Hillsborough Castle Antiques Roadshow

Welcome to a brand-new series of the Antiques Roadshow,

marking an incredible 35 years on British television.

And today we've come to a residence literally fit for a queen -

the Queen's royal residence in Northern Ireland -

Hillsborough Castle.

This handsome Georgian country house was built

by the First Earl of Hillsborough in 1788.

In 1925, shortly after the partition of Ireland, it was

bought by the British Government and became the official residence

of the Governor of Northern Ireland, as well as the royal family.

Since then, they've regularly used Hillsborough as their personal

and ceremonial base in Northern Ireland.

When we were making preparations for this programme, we found out

that a very special visit was being arranged for the same week.

Her Majesty the Queen visited Hillsborough Castle, attending the

annual garden party as part of her official visit to Northern Ireland.

She's stayed here regularly since her first visit in 1945.

And before she left, Her Majesty and Prince Philip chose to

drop in to see us as we were preparing for the Antiques Roadshow.

After a private conversation with our experts,

it was time for the royal party to leave,

for the next part of the visit to Northern Ireland.

Well, that was certainly an honour for the Roadshow

and what a great way to kick off our brand-new series.

We'll find out a little bit more about what our royal visitors

had to say later in the programme.

But now it's time to welcome our other guests -

the people of Northern Ireland,

many of whom are taking this chance to see Hillsborough Castle -

now under the care of Historic Royal Palaces.

It's a perfect - if slightly wet - backdrop

as our team get ready to find more treasures.

So a great piece of jewellery by Hattie Carnegie.

What attracted you to it?

I just loved it, as soon as I saw it.

I walked around the vintage fair and I came back and I was like,

"I have to get that". It just blew me away.

If those were diamonds...

-Yeah.

-..we'd be talking...

-Really?

-..20,000, 30,000.

-Yeah, yeah.

-But of course, they're not diamonds.

-Yeah.

Hattie was born in Vienna in Austria, went to the States

in 1900 and seemingly she had a very difficult Austrian name, so she said

to somebody on the boat, "So who's the wealthiest man in America?"

and they said, "Andrew Carnegie" so she said,

-"Right, I'll be Hattie Carnegie from now on."

-Yes.

And she was very successful.

She set up a shop in 1909 and by 1929,

-she had an annual turnover of 3.5 million.

-Wow!

Very successful. She died in the late '50s.

-It's actually just a little bit later than that...

-OK.

-..when the company was still going,

so it's from the '60s.

It's costume jewellery and just between you and me -

not telling anyone else - what did you pay for it?

£130.

-You paid £130 for bits of glass and metal.

-I didn't care.

-You didn't care.

-I didn't tell my husband, I didn't tell him.

-Oh, he'll never know. No, he'll never know!

So you paid - because you just loved it.

-I did, yeah.

-Your heart ruled your head.

Yes, indeed, yes.

Well, it's worth between 400 and 500.

Thank you so much! Really? Wow!

I've two daughters and I don't know what I'm going to do with it.

Oh, there's going to be a fight.

Now at first glance, it would appear that I'm about to

launch into a valuation on a wicker basket,

but let's be honest...

It's quite old, actually.

It is quite old but the contents are far more exciting.

And I think it's worth revealing

exactly what we're talking about here.

Produced from that little basket is a super stylish girl.

But tell me, where did she come from?

She came from London in the 1930s.

And who acquired her?

My father-in-law, whom I never knew, and he was a tea merchant in the

City of London and I think during his lunch hour and spare time he

used to potter out around galleries and antique shops and there

were quite a lot of little things he bought, all that were portable,

more or less, and brought home, and that's where she came from.

So he was a connoisseur of means.

Yes, not great means, but probably things like that were not

very expensive then - I don't know.

-Oh, no, this would have been.

-It would?

-This would have been a considered purchase.

And the interesting thing is, you sort of commented, the 1930s

and made reference to galleries and antique shops,

but actually, this figure will date from around 1925.

Ah, well, that would be feasible.

And then would have been a brand-new item that would have been retailed

in a rather smart gallery, and what we're looking at here

is a wonderful example of that classic period.

-1925, you know, the launch of Art Deco as we now know it.

-Yes.

And actually manufactured by - for me -

one of the leading exponents of this type of work,

which of course is Demetre Chiparus and actually very clearly

we do have, just to the reverse here, running along the back...

Oh, yes.

..a signature that's just smuggled away in the top of this base and

it's a wonderful base as well, it's a base for me that is architectural.

It's reminiscent of the skyline that was springing up

in New York at the time and she is absolutely from that period.

And she's actually known as Starlight

and is one of a range of figures that Chiparus

created in a period that many sort of see was his golden era.

He was being heavily influenced by the likes of the Ballets Russes,

the new cinema that was coming through, avant-garde theatre -

and as a result there was a production of countless

stylised girls in dancing poses wearing the most wonderful dresses.

It's a classic piece of its day

and obviously a piece that captured your father-in-law's eye.

Yes, yes.

So in terms of value - well, this figure today is attractive.

-It was actually the smaller model of two.

-Yes, I thought so.

There is one double the size which is considerably more,

but this one would easily fetch at auction

between £10,000 and £15,000.

Right, that's very nice to know.

Now, I don't want to raise your hopes too much,

but this really is probably the most unusual wall clock I've ever seen.

Is it something you've had for many years?

It's something that has been in our collection for about three years.

Sorry, your collection?

Yes, I'm the Keeper of Collections at Milford House Museum in Armagh

and in 2012, Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue gifted us

most of the contents of Somerset House in London

and this clock was among the pieces that came from Somerset House.

Wow! Did you have to make a payment for it?

No, everything was gifted to us,

to be held in trust for society for the benefit of the nation.

I think I'd better start a museum and get one or two

things from HMRC! I think that sounds absolutely fantastic.

Well, let's have a look at the name.

Alexander Cumming of London.

He was actually born in Edinburgh and then moved down to London

and was working in the Bond Street area, really, throughout

the 1780s and 1790s.

He died actually in - I think - 1814,

but a maker of great repute, fellow of the Royal Society,

clockmaker to King George, everything you ever want.

-Have you ever seen anything like it before?

-No.

And we know that it's unusual - we don't know why it's unusual.

Well, I will try and help you out on that.

As I said, he's a maker of great repute

and when it comes to his wall clocks, we tend to think of them as

having the flat, square silver dials,

or with a shallow arch, with what we call a hooded wall clock,

that would have finished at about there.

Would have been smaller than this.

So a precision wall clock

and the extraordinary thing is,

there's no depth to it, it's only about that deep.

So have you tried getting that pendulum on and off in there?

Er, yes, I have, yes, with difficulty.

With great difficulty, I bet. It's lovely, absolutely gorgeous.

Now how many houses it's been into, or premises,

I really don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me at all

if it was a special commission for one of the big London places.

I believe it was made for Somerset House.

For Somerset House - it makes absolute sense, absolute sense.

So we have canted corners

and then these lovely side mouldings here and also at the base.

So it would have been in very much a room that was seen from all angles.

You're very lucky to have it.

Did they tell you, when they sent it up, what they thought it was worth?

No.

Do you have any idea?

Er no.

No, OK.

Good clocks at the moment are really flying high

and this is the sort of thing that any collector will want.

At auction,

£15,000 to £20,000.

-Really?

-That's why I said I want to start a museum.

Seriously?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Oh, my goodness.

It is - it's a one-off. I've never seen anything like it.

15 to 20...?

Yeah, and as we say in our business, "find another" and you never will.

# Rain, rain, rain, rain, beautiful rain

# Rain, rain, rain, rain, beautiful rain

# Oh, come to me, beautiful rain. #

It's not very often - in fact, I think it might it might be the

first time - that I've had a doll brought into the Roadshow by a man.

I hastily add it's not mine, it's my mother's.

-Right.

-OK.

Tell me what you know about it.

All I know is, it was posted to my mother in 1934 by an uncle

living in America, specifically Florida.

Mum, for her third birthday,

asked her Uncle Harry in Florida for a Shirley Temple doll and hence...

She obviously liked Shirley Temple.

Very much so, yes.

So we have a vinyl doll, looking just like Shirley Temple.

They came in various sizes.

She has a lovely little wig which is actually made of mohair,

which is a mountain goat.

She has limbs which are jointed at the hip and the shoulder

and she has a turning head, so she's a seriously-made doll.

Then you have the wonderful little dress with a lot of work in it.

It's handmade with a little label saying,

"Shirley Temple, Ideal Novelty Company, New York" - can't get better than that.

It happens to have been made and designed by someone in 1934,

by Bernard Lipfert.

The Ideal Novelty Company of New York -

which started in 1907 - by the '30s they not only did Shirley Temple,

they did Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, and various other famous

actresses that people loved and that's why they collected the dolls.

Excellent.

It's absolutely a child's dream.

She's going to be worth, altogether -

including the clothes, because that really does make a difference,

and the badge - we're talking about £800 to £1,000.

My goodness! OK, thank you very much, lovely.

-I hope your mother will be pleased.

-She will be, yes! Thank you very much.

Now I'm looking at handsome naval officers, medals,

obviously a very important story.

Who's the chap I'm holding?

That's my grandfather, Alfred Thomas Cook,

known in the family as Grandpa Doon.

OK. Now, he's a naval officer, what's the story?

Well, the story is that in the Second World War,

he was the captain of the Medway Queen.

Ah, now I can almost take over there.

Go to 1940, go to those dark days, go to Dunkirk

and all those troops trying to be got off the beaches.

The Medway Queen was a famous Thames paddle steamer, shallow draught,

she could get right into the beaches and could load soldiers straight off

the beaches and then can ferry them out to the deeper, bigger ships.

That's right. They saved 7,000 soldiers,

which was a huge number, in seven sorties back on to the beaches.

-It doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

-Holding it all together - amazing.

-And this is what he got?

And he got the Distinguished Service Cross for his services

during that particular event, and the ship itself was named

The Heroine of Dunkirk because she was the big one that went right in.

-And she survived.

-And she survived.

-Very good, so that's your grandpa.

-Yeah.

-Move on - who's this handsome chap?

Well, this handsome chap is my dad,

Lionel Aubrey Cook,

and he was in the Merchant Navy at the same time and he was

in the war travelling north in October 1942 on the MV Brittany.

-Right.

-And as they came north, their course was meant to be straight to

Liverpool, but they were detoured slightly into the Bay of Biscay.

Coming south, the other convoy had a troop carrier with my grandfather captaining it.

-Hang on a minute.

-Sorry.

-So your grandfather and your father were passing at sea?

Yes, they were passing at sea in the middle of the war.

-Unknown to each other.

-Unknown, and the reason is clear now,

because they were to draw the Wolfpacks - the submarines,

German submarines - away from...they were a decoy.

So the main convoy was going to - was part of the attack on Africa,

-the North African attack.

-Yes.

And they were put in harm's way to the extent that virtually all

the ships in the little convoy were torpedoed that night

on 22nd October 1942, and my father was

the officer of the watch that night, saw the first torpedo strike,

saw a second one hit the lifeboats as they were being launched.

The ship turned right over on its hull.

He was running along the keel, the ship started to sink,

he was sucked down with the ship and I shouldn't be here today,

but the ship was carrying bales of cotton,

so the only theory my dad can give is that as the ship went down,

sucking him with it, bales of cotton came bobbing up out of the hold.

And one of them must have caught him and brought him up to the surface,

because the next thing he knew, he was on the surface, he saw

a half-wrecked lifeboat, got himself into it, and then proceeded to

rescue people as they were floating past and he kept them alive

in the boat for over 24 hours until they were luckily rescued.

And for that, he received the medals here.

That's an astonishing story.

I mean, it's all about chance, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-What are the drawings?

Well, when he survived he was brought to Liverpool

and he was in hospital, he was seriously ill,

and as he was recovering - he had told us this story all

through his life, but what we didn't know was that he was also

putting down the story as a memory by way of these cartoons - and

he drew these cartoons in hospital which depict the whole incident.

I mean, it's a sequence, isn't it? The ship, the torpedoing.

Yeah, yeah.

Second torpedo, the escape nets,

the ship beginning to roll over,

the ship upside down, he's running along the keel, though he isn't...

-Yes.

-..getting into the water,

and then finally in the lifeboat.

-Yeah.

-I mean... and you didn't know these existed?

No, it was amazing when we found them.

-After his death.

-Absolutely, yeah.

So you've got a record of that extraordinary incident here.

That's right and we've got the MBE

-and we have the Lloyd's Medal for Bravery.

-Which is a very rare medal.

Which is the special one. There are only 540 in existence

and therefore this, to us, is a very special tribute to my dad.

And, of course, it is an amazing family story.

The value, of course, is in the medals

and I'm sure you're aware of that.

-Yeah.

-Just going through them, your grandfather's

Distinguished Service Cross, because of the connection with

the Medway Queen and that incident, is £2,000 to £3,000.

The Lloyd's Medal is surprisingly not that valuable,

they're very rare.

If that was a VC it would be, well, you know...

But it's still £1,000.

The MBE, a wartime MBE, and again because of the incident, is probably

about the same, so you're looking at £5,000 for the medals.

Well, it's an amazing thing. For us, it's just

the knowledge that this will be handed down through the years.

We now have a grandson

and hopefully it will go from our sons to our grandsons.

-They must never be lost.

-We'll never forget.

Tea sets have been a bit of a dead duck on the market

for quite a long while.

However, there are exceptions.

But how did you come by it?

It came to me from my mother

and we believe it came to her from her father before her.

Beyond that, I know nothing about it.

Well, that would make perfect sense. I mean, this is just so stylish.

What's so remarkable is that, of course, the design was actually

registered in 1880.

I thought it might have been the 1920s or '30s.

I'm not surprised, that's what most people think, because this fits

so much more happily with Art Deco than it does with high

Victorian art, and no wonder

because, and the answer lies...

there.

And what we've got there is the facsimile

-signature of Dr Christopher Dresser.

-Right.

Now, he was way ahead of his time from the point of view of design.

In fact, I mean, he was just amazing,

introducing functionalism into design.

But he sold designs to different companies and in this case,

there's the design registration, which is

actually from the 1880s, and there we've got the marks of Dixon.

Dixon and Company, very important,

and they commissioned the series, mostly tea services

from Dresser, about 30 or 40 designs.

And they are amongst the most sought-after of all Dresser pieces.

So, the condition here is absolutely wonderful,

but we do need to consider, of course, Dr Christopher Dresser,

Dixons...I mean, a facsimile signature, which is so rare.

-It's electroplate, of course.

-Yes.

As to value, I would say in today's market, at auction,

the estimate would be between £3,000 and £5,000.

-Wow!

-OK.

And if it went beyond that, I wouldn't be in the slightest

-bit surprised because it's in such wonderful condition.

-Super.

-This man here is your grandfather.

-That's right.

He has a very special connection to Hillsborough Castle

-behind us.

-Yes.

-Tell me about it.

He was aide de camp to the first Governor of Northern Ireland

at the very beginning of Northern Ireland,

and his duties were to organise security at all state events.

This is your grandfather here.

-We've got the Duke of York, who went on to become George VI.

-Yes.

-And this is the Governor.

-Yes.

The Duke of Abercorn, and here the Duchess of York

became Queen Elizabeth and then, of course, the Queen Mother.

-So, he obviously met very important people here in his job.

-Yes.

Now, I have here a proclamation. Now, this is a proclamation

-when King George VI died...

-Yes.

-..and Queen Elizabeth II acceded to the throne.

-Yes.

Now, what did your grandfather have to do with this proclamation?

He read out that proclamation in Derry at the Guildhall,

at the same time as it was read out here, I think

by the Governor at Hillsborough.

And I can see here the little marks he put in...

-Yes, his breathing marks.

-..where he can take a breath, yes.

-Yes, exactly.

-So this must have been quite a moment for him.

Absolutely, it was a huge moment, yeah.

-Now, you might be aware that the Queen was here yesterday.

-Yes.

And she heard that this proclamation was going to be

brought along to the programme today, and I'm told that

she expressed a particular interest in hearing it,

so if she's watching the programme,

-she'll be very interested in this, I think.

-Good.

This is an extraordinary manuscript of all the bones of the human

body, delineated as large as life.

And it's dated 1770,

"John Ward delineat" - that is

the Latin for having drawn it - and it is the most extraordinary thing.

So, if we go into the first one here, we've got

a picture of the human skull, which is...I don't know...

-these things are almost surreal, aren't they?

-Yeah.

But they are quite incredible, and it goes on giving various views of

the human body, and here's a rather charming one of a baby in the womb.

Now, I think this is copied,

I don't think that this chap here who actually drew all these

knew very much about this, I think he was copying from somewhere else.

It's an extraordinary thing, where does it come from?

Well, it was found in Brownlow House in Lurgan,

-that's the ancestral home of the Brownlow family.

-Mm-hm.

And it was damaged some time ago in an arson attack

and there's been various bits of restoration work done,

and the latest bit, about ten years ago, this was uncovered.

-This was uncovered

-Yeah.

-What do you mean, it came out...?

It was some brickwork in a wall and it was underneath the brickwork.

And so how did it come to you?

Well, that's what I'm saying, my son found it - he's the caretaker of the

house, so...and it was only brought here today as an afterthought.

Bring it down and see. The other things that I brought down

have been sort of discarded.

This is a bit of an afterthought, I have to say,

but all these are original, it's a super thing to see, very exciting.

I would have to value it at, what - £2,000, it's quite a find.

£2,000?

Dear, dear, dear - very good indeed.

We're standing in the luscious grounds of Hillsborough,

lovely green grass, beautiful trees, and you've brought in this

colourful picture by Wright Barker entitled Clearing the Forest.

Can you tell me where it's come from?

It was in my grandparents' house, in their lounge,

and it's hung there as long as I can remember.

It's always been in the family, so I wanted to know more about it.

And we do know that my father purchased the painting in 1976

from a local gallery and he paid £1,025.

He obviously loved the picture, it was hanging in his house?

-Yeah..

-Yeah, very much so.

-And are you enjoying it at home?

Well, we only had it up on one occasion,

since for the last couple of years, we've taken the painting down.

-It's so dominant in a room.

-Is it a picture that you love?

Well, I've a lot of memories of it, obviously

being at my grandparents' house, I always remember it being up, but

it's a shame no-one sees it any more because it is quite spectacular.

But it doesn't really match our house, I'm afraid.

And, of course, it's an oil on canvas, painted in the 1890s.

He had a studio in Owlerton in Yorkshire

so it might be one of the surrounding areas.

Of course, there's a narrative here, it tells a story,

and do you know what's going on here?

We would understand that it was painted in the late 19th century

and this was obviously men doing their daily work.

Clearing the Forest, as you said, was the title of the painting.

-Yes.

-The focus of the painting for us, and I know my father,

was the expression on the horse's face,

if there is such a thing, particularly the horse's eye.

Um, the eye, that rather scary eye on the main horse.

Of course, he's being pushed back to where this big tree is going

to be pulled up and put onto the cart.

So the noise, the sense of being pushed back, you can

tell that the horse is slightly fearsome of that.

Meanwhile, all his friends, which are beautifully depicted

here by Wright Barker, are waiting for their moment.

Because this was an exhausting thing for the horses to do.

Wright Barker was a great animal painter.

There's a plaque on the picture that starts 1891 and then also

adds the date 1893, so I suspect this is painted around 1893.

He starts exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1891

and he continues exhibiting at the Academy up to about 1935.

Dies in 1941. So, in terms of valuation, this painting's certainly

-worth £6,000 to £8,000.

-Wow! That's nice!

We are attached to the painting and we intend to hold on to it

and get somewhere more appropriate for it, maybe, then.

-Maybe my house.

-Maybe your house is right, yeah.

How long has this watch been sitting in this box for?

-I would say at least 40 years.

-Have you ever worn it?

-No.

-So what's it doing in there?

-Um, waiting to be valued, I suppose.

-That's a good enough response,

but it's such a sadness and I love this subject, and

time and time again these beautiful things I just don't feel are loved.

It is the most magnificent watch in the hand - very, very heavy.

Do you know what sort of watch we call this, with the case?

I understand it's a half hunter.

You're absolutely right, it's a half hunter,

-in other words it's enclosed on the back.

-Yes.

And then you've got this small window at the front,

which, if you were riding a horse, as you would have

done in the old days, before cars, you would have not had all

that open, so if you fell off your horse you didn't smash

-the glass but then you could just do that and...instant time.

-Yes.

But there's one or two more special things about this.

-The instant giveaway, this button here and this slide there.

-Yes.

Now, you must have had it out of the box at some stage.

-Definitely, yes.

-And so do you know what these things do?

Well, they tell you the time. If you happen to be blind,

you can tell the time by sliding the slide, and it strikes the hours

and the quarters past the hour and the minutes past the quarter.

Well, you're absolutely right, it should be a minute repeater

and this button at the top - have you ever used that one?

I think that's a stopwatch.

You're absolutely right, it is a centre seconds chronograph,

so I've just pressed that and it's started the seconds hand running.

You've got a 30-minute recording dial at the top, stop there,

reset it and it flicks back to zero.

So you've got twin subsidiaries, the bottom one running seconds,

and then your 30-minute recording.

Now, I've said it's a fabulous watch in the hand.

I see here...got some import marks.

The top one says 18,

which is .750 carats,

the other one to the left is the import mark and the N is

the London date letter of 1908, and it's come in through London.

And look at that movement, that is absolute...I'll pop

it down there. That is absolutely top-grade Swiss, the finest quality

Swiss. Jewelled to the centre, all the repeat work is jewelled.

The only thing that would make it better is if it was English

throughout, it would have been just the pinnacle, but this is lovely.

I cannot fault it, not that I would want to,

but everything is perfect, that dial is gorgeous, the movement super.

When did you last hear it doing its repetition?

-Probably seven or eight years ago.

-Really?

-Yes.

-Gosh, so it really doesn't come out often, does it?

-No, no.

Advance the hands, move the slide, and let's hear it.

WATCH RINGS

It's a little sluggish,

but it would be if it hadn't been oiled for years and years and years.

A bit like your car, anything mechanical needs to be looked after.

Well, that was sent away to London on one occasion to be cleaned.

How long ago?

Oh, more than 40 years, probably 50, 60 years.

OK.

THEY LAUGH

You still can't expect it to perform beautifully after that time

without even an oil in 60 years.

Listen, it's top of the range, it's a gorgeous size.

Retail - you're going

-to be paying at least £5,000 for it.

-Right.

And I know what you're going to do, once again, as everybody says,

-it's going back in the box, back in the drawer.

-That's right.

I beg you to take it out more often, have it oiled and please enjoy it!

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

So it says on this bottle 1727 and I was just wondering

-if you knew it as a child?

-No!

SHE LAUGHS

How do you know it? Come on, tell us.

Um, I just bought it at a car-boot sale, about five years ago.

-And what made you buy it?

-Um, I just liked the seal.

Well, I think the seal makes the beast.

I mean, this is a bottle that's really, really of 1727.

-It would be lovely to know - would it not - who HE was. Any idea?

-No.

-And what did you think it was?

-I knew it was an old wine bottle.

I thought it was quite old when I saw the date on it, but I wasn't sure.

So, look, you lot, you're in the loop.

It's a wine bottle, you're absolutely right, it's

a wine bottle that used to belong to somebody whose initials were HE,

and it was made in 1727.

So you're at this boot fair, you see a bottle that you

recognise for what it is, and how much did you have to splash out?

Er, £3.50.

£3.50, you wild woman! So what does your husband think

when you come back with this junk from boot fairs?

Oh, he's not too happy. All this junk I'm bringing home.

Well, I'm telling you, I think he's going

to be in slightly better humour with you when he finds out that its

value is actually £2,500 to £3,000.

-Oh, my goodness!

-Really?! Wow!

-How's that, then?

-I can't believe it.

-Aren't you the lucky girl?

-Yes!

-Come on!

-Thank you so much.

-Isn't that great?

-Yes, that's great, thank you very much.

-Yes!

CLAPPING

Yesterday I had the chance to introduce three of our experts

to Her Majesty the Queen, and Prince Philip,

after they'd finished their stay here at Hillsborough Castle.

Good morning, Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness.

Her Majesty has a particular family connection to the house.

Between 1945 and 1952, her aunt, Lady Granville,

lived at Hillsborough when her husband was Governor.

Our experts have been researching

items in the Hillsborough collection

to discuss with Her Majesty, the Queen.

We took the liberty of looking round the castle

and we found some things that actually relate to the family.

The horse is after a very famous bronze sculptor called Mene

and it's the Derby winner of 1863.

What I found out about the 1863 Derby is that it had 32

-false starts.

-Sounds very incompetent.

SHE LAUGHS

'Once the conversation with Her Majesty the Queen was over,

'and the Royal party had departed, I caught up with our experts.'

Well, that was quite a moment for the Antiques Roadshow, and the Queen

seemed genuinely interested in hearing about those objects.

Yes, she did. We talked about every object on the table

and everything we talked about seemed to get a real response,

it was fabulous.

The great thing, of course, was also her interest in the programme.

-Well, I'm told she's a fan.

-Oh, right.

And the first thing that I spoke to Her Majesty about was

something with a family connection.

And it's a little Christening cup.

-Yes.

-Amazing, isn't it? What was the relationship?

Lady Granville was my aunt, Queen Elizabeth's sister.

Got left here, did it, by mistake?

THEY LAUGH

-No.

-Well, it's a fabulous story that Lord

and Lady Granville were crossing the Atlantic and the chief

engineer's wife produced the baby while they were all at sea

and Lady Granville said, "Well, I would like to give a Christening

"present and I'll be there at the Christening," and what's fabulous

is that there's a photograph of her actually at the Christening.

Mm, amazing, isn't it?

She's the lady who made the rose garden, a rather beautiful garden.

When it comes to the family cup, that belonged to her aunt,

didn't it?

To her mother's elder sister, who used to live here,

so that was a straight connection.

It's an eclectic collection of items, isn't it?

Yes, I think it's an extraordinary house.

I think what we've done today is we've looked at things and,

obviously with the help of Her Majesty, we've filled in some of the

details about those objects and in a sense that's what we're here for.

And I guess that's what the Roadshow does best.

What a lock! I mean, an amazing key.

Can you imagine the door it came from?

You don't happen to have that tucked away somewhere?

-I mean, did you prise it off a door in your home?

-Definitely not.

-Where did you get it, then?

-I found it on a skip.

What, a skip in the street?!

Yeah, we were working, came back next morning to load furniture,

and this here was in it.

You were walking by and you looked in and you just noticed that?

We were putting stuff into it.

You were putting stuff in the skip and that's when you saw it.

Somebody got there before us.

-You don't know the building it came from?

-I've no idea.

I mean, it's an extraordinary piece of Gothic revival.

It's dated 1851,

the year before Pugin died, who did the Houses of Parliament.

Pierced brass, it's obviously ecclesiastical because of

the Latin inscription, and the key is superb, it's all pierced out.

The panel round the edge is all painted.

People like William Burges, and as I said, Pugin,

designed stuff like this, and it's that kind of quality.

It would have been in some kind of Gothic mansion or folly, or

I almost think it would have been designed for a church.

-So it's actually cost you nothing?

-No. Is there any value in it?

-Have you taken it anywhere?

-No.

I took it to a local locksmith where I found it and they offered me

a tenner for it.

A tenner? You were offered £10 for this?

I would say the key might be worth at least £150, maybe £200.

And the whole kit caboodle, the whole thing,

I would say £800 to £1,000.

CROWD GASPS

And you found it in a skip.

I think it's a fantastic thing, I really think it's wonderful.

I love the fact it's made to look like a book.

You don't want to buy it, no?

THEY LAUGH

-Well, that's not our job.

-Oh, dear.

You know, some people looking at this picture would think this

is very, very child-like and very primitive.

To me, this is an absolute joy to see today.

It is to me, too.

And when I saw this, I knew straightaway who it was by,

-James Dixon.

-The very same, James Dixon, yeah, Tory Island.

And Tory Island is off County Donegal?

It is, it's about 12 miles off the north coast.

If you can imagine a map of Ireland.

-Yes.

-Up in the north west, go out 12 miles out into the sea

and you'll find Tory Island, it's a little rocky island.

-And James Dixon, born on Tory Island...

-Yeah.

-..and died on Tory Island...

-Yeah.

-..is an Irish artist.

-He certainly is, yeah.

-And I think one of the greats.

I think so too, yeah, he is the number one.

There's this Tory School of Painting

but James Dixon is recognised as being big daddy.

It's a joy to see

because you're looking at a perspective of an untrained artist.

-Absolutely.

-He's putting onto canvas what he sees with his eye

and feels with his heart and I just love the way

the figures are walking around on the harbour wall there.

-I mean, they're almost Lowry-like, these.

-They are.

But just wonderful, and then the specks up here in the sky.

-I think they might be chickens.

-Chickens?!

-Might be, I'm not sure.

-Well...

-They look like chickens to me.

HE LAUGHS

It's a rather nice thought, actually.

And in his early life he actually was a farmer and a fisherman,

-wasn't he?

-Yes, he was.

Did you ever go to Tory Island?

Yeah, I went there several times.

I went actually with Derek Hill, the painter, as a guest

and while I was there - this is 1968 - I met James Dixon and I watched

him painting and he painted...

He would paint a picture and he would

put it to the side because he'd just become popular, and he would

say, "There's another £10", and then he would start again.

I said, "Jimmy, I like those two pictures"

that he'd just painted - this one and another one of the wasp.

And I said...but I couldn't afford them, I was a penniless

youth at the time, so I grovelled through my pockets and I found

I had £1 and ten shillings - and he said, "That'll do".

So I bought the two pictures for £1, ten shillings.

That, that's amazing, because when you look at this,

he always inscribes his picture, and I see down the left-hand side

it's got, "The Marie, the first motor boat built on Tory Island."

-That's right.

-I think he's the most extraordinary artist because

he didn't start painting until he was 72 years old.

-Yeah.

-And self-taught.

I would love to own this, I really, really would.

You can't have it.

I'll give you two shillings for it.

HE LAUGHS

No, I think this is fantastic.

If this came up today for sale, I know exactly what

it's worth, it's worth about £4,000 to £6,000.

Anyway, it's lovely to see it today.

Thank you very much indeed, Dendy. Thank you.

What on earth's happened to this box here?

Last night when I took a ring out of the cupboard, I popped

it on the bed and when I turned round, my dog had it in his mouth.

Goodness me, and so for all these years the box has been absolutely

fine and probably you've had the ring for a long time and then

suddenly it all happens the night before you come to the Roadshow.

-Yes.

-Isn't that just typical?

Well, thankfully he didn't get actually inside the box

and start to eat this beautiful ring that we've got here.

What's the connection with you and the ring and the family?

The family story goes that my husband's great-great-great-

-grandfather was quite wealthy and had servants.

-Uh-huh.

And during the time of the Crimean War,

one of the maids became ill and as her husband was going off to

war, he asked my husband's ancestor if he could kindly look after

the maid for him, and when he returned from the war, the story

goes that he brought the ring with him, by way of saying thank you.

That's a lovely story, isn't it?

And the fact that a piece of jewellery has been

given as a thank you. Jewellery is always associated with loving

sentiments, and then suddenly they've done such a super thing,

looking after the maid, and they get this beautiful ring.

And what's really lovely about it is, it's known as an "in fede" ring

which is a "hands in faith" ring, and as we see here,

if we take a closer look at it, it closes

and the two hands come together and they are hands in faith.

And it's more than likely that the ring is actually

English-made, as well.

We can date the ring from the fact we've got lovely canitille work,

which is very delicate gold bead work and rope work,

around the garnets that are set in the ring, as well.

The ring actually dates from the 1820s,

so it's a beautiful, pretty ring.

Thankfully, it hasn't been damaged by the dog.

As far as value is concerned, naturally, a piece like this is,

it's full of sentimental value for you and your family.

Collectors at auction, because of the intricacy,

the delicacy of it and the good condition of it, we're

looking at a value of between £1,000 and £1,500.

-Gosh! Thank you very much.

-My pleasure.

Quirky, cool and more than a little bit kitsch are words

that I think I could use to describe these,

which are original 1960s and '70s magazine illustrations, aren't they?

That's right, yes.

And this white blank area here is of course where the text would

have gone for the magazine to tell the story.

That's right, for the page of a magazine.

Why on earth did you buy them?

I just thought they were beautiful, the colours and the artwork and

I appreciate that it was all hand-done and he had to

fill it in all by himself and they were actual works of art,

in a sense.

There's also quite a lot of skill in here, isn't there?

-When you look at how well they're done...

-Fabulous.

They really capture characters

of each of the individuals through here.

I like the fact that the whole strip tells a story. One page

and that's what the magazine had to do, just to describe for the reader.

But I think, for me, it's what's not said and what's not shown.

I mean, here we have an old man

sort of lovingly cupping this much younger lady, and

I'm sort of wondering is he the boss and is she perhaps his secretary?

Is this an illicit affair?

So you have a story being told,

but there's always something else, it's a snapshot in time, isn't it?

-That's exactly right.

-I think for me,

apart from just capturing a sort of moment in a story, and a

moment in time in that story, they capture a moment in style, as well.

I mean, look at this lady here, leaning out of foliage.

I mean this is so 1960s and even her telephone looks a little

-bit like a Pucci dress, doesn't it?

-That's right, yes.

With these wonderful colours and geometric shapes here

and, of course, this is all meant to be exotic

and evocative and romantic, I suppose.

Looking at the subject matter here, you've got sort of this

illicit affair going on, this luscious lady sort of leaning out

of bushes there, and then here, this rather sort of James Bond character.

This louche gentleman.

It would have been nice perhaps to see some more sort of lithe

ladies and buxom beauties lurking round, or guns, or sports cars.

Do you know which magazine they come from?

I think it was Women's Illustrated but I'm not sure.

He may have worked for quite a few other magazines.

They remind you also of film posters at the time, but

in the case of this, I mean, you can just see the whole story there.

Absolutely. This little vignette says so much, doesn't it?

I notice some of them are signed "Jac Mars"

and I've done a little bit of research and I can't

seem to find too much out about Jac Mars, who I presume is a he.

And I think identifying something about the artist, and identifying

which magazine they came from, will sort of improve their value.

They're not exactly everybody's cup of tea, though,

so what did you pay for these sorts of things?

Did they come together? You've got what, sort of four or five here.

We paid about 400 for them.

Oh gosh! That's 400 for all of them, or are there more?

-Yeah, there's a few more.

-How many more?

-Another two or three more.

OK, and it's not just you who likes them,

plenty of other people do too and I can see,

depending on the subject matter, these fetching somewhere

in the region of sort of £50 or £150 each.

-That's marvellous, yes.

-So not a bad investment, really.

But I really like them. If you like something, buy it.

When the Antiques Roadshow was last in Northern Ireland,

in 2011, our jewellery expert, John Benjamin, met a mother

and daughter who brought along a pair of rings

and a wristwatch that was in urgent need of TLC.

It's in a mess, isn't it? It really, really is.

My father says

it's worth something in scrap

and I thought, "I'll bring it along".

All right, well, first of all, I'm to start off by saying that

the bracelet is simply white metal, it's steel,

so there's no scrappage there, I'm sorry to say.

-Not signed.

-Oh, right.

But the movement is by something called the European Watch

and Clock Company Ltd.

They used to make movements for a company called Cartier.

CROWD: Ooh!

Oh, no! I don't..

-Are you ready?

-I thought he was going to say "French"!

-No, I'm not, I'm not! Hold my hand!

-Are you ready?

-It'll be all right.

£5,000.

Oh, my God!

What needs to happen with that, it needs to be restored,

it also needs to go to Cartier

so that they can state categorically that it is their watch.

Thank you very much, John!

CLAPPING

You're a wee dear, You're a treasure!

THEY LAUGH

I remember you both so well, and the watch,

because it was in some terrible state, wasn't it?

BOTH: Yes.

But John wasn't entirely sure, couldn't be 100% sure

that it was authentically by Cartier. So what happened next?

What did you do?

My mother agreed that my brother and I could go to London and take

a trip to Bond Street, to Cartier, and we made an appointment and they

were able to inspect it and they confirmed it was in fact Cartier.

So, it was great news.

What was the harder thing was

whether or not it could actually be repaired.

It looked like you'd taken a hammer to it or something.

So they had to spend some time thinking about that, did they?

Well, they did a full appraisal on it

and in fact the watch was shipped away to Geneva in Switzerland.

And this watch, just remind me now,

because this watch was given in lieu of a debt, wasn't it, originally?

Remind me of the story, yes.

Our great uncle worked as a maitre d' in one of the gentlemen's

clubs in London and one of the gentlemen ran up a substantial bill

and he couldn't pay his account at the end of the quarter.

And my uncle had asked him,

"Would you have anything of value that you could sell?"

and he said he had a watch and three rings and he brought them in,

and my uncle looked at them and agreed to purchase them

and settled the gentleman's debt!

-So this is effectively a bar bill now?

-Yes!

-This watch.

Well, here it is, so it went to Geneva and it was restored.

I mean, look at it now.

It's just absolutely unrecognisable from what it was.

-Unbelievable.

-It is, truly beautiful, yeah.

-It's handsome.

So they've done an extraordinary amount of work on it.

Absolutely.

There was over 50 craftsmen and artisans working on the watch.

Well, I think John Benjamin's the man you need to see, is it?

Because he's the one who started you on this journey.

-That's correct.

-Yes.

-Absolutely. Yes, indeed.

Right, so John Benjamin it is.

Good, we're delighted!

-This is the most wonderfully tactile object.

-Yes.

The feel of that, it's beautiful.

But do you know what it's for?

Haven't a clue.

Possibly something to...there's a grater inside it, possibly?

Indeed, that's just...there we are, so there's the grater

And at the other end, I love the fact there's that

beautifully shaped little hole.

So once you've grated then, obviously with that shut,

then it all comes through into that end, so what comes through?

No idea, you tell me!

Well, at this sort of period, it's...

-Some people do argue that they're tobacco rasps.

-Right.

-Other people for nutmeg.

-Yes.

-There are two schools of thought.

-Yes.

And nutmeg, of course, was an extraordinarily expensive spice.

-Right.

-So you had to be jolly wealthy to have something like this.

-Oh, right.

-And this is so beautifully done here.

And it disguises perfectly where the hinge runs. It's only

when you open it that you can really just see there where

the hinge actually operates.

What about date, though?

No idea, there's no marks on it

so wasn't even sure whether it was silver or...

Well, yes, I would suggest that it's the best part of 300 years old.

Really? Oh, my goodness, right.

We're looking at the early 1700s.

-As early as that?

-Yes.

-Oh, wow.

It might just be William III. I think it's more likely to

be into Queen Anne.

I wouldn't like to go any later than George I.

My goodness!

So a wonderful object, very collectable, beautifully made.

Silver without a single mark.

It's a tricky one to value. I have not seen one quite like this before.

Oh, right.

So any nutmeg grater collector would give their eye teeth for it.

Oh, right.

It's a rare early example, assuming it is a nutmeg grater,

but then they go for the tobacco rasps as well.

I think in the right sort of sale

you'd be hard-pushed to buy that

under £1,500, £2,000.

Oh, my goodness, that's good news. Thank you very much.

You know what?

This says "Art Nouveau" in a way that...things like the

Folies Bergere, Renoir paintings.

This fits into that wild Parisian

life of 1900 that is just Cezanne

and Monet and all that, isn't it?

I mean, it's just Art Nouveau in letters as big as you like.

So how do you know it? Where does it come into your life?

Actually, 40 years ago, this very year, a lady gave it to me.

She was a housekeeper for a clergyman and I lived in a little

village in Donegal, and at that time I'd come through a bad period

and she was giving me things to cheer me up, like clothes and stuff.

Give it to me! I'm feeling a bit miserable...

SHE LAUGHS

So she gave me this vase and I've looked after it

and moved nine times and this vase has always been

put down wherever I go. I just brought it here today

because I just wondered, like, you know, where it originated.

Well, it's French and it comes from Alsace,

which was the centre of French glass-making at the time.

It's interesting that you've owned it for 40 years

because it's one of the consistent things I've found today,

is that where I come from, there's a product that would help this vase

that you clearly don't have here.

-We call it washing-up liquid.

-Yeah!

Because this is the most exotic vase...

Oh, yeah, there's a feather in it!

Put... That's a feather in your cap.

Yeah, this is absolutely filthy and it would look so much nicer

if you got round to washing it.

And it's not worth a fortune,

it's probably by a French art glass maker called Le Gras in about 1900.

-Right.

-At auction it would fetch at least a couple of hundred quid.

Lovely, that's great!

Bearing in mind that washing-up liquid's about a ha'penny,

you could really help this along.

I need to get my feather back, I've lost it.

THEY LAUGH

You were talking to Fiona a little earlier,

-and here we are again ,three years down the line?

-That's right.

-Unbelievable.

-It is unbelievable how time's gone by, but also, I mean,

looking at that, presented here like that,

is it truly the same watch?

-Yes.

-Hard to believe.

-Isn't it hard to believe?

-It is.

It really has been a magical... I mean, the whole thing was

-magic, really, wasn't it?

-It was.

Because just to remember rightly,

-you'd stored it in the garage for how many years?

-30 years.

So when I saw it, it wasn't distressed,

it was completely clapped out.

-It was, wasn't it?

-It was.

It was completely clapped out. At that time I said,

"Well, look, you know, Cartier maybe."

And then you submitted it to Cartier and they spent the time,

and it has been a labour of love for them, I believe.

-Absolutely.

-So, I also see you've brought along a photograph.

-Indeed.

-Now tell me a bit about the photograph.

Well, the very dapperly dressed young man is Great Uncle Bert,

my great uncle who acquired the watch

when he worked for a gentlemen's club in London,

and this little tinker that he's holding the hand of is our father.

-Our father.

-Mum's husband.

-I can't see the likeness.

THEY LAUGH

-He was much more handsome than I am.

-I wouldn't pass comment.

THEY LAUGH

And so the watch came down the family line,

and sadly our father isn't with us, but he was alive long enough

to actually find out that it was a genuine Cartier.

Well, now, OK, so let's talk a little bit more about it.

When we first saw it, there was so little information

that we had available, most important of which

was that the dial was so distressed that the name Cartier wasn't on it,

and that's why I was a little bit ambiguous - was it, wasn't it?

So here we can actually see the state of the dial

before restoration.

And it was dirty,

the numerals were all, half of them missing and also, as importantly,

the dial was twisted at the edge.

And then after they've restored it -

and it has been a bit of a job to get it looking like that.

So what they've done is that they have created by hand

a new winding stem.

So there's the original sapphire winding crown

and they have built a new winding stem for it.

That's not all, they have gone to their records

and they have found two hands, circa 1924, and they have then put those

hands on, to keep the originality, to keep the pedigree absolute.

The thing that really got me was that the original glass covering

the watch was just plexi-glass, I mean, it was just a modern copy.

What they've done is,

they've hand-ground a mineral glass to cover the dial.

They've polished the case and then, of course, what they've done,

they've put a strap on it

and they've put the original style of buckle on it,

but they've kept the integrity of the original watch there.

A Cartier watch, 1924, a "tank cintree",

meaning a sort of curved watch, an arched watch.

The other thing that I need to tell you is that the watch itself

was exceedingly rare.

Now, you will remember our dialogue

and you will remember we talked about the fact that I think

that you'd hoped it might be worth scrap value.

-Do you remember that?

-Yes!

Yes.

In my opinion, the watch is certainly worth a little bit

more than scrap price now.

When I saw it, I valued it - without really having too much to go on -

I said £5,000, still was quite a lot of money.

I assume that the cost of restoration has been pretty high,

to get all this work done.

I don't even want to ask you what it's cost to restore.

So what do we think it might be worth now?

We're hoping you'll give us real good news.

THEY LAUGH

Yes, I thought you might.

Well, taking all this into account, recognising the integrity

and the beauty and the wearability - £40,000 to £50,000.

Oh, my God! There you go!

-It was worth getting fixed.

-Definitely.

HE LAUGHS

It's one of the most remarkable stories

and it's one of the most remarkable Roadshow things I've ever filmed.

I'm quite emotional when I look at it now,

and I just think you're so lucky.

-It's wonderful.

-It is.

That's the kind of story we like on the Roadshow,

a great object, a fascinating tale and a happy ending.

A perfect Roadshow moment.

From the team here at Hillsborough Castle, until next time, bye-bye.