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Today we return to an estate in Yorkshire | 0:00:08 | 0:00:10 | |
which is home not only to the ruins of Fountains Abbey, | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
but also to a unique 18th-century water garden. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
The two were brought together in the 1760s | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
and, since then, have been awarded the highest accolade - | 0:00:19 | 0:00:23 | |
that of World Heritage Site. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:25 | |
Welcome back to the Antiques Roadshow | 0:00:25 | 0:00:26 | |
from the Fountains Abbey Estate near Ripon, in North Yorkshire. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
BELL RINGS | 0:00:31 | 0:00:32 | |
BIRDSONG | 0:00:34 | 0:00:35 | |
This is the fabulous view | 0:01:12 | 0:01:13 | |
that wealthy Georgians would travel to see | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
on a well-trodden tourist trail. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
The ruins of Fountains Abbey and the Water Gardens, | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
designed by John Aislabie. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
At least, he spent the latter part of his life creating these gardens. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
Before that, back in 1695, he was the local MP for Ripon, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:32 | |
In 1721, disaster struck his career. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:39 | |
He was expelled from Parliament, imprisoned in the Tower of London | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
and disqualified for life from public office, | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
all because of his part in the South Sea Bubble financial scandal. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:50 | |
Within the walls of his prison cell in the Tower of London, | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
John Aislabie found his own way of escaping - | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
he spent his time dreaming of plans for a garden, | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
and when he was released, he returned to Yorkshire and spent | 0:02:05 | 0:02:07 | |
the rest of his life devoted to creating Studley Royal Water Garden. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:12 | |
He consulted an architect, a water engineer, master masons | 0:02:14 | 0:02:18 | |
and gardeners, and employed hundreds of local men from nearby Ripon, | 0:02:18 | 0:02:22 | |
who dug and built the garden using the River Skell, | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
to feed the canals, cascades and ponds. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
But it was John Aislabie's ideas | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
and passion that created this amazing water garden. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:34 | |
John Aislabie wanted to provide his visitors with one surprise | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
after another so, at every twist and turn, there would be | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
a strategically placed folly, or a cleverly engineered vista, | 0:02:43 | 0:02:49 | |
providing his visitors with a place to stop, pause, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
and admire the scenery. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:54 | |
Look at that. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:56 | |
'And to give his guests a gentle fright, | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
'they were encouraged into the serpentine tunnel.' | 0:03:05 | 0:03:08 | |
I can't see a thing! | 0:03:08 | 0:03:09 | |
Phew! | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
Oh! | 0:03:13 | 0:03:14 | |
I won't be doing that again in a hurry. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:16 | |
And just upstream from the water gardens is Fountains Abbey, | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
where people are gathering for today's Antiques Roadshow. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
Well, let's hope there are no frights, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:29 | |
but lots of surprises in store for our visitors and our experts here | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
in the gorgeous ruins of Fountains Abbey. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
And who knows? You might be in for a surprise yourself | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
if you play along with our valuation game. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:39 | |
Test your skills, press red on your remote control, or go to | 0:03:39 | 0:03:43 | |
bbc.co.uk/antiquesroadshow on your computer or on your smartphone. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:48 | |
What a glorious summer's day we're having here in Fountains Abbey. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
We're so lucky. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:57 | |
And you came to my table and you put this in front of me | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
and you said, "I reckon I've been sold a pup." | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
Well, I was suspicious that I might have been sold a pup. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:09 | |
I wasn't quite sure. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
I bought it as a Victorian... | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
gold and diamond and amethyst brooch, | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
but since then I've thought - this is quite bling-bling. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:25 | |
Is it maybe a bit too good to be true? | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
And why were you in the shop buying this? | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
Well, my stepfather sold the farm that I grew up on - | 0:04:31 | 0:04:36 | |
for which he's never been forgiven - and I had some cows of my own | 0:04:36 | 0:04:41 | |
and, of course, they all went in the auction, and I thought I would | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
spend the money on something that couldn't be frittered away. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:50 | |
So I thought I would buy a piece of jewellery | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
and I'm just wondering whether it was a good purchase, | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
or whether I was sold a pup all those years ago. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
Now, how many cows did you sell? | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
Well, there were eight altogether, but this is worth six cows worth. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:07 | |
Six cows worth... | 0:05:07 | 0:05:08 | |
-..40 years ago. -Yes. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
This cost £285 which was an awful lot of money at the time. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
That's an awful lot of money. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
Well, rest assured that these are sparkling really well, | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
because they are diamonds. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
Good. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
And the amethyst is a lovely colour amethyst. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:31 | |
You know you can get amethysts that are pale in colour | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
and they go all the way down to a deep, dark violet colour. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:37 | |
And this has got this wonderful richness about it, | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
this wonderful rich quality. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:42 | |
The diamonds are cushion-shaped diamonds. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
Why they're so bright is | 0:05:45 | 0:05:46 | |
because they've got very little inclusions inside. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
The date of this brooch is about 1850, it's sort of mid-Victorian. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
-Good. -This is...all this beautiful, scrolled, embossed work, in gold. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:58 | |
So, the value, the value of six cows... | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
Well, they've gone up a bit since then. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:02 | |
Have they gone up a bit? | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
Well, your brooch has also gone up a bit since then too. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
I would say that if you were to sell this at auction... | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
It would be in the region of around about £3,000. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:14 | |
SHE GULPS | 0:06:14 | 0:06:15 | |
Well, that's a relief! | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
-Thank you. -So all those beautiful cows you had, | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
you know that they've all gone into this brooch and enjoy wearing it. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
Thank you. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
It's wonderful to see a child's book with child's illustrations in it, | 0:06:34 | 0:06:39 | |
but in this condition, and for this date, 1879. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
"Juvenile Sketches by Robert Lowndes Aspinall and | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
"Augusta Isabel Aspinall, intended | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
"for their Aunt Bessie Aspinall." | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
Do we know anything about them? Where do they come from? | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
Yes, they lived in Chelsea, London. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:57 | |
-Yes. -They were obviously a well-to-do family | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
cos in the 1871 and 1881 census, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:05 | |
-they had eight servants in each... -Good heavens! | 0:07:05 | 0:07:09 | |
-..in each census. -And you looked up these...? | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
Yes, I found it and on top of that, when their mother was widowed, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:18 | |
she moved to Folkestone where | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
-Bertie - Robert - went to boarding school. -Yes. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
-And she even had seven servants in the house then. -In Folkestone? | 0:07:23 | 0:07:27 | |
-Yes. -Which was the cheaper place to go. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
Chelsea - well, Chelsea wasn't very fashionable in those days. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
Ah, right. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:33 | |
But here we are, look, this is a wonderful one of a cricket match. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
Look at this, all these stick people but they are really quite, | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
quite remarkable, aren't they? | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
All the carriages here, and the runners there, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:46 | |
and the lady painting on the boundary. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
Goodness me, I hadn't even noticed that. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:51 | |
She was the long stop obviously. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
Right. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:54 | |
Or could she be...? Oh, and the couple down here, a couple, | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
they're boxing, there's a fight going on down there. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:01 | |
This is a child's imagination. How old were they? | 0:08:01 | 0:08:03 | |
-Do you know how old they were? -Yes, yes, Robert was ten, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
and his older sister was 13. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
Yes. Oh, now, look at this one, by Augusta, this is at the zoo. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
Zoological Gardens - this must be in Regent's Park. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
I presume so. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:17 | |
They've got a camel and a zebra here, parrots... | 0:08:17 | 0:08:22 | |
..a flamingo, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:25 | |
-a little baby trying to feed itself to the lions. -Yes. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:30 | |
All the family is going out, this is absolutely wonderful, | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
all in their dress, in this slightly primitive, but absolutely exact. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:38 | |
You can...it's almost a diary of a nobody. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:40 | |
We rarely ever see this sort of thing pictorially | 0:08:40 | 0:08:43 | |
and for it to have survived, as I say, is quite remarkable. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
But going on from that, this is one I rather like. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
I suppose I like it because of the good colour in it. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
This is an enormous drawing room, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
and there they all are, | 0:08:56 | 0:08:58 | |
there's the tea and all the buns on it. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
This one's the vicar, he looks as though he's got indigestion, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
and wonderful gossip going on in this corner. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
Two ladies in the height of fashion there. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
This is the sort of thing you just don't see. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
We see pictures of interiors in all the ladies' magazines, and all | 0:09:11 | 0:09:16 | |
that sort of thing, but nothing like this, from the eyes of a child. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
So... | 0:09:19 | 0:09:20 | |
you collected this, you bought it? | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
In 1970. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:24 | |
Why did you buy it? What attracted you? | 0:09:24 | 0:09:27 | |
The fact that it was 35 children's illustrations | 0:09:27 | 0:09:30 | |
of life in London at the time. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:32 | |
Which is virtually unknown. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
Yes, absolutely. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:35 | |
You'd never seen anything like it. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
Well, I haven't seen anything like it, | 0:09:37 | 0:09:39 | |
and neither has the Museum of Childhood. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
I mean, if you saw that on the market now, how much would you pay for it? | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
I think somewhere in the region of £2,000... More likely. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:50 | |
It's a fabulous collection, thank you for bringing it in. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
So, a rather exotic-looking table in Yorkshire. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
Where does it come from? | 0:09:58 | 0:09:59 | |
Well, my grandma bought it from the Hutton sale in Marske Hall in 1947. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:06 | |
Marske Hall being a big property? | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
Yes, it was, owned by the Hutton family. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
OK, and do you know how much she paid for it? | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
£5. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:15 | |
She must have liked it. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
Well, she didn't actually buy it, her mother did. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
She was at work and she wanted a coffee table from this sale. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:23 | |
-Yes. -And they went for far too much, she said about £7 or £8 then. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:28 | |
And this happened to be in the back room, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
it wasn't catalogued or anything, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
at the end of the sale it was brought in | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
and she got it then. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
So it was extra to the catalogue. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:38 | |
Yes, it was, they didn't know it was there... | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
Oh, that was one of the great gems of going to house sales | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
in the old days, that they just fished stuff out they hadn't spotted | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
for the catalogue, and the reason I'm talking to you about this | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
is it's got a stonking great big piece of porcelain in the middle. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
You've had a look at this porcelain obviously over | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
-several cups of tea over your young years. -Yes. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
What conclusions have you come to? | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
Well, I've always thought it was Chinese but, um... | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
Yes, well, it is, it is Chinese. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:07 | |
If you look all the way around, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:09 | |
you can see the way the glaze runs to the edge. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
That is the original edge surface, | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
this has not actually been cut out of anything else. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
This piece of porcelain was designed to do what it is doing, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
which is to go into the middle of a piece of furniture. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:25 | |
Do you use it? | 0:11:25 | 0:11:26 | |
Well, Grandma uses it as a table, as she has her newspapers | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
and her glasses, you know, for cups of tea, it will sit there. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:32 | |
Cups of tea? Well, I think that's exactly what it was | 0:11:32 | 0:11:34 | |
used for in the mid-19th century. It dates to around... | 0:11:34 | 0:11:38 | |
1850. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:39 | |
You've got images of couples and families out of doors... | 0:11:39 | 0:11:43 | |
..enjoying themselves, playing games, drinking... | 0:11:44 | 0:11:49 | |
looking at texts... | 0:11:49 | 0:11:51 | |
..about to play musical instruments... | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
..playing the Chinese game of Go, Chinese chequers. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:02 | |
And all this beautifully painted, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
so that as a piece of porcelain is actually rather a fine work. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:09 | |
Five pounds. Well... | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
..if you were going to buy one of these today, | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
I think you would have to shell out somewhere between | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
£2,000 and £4,000. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
Very good, excellent. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:21 | |
Grandma will be pleased. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:24 | |
As a First World War enthusiast, I know all about Blues, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
you know, the uniform worn by | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
people convalescing, wounded people, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
-back in Britain in hospitals. -Yes. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
I don't know that I've ever seen | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
an actual Blues jacket. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
They're quite rare, aren't they? | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
They are rare and the thing with this jacket | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
-is it's a World War Two. -That's extraordinary because... | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
the First World War, there were lots of reasons - | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
if people walked about in civvies they were accused of being cowards, | 0:12:53 | 0:12:57 | |
their uniforms were probably torn to pieces and, therefore, | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
they were given a uniform, | 0:13:01 | 0:13:02 | |
so although wounded, they were still in uniform. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
-Yes. -That was the key to it. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
Come the Second World War, all that's become meaningless. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:09 | |
Um... | 0:13:09 | 0:13:10 | |
I've never seen - as I say - certainly a Second World War one. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
They weren't used - or only at the very beginning, if at all. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:18 | |
We have to say how we know - | 0:13:18 | 0:13:19 | |
and it's very simple - inside there's a label dated 1940. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
-1940. -You know, a War Department label, so there's no doubt, | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
-this is a Second World War Blues uniform. -Blues uniform, yeah. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:29 | |
And I think what happened was they probably had old stocks | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
or they carried on making them to the pattern, | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
they thought it was going to be the same, | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
and they quickly realised it wasn't. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
-Wasn't, no. -Because by 1940 - the early part - | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
there weren't thousands of wounded coming back anyway. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
I'm sure an enthusiast who wanted such a thing, | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
will never find another, and therefore what would they pay? | 0:13:48 | 0:13:53 | |
£50, £100, £200 for it - it's in that range. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
It's got to be somewhere in that range, yes. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
-Thank you very much. -You're quite welcome. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:00 | |
Lovely to touch something I never thought I'd get hold of. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:03 | |
It's an odd group of objects | 0:14:06 | 0:14:07 | |
and I know the viewers at home will be thinking - what's the connection? | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
-But there is one, isn't there? -Yes, there is, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
and they were all collected by my great-grandfather | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
round the turn of the 19th century | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
and they were bowling trophies he won. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
Are they treasured possessions within your family? | 0:14:20 | 0:14:24 | |
Yes, they are, they're all still out on display. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
The clock works and my favourite is the...is the gnome. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:31 | |
Is the gnome. I mean he's certainly the odd one out. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:34 | |
I mean, these are... | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
really quite high quality trophies. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
I mean, some of the trophies - you think of the trophies you get today, | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
-they're made of plastic and plated. -Yes. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
I mean, whoever he was... | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
played it to a level where you got some serious prizes, | 0:14:48 | 0:14:50 | |
I mean, these are pretty good. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:52 | |
If we take...the silver cup here... | 0:14:52 | 0:14:56 | |
made by Walker and Hall from the 1890s. | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
I mean, that's as good as it gets. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
I love the fact that he's put on there, | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
"Having won for the third time." | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
-You get to keep it. -You get to keep it, like the Schneider Trophy, | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
they say, "You've won it three times, | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
-"there you go, it's yours." -Right. -And the clock... | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
I mean, that really is a case of Victorian bling. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
-Yes. -It's not the best clock. -No. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
-It's not a great movement. -No. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
But as a trophy, you know, to be handed that - | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
you can imagine his face, and then on the flip side of that, | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
you can imagine the disappointment | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
when at some point he's handed a gnome. I mean, it must have been... | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
I'd love to see that photograph of him being presented with the gnome. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
The value of silver has shot up over the last few years | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
and that's where the value is. In a cup it's worth about sort of - | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
-you know - £600-ish. -Right. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:42 | |
-Which isn't a lot when you consider how decorative it is. -No, no. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
The clock I would say would have... | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
a similar value. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:50 | |
You know, it's not huge, | 0:15:50 | 0:15:51 | |
-£600 maybe £700. -Right. -But... | 0:15:51 | 0:15:55 | |
what I really like is the gnome. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
There's a company called Hesner and they're the most famous | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
for making garden gnomes and I'm certain that he's of that factory | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
and would date from the late 19th century, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
he would have been new as a prize, | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
-and I would put him at somewhere around £800. -Gosh. Yes. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
So the one he was most disappointed with, | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
is probably the best one, well, is the best one. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
Yes, it's my favourite so... | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
-Good choice. Thank you very much. -Thank you. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
I'm the first to admit | 0:16:24 | 0:16:25 | |
that I'm no expert in photographs and especially old photographs | 0:16:25 | 0:16:30 | |
but this looks like it might be | 0:16:30 | 0:16:31 | |
a picture of Hong Kong here. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:33 | |
Is that right? | 0:16:33 | 0:16:35 | |
I think it will be, probably in the 1890s, late 1890s. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
My, hasn't it changed? | 0:16:38 | 0:16:39 | |
Because now, that whole hillside is filled with skyscrapers. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
Absolutely. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
But what intrigues me more, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
which is much more personal, is this other album | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
and it's got a wedding photograph here. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:51 | |
Is this a family group? | 0:16:51 | 0:16:53 | |
Yes, I think that will be my maternal grandmother or my... | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
a great aunt. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:57 | |
Because all five of them went out to the Far East and | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
all but one got married out there. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:01 | |
I see, so this would be in the 1890s as well? | 0:17:01 | 0:17:05 | |
Late 1890s, I think, possibly early 1900s. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
And...what are these items arranged on this next page? | 0:17:09 | 0:17:13 | |
As far as I know, they are the, umm... | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
wedding gifts that were given at that wedding. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
What's interesting for me is, today, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
people have been bringing in things just like this carving set, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
-these fish knives and forks, and brush sets. -Yes. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
Now here we've got the silver page | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
and these spoons here look remarkably similar to those. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
They're not the same ones, are they? | 0:17:36 | 0:17:37 | |
-As far as I'm aware those are the spoons, yes. -Good heavens! | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
So, it's so nice to see them in their original brand-new | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
presentation boxes here, and if we have a look at them. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:47 | |
This is absolutely a copy of a Victorian fruit spoon. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
What I love about it | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
is, instead of having an apostle, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:56 | |
-which an English one would have... -Yes, yes. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
-..it's got a Chinese figure, that's their take on it. -Yes. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
And if we turn it over, | 0:18:02 | 0:18:03 | |
-it's got a couple of marks, and it's got the mark WH. -Yes... | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
And that's a well-known maker, a firm called Wang Hing | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
-who were making exactly in the 1890s. -Yeah, yeah. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
So, I love these because they are so... | 0:18:13 | 0:18:18 | |
English, but with that lovely Chinese twist. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
-I think so, yes. -And a very good figure. -And we still use them. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
Well, that's really good to know. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:26 | |
Now I've spoken to one of my colleagues | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
-about the photograph albums. -Yes. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
And he thinks... | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
they're well into four figures, we're talking of possibly approaching | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
£2,000, maybe even more for those. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
The spoons I love and they're in lovely condition and... | 0:18:42 | 0:18:48 | |
very unusual. I've never seen any of these spoons before | 0:18:48 | 0:18:53 | |
with Chinese marks on. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
Today, I've seen almost identical English ones, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:59 | |
-from the 1880s and 1890s. -Extraordinary. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
So, trying to put a value on these is quite difficult | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
when you've not seen something the same before. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
-Yes. -I think... | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
..certainly... | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
-£700 to £1,000. -Mm-hm. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
-Yeah. -Happy with that? -Oh, yes, yes. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:19:18 | 0:19:19 | |
And you'll carry on using them? | 0:19:19 | 0:19:20 | |
Absolutely. Oh, yes, I like using them. I'm very fond of them. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:23 | |
Wonderful documents, and lovely pieces of silver, thank you so much. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:28 | |
So, the sight of a box like this usually stops my heart, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
my pulse, but I've got a funny feeling that what is within | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
is not going to continue that level of excitement and there it is. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
I think you're right! | 0:19:38 | 0:19:40 | |
Tell me about it with you, this faithful dog, | 0:19:40 | 0:19:42 | |
how did it come into your life? | 0:19:42 | 0:19:44 | |
It came into my life - | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
as many things do these days - from an internet auction site, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:51 | |
and I was aware at the time that I bought it, | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
that it was my infatuation with Imperial Russia | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
that was getting the better of me, and, um... | 0:19:58 | 0:20:01 | |
yes, and when I got it, I was pretty sure that it had. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:20:04 | 0:20:05 | |
Anyway, it was a rash purchase, but nonetheless | 0:20:05 | 0:20:07 | |
a very interesting one for us | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
because it is a fake Faberge object. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
-The person that made this object made it to deceive. -Yeah. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
And it may not be that the person who was selling it wanted to | 0:20:15 | 0:20:17 | |
deceive you, because they may have been deceived in their own right. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
But the reason that we can tell that is | 0:20:20 | 0:20:22 | |
because on the inside of the lid satin, | 0:20:22 | 0:20:24 | |
which you've already spotted, in Cyrillic, it says, | 0:20:24 | 0:20:26 | |
-"Faberge, St Petersburg, Moscow and Odessa." -Yeah. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
That would be a marvellous signpost to the fact that you had | 0:20:30 | 0:20:33 | |
something enormously valuable, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
because the centre of the Faberge storm is what we call | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
the objects of fantasy, the things that are, | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
like so many of one's friends, | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
utterly useless and charming. Those are the ones that are... | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
the ones one values the most, | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
and so it's the animal carvings and the flowers and the Easter eggs | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
that are why Faberge's reputation is so excitable, | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
and why these things are so intensely valuable. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
Well, it is a fake Faberge object, | 0:20:57 | 0:20:59 | |
but in a way it's got qualities of its own. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:01 | |
I mean, it's a very charming little sculpture of a white dog | 0:21:01 | 0:21:04 | |
in perfectly chosen white stone, little black onyx snout | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
and a gold collar with diamonds, | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
and I suppose it cost a certain sum on internet auction. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:14 | |
How much was that? | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
I can't remember exactly, but I believe | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
-around a thousand pounds. -Hmm. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:21 | |
Well, it's a thousand pounds for a very joyful little fella | 0:21:21 | 0:21:24 | |
made of stone, and maybe without the box he marches on, you know, | 0:21:24 | 0:21:29 | |
as a little work of art in his own right. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
I suppose it must have a value, and I think maybe it's worth | 0:21:31 | 0:21:36 | |
£300. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:37 | |
The real rub of this is is that, had this been genuine, | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
and I suppose there is the remotest chance that one could acquire | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
an object of this nature that way, | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
that you would have received a little registered parcel in the post | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
four or five days after bidding, and you would have opened it and | 0:21:50 | 0:21:54 | |
you would have been, well, a quarter of a million pounds better off. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
Even I knew that wasn't going to happen! | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
Well, it has happened to people. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
-But it didn't happen in this particular case. -No. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
And in a way it's a powerful lesson, | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
not only for the internet buyer, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
but for me and anybody else interested in works of art, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
and thank you very much for bringing it. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:17 | |
My little bit of FAUX-berge. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
Fauxberge, absolutely! | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
-Thank you very much. -Thank you. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
These were my grandparents. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
They shared the same birthday | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
and they were married in the middle of the Second World War, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
1st January 1941. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
They were married for over 70 years | 0:22:32 | 0:22:34 | |
and they died very recently within three days of each other. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:38 | |
So theirs is a real love story. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:39 | |
-It is. -Spanning the decades. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:41 | |
Well, over 70 years of married life, | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
it's an amazing achievement really. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
You found a massive stash of letters | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
when you were going through their home. Tell me about that. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
I had no idea they were there. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
I found a tea chest in a cupboard that I didn't know existed | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
with some shoes on the top of it | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
and when I looked underneath, there were over 250 letters and telegrams | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
that they'd sent each other | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
right from just before the Second World War, | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
all the way through 1939-1945, | 0:23:06 | 0:23:07 | |
whilst my grandfather was serving in the Army | 0:23:07 | 0:23:10 | |
and my grandmother was a nurse. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:11 | |
Did you parents know about that? | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
My mother had heard that they'd written to each other, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
but nobody had seen that collection of letters at all. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
So, have you been reading them? | 0:23:18 | 0:23:19 | |
I've read some of them. There's a lot to go through. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
I can imagine. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:23 | |
But...and they're quite detailed and they tell quite a bit | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
about war life and what they hoped | 0:23:26 | 0:23:28 | |
would happen afterwards and the things that happened during the war. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
And they're also tremendously romantic, are they? | 0:23:31 | 0:23:33 | |
Oh, they are, yeah, | 0:23:33 | 0:23:34 | |
-there's some very moving, moving passages in them. -Let's see... | 0:23:34 | 0:23:37 | |
"I'm very sorry, my beloved, I can't get home. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
"That's all I live for - home and you. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
"You are the most wonderful, marvellous, precious, | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
"beloved, lovable, adoring, adorable, charming, | 0:23:46 | 0:23:50 | |
"divine and loving sweetheart wife that has ever lived. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:54 | |
"Darling, come a little closer and let me whisper in your darling ears, | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
"all these loving words because they are meant for you, my sweetheart." | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
-And it goes on, I mean... -And it goes on for pages. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
It does, and there's 250-odd letters like this. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
Yeah, both from my grandfather to my grandmother | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
and back from my grandmother to my grandfather, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
and when they couldn't write to each other, they sent telegrams instead. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:16 | |
-They were born on the same day... -The same birthday, yeah. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
..and died within three days of each other. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
Let me just read the end here. "Well, sweetheart it's bedtime" - | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
-it's your grandfather writing. -Yes. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:25 | |
"Goodnight, sweet dreams, I send all my love and everything to you, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
"my wonderful and loving wife, all my love, Fred," | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
lots of kisses and then, | 0:24:32 | 0:24:33 | |
"PS, darling, I love you more than anything else in the world." | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
I think that's true. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
Isn't that lovely to see these? | 0:24:38 | 0:24:40 | |
-Thank you. -Thank you. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:42 | |
MUSIC: "Goodnight Sweetheart" by Al Bowlly | 0:24:42 | 0:24:44 | |
# All my prayers are for you | 0:24:46 | 0:24:50 | |
# Goodnight sweetheart | 0:24:50 | 0:24:54 | |
# Goodnight. # | 0:24:54 | 0:24:59 | |
We've got this wonderful little carving of this monk here, | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
and out of this begging bowl, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
see the tail emerging? | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
He conjures a fabulous... | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
..dragon which crawls up and meets him here, | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
and he holds onto the horn. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
It's the quality, it's amazing. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
Thank you. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:19 | |
It's difficult to know where to start | 0:25:19 | 0:25:21 | |
with these wonderful little bits of Japanese sculpture. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
Where did you get them? | 0:25:24 | 0:25:25 | |
A long time ago, I bought them and my husband bought me some. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
I just liked them because they were little, | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
portable and just nice quality. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
It was just something I loved from the first one I ever saw. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:40 | |
I stopped buying them about 40 year ago. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
40 years ago you stopped buying them? | 0:25:42 | 0:25:44 | |
Yes, I had a daughter and I couldn't afford both. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
Yeah, well, you know. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
They are Japanese netsuke as I'm sure you know. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
These ones were made in the Meiji period. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
The Meiji restoration was 1868, so 1868 to 1912, | 0:25:54 | 0:25:59 | |
and this is the period of the real flourishing of the arts | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
in Japan and they made metalwork. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
These are mostly - but not all - ivory. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
-This one here is a bone one. -Yeah. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
But netsukes, originally, were the... | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
-..toggles... -Toggles. -..or buttons, you had a netsuke... | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
You didn't have pockets so you had a box or an inro | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
hanging from your waistband, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
a little, tiny little bead | 0:26:21 | 0:26:22 | |
called an ojime and the netsuke, and those were all in the round, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
rather like this one, but these ones were made to be decorative. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:30 | |
They do it so well. Which is your favourite? | 0:26:30 | 0:26:32 | |
-That one. -This one? Let's take a look at this. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:35 | |
It's my husband and a baby, my baby, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
because my husband's got a tummy like that. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
Has he? Has he really? Is he here? | 0:26:44 | 0:26:46 | |
You don't want to see him. Put it down. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
And was this one of the first ones you got? | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
Er, it was quite an early one, yes. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:53 | |
I think they're really beautiful things. I love them. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
You could look at these and talk about them for ever. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
We've got a little group here of people carrying rice. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
I mean, the rat and the quality of the tail on there is amazing. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
What was the most you had to pay for them? | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
We have paid up to about... | 0:27:07 | 0:27:08 | |
£200, I would think. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
That was quite a lot. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:12 | |
Yes, it was a lot of money in those days. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
-But, I mean, some of them were very, very inexpensive. -Yeah. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
-Some of them were. -And this isn't all of the collection? | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
No, I have one or two more. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:21 | |
-You've got some more. -Yeah. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
-I think they're fabulous. -Thank you. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
It's difficult putting a valuation on a collective group of pieces. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
-Yeah. -And it is always somewhat guesswork. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
Just what's here has got to be... | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
..£6,000 to £8,000. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:39 | |
No! | 0:27:40 | 0:27:42 | |
It has! | 0:27:42 | 0:27:44 | |
This one here is... | 0:27:44 | 0:27:45 | |
over £1,000 worth of netsuke. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
Good heavens! | 0:27:49 | 0:27:50 | |
I didn't expect that sort of money. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:52 | |
I knew they were nice and lovely to me, | 0:27:52 | 0:27:56 | |
but I really didn't expect that sort of money. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
Well, they're fabulous things to see. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
-I would like to keep looking at these for days. -Thank you. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
We inherited this table from my husband's farming family | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
and at Great-grandma's funeral, | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
all the uncles declared that we were to inherit the Richard table, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:17 | |
because there were no more Richards, and my husband's called Robert, | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
at which point I said, "No, thank you, don't want that, | 0:28:20 | 0:28:24 | |
"don't want anything French polished, fancy | 0:28:24 | 0:28:26 | |
"in my house, it'll get ruined". | 0:28:26 | 0:28:28 | |
And they all fell about the floor laughing, | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
which I thought was quite rude. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
-Right. -And they then announced that I clearly hadn't seen it and maybe | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
I should go and look at it before we did, and this was it, so... | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
..they'd butchered things on it, | 0:28:41 | 0:28:43 | |
and hidden underneath it, and danced on it and... | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
so I thought it would be quite safe with my boys. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:49 | |
Your boys are a bit rough and...? | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
-Yeah, they're all built like farmers. -Right. -Yes. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
-So, where do you keep this, then? -This lives in our dining room, | 0:28:54 | 0:28:57 | |
the conservatory, and it's used every day. | 0:28:57 | 0:28:59 | |
When we first got it back to our house, it was... | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
I didn't think it was very clean | 0:29:02 | 0:29:05 | |
so I made my husband take | 0:29:05 | 0:29:06 | |
it down to the local garage and he jet-washed the top. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
Did you get arrested? | 0:29:09 | 0:29:11 | |
Most people clean their cars in the jet wash, | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
not go in there with a gate leg table. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
I know, well, I think maybe we shouldn't have done, | 0:29:15 | 0:29:17 | |
but it's nice and clean, it was, yeah. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:20 | |
I don't know what to do with it, to look after it, which is | 0:29:20 | 0:29:22 | |
partly why I brought it here. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:23 | |
-How old do you think this is? -I think it's... | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
300 or 400 years old, from its original state, | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
cos I think it's made of old bedding boxes and things. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:32 | |
Bedding boxes? | 0:29:32 | 0:29:33 | |
Yeah, if you look underneath. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:34 | |
Right, OK. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:35 | |
You'll tell me. Yes. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:37 | |
Now it is, you know, yes, | 0:29:38 | 0:29:39 | |
a 300 or 400-year-old gate-leg table. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:43 | |
-It's a lovely piece of furniture. -Yeah. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:45 | |
Yes, it does need some TLC to bring it back up. Umm... | 0:29:45 | 0:29:49 | |
I'm sure if this could talk, it could tell some | 0:29:49 | 0:29:51 | |
-really, really interesting stories. -Yeah, sure, yeah. | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
-It dates back to around about the 1700s. -OK. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:58 | |
And, um, | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
it's made out of solid oak. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:02 | |
-What I'd like to have seen is a drawer. -OK. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:05 | |
Because normally when you had these tables, | 0:30:05 | 0:30:07 | |
-they normally have a nice, long drawer, but this one doesn't. -No. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:10 | |
It would seat six to eight people comfortably, | 0:30:10 | 0:30:14 | |
and do you sit round it and dine? | 0:30:14 | 0:30:15 | |
We do, yeah, we do, it's used fully, yeah. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:18 | |
Yeah, and I think that's really important that, | 0:30:18 | 0:30:20 | |
you know, these things | 0:30:20 | 0:30:21 | |
-are to be used, not to be looked at and treasured. -Yeah. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:25 | |
-If we look at the tips, at each end. -Yes, they're loose, aren't they? | 0:30:25 | 0:30:28 | |
-They're loose, they have been replaced. -Ah, yes. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:31 | |
And that's where... On the underside, you can see they've been carved. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:35 | |
Well, what's that from, then? | 0:30:35 | 0:30:36 | |
They...someone's found a piece of old timber | 0:30:36 | 0:30:39 | |
and instead of throwing it away - | 0:30:39 | 0:30:41 | |
make good and mend. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:42 | |
When we look at the base, oh, it's glorious, because | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
along the rails there, they're all so thick and chunky. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:49 | |
-Mmm. -It's... | 0:30:49 | 0:30:51 | |
as I say, a good substantial piece of furniture. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
When this is waxed up... | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
-Waxed? -This would be a lovely, lovely colour. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:58 | |
-Don't jet-wash it! -No, no, I won't. | 0:30:58 | 0:31:00 | |
Just put...get some wax and rub it in there and it will just glow | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
-because the foundations are there. -Yeah. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:06 | |
Waxing this up and giving it some good TLC, | 0:31:06 | 0:31:09 | |
I would put a valuation on this, when it's done, | 0:31:09 | 0:31:11 | |
-around a couple of thousand pounds. -Really? -Yeah. | 0:31:11 | 0:31:14 | |
It's going to look great, cos it's going to be a good colour. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:17 | |
It is, yeah. I'm pleased with it, thank you. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:19 | |
Now I'm holding here | 0:31:21 | 0:31:23 | |
photographs which I know were taken at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
Now it's 70 years nearly | 0:31:29 | 0:31:31 | |
since this event took place, | 0:31:31 | 0:31:33 | |
and it may be that people have begun to forget how important it was. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:36 | |
It wasn't just about sorting out the chaos of the Second World War, | 0:31:37 | 0:31:42 | |
it was actually about establishing principles of international justice | 0:31:42 | 0:31:46 | |
which have been maintained to this day. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:48 | |
So, I know the story, but what do they tell you? | 0:31:48 | 0:31:51 | |
They are evidence of my mother having worked there | 0:31:52 | 0:31:55 | |
for the length of the trial, | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
from 1945 into 1946 | 0:31:58 | 0:32:00 | |
and she's actually photographed on some of these photos. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:03 | |
-Where is she? -She's at the...she's just on the right-hand side here. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
So she's in the middle of those three people | 0:32:07 | 0:32:09 | |
in the back of that photograph. What was she doing? | 0:32:09 | 0:32:11 | |
She was secretary to the chief judge who was Lord Justice Lawrence. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:16 | |
Yes, yes, and she was there for a long time, I imagine. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:18 | |
She was there for the full length of the trial. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:20 | |
I'm trying to get my head round what that meant. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:23 | |
You sit all the week listening to records of ghastly events | 0:32:23 | 0:32:28 | |
and then what do you do in the evenings and weekends? | 0:32:28 | 0:32:30 | |
-You go off and play, presumably. -I think they lived pretty well. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
-Well, I've heard that. -They certainly partied, they went away at weekends, | 0:32:33 | 0:32:37 | |
they had a lot of rations, I mean, there's even a ration book here. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:42 | |
-Yeah, and we've got maps and guides. -Yeah. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:44 | |
So, in your off time, you just enjoyed what... | 0:32:44 | 0:32:48 | |
I think they let their hair down. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:50 | |
Yeah. This is a close-up of the presiding judges. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:54 | |
Now, let's get this right. | 0:32:54 | 0:32:55 | |
Geoffrey Lawrence was the sort of, the top judge... | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
Yes, he was, yes. | 0:32:58 | 0:32:59 | |
-But there were judges on the panel from America, from Russia... -Yes. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:04 | |
-..from France, in effect from the four powers. -Yes, yes. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
And so he was in charge of that judicial team and, of course, | 0:33:07 | 0:33:11 | |
everything had to be multi-lingual and so there were translators, | 0:33:11 | 0:33:14 | |
there were transcribers, it was a massive operation. | 0:33:14 | 0:33:17 | |
Obviously, we all know that picture, there we are looking at the dock. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:22 | |
I can't do them all and I don't really want to, | 0:33:22 | 0:33:24 | |
-but we start with Goering, Hess. -Yes. -You know these are all, | 0:33:24 | 0:33:28 | |
in a sense, terrible names from history. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
The trial was about bringing these people to justice | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
in an international way | 0:33:34 | 0:33:36 | |
that would satisfy justice in a sense for ever - | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
that's what they wanted to achieve. This is an interesting document. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
She seems to have collected the signatures of most of the judges. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
-Yes. -And why is the paper headed Adolf Hitler? | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
-I've no idea. -They must have acquired this. -Yes. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:50 | |
-And it was a sort of rather grim souvenir of the time. -Yes. | 0:33:50 | 0:33:54 | |
Geoffrey Lawrence, the presiding judge. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:56 | |
Great names - Norman Birkett, the French judge, Shawcross, | 0:33:56 | 0:34:00 | |
you know, they're all famous legal names. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
And the famous Russian judge, Nikitchenko, who was, | 0:34:03 | 0:34:07 | |
I gather, very tiresome, you know, but you know they sorted it all out. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:11 | |
-So that's a wonderful personal souvenir, isn't it? -Yes, yes. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
The other thing I like - I'm quite amused by - is that. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
Now I'm sure the Nuremberg Trials didn't produce | 0:34:19 | 0:34:22 | |
souvenirs for people to take home. | 0:34:22 | 0:34:24 | |
Well, maybe not quite like that, no. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:27 | |
But certainly a souvenir, I think perhaps it was, let us say, | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
acquired unofficially. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:31 | |
-I think, I suspect that. -So, there was this young girl thinking, | 0:34:31 | 0:34:35 | |
"Oh, I think I'll take something a bit more positive." | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
-Yes, probably got tucked in the suitcase at some point. -And why not? | 0:34:38 | 0:34:41 | |
Will you ever see another ashtray from the Nuremberg Trials? | 0:34:41 | 0:34:44 | |
I doubt it. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:45 | |
No, probably not. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:46 | |
So, you know, she's shown me something I never knew existed. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:49 | |
Yes. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:50 | |
-That document is probably the best piece. -Yes. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:52 | |
That collection of signatures is very rare | 0:34:52 | 0:34:55 | |
and you'd never get it again. | 0:34:55 | 0:34:57 | |
I don't think many people did that at the time. | 0:34:57 | 0:34:59 | |
In value terms, that's probably... | 0:34:59 | 0:35:01 | |
..£800, £1,000, £1,500. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:04 | |
-It's such a rare document. -Yes. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:06 | |
-Bizarrely, the ashtray is probably quite desirable. -Yes. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:10 | |
Put it all together because of who she was, and what she did, | 0:35:10 | 0:35:14 | |
-let's say £5,000 for the lot. -Wow. -Something like that. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:18 | |
That's incredible. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:19 | |
But it's not important. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:21 | |
-No, it isn't, no, it's not going anywhere. -Good. | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
You might ask why I'm interested in what | 0:35:25 | 0:35:28 | |
looks like a sort of rather bizarre hedgehog or pile of nails, | 0:35:28 | 0:35:33 | |
but I think that it's a sculpture by an incredibly interesting | 0:35:33 | 0:35:36 | |
and influential American furniture designer. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:39 | |
I think that this is a sculpture by a gentleman called Harry Bertoia. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:42 | |
Correct, yeah. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:44 | |
Who designed a number of well-known bits of furniture in America, | 0:35:44 | 0:35:47 | |
and studied at a number of very influential schools, and worked with | 0:35:47 | 0:35:50 | |
a number of influential designers like Charles and Ray Eames. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:53 | |
-That's right. -But what I need to know from you | 0:35:53 | 0:35:55 | |
is how on earth did it make its way to Yorkshire from America? | 0:35:55 | 0:35:58 | |
Well, it was sent over from America | 0:35:58 | 0:36:01 | |
by Harry Bertoia... | 0:36:01 | 0:36:02 | |
to a company called Interiors International, | 0:36:02 | 0:36:04 | |
who were manufacturing the range of furniture | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
that included his particular wire chairs. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
And we had a showroom in London and a showroom, believe it or not, | 0:36:09 | 0:36:11 | |
in Pontefract in North Yorkshire, and they decided to bring | 0:36:11 | 0:36:14 | |
certain artefacts up from London to Pontefract and that's where it was. | 0:36:14 | 0:36:19 | |
And then the parent company, unfortunately, went to the wall, | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
and so they suddenly decided to sell these things off | 0:36:22 | 0:36:25 | |
and I happened to be there at the right time. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:27 | |
I was still working for them, but that's how it came about. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:29 | |
And when was this? This must've been in the '70s. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:31 | |
I bought this in about 1973, it came over about 1970. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:35 | |
It's part of a series of sculptures entitled Bush. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:37 | |
-Right. -So it's one of his Bush sculptures. -Yeah. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:39 | |
And they come in various sorts of shapes and sizes | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
-and they're made from patinated bronze. -Ah, that sounds interesting. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:45 | |
He was hugely inspired by nature and it was the sort of randomness, | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
but also the symmetry of nature. So you've got all these | 0:36:48 | 0:36:50 | |
nail-like structures with these little beads | 0:36:50 | 0:36:52 | |
all flowing out of this main copper trunk underneath here. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
-Yeah. -And you've got the randomness but also the symmetry, | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
-it's still a very pleasing whole. -Yes, yes, it is. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:00 | |
-And it's that pleasing shape you only get in nature. -Yes. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:03 | |
When you bought it in 1973, how much did you pay? | 0:37:03 | 0:37:05 | |
I think about £17 for it. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:07 | |
£17 - maybe it's a considerable sum of money then, I suppose. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:11 | |
-I bought some carpet as well. -Oh right, thrown in? | 0:37:11 | 0:37:13 | |
No, no. And some Carrara marble ashtrays. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:16 | |
-About £40 the lot, I think. -OK. | 0:37:16 | 0:37:18 | |
My one concern about looking at the value today is it has had | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
some life, I think it's fallen over. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
-It's been in the family. -Right. OK. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:25 | |
They sell for considerable sums of money | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
and I'd like to say that this should be worth at auction | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
somewhere in the region of | 0:37:30 | 0:37:32 | |
-£10,000 to £15,000. -Mmm! | 0:37:32 | 0:37:34 | |
Wow, that surprises me. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
Brilliant! I never expected it to be worth that much. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
I said to my wife, "I don't think it will be worth a great deal, | 0:37:41 | 0:37:44 | |
-"200 quid maybe." -And what did she say? | 0:37:44 | 0:37:46 | |
She didn't say anything, I've got to ring her and tell her now. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
Repeat, 10 to 15. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:52 | |
-£10,000 to £15,000. -Thank you very much. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:55 | |
But there's possibly even better news. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:57 | |
We're in Yorkshire, in England. | 0:37:57 | 0:37:59 | |
-The market for these really is the States. -Yes. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
You may find that if you took it out to a good American auction house | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
or an American dealer and put it for sale in that environment, | 0:38:05 | 0:38:07 | |
-it could easily top 20,000 or maybe 30,000. -Crikey. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:11 | |
That's very good, thank you very much. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:14 | |
I like objects that have labels on them | 0:38:18 | 0:38:20 | |
because it's the start of a journey of investigation | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
and it really gives you somewhere where you can actually concentrate | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
and start the ideas flowing about finding out about something. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:31 | |
I always look at anything like this as a bit of detective work, | 0:38:31 | 0:38:33 | |
you know, you have to find out, and there are clues on it. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:36 | |
And when someone is kind enough to write a thing like that on there, | 0:38:36 | 0:38:39 | |
you think your birthdays and Christmases have come all at once. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:41 | |
And it says, | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
"Taken by Sir Richard Strachan from Commodore Beaumoir..." | 0:38:43 | 0:38:47 | |
using my best French there, | 0:38:47 | 0:38:48 | |
"..after the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21st 1805." | 0:38:48 | 0:38:53 | |
Who was Sir Richard Strachan? | 0:38:54 | 0:38:56 | |
I don't know. | 0:38:56 | 0:38:57 | |
I know that he was in the skirmishes after the Battle of Trafalgar, | 0:38:57 | 0:39:00 | |
but that's all that I know about him. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:02 | |
So, this hasn't come down in your family from him? | 0:39:02 | 0:39:05 | |
No, I think there's no military, no naval people in my family at all. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
I think it must have been purchased by my grandfather. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
That would probably figure, because people often bought small things | 0:39:12 | 0:39:16 | |
like this as ornaments and, although it says "taken after Trafalgar", | 0:39:16 | 0:39:21 | |
one thing that is absolutely certain - this isn't a weapon. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
This would not have been on the gun decks of some great French warship | 0:39:24 | 0:39:28 | |
that was being hammered into submission by one of Nelson's ships. | 0:39:28 | 0:39:31 | |
-It's actually a cannon that's used for signalling. -Ah, right. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:35 | |
So, it's a piece of communications equipment, if you like. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
Quite often, you found small cannons were used with a blank charge in. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:43 | |
I don't think this was ever intended to fire a projectile. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
I think it just had a big charge of gunpowder rammed in it | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
with a wad of oakum or tow or something rammed down on it | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
and fired when they hoisted the signal. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:56 | |
So, the flags would run up the halyard, for the signal flags. | 0:39:56 | 0:39:59 | |
The people who were supposed to be reading that, heard a bang | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
and thought, "Ah, I'd better look!" | 0:40:04 | 0:40:06 | |
And, "Ooh, yes, they want us to come about. | 0:40:06 | 0:40:08 | |
"Bring her about, number one." | 0:40:08 | 0:40:10 | |
So, it was a communications equipment rather than a weapon | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
because obviously it's tiny. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:15 | |
But it's clearly the sort of thing | 0:40:16 | 0:40:18 | |
that somebody who was a senior French officer | 0:40:18 | 0:40:20 | |
probably had on his quarterdeck | 0:40:20 | 0:40:22 | |
or something like that, for signalling purposes. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
And after the battle, whoever Sir Richard was, | 0:40:25 | 0:40:28 | |
he acquired it from the vanquished Frenchman who probably was | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
a bit miffed that he had to give it up. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:33 | |
I mean, I would be, because I just think it's so beautiful. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
And this is a nice little gun. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:38 | |
It's about 1750, something like that, made of bronze, | 0:40:38 | 0:40:43 | |
probably in the Low Countries, Flanders, somewhere like that. | 0:40:43 | 0:40:46 | |
Lovely, lovely patina on it. | 0:40:46 | 0:40:47 | |
Please don't ever polish it, it's beautiful like it is, a lovely green. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
Worth... | 0:40:51 | 0:40:53 | |
£1,500 to £2,000 - it's a nice thing. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:56 | |
So, whoever Sir Richard was, I'm very glad | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
-that he had it away from the French. -Thank you, Sir Richard, yes. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:01 | |
Yes, thank you. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:02 | |
What we're looking at here is really the madness, exuberance, | 0:41:04 | 0:41:08 | |
of American design of the 1940s, '50s. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
That's right, it's an extraordinary time of kind of excitement and pride | 0:41:13 | 0:41:17 | |
after winning the war and this sort of sense that | 0:41:17 | 0:41:19 | |
we are the greatest nation, | 0:41:19 | 0:41:21 | |
we've achieved all these things, incredible wealth of course, | 0:41:21 | 0:41:23 | |
compared with the rest of the world, and it's expressed in this | 0:41:23 | 0:41:25 | |
kind of silly frippery that you've got here, it's great fun, yeah. | 0:41:25 | 0:41:29 | |
What first attracted you to these bags? | 0:41:29 | 0:41:31 | |
Their sheer madness. | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
I mean, who would have thought a carrot could be a fashion statement? | 0:41:35 | 0:41:39 | |
Or a little mermaid. I mean, let's face it, | 0:41:40 | 0:41:43 | |
they're not particularly practical. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:45 | |
-Not at all. -But that wasn't the idea, was it? No. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:47 | |
This was a time when, you know, we'd had all the deprivations | 0:41:47 | 0:41:50 | |
of war - except the Americans hadn't had it nearly as much as we had. | 0:41:50 | 0:41:53 | |
-Yes. -So we were all... People in this country, | 0:41:53 | 0:41:55 | |
-looking back at this period, wouldn't think of all these mad designs. -No. | 0:41:55 | 0:42:00 | |
So are you completely manic collectors? | 0:42:00 | 0:42:03 | |
No, it's very difficult to buy these in this country. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:06 | |
I'm fortunate that I travel with my job in the States | 0:42:06 | 0:42:09 | |
and I always try and come home with a bag. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:12 | |
But it's really the social history of them | 0:42:12 | 0:42:15 | |
that we both get enthusiastic about. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:17 | |
This is my favourite and it's a four seasons bag. | 0:42:17 | 0:42:22 | |
It starts off with the summer here, and we go through to fall | 0:42:22 | 0:42:26 | |
with pumpkins, and then winter, and then finally spring. | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
Bag for all seasons. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
And of course some of them were probably kits | 0:42:34 | 0:42:36 | |
when people got them, weren't they? | 0:42:36 | 0:42:38 | |
Yeah, it's hard to know, I don't... I honestly don't know | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
whether someone's had a kit and done the needlepoint themselves | 0:42:41 | 0:42:44 | |
and followed a plan, or whether it was sold like that. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:48 | |
-But you can just imagine, you know, a 1950s' Desperate Housewife. -Oh. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:51 | |
-Walking along... -It's very Mad Men. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:54 | |
This is Betty Draper and her life is rubbish and Donald Draper is | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
sleeping with whoever, and all she wants is a silly handbag to | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
show off to her friends. It kind of speaks of the era. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:02 | |
There is something a bit desperate about them. | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
-I think there is. -Almost trying too hard. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:07 | |
You know, you've got the Cuban Missile Crisis | 0:43:07 | 0:43:09 | |
and a bag made of lolly sticks. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:11 | |
But that's what's lovely about them. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:13 | |
That's what it's all about, it's all about letting go, | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
forgetting all your troubles and being silly. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:18 | |
-And walking around with a little bag. -Yeah. | 0:43:18 | 0:43:20 | |
-It's great fun. -Is this the whole of your collection? | 0:43:20 | 0:43:23 | |
-No. -No? -No, come down to our house | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
and you'll see that it's certainly not. | 0:43:26 | 0:43:28 | |
We have a special cupboard in the house with boxes of them | 0:43:28 | 0:43:32 | |
and then what I like to do with them - | 0:43:32 | 0:43:33 | |
because they sit very nicely, or the ones I tend to buy sit nicely - | 0:43:33 | 0:43:37 | |
they're very useful for kind of putting precious keepsakes in, | 0:43:37 | 0:43:41 | |
like tickets or scarves, you know, jewellery. | 0:43:41 | 0:43:44 | |
I sort of, you know, swap round bags on a display in the bedroom. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:49 | |
And valuation - you say you've got more - | 0:43:49 | 0:43:51 | |
but I would look at this selection, and I would say that | 0:43:51 | 0:43:55 | |
what we're looking at here is certainly in excess of £3,000. | 0:43:55 | 0:44:01 | |
-Fabulous. -It's something I'm going to hang on to | 0:44:01 | 0:44:04 | |
because I think they're only going to become rarer as we move | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
further and further away from that point in history. | 0:44:07 | 0:44:10 | |
Now, this luminous and vibrant oil sketch is by one of the | 0:44:29 | 0:44:32 | |
greatest painters of everyday life that the Victorian era provided. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:37 | |
The greatest since Hogarth, really - William Powell Frith. | 0:44:37 | 0:44:41 | |
And it's painted in about 1866-67 | 0:44:41 | 0:44:45 | |
and it depicts Charles II on his last Sunday before he died. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:50 | |
Are you particularly interested in history, | 0:44:50 | 0:44:53 | |
that you've got this picture? | 0:44:53 | 0:44:55 | |
Yeah, I think I've always been interested in history, actually. | 0:44:55 | 0:44:59 | |
The other day the bank rang me up and asked me a question | 0:44:59 | 0:45:02 | |
and said, "What is the password, | 0:45:02 | 0:45:04 | |
"what was your favourite subject at school?" and that was history. | 0:45:04 | 0:45:07 | |
Oh, well, there you are. And of course this is...he's about to die. | 0:45:07 | 0:45:10 | |
He certainly looks rather bilious, doesn't he? | 0:45:10 | 0:45:13 | |
And in contrast to Nellie Gwyn here with her spaniel, | 0:45:13 | 0:45:15 | |
and his spaniel. | 0:45:15 | 0:45:17 | |
She looks the picture of health. She's very pretty, isn't she? | 0:45:17 | 0:45:19 | |
Yes. I'm told, actually, that the man who stood as the model for that, | 0:45:19 | 0:45:24 | |
actually died a week after this was painted. | 0:45:24 | 0:45:28 | |
Oh, that's very spooky, that's very spooky. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:30 | |
Because he died of kidney failure, I think, and he looks really ill | 0:45:30 | 0:45:35 | |
and these two gentlemen here are looking on worried, because, | 0:45:35 | 0:45:38 | |
of course, they were worried about the succession, they didn't | 0:45:38 | 0:45:40 | |
want another Catholic king. That's what they were really worried about. | 0:45:40 | 0:45:43 | |
But what this picture is really about is excess. | 0:45:43 | 0:45:47 | |
He's the Merry Monarch and it's Sunday, they should be in church. | 0:45:47 | 0:45:51 | |
-Yes. -We know that but, instead, they're playing cards and drinking, | 0:45:51 | 0:45:55 | |
and listening to music, and having a great time, | 0:45:55 | 0:45:58 | |
and really it's based on one of those Dutch scenes of inn life, | 0:45:58 | 0:46:03 | |
-you know, where they're having a massive party. -Yeah. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:06 | |
And there's lots and lots of sort of neglect going along. | 0:46:06 | 0:46:08 | |
In fact, you can see here, these spaniels are chewing a glove | 0:46:08 | 0:46:11 | |
and eating out of a dish on the floor. That's a classic sort of Dutch trick. | 0:46:11 | 0:46:15 | |
Tremendous, yeah. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:16 | |
But what I really like about it is the way it's painted. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:19 | |
This background is so sketchily done and yet, as I said, | 0:46:19 | 0:46:21 | |
it's luminous and you've got this light coming in round the back | 0:46:21 | 0:46:25 | |
and into the room, flooding it with light and everybody is glittering, | 0:46:25 | 0:46:30 | |
you get a real sense of the silver on the table, there's loads of | 0:46:30 | 0:46:33 | |
drinking going on and obviously it's taken its toll on the Merry Monarch. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:37 | |
Frith's great trick was to arrange lots and lots of figures | 0:46:37 | 0:46:40 | |
in really quite a small canvas, convincingly. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:42 | |
Now, this is a study for the finished picture. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:45 | |
Now the finished pictures - which are much larger - | 0:46:45 | 0:46:48 | |
often make six figures. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:49 | |
-Yeah. -Quite often. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:50 | |
And this is from the height of his career | 0:46:50 | 0:46:53 | |
so I'm going to put £12,000 to £15,000 on it today. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:58 | |
Jolly good. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:01 | |
Thank you. | 0:47:01 | 0:47:03 | |
Do you remember how I told you, back at the beginning of the programme, | 0:47:05 | 0:47:09 | |
that this was a thriving monastic community in the Middle Ages? | 0:47:09 | 0:47:12 | |
We have here a relic from that time that was dug up | 0:47:12 | 0:47:14 | |
from the ground of the ruins of Fountains Abbey, wasn't it? | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
-It was. -Now tell me about this ring. Who did it belong to? | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
Well, it probably belonged to Abbot Marmaduke Huby, | 0:47:20 | 0:47:24 | |
who was the abbot here from 1495 to 1526. | 0:47:24 | 0:47:30 | |
He's actually responsible for reviving | 0:47:30 | 0:47:32 | |
the fortunes of the abbey and he's also responsible for building | 0:47:32 | 0:47:36 | |
that tower which is now called Huby's Tower. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
-And I know you're English Heritage, aren't you? -I am. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:42 | |
And English Heritage are responsible for maintaining the artefacts | 0:47:42 | 0:47:45 | |
-associated with the abbey. -They are, yes. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:47 | |
It's massive, this ring. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:49 | |
He either wore it on his thumb or he was enormously fat? | 0:47:49 | 0:47:52 | |
He may have been a large person, we don't know. | 0:47:52 | 0:47:55 | |
It's likely that he wore gloves | 0:47:55 | 0:47:57 | |
and therefore it would have fitted over gloves. | 0:47:57 | 0:47:59 | |
Because if I try and put my thumb in it, see the sense of scale. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:03 | |
That's about the diameter of my thumb and as much again. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:07 | |
It's a lot about status. It's made of copper alloy, so bronze or | 0:48:07 | 0:48:11 | |
brass, it's then been gilded by a very expensive process, | 0:48:11 | 0:48:16 | |
mercury gilded, so it's designed to be a really fancy object. | 0:48:16 | 0:48:21 | |
And then used as a seal, | 0:48:21 | 0:48:22 | |
because this is an imprint of a seal that's come from here. | 0:48:22 | 0:48:25 | |
It is, yes, so it would have been his personal seal. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:28 | |
It also tells you something | 0:48:28 | 0:48:30 | |
about just how wealthy the monks were here, which seems... | 0:48:30 | 0:48:35 | |
When the order started here | 0:48:35 | 0:48:37 | |
and they wore simple coarse sheep's robes, they didn't wear | 0:48:37 | 0:48:40 | |
underwear in order to make it just that bit more uncomfortable. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:43 | |
How did it go from that to gobstoppers of rings like this? | 0:48:43 | 0:48:47 | |
Part of it was about the development of the site and how the riches | 0:48:48 | 0:48:52 | |
of the abbey were built up, through the wool trade in particular, | 0:48:52 | 0:48:56 | |
but a lot of it is actually in the name of the Lord, | 0:48:56 | 0:48:59 | |
and showing how much, how pious you were at the time | 0:48:59 | 0:49:03 | |
and also how influential you might be. | 0:49:03 | 0:49:06 | |
And I think this ring nicely reflects his importance | 0:49:06 | 0:49:09 | |
and the memory that he's left for visitors at Fountains Abbey. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:12 | |
Two fabulous pieces of English domestic embroidery. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:20 | |
Do you like them? | 0:49:20 | 0:49:22 | |
-Oh, yes, I think they're lovely. -Do you? -Absolutely, yeah. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:24 | |
They were made in about 1680 and maybe 1660 at the earliest | 0:49:24 | 0:49:30 | |
but they are so beautiful. | 0:49:30 | 0:49:32 | |
Did you buy them? | 0:49:32 | 0:49:34 | |
No, no, I didn't buy them. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:36 | |
My father passed away last year and they were in his flat | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
and that's all really I know about them. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:42 | |
Well, let's talk about the mirror frame to start with, | 0:49:43 | 0:49:46 | |
because mirrors were a very expensive commodity, you know, | 0:49:46 | 0:49:51 | |
they were real luxury aristocratic pieces to get a looking glass. | 0:49:51 | 0:49:57 | |
And to make the best of what would have been | 0:49:57 | 0:50:00 | |
really quite a small piece of glass in the middle, | 0:50:00 | 0:50:03 | |
they created these wonderful mirror frames | 0:50:03 | 0:50:08 | |
and you've got lots of symbols there, | 0:50:08 | 0:50:11 | |
things that were of interest at the time. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:15 | |
On either side you've got portraits. | 0:50:15 | 0:50:18 | |
On your side, there's Charles I. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:20 | |
-Right. -And on this side, there's Henrietta Maria. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:24 | |
Now they were married in fact in 1625, | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
so this is very much looking backwards to that time. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
And then elsewhere, you've got, again, | 0:50:30 | 0:50:33 | |
motifs that were incredibly popular with that period. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:39 | |
So you've got a carnation - | 0:50:39 | 0:50:41 | |
a very kind of now flower of the latter part of the 17th century. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:45 | |
Oh, right, OK. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:47 | |
But then, bam, on either side, you've got these wonderful castles | 0:50:47 | 0:50:53 | |
and a house with smoke belching out of the chimneys. | 0:50:53 | 0:50:57 | |
I think those are great designs, aren't they? | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
Now all these designs, | 0:51:00 | 0:51:02 | |
the embroideress would have got out of a pattern book. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:06 | |
-She wouldn't have drawn them freehand. -Right. | 0:51:06 | 0:51:08 | |
They would have been available as patterns. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:11 | |
I love this embroidery here. | 0:51:11 | 0:51:14 | |
It's the judgment of Solomon and you can see, here is a child | 0:51:14 | 0:51:17 | |
being held up by his foot, with a sword poised ready to dispatch. | 0:51:17 | 0:51:23 | |
Right. | 0:51:23 | 0:51:26 | |
And here are the two ladies arguing about whose child it actually is, | 0:51:26 | 0:51:30 | |
so that's the story there. | 0:51:30 | 0:51:33 | |
-Why is that face not embroidered? -It's not finished. | 0:51:33 | 0:51:37 | |
Right. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:39 | |
But it gives us a very good indication of how the work was done, | 0:51:39 | 0:51:45 | |
you know, it was drawn first, or printed first, | 0:51:45 | 0:51:49 | |
in this case drawn, and then embroidered on top. | 0:51:49 | 0:51:53 | |
They are tip-top of what collectors are wanting, | 0:51:54 | 0:51:59 | |
-apart from the condition of this one. -Right. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:02 | |
So I'm going to say for the mirror frame, | 0:52:02 | 0:52:06 | |
I'm going to put it at around £15,000. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
In that condition? | 0:52:13 | 0:52:15 | |
In that condition. | 0:52:15 | 0:52:16 | |
The embroidered picture is going to be worth a little less than that | 0:52:18 | 0:52:22 | |
because they are not quite as rare, | 0:52:22 | 0:52:24 | |
so I would put that at around £8,000 to £10,000. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:29 | |
-But it's adding up nicely. -It's adding up nicely. | 0:52:30 | 0:52:33 | |
They are wonderful objects, | 0:52:33 | 0:52:36 | |
the very best example of English embroidery at this golden period | 0:52:36 | 0:52:41 | |
and... | 0:52:41 | 0:52:42 | |
it's been a bit of a treat for me. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:46 | |
Well, been a treat for me as well, thank you. | 0:52:47 | 0:52:50 | |
-Thanks very much. -Thank you. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:51 | |
So one day, you and your sister were shopping in Chipping Norton. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:57 | |
-Yeah. -Saw an antique shop, | 0:52:57 | 0:52:59 | |
popped in and it happened to be Ronnie Barker's antique shop. | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
Correct. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:03 | |
And I think a lot of people don't realise that when Ronnie Barker, | 0:53:03 | 0:53:06 | |
one of Britain's greatest comedians, retired... | 0:53:06 | 0:53:10 | |
he opened an antique shop, and is that you with Ronnie Barker? | 0:53:10 | 0:53:13 | |
-No, that's my sister. -But you were there. | 0:53:13 | 0:53:15 | |
-I was there, yes. -So what happened? Tell me about it. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:18 | |
We went in and my sister absolutely fell in love with them. | 0:53:18 | 0:53:21 | |
They were actually Ronnie's himself. | 0:53:21 | 0:53:24 | |
-He'd had them hanging on his snooker room wall in his London home. -Right. | 0:53:24 | 0:53:28 | |
And then he'd moved to Oxfordshire and had too much stuff, | 0:53:28 | 0:53:31 | |
so was selling, selling stuff on so... | 0:53:31 | 0:53:34 | |
So like every good antique dealer, raiding his wall to fill the shop up | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
-when he needed a bit of extra stock. -Yes. | 0:53:37 | 0:53:39 | |
They're by Friedrich Goldscheider, | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
who was a well-known factory in Austria. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
Yes. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:45 | |
They date to the late 19th century | 0:53:45 | 0:53:47 | |
-when Moorish, Arab subjects were very popular. -Yes. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:50 | |
So your sister bought them. Can you remember how much for? | 0:53:50 | 0:53:53 | |
They were priced at £180 each and she bought them both for £350, | 0:53:53 | 0:53:59 | |
which looking back, he didn't really knock much off, for buying the pair. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:03 | |
But you were buying from Ronnie Barker. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:04 | |
But you were buying them from Ronnie Barker, yes. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:08 | |
And it's no joke that they're worth twice that, so that's £700. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:13 | |
She'll be a bit nervous about that now, hanging them on the... | 0:54:13 | 0:54:17 | |
Well, as long as it's a good bit of wire, which it is. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:20 | |
So all I have to say now is it's goodnight from me. | 0:54:20 | 0:54:23 | |
And goodnight from him. Goodnight. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:26 | |
-Is this your daughter? -Yes, it is. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:32 | |
I think we've found the perfect wedding present for her. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:36 | |
Oh, my! Really? | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
Well, this is a Chinese bowl and it's got dragons on it | 0:54:39 | 0:54:45 | |
-and it's got phoenix on it. -Mm. | 0:54:45 | 0:54:48 | |
Now dragons and phoenix represent the Emperor and Empress of China, | 0:54:48 | 0:54:53 | |
but it is also a symbol of conjugal bliss | 0:54:53 | 0:54:56 | |
and they are frequently used as wedding gifts. | 0:54:56 | 0:54:59 | |
Oh, right. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:01 | |
So it's got to be the perfect present. | 0:55:01 | 0:55:03 | |
Where did you get it? | 0:55:03 | 0:55:06 | |
I think it belonged to my great-aunt | 0:55:06 | 0:55:09 | |
who gave some items to my mother | 0:55:09 | 0:55:11 | |
and I just took a fancy to it, and she said take it. | 0:55:11 | 0:55:15 | |
How long ago was that? | 0:55:15 | 0:55:17 | |
-Oh, probably about 10, 15 years, I can't remember. -Fabulous. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:22 | |
Well, I mean it is, it's lovely, | 0:55:22 | 0:55:23 | |
I mean, it's painted with these dragons, phoenix, we've got flowers, | 0:55:23 | 0:55:28 | |
we've got Buddhist symbols around the border here, | 0:55:28 | 0:55:31 | |
but if we turn it over, | 0:55:31 | 0:55:33 | |
we've got a six-character Chinese mark. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:35 | |
It reads from here first and it says Da Qing Daoguang Nian Zhi | 0:55:35 | 0:55:40 | |
so it says basically, | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
"Made in the Daoguang reign of the great Qing dynasty," | 0:55:42 | 0:55:46 | |
is how it translates, and this chap was an Emperor | 0:55:46 | 0:55:50 | |
who reigned from 1820 to 1850, so the first half of the 19th century. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:56 | |
They started by painting it in underglazed blue | 0:55:56 | 0:55:59 | |
and then firing it and then it's come back out and they've | 0:55:59 | 0:56:02 | |
then re-enamelled it with these iron red, green, yellow etc on it. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:09 | |
And they were popular bowls, they'd been making this design | 0:56:09 | 0:56:13 | |
since the Kangxi period, back at the end of the 17th century. | 0:56:13 | 0:56:17 | |
Throughout the 18th century and 19th century, you see the same bowls, | 0:56:17 | 0:56:21 | |
so without turning it over, | 0:56:21 | 0:56:23 | |
I wouldn't have necessarily been able to tell you when it was made. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:27 | |
Where do you keep it now? | 0:56:27 | 0:56:28 | |
Um, I keep it in a pile of other similar sort of bowls | 0:56:28 | 0:56:32 | |
and plates that I just like the look of. It comes out every now and again | 0:56:32 | 0:56:36 | |
to have peanuts or something like that put in it. | 0:56:36 | 0:56:38 | |
-It's a peanut bowl. -It's a peanut bowl. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:41 | |
I love the fact that it's a peanut bowl. Well, you're very lucky | 0:56:41 | 0:56:44 | |
that your peanut bowl is in such amazing condition. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:48 | |
It is very, very flawless, really. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:50 | |
It's definitely from this period, this is not a copy. | 0:56:50 | 0:56:52 | |
There are subtle differences and they are difficult to tell. | 0:56:52 | 0:56:55 | |
There's a slight way the inside of the base is finished, | 0:56:55 | 0:56:58 | |
it's gone slightly brown, | 0:56:58 | 0:57:00 | |
again, you can see the colour draining slightly from the rim. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:03 | |
The quality of the painting is the other issue, it's a very good thing. | 0:57:03 | 0:57:06 | |
Lovely object. And terrific wedding present, well done. | 0:57:06 | 0:57:10 | |
The last one at auction fetched just over £20,000. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:17 | |
Gosh. Mm. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:20 | |
So it was worth coming today after all. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:24 | |
-I think we'll share it. -No, we won't! | 0:57:30 | 0:57:32 | |
Do you remember at the beginning of the programme | 0:57:35 | 0:57:38 | |
I talked about the Georgian tourists who would flock here in their hordes | 0:57:38 | 0:57:41 | |
to see the ruins of the abbey and the wonderful water gardens? | 0:57:41 | 0:57:44 | |
Well, this is a kind of Georgian frock coat | 0:57:44 | 0:57:47 | |
one of those tourists might have worn. | 0:57:47 | 0:57:50 | |
One of our visitors brought it along today, | 0:57:50 | 0:57:52 | |
picked it up for about £80 and it's worth several hundred pounds. | 0:57:52 | 0:57:55 | |
And of course it wouldn't have been worn with the kind of things | 0:57:55 | 0:57:58 | |
I'm wearing, but with lovely lace at the throat, | 0:57:58 | 0:58:00 | |
lace coming out of the cuffs, a tricorn hat. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 | |
I couldn't resist putting it on because it is a fabulous thing. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:07 | |
From the ruins of Fountains Abbey | 0:58:07 | 0:58:08 | |
and our visitors and the Roadshow team, until next time, bye-bye. | 0:58:08 | 0:58:12 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:35 | 0:58:39 |