Kirby Hall Antiques Roadshow

This week the Antiques Roadshow comes from a house built

fit for a queen, the majestic Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire.

And here in the great garden,

where we'll soon be welcoming our visitors to the Roadshow,

stands this little-known house, the most beautiful of ruins.

Take a look around and, sadly, you can

see most of it is an empty shell, an echo of its glory days.

When it was built in the 16th century by Sir Humphrey Stafford,

Kirby Hall was regarded as one of the finest houses in the land.

It was considered a great privilege if Queen Elizabeth came

and stayed with you on one of her tours of the countryside,

and Sir Humphrey really wanted a Royal visit.

He used the latest architectural styles from the Continent,

with masses of fine stonework and all set in beautiful, formal

gardens in the hope of attracting Elizabeth for a stay.

But, sadly, it wasn't enough.

Sir Humphrey died in 1575, the house unfinished,

without the merest sniff of a visit from Elizabeth.

The next owner, Sir Christopher Hatton, also wanted the Queen

to come and stay at his house, so he added some fabulous updates

like these glorious bay windows - the height of fashion at the time.

Kirby Hall looked a dead cert for a Royal drop-in.

After all, this handsome young man was the Lord Chancellor

and one of the queen's favourites.

Apparently, he'd caught her eye with his flamboyant dancing

and shapely legs.

Rumour has it that Hatton and Elizabeth were more than just

good friends, but whatever the state of their relationship,

it was never enough to lure Elizabeth to Kirby Hall.

She never came here.

And I have to say, I think she missed out, because this is

a beautiful place, one of English Heritage's hidden gems.

I'm sure our visitors agree as they come to join us

here at the Roadshow at Kirby Hall.

And if you'd like more information about the programme,

please log on to our website.

Of course the sheer size of it, it's a whopper.

Imagine that full of wine.

-Cor, that must have been a weight.

-Absolutely, absolutely.

What's the history?

Erm, my dad - I'm sure it was in the 1980s - he bought it from auction.

He was into collecting everything - bottle-digging Saturdays

and Sunday mornings.

So he used to dig bottles himself.

Oh, yeah, absolutely, the house was full of them,

ginger beer bottles, cod bottles - the ones with

the marbles in, and then he used to go to auctions

and he bought this one, like I say, in the early...well, about '85.

I mean, obviously he was attracted to the fact it's got

-the seal on the front which tells us who it's made for.

-That's right.

-And there we are, "C Shirreff, 1783".

-That's it.

And the family crest - I guess that's a unicorn, isn't it?

It looks like a unicorn, yes, yeah.

Do you know anything about C Shirreff?

Well, the only thing I know about a C Sheriff,

we searched on the internet.

We found a C Sheriff from Edinburgh in Scotland, was born in 1750,

so 1783 would put him at 33 years old,

-about the right time to start drinking lots of red wine.

-Yeah.

Now, he was a painter of miniatures, and I think he was quite famous,

so I don't know if it ties into the same one.

I've had a word with our picture specialists here and they've been

telling me about Charles Shirreff, and it would seem to fit in.

-He was quite an eminent painter...

-That's right.

..Of portraits in miniature.

-Yeah, yeah.

-He was born in Edinburgh but worked in London.

-Right, OK.

And particularly painting characters from the London stage.

-OK.

-And it seems he was deaf and dumb

and communicated with sign language.

That's right, yes, yeah.

But was a really skilled painter, and can you imagine him

entertaining at his home, famous actors,

inviting them to drink wine from his bottle?

Absolutely amazing.

Because these were things to be functional,

you kept your wine in a cask in the cellar

and you filled the bottles up and served them at dinner.

That's it, yeah.

Of course, the seal on a bottle adds enormously to the value

-and to the collector's interest.

-Yeah.

That's why your father, I'm sure, paid lots of money for...

-I would have thought so, yes.

-..For a sealed bottle.

-Do you know what it cost him?

-I believe it was about 650.

Which then was a fair bit of money, then.

Absolutely, yeah.

What you've got is... The size makes this one special,

-it's the date is important.

-Yeah, yeah.

I mean, here, the capacity,

I suppose that's more than two bottles, four bottles,

it's a jeroboam, isn't it?

-I mean, it's a real whopper.

-Absolutely.

-And that sort of lifts it.

-Yeah.

So...I suppose today, a bottle like that, 6,000, 7,000?

Really?! There you go, thank you very much.

Even empty.

Brilliant, I want to have a glass meself now. Brilliant.

I think it's safe to say these are show stoppers.

-Yes.

-Do they stop your show?

You could say that.

They've been in the attic for quite a while,

we don't know anything about them, they're pretty gaudy.

So they're not at home on these tables?

No, they're not.

Um, they're a bit damaged

because they were bombed in the war in Margate.

Shouldn't they have glass domes over the top as well?

-Well, we've got those at home.

-Right.

So these were in an old family home in Margate,

without their glass domes.

And the next-door house was bombed.

Right, so that's when the duck lost its wing and he lost his thumb?

Yes, yeah, yeah.

It's amazing they survived.

Would it have been a bad thing if they hadn't survived?

SHE LAUGHS

Probably, yes.

Because I get the impression you don't like them.

You've probably got the right impression, yes.

But I would like to know, you know, - why I don't like them.

Well, let's talk about them.

They are French, very much in the style of Paris porcelain.

but these were actually made by a firm outside of Paris,

north of Paris, and there is actually a mark on the bottom.

Oh, is there?!

You'll have to trust me on this -

when you get home you can look - but there's a mark of L&M,

-which is Letu and Mauger, which are a French maker.

-Yeah.

They were working north of Paris in the 1850s, 1860s,

and they made these very typical bisque porcelain figures,

so this is fired once, not glazed, and then decorated,

so you get this lovely, naturalistic, realistic look.

-Yes.

-And, of course, the colours are as fresh as they are today,

and the reason they were under glass domes is

because when you feel the surface, I mean, you can see here,

she's a little bit on the dirty side.

That's because it is rough,

-not glazed smooth like a normal piece of porcelain.

-Yes.

So, under the glass domes,

of course, the dirt would have been kept away,

-apart from when they were in Margate when the bomb went off.

-Yes.

It's interesting to note, although these are Native American figures,

he's definitely red-skinned and his lady is...she's been a bit

air brushed and a bit Europeanised, so she is pale-skinned and obviously

appealing to a European market, which is what they were made for.

Right.

But today these would appeal to a Middle Eastern market or a

Far Eastern market and if these were to come to auction, they

-would sell for £2,000 to £3,000 for the pair, domes included.

-Yep.

So, do you like them any more?

No.

SHE LAUGHS

Well, here we are, in the middle of Northamptonshire,

and you come in with three fantastic marines by Samuel Owen

of the Battle of Camperdown.

I'm very interested to see the boats, I see the Director, and

it's got "Captain Bligh", and that's Captain William Bligh, I presume.

It is indeed, yes.

And he was captain of the Director at that battle.

At that time, yes.

-And we were fighting, then, the Dutch, and we won.

-Yes.

-Outright.

-Yes.

So how come you have personally inscribed pictures here to

Captain Bligh?

He is my ancestor,

and he had these pictures commissioned after the battle.

For Samuel Owen to paint them, and he, of course, had them

and they've stayed in the family and came down to me, finally.

He was the most extraordinary man, Captain Bligh,

from the 1770s, he was with Captain Cook on the Resolution.

On the Resolution, yes.

And then, in 1789, he was captain of the Bounty.

Yes.

And then there's the mutiny.

-Yes.

-Fletcher Christian chucks him off the ship...

And all that, yeah.

..Into the 23ft boat with 18 other people,

-and off he goes.

-And across the Pacific, two or 3,000 miles...

-To Timor. It's extraordinary.

-It was, yes.

And all he had for guidance was a sextant and his watch.

Indeed.

And that was it.

I know, and he made it.

What an extraordinary life, to have done that,

to be with Cook, then the mutiny on the Bounty. And then

the battle of Camperdown,

where he was commander of this ship, fantastic.

I know, amazing, yes, it was an amazing career.

Now, we'll look at this top one here, because here

we have HMS Director firing broadside and it's signed

by Owen, and it's 1798, in fact, so it's the year after the action.

Yes.

And these probably could have been

exhibited at one of the exhibitions about that time.

I think in 1798 at the summer exhibition at the Royal Academy.

-Was it really?

-I think so, yeah.

That's fantastic, because he only exhibited a few times there.

And, you know, he painted for a fairly short time

-but he was a very good marine artist.

-Yes.

But what I'm amazed by these is the size.

A lot of the Samuel Owen's I've seen are tiny, about this size.

-Really?

-Yes. And these are really big. I think, looking at these

and the family connection, first of all,

if they hadn't had "Bligh" on them, what would they have been worth?

Well, I would have said to you, each one of these,

maybe £4,000 to £6,000 each, for each one, OK?

But, looking at these with his name on, I think I would put

these in at £20,000 to £30,000 for the three.

Oh, my goodness! Oh heavens!

Well, quite frankly, he was such an amazing person.

-Yes, yes.

-And it's such a great story.

-Historically.

And also the provenance.

Yes, and I am just so pleased that I am the custodian of them

at the moment and eventually my son will get them.

And they'll stay in the family for many more generations.

-Mm.

-Fantastic.

-Absolutely, yes.

Well, we've just seen this lovely pair of tables with those

ceramic figures and they were your figures, were they?

Yeah, they were, yes. Or are.

-Can you imagine these in the house here?

-These, yes.

They'd look great, wouldn't they?

They're lovely tables. Yes. I love them.

What can you tell me about them?

I can tell you absolutely nothing, zilch, about these tables.

They were bought by my great-grandparents, or grandparents,

in a house sale or an antique shop

and we've had them for donkey's years.

So, zilch, donkey's years, antique shop,

possibly parents or grandparents or an auction - that's a good

start anyway, we are narrowing it down a little bit.

-So you've had them for a long time?

-Yes.

-OK, do you use them?

-Yes.

-In the house somewhere.

-Yes.

What I love about these are two things.

Firstly, the size, they're a very nice, small size

-and small is beautiful, it really is.

-Yes, yeah.

But in terms of beauty, what do you think about the marble?

I love it.

-So do I, isn't it great?

-I love it.

I'm rather jealous. I want some marble this colour.

-Yes.

-It's got a nice French name.

-Breche violette.

-Ah!

Breche violette, so it's a type of marble,

a sort of mixture of purple and sort of yellowy, peachy colour.

-And the strong veining.

-Yes.

This has come from a French quarry, but when? When?

How old are they?

You're going to tell me that!

SHE LAUGHS

I've had a jolly good look at them underneath.

I was looking for a signature, but they're not signed,

I can't find one, sadly.

There are one or two names I'd like, because this is

the sort of thing made, copying the 18th century style of Louis XVI.

-So the Neo-Classical style of the 1780s.

-Right.

-So it's made about 100, 110 years ago.

-Yeah.

So they're not that old.

-No.

-They're made in the luxury market of Paris,

so they're really sort of important French makers.

There were thousands of furniture makers in Paris around 1900.

-Yeah, yes.

-A very important centre. Everybody wanted French furniture.

That was the big important fashionable thing at the time,

for many years. What I love are little things like this,

this capital, this Ionic capital here.

What's this made of? Have you any idea?

No, it's light, isn't it? The wood is light.

-Mm, mm, so the weight is in the top, isn't it?

-Yes, yeah.

It is carved wood, though.

It is wood, yes.

Almost certainly beech wood and underneath,

this is actually real gold.

-Is it?

-Gold leaf, real gold.

-Oh, great, oh, right.

-But I don't think it's worth melting it down

-you wouldn't get very far.

-No.

I think they're very pretty tables, they're very interesting.

The size, as I've just said, is the best thing for them

because people can house something like this.

So, really, valuation.

The pair of these tables, lovely pair of tables,

worth at least 4,000 to 6,000.

Wow, well that's a lot more than I thought they were worth!

They're very pretty, thank you very much.

-Well, thank you.

-Covet them.

-Thank you.

So, this morning you've brought me in one of the very earliest TV

sets, made by Marconiphone just prior to the Second World War,

so we think 1937-1938.

Uh-huh.

And in addition to the TV, you've also kindly brought me

in the brochure that comes with it.

-Yes.

-And it very proudly states that,

"Although the picture is of relatively small size, it

"will be quite adequate and suitable for rooms of average dimensions."

Well, look at the size of the screen.

It's only what, three-and-a-half, four inches-square?

Yes, yes, small rooms.

Small rooms, and if you just notice at the bottom, it cost 29 guineas.

Well, pre-war, 29 guineas was a huge amount of money.

This wasn't for your average guy in the street, you could

have bought a sizeable car for 29 guineas,

so a very high-end luxury item.

But also here is a lovely family group and they are all ranged

around the TV, enjoying an afternoon cup of tea and watching the TV.

How big is your TV at home?

40-inch.

40-inch?! So you obviously don't use this one any more.

-No, no.

-Who did it belong to?

It belonged to my father.

We didn't know he had it, and three years ago,

he had to go into a home and we were clearing out his flat,

and he had a large collection of memorabilia from military,

light aircraft and John Constable, his two passions, and when

we finally removed the final box, we found this tucked in the corner.

Well, it's a fabulous piece, it's in lovely original condition,

you've brought it with its brochure.

Quite a collectable piece today.

At auction, probably a figure of between £5,000 and £7,000.

Well, that's one more nought that I thought it was going to be!

Good grief! Oh, Dad, what were you sitting on?

Bless him, he was on Pension Credit.

Time for our regular catch-up on items that we've seen in the past

on the Antiques Roadshow, and back in 2010 our art specialist, Philip

Mould, saw a fragile devotional object that could have been

as much as 500 years old, but was in need of some serious TLC.

Often with an object as beautifully painted as this,

and also as dirty as this, only a torch can show up the detail,

and I have to say, the more I look at it, the more I find it exquisite.

Yes, yes, it's lovely, isn't it?

Every time I look at it and use it, I spot something different,

despite the dirt.

I mean, am I right in thinking that for you this is

an object of devotion?

Yes, I'm a retired priest and it lives in a little oratory that

I have in my house alongside the altar there against the wall.

So you have a little chapel?

I have a little chapel and it's part of the furnishings of the chapel.

I think this is something that requires more detailed

research and also deep cleaning,

because we just get a little hint here of that blue in the sky.

Yes.

I mean, this is going to radically transform and, with it, all sorts

of signature details, one hopes, by which we can arrive at an artist.

Reverend John Allen, welcome back to the programme.

Philip, this has undergone an extraordinary transformation,

so what have you done since we last saw you?

At Philip's suggestion, it went to a restorer in London

and she had it for over a year, about 14 months,

and she took off all the old varnish, there were one or

two holes in it which she was able to patch with pigment that

matched the original pigment, and cleaned it under a microscope

so that she could see all the detail of it, and it's transformed it.

If you look at the two pictures at the bottom,

I originally thought that that, which is actually

a painting of the circumcision of Christ, I originally thought

it was the dinner at Emmaus with the disciples after the Resurrection.

Gosh, that's a very different social gathering, isn't it?

And that, which is actually the baby on the ground, you can see,

and is a Nativity,

as it was before, looked like Christ coming out of the tomb.

Goodness me.

It's completely transformed one's understanding of it.

-But it's not just the detail, is it? It's the colours.

-Yes.

Just astonishing. I mean, it's sublime, the transformation.

And looking at this and looking at the intensity of the colours,

one gets an idea, I think, of those often small, rather dark,

-small-windowed rooms...

-Yes.

..Where something like this private devotional object would have

been, very little light, possibly a bit of flickering candle,

and the spiritual intensity of these wonderful original colours...

Yes.

-..Now communicate themselves to us.

-It's completely transformed it.

That can't have come cheap, I imagine.

This is the most expensive person I've ever met.

THEY LAUGH

Now, you valued it at the time at about what, 50,000 or 60,000?

Well, 40 to 60 is what I think I put.

40 to 60.

And at that point, and I have to say still at this point,

we don't know who the artist is.

What we can say though, I think, with absolutely certainty is that it

belongs to the Northern Netherlands, probably about 1510 in date,

reminiscent of that famous and rather terrifying artist,

Hieronymus Bosch, in the handling of some of the figures.

But as to a clear attribution, do you know?

I don't think that's really what's so important about this.

What has come out of this is its quality, its colour,

its intensity and I think it's increased its value, as well.

Go on.

Well...

THEY LAUGH

Put him on the spot.

Well, clearly, I mean, I know this was very expensive for you to

do, and so it should be.

I'm pretty confident that a Continental museum would pay

anything up to £80,000,

£90,000 for an object like this.

The condition is much better than I thought, the quality is finer,

and can we just open the doors?

Yes, do.

These are such delicate hinges, here we go, look at that.

And the carving probably a little bit later, 1520s.

I think so, it's obviously a different artist, isn't it?

Yes, it is, it's more mannered, it's more sophisticated,

it doesn't quite have that early primitive

clarity that the doors both front and back have.

So John, what do you propose to do with it?

Because I know for your father it was a devotional object,

you are a man of the cloth.

It's very personal to you, isn't it?

Yes, it's still being used now,

as it was designed to be used 500 years ago.

We've actually left it to the Bowes Museum.

Oh, to the Bowes Museum, have you?

Yes, we're northerners and therefore it seemed right that,

and they've got a lovely collection of triptychs, but nothing like this.

I don't think anybody's got anything like this, to be truthful.

That's fantastic, that's wonderful.

And let's hope also that its original function will not be

-lost there, either.

-Yes, yes.

Getting you closer to God.

Well, I hope so, in the North, naturally.

THEY LAUGH

-So, you've brought me three little books.

-Indeed.

On the left here - in a way it's hardly a book,

it's more like a folder of loose notes in this very rough

leather binding, obviously quite old.

In the middle here is a notebook which has the title in manuscript,

"The Journal Of John Matson Of Bridlington Who Was Trepand,"

which I think means kidnapped, "From London Bridge, August 1780".

And finally, an even smaller book, a little bit later,

which has the title "Indian Warfare,

"Or The Extraordinary

"Adventures Of John Matson, The Kidnapped Youth".

So, these are his loose notes, this is a journal he wrote up,

and this is a book published from the journal.

That's right.

Tell me a little bit about them and how you relate to them.

Well, he was my great-great-great grandfather,

he was trepanned and taken on a ship to India,

having been round the Cape of Good Hope, to South Africa.

He couldn't escape, he was tied up quite a lot

and then he walked across India, west to east.

I know no more, I'm afraid, apart from the fact that this has been

in the family now for many, many years, it's been carefully

put away, and I've just come upon it, it's now come to me.

Let's have a little look at it.

It's a wonderful journal because the way he writes it,

it's actually very useful because he picks out all the important

names of the places he goes to, in large letters.

Yes.

Here we are, look,

The Cape of Good Hope, the island of Joanna between the coast of Africa

and India, all these wonderful words coming off the page at me.

Here we are, negro slaves,

-presumably he's off the coast of Africa here.

-Yes.

Arabia, he's talking about the weather,

he's trying to describe the people he sees.

Here he is, he arrives in Bombay.

Further down the page, he seems to be in Calcutta.

So this is somebody doing unimaginable distances by sea

and by land, and then he seems to get involved in a siege

and he's captured in India, and he's imprisoned,

not just for a few weeks but it seems for a very long time.

Yes.

"We were coupled two and two together and marched up

"the country to different forts and kept on, one poise a day,"

I think that's a ration. "..Which is about the weight of a halfpenny,

"and a quart of flour which is made of a sort of white seed".

-Yes.

-It's an amazing story.

It does seem to have a happy ending.

We can continue going through the journal, but when we get to the

end, lo and behold, we find him back at Gravesend and Chatham Barracks...

-So he finds his way back to Britain alive.

-Unbelievable.

And yet, throughout the narrative, I've seen references to people

being thrown overboard, dead, many hundreds of people being killed...

Yes, yes.

-..His fellow soldiers, and he came through.

-He did.

They're very exciting, so I think I'd quite happily put

a valuation of £8,000 to £10,000 on these.

Goodness me! It is not for sale in my lifetime.

Usually when people bring in sheet music, I have to say,

my heart does slightly sink, but you've brought in a collection

of sheet music, but with wonderful cover illustrations on them.

How did you get this little collection?

Inherited it, really, in that my great-uncle owned a music

shop in the Lewisham High Road, which subsequently closed

and the stock needed to be sorted out, which fell to my mother,

who was a musician, so she had an interest there.

Yeah.

My mother subsequently died, and that's

when I really discovered them, but I could see immediately that these

were a little bit apart from, you know, just your normal sheet music.

Yeah. So how many have you got altogether in the collection?

I stopped counting at 500.

OK, that's a lot!

Um, yes, it's in excess of 500.

So they're lithographed, they're all lithographed covers.

And the ones that we've selected, as you say,

out of your big collection - the framed ones, particularly,

wonderfully decorative - the mad bull gallop

you know, it's fantastic.

And this one here showing the train coming, I'm not quite sure

what this poor chap's doing here, the celebrated song of Tommy Dodd,

but this would be of real interest to railway enthusiasts.

Oh, really?

And I love this one in particular,

The Girls of the Period Polka, with these wonderful vignettes

on the lithographed covers, this one showing Hyde Park, this one

showing some cricket, a cricket match, and then we've got the

Derby down here and the Boat Race, the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

And this sort of thing would really appeal to, you know, to

four different types of people.

And it is actually a piece of music.

Inside there's sheet music.

This one dates from about, I think it's 1869,

there's a date on the back that says 1869.

Yes, probably, yes, I like that one, it's one of my favourites.

It's lovely, it's fantastic.

I think in general, an ordinary one would be worth about £3 or

£4, maybe £5 for a very ordinary lithographed cover.

These ones that I've selected, I think

you could easily be putting somewhere between £50,

maybe higher than that, and for something, you know,

where you've got a very, very specific area of interest, such as

railways, such as your cycling, such as cricket, I could easily see a

collector paying well over £100 for something like that.

-Good grief!

-Just one thing.

So if you've got 500 of them, say, maybe more, I think

you're looking at easily £3,000 to £4,000.

Oh, my goodness!

One ring, one owner, where did it come from?

Well, I found it in 2012.

I borrowed my brother's metal detector and it was the first

time I'd gone out with it.

No!

And within about two hours of using this metal detector,

that popped out.

And I should think he wanted to kill you, didn't he?

THEY LAUGH

-Well, I nearly do, so he surely did!

-He wanted to go halves on it.

So I went straight out and bought the same metal detector

-and have been going mad ever since.

-And you've found other things.

But anyway you brought this today and this ring is,

in my opinion, 500 or 600 years old, it's a

late-medieval ring and it's a cabochon sapphire.

And had I been there to find it, I think

I would have practically fainted with excitement

because these objects are very redolent, they're very strange, they

are intensely personal objects and this one has a magical talismanic

function which is interesting to think about for a while, because

every precious stone has a specific meaning in the lore of the lapidary.

And the sapphire, one of its properties is to protect

the owner from the falling sickness, from epilepsy,

and from a thousand other threatening parts of life.

But we can't really guess quite what that meant to the owner,

but we know that the owner was living in a near colourless

world in comparative terms.

There were no hybrid plants, there were no noisy coloured motor

cars, there was no paint in the way that we understand it,

and so, when a pure bead of unadulterated colour came across

the water from the extreme Orient into medieval society and it was

hard and enduring and set in gold, it was a very potent thing indeed.

And it fell off his finger and his loss was exactly

comparable to the amazement and joy of you finding it.

HE LAUGHS

But there is one thing to say amongst all this amazing

excitement is that if you find such an object, there is

an obligation to report it to the Portable Antiquities Scheme

to make sure that you're not infringing the Treasure Trove Act.

And single objects that are found in this way, are very seldom viewed

as treasure trove, but it is an obligation to do it, and once you've

done that, it's yours and therefore can enter the commercial world.

I hardly dare mention the commercial world in respect of this,

because it's almost a sort of sacred object, really, isn't it?

-Yeah, I can't imagine ever selling it.

-No, something very dear

to your heart and I can quite understand that, I mean,

just looking at it now,

I feel the same, and it is an extraordinarily valuable object.

This object is worth...

£10,000.

Oh, very nice. I think that was well saved, then, wasn't it?

THEY LAUGH

Very well saved.

Wow, that's amazed me, actually, fantastic.

Well, who could imagine that two dresses could possibly

be by the same designer?

-We are of course talking about Jean Muir.

-Yes.

What can you tell me about them?

How do you come to have them?

Right, well, my aunt gave me

these dresses as she knows I've got an interest in fashion history

and this dress she wore to the first night of the opera at the

Metropolitan in New York and because she was going to such a sort of a

posh event, my grandpa gave her some money to buy some clothes so that

she would feel like she was fitting in, but what she didn't tell him was

she spent all of it on this dress and even had to top it up herself.

So when was this?

I'm assuming this was in the very early 1970s.

Yes, about - I think it's 1974, '75, '76 something like that.

-Well, she was obviously a very fashionable woman.

-Definitely.

Jean Muir, she's a very interesting British designer,

born in the late 1920s, died in 1995, and I think she was

totally self-taught, didn't go to art school.

She started her career as a sketcher for Liberty in their lingerie

-department.

-OK.

She then went on to work for Jaeger, as a designer for many,

many years, and I think she started her own label in the mid '60s

and her work is very minimalist, very precision, attention to detail.

She's often kind of considered to be the designer's designer,

and I think she did actually describe her own work as being

engineering in cloth.

But she's very...I still think she's kind of slightly under-rated

in many ways, comparatively towards other designers of her

generation, and so of course you're wearing one of the dresses today.

-Yes.

-Do you wear it very often?

Do you wear all the pieces that you have?

Unfortunately, my aunt is a little bit smaller now than I am,

though I have worn this dress out

and unfortunately I didn't realise you're not meant

to dance in suede so I nearly passed out because I was so hot in it.

But it is gorgeous and an absolute statement.

Well, with regards to prices, I think the suede dress,

which is slightly more typical of her work, I think

if you were to buy that, you would probably at auction,

you'd probably be looking at maybe £200 to £300 on that one.

Really? OK.

This one, even though it's very untypical of Jean Muir, I think

this would certainly have more appeal because of that,

and you know, I can see this in an auction perhaps making

somewhere in the region of perhaps £400 to £600.

Wow, OK, that's, that's quite a lot just for a bit of a crazy dress.

I absolutely love quirky objects. Have you ever used it?

No, I tried to find out what it does but I've never used it.

I put some water in it and...

-Well...

-At some stage.

And...? Did it work?

Well, I thought it worked, yes.

OK, so let's have a look, see what happens.

Won't put too much in, there we go,

so all the water now is just spraying out.

Yes.

Right, I'd better stop that, actually.

We're going to need the fire brigade soon, I think,

to pump up all the water.

Before any more comes out, I think I'll just quickly do that.

OK, so, yes, it's a fountain.

Right.

What's lovely with this,

it goes back to the period before television -

how are they going to entertain themselves

in the 16th and 17th century?

Well, they produced all sorts of novelties, amusements,

and this fits very much into that sort of category.

And what happened in the 19th century, when this one was made,

was that they were getting 17th-century design books

and they've found the design for this and decided to make it.

-But how long have you had it?

-A few years.

But what made you buy it?

Well, a friend of mine

knew that I collected unusual bits of silver.

And this is certainly unusual.

And he phoned me and said, "I've got this item.

"I don't know what it is. Would you like to have a look?"

I said, "Yes, I would have a look."

And I said, "I don't know what it is,

"you don't know what it is, I'm going to buy it off you," and I did.

Well done, well done.

I've only ever seen one before, but it's silver gilt,

as I'm sure you realise, and you can see some of the silver

coming through there, and it's interesting as well

because just looking here, we've got Lamberts of Coventry Street.

So Lamberts were important retailers.

Not only were they actually selling antique pieces

and second-hand pieces but they were commissioning pieces to be made

from the antique, and it was made in London in 1875.

Now the actual maker...

-George Angel?

-Not George Angel, no.

Oh, right.

I think it's someone more important than George Angel,

much better - George Fox.

-Ah.

-George Fox and the Foxes were an incredible

family of silversmiths and they were producing these absolutely

marvellous pieces from all different periods and so on.

Whereas so many Victorian makers mixed up design,

the Foxes stuck to a pretty pure form

and that's what we're seeing here.

So I would think in today's market for such an unusual piece

we're looking £2,500, £3,000 quite easily.

It's interesting to know its function

because I thought it was probably people having fun,

they fill it with wine and then they put their glasses underneath there.

Well, you could try that.

-But then...

-When you've got this there and there...

..how are you going to collect it from there going out?

It's coming out, yeah, yeah.

But it never crossed my mind that it's a fountain.

Yeah, but that's really all it's about.

Shall we put it on again?

I'm dying to have another go with it, so let's fill it up again.

Get a bit of pressure behind it and away we go.

Why did you bring this bowl in today?

Well, it was left to me by a godmother

and she used to use it as a butter dish

until somebody came for tea and said,

"I wouldn't use that as a butter dish if I were you.

"It might be quite valuable".

So she died about 1998-99.

You know that it's jade, presumably.

Yes, I do.

Butter dish, erm...

Is not what it is.

It's not a butter dish but it did have a lid.

-Yes, oh, right.

-We have this step going round here.

-Yes.

-And that would have taken a cover.

-Yeah.

-It's lost that. Half of it has gone.

Half the value has gone too.

Um, where do you think it was made?

Well, as I'm not an Orientalist, I don't know whether it was Chinese

or Japanese, but the joke was it's got Chinese writing on its bottom.

OK, let's take that in order.

The problem with your attribution to Japan

and it having Chinese characters, not Japanese,

-is that they're the same characters.

-Ah, silly me.

The Chinese invaded Japan at various points

and they brought Buddhist monks in.

-Yes.

-The monks converted the Japanese

and they brought the characters that they used - which were Chinese -

and the Japanese adopted them, so we've got the same characters.

Oh, right, yes.

I doesn't mean that a Chinese man can read a Japanese newspaper,

or vice versa - it's more complicated than that.

Anyway, irrelevant.

-It's got Japanese/Chinese characters on the base.

-Yes.

We'll come to that in a minute.

The Japanese also - leaving aside the characters on the bottom -

-did not carve jade.

-Oh, OK.

So, the Chinese appreciate jade not only according to the carving,

but also according to the colour.

And this is quite a good colour - it's white, which is what

they like best, and it's got brown infusions in it, and they like that.

-Oh.

-So that's good news. Anyway, that's not the joy, the joy is

in the outside with borders and with here, what we call t'ao-t'ieh masks.

-This pattern of an archaic face...

-Yes.

..has been taken from Shang dynasty - that's about 1500 BC - bronzes.

-Yeah.

-And they've copied that on to here.

Oh, gosh.

And that archaism is common in the 18th century and that's when...

So, it's an 18th-century...?

Well, maybe the mark will confirm it, or not.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, sorry. I'm too excited.

OK, there's the six character mark.

-Now, the six character mark is standard.

-Yeah.

It would say - if we were in the middle of the 18th century

when the Emperor Chien-lung reigned

- if this were the standard mark

it would say Ta-ching - that's the great Ch'ing dynasty.

Chien-lung - that's his name. Nianzhi - made in the reign of.

-But it isn't standard.

-Oh.

Instead, it's got a four-character mark, Chien-lung Nianzhi.

Yeah.

And then the characters Zhuan-gu and that means "in archaic style".

-Ah. Like...

-Very unusual to find.

-Oh, wow.

-Very unusual.

And that is - the Chien-lung emperor was a man of exquisite taste

well, actually some of his taste was ghastly but he, he...

But some of it was very exquisite.

Very nouveau riche, some of it, overblown and blingy,

but when he got it right, I mean commissioning things every day,

ten, 20 things he was commissioning.

-Yes.

-They all ended up in the Summer Palace and then they were,

of course, nicked by the Brits.

-Oh.

-And the French. That's where that came from.

Ah, it was nicked.

That was nicked from the Summer Palace, I bet you.

-Oh, gosh.

-So, we've got a mid-18th century bowl, lost its cover,

copying.... in the style of a archaic.

30 to 50...

-Not...

-Thousand pounds.

-ONLOOKERS GASP

I think that was...

Oh, wow, gosh, 30 to 50.

Gosh, I've come over all unnecessary.

I didn't think it was worth that, gosh, thank you very much indeed.

Well, for something which is minus its lid,

it's a fair whack, isn't it?

It's absolutely beautiful, though, isn't it?

Yes, so take a lot of care.

I mean, you can use it as a butter dish, no problem, but don't tell me.

I don't think I will, no, but thank you very much indeed,

that was lovely.

-That's great, I'm glad you came.

-Thank you.

It's rather appropriate that we've seen

so many treasures here at Kirby Hall

because although it's a bit of a ruin now, in its day

it was home to sumptuous wealth

and Sir Christopher Hatton, who lived here and who was

Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth I,

was so wealthy that he could fund the voyages of Sir Francis Drake,

who of course, circumnavigated the globe.

So there you are - maybe something you didn't know.

From Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire, bye-bye.

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