Balmoral 2 Antiques Roadshow

Today, the Roadshow's making a return visit to Balmoral Castle.

Nestled in the mountains of the Cairngorms,

this has to be the highest location we've ever visited.

As the Highland home of the Royal Family,

living here has meant they've needed a whole range of historic vehicles.

To get round an estate that's so big and mountainous,

the Royal Family took to four-wheel drive very early on

and this Land Rover was the first of its kind when the Queen

and Prince Philip snapped it up in 1953.

Sold in 1966, it sat unused

and unloved in the back of a local garage,

until Prince Charles stumbled on it in 2010

and urged its new owners to restore it to pristine condition.

George VI preferred this Daimler.

He brought it up to Balmoral for state duties, but you wouldn't

have seen her chugging up the roads from England to Scotland though.

Oh, no. This stately lady was brought to and from Balmoral by train.

But of all the vehicles at Balmoral, I think

my favourite has to be this little beauty.

It's a 1920s Citroen CV electric car that was given to the Queen

and Princess Margaret when they were young.

And as this rarely seen footage shows,

when Prince Charles took over the wheel in 1953, he

and Princess Anne loved to drive it round the lawns at Balmoral Castle.

Today, it's the turn of our Highland visitors to make their way

round the lawns, as they bring their treasures to our specialists.

Well, this is such a pretty bottle.

It's a lovely shape, it's in really good nick.

And Mergie is the strangest seal

and I think you know exactly what this is all about.

I do. We moved to Mergie House in March.

That was a house that we had bought.

The records go back to 1590, it might even have been there before.

And actually, this bottle has been through the wars

because we actually dug it up in the garden.

-What? With a spade?

-No, with an 18 tonne digger.

And the guy who was operating the digger,

we were building a foundation for a shed for my husband's Clydesdale

horses, which he breeds, and the guy who was operating the digger spotted

it, jumped out, we all went and had a look and we couldn't believe it.

-We had two bottles.

-Well, I think that the...

Literally the scars of that action are clear to see.

So the house dates from 16th century at least.

Well, the bottles don't, but the evolution of the bottle was

so specific and so gradual that we can actually hang specific

-decades on and this one dates from the 1740s.

-Wow.

And the house clearly had its name at that date,

but you bought your own bottles, had them

sealed to make sure you got your good bottles back from the merchant.

That's the way it worked.

How much did the digger cost?

How much did you pay for the digger over the course of those works?

Oh, well, it was £30 an hour or something.

I tell you, I mean,

the guy has just saved you a fortune cos these are £1,000 each.

-Oh, my goodness!

-So, you got...

-You probably got foundations built for nothing!

-Probably.

-Pretty good!

Pretty good foundations to build on.

Pretty good. I'd better buy him a bottle of whisky.

-I think you'd better.

-Yeah.

-Or a bottle of wine.

-Yeah.

These are really intriguing plates. Um... Where did you get them?

They came from my mother's side.

My grandmother was the head housekeeper for Princess Alexandra,

-who was the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

-That's right.

She worked in London and she used to travel to Mar Lodge,

up beside Braemar, regularly with the court.

So, when she travelled up there, it was a bit of a romantic story,

she fell in love with the head gamekeeper up there.

So they ended up getting married and Princess Alexandra gave these

pair of plates as a wedding gift to Fred and Mary in 1915.

And what else do you know about them?

My mother said they came from the Far East somewhere,

but never looked in to finding out what the coat of arms on there

or what the inscriptions meant on the front or the back,

so we know very little about them or their origin.

Well, they are very intriguing plates. The porcelain is Chinese

and they've got these European armorials

painted on the fronts of them,

but Chinese characters on armorial plates are very, very unusual.

If we turn one over, we've got two more lines of Chinese characters.

This line, particularly, helps me enormously.

The first three characters say it's from the 35th year of the cycle.

That'll be the cycle of when the Chinese Emperor came to the throne.

This particular emperor would have been the Emperor Qianlong,

who came to the throne in 1736, so we've got a date for these.

They date from 1770.

Underneath here, it's a very curious inscription.

It doesn't actually mean anything.

It's an attempt at a Chinese phonetic

translation of a European name.

Lots of Europeans have their names transcribed into Chinese

and they end up with all sorts of strange things.

My surname is nothing like Axford, which is what it is.

This one is a translation of the name Gongard, but it's inconclusive.

It's a known service, this,

but no-one knows whose the arms actually are.

So it's supposed to be a French coat of arms,

although some people think it might be Scandinavian.

Nobody knows.

-What are we looking at? £5,000? £6,000?

-Wow!

NERVOUS LAUGHTER

I maybe thought a couple of hundred, but not in the thousands.

-Wow.

-They're very unusual things. Terrific to see.

Really enjoyed looking at these.

-LAUGHTER

-Your plate, sir.

-Thank you!

This is one of my absolute passions, my main speciality in furniture.

I love all furniture, but this is my favourite period.

-Do you know what period it is?

-I don't, I'm afraid.

You don't? How long have you had it?

I've only had it for about four months.

I've recently moved into an Edinburgh townhouse and I was

given it by a very dear friend of mine as a housewarming gift.

-A housewarming gift?!

-Yes.

-Can I come and live in Edinburgh, please?

-Absolutely.

-That's amazing!

And you've come all the way from Edinburgh with this to show

-it at Balmoral.

-I have indeed.

-How far is that?

-Well, it took about two hours.

-Thank you very much for coming in.

I love this. You really don't know where it's from?

I have an idea that it's elaborate, it looks French to me.

-Apart from that, I know nothing.

-We're getting there.

OK, that's right. 100% right. So what sort of date?

I'm going to milk this out of you, get this out of you. Have a go.

-Um... It looks like one of the Louis, possibly?

-OK, OK.

It sort of reminds me of the elaborateness of Versailles.

You don't need me, do you? What am I doing here?

It's Louis XV style and the style is the word I'm underlining,

so it's actually copying or imitating what

they thought the Louis XV style would be.

This would be 1740, 1750.

If it was an 18th century piece.

But it's a romanticised copy of about 1900.

Made in Paris. Meuble de haute luxe. so it is one of the really top makers,

one of the best Paris makers. And I'm 99.9% sure I know who made it.

-Oh, wow.

-It is the 0.01% which is worrying me.

It is either by one of my favourite makers called Francois Linke,

who was a Czech maker,

who walked to Paris in 1872 and became famous in Paris, or more

likely one of his foreman, one of his workmen, called Charles, or "Charl", Alix. A-L-I-X.

In 1900. And Alix was working with Linke,

and then moved away for his own workshops.

And it is one of the two of them. My suspicion is it is Charles Alix.

Very rare, very unusual. Can I just spend one minute looking at it?

This sunray here, that veneer is pointing into the middle,

into the centre.

That reminds you of a target, perhaps.

That target is a "target", which is Cupid's arrow being shot into your heart.

This romanticised rococo theory about love, elegance, happiness,

and this is Cupid shooting his arrow into the target, and if he gets you,

you are in trouble, you fall in love.

This is veneered, it is veneered in satine,

very thin veneers of about 1.5 to 2 millimetres. It is just great.

How they make these things and keep them going for 120, 130 years,

and all on this curved shape, and the veneer hasn't moved very much.

And look at that.

Just glorious.

Almost as it was made, 120 years old, by a really great maker.

I like this piece. So, you're given it four...

Given it! I can't believe that "given it". ..four months ago.

-Well, you've got to put it on your house insurance.

-OK.

In an antiques shop today, five...

£5,000-£6,000.

Gosh.

Wow.

I ought to move house more often.

LAUGHTER

It's a Brazilian gaucho, as far as I know.

And he's very heavy.

This is carved by a distant cousin of mine, probably about 100 years ago.

Not, I may say, the most comfortable of chairs to sit in, but it looks good.

HE LAUGHS

My great-grandfather bought it new in the spring of 1903.

And it has been in the family ever since.

This photograph shows the car,

allegedly, on the Ballachulish Ferry,

which in those days was just a dirty great rowing boat.

Well, here we are in the Highlands, and I would have expected

to see more of views of Highland cattle, or something like that.

But here we have an artist that seems to have gone

round the world, exploring various things.

And not with a Scottish name, Edoardo De Martino.

How did they end up in your house?

From what I know, I don't know much, the Martinos

came out of a castle that was dismantled in the 1920s.

-Was it your castle? Your family castle?

-No, no.

-It was my husband's family's castle.

-OK, OK.

But they'd lost their money in the 1920s, and it was dismantled.

-Sold for stone, unfortunately.

-I wouldn't be working here otherwise.

-SHE LAUGHS

So the Martinos were actually given to the family because Martino

fell in love with my husband's great-grandmother's sister.

-Brilliant.

-And so he gifted these to...

-To her?

-Yes. Angelina Maxwell.

And are they dedicated to her?

There just happens to be an inscription on the back of these.

-On the back?

-Yes.

-Undying love and all that?

-Yes.

-"To my darling Angelina, from your old friends."

-Oh! Very interesting.

God, it is very romantic.

So, some years ago, I did a bit of research on De Martino

because I also own a little drawing. And he certainly travelled

all over the world, on official tours, for Queen Victoria.

So it's a lovely connection with Balmoral behind us.

And he painted the end of the 19th century,

so I guess they're all dated from around that time. Let's have a look.

So the first one we have...

-Has he painted this from a ship or something? He could well have done.

-I would imagine so, yes.

But he's got it right, hasn't he? I love the storm brewing.

But this is one that also fascinates me.

Of the polar bears here. And it is clearly signed in the bottom left-hand corner.

So I think he travelled all over, and really recorded expeditions

and various voyages of interesting people.

-Here, I think it is actually the best one.

-I love it.

And I absolutely love this. I mean, a view of Glasgow.

It is wonderfully dirty. It needs a clean.

But it sort of sums up my view of the sort of industry that is going on

in the dockyards here. And I think he has really captured it.

I think these three, they show three very different parts of his life.

Value.

-Have you thought about value?

-Well, to the family, I think quite a lot,

because of the story behind them. But I have no idea.

-Yeah. I think this one is probably about £500.

-OK.

It's very charming, but perhaps not the most interesting.

I love the polar bears. But that's only on watercolour.

But polar bears always saleable, £500-£700, I would say.

And finally, for the lovely view of Glasgow, I think we are

looking at around £1,500. So 1,500,

2,000, 2,500, possibly even £3,000.

Great. Thank you very much.

I am intrigued by the romantic angle.

-Me, too. Me, too.

-LAUGHTER

So has this somewhat impressive glass vase been gracing

-the sideboard in your home for many a year?

-Sadly not.

About two weeks ago, I decided finally we had to clear

out the old butler's room at the very top of the tower of the house.

And lo and behold, in the back of an old chest...

my father discovered this,

realised it wasn't a doorstop

and took it downstairs immediately, started dusting it.

Found Lalique on the bottom and thought, "What have we got here?"

Two things you said there gets the mind boggling.

One is "butler's room", and of course the other one is...

-Did you say turret or...

-I said turret, yes.

-Rather like the one we've got behind here.

-Rather like that one.

Yes, indeed. We were doing some roof repairs,

-when we came across this item.

-Excellent.

Well, do you know, when I come to Scotland, I'm

something of a magnet for two things. The first is midges.

But the second, believe it or not, the second is Lalique glass.

In fact, I think one of the most expensive things I've found on this programme

was at Dumfries House. And it was a Lalique vase.

Now, don't start getting your hopes up too high when I say that to you.

So this vase has got a name, they've all got names.

And this one is called Pierrefonds.

You can get it in sort of clear and frosted glass,

-or you can get it in this colour, which is always referred to as pale amber.

-Pale amber.

And it goes without saying that with Lalique glass,

coloured Lalique is always at a premium.

And this vase, it is more a piece of sculpture.

Because if you look at the actual handles,

they are very stylised bar branches. Date wise,

1926 this one.

So this is the great age of Art Deco. This was a time when Rene Lalique

was really at his peak. And I can assure you that if you wanted

to buy that way back then, it would have cost quite serious money.

So the question is, is it worth serious money today?

It is all relevant, you see, because I am little bit worried about the house, with the turret

and the butler's, you know, and expectations.

But all I can tell you is that I know for a fact, if I wanted

to go and replace that today, I wouldn't be able to do if for less,

-for less than £5,000.

-Crikey. Yes.

So it was worth repairing the roof of the house, which is what we've done?

But more importantly, nobody in your family was daft enough

-to use it as a doorstop.

-No.

The tip of the iceberg of what I can see is the most incredible

collection of memorabilia to do with Maria Callas,

one of the greatest divas of the 20th century.

And this particular picture of over here, I have to remark,

I've never seen it before.

Callas is laughing, smiling, with a wonderful inscription to Robert.

-And who is the man with her?

-That's me.

-That's you. And you are Robert...

-Sutherland.

-Robert Sutherland.

So this poster here is an evening with Maria Callas

and Giuseppe di Stefano, with Robert Sutherland at the piano.

-So that was you.

-That was me.

-So you were her accompanist?

-Yes.

-For how long?

-We had a tour that lasted nearly a year and a half.

She had heard me play in London somewhere,

and when she was looking for a pianist for the tour,

my name was mentioned, so she said, "Oh, I will give him a try."

Yes. So we have here some wonderful pieces that... These presumably

all came from her library.

Yes, this is music from the library that we used.

We've got one nice signed piece by Puccini here.

"O Mio Babbino Caro."

-Yes. That was the only encore she ever sang.

-And how does that go?

-Oh, everyone knows that.

-Do they?

-That's...

# O mio babbino caro... #

HE HUMS MELODY

Well, everybody knows this!

Thank you very much. You've been a great sport!

-It's been signed, and that's lovely.

-Yes.

And this Madame Butterfly here, I noticed, at the end,

her own handwriting.

How it's going to be done, how it's going to be performed,

because you can hear many singers sing, O Mio Babbino Caro.

As you say, it's a beautiful tune, and they all sang it beautifully,

but Maria Callas acted it.

She acted it as though she was in the role of the opera.

This was a woman who just lived opera.

She would get up in the middle of the night and phone the producer

at 3am to talk about a move in an opera and so on, you know?

-It was so important to her.

-But she was actually well-behaved with you?

You know, there are times when, if you are in a crisis with somebody,

it can either bring you closer together or else push you apart,

but there were two crises early in our association

and I must have done the right thing!

Because we became closer.

-And I could talk to her just like a friend.

-That's splendid.

Well, I've got to put some value on this. This is virtually impossible.

You've got too much!

Oh, I've got much more at home!

Yes, I know, as I say, the tip of the iceberg here!

A fine photograph of Maria Callas.

But, I suppose if that came on the market, it would be worth

somewhere in the region of £1,000.

This one over here, which, with so many inscriptions,

"to my dear Robert, please come back very soon", "to Robert",

signed by both Callas and Di Stefano.

£2,000.

A lovely signed photograph. This one is a little bit faded.

-Yes, unfortunately.

-But Callas collectors don't mind, particularly.

Another £1,500 there. And an envelope. These are quite rare.

She said to me one day, "Do you know, Robert,

"some of my mail goes amiss.

"Never reaches the person I sent it to."

I said, "Well, Maria,

"you have signed your autograph on the back of the envelope!"

Of course, people steal it! Yes! Absolutely.

Well, just a few things that we have on this table here.

We've got, what, £3,000, £4,000 worth?

-And that's just the tip.

-Well, as they say on the Antiques Roadshows,

"I'm not going to sell them!"

LAUGHTER

# O mio babbino caro

# Mi piace, e bello, bello

# Vo'andare in Porta Rossa

# A comperar l'anello... #

Three very different pieces from three very different periods.

How did they end up with you?

I had an aunt, 91, died in 2012, and they were in her house.

-That has been on the mantelpiece ever since I can remember.

-Uh-huh.

The other two I knew to be in the house, and I couldn't find them.

I eventually found them when I got home in a work box,

and they were all wrapped up.

I think she was frightened that somebody was going to pinch them,

which made me think they might be worth something.

Ah! Well, let's find out, shall we? Ha-ha!

The cream jug. That is a classic, early George III shape and form.

It's embossed with rustic scenes, there's a milkmaid milking a cow.

It's dated 1777, so it's a good age.

The piece in the middle is very Scottish in character.

This is called a piggin. Originally they were made for cream.

It seems to have some lines of poetry,

which I think might be by Rabbie Burns.

Would you like to read it for me, because I'm certainly not

going to embarrass everyone by doing it myself?

"Some hae meat and canna eat

"And some wad eat that want it

"But we hae meat, an' we can eat

"Sae let the Lord be thankit."

Absolutely brilliant.

I think that added a few pounds to its value already!

HE LAUGHS

And this one is made by a very good firm

called Hamilton & Inches, in 1911.

And finally, we come to the rather dirty,

grubby owl that stood on the mantelpiece.

Yes!

This actually is quite an interesting piece.

It's fully marked, made by a very, very good firm,

the firm of Charles and George Fox,

and got a date letter for 1855.

-Now, do you know what it is, what it's used for?

-No.

It's not quite in its original form.

Because the mouse which was attached to the beak

-was actually the end of the mustard spoon.

-Ah!

-And it's a mustard pot.

-Mustard.

And normally, it sat loose,

so you just scooped the mustard up with the mouse-ended spoon.

Now, I suppose we ought to have a talk about values as well.

The cream jug is a nice one.

It's quite a collectable piece.

Not of enormous value. Probably £120-£150.

The piggin is much heavier, by one of the best firms in Scotland.

I would think that's £400-£500, possibly even a bit more.

But the owl is something a bit different.

And quite a sought-after object.

It may look very sad, but it's by a great firm,

it's quite rare object and because of that, £2,000.

Goodness!

SHE LAUGHS

That poor wee owl!

She hid the wrong things!

She did, didn't she?!

It's not a day here at the Roadshow for me

if I don't get to see some of this stuff, really, is it?

I mean, it's a lovely little set, cracking little set.

So, where did you get it?

Charity shop. '70s, early '70s. Just passing the window and I saw it,

and I says, "I quite like that", so I bought it. £1 and 10 shillings.

-No idea who it was by?

-No.

So you didn't know it was Clarice Cliff?

No, I just liked the look of it.

I can sort of see it, if that was in the shop window, you're going

to just fall in love with it, aren't you?

I mean, it's so bold, it's so bright.

And anyone who knows me knows how I love this stuff.

For 30 years, I've been looking at this stuff.

Just to give you a bit of background,

it's a conical coffee set.

That's the shape of it, designed by Clarice Cliff.

The shape came in about 1930-31. The pattern is called Orange Chintz.

She did it in three colourways, she did it in Blue Chintz,

which is the most common.

Orange Chintz, which is this one,

and then also a rarer colourway which is Green Chintz.

-You don't see that very often.

-Yeah.

-Where's the coffee pot?

Well, that's a good question. I'm not very sure. I did have it.

But I think moving houses and maybe flitting,

it's just gone somewhere. I don't know.

-You're joking!

-No.

-You've lost it?

I have lost it. I haven't got a clue where it is.

You do need to find it. You've kept the six cups together,

so that is something, isn't it?

-Just.

-What do you mean, "just"?

Well, at one point, it got plastered behind a wall.

When alcoves went out of fashion

and this cup was sitting right at the very end,

and then a few years later, alcoves came back in,

so we got it taken back out and here was the Clarice Cliff cup.

-I spent about five, six years, blaming my kids for breaking it.

-No!

So you actually plastered it away?

-Yeah.

-Lordy, what are you pair like?!

OK, let's go with what we got on the table.

You got six cups and saucers, the cream and sugar.

Today, that, as a little group, £1 and ten shillings purchase?

-£800-£1,000 today.

-All right, that's OK. That's all right, good profit!

Can you do me a favour? Go and find the coffee pot.

-Oh, Lordy, don't tell me.

-£1500-£2,000.

BYSTANDERS GASP

-That's an expensive coffee pot.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

I know what you're doing this weekend!

I just hope the kids don't see this on TV!

LAUGHTER

Now, Balmoral is obviously great Scottish history,

but there's lots of other bits of history that are just as exciting.

This is one of them. I mean, we've got a wonderful thing here,

which takes us miles away from here.

We're going straight to Glasgow, aren't we?

-Yes, we are.

-Tell me about Glasgow and this mirror.

This was made by a student at the Glasgow School of Art.

She was a student there at the time that Mackintosh was a teacher.

She then left it to my aunt,

and it's been in the family as long as I can remember.

And then my aunt left it to me about 14 years ago.

Unfortunately, I don't have the name of the lady who did it.

-This is the key thing.

-Yes.

-So, your aunt never told you her name?

No, it was one of these things I always meant to ask her

and then she died suddenly, and it was too late.

There's a lesson for us all, there, isn't there?

-Yes, when you think of it, do it!

-Ask those questions.

Because this is crucial, because whoever did this was brilliant.

Because those fantastic enamel panels, which are magical,

they're slightly Art Nouveau, they're glorious colours.

The lettering, presumably by the same person.

If I say it's pure Mackintosh, it's just the style that he established.

What could be more Glasgow than that lettering there,

with the raised "O" and the dots beneath it?

You know, every street name in Glasgow has that now.

And that all comes out of this great period.

In that period we're talking about, 1904,

Glasgow was one of the great cities of the world.

It wasn't just Mackintosh, it was the whole ambience of painters

and music that came with it.

And, of course, enamelling was key.

There was a very important chap who was also there

called Alexander Fisher, who knew Mackintosh.

They all worked together.

And he was one of the great enamellers of this period.

And what he obviously set up was, a sense about enamel that was

-picked up by lots of the students.

-OK.

These are not Fisher - his style is quite different -

but his influence is there, particularly in the way

the colours are used in that slightly abstract fashion.

There's also this sort of wavy, underwater quality.

These are almost underwater in their abstraction. Where does it live?

-In the bathroom.

-How suitable!

My husband doesn't like it at all, and I wanted it in the bedroom

and was going to decorate the bedroom to suit it, but

he doesn't like it, so I decorated the bathroom to suit it, instead.

Well, funnily enough, it fits in, but what a waste.

You know, it should be in the living room over the mantelpiece! You go and tell him.

Maybe the conservatory, because out here, in the outdoor light...

You just tell him this is a really important piece of Scottish history,

-Arts and Crafts at its best.

-I'll do that!

-Everything to do with Mackintosh and his influence is here.

-Yes.

And it's a great object.

Even without the name, we're looking at something truly remarkable.

I'm going to tell you a price, OK, which I think it's worth,

and that price is

£2,000.

Mm. Wow.

More than I'd have, more than I'd have thought, but, to me,

I want to keep it. My husband would want to sell it.

Well, I tell you what, don't tell him!

SHE LAUGHS

Let's have a look at this.

Wow, that is either gruesome or...

..gruesome, depending on your point of view!

It's not often that you get pictures of men dancing together,

you know, out in the open like that!

But obviously that's what happens. Why aren't there any girls dancing?

Do you know, I've just never seen one? Where did you get it from?

-It used to belong to my father.

-Yeah.

Coronation cup from 1911, made of paper.

You know the street parties they had, he would probably have

bought a stack of 20 or 50 of these, used them once and thrown them away.

It's an ink stand.

It belonged to my great-great-grandfather, who was the head keeper at Balmoral.

But, to me, the other great thing is the frame.

And this would really be classed

as folk art now, done by somebody with great panache,

but perhaps not a whole lot of professional training.

And what do you do with it now in the house?

Well, it sits on the mantelpiece in the dining room, you know, gathering dust.

-In fact, it could do with a good dust, I noticed!

-Didn't like to say!

What's it worth? £40-£250.

It's one of those weird things that

someone might just really wanted because of its rarity.

Value? I could easily see that for sale at between £300-£400.

-Is that for the frame?

-That's for the frame.

Well, I think John Foster is the man to see this.

This has got "miscellaneous" written all over it.

-Let's see what he makes of it.

-Super!

So, not the most fashionable of objects. You have spoken to Fiona.

-It's got a bit of an interesting history.

-Well, yes. You're right.

It probably isn't currently fashion, but it was given to me,

or it was left to me, by my grandmother.

This gentleman here is Donald Stewart,

who is my great-great-grandfather,

and he was head gamekeeper here at Balmoral until he retired in 1901.

And this would have had pride of place sitting on his desk

as an inkwell, and would probably have been used on a daily basis.

You would, I assume, have sat your pens in there, somehow, in the antlers.

-Is there any idea of who presented it to him?

-No, we don't.

I have seen parts of his will,

and there are all sorts of baubles that were given to him

by various heads of state and things, but this isn't mentioned.

I'm not quite sure how it came to him

and I don't even know where it's from.

And do you like it?

Well, I do actually quite like it. I think it's of its time,

and it is perhaps slightly grotesque to today's taste

but it sits on the mantelpiece at home it makes me smile.

-I really like it. It's all English-made.

-Right.

Which, a lot of people, you always assume that

the best bronzes were made in Austria at Bergman

and things like that, and this is stunning quality.

It really is stunning quality.

And this would all have been bright gilt, so, gold layer over

the brass, and I think that this is made in somewhere like Birmingham.

With something like this, it's all about provenance.

What you need is some sort of inscription,

because, say this was shot by Albert on the estate.

Potentially you could have three or four of these made

from one set of antlers.

If you found another one which was identical

and that had a presentation from Albert, that raises the value.

Right, OK, understood.

-As it is, I think, easily at auction, £800-£1200.

-Super!

Well, that's fine. As I say,

I think it will continue to sit on the mantelpiece

and, as I say, bring a smile to my face.

And if you can find more of that provenance, double that price.

We'll need to. We'll need to get searching, now.

One might wonder why we've got a comparatively simple piece

of furniture standing here on the Antiques Roadshow

in front of Balmoral.

But any furniture person instinctively,

almost the first thing we do is go and open the drawer,

and I open the draw of this and, hey, presto, "Osborne".

I have never seen that before.

I'm assuming we're talking about Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

That's correct.

Queen Victoria's residence, built a little bit a little bit.

It was a summer house, wasn't it, really?

-That's right.

-Designed, I think, by Prince Albert himself.

But tell me about it. What do you know?

There must be some story sleeping away somewhere.

I purchased it from a friend about three or four years ago,

and he told me that, apparently, many years ago,

they made furniture in Balmoral Estate for all around the UK,

and one of the Queens decided that she wanted to give it to

one of her ladies-in-waiting.

So that's what actually happened, apparently.

It went to one of her ladies-in-waiting

and then was passed to her relatives when she died.

And that's how it ended up with me after a friend sold it to me.

Well, let's look at the wood.

It's oak which probably comes from Europe.

I don't think it's Scottish oak or English oak,

it's probably from Germany or Hungary, somewhere like that.

This is a simple piece of furniture.

It's made, clearly, what, as a dressing table?

Either a dressing table or a washstand, I would imagine.

Probably had a washstand matching it.

I think you would put your mirror on here and this gallery to stop

the bottles and glass bottles and silver top bottles from falling off.

You can imagine it being used in context, can't you,

in one of the bedrooms here or, in this case, possibly at Osborne.

It's very nicely made, very simply made.

If I'd seen this out of context, I would've said late 1840s,

so it fits.

It's the sort of thing that I, given time, it would be fascinating

to try to find out if,

that it really possibly was made at Balmoral.

It was clearly made for a royal house, Osborne.

Maybe I should put that on there.

That, of course, affects the value.

OK.

What's this worth without the Osborne stamp?

-£1,000.

-Probably, about that.

With the stamp of Osborne?

1,500, 2,000?

Find out more about it. These pieces were made by somebody.

Somebody once knew all about it, and we've lost the story.

So we have a glass here that says what it is on the tin, really.

We have Trafalgar, and the legend, the famous order,

"England expects that every man, this day, will do his duty."

The famous words of Horatio Nelson

before the engagement at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Why have you brought it in?

Well, I really got it from my mother.

It was my grandmother's glass.

I really know nothing about it.

I know nothing of the history, or where it came from.

-So it's a very good idea for you to bring this into the roadshow.

-Yes.

It's a handmade...

GOBLET PINGS

..lead crystal goblet commemorating Horatio Nelson,

one of the greatest British naval heroes.

Is it real?

Does it date from 1805 plus or take a bit?

So, if, for instance, this dates from 1806,

the year after Nelson's death,

such is the mania of Nelson memorabilia

that this would be worth, say, a thousand quid.

Or, say, 50 quid if it's made in the 20th century.

Now, you know, guys, what I'm going to ask you.

I'm going to ask you, who here thinks this is going to be 1800-ish?

They're rooting for you, boy!

And who, flipside of the coin, thinks

this is a reproduction, later reproduction?

Well, I'm afraid the minority are right.

BYSTANDERS GROAN

I'm really sorry to tell you that,

despite it being quite good quality,

really lovely engraving, it is a reproduction,

but it's a very good one,

and I think, having explained everything to you, it's come

down the family, you should have a wee dram in it tonight, don't you?

-I think I will! Yes.

-Well, there it is, back with you, Guv.

-Thank you very much.

-You're most welcome.

-Cheers.

Icons and crucifixes blazing in the sun, covered in gold.

How do you get them?

Well, I was in the former Soviet Union

just after the collapse of communism

and I was travelling in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.

And I mentioned to the driver that I would like some.

And the next day, he turned up with these.

So I bought them and took them home.

And now, I display them in my hallway.

And that's exactly where these should be, in the home.

These are divine objects and they're a conduit for prayer

and for veneration in the Orthodox faith in Russia.

And they would occupy a very special place in the corners of rooms

and would be decorated with candles

and what we have do try to imagine is the people venerating them,

asking for favours from the Divine

and they were ways of understanding biblical texts.

So here, for instance, with these dramatic crucifixes,

we see the whole story of the Passion, laid out visually.

And, of course, this, Christ, crucified in the centre.

And every possible part of the Passion is there.

It might be just worth looking at this one, which is

a painted icon, but it's covered with what is called an oklad,

which is this silver, gilt mount that, when new, would have blazed

with gold, the colour of heaven and it's a way of protecting it.

And, underneath,

you will find that the icon is in absolutely perfect condition.

So, what a wonderful collection.

It meant everything to everybody in prerevolutionary Russia.

The whole world collapsed in 1917.

Christianity was, they tried to obliterate it.

People hid their icons and disposed of them.

What date do you think they all are?

I got told probably 14th century but I'm unclear about that.

I'm afraid that's very ambitious.

Every single one on this table is 19th-century.

What do you think they're worth?

I really and truly don't know. It's something that...

..didn't cross my mind until eight o'clock last night

when I decided to come.

Most of the things on the table here are worth no more than

£200 or £300 at best. But nonetheless, how many are there?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

-Maybe £2,000 on the table here.

-I do think they bring me luck.

But you've brought me luck today, and just as you said,

the sun comes out and shows us the colour of heaven.

-What more could you ask?

-Thanks very much.

Jumbo, the most famous elephant in London Zoo.

And because of his fame,

everyone knows of Jumbo as an elephant's name.

This must be the largest pair of trousers I've ever seen in my life.

They've always been known as the King of Nigeria's trousers.

They were just left by a great uncle of mine, who was out there in 1906.

-And this was made in 1865, 1870.

-OK.

And a model of him made in Staffordshire Pottery.

And it's as rare as anything.

You should be really proud to have quite definitely the largest

-pair of trousers in the whole wide world.

-Certainly in Aberdeenshire.

SHE LAUGHS

The problem is, there's fakes absolutely everywhere.

-But you've got a real one.

-Oh, good.

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say £500.

They're just going to stay, I think, in my collection.

-So, a quite expensive Jumbo.

-Oh.

He's going to be, oh, £1,000.

-Oh, well.

-SHE LAUGHS

Need to look after him.

We're looking at a very beautiful Scottish ram's horn snuffbox.

-Are you a snuff taker, or have you ever tried it?

-I have tried it once.

-Right.

-When I was at school.

And it went up my nose and down my throat,

-and I never looked at it again.

-Right.

-THEY LAUGH

It completely put you off, did it?

-Absolutely.

-Great.

Well, made of ram's horn,

and you'll see that the lid is inlaid with tortoiseshell and bone.

And if we actually open it, there's actually some snuff still there.

-That's right.

-So have you tried this one?

-No.

-I think all the strength has gone out of that one.

-Yeah.

But hiding inside this snuffbox,

which I think dates to around the sort of 1850s, 1860s,

are three snuff spoons, which are actually rarer than stuffboxes.

Let's have a look, I'll just dig them out.

I'm getting all snuffy.

I mean, the first one, and again this is made from animal bone.

-Yeah.

-And it shows how old it is by the fact it has gone yellow.

And that is the snuff taker's sweat from their fingers,

it has gone into the bone and turned it this lovely colour and patina.

-Have you noticed, it's got little holes in the bowl?

-Yeah.

Now, contrary to general opinion, the holes aren't for sieving

the snuff, but are to aid the air

-because the bowl is the size...

-Yeah.

..the size of your nostril.

-So when you go...

-HE SNIFFS

..obviously it draws through, so brilliantly

designed and certainly in Scotland it was straight into the nose.

Sometimes people put it on the back of their hand.

But let's... There's another one.

And that's unusual because it has got a slightly awkward angled

bowl, but it works perfectly because it just fits into the hands.

-Yeah.

-Again, they are practically designed.

Again, made of bone.

But the piece de resistance is this one.

-Yeah.

-And I can't say I've ever seen a better one.

-Yeah.

Made of bone,

but pierced with lozenge and heart motifs all over.

-But what about these initials on the top?

-That was an old gentleman who owned it.

-Oh, really?

-He was a Mr Menzies.

-OK.

-Local family?

-I don't own this myself, it is an old friend,

it was his grandfather's snuffbox.

-Right.

-So he couldn't make it today, so he asked if I would bring it along.

-Oh, good for you.

-That's why I've brought it.

It is lovely to be able to personalise a piece to

a particular family.

Well, of the three spoons, this is the finest.

And I think this on its own is worth around £250.

And if you add in the value of the other two spoons and the box,

we're looking at approximately £450-£500 for the group.

That's fantastic, he'll be delighted to hear that.

-I don't think he will sell it.

-No, no.

-No, hand them on down the family.

-I'm sure he will.

So, this is "A Selection Of The Anthems, Doxologies And Sanctuses

"For The Use Of The East Church Congregation Of Aberdeen."

And it is dated "Aberdeen, 1858".

But the interesting thing is it is signed by John Brown, Balmoral.

John Brown here, Balmoral, and Crathie.

So this was John Brown, the gillie to Queen Victoria, the servant,

the famous servant of Queen Victoria,

who was comforting her after her husband, Prince Albert, had died.

So, 1858, this is before he was famous.

-Yeah.

-And where does it come from?

It is actually my friend's one.

She was looking for her father's medals, he'd passed away.

-And she came across this.

-She came across it?

-Yes.

And...he presumably collected

-and decided it was actually THE John Brown.

-We think so, yes.

-What a wonderful thing to have. So, what is it worth?

-I don't know.

Well, John Brown is probably quite rare, autographically.

We don't see many of his letters around.

What shall we say? £250? Will that satisfy your friend?

I think it probably would, yes.

Do you know, when you see a figure like this,

or any figure of a serviceman, to me,

what really sums up the brilliance of the sculptor is

they capture everything, there's no guessing, you don't need to

wonder who it is, what he's doing. This does all that.

What do you know about it?

Well, I've had it for about 40 years, and I was given it

when I was a young man by a patient,

who gave it to me as a gift.

-Her name was Miss McMillan.

-Perfect.

So, Miss McMillan, related to the sculptor William McMillan.

-Sister.

-Even better.

So, William McMillan, to me, is one of the greats of the 20th century.

He was born in Aberdeen in 1877, died in, I think, 1977.

And mostly known, really, for war memorials,

but he also created the Peace and the Victory Medal in 1919.

Those medals that every serviceman pretty much got.

And cast in bronze, on a wooden plinth here,

and then you've got the signature there, McMillan, just on the side.

And McMillan served during the First World War, and went through

some pretty traumatic times, and I think all of that made him not

only suffer, but stuck in there to create these brilliant sculptures.

-Do you like it?

-I do, very much, I've been very fond of it.

And what is it you like about it?

It epitomises, you see, what happened in the war. The chap's putting on his gloves,

he's got his boots on and he's going away to have a very

-mixed time, I should imagine.

-Exactly.

It is just the... Like you say, he is pulling on his glove ready for action,

-but with that look of calm on his face.

-It is a World War I situation.

And that's a good point because this was made in the, I think the mid-'20s, sort of '30s.

So it is looking back, but like I say,

-you have to have seen that to make that.

-Get it right.

So it is a tricky thing to value, and I'm basing it on a figure that

sold by the same sculptor last year, which was an infantryman, same size.

I would put an auction estimate on this of

£20-£30,000.

Gosh. It's so small.

Not to me it isn't. He's huge.

Well, that's very good of you.

LAUGHTER

-I'm looking at the sweetest little Minnie McMouse.

-Minnie McMouse.

She's fabulous. Where did she come from?

Well, actually, we came up to look at some houses in 1988,

and we've got four children, and we were going around the house

we finally bought, actually.

And one of the boys was playing with Minnie,

and the elderly gentleman said, "Well, you can have it."

So that's how we acquired her, really.

Of course, the thing that makes her remarkable is the fact she's

-wearing her little mini kilt.

-Mini kilt.

She's made by a company called Dean's Rag Book.

She's got this big, cheesy, toothy grin,

which shows that she's quite an early one.

Born in 1928, but by the early '30s they had lost their teeth.

-She's missing her little tail.

-Maybe the kilt.

Maybe a kilt can't accommodate a tail.

That's why you don't see many tails up here. All have been cut off.

And value, well, she's going to be worth between about £500 and £600.

Oh, goodness me! Really? Wow, that is a surprise.

Balmoral Castle is a magical place.

I have so enjoyed my day here today.

And when you woke up this morning,

what were you thinking?

I was looking forward to come to the Antiques Roadshow.

And I knew you were coming

and I'd thought, when I saw the poster,

that this would be the thing to bring.

Where had it been hiding?

-Really? Erm...

-Really.

In a little box.

And how long has it been there for?

Probably about ten years?

And has it come out,

and have you worn it in that ten years?

No.

I've never wore it.

So where had it come from?

Ah... It originally belonged to my great-aunt.

She, then... When she died, it went to my mother

who then gave it to me.

And have you had it looked at? Do you know what it is, or...?

I believe it's a star sapphire.

Er, my father tells me that about 1968

he had it valued in a jeweller's in London

and I think he said £500.

I think that's right.

Well, it is a star sapphire.

Now, when the sun comes, or the light is shining on it,

it produces this six-ray star

and that is what is so magical about this stone.

Now the reason why that star is happening

is because there's mineral inclusions inside -

tiny fine rutile needles that are all positioned in a way

that it produces this six-ray star.

It's sort of 1920s, sort of, Deco period.

Er, in platinum.

And it has baguette-cut diamonds on the side.

-It's just a sort of accentuating the sapphire itself.

-OK.

It's a Ceylon sapphire, or, of course, Sri Lanka now.

And...I did sort of an estimated weight

and it's around about 40 carats in size.

So it's quite a substantial lump!

OK.

Now, you say that in the '60s it was valued at...

I think £500.

£500.

If I said a little bit more...

would that make you want to wear it?

I think it's very big on my little skinny fingers.

Do you know, there is NEVER a jewel that's too big for a woman!

Ever.

You have a 40-carat sapphire here!

I think you should enjoy wearing it.

OK. OK.

What if I was to say to you

that at the right auction, I would say,

this would be in the region of around

£6,000 to £8,000.

Oh.

Maybe I will wear it, then.

THEY CHUCKLE

You came along today with a 1914 Christmas tin.

And that happens quite a lot on the Roadshow.

And when I open up that Christmas tin, usually inside

there's a sort of a set of medals.

And we opened your Christmas tin,

and we found a 1914-15 Star.

The 1914-1920 British War Medal.

The 1914-1919 Allied Victory Medal.

And, slightly unusually, a 1939-1945 Star

and an Atlantic Star.

So, already we're looking at someone who's had a very long service.

Two wars.

Then, out of the tin came

a gallantry card.

Now, they're rare in themselves.

You don't see those because they are just made of paper.

They represented a truly heroic act of something on the battlefield

which you really never get to hear about, but...

you have one of those.

But yours was the Christmas tin that just kept on giving,

because we then pulled out

a First World War Military Medal.

Two away from the Victoria Cross.

That was good.

Then we pulled out a World War II...

..Royal Navy Distinguished Service Medal.

So now we have a group of medals to a man

who has been decorated for gallantry over two wars, three times.

But then you did it again.

You then pulled out this little black book

which is called the Continuous Discharge Certificate -

this is for merchant sailors -

and one of the ships in here is

a very well-known ship, isn't it?

Because here we can see that he was on the ship called

the Carpathia.

Now, the Carpathia is the ship that answered

the rescue call that came from the Titanic

as it sank that April evening in 1912.

And as we know, the people who were on the Carpathia,

erm...were given a medal.

-And he has one of those, as well, doesn't he?

-Yes.

-Because he has...

-the Carpathia Titanic Medal.

-Yeah.

In all the years I have been collecting medals -

and I have been collecting medals for maybe...

Well, it's 45 years, now.

I started when I was a reasonably small lad - when I was six.

This is the only one of these I have ever held.

You have...

You've made my year.

Who was this chap?

He was my grandfather.

My mother's father

John Cargill.

And there is the venerable gentlemen...

wearing his Carpathia medal on one side, and a ribbon bar.

-You have the ribbon bar, as well.

-I have the ribbon bar here.

How did he get to be on the Carpathia?

My grandfather was a fisherman, really.

But probably when things were tough in the fishing industry,

as they have been through history,

you know, he would take himself off and just earn some money, really.

What do you know about his time on the Carpathia,

and that fateful night when the Titanic sank?

They had obviously put away lifeboats

to pick up people.

-I can't imagine.

-And he was in one of Carpathia's lifeboats?

Yes. And a lifeboat's quite high off the water.

And to physically get people from the water into a lifeboat...

I was at sea myself, and I can't imagine what it was like that night.

A long, long time after...

He was made an honorary member of the Titanic Society in the States

and there was a lady came to see him one day.

She'd been a child and she'd been rescued.

And this lady came to thank him.

Wow.

-And do you remember him?

-Yes, I remember him very well.

-And was he like?

-Oh, he was a character, I tell you!

Well, to win this many gallantry medals,

he had to be some sort of a character, didn't he?

He had a small fishing boat and him and I

used to get up in the morning and go to the sea with him

before I went to school.

And he'd be saying to me,

"We'd better get you in. You'd better go to school."

And I'm thinking, "Don't bother!

"I'm quite happy where I am."

Well, I am still shaking.

Truly, this is an outstanding set of medals.

The DSM, the Military Medal, and the campaign gallantry card...

It's almost an unheard of combination.

£1,500.

With the Titanic medal...

£10,000.

My goodness.

You have one of the MOST amazing

groups of medals that I've ever seen.

They'll be kept in our family.

You know, but...

Well, Grandad definitely is someone to be very, very proud of.

-Well done him.

-Thanks very much.

-You know, well done him!

-Thank you.

Well, that just goes to show that behind even the humblest object

can lie an incredible history.

What an amazing story!

We're so honoured here at the Antiques Roadshow

to come to Balmoral.

We've seen plenty of royal memorabilia and, do you know,

we wondered if the odd royal visitor or two might pop by.

Well, they didn't, but we've got the next best thing...

What can I say? By Royal Appointment!

From the Antiques Roadshow team

until next time...

bye-bye.