Chenies Manor 2 Antiques Roadshow

If you want history and beauty together in one knockout package,

you've come to the right place.

We've returned to Chenies Manor in Buckinghamshire,

and dating from 1460, it's thought to be

the oldest brick-built domestic dwelling in the country.

And some of the original paintwork still remains.

400 years ago, the Earl of Bedford,

who owned this lovely home, was worried that the plague

would be carried on prevailing winds from nearby London,

so when a new extension was added, they came up with a solution.

And this is it. This wall, which faced the capital,

had no windows and no doors,

so not even the slightest breeze could pass through.

Any that you can see are much more recent additions,

and this design is just as radical on the inside,

where its architecture influenced domestic dwellings

for centuries to come.

Bedrooms for a start.

It's the norm nowadays, but for 16th-century England,

this is probably a first -

for members of the household to have their own private space,

their own individual sleeping quarters.

Each bed chamber had a fireplace, another domestic first,

and that wouldn't have been possible without the prominent buttresses

on the exterior wall which incorporated chimney stacks.

But most surprising of all is this - an en suite privy.

Now it might look pretty basic, but in the 16th century,

this was the ultimate luxury.

I imagine the wind must have whistled up there!

It was known as "the divine drop".

Who'd have thought such a barrier to prevent the plague

would lead to such mod cons

and the kind of domestic design we live with today?

There are no barriers to today's visitors,

who are arriving in force, I'm glad to say.

Let's go to our specialists, already hard at work in the garden.

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

please log on to our website at...

Well, how appropriate!

We just happen to be in one of the most beautiful gardens in England

on a stunningly beautiful day,

and you bring along a very lean, dare I say, flower seller.

I need to know how long this flower seller

has been sharing a life with your good self.

Well, she shared a life with my mother first of all,

and we had a flower shop in Hereford,

so she's always been much appreciated.

And do you know where your parents purchased her,

or were they given it?

They got married in 1931 and bought several ornaments after that,

so probably about 1932, but I don't know exactly what date it is.

OK, and if she was to speak to me, she would speak to me in Italiano.

-Yes.

-Because you and I know that there's a mark on the base

-telling us that this lady hails from Turin.

-Yeah.

-And she was made by the famous Lenci factory.

-Yes.

And the lady responsible for this very stylish lady is Konig Scavini.

Oh, right.

And let's just have a look at the gown,

let's give her a quick twirl...

-because that is one very chic flower seller.

-Yes.

-So look at the way the hair's been bobbed as well.

-Yeah.

Because that is a period dress.

You can see where the actual skirt itself there is just mid-calf,

and so from a fashion point of view, they're very exciting.

-And we'll just have a quick look at the mark, shall we?

-Yes.

It just says, "Lenci, made in Italy, Torino"

and that's the original sort of paper label.

It's always a bonus from a collector's point of view.

So when it comes to value, I am pretty certain that

if I wanted to take this girl home, I would go into a gallery

and have to write a cheque for about

£5,000.

Wow. Wow!

LAUGHTER

Our daughter, Michelle, is going to be a happy bunny.

-Can I give you some advice?

-Yes.

Keep her waiting as long as you can.

OK, yes.

-Well, it's really important to look at pictures...

-Yes.

..and so many people don't.

And at first glance, you may think this was a Scandinavian picture.

-I did.

-Oh, you did, did you?

I did.

Well, if you look very closely,

you'll see the signature here says "IF Choultse"

and that is Ivan Fedorovich Choultse

-and he was a Russian painter.

-Oh.

-And he was a Russian painter who was born in 1874.

-Yeah.

And he died in 1939.

-So he lived through this amazing period of Russian history.

-Yes.

He studied in St Petersburg

where all good Russian artists studied,

and he became well-known for painting very gentle,

charming landscapes with great attention to the sort of colouring.

-Yes.

-So they're usually very bright,

and he was particularly good at doing sunsets and sunrises,

and I think we have a lovely example here,

because what we have is a beautiful landscape

-with the sun on this mountain top.

-Yes.

And I think what is so interesting now about Russian art

is that for the first time - I would say in the last ten years,

in fact - Russian art has gone from strength to strength.

The oligarchs and the Russian people are making so much money

-and they are beginning to buy back their own art.

-Ah.

-And that's what's so exciting about it.

-Yes, absolutely.

So it's interesting because Choultse fled the revolution,

we assume in 1917/18, and came to live in France,

because he exhibited quite a lot in France in 1920

and then we know he went to Norway and we know he went to Finland

and he had various one-man shows around Europe.

-OK.

-So this could be a Scandinavian view.

Did you inherit this, or...?

Yes, it was... My father used to buy,

and there were things that were just in the house.

You didn't really take much notice that they were there.

Mm. Your father bought it because he liked the subject

rather than the fact he thought,

"Ooh I'm interested in Russian art," I guess.

Oh, no, he bought things because he liked the subject.

Best reason. Because it's by this great Russian artist Choultse,

I would say it's worth between

£20,000 and £30,000.

-Does that give you a surprise?

-OK. Yes, it does.

But it just illustrates how passionate the Russians are

about buying art and also, you know,

how strong this market is at the moment.

I'm not often lost for words but I am now.

Thank you very much. I had no idea.

So what you've brought in is probably the most famous

piece of British glass that I know about, it really is.

This is all-singing, all-dancing Whitefriars.

So what's the link to you?

Well, we came here today

because it would have been my mum's birthday. She recently passed away.

She's had this vase wrapped up

and she's always, always wanted to come to somewhere

like the Antiques Roadshow and get it valued,

and because it was her birthday today,

my family and I decided we're going to bring it along here.

-Sweet!

-And do what she would have, would have liked us to do,

and what she would have liked to have done.

God, I've got goose bumps. Look, I'm breaking out in 'em.

-So have I, so have I.

-Yes, wonderful.

So she's looking down and smiling, I hope.

But the real connection is my dad was a Whitefriars glass blower.

-Yes!

-And he worked at Whitefriars from the day he left school,

which was around about 14, to the day the factory closed in 1980

in Wealdstone and so that's roughly 30-odd years he worked there.

He went from being a lowly glass helper, or whatever,

-up to being a glass blower.

-Master blower.

-A master blower, he was.

And he was very proud of that, and we were very proud of him.

Yeah, well, he's not around any more, but this is.

No, so, it's been wrapped up really for a long time

and we thought, "Let's get it out." Show it the daylight, so to speak.

-Well, give that daylight and what does it do?

-It shines.

I mean, I think that's visible from outer space, isn't it?

I mean, that is the most... What's interesting about these is,

is that they were almost universally bought by women.

These were not blokey pieces,

they were bought by women in the late '60s - the date of this

is what, '66, '67 - and they were bought by women who were liberated

and saying, "I'm going to put my pin money into buying something for me."

You can see sort of why it's called "the banjo"

but it's not very banjo-esque.

So how are you going to sort this?

-You say you've got this entire tribe.

-Oh, I don't know.

Who's going to get it? It's the best bit.

Well, that's always what my mum said.

You know, "You can't divide it into three pieces."

So that was why she always wanted to get it valued.

But I don't know, we're kind of quite attached to Whitefriars.

We've got a lot of Whitefriars bits and bobs at home as well.

But I think these are just pulsating pieces that just work,

all designed by Geoffrey Baxter, and they still work,

and not a lot of stuff does, from that kind of date.

So look, the current market price of these is

700-800 quid, that's what it would cost.

And it's sentimental to us.

Mum and Dad, isn't it?

It's my mum and dad, yeah. Means a lot.

Yeah.

This is a magnificent clock.

It's all brass-mounted.

You've got these fabulous brass caryatids down the side.

You've got this wonderful

brass dial, fully engraved,

and then you've got these spectacular large enamel dials

with the subsidiaries at the top.

The subsidiaries are the extra dials,

so you have your music selection, your strike/silent

and this signature at the top.

So where does it come into your life?

I bought this clock in 1993

when I was working for the British Council in Beijing.

And one of the girls I worked with happened to mention one day

that her grandmother had a musical box and was quite keen to sell it.

I eventually went out to the west of Beijing

and, if you can imagine, a very simple dwelling.

All she had in this single dwelling house was a little coke stove

in the corner, and a piece of furniture which looked as if

it had been made out of orange boxes or something.

And sitting on top of this piece of furniture was this clock

with a cloth over the top.

And I took the cloth off,

and I just couldn't believe what I was looking at,

bearing in mind the environment it was in.

And I thought, well, it's not a musical box.

The old lady had only ever pulled the strings to play the music.

She'd never used it as a clock.

And after a bit of negotiation, we eventually managed to buy it.

Well, I think that's a fantastic story

and the tune is very, very pretty.

CLOCK CHIMING

Can I ask you, what did you pay for it?

I think it was probably around about £1,000.

You might think actually finding a clock

-like this in China is quite unusual.

-Yeah.

You know, considering it's from 1760.

The maker, Thomas Best of London, is recorded working

around the sort of the mid to the late 18th century,

so that's during the reign of George III.

Also at that period, the Emperor was actually a huge collector of clocks.

You can go to the palace - the Forbidden City -

and you can see an outstanding collection of clocks,

-one of the best in the world.

-Right.

Traders at that time were desperate to trade with China,

so they would actually give clocks as gifts to the Emperor

-and to dignitaries to buy favours.

-Right.

And so the Chinese really loved the English clocks.

They had their own clockmakers copy similar English style,

but what they particularly liked were musical clocks

and big, grand, ornate clocks, and this would have been

-magnificent and the Chinese now are still buying them.

-Really?

They are very interested in English clocks, particularly musical clocks,

and you paid the equivalent of £1,000 for it.

If it was in an auction, I think a sensible estimate

would be in the order of

-£15,000 to £20,000.

-Really?

My...

Well. That was a good buy, then.

When the Antiques Roadshow visited Cleethorpes back in 1991,

our ceramics expert, Eric Knowles, spotted a jardiniere -

essentially a posh flowerpot -

that belonged to Terry Norrish, and had been in his family since 1946.

Well, it was bought in a job lot by my father

straight after the war with two vases

and a couple of pieces of furniture.

And that's all I can tell you, it just came into the family from that.

It's by the firm of Christofle, a top French metalworkers

and of course they were a top maker of silverware,

right through into this century.

Date-wise, here is the date - 1874.

And by the 1860s-'70s, the influence of Japanese art

was creeping into Western art,

and the French were one of the first to pick up on it,

and so this type of object is regarded as being Japonaise.

It's a magnificent object,

it's the best I've ever seen on the Antiques Roadshow.

Welcome back to Terry Norrish and Eric Knowles.

Now the reason your jardiniere's not here is because you've sold it.

But before we get to that, tell me what happened after Cleethorpes,

all the... What? 20-odd years ago now.

Well, we were a lot more careful when we took it home,

because we brought it in the back of a pick-up, and so taking it home,

we did bring some bags to sort of make sure it didn't roll about.

And it didn't always get treated with the respect it deserved,

-did it, Terry?

-Erm, no.

I didn't know until we put it up for sale,

that the kids had used it as a goalpost an odd time or two.

-No!

-They played pool around it.

Now why did you think it was so special? Tell us a bit about it.

Well, this is the actual auction catalogue, prior to being sold.

First of all, you've got this decoration

on the actual jardiniere itself,

which is a sort of champleve technique.

That's where the actual metal is cut away and the enamels are laid in.

On top of that, you've got these wonderful Manchurian cranes,

so you've got a sense of movement,

and then you get these magnificent handles which, you know,

look as though they've almost got a Samurai connection.

Plus, it had a label on it saying it had been shown by Christofle

at the 1874 exhibition, gave it such a remarkable pedigree.

And there's even a photograph of it in situ,

at the actual exhibition, so it just brings it alive.

Well, let's have a look at what you valued it at.

I mean, have you given thought to the value yourself? Have you got it insured?

Um... Well, various friends have looked at it

and they've all sort of said Oriental and hazard guesses from about £2,000.

Right.

Well, if... At auction, I would probably see the bidding going -

starting at 2,000, going to 3,000

4,000, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 -

at £7,000 - 8,000, 9,000.

£10,000, at £10,000, at £10,000, I think,

it's fair to say, you just might see it go.

I don't know if I'm more astonished by the valuation

or how much you've both changed.

-What about that moustache?

-Yeah.

-My goodness me!

So you held on to it then for 20 years.

-You decided to sell it.

-Yeah.

-What? A couple of years ago now?

-Yeah, yes.

-What did it sell for?

£560,000.

-ALL GASP

-5...! 560,000?!

-Yeah.

-Crikey!

-Yeah.

So what happened in the interim?

Well, you valued it... I mean, did you spectacularly under-value it?

-Or has the market completely changed?

-Well, it is so different,

but it's a very good question to ask, that, isn't it?

Er... But the truth of the matter is, way back then,

there was not the same demand for Japonaise examples.

So it's a market that has literally sort of sprung out of nowhere.

It's fair to say that my estimate -

it may seem a little bit on the low side -

however, the auction estimate

-was something like £60,000 to £80,000 a couple of years ago.

-Yeah.

So if you think that it made half a million pounds

more than the auction estimate...

Because the right buyer just happened to turn up.

-The right under-bidder was there with the right buyer.

-Right.

So, um, nobody could possibly offer that today

and give you a cast-iron guarantee

-that you would get the same sort of money now.

-No.

Wow, well, just as well you held on to it for 20-odd years.

-Well, absolutely.

-I'd say that was incredibly prescient of you.

You obviously had the crystal ball,

and that's a life-changing sum of money. What have you done with it?

Um, give a lot of it away actually.

-Did you?

-Yeah, to family.

We've had some very good holidays, hence the sun tan.

A nice car... There's a little bit left. We're enjoying it very much.

Well, I'm sure you're glad you came along to that Roadshow

-all those years back...

-I certainly am.

-..in 1991.

It made Eric's day, he's been talking about it ever since,

and how lovely to see you again.

Well, thank you very much for asking. It's lovely.

Normally, when you see a cheeseboard,

it's some lovely, bucolic landscape, Constable-esque

-or beautiful flora and fauna.

-Yeah.

You've got a cheeseboard of the building of the M1.

I have used it several times at parties,

which makes quite a good conversational piece and, um...

Gosh, they must be riveting, those dinner parties(!)

Chatting about the M1.

-You never see it that empty these days, do you?

-No.

Here's a pair of two-handled vases that I'm sure get noticed

-when people come into your home.

-Absolutely.

You've got a hint of psychedelia, almost.

It's the sort of perfect present - had he been alive -

-for Jimi Hendrix.

-Yeah, absolutely.

I was excited, but it's not my thing and I didn't want to unpack it

and potentially damage its value, so...

OK, well, let's have a look, what is it?

Trains.

I mean, it's never... Are you telling me it's never been undone?

Er, as far as they know, it's never been unpacked.

I had a quick look in the engine one because that's been opened.

-OK, let's have a look.

-But I just didn't want to disturb it.

-I mean, it's like Christmas, isn't it?

-It's unbelievable.

Ah, it's got all the original packing too. Wow, fantastic.

-So is the owner here?

-Owner's here.

And, I mean, we've just got to look at it in closer detail.

I mean, I don't want to do it here but we can get a table

-and put some things out.

-Exactly.

But, you know, to have them untouched.

-Brilliant, I'm so excited.

-So exciting. Brilliant.

Well, I think this is the prettiest little girl

that I've seen for a long time.

What do you think?

-She is pretty, isn't she?

-Yeah.

Did you go out and buy this?

No, my grandma gave it to me.

Oh, right, yeah.

Why did she choose you to have this pretty picture?

Um, because it looks quite like me.

I think it looks almost exactly like you,

-except the hair's a bit different.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. I like the way her dress matches her eyes as well.

-Yeah.

-Did you notice that?

-Yeah.

-And then in the background,

-the leaves are sort of greeny-blue, aren't they?

-Yeah.

They go with it too.

Really nice. How old do you think she is?

Um, nine or ten.

-Nine or ten, younger than you. You're 11, aren't you?

-Yeah.

Yeah. Was it Grandpa's picture?

Yeah, it was my grandad's, yeah.

Was it one of his favourites?

Yeah, it was... Yeah, it was his favourite.

-Yeah, and I think also that she's quite a poor girl, isn't she?

-Yeah.

-Don't you think?

-Yeah.

Because she's not wearing a very expensive dress, by the looks of it.

-Do you think she might have been the sort of gardener's daughter or something?

-Yeah.

Yeah, anyway it's by a woman artist called Helen Allingham

and she apparently, by all accounts, was an extremely nice woman.

Her husband was called William Allingham and he was a poet,

and this is about 150 years ago,

and they lived together in Chelsea,

where they knew lots of other artists,

and they were a very fashionable set.

Usually, she painted pictures that were much bigger

and they had cottages with pretty, little roses going up them,

a few children, some ducks and very nice roofs.

She always painted really nice roofs.

But her little portraits of children

are the nicest things you'll ever see.

They're so sympathetic.

I've got to talk about money.

RUPERT LAUGHS

That's my job, you know, I've got to tell you how much it's worth.

Have a few guesses, come on. What do you think?

Um, 100?

-100, as much as that?

-Yeah.

RUPERT INHALES DEEPLY

No, I think we'll... I think we'll go with 2,000.

WOMAN GASPS

-£2,000.

-What? SHE CHUCKLES

-That's a lot, isn't it?

-Yeah.

And, in fact, I might say that it's worth £2,000 to £3,000.

-Whoa!

-Yeah, it could be because everyone's going to love that.

Everyone does love that.

Such a pretty thing.

-You're going to treasure it for ever though, aren't you?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

This is the most extraordinary collection,

in the most extraordinary condition.

Now, I would say that you are much too young to have had this yourself.

-Ah, yes.

-So where, where did it come from?

Well, it belonged to the husband of my godmother.

-OK.

-And it was put together...ooh, between the two world wars.

It was packed away when they got married, and, in fact,

that was in 1928 and there it stayed, so it was in a box for 70 years.

-It's a bit like Sleeping Beauty.

-Mm!

Did you awake it with a kiss when you opened the box?

Er, with some surprise,

but I didn't kiss it.

LAUGHTER

Well, opening this box

was a bit like getting into Sleeping Beauty's castle

because you felt that nothing had been touched.

I mean, I felt slightly in awe of even undoing the packaging

-because the tissue paper has never been unwrapped.

-No.

But what this box tells us

-is really a history of the British toy train industry.

-Yeah.

Because you've got great names, you've got Hornby,

you've got Bassett-Lowke, you've got Leeds - the top three,

really, of the locomotive and rolling stock makers.

Before Hornby, there was a company called Bassett-Lowke,

and Bassett-Lowke set up his toy train company,

really looking at the success of the big German companies,

particularly Marklin and Carrette and Bing,

that were so successfully exporting into the UK.

But he looked at that and he said,

"Hmm, perhaps I can do a bit of that."

So, cleverly, he got those three big makers to start making things for...

particularly for Bassett-Lowke, which he then retailed.

And we've got one of those locomotives here which, um,

I don't even... Well, I am going to take it out,

but I do feel that I'm the first person to have handled this train

for... Well, decades and decades and decades.

-Well, yes.

-I feel incredibly privileged,

so here we have a precursor locomotive,

a 4-4-0, with its...tender here,

and when I say it is new, mint condition,

you know, that's often used by auctioneers to describe something

-that's pretty good.

-Mm.

-But actually this is completely mint condition.

-It is, isn't it?

I've never seen anything like...

It's as if it's come straight off Gamages' toy shelf.

Quite extraordinary.

You can imagine, after the First World War,

-there was a certain anti-German feeling...

-Mm.

..and that really was the open door for Hornby - for Frank Hornby -

to push against, to create his own range of British-made locomotives.

Mm-hm.

Frank Hornby, everybody knows, he started Meccano,

that was his start in the toy business

and in 1920, he began to make toy trains, and again,

we've got a very early Hornby train here. Lovely box - look at this.

Mm, that's right.

I mean, sort of fake leather box

with this lovely embossed writing on it.

I mean, as a kid, can you imagine getting that and then the excitement

of lifting the lid and seeing that? I mean, it's just fabulous.

It's a clockwork loco, obviously,

and it's got the ML Ltd, Meccano Limited,

on the front there.

It has to be from those first years in the 1920s - 1921, 1922 perhaps,

so right at the start of Frank Hornby's reign

as the king of British toy trains.

When it comes to value, obviously, I can see these,

and I'm calculating what these might be.

I have glimpsed, without unpacking, I've glimpsed

what the other boxes contain.

And I wouldn't hesitate to say that it would fetch, as a collection...

-..£10,000.

-Would it? Mm!

And, I mean, I may be a tad conservative on that.

Mm!

That's a lot of money.

You know, the Chinese call jade the stone of heaven.

How have you come by these things?

Well, I was in Hong Kong in the RAF in the '50s

and as we came to leave, after two and half years there,

we had some spare cash

and so we decided to invest them in some Chinese jade

and so we bought these three pieces

-just before we left Hong Kong in 1958.

-So 1958. Wow, what's that?

-56 years ago?

-I guess. Yes.

The monkey together with the peach

-is a symbol in Chinese for longevity.

-Right.

-Oh, well...

-You've had them 56 years.

That's right, yes. I'm no spring chicken now!

This one is a wonderful combination of wrapped lotus leaves

and there's a little flower, lotus flower on the side,

and, of course, lotuses grow up through thick, oozy, black mud

-and out comes a perfect white and pink flower.

-Ah.

So they represent purity, and so you see

the goddess Guanyin sitting on a lotus throne,

you see carvings of Buddha on a lotus throne.

This third one here, the shape is taken actually from the Tang dynasty,

which was 618 to 907 AD,

so back in the classical period of Chinese history,

and the shape is supposed to represent a mallow flower.

Right. This one, we're told, probably would be used

to go to the temple and make a libation to the gods.

I think you're quite right with this one.

-It should be... It's a libation cup.

-Mm.

These two, actually, I think, are objects off a scholar's table.

They're water pots for washing brushes.

Right, right. Not to hold the ink?

-Not to hold the ink. The ink is a solid block.

-Of course.

And you grind it up but you need to add water in order to make the ink,

in order to practise your calligraphy,

so they're wonderful scholar's objects.

I think it's a very nice choice of things to bring back from Hong Kong.

Yes, well, we like them very much and my daughter says,

"If you leave me anything, Dad, leave me these three pieces."

Oh, fantastic.

-One thing we didn't talk about is the date of them.

-Yes.

Um... Dating jade is never an easy thing to do, but it's based on

the type of stone that's used and also on the style of the carving.

The quality of the carving of all of these is good.

The type of stone used suggests that these date from

some time at the end of the 18th century or just...

Or into the middle of the 19th century,

so they're late Qianlong period or early Jiaqing.

Did they cost much then?

-Um, I think it was £20.

-£20?

-Mm.

Well, when it comes to the value,

I think this one here - the libation cup -

would be 2,000.

The peach and the monkey,

4,000.

This one - because of the colour of the stone - I think probably

£8,000.

Good heavens!

HE LAUGHS

Well, that's a lot more than I was expecting, I must say.

Collectively, round about £14,000.

My word!

So here we have an album of costume sketches,

and the album is for a very well-known designer,

-William Ivor Beddoes.

-Yes.

I see they're inscribed here, to, "Dear Gwen."

That was his mother, who, um, was really interested in Red Shoes

because she used to be a ballet dancer, so he put all these together

in a book and gave it to her for her birthday in 1952.

And what, what's Gwen's relation to yourself?

-My mother-in-law.

-She was your mother-in-law.

-Mm.

OK, well, let's say a little bit about the artist.

He's a very interesting character.

-He was what you might call a Renaissance man.

-Yes.

He was completely self-taught. He was a poet, a designer, an artist.

Yes, yes.

-A self-taught musician.

-Yes.

I believe he was a drummer in a lot of the silent films.

Yes. And then my father-in-law, who was a sound man at Shepperton,

got him a job at Shepperton and this is how he ended up doing all this.

The Red Shoes, that iconic film of 1948 with Moira Shearer,

-where... This is his most famous film, I understand?

-Yes.

And these are his original sketches.

-Yes.

-For the film. Do you have a favourite?

I think he's my favourite.

That's... Obviously, The Red Shoes

was loosely based on a Hans Christian Andersen tale about the...

-That's right.

-..ballet dancer who saw the red shoes in a shop window,

-tried them on.

-Yeah.

-And then basically she couldn't stop dancing,

she danced herself to death.

-He went on to make other films, obviously.

-Yes.

Another major one was Tales Of Hoffman in the early 1950s.

Yes, and then he did the Space Odyssey and...

Exactly, you know, his career spanned decades.

I think he worked right up until the 1970s on films like Star Wars.

Yes, he did Star Wars, yes.

So would you be surprised to know that one watercolour design

from the Red Shoes sold at auction just a few years ago?

Oh, did it?

It did. They rarely... There's only two that have ever come up for sale.

-And it was far more detailed than this.

-Yes.

However, it sold for £1,800.

My goodness, yes.

I think, given that these are not quite as detailed as that,

but there are so many of them, you know, they've got to be worth

£200 to £400 each.

You know, we're probably looking at a collective value of

£4,000 to £5,000 on the album.

Well, we're never going to get rid of it, so...

We'll keep it in the family, definitely.

We see quite a few letters written during the First World War

to be opened in the event of the writer's death,

but when I saw this,

I thought it was the most moving letter I had ever seen.

-This was written to your grandmother.

-Yes.

I can't actually get through it, so I'm going to ask you to read it out.

I don't know if I can.

OK. Well, it was sent from the First Hampshire Regiment

on October the 4th, 1916.

And he says, "My darling Vera,

"by this you will know that I have been killed.

"I meant to ask you to be engaged to me,

"but when I was on leave, I was too frightened to say anything.

"I loved you very, very much and would have done anything for you.

"However, we may meet in another life.

"With best love, ever your own loving boy, Harry."

-I know.

-I've read it so many times.

Oh, my goodness, it's just...

And also it just talks of...

..a love lost, hopes dashed,

a life that could have been lived and never was.

Yes, and, of course, if he had lived, I wouldn't be here,

because she wouldn't have married someone else afterwards.

How did you know about this letter?

Did your grandmother talk to you about it?

I had a suitcase of old memorabilia from my grandmother's after she died,

and when I went through it, with all the other rather mundane things,

there was this letter.

I remembered seeing a photograph and I was sure it said "Harry"

but the album, I have no longer got it, it's with another relative,

and so I e-mailed them and said,

"I'm sure there's a picture, 1916, of someone called Harry."

And there was, and she e-mailed that and then she e-mailed someone,

another cousin in Australia,

who said, "I don't believe it.

"On Gran's deathbed, she gave me this locket

"and she said it was of someone who she was engaged to."

-Well, she wasn't quite engaged...

-He was too frightened to ask.

But he wanted to be, and she got a picture of that locket,

which she sent to me, and this was him, and this was her.

And how old was he when he died? Did you manage to work that out?

-20.

-20.

-Yes.

And what might have been and the fact that she had this locket

on her death bed with his photograph in.

-Yes, because she'd harboured that desire for ever.

-All her life.

All her life, yes, and she was 91 or 92 when she died.

Well, she obviously loved him just as much

-if she kept this locket all her life.

-Yes.

This is one of my great aunts, Elizabeth Leather,

who, when she separated from her husband,

had to find a means of existence

and she joined the American White Star Line

and served on many of their ships,

the Olympic, the Britannic and so on and so forth, but more interestingly,

she was on the Titanic on its maiden voyage.

She survived.

She escaped in Boat 16, was picked up by the Carpathia

and returned with 21 of the 23 female crew, two of whom were lost.

I suppose the female crew were all first-class stewardesses.

Yes, they were first-class stewardesses.

-So that made it easier for them to escape.

-Yes.

And I gather she rowed for hours.

She rowed for two hours...

She insisted on rowing in the boat for two hours.

-And she was in her 50s by this point.

-She was 51.

And they were not short oars. It's not like a skiff on the Thames.

No. Well, she said that she wanted to do her bit,

and also to try and keep warm.

Well, I think that's very sensible, yes, yes.

She wouldn't have been particularly well-to-do, I mean, she wouldn't...

-No.

-She had to go out and work.

Particularly after the Titanic,

because the White Star Line cancelled everybody's employment...

-Yes.

-..the following day.

She didn't have a family.

When she died in 1937,

she bequeathed the two items to my mother.

I've been struggling for about ten years now to find out a bit more

about the medal, which is in memory of Titanic.

And we've got a little locket here which has got her initials, EML.

That's right, she was wearing that on the night of the disaster.

The interesting thing is that this memorial medal is nine-carat gold.

It is indeed, with a pearl in the middle.

And if I just turn it round,

-we can see there that it's made by Vaughtons of Birmingham.

-Yes.

And it's inscribed, "April 15th, 1912",

so it's been produced by somebody

to give to these people.

I can't help thinking that she would never have commissioned it.

She wouldn't have been able to commission it, or purchase it.

Obviously, the first thing I did was to go back to Vaughtons,

who produced it, and find out, if I could, how many they made

and who it was made for, and by, and so on.

And tragically, they informed me that just before the Second World War,

they'd run out of storage space for their office material

and they'd destroyed everything.

Gosh.

One hopes that perhaps it was made by a grateful passenger

who gave them to the staff who were survivors as a memento,

-and as a thank you.

-It's a possibility.

Well, it would be nice to think that.

Titanic is the most extraordinary sort of maritime story, really.

The locket, with the evidence that it was on board the Titanic

on that night, it's going to be worth several thousand pounds.

-Oh!

-The memorial pendant... They have turned up,

-but we know whose this one was and that always makes a difference.

-Yes.

It's worth about 2,000, £2,500.

So, in all, there's about

-£4,000 or £5,000 worth.

-Mm.

Amazing.

This is the finest small English mantle clock that I've ever seen

on the Roadshow.

Good Lord.

It's an exceptional thing

and it must have fairly exceptional provenance, so how did you get it?

Well, it was evidently given by Queen Victoria

to a lady-in-waiting, and when she was a very old lady,

she gave it to my next-door neighbour,

who happened to be a deputy director of the Bank of Scotland,

and it came down, through his family, to me.

Right, well, it makes absolute sense.

This is just the sort of thing that the Queen would have ordered

-and given as presents to those very close to her.

-Good Lord.

The thing is signed by Charles Frodsham

-with their Strand address...

-Mm-hm.

..and I'm very much hoping

that it will be fully signed on the back plate.

-Do you ever open this?

-No.

So you don't really look at it too frequently?

Er, no. SHE LAUGHS

OK. Well, there it is, the full signature,

Arnold... Charles Frodsham, 84 Strand

and then the number down there.

Right. Well, it's always been referred to as "the Frodsham clock".

Right, well, Frodsham in 1843 took over the business premises

and the good name of John Roger Arnold, and for 15 years,

the company was referred to as Arnold and Frodsham.

And then Charles Frodsham started really on his own,

but only made the finest things.

And this is so exceptional because of the size,

and just look at the quality of it.

It's sensational.

The dial is as perfect as you'd get.

-Gosh.

-Beautifully engraved, signed on that lovely annular chapter ring,

and the hands are cut-out spade hands.

The finest English clock work.

Now, I'm here to tell you the price.

You must have a thing like this insured.

Roughly what's it insured for?

I don't think it is.

-Seriously?

-No, it lives in a cupboard.

RICHARD LAUGHS

I honestly don't know what to say.

Um... All I can tell you is that the last one of these...

Yes.

..which had a number just two removed in sequence from yours -

-and we're talking round about 1845 here...

-Right.

..not a lot either side of that -

was sold at auction

for £42,000.

You are joking?!

Now I'm not saying that yours is going to do quite that,

but it's going to do

at least 30,000 to 35,000.

Good grief!

With that Royal provenance, the finest,

by one of the finest makers of the early Victorian era.

Good Lord!

So, please, get it insured.

LAUGHTER

But much more important than getting insured,

get it out of that cupboard and let it be seen!

Thank you very much. I'm totally astounded.

Oh, I think I need a gin.

LAUGHTER

We're just coming to the end of our day here at Chenies Manor

and I thought I'd slip into something comfortable.

Japanese silk wedding kimono, circa 1980s,

brought along by one of our visitors.

Look at this. Look at the sleeves.

The front...

The back...

And look at the gold interior...

Fabulous.

From Antiques Roadshow, until next time,

sayonara!