow

-and these were just in a box, slung up the corner.

-They were hidden away.

We checked the insurance policy and there was an instamatic camera

and a portable radio on the insurance.

-Nothing else?

-Nothing else at all.

So, none of this was actually specified at all?

-No, didn't know it existed.

-Didn't have a clue.

There were obviously other things as well - paintings and...

-So this is a treasure trove!

-Yes.

-Real old-fashioned treasure trove.

Oh, yeah.

OK, I've had a good look through it and I think, as you can see,

it falls into three distinct categories.

I don't think Betty bought this necessarily piece by piece.

This is an accumulation. It's all 19th century, for a start.

All the pieces on the front shelf are a combination of mosaics

here and cameos there.

How would they have been used, all those little pieces?

-What would they have been used for?

-That's a very good question.

These are jewellers' cameos, before they've been mounted up.

-And I think this is the stock of a Victorian jeweller.

-Oh!

If I had to date all this, it would be around about sort of 1860,

1870, 1875.

-So, we're talking about 150 years old.

-Yes.

Now, remember, at that time, people went travelling, tourism,

they went to places like Rome and Florence.

-Mosaics.

-Yeah.

And all these are little mosaics.

So these tiny little pieces of coloured glass or marble,

inset in glass or slate.

Really made for tourists, going on the so-called grand tour.

Now, the back here is an accumulation of Victorian jewellery.

Now, I would like to tell you that all this was solid gold because

if I were to do that, then the value of it would be frankly terrifying!

But looking at it under my lens, the whole lot is gilt metal.

Hence this colour.

This is someone who specialised in lower value items for a mass

market in the Victorian era.

-Bangles, brooches and earrings and everything else.

-Yeah.

Now, the next question is, really,

have you thought how we're going to value this?

Well, yes, I wouldn't have a clue.

-With difficulty.

-Could you help me out then?

-Cos I don't know how best to approach this!

-No.

I think you have to work on the basis really

of doing a summary total.

Now we've got around about 250 mosaics,

their values will be between £10 and £50 each.

-Each one.

-Blimey, yes.

Just by the sheer volume you've got £2,000 to £4,000.

Now that's just for the mosaics.

The cameos, not quite as interesting,

£1,500 for that lot here.

Then we move onto the collection of jewellery at the back.

My instinct is that if you were to put it into auction with

the right auction house that knows how to make attractive lots up,

I think this lot will finish up making in the region of

-£4,000 or £5,000.

-Yes.

Now if you do a broad sweep valuation therefore of everything,

I think we're talking in the region of £10,000 for it all.

-Very good.

-Now considering all that there was on the documentation

was an instamatic camera?

-Yeah.

-And a portable radio.

-And a portable radio.

We mustn't forget the portable radio.

-I think that it must have been some shock.

-Yeah, it was.

Not as much of a shock as it has been for me

to do this with you today.

-This little album...

-Yes.

..has got drawings, paintings, that are incredibly detailed.

-Yeah, they are, yeah.

-Now, who was the artist?

My husband's grandfather, Edmund Hensler.

He was a German from Berlin and this was him during the First World War.

-The First World War.

-Yeah.

So was he a professional artist?

Yes, he was, yes, he was a porcelain painter in Berlin.

-A porcelain painter.

-Yes.

-And this porcelain plaque here,

is this typical of the sort of work that he produced?

Yes, yeah, that's 1942.

1942, during the war.

It's absolutely exquisite, beautiful.

It is one of the loveliest painted porcelain tiles

I think I've ever seen.

-He must have been the most incredible artist.

-We think so, yes.

Now looking back at this little album again,

they seem to show military subjects because look, if you look down here

you've got a soldier here, a German soldier, with his

Pickelhaube on, and what's the date, oh, this is his initial, is it?

-It's dated 1917.

-Yes.

So this is towards the end of the First World War,

and this looks like a French chateau, so I would imagine

that he would have been in France at some point, Belgium and France,

and must have taken a sketch book with him and painted little

-postcard sized watercolours of the places he visited.

-Yes.

The detail in them is some of the best I've seen.

Mm, apparently he used to just have one thread of the brush

and that's all he used to paint these details with.

And the sensitive touch.

This cathedral is just magnificent, I have to say.

What do you know about him?

Well, basically he was in the First World War, and then went back

to Berlin and then had his own workshop, his own company.

-Yes.

-And during this time,

we believe he actually did some work with the Kaiser.

I see there's a piece of glass here, so he wasn't just a painter,

and a painter on porcelain, was he?

No, he liked to, we believe, just experiment with things,

-and I think this is one piece he experimented with.

-That is just...

..astounding! This is a piece of glass,

and it depicts Hermes with his caduceus,

and it's a beautiful, quality piece, it really is incredible.

But you know I've not heard of him, this is what I can't understand.

Why have we never heard of him?

We have no other records, we have no records, this is all we've got.

So he was a soldier during the First World War.

-Yeah.

-He was a commercial artist. What happened to him then?

At the end of the Second World War,

he became a member of the Volkssturm.

They were a bit like the Home Guard, the British Home Guard,

they were the older men who were too old

to actually fight in Germany,

and they defended Berlin, for example. What happened to him?

He got taken by the Russians.

-Yes.

-And died in a camp just outside Berlin in 1946.

-What a tragedy. There's the end of a man of enormous talent.

-Yeah.

I have to say these paintings, these watercolours really speak to me,

and they tell of a man of great sensitivity,

great ability, great talent.

They're magnificent.

However magnificence doesn't always turn to high value.

Oh, well there's no...

-And the plaque, which is Second World War in period...

-Yes.

..is going to be worth...

..£80 to £100.

The glass depicting Hermes is going to be worth

probably the same, £80 to £100.

The album...

..should be worth a huge amount of money

-because of the detail, but we've never heard of him.

-Yes.

So, I think, despite its beauty,

that it's going to be worth £500 to £700, so I think, taken as a whole,

these objects are worth somewhere in the region of £700 to £900.

Now, in my mind, that's not enough.

That isn't a tenth of what it's worth! It's magnificent.

A lot of people probably know that George Frederic Watts was one of

-our greatest Victorian artists.

-Mm-hm.

-But maybe not everybody knows that he was also a sculptor.

-Yes.

-And you've brought along this bronze by him today.

-Yeah.

How did it come into your possession?

Erm, well, I inherited it from my mother,

and I think she inherited it from her father.

-Right, so it goes back two generations?

-Yes.

-Yeah, OK.

-And do you like it as a sculpture?

-I love it.

My mother was a great horsewoman and she always really loved this statue.

-And do you know that it's slightly smaller than the original?

-Mm-hm.

The original plaster model is in the Watts Gallery,

-which is near Guildford...

-Oh, right!

..which is a terrific gallery representing Watts entirely

and has recently been restored, erm, and the plaster model of this

-is there, and it's over five metres high.

-Oh, wow!

-Yeah, and there were three bronzes made from that plaster model.

-Mm-hm.

-But it's interesting that George Watts died in 1904...

-Yes.

..and yet this bronze, which is entitled Physical Energy,

and you can see why, is dated later than that.

We can see on the front its sign there.

Er, "Physical Energy, G.F. Watts,"

and over here, you can see "T.H. Wren, dated 1914."

-Yes.

-Thomas Wren was Watts' assistant,

and when he died he continued working with Mary Watts,

and in 1914, they decided to do a limited edition of small versions

-of the larger Physical Energy bronze.

-Yes.

-And I think they intended originally to produce 50.

-Mm-hm.

-But of course this was 1914. War broke out.

-Yes.

So consequently the idea was shelved,

-and only about half a dozen, I think, were made...

-Oh, right.

-..of this size.

-Yes.

-And this is one of them.

-Oh, wow.

And really it's a transitional bronze,

if you like, and it's moving from the more formal,

Classical Victorian bronzes to something slightly more modernist.

Erm, because there are so few of these bronzes around,

they virtually never appear, erm,

and because of that it's difficult to put a price on,

-but it's an important bronze by an important artist.

-Yes.

And I think it would probably fetch in the region of £20,000 to £25,000.

Oh, wow. Thank you, yes, yeah.

-So look after it.

-Yes, yes, definitely, thank you.

So tell me about this wee beastie.

-Well, I believe it to be a spittoon.

-Right.

-From China.

It came from my great grandmother, who was Norwegian

and married a Chinaman,

the first European-Chinese marriage, I understand.

Uh-huh, and did she use a spittoon?

Well, I believe she did, but I'm not absolutely certain about that.

You're not sure if she used this as a spittoon.

I'm not sure she used that as a spittoon, no.

Tell me how you would use this as a spittoon.

Well, I understand that they kept it up their sleeve.

-Uh-huh.

-And then, like that.

Well, it's an interesting story.

First of all we're looking at a very, very small toad.

-Yes.

-But the strange thing about him is...

-Three legs.

Three legs, the three legged toad.

-Yes.

-We don't see many round here.

I've never seen one.

But in China the three legged toad is a very, very famous animal.

He's a very lucky animal. He brings fortune.

So the aperture at the top here is in the form of a peach.

Oh, right. Yeah.

And the peach is a symbol of long life,

so good fortune, long life.

How old do you think he is?

Well, I believe the late 1800s.

-So that would make him, well, just over 100 years old.

-Yes.

OK, well, I'm going to go back another hundred years,

-I think this is late 1700s.

-Good heavens.

Yeah, now then, being that he is a very popular animal,

-would you use him...

-LARS COUGHS

-..as a spittoon?

-Probably not.

He is just a beautiful little ornamental, probably brush-washer.

-Oh.

-So you might well carry him around in your sleeve.

-Yeah.

-But you should not spit on your luck.

-No, right.

-And how lucky is he?

I've no idea. 80 to 120?

80 to 120.

Well, I think that he's probably worth somewhere in the region of,

let's say, somewhere between £200 and £400.

Very nice.

Pass him on to someone in the family when you croak.

I will, yes. Yes. LAUGHTER

I had to get that one in. I know it will be cut.

I suspect there are an awful lot of people out there

who have no idea what these items here are used for.

They're quite unusual.

They're obviously hinged, they have a cutting blade.

I know what they're used for.

Do you know what they're used for?

I do indeed, yes, this is a collection of betel nut cutters

which I gathered when I was working as a dentist in South East Asia.

And what they use is the betel nut,

the areca nut, is an after dinner digestive,

and they cut up, they slice up the nut,

wrap it up with leaf and lime

or lime paste or spices as well.

Areca nut can stain teeth very heavily,

so part of working as a dentist there

was having to clean the betel nut stain off people's teeth.

That was where the fascination came from,

and I started collecting these from the tiny little shops

in the bazaar, a dollar here, a dollar there sort of thing.

Yes. Interestingly enough there are various different types here,

-mostly brass.

-Yes.

Although there's some iron examples here as well, that's not unusual.

Dating these can be quite difficult because a lot of them

look an awful lot older than they actually are, and also

it's still a ritual, so to speak, that's actually carried on now.

So they're patterns that have been in use for,

in some cases, centuries.

I'll pick out one pair in particular

and I'm going to pick out the most commonly occurring pattern,

which might seem like a strange thing to do,

but I think it illustrates these well,

and it's this pattern here, king and queen pattern.

For obvious reasons, I think, you have a male and a female,

king or queen, and if we look at the way they work, obviously,

it's pretty simple.

They're just a scissor action with a steel or iron blade in there.

Now, if you picked these up for a few dollars each here and there,

then you did fine, because to be frank,

a little king and queen pattern pair like this,

and I think these are probably early 20th century,

the ones that you have here,

it's probably worth £40 or £50, something like that.

-Oh, right.

-So that's the sort of price you're likely to see them

up for sale on the internet perhaps, something like that.

So you've got roughly what, 12 pairs here,

so you're looking at around about, as just a ball park figure,

round about £400 or £500-worth on this table.

But it's obvious to me

that you didn't really quite collect them for their value, did you?

No, it was the dental interest, I'm afraid to say!

Tumblers in a modern context sort of equal whisky and water,

that's the association we have,

but according to the iconography on here,

we've got hops and barley wheel-engraved onto here

which is clearly for beer.

So this is a beer tumbler, but the point of interest is of course

this extraordinary wording that we find wheel-engraved onto the back,

which is going to send us on a bit of a geographical tour, isn't it?

My grandmother was in Bedford,

four miles away her mother was in Wilstead, and we found this glass

in a sideboard a few months ago and it said Shidlington on it.

And a quick look at the map shows that there's a Shillington

just within four or five miles of Wilstead and Bedford, so we think

this is just on the periphery of our known family tree horizon.

We know where grandmother was, great grandmother, but this is somebody

we don't know anything about, but the clue's in the name of the pub.

Well, what is the red sign post?

I think there was an association with the gentleman in question

and the pub, but apart from that I know nothing.

So he's not family? He's the next door neighbour.

We think there must have been like

a betrothal joining in the family clan.

Ah, yes, and so the goods were united.

Well, its date, I mean, I'd check the lettering

because lettering evolved at an extremely regular pace, you know,

a predictable pace, and 1800 seems to be about the right date,

and interestingly the same form of glass has been made in Britain for

50 years before that, so to place it at 1800 is probably about right.

And whilst it's sending you on this mission,

its value is handicapped a bit by the lack of further iconography

which would boost its value. The writing's great.

As it stands, as three, I suppose what,

£300, well, just as it stands, you selling.

So that's really not bad, at all,

especially as you found it in the cupboard.

The real value is just that tantalising glimpse

-into the far edge of our family tree.

-I get goose bumps.

It's this idea, this was his drinking glass in the pub

and he'd come in after a hard day in the fields, or wherever he worked,

and say, "I'd like my tumbler of liquid refreshment,"

and the landlord would get that down and say, "There you are".

-Put it in your hand. Cheers, man.

-So, to you, William.

When I was young, my father taught me the joys of English porcelain,

and I was collecting when I was still at school, but what about you?

Well, I'm interested in, like, unique little pieces

and I've got it from my dad cos he's, like,

a really big collector of Chinese porcelain and things,

and I've kind of inherited it and just like unique pieces like that.

So you like to collect yourself...?

Yeah, mainly Chinese teapots,

I like them a lot but I like little mini-pieces like this.

A deer, I suppose. Where did you find this?

Well, I got given it by a friend because I said I really liked it,

and he was generous to give it to me and I was like, ooh.

That's the best way to collect,

-because it didn't cost anything at all.

-Yes.

But, but, well, let us have a look.

-I mean it's lovely and primitive, isn't it?

-Yes.

Made of porcelain, it's a classic model from Derby.

Derby produced these deer in around about 1750, that's very much early

in the days of English porcelain, and it is one of those great images.

I would have been looking for something like this

when I was young too, but there's a chap called Reginald Newland,

-I don't know if you've heard of him.

-No.

He's not very well known these days, but back in the 1950s

and early '60s he was quite notorious.

He was a little bit of a dealer in porcelain

and he produced pieces of porcelain for many great collections,

and then suddenly he was turning up more and more

rather wonderful pieces of early Derby especially.

And someone got a bit suspicious

and checked on where they were all coming from,

and Reginald Newland was the source of these,

-and, unfortunately, this is one of his.

-Yeah.

So it goes back a bit, but he was very clever,

he worked at Torquay, and so these are known as "Torquay fakes".

Yeah, so, I mean, they're jolly good.

We all got caught out.

When I got caught out by one Torquay piece

and my father told me, "You stupid boy, you should have known better",

but they are clever because he made them look old,

-that was the good thing.

-Yes.

I mean, these... He purposely put a crack in there,

so when it was, the clay was dry, he tapped it so it split a bit

and so there was a flaw, and then in the kiln,

that built into a real crack, because he knew they should have.

He used to supply shops with his fakes and he sent instructions

to his shopkeepers who sold them, how to make them look old.

He said what you had to do was put gum Arabic in the corners

and then put it in the Hoover bag.

That was Reg Newland's instructions, so when you look inside here,

-there's all sorts of little bits of dirt.

-Yeah.

That's from the Hoover bag.

So what you've got is a great piece,

-because, I mean, you learn more, I think, from a fake.

-Yeah.

You probably do, especially a classic fake like this.

So there's lots of fakes made nowadays and they're clever,

but Reg Newland was one of the best.

But, erm, had it been the real one,

you'd be looking probably at sort of £3,000 or more

for a real Derby deer,

but for a Torquay one, let's say £100.

Yeah, thank you for telling me.

-But learn from it, and go on collecting, that's the joy.

-Yeah.

And we see an awful lot of Queen Victoria's knickers

on the Antiques Roadshow. I'm not quite sure why

so many people have so much of her underwear,

other than to say she obviously had quite a lot of it.

But, look, she was obviously a lady of some considerable girth

towards the end of her reign, so they're pretty sizeable,

and the interesting thing about them...

Well, before Queen Victoria,

women didn't really wear knickers actually,

if you think about Jane Austen's time and before then,

there wasn't a lot going on under the dresses.

But towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign

wearing knickers was a lot more common,

and you may have noticed the obvious design element of them.

They are... Well, they're crotchless,

I think that's probably the best way to put them,

and that was, well, for hygiene reasons and also for kind of ease,

you know, under that crinoline and all those undergarments.

So, ladies, I just wondered what you thought about

the design of Queen Victoria's pants. A good idea?

VOICES IN CROWD: No.

-No?

-No.

-Definitely not.

No.

I don't think this is a fashion we're going to see again.

-It's not the day for a cup of tea, is it?

-It isn't really, is it?

But if it was, what a wonderful teapot to make it in.

Have you had it long?

No, well, it doesn't actually belong to me, it belongs to a friend

of the family who unfortunately has had a knee operation, and so

I said I was coming along here, she said, would I bring it along?

-So remember everything I tell you.

-Yeah.

It's a splendid teapot, it is just over 200 years old.

-It's about 1790.

-Is it?

-So I think if we were to use it,

-we'd have to use very exclusive tea bags.

-We certainly would.

-Or maybe even leaf tea.

-Yes!

Because it doesn't belong to you, you might not have noticed,

it's actually marked by the potter.

We've got J Aynsley here for John Aynsley.

John Aynsley actually founded Aynsley China,

which is a company still going today.

But he started in London in the mid-18th century

learning his trade as an engraver,

and of course engraving and transfer printing on pottery

was still a new and a very desirable technique, so he was a clever man.

He went to London, he came back to his family home in Stoke-on-Trent,

set up a pottery factory.

And you can see, the engraving, that it is really beautifully done

and very clear, and it is in great condition.

It's a Masonic print - "Keep within the compass", it's entitled,

we've got a Masonic man here under...

I think actually he's ended up in jail so this is maybe in the centre.

If you keep within the compass,

you have a lovely prosperous life with your farm and your windmill.

If you step outside the compass you end up in jail,

so it's a moral teapot.

And then on the other side... we have a lady as well.

This is all transfer-printed from a copper plate

and then hand-painted. And of course what it did,

it made quite complicated designs available,

not to the masses, to the middle classes.

So it's a good thing, it's in pretty much perfect condition,

there's a couple of little chips, we can forgive that for its age.

It's very clear, it's Masonic which is always very saleable.

When you go home tonight, tell your friend it's worth £800.

£800! Oh, she will be pleased.

So if she uses it, remember, very fancy tea bags.

-Very fancy tea bags, right. Thank you very much.

-It's a pleasure.

We've got here items relating to the 1901-1904 expedition

-to the Antarctic.

-Mm.

How does this relate to you and your family?

Well, I was given these by my grandmother,

who is this lady here,

-and when she was in her 80s, she came to live with us.

-OK.

And she was pretty well bedridden, and every morning she'd...

I'd go into her bedroom and she had a box of treasures by the bed,

and she'd pull things out and she'd tell me the stories.

And in the end she gave me the Discovery ribbon

and these other things,

because I'd joined a children's club called Discoverers,

and she thought I could wear it to the club,

but my mother wouldn't let me.

How sad! And what stories did she tell you?

Well, she told me about her engagement to Charles Royds.

-Charles Royds?

-Yes.

-He was the lieutenant on the Discovery.

-That's right, yes.

And we all know the other big names there - you know, Shackleton -

-but Royds, one of the great heroes of the expedition.

-Yes.

I didn't know that at the time, she just called him Charlie.

What happened to the engagement?

-Um, her family didn't approve, sadly.

-Oh, no!

And pressure was put on for him to disconnect from her.

She was always a little bit scathing about that.

-So he came back from the expedition in 1904, one assumes.

-Yeah.

And they were engaged then for a while?

Yes, and this family album is very happy photos of them

playing golf and whatnot and...

And then it all went wrong in...

-And then it went wrong.

-1906, 1907...?

She never said exactly what the time scale was.

Well, a wonderful story,

and as a little girl you must have been enthralled by it.

-Oh, yes, yes.

-Listening to it all. So what have you got here?

You've got HMS Crescent, which was the flagship of the Navy

in North America, and then he became lieutenant of the Discovery.

-Yes.

-So these are both hat bands.

-Yes.

-Which they would have worn.

-Yes.

-And you've got the album.

-Yes.

This tiny thing over here in the corner.

Now, that is what gets me very excited.

It is a medal given to people who participated in a sports day.

Now, they were down there for three years,

they didn't work every day and on odd occasions

they had a festival and a sports day.

And this was a medal that must have been struck in the UK

-and then taken out there in advance...

-Yes.

..for a number of sports - sledding, skating, skiing and shooting,

-and maybe a few more.

-Oh, I see, right.

So they must have taken out five or six.

-This is one of them.

-Oh, my goodness!

And it's been sitting in the drawer all these years!

-Well, for me to see it is very exciting.

-Yes.

I can't say, "Well, one appeared at auction two or three years ago

"and made x amount, so this one's worth y."

So if I were you, I certainly wouldn't part with it

unless somebody gave me at least £10,000.

Oooh! SHE LAUGHS

Well, I think Granny would have been very surprised at that one.

She just thought it was interesting and fun.

Well, it is interesting and you've got something

that will live with you for the rest of your life.

-Memories of Granny, really.

-Brilliant memories.

-And her big romance.

-Great.

Are you a seasoned drinker?

Yeah, but I wouldn't drink out of that, I've seen what's inside it.

You've seen what's inside it?

It's full of dust and stuff like that and bits of spider and things.

-Dust and stuff and bits of spider?!

-Yeah.

-It could almost be a curse, couldn't it?

-Could be, yeah.

-What's kept in it?

-Pampas grass and Palm Sunday crosses from Mass.

OK. What have you found out about it?

I thought that was a Bellarmine jug.

-I've seen ones in local museums which were in worse condition.

-Yes.

And have been broken and are smaller,

and I assumed from this that it would be a copy.

OK, you've got the right name, Bellarmine.

-Yes.

-Cardinal Bellarmine, a man famous for his long sermons

-and his long beard.

-Yeah.

And whose face was then copied on these stoneware flagons,

otherwise very plain, but with this little bit of decoration

-in the form of this grimacing Cardinal Bellarmine.

-Yeah.

Which gives the whole group this name.

Made of stoneware covered in a wash of iron oxide

and then fired in a kiln where salt is thrown into the kiln,

it disperses around the kiln and it gives you this tiger glaze sheen.

OK.

Occasionally, as here, you've got a medallion,

and just occasionally symbols like these,

which may well denote the establishment,

the pub or the tavern for which this was made.

Because these flagons are basically for storing spirits or wines.

-But getting back to the spiders, the dust.

-Yeah.

It was a tradition in this country, back in the 17th and 18th century,

just about, to put a Bellarmine bottle by the front door.

-Yeah, OK.

-Because when a building was consecrated,

you had to keep the evil spirits away,

and usually what they put into these was nail clippings...

Yeah.

..carpenter's nails, and just topped up with a little bit of urine.

Oh, lovely(!)

Which is why you shouldn't have drunk out of it.

Um, and then they were enclosed and they were dug, literally,

into the ground underneath the threshold of the door.

OK.

These were known as witches' bottles.

-Oh!

-And they keep away evil spirits.

I'm not going to sell it then, am I?

No, you would bring down a curse on the whole family

because it's such a big one.

Yeah, you'd get a lot of evil in there.

THEY LAUGH

Anyhow, joking apart,

people do collect Bellarmine bottles for their ceramic importance.

Incidentally, let's just look at this,

look at the way the potter has just left his own personal mark,

he's drawn that lovely loop handle

and then just to make sure it sits in place on the body,

he's gone like this with his thumb, he's pushed.

That has stuck in there since the late 17th century.

-It's as old as that?

-Yes.

Oh, I thought it'd have to be a copy because it's still complete.

No, it's... it's in very good condition.

But should you be brave enough to risk the curse

and sell a bottle, you would get somewhere, I think,

between £400 and £700 for it.

Oh, that's fair enough.

But always look over your shoulder...

Oh, yes!

LAUGHTER

How evil do you think this snake really looks?

Um, I think he's fairly evil, yes.

-Yes.

-And now he's amazingly evil.

Oh, that poor frog, it is just terrible!

You don't happen to be born in... what would it be, 1966, do you?

That's awfully kind of you to say so, but no.

I was actually born in the Year Of The Dragon.

Ah! Year Of The Snake was '66.

-Lovely thing, Japanese ivory.

-Uh-huh.

Made at the end of the Meiji period, round about 1900.

One of the zodiac animals, they're quite popular in Japanese art,

to make dragons and snakes and so on and so forth.

Value on this one, around about £600.

No! You are joking, aren't you?!

Oh, that's fabulous! My mum will be delighted, thank you so much.

Well, unless you're a frog, it's gorgeous.

It is rather lovely, we love it.

To be immortalised by a great sculptor or artist

is a rare privilege,

and you've had the good fortune,

at clearly a very young age,

to be caught by Jacob Epstein, very, very famous sculptor.

Indeed, Sir Robert Sainsbury, of the Sainsbury Centre behind us,

his first acquisition as a collector was of a Jacob Epstein,

-which gives you some idea of...

-How important it is.

Yeah, just how prominent an artist you're dealing with.

I think he was fascinated with the plaits, that's what he told me.

OK, so, I mean, I don't want to define your age on this,

but we're talking, what, 1950s?

Yes, 1950s.

And how did that come about?

Well, my mother saw an exhibition and she fell in love with his work,

and she got to contact his agent and sent a photograph,

and after a while he agreed to do it.

Because so prominent a sculptor probably wanted to make sure that

his subject was up to it.

Yes, I suppose so!

-And I have to say, he's done a fantastic job.

-Yes.

For an artist who was pretty high-risk, wasn't he?

He was, yes, but my mother was absolutely determined.

I mean, we're talking about a man who was known for his

close to the bone, sexually explicit portrait sculpture.

-Mm.

-A man who actually, of course, was born in America,

Upper East Side New York, Jewish-Polish extraction,

comes to London and really shakes things up.

And his civic sculpture, of course, being very famous.

So you sent the photograph and then you meet the man?

I met the man, I went to his studio. And I can visualise it now,

a big place, and he'd got all these busts all over the place,

and he made me sit up on a stool and he looked at me,

and he'd got this enormous bit of clay

and he worked away with his nail and his thumb like this, for a week.

Yes, I can sort of see what you mean,

there is a bit of nail and thumb in the hair.

And then he obviously did something very imaginative

with your curls, he's given them a sort of buoyancy, a movement.

Those are plaits, yes, plaits which were doubled up with a bow.

And it gives us something to look through,

-some sort of tracery in the background.

-Yes, yes.

I think it's absolutely lovely. The curious thing is that Epstein,

even although he's very famous name,

is not particularly a very celebrated sculptor on the market.

But having said that, I mean,

I'm sure you don't have in mind selling yourself at this stage.

No, no, not at all.

But I could see it being worth £6,000, £7,000,

as a work in bronze by a very famous artist

who was a firebrand in his youth.

I agree, yes. Well, I love it dearly, it sits in my drawing room.

If I hold this necklace like this,

I think it's then possible to see the sort of sheer scope of it.

It's a line of white-coloured links

with pearl-like beads in between,

and then suspended at the end is a little drop pendant

with a pearl and little white stones above.

And it's wearable, isn't it? I mean, I assume that you do wear it.

I do occasionally. I think it's beautiful.

Yes, easy to wear with anything, any colour?

Anything, the length is nice because you can...

Let me put it down, and then I'll tell you what it is.

-Now, first of all, do you know what the white metal is?

-No.

-Right, it's not silver.

-Right.

And it's not white gold, it's platinum.

Oh, gosh! Wow!

Yes, probably made round about 1900.

And then in between each of the individual platinum links

you have little natural pearls.

And then this rather sweet little drop which has got a diamond cap.

-Has it?

-And a pearl mounted below.

Now, where did it come from?

It came to me through my aunt, through my grandmother.

No information that percolated through the generations

as to how it was bought, or anything like that?

No, I've no idea.

And did the same person who owned the chain

originally own the contents of this little blue box?

-I believe so.

-Mm.

Inside is the kind of thing that jewellery valuers like me

-very much want to see on days like today.

-Wow.

Because within the case is

a truly beautiful pair of earrings,

with large pear-shaped drop stones,

colourless stone tops,

mounted in gold,

and you can probably assume what I'm going to tell you,

that they are diamonds.

Now, let me tell you about the age of them

because these earrings are made in around about 1860.

Right, yes, that would fit.

-But that's not quite all, really.

-Oh, right, OK.

Because the principal diamond drops which,

if I remove from the case, you can see that on the back

you can remove each of them from the top sections, so do you know that?

You can actually take them off and wear them either as diamond studs...

-Yeah.

-Or as the whole...

-Well, I was told that you wore the studs during the day.

-Daytime.

Then when you wanted a bit more bling in the evening,

you put the drops on.

What was known as night and day, night and day.

Now, the reason I've got this bit of white card here

is because I wanted to show you - I just put my lens like that,

if I take the earrings out of the case

and place them against the white card,

can you see how very colourless they are?

Yes.

Now, these are not the same age, the principal diamonds,

-as the age of the earrings.

-Oh, right.

Because in my opinion, the diamonds are actually 18th-century

old mined diamonds, the old goods,

the ones that we want to see but we never see.

Wow!

And then, as if that's not enough,

we've got the diamond top stones as well.

So night and day earrings. You love them?

-I love them.

-I love them.

The pearl chain is very desirable.

Everybody likes natural pearls at the moment,

and truly a long pearl guard chain is very desirable.

Would you be pleased to hear it's worth about £4,000 to £5,000,

-that chain?

-GASPING

Wow, gosh.

Not bad news?

That's amazing.

Shall we move on to the main event?

OK.

£25,000.

AMAZED GASPS

I knew they were valuable but I... wouldn't have put that much on.

As a combination, you're not far short of £30,000

for those two little baubles on the table there.

That's a lot of money.

But they're worth it.

Well, they are beautiful.

Have a look at this.

This is the pamphlet that we give to visitors who come to the Roadshow,

gives a few kinds of guides as to what to expect, and what about this?

This is a pamphlet from our American cousin,

the Antiques Roadshow in the States,

which is a big programme over there, watched by a lot of people.

And you've come over from the States

-and you've been to the Antiques Roadshow in the States.

-Indeed.

And what's it like? How is it the same, how is it different?

Here it's like you're with your closest friends,

it's out in a garden setting, and it's a very beautiful experience.

And when we went to Anaheim near Disneyland,

it was nice, but it was in a convention centre

and there was no comparison.

And you get thousands of people coming along to the programmes

in the States as well, I imagine.

Oh, yeah, you have to enter a lottery,

you have to win lottery.

Only 4% of the people who enter the lottery get a ticket.

-Oh, my goodness!

-They only award 6,000 tickets,

and then you're told a specific hour of the day to show up.

There you are, you see? Come along to us

and you will definitely get seen by an expert, there's no lottery here.

From the Antiques Roadshow, the original and the best,

in Norwich, bye-bye.