Tredegar House 1 Antiques Roadshow

This week, the Antiques Roadshow comes from Tredegar House

near Newport and I think you'll enjoy discovering it with us

because not only is it one of the architectural wonders of Wales,

but it's also one of the finest 17th-century houses

in the whole of Britain.

From the early 1400s the Morgan family have owned this spot.

They were a cast of colourful characters including distant

relative Captain Henry Morgan, who, back in the 17th century,

earned a living as a pirate.

No-one, though, could compete with the last Lord Tredegar

to live in this house, who assumed the aristocratic mantle in 1934.

Evan Morgan was a flamboyant character who had the money

to indulge his every whim and he was fascinated with the occult.

If only the walls of this bedroom could talk,

because hidden in here was a secret alcove containing an altar within

which was a crucifix which could be turned upside down

for occult rituals.

Alongside that, he was chamberlain to two popes in the Vatican

and referred to himself as the Pope of Wales.

Indeed, he was a man who led a gay life in both senses of the word.

That didn't stop him marrying twice,

including a turbulent four years to a Russian princess.

Fascinated by birds, Evan ran a pigeon service

for military intelligence during World War II,

but then he was court-martialled for revealing secrets

to two Girl Guides.

Evan died in 1949 and after years of eccentric activities,

Tredegar House became a Catholic convent school

of which some reminders still survive.

Owned by the local council since December 2011,

the National Trust has been running it,

reinstating the former grandeur of Tredegar House and gardens,

where we now find our specialists primed and ready to go.

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

go to our website at:

This is the most lovely tooled leather box, isn't it?

A beautiful, beautiful case for a little clock.

Lovely gilt flowers.

This was a seriously expensive thing new. Tell me how you got it.

My late brother-in-law,

he had it given to him as a present off a lifelong friend

and she wanted to make sure that he had it before she passed away

and then when he passed away, he left it to my wife

and she passed away nine months ago, so now it's been left to me.

So how do you think the first person who handed it on, got it?

Well, her father was a butler,

so whether he had it from the big house, I don't know, I've no idea.

I would imagine it was probably a gift after many years of service

because it is an exceptionally lovely thing.

Look at that, it's magnificent.

And let's just look at the inside of the case to start with.

"Le Roy et Fils to the Queen.

"New Bond Street, London."

Now, note that Le Roy is a Frenchman, but they had

a shop in Bond Street and they had the warrant to Queen Victoria.

It was the only foreign clockmaker that had the Royal warrant.

The only sold the most beautiful things, this is no exception.

Good.

Now, is it a thing that you have running at home or not?

No, it's been put away in a drawer ever since we've had it.

Let's just consider it.

It is absolutely typical late 19th-century,

beautiful cast case, beautifully gilt,

nice clear dial and then turning round,

you've just got tiny little side panels there to let

the noise of the escapement out.

Of course, it doesn't strike.

And look at that, even the back door is cast with a lovely mask.

It is the finest casting.

It will have a very sweet little movement in there which it has

with a lever platform on the top. A fantastic gift.

I mean, really, really, it's a fantastic gift.

It sits in a drawer and you don't really love it and it doesn't go...

Oh, I like it.

Yes, I love it all right, but it's in the house,

it's no good being an ornament, I could do with the money better.

LAUGHTER

-Is that why you've come today?

-Yes, and so that my son can enjoy it.

OK.

Highly collectable by the best London retailer

in the prettiest case and I'm going to say...

-In the region of £2,000 plus at auction.

-Good, very nice.

-Is he smiling?

-Yes.

RICHARD LAUGHS

-Now, apparently if you kiss a frog, he'll turn into a prince.

-Really?

I think I'd rather have him as he is.

So what made you bring him along today?

Well, it goes back to 1947, really.

My mother was managing a nursing home in Eastbourne

and obviously the NHS came into being

and the nursing home closed down and she then went to nurse privately.

The first private patients that she had were two sisters

for a number of years, and she was left this piece -

Twinkle, he's called....

The broach is called Twinkle?

Twinkle. My eldest daughter, she used to play with him

when she was little and she used to say,

-"Mummy, this is Twinkle."

-What a fabulous name for a frog.

-Twinkle, that's because, probably, it twinkles in the sunlight.

-Yes.

And it's been now passed down to you?

Yes, and I've got two daughters and two granddaughters,

so they're all going to have a leg, I think.

-Oh, no, you can't chop him up! Can't have frogs' legs.

-No.

You know, it is just absolutely beautiful in that it is very typical

late-Victorian, made in England in about 1895 and it's in its box,

which is the retailer, but the retailer doesn't exist any more.

And it's made in silver and gold, because you would always put

the white metal around the diamonds to make them sparkle.

And the Victorians were fascinated with insects

and reptiles and bugs, and this one here is set with

cushion-shaped diamonds and rose diamonds and it's a bit, sort of...

I call it crazy paving because the stones don't actually...

they're not all the same size,

so they've used all the stones to sort of fill up the spaces -

modern day jewels, you'll see a lot of uniformity in the diamonds -

and it has fabulous character.

I mean, this frog looks like it's going to jump out of its box.

This is just magical,

and it's got beautiful little cabochon ruby eyes

-representing passion...

-Gosh.

..and you've got the diamonds there which are forever,

so, my passion for you is forever.

And at auction,

I would say this would go for around about

£5,000 to £7,000.

Gosh, wow!

-I'm keeping him.

-You're keeping him?

-I think so.

Are you going to kiss him?

-I've got my prince over there.

-Aww.

Fabulous, fabulous.

-Do you know these are called bugbear flasks?

-Bugbear flasks?

-Have you heard of that?

-No.

I was kind of hoping you had

because I don't know where the term comes from.

But what I can tell you is that it's absolutely the best one

I've ever seen. Where did you get it from?

Well, my father bought it in the '50s in Abergavenny Market

for about...I think about five shillings,

not a great deal of money,

and he brought it home. He thought it was a water flask,

-a military water flask.

-And did he collect military items?

No, he'd just come out of National Service and he was just,

sort of, very keen on military type things, you know?

-It's not a water flask, it's a powder flask.

-Powder?

Powder, for gunpowder.

And it is obviously coconut,

but these would have been carved in the greens.

So when the coconut was fresh,

obviously they go rock hard once they've dried out,

but they would have been soft and easy to carve

and this one I think is French, so it would have come

from the tropics. When you are out there

serving in the military on board ship in the Navy,

you would have had hundreds of hours to kill

and this would have been a food source,

something to do to occupy your time and then something which was

-actually quite valuable to sell once you return back here.

-Right.

It would date from, in my opinion, early 19th-century,

1810 to 1815, around the time of the French Napoleonic wars.

And the great thing about this one is the quality is so unbelievable.

I mean, I'm almost shaking holding it.

Something like this needs to be held

and felt to appreciate just how beautiful it is. The bugbear...

I think it's just because obviously they carve through the eyes

of the coconut and made a stylised grotesque mythical beast,

-and it just gets better.

-I know.

You've got what I think is a French uniform of a soldier

and I think this is a prison, you've got justice there

-with the scales, can you see the little scales?

-Oh, yeah.

It's unbelievable.

-Unbelievable.

-Really?

-I would absolutely love this.

It's white metal mounted which again,

all absolutely period for the piece,

and I think that this piece being the best one I've ever seen

at auction...

..£1,000 to £1,500.

I thought it was worth about £50.

-£50?

-Yeah.

-No.

-Not bad for five shillings, then.

I think unbelievable.

A wonderful little coffee set from Royal Worcester, isn't it?

Indeed, yes.

-You use it for coffee?

-Uh, no, this lives in its box,

under the bed - not on display, so...

Oh! It's such a shame, cos it's so gorgeous, isn't it?

Painted with different castles,

and I think they're all Scottish, are they?

-We think so, yeah.

-It's absolutely wonderful,

and the cups and saucers and the fitted spoons, the box as well -

what more could you ask for? How did you come by it?

Somewhere before about 1946, my great-grandfather had a greyhound,

which he raced, and this was, in some way, a prize for some sort of race.

We don't know what.

Hopefully, by the date, we'd be able to work out hopefully when it was.

Fancy winning it for a greyhound! Oh, dear.

-So, the date is important to you, is it?

-Yeah.

Well, if we have a look at the date...

It's easy, with Royal Worcester, to give a date,

because they used to have very elaborate date coding.

There's a little symbol of three little lines -

rather like a geometrical sign -

and that's the mark for 1928.

-Do you know which race...?

-Not yet, no.

We'll have to go back and look.

Oh, it'd be great to find it out, wouldn't it?

But what beautiful painting. Painted by Raymond Rushton.

There's his signature down there, quite clearly - "Raymond Rushton".

He was a great, great painter and in those days,

he'd be in his middle years.

He lived on to paint right until the 1970s.

I knew Raymond Rushton - a wonderful chap,

although he went badly arthritic

and he used to have to have his brush poked into his hand like that

and painted with it - still painted marvellously.

A skilled, skilled painter. But they're gorgeous, aren't they?

This is for mocha coffee - horrible stuff,

I used to have to suffer it when I was young, it was terrible.

But aren't they absolutely beautiful?

I wish I could have a set like that.

Well, it must have been a jolly good race,

because even in those days, 1920s,

the value of this was quite considerable.

But now, I suppose you've got to put a value

of about £2,500 on it.

-Oh, wow!

-So, it's a good race to win.

-Absolutely.

-A wonderful little set.

Now, here in this glorious setting,

Tredegar House behind us, wonderful place,

what we're in pursuit of today are the Morgan family.

We need to find the traces of the great family

who created that house.

And of course, here, we're coming quite close,

because here, we have the memorials of three members of that family,

-in the 18th century.

-Right.

These are hatchments from a church.

Where do you fit in? What church is it?

It's the church of St Michael's and All Angels in Lower Machen,

and I happen to be a church warden in that area.

-Right. How far is that from here?

-About five miles at the most.

-But it's a church with good Morgan connections, isn't it?

-Yes.

Many of the Morgan family have actually been buried there

and they used to go to the services there regularly.

Right. What we're looking at are hatchments -

a popularisation of the word "achievement".

And these, in a sense, are death markers.

They're from the collection of Morgan hatchments in the church.

-I think there are 11, aren't there?

-That's right, 11.

And what we've got here are three generations of MPs of Tredegar

from the Morgan family.

Hatchments started really quite early on in Britain.

They're quite common in various churches,

particularly churches associated with various families.

They were a way of commemorating members of that family.

What are we looking at?

-We're looking at things that actually mark a death.

-Yes.

You've got a black frame.

You've got a motto which says, effectively,

"Rest in peace, in Heaven quiet."

Um...you've got the skull and crossbones,

which is a memento mori, a mark of death.

Now, of course, the great thing here

is we've got three generations consecutively,

all of whom were the local MP.

We start with Thomas, who died in 1769.

He was 67, so he did all right.

Next is Colonel Thomas who, presumably, was his son,

who died in 1774 aged 44, so much younger.

And then, finally, Charles, who died in 1787 - again, young.

The key thing - and we've got a development here -

is, of course, the coat of arms expands generation by generation

as they marry.

So here, we've only got a lesser number of elements

in the coat of arms.

Here, it's getting bigger and steadily bigger

as the family expands.

And so, in a way,

they're like a sort of document of genealogical history,

painted on canvas.

They were usually done by local artists

who specialised in such things.

We don't know who they are.

The other thing about them is they're very clean,

they're in very good condition.

They hang in your church, 11 of them.

What do you think about them?

Well, if you've never been there before,

you go into the church, it is awesome to see what's around you.

And people come there from other places

-just purely to look at them.

-Right.

Because these are so good,

so colourful and so detailed and so rich,

and because they are so locally connected,

they're actually quite valuable.

Um...

An average price -

and I haven't seen, obviously, the others in the collection -

-would be £2,000 to £3,000 each.

-That's lovely.

So you're looking at £30,000 or something like that for the set.

-Yes.

-Now, I'm not suggesting you sell them.

-No, we don't intend to sell them.

-Good, I'm glad to hear that.

Thank you very much.

So, if there's two things that the Welsh are extremely famous for,

firstly, it's rugby, and second, it's singing.

Obviously, we have a male voice choir here -

very handsome they are, too.

What's their story?

Well, the man in the middle here is my great-grandfather,

William Sargent.

His brother was also in the choir

and the entire choir chose to tour the United States of America

several times in the 1900s.

And I see it says in this photograph here,

"White House, May 23rd 1913."

So...the president at the time would've been Wilson,

-is that correct?

-Yes, Woodrow Wilson.

-And they went and actually played at the White House.

-Yes.

And you have a programme here of a farewell concert.

Was that to raise funds to go on the first tour of the States?

Yes, it was. Um, they did two concerts, two farewell concerts.

The first one was not received well because of the price of the tickets,

so they did a second one at a slightly cheaper price.

So then everyone could attend to help raise money.

They were obviously enormously famous, locally.

And you have a record here from Columbia Records,

it's of the March of the Men of Harlech.

Was this something they actually recorded

whilst they were in America?

As far as I know, they recorded three records while they were in America,

which wasn't a cheap thing to do.

I've managed to collect two of them.

As far as I know, they were just for commemorative purposes.

-They weren't sold.

-They weren't commercially sold.

-Yes.

Am I right in thinking there's a connection

with the Lusitania?

Yes - um, on their third tour,

some of their choir members had become ill with the flu,

so they had stayed back in New York and nine were on the Lusitania

when she went down.

-Three were lost in total.

-Really? And what about your grandfather?

My grandfather was one of the ones with flu, so...

-Really? Oh, my goodness, wow!

-Lucky he stayed back.

With regards to price, we have to mention prices.

Obviously, it's really rather relevant to you

because it's your family and it's local history.

What sort of price could you put on it? I don't know.

Maybe £100 to £200, perhaps?

-Obviously, that's not the issue, here.

-No.

And I understand you've brought us an original recording

-which features your uncle.

-Yes.

My uncle Frank sings the Welsh national anthem.

He's the solo tenor.

# ..enwogion o fri

# Ei gwrol ryfelwyr

# Gwladgarwyr tra mad

# Dros ryddid gollasant eu gwaed. #

Well, there's a photograph in this album

which shows two tiny little figures in the distance

and underneath the photographs, it says,

"Somewhere in the Western desert

"receiving MC ribbon from Field Marshall Montgomery."

-That's right.

-One of these figures is Montgomery.

-Yes.

-Who's the other one?

-Me.

-You?

Yes.

And why were you receiving the MC, the Military Cross?

Because I'd cut two pathways through a minefield at Alamein

under mortar fire for the tanks to go in and attack.

And you were a mine specialist, were you?

I suppose I knew as much about mines as anybody else did.

And the photograph on this side, is that of you?

Yes - that's me on my honeymoon.

-Oh!

-With my wife and my mother and father.

Right. Now, here is something that I'm puzzled by,

because it's an empty cigarette packet.

But what is interesting is, underneath that, is written,

"Received with thanks

"from Field Marshall Rommel."

That's right. Well...I was doing raids on the French coast

to look at the defences for D-Day.

-This isn't anything to do with Operation Tarbrush, is it?

-Yes.

This was a very secret operation to check defences

a couple of weeks before D-Day.

That's right. I was going to say.

What was thought to be an unknown mine

which would have been underwater at high tide

so that the landing craft coming in lowering its door would get

blown up, so the D-Day planners wanted to know what this was.

Funny enough, I found out that all it was

was a block of wood with a German teller mine on top.

An anti-tank mine on top?

An anti-tank mine on top!

-But they weren't waterproof.

-I didn't have time to check that.

LAUGHTER

I said, "Great, we can handle this."

So how many were in your team?

Just myself and the Commando officer, George Lane.

-He was captured. So, were you captured at the same time?

-Yes.

-On that raid?

-Yes.

-And what happened to you?

I was taken to a French chateau, Chateau La Roche-Guyon and

shown into a big room, and standing there was Field Marshal Rommel.

And looking out of the window was Field Marshal von Rundstedt.

Two of the most important officers,

high-ranking officers in that part of the theatre at the time.

-That's right.

-I can't believe it.

-Ha-ha!

I couldn't believe it at the time!

But what rank were you? Were you a senior officer?

I was a lieutenant, just a lieutenant,

and I asked the German officer who was acting as interpreter,

why was I, a mere lieutenant,

brought to see the Field Marshal Rommel

and Field Marshal von Rundstedt?

And his reply was, "Well, we know that D-Day is pretty soon.

"So you are a very important prisoner."

They asked me two questions.

He said, "Was I an engineer officer?"

Well, I was, actually. But I reminded him of the Geneva Convention.

I could only give him my rank, name and number.

And then he said, "Is there anything that you require?"

So I said, "Yes. I'd like a pint of beer..."

LAUGHTER

"I'd like a packet of cigarettes, and I'd like a good meal, please!"

And I was served in his mess

and on the table was a stein of beer,

and there was a packet of cigarettes.

Not this packet?

-That is the empty packet.

-Good grief.

-Which I kept.

As a matter of interest, you've brought the miniatures with you.

Do you have a full-sized medals?

-I have the full-sized medals.

-You do.

I think that the medal group plus the story, plus the objects you have

are going to be worth somewhere in the region of £7,000 to £10,000.

Not for sale!

LAUGHTER

Good for you.

Not for sale!

APPLAUSE

The first thing I'm going to say to you about this picture is that

I can only see 50% of it.

Because it's under this dreadful nonreflective glass which was

-put in in the 1960s.

-Not guilty.

-You are not guilty?

-My father.

I am glad to hear you say that.

Because, I am going to take it out.

And we are just going to see how much difference this makes.

And that is the difference.

That is the classic thing that happens when you take them

out of 1960s nonreflective glass.

I've never seen it without that.

The blues especially are far more brilliant.

-And it is a 50% improvement.

-Yes.

Now, let's look at the watercolour.

Bottom right, monogram "EL".

Well, I know who that is straightaway, Edward Lear.

-And do you know where the view is?

-San Remo.

And how do you know that?

Well, in 1850, thereabouts, my great-grandmother contracted TB.

And therefore my great-grandfather at the time gave up his job.

I think he was a teacher in Rugby.

And took his wife, my great-grandmother,

and their two sons out to San Remo,

because that was thought it would be better for her health.

Sadly, she didn't live all that much longer,

but he settled down at San Remo and, several years after,

he had his house in this position, I think this is from the garden,

Edward Lear came along and built a house next door.

And, because of Edward Lear being obviously childless,

he was very fond of my then-grandfather and great-uncle.

And so, for ten years, they lived very close to him.

And it was sort of quite a very paternalistic relationship.

That is fantastic.

So you've got a picture here of your ancestors in the garden

painted by Edward Lear.

You're very lucky.

I mean, Lear is a major figure in the 19th century,

as a watercolourist, the Book Of Nonsense he wrote, the poems.

I mean, he is so famous,

he even taught Queen Victoria to paint in the 1840s.

And he travelled widely.

And he stayed in San Remo and lived there because he, also,

had health issues. And was very happy there. And he died in 1888.

It is a classic one by him.

And I just love the blues here.

The Mediterranean blues shining through, the wonderful,

typical trees bending over.

It's a joy, it's an absolute joy.

And it's heightened with white, as you can see,

because the background's slightly faded.

But, probably, it could be cleaned.

And so that's why the whites stick out.

But it's a great picture.

And very desirable.

And Lear, today, is highly collected.

I think that the story, and it's such a personal one, would

make in auction, probably somewhere in the region of £8,000 to £12,000.

Oh, well!

Thank you very much indeed!

-You brought me a donkey.

-Yes, I have, yes.

Which might be a rather unusual name, you would think,

for this table/bookcase.

But, if you look at it,

it's based on the four-legged beast of burden with two panniers

on the side, holding books, and that's how it got its name.

-OK.

-Is it something you've bought?

No, this is something that my gran has bought from Belfast,

which she brought back in the '60s.

And it's been in her house ever since.

-And she lives nearby now in Barry.

-I see.

Because this is exactly the sort of thing

a sort of trendy young thing like you might buy

and I wondered whether you had bought this

-for your modernist loft apartment or something.

-I'm only 19.

I haven't got that amount of money yet.

Or responsibility, for that matter.

-Do you like it?

-I do, yeah. I love the lines, the clean lines

and the way that it sort of sits with the sort of pannier effect.

Well, those clean lines are really important.

If you like, I hate the term, but it's an icon of modernism.

It was designed in 1939 by a modernist architect called

Egon Reiss, and it was produced by a company called Isokon.

The very first model that he designed was much more curvy,

-and it was released literally just before the war broke out.

-OK.

And, as a result of that, production completely ceased.

In 1963, the company was revived and this was revived as well.

Redesigned, so the piece you're looking at here in this shape

dates from the 1960s or '70s.

You might have noticed that the shelves on the side are quite small.

The original design caught the eye of Allen Lane,

who was the publisher at Penguin.

So this became known as the Penguin Donkey,

to put his little orange paperback books inside.

And he, just before the war, sort of promoted it with huge amounts

of leaflets in books that he sold, so it's always been known as that.

And I suppose that sort of retro, vintage style,

if you stack those fantastic orange- jacketed paperbacks inside here,

-it really does look rather smart.

-Yes.

-Does your grandmother use it?

-She does.

She uses the middle bit to keep magazines in

and the outer bits as a table, yeah.

As I say, this is exactly the sort of thing that trendy young people

are buying and, for that reason, they keep their value very well.

-You can buy a new one, I believe, for around £600.

-Wow!

So, a piece like this from the 1960s and '70s,

if you were to sell this at auction,

you would probably get somewhere in the region of £300 to £400.

-Wow! That's fantastic!

-It's a super thing.

-Wow, yeah.

My son was Status Quo mad.

Absolutely Status Quo mad.

Every time they brought, in the old days,

it was records they brought out.

I remember those!

CDs came later!

And at the time, we had to go out and buy it for him,

because he was disabled, he's in a wheelchair.

He had an accident at 18.

-Right, what sort of accident?

-Motorbike accident.

-Paralysed from the chest down.

-Right, OK.

-No feeling from here down.

-So he didn't have the use of his limbs?

-Well, he could move his arms.

But he couldn't move his fingers, no use of his fingers.

Right, OK. That's a sad story.

So, what's the connection with the tapestry, though?

-He was told he wasn't capable of doing anything...

-Right.

-And he didn't, for five years.

-Right.

After five years, he started doing a few things - tapestry was one thing.

Every time we walked through my kitchen, his wheelchair

was at my kitchen table, he would say, "Thread me a few needles".

-Right.

-He used his teeth to push this through the tapestry

-and he would turn the whole frame over - it was on a swing.

-Yes.

-He'd pull it through with his teeth.

-That is unbelievable.

Each stitch was pulled through with his teeth.

So your son executed this entire tapestry with his teeth?

Obviously, I can see that it lists all the albums, song titles,

and it's quite clearly dated.

I think what would be fantastic would be

if Status Quo actually got to know about this, as well.

I think they would be absolutely massively impressed

-by the devotion of a fan...

-Yes.

-..who went to this kind of trouble.

I presume your son passed away?

Yes, he had his accident when he was 18

and he died when he was 39.

Right, OK. I see you have a photograph of him there.

-Yes.

-Let's have a look at that.

He looks to be a happy soul.

Oh, he was a happy boy, yes, he was.

He never finished it, did he?

-I can see that it's not been finished.

-No, it was never finished.

Lots of people have asked me if they could finish it for me and I said no.

It's not finished because he died.

It was only after he died that I actually looked at the titles,

and there's only once - he never repeated a title,

but he did, towards the end.

The title was, So Ends Another Life.

-And I can see that final line at the bottom...

-So he knew.

-What was your son's name?

-Colin Thomas Booth.

Colin Thomas Booth.

I have to say, I'm so highly moved, it's all I can do to carry on,

to be honest with you.

The fact that you've come here today and talked to me about this

I think is wonderful.

It's testament to his achievement, producing something like this,

-which I think is absolutely incredible.

-Yes.

This thing is priceless. I think it's an amazing thing.

I think also that you've been very courageous to come

and talk about it, so thank you very much.

Thank you.

-That's excellent, thank you.

-APPLAUSE

MUSIC: So Ends Another Life by Status Quo

# And so ends another life

# To let this world go on... #

She really has the most beautiful, serene expression, doesn't she?

She does, yes, she's beautiful.

She's got wonderful downcast eyes and she is really

an object of contemplation and when you're at a roadshow

and there are thousands of people here, she's a perfect contrast.

-Relaxed, isn't she?

-She's lovely.

-Do you know who she is?

-No, I don't.

She's a Buddhist deity, the goddess of mercy.

If she was Chinese, she would be called Guanyin,

if she's Japanese, she would be called Kannon.

Um... She has a number of different roles.

Goddess of mercy is the usual one, the protector of fishermen is one...

But very often, she's also associated

with the Taoist immortals,

so she represents long life.

Well, there you are, you see.

My grandfather was a sea captain on the clippers in the days of sail

and it was he who brought this back.

So that's the connection with the sea.

So she was a protector of fishermen.

This particular figure is a Japanese bronze, it's not a Chinese one.

-I love this bit, here. The Lotus.

-The leaf.

-It's a lotus leaf, which is a symbol of purity.

-Yes.

She's just a lovely contemplative object,

and sitting on this rock work which has been so beautifully made.

This one dates from the Meiji period, which is 1868 to 1912,

so second half of the 19th century.

Well, she was brought back about...

In the 1880s.

-Mm. So that fits very well.

-Yes.

There was probably a maker's mark on the base - yes,

we have a three-character maker's mark from the workshop.

She's just a lovely thing to see. I like her very much indeed.

I do, too.

As an object of contemplation.

When it comes to the value, there are some issues.

The lotus leaf here is loose, so it needs a little bit of repair.

The Japanese market is not particularly strong

at the moment, but I think if you put that into auction

today, it would probably be in the region of £800, maybe 1,000.

Well done.

But I wouldn't sell it!

-I think that's very, very little for an object so beautiful.

-Yes, yes.

Now, I've seen people with framed football shirts, of course,

I've never seen a framed pair of trousers

brought along to the Antiques Roadshow and these belonged to

that famous son of Wales, Dylan Thomas, the famous poet.

How did you come by these trousers?

My father was an historian and every year he used to go to Laugharne.

And one year, probably over 40 years ago,

we met an old lady and my father started talking to her and

she said she was Dylan's housekeeper or had been his housekeeper.

My father asked if she had anything she wanted to sell of Dylan's...

-He was a big fan of his?

-Yes.

She said she had an old suit that she had stuffed into the trap door

of the attic to stop the draft coming through, so off she went.

Came back, but she didn't have the jacket, just the trousers

and my father asked her how she could say they were Dylan's trousers

and she said they had the Boathouse Laundry number M66 on them.

-What's the Boathouse Laundry?

-The Chinese laundry in Carmarthen.

You say it was a suit, do you know what happened to the jacket?

Yes, the lady said that she buried her puppy in the jacket

-over 50 years ago.

-This is the daughter of the housekeeper?

-Yes!

-I don't think you'd want that now, would you?

-I don't think so!

Do you know, I've been looking at figures like these since 1971.

That's when I started in the business.

One of the very first marks I learned to recognise was

a salmon pink triangle.

When I see figures like this, I hesitate,

because there are lots of optional makers,

so the first thing I've got to do is make sure I'm looking at...

Let me... I'm not very good at grabbing women!

But let's have a look at that mark.

There it is - let me twist it round like that.

It says Royal Dux Bohemia.

Today, we're probably talking about the Czech Republic.

Tell me a little bit about where they've been living.

Well, in my youth,

they just lived in the house that belonged to my great-grandmother.

-And you've brought along a photograph today.

-Yes.

Tell me who that lady is.

That's Sarah Foster, and that's my great-grandmother.

When do you reckon that photograph was taken?

The 1920s, maybe?

But we look over here, we've got...

Is it the gentlemen I've got over here?

Yes, they're both on there.

So what is interesting, we see these figures now in the context of time.

-Because they've passed through other people's lifetimes.

-Yes.

The remarkable thing is they've obviously been loved,

-they've been looked after...

-Oh, yes...

..because they're in absolutely lovely condition.

These come under the heading of Victoriana, although

they could date to around 1910,

but they are beautifully modelled.

They're well executed, they've got extremely realistic flesh tones.

The real trick is in this sort of matt or vellum type glaze,

which works really well on realistic facial detail.

And then, they take this green and dust it with a little bit of gilt.

This actually, by the light of candle,

would probably twinkle in the evening.

These sort of figures, after the war,

nobody wanted them.

Victoriana was out and then in come the 1960s and Victoriana is in and

as we're talking now, Victoriana is, as the youngster said, "so not now".

That's right!

So, in today's market, if I was to want to go out

and buy these today, because they're big and because they're still

together - this is a marriage obviously made in heaven -

then the chances are,

I'd probably be asked to pay about £1,500.

Yes. Whatever.

"Whatever?"

Yes! Sounds fine.

I don't really want to sell them, I suppose they'd be passed on to...

Well, to my girls, if they want them. They probably...

I don't know, your children never seem to want things, really, do they?

Sunshine, diamonds, platinum.

A magnificent jewel, worn in this very house,

but who actually wore it?

My great, great aunt, who was born Lady Katherine Carnegie

and married the first Viscount Tredegar and she left it

to my grandmother, who brought me up,

who was really like my mother.

And then I got it when I was about 22

and have worn it ever since at every possible occasion -

-any black tie or white tie or wedding.

-Yes.

What do you feel like when you wear it? Is it like a glass of champagne?

It's always admired by everybody.

I get so many compliments about it.

Cos it's so unusual.

It is unusual and the design is the point I think to focus on,

-with these wings.

-I've always thought they were angels' wings.

-Yes.

I think they're NOT actually angels' wings, these are Eros wings,

-the wings of love, frankly!

-Oh, even better!

Yes! And they appear constantly in jewellery

and when they're set with diamonds, it's forever love.

So this is a very personal gift and it might have marked a wedding or...

-Sadly, that, I don't know.

-No.

-Could it be as early as the 1890s when she got married?

-It could be.

I'd like to think it was a little later than that,

probably 1910, something of that nature.

Tell me about the pearl at the end. What's the story?

The pearl used to be much bigger, a beautiful big drop pearl.

Unfortunately, one day,

shutting it in our safe - in our wall safe, I crunched the door.

Crunched the pearl and it shattered.

We were quite young marrieds at the time

and couldn't afford anything bigger than this.

But the metaphor remains, because

the pearl is born of the shell

and the sea and is therefore one of the attributes of Venus,

so we've got the wings of love set with diamonds, forever love...

It is actually exactly the sort of jewellery that everybody

wants today.

They're not enormous diamonds - some of them are rose-cut diamonds,

so it's not a flashy object, and it's a very poetic object.

It's superbly made, probably by one of the great jewellers.

You don't know who, I suppose?

I can't guess at the moment, but it might be an English

jeweller like Garrard, for instance, who were very prominent at the time.

I have to tell you that the accident with the pearl is a problem.

We have to face facts.

But I'm going to tell you how much the necklace is worth as it is now.

Um...

£30,000.

You're joking! Really?

I thought you were going to say five!

That's what I had in mind.

Well, that's a surprise, yes!

The worst surprise is that the single pearl hanging from there,

if it was the size you've described in comparison to the necklace,

might have been worth £30,000.

-No, because I still wouldn't have wanted to sell it!

-No.

But still, when I'm in my old people's home

and if I really need it... Thank you!

Well, our day here at the Antiques Roadshow is drawing to a close

and as usual, we've seen lots of dogs, but that's as nothing

compared to the menagerie that used to be here

with the last Lord that lived at Tredegar.

He had quite a menagerie - Somerset, the boxing kangaroo,

Alice the honey bear...

And when dinner parties got a bit tedious,

he let loose Bimbo the baboon. What a guy!

From the Antiques Roadshow at Tredegar house, bye-bye.