The Royal Hall Harrogate 1 Antiques Roadshow

Today the roadshow's arrived in a town that boasts a greater

variety of mineral waters, bubbling away under the surface,

than have been discovered anywhere else in the world.

89 in total. Many of them around here.

Welcome to The Antiques Roadshow from Harrogate in North Yorkshire.

Taking the waters, as people have done here for over 400 years,

is known as the Harrogate cure.

And in 1871 at The Pump Room was built,

and early risers would congregate here

for a libation of foul-smelling, sulphurous mineral water

to be taken with a gulp and a grimace.

And it's pretty whiffy even now.

It was thought the best time to drink the waters

was in the morning between 7am and 9:30am.

So seriously was this taken that the roads around The Pump Room

were closed as the alfresco scene unfolded to allow safe

and easy access to the wonder cure within.

By 1897 The Royal Baths were built.

Harrogate, which was already the most popular spa town

in the country, could now offer water-based treatment

beyond compare and some, frankly, beyond comprehension.

Take the Schnee 4-Cell bath.

HUMMING SOUND It looks like an electric chair, because it is.

It was thought that a mild electric current would aid

the absorption of minerals.

In search of cures and eternal youth,

health tourists flocked to the Turkish baths, making Harrogate

wealthier than all the other spa towns in the country put together.

And amid this Moorish splendour, over 40 treatments were available.

From extremely vigorous massages, plunge pools, peat baths,

dry heat rooms and inhaling chambers.

Many of these were available on the NHS up to 1969.

The pilgrims in search of Harrogate's medicinal elixir of life

needed entertaining during that time of healing and relaxation,

so they'd come to The Royal Hall, or Kursaal,

a German word meaning cure hall.

And all life was here, there were tea dances, wrestling,

performing seals, political rallies, you name it, and today,

we're providing some entertainment of our own

as our specialists welcome the good people of Harrogate.

The first thing I noticed was this very dull cover here.

You've got two volumes covered in this cloth here, but the minute one

strips off the cover, you get this wonderful crushed red Rocco binding.

Which reads, "Virtues and victories, volume one"

and there are two volumes. Tell me where you got them.

-I bought them at an auction.

-All right.

-I wasn't planning on doing.

-Right.

I was looking for something else

and found these in a box with some pottery.

-Right.

-Assuming initially that they were just prints, not watercolours.

And I just thought they were beautiful.

I had a certain amount of money on me,

and I thought, if I don't go for too much, I might just have a go.

You thought these prints, and I'm opening the first volume here...

-Yes, I thought they were prints.

-..we turn to the first frontispiece,

the most fantastic illustration here. You thought this was a print?

-At first glance, yes, I did.

-Yes. This is extraordinary.

-I mean, this is an original watercolour.

-Yeah.

And it dates, obviously, from about 1900.

It's so typical of this period,

but absolutely crammed full of these illustrations.

Now, the lady who did it, if I go back to the introduction,

-this is somebody called Clarice... what?

-I think it's Creswell.

-Creswell?

-Creswell.

-Creswell.

And she says why she did it here,

she gave all these pictures and she was doing this for a charity?

I think so, for this reverend

and for the children in the hope that the children would

look at the books at a later date and probably learn something.

Well, quite frankly I worry about giving the children these

fantastic volumes, which are so beautiful.

That's volume one, this is volume two. Look at the frontispiece.

This is just, well, it's heavenly, isn't it?

Absolutely heavenly.

They've all got their own little thing, but they have a story

-and then there's the picture.

-Yes.

And obviously it's sort of a teaching,

a religious teaching, but again it's all handwritten by the looks of it.

-The calligraphy is not as brilliant as the illustration.

-No.

But the illustrations themselves are just absolutely, I mean,

world-class, really.

They are so detailed, almost miniature paintings.

I've got to ask you, how much did you pay for them?

£35.

£35.

-And they were sold with the pottery and all the rest of it.

-Yes.

Look at this. All right, this is very romantic

and it's very religious, but it's a beautifully posed piece.

All these wonderful illustrations, they go on and on and on.

They're sentimental, they're religious and some of them

are just absolutely explosively beautiful.

Um...

-HE SIGHS

-£35.

And how long have you had them?

About a year.

Right. Well, I think they're worth

somewhere in the region of £3,000 to £5,000.

GASPING IN BACKGROUND

Right...

-OK!

-LAUGHTER

Not quite expecting that.

Almost the ultimate toy for a boy.

This magnificent locomotive Princess Elizabeth,

made by Hornby, O-gauge...

Was this a present for you?

No, it was just one that my father, he just got it from somewhere,

because I had two more brothers as well.

And every time we played with it,

he had to be there, we never got it out on our own.

Maybe he bought it for himself rather than for you.

Well, quite possibly. Quite possibly, yes, yes.

Because it's in cracking condition.

-And you weren't allowed to play with it by yourself?

-No, no, no.

I know you've come along with many, many bags

and in the bags we've seen...

goods wagons,

passenger coaches, accessories.

This particular model was made in a limited edition,

it came in its original presentation box

and although it hasn't got it now, along the lid on the inside

would've been a bit of the history behind it,

but certainly it's a rare piece,

anything that's limited edition is more desirable.

When we're talking about values and collectors,

they want to find toys in this condition.

Little tiny bits of scratches, but apart from that, wonderful.

So we're talking about a value at auction for this alone,

the loco, between 2,000 and £3,000.

The overall collection is going to easily be worth

-between 4,000 and £6,000.

-Wow.

-Get it out occasionally and have a quick play.

-Yeah?

-He can't stop you now.

-No.

-JON LAUGHS

-Thank you very much indeed.

Well, a beautiful gold tooled leather box with a very

enigmatic stamp on the front.

It's a Royal Crown, June 1,902.

-What does it mean?

-I have no idea.

Well, I'm not sure that I do, really!

What I'd absolutely hoped was that the content would refer to the

coronation of King Edward VII,

but unfortunately it was some months before he was crowned.

We're going to look inside and see the most ravishing brooch

in the form of a darting kingfisher,

with its prey in its beak.

-Do you enjoy it?

-I love it.

-Yes.

-I love it very much.

It's been in our family, obviously, well, since my grandmother

got engaged to my grandfather and then it's been handed down

through the family to me and it's just been very special to all of us.

Kingfisher is the emblem of my family.

-Ah-ha.

-My father is a Fisher.

-I see.

-Quite a lot of our silver has got the Fisher emblem on it.

How marvellous.

So, actually, in a way I shouldn't even have it

-because I'm not a Fisher any more.

-You're not a Fisher!

But it will go back to the Fishers.

It comes out on special occasions, weddings and even family funerals.

-Oh, family funerals? It's a talisman, isn't it?

-That's right.

-Brilliant.

-Brings us all together.

Yes, and it's an absolute triumph of jeweller's art

and it's existing on two or three levels, first of all the model

of the brooch has to be made by hand,

every part of the anatomy of this meticulously-observed brooch,

and then it was given to the enameller,

who applied the different colours of enamel at different temperatures

and hand-painted them and then when that process is done,

then the diamonds are set,

so there's three levels of achievement here.

And it's done with such accuracy and such vivacity

and I'm completely intoxicated by it, I must say.

I feel in a sense this is a royal gift.

I don't think anybody would dare to put the Royal Crown

above the date and the initials

without it coming from a very distinguished hand.

And I have absolutely no idea who that is.

It's very, very tempting and enigmatic

and as it is, it's a highly decorative masterpiece

of early 20th-century jewellery. It's very valuable.

It's nothing to do with the diamonds, really.

It's everything to do with this darting, flashing,

miraculous bird that is part of our national identity, really.

And so I don't flinch from saying this is worth, well, £3,000.

Wow.

-That's pretty good!

-THEY LAUGH

It looks a perfect place for the cat to sit on.

No, they don't really like it.

They prefer the sofas. I think it might be a bit too narrow for them.

It doesn't look very comfortable. Have you sat in it? Do you use it?

We do use it.

I'm generally the one that gets to sit on it, cos I'm the youngest.

Where does it come from? What do you know about it?

My grandmother bought it from an antique shop

on the Isle of Wight sometime between the wars.

My mother claims that she's seen something like it once,

but that was in Poland about 40 years ago.

Other than that, we really don't know anything about it at all.

It's interesting, it's the sort of chair you see quite

often in Victorian photographs, especially continental ones.

You know, where, people posing on them,

very elaborate carved chairs.

This is based on a Savannah roller chair,

16th and 17th century Italian chair and a lot of them fold up,

this one doesn't, it's made really as a set piece, just for fun.

-It's not the prettiest thing, is it?

-Well, we do call it the ugly chair.

-The ugly chair. Why is it the ugly chair?

-That is its family name.

-Yeah.

-I think my mother called it that when she was small.

-My brother hates it and I love it. It think it's just mad.

-So do I.

I can just see that in a museum catalogue, the ugly chair.

Yes, absolutely.

These are based on a 17th-century Venetian design, somebody called

Andrea Brustolon, who carved figures rather like this

on the edge of chairs.

It's all harking back to the 17th century.

I notice, just before we go any further,

there's a bit of damage here. What's happened here?

-He lost his foot, unfortunately.

-Yeah.

-That one's quite recent. Um...

Where's the piece?

Well, I put it away safely because I didn't have any wood glue

when I noticed it had happened.

Unfortunately I forgot to tell anybody else I put it away safely

-and it now isn't in the safe place.

-Disappeared?

-Yes.

-Ah.

I do advise people to do this job immediately, or get one of those

cellophane bags and tie it to it and then you will do it,

because it so often happens. That's quite a...

quite an expensive repair,

-to now re-carve that.

-Yeah.

-Well, mind you, he's lost...

-It's a balance...

-THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

The date of this, it's not 17th century, it's copying or emulating,

in a very eclectic manner, the 17th century, made in around 1,900.

-Oh, right. OK.

-What's not quite so obvious is the nationality.

I would actually go for, not Italian, but southern French.

Sort of Nice, somewhere like that. And you know the wood, of course?

-No, I don't.

-Know your wood? Walnut. Really nice quality walnut.

-Right.

So, it's a good, fun chair. Um, comfortable?

Yeah, actually.

-More comfortable than you think.

-Surprisingly comfortable, yes.

Certainly doesn't look it to me. Um, it's not going to...

be really worth the price of a new sofa, I don't think.

I wouldn't have expected it to be.

The cats are probably quite right, to go for the sofa.

You know, it's £500-£800

-at the most, something like that.

-Excellent.

-Well, thank you very much. At least I now know what it is.

-Yeah.

This came with another goblet

-and I think I bartered it down to £180.

-OK.

That, over £100.

-That one makes me wince.

-Ouch. Tell me.

-Mm, 850.

Ow. Yeah, you paid the dollars there.

-Is it something you've had in the family for years?

-No, no.

-We acquired it about six years ago.

-Oh, really?

-When my sister bought a property in Harrogate.

-Oh, in Harrogate?

-So it turned up in Harrogate.

-Absolutely.

-You know this is French?

-Yes.

-And it's made by Louis Vuitton, the famous Louis Vuitton?

-Yes.

-Here is Antonio Salviati.

-Ah.

Antonio Salviati almost single-handedly

rescued and rejuvenated the Murano glass industry

from about 1860s, '70s onwards.

This is Clichy.

Spangled glass, very high quality, 1860, French.

He made his money, Louis Vuitton, from designing this flat trunk

for long voyages on steamers and things,

because previously to that, trunks had rounded tops

so the water could slide off, but they couldn't be stacked.

Your wild, money-splashing

Galle, 1890, 1895.

Very nice, the colour is so good on this

and if you twizzle that around, that's beautiful.

I think one like this would make between...

1,500 and maybe on a good day,

-£2,500.

-Wow.

Gosh.

So, on these ones, I mean, you know, 200.

-Clichy, this is going to be 200 to 250, thereabout.

-Thank you.

And the Galle, I think your intuition is absolutely right.

I think you've overpaid. This is just ahead of the money.

My advice to you is maintain the quality by reducing the cash,

you will seriously be in heaven.

My husband will love you.

Now, when I was growing up, my dad, every month or so,

would get out a little steam engine,

you'd put the little burning fire-starter underneath,

wait for five minutes and you'd hear, almost

the sort of pathetic pop, pop, pop, pop, as it started to warm up.

And then you turn up and pretty much ruin all my childhood memories!

HOW have you managed to get hold of this?

This is, yes, a boyhood dream.

Not only does it have a steam engine,

it has lots of individual machines that all work, in great detail.

I was very lucky enough to acquire this when the Health And Safety

Museum in London, run by the Health And Safety Executive,

-closed in 1980.

-Mm.

-So I was in the right place at the right time.

Wow. And you bought it from them or they gave it to you...?

-They gave it to me, basically.

-Wow.

So this model really shows...

the factory floor of the mid 19th century.

You've got lathes and pulleys going, two buffers, grinders...

-What is it you like about it?

-I love the intricacy of it.

-It's perfect in every detail. I do like mechanical things.

-Mm.

And this is from the days

when prime movers were, like a water wheel or a windmill.

-Here we've got a steam engine.

-And when was it made?

-1936.

So he's really sort of looking back at what machinery was like then.

If you were doing a talk on health and safety or what not to do,

this if the model you would use, because nothing, there's no guards.

You think of something as simple as a tie,

you wear a tie at work, it goes in,

get sucked into the belt, does a lot of damage.

So it's staggering how much these things

have sort of moved forward. Now,

I haven't actually run it yet, but I wanted to wait. So...

So here you see all the belts distributing the power

to individual machines.

To turn this one on, we move the belt across here.

It's just, it's amazing.

Hundreds of hours of work would've gone into it.

Very much so.

Look at this oil can, perfect in every detail.

That, I was looking at that earlier, and that's actually

one of my favourites because it's still, it actually works.

-It does, yes.

-OK. You see these turn up for sale,

but not like this one.

You're going to struggle to find anything better,

if you're looking for this type of model.

Auction estimate, I would say, easily,

£8,000-£12,000.

Wow. I didn't think it was that much.

Mm.

That's pretty staggering. Mm.

This is a very, very elegant clock. Whereabouts do you have it at home?

I have it in my sitting room.

-OK, on a mantelpiece or on a table?

-No, just on a table.

It's very interesting you don't have it on a mantelpiece.

Because it is tall and narrow.

-Right.

-If you had a mirror or a picture,

this would impinge on, at the very least, the bottom of the frame...

Exactly, exactly.

But I love it.

What sort of date do you reckon it is?

I really have no idea. 1800s?

That's a guess.

That's a wide guess, 1800s, I love it but you're spot on,

it is actually of course French and it's late Empire,

-it's dating from about 1810 to 1815.

-Right.

In the family for long, or a recent acquisition?

Not in the family for that long.

My father bought it, actually after he divorced my mother.

He started to buy clocks when he no longer had her to look after.

Hey, that's a great one. I like that. I like that. Now,

let's just very briefly look at it, lovely white enamel dial,

hands are original and the movement, that gives me

the excuse to show you what we call the silk suspension.

You've obviously got a bit of cotton thread here.

But the pendulum is suspended by a little loop of thread

which you can make go slower or faster

-with this knob here.

-Yes.

-OK? You can see that it's open to the elements.

-Yes.

Originally, this would've had a glass dome. Do you recall that?

It had a glass dome over the top of it.

-We...

-What happened to that?

When we were winding it up one day my husband stood on it and it broke.

-He stood on it? Is that him there?

-Yes, that is.

This could be an excuse to get rid of HIM

-and buy more clocks, couldn't it?

-SHE LAUGHS

-So we no longer have the dome part.

-What a shame.

It's actually a very difficult thing to replace,

something slender and tall.

So the only option you have would be to buy something...

Victorian selection of dried flowers or a stuffed bird or something...

That's originally what it was. It was a stuffed bird.

-Not cage, Dome.

-Dome. So it was never the original...?

-No.

But it would have had. And it would have been stunning.

And you have got obviously the gilt bronze,

and you've got the patinated bronze, particularly the swans

with their lovely necks, drinking from the fountain.

And the lyre shape is just lovely, it's totally at peace with itself,

it's a very, very elegant clock and I could see, at a decent fair,

or in a decent shop, you'd have to pay, retail,

between £4,000 and £5,000.

-Gosh.

-So...

-I'm sure he didn't pay that much.

-Well hopefully not.

No, hopefully not.

And keep a hold on your husband there,

because I think he is worth more than the glass dome.

-Thank you.

-Thanks.

It may not be immediately apparent what this bust is made from.

It's actually made from a kind of black stoneware

which is called black basalt.

So it is a kind of pottery.

And it is a library bust.

Imagine a beautiful grand country house,

and in that house is a beautiful panelled library

with glorious bookshelves.

And on top of the shelves, the idea,

you would have these busts of great figures from classical antiquity.

This would show everybody that you knew all about classical mythology,

that you were an educated man.

-Yes.

-What do you know about it?

Well, my grandmother acquired it when she was about 18 or 20.

Her music teacher had a copy of Mercury on her piano.

Her husband worked for Wedgwood, the potter.

And my grandmother admired it so much

her husband said he could get here another one.

And he did.

Because at that time, Wedgwood were making these

and she paid £5 for it, I believe, which was amazing.

This was 100 years ago, by the way.

-You can just see under the shoulder there.

-Yes, absolutely.

It says Wedgwood, and then Mercury,

-because he represents the god Mercury.

-Yes, that's right.

We all call him Freddie, after Freddie of Queen.

-Freddie Mercury, of course.

-Absolutely.

And when I was a child, my mum... my grandmother used to get very upset

by my uncles putting their hats and ties round his neck.

-Oh, I see, an old school tie for somebody.

-Yes, yes.

He wasn't treated very reverently. But I come from the Potteries area.

And all the people in the Potteries when I was a child

had bits of Wedgwood around their houses

that were obviously, I think, what we would call "seconds" today.

And I always wondered

whether this beautiful young man was actually a second.

Well, a couple of things. First of all, this was about 100 years ago...

Yes, my grandmother would have been 18 of 20

and she was born in 1900,

so it would be just less than 100 years ago.

Well, the bust is actually older than that.

Because it would say, it would have an England mark on it,

or a "Made in England" mark, if it was made in the 20th century.

In my opinion he is mid-19th century.

So he may have been 50 years old when he was acquired by your granny.

-Oh, wow.

-It may have been old stock, for all we know.

-Yes, yes.

But I did notice, he's got these little spots here.

That's right. A little bit of chest acne.

-Yes, chest acne, that's a good description, isn't it?

-Yes, yes.

That may be the reason, maybe, why he was sold slightly cheaply,

-I don't know.

-Right, right.

He is not the earliest model,

these were first produced in the 18th century.

-Right.

-But even so he is worth £800-£1200.

-Right. Brilliant.

But that doesn't...

You know, I just love him, because he is such a beautiful young man.

My first visit ever to York was in 1963.

When I was there somebody said to me,

"Whatever else you do you must go to Betty's Tearoom." So I did.

So I then became aware of this great Yorkshire institution.

Let's begin with what we've got here. Who is he?

This is my Great Uncle Frederick, who founded the business.

It all started in 1906,

when my great uncle arrived on these shores from Switzerland.

He didn't speak a word of English, he had no money,

and no job, only the skills he had learnt, that he had in his hands,

the craft of baking confectionery.

So it is a classic immigration story.

He started with nothing, he married a local girl,

and in 1919 they started a business together.

17 years later he is travelling first class

with the glitterati and the aristocracy,

first class on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary to New York.

-It is a great story. So there is money in cakes?

-Well, obviously.

-It took him a long time to get there, but he splashed out.

-OK.

-And this is him with his wife?

-That is his wife, my Auntie Bunny.

-OK.

So there they are, on the Queen Mary, crossing the Atlantic.

Now, this was obviously a great moment in British maritime history.

When we fought back against the French and Germans and Italians,

and we captured the Blue Riband with this wonderful Clyde-built ship.

But here's somebody who was actually there on that great first voyage.

Obviously this was an event

covered with lots and lots of commemorative pizzazz.

There was every sort of object you could imagine

made to mark this great event.

And of course things that were sold on the ship

are quite different to those that were made for the mass-market.

-So this was bought on the ship.

-On the ship.

Now this is a Nora Wellings doll.

She was famous in the 1930s for making, basically,

dolls in shipping uniform.

All she had to do was change the hat band

and of course they could then be applied to any ship.

So they were made in large quantities

and it was not just for the maiden voyage,

these were stock for a long time.

So you have got things here which we know were on the first voyage,

because he bought them there.

And he'd had such a wonderful time on the Queen Mary

he wanted that to go on forever.

So he called in the designers, the decorators,

even the craftsmen from Glasgow who had worked on the Queen Mary

and said, "I want that in the centre of York.

"I want my own Queen Mary in the centre of York."

And to this day, Betty's Tea Shop in York

is a replica of some of the staterooms on the Queen Mary.

OK, and that's it. So what is the value of what you got?

Well, the value of these is they were on the first ship.

The doll on its own is, in that condition, £100,

you can double or treble that

because it comes off the maiden voyage, the ship, likewise.

Not great value,

but wonderful things about bringing Art Deco to Yorkshire.

Do you have a prized object from the golden age of travel?

Glamorous luggage? Beautifully crafted car mascots?

Perhaps a menu from the maiden voyage of a famous ship?

Antiques Roadshow is planning a special edition

and we are looking for outstanding stories that celebrate the era

of luxury oceangoing liners.

The early days of air travel.

Classic cars.

And of course the steam age.

We'll be recording an episode

onboard the magnificent Flying Scotsman later this year.

To book your seat tell us your story by contacting:

Well, it's the most extraordinary Chinese bronze ure.

Where on earth did you get it?

Well, I first saw it 40 years ago when I married,

-and my husband had bought the house from his father.

-Yeah.

So this had been sitting in there for years before that,

so I've seen it for 40 years.

You've seen it for 40 years and it's been hanging around before then?

-Yes.

-It is the most extraordinary animal forming the handle here.

-The spout, in this case, is a phoenix head.

-Right.

And even the little feet, I don't know if you looked at them closely,

the foot here, the top part of that is an eagle

-and the bottom part is a bear.

-Right.

It sounds crazy but there is a meaning to that.

The Chinese love wordplay and the word for an eagle is "Ying",

and the bear is "Xoing", but... So you've got eagle, bear.

If you put the two words together it has another meaning.

So if you say Guanjun, It means "champion", or "winner".

So they are raising this vessel and saying it is a champion,

or a winning vessel, a great object.

And the Chinese love doing that, they are very, very, very clever.

-But what really interests me is this.

-Yes. The inside bit, yes.

-No, that label there.

-Yes, the label, yes.

-That says, from the collection of Lady MacDonald.

-Yes.

I don't know anything about that.

-Have you ever watched the film, 55 Days In Peking?

-No.

-David Niven, Charlton Heston?

-Oh, yes, I know of it.

That was a film made about the siege of the British Legation

in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

-Right.

-And guess what?

This lady's husband, Claude MacDonald,

-he was in charge of the British defences.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-How fascinating.

-This lady has a fabulous history.

She actually addressed the Emperor Cixi, the Dowager Empress.

-My gosh.

-So assuming that this label is genuine...

-Absolutely genuine.

It gives it the most fabulously fascinating history

-which really needs to be...

-I only first saw it about 20 years ago.

I hadn't lifted the lid off.

Well I think that makes it such an interesting object.

I mean, what is the object, is the other thing.

I already said it is a Chinese bronze.

-This shape goes back to the 3rd century BC.

-Really?

The Warring States Period. Just before the Han Dynasty.

The Warring States Period in China.

But I don't think this is a Warring States peace. The finish is wrong.

There are various things about it.

If you look closely,

the silver and gold have been inlaid into the decoration.

It is too stiff, it is too perfect, it is a very sophisticated thing.

Right.

So I think this is an 18th-century copy of a Warring States piece.

-Still old then.

-Oh, yeah, I reckon 250 years old.

-Really?

-Yeah.

This wouldn't have been made to be used.

This wasn't made as a teapot, or a wine ure.

It was made as an object of art. I think it is a fabulous thing.

There is so much you can say about this, I really like looking at it.

-Thank you, I love it.

-Without exploring the history any further

-I'd put a value at auction in the region of £10,000.

-You're joking!

I thought it would be about £200!

Looking into the provenance and whether we can establish

that that is exactly is where it came from,

it could be worth maybe double that.

Oh, right, well, thank you very much. That's wonderful.

This is such a bold composition.

I think whenever you see an abstract picture

which is predominantly white with just one little detail of red

you know it has got to be by someone

who had a real grasp of both colour and form.

Can you tell us how you came across this amazing thing?

I first came across this painting when it was first exhibited

at the back of the university in Leeds.

The artist, Frank Lyle, was a teacher at the local art college

and I thought, "I really, really want that."

It was out of my league, price-wise. £38.

The title is "Robin in a Hawthorn Bush".

And I love the title, because it is not a robin! It's just not!

And it's not a hawthorn bush! It is angled, it's square!

It is really hard to paint a good abstract picture

and I think what Frank Lyle has done in this

is just give us a little source material.

He has told us it is a robin so we have that red spot.

He has told us it is a hawthorn bush

so you get all the detail, this geometric detail.

It is a really competent picture.

This is definitely somebody who knew what he was doing.

What's really exciting though is that Frank Lyle,

he taught at the Bradford College of Art.

In fact, he was Head of Painting at the Bradford College of Art.

And in the mid-1950s, aged 16,

his most illustrious student was a very young David Hockney.

Probably the most famous British living artist.

Frank Lyle is relatively under the radar,

probably because he spent most of his life teaching,

but I think this illustrates is,

from a young age, if you've got someone who is really confident,

someone who is willing to push the boundaries with his own art,

as a teacher that can really take the young artist on to great things.

In terms of value, it was priced at £38 in 1972...

I didn't pay that.

-What did you pay?

-£18.

£18 in 1972?

Well, after the exhibition, I couldn't afford it,

I had a word and said, "Well, can I have it for 18?"

Well you will be pleased to know today then,

if we put that in auction we would probably put

an estimate of £600-£800,

and we would hope on a good day that that would make £1,000.

-Excellent, thank you very much indeed.

-Thank for bringing it in.

MATCH OF THE DAY THEME TUNE PLAYS

It was something of a surprise for our visitors at Harrogate

when a rather special object arrived mid-morning on our roadshow day.

With football's most prestigious cup competition in full swing

here on the BBC, we were offered a rare opportunity

to work with a very special piece of silver.

None other than the FA Cup.

Here it is, in all its splendour.

Complete with Gabby Logan from BBC Sport, Eddie Gray,

a very familiar face of course, manager of Leeds United

and winner of the FA Cup as well, in 1972.

Yeah, winner of the FA Cup, great day for everybody to play in it,

and also win it, it was beyond your dreams.

And Gabby, this particular one, because there are replicas,

has a very special place

in the heart of English football fans, doesn't it?

This had a really long tenure because the FA Cup started 1872,

this trophy started being used in 1911

and then was put out of service in 1992.

So that is a very long period of time...

-But of course there's a very special day in the middle.

-There is.

The Sir Stanley Matthews FA Cup.

So he has been one of the many greats to have held this aloft.

But that is seen as one of the greatest examples, I think,

of football, let alone the FA Cup, that match was so phenomenal.

The FA Cup has always been like that.

Some great names have held it up over the years...

But what about you, Eddie?

Obviously you were a player for Leeds, the 1972 final

when you beat Arsenal,

what is it like for a player to hold this cup aloft?

It is terrific. Especially for the skipper.

And I have got a little memento here, our captain, Billy Bremner,

-and I'm stuck in there...

-Look at that mop top!

Yeah, with dark hair there!

-Not sure that is going to be valued quite as highly as this!

-No, no.

I have also brought along the medal. The '72 medal.

The FA Cup medal that we won that day.

-And that is something that you treasure.

-Absolutely beautiful.

I get it out occasionally and have a look at it, you know? Days gone by.

This cup was retired, as you say, Gabby, in 1992. Too fragile.

I imagine, by lots of people holding it up aloft.

And we've now got the fourth replica.

And this one stays,

most of the time, when it is not on the road here, it stays in Wembley.

So people can go and see it.

And, you know, when you look at it, it looks really robust, doesn't it?

But as you say, it has been around a fair few hands,

and players getting quite excited,

I imagine, accidentally dropped occasionally, Eddie...

It has been dropped on many occasions, yeah.

Especially coming down the steps from Wembley,

where they get presented, the top usually falls off, or...

-But it is a wonderful trophy.

-I noticed the top was a bit wonky!

That will probably be why.

And what is it we can help you with, Gabby,

today, in terms of what you would like to know about the cup?

It is absolutely stunning, and I just wonder how much it's worth.

Can you put a value on something like this?

Well, you are in the right place, naturally.

One of our silver experts, Alistair Dickenson,

not only knows everything there is to know about silver

but is also a footballing aficionado, so he is your man.

Now, unless you are a relative of Al Capone's

I don't think there is any mistaking

what we're going to find in this case.

-It's going to be a violin, isn't it?

-It is, yes.

And here it is, a rather lovely looking violin.

I'll be honest with you, though, I am so used to seeing violins

on the show, on a day like today, that are worth very little.

German trade violins with Stradivarius labels in them

and everyone says, "Is it a Stradivarius?"

-Of course, they never are.

-No.

-But this violin is slightly different.

Because I see that we have a letter that comes with it here,

and it says, "Genuine Paul Bailly violin."

Dated 1933, and it cost £10.

-Who paid that £10 for it?

-My great-grandfather.

he bought it for my father when my father was 12.

He put the money up and then paid

for lessons for my father to play it.

-£10 was a lot of money, wasn't it?

-Yes.

-Let's have a look at it.

We've got a letter of provenance.

But I'll be honest with you, I still don't believe

letters of provenance until I've, obviously, inspected things.

Now, at first sight I know a little bit about Paul Bailly violins.

-Right.

-He was born in Mirecourt in France in about 1844, I think.

He studied under a couple of the most famous violin makers,

the Vuillaume Brothers.

He then went to America, he spent a little bit of time in Britain,

and I think he eventually settled in Brussels,

and he had a shop in Paris, he was a prolific violin maker,

he made over 3,000 instruments.

-Cellos as well.

-Right.

-I'm going to have to do something.

-Right.

And I'm going to take my mobile phone, put the torch on,

-and look inside.

-Yes.

Because the label inside is absolutely crucial.

So if we shine the torch inside, I can see that there is a label.

"Paul Bailly, luthier."

And, crucially, which is very difficult to see,

is that it is hand signed in ink.

Now, £10 in 1933, it was a lot of money.

-I wonder what that equates to now.

-No idea.

I think this went to auction it would make £5000-£8000.

Oh, my word!

-Really?

-Absolutely.

Hello, Gabby.

It's a real pleasure to meet you, I'm really rather stunned

and shocked at what you've brought along.

-What can I tell you about it?

-Well, I think one of the things

I find really interesting about trophies, generally,

is how different they can all be, from the tiny Ashes,

the Jules Rimet, and some trophies are massive

and seem to represent the magnitude of the competition.

It's a big trophy but a very ornate trophy.

Is that because it's a product of its time?

Would that be to do with the designs of the late 19th century?

Or is there another reason why it looks like this?

Well, it's a very good question,

because having looked at this fairly recently

I noticed that it is embossed with fruiting vines.

Now, why would you have fruiting vines embossed on a football trophy?

-You would normally expect to see a football stuck on top.

-Somewhere!

Yes. And there's nothing on this to indicate that it was made specially

as a football trophy.

Now I might be banned from every football ground in the country

for saying this, but I suspect

this might have been an off-the-shelf piece.

That it was not specifically made.

I cannot see why it should have fruiting vines on it.

Because that was a form of design

that was used over many hundreds of years.

And in fact this sort of shape goes back to ancient classical vases

from the ancient Roman and Greek times.

But here we have a cup of fairly standard, almost bell shape,

campana shape they sometimes call it in auctioneers' catalogues,

but with nothing about it

that says it has got anything to do with football,

except that it is inscribed, and it's the FA Cup.

So literally, off the shelf in a shop,

or would it have belonged to somebody who donated it?

I think it was probably in a shop.

The first FA Cup, which was played in 1872 on a cricket ground

at the Oval, where Surrey play,

that was known as the Little Tin Idol.

Which is a wonderful nickname.

It was made of silver, but that is what it was called.

Then in 1895, when Aston Villa won the cup for the second time,

they put it on display in a local shop

and within hours the cup was stolen.

So a replica was made and that lasted till 1910,

then that one was withdrawn,

because it was discovered that the rival football competition

were using exactly the same cup.

So, in comes this beauty in 1911.

Right.

Although the marks are completely worn,

we know it was made by Fattorini and Sons.

And they were Italian immigrants

that came to England in the early 19th century

and Antonio Fattorini Was the founder of the company,

and in 1831 he opened up a shop here in Harrogate.

And then they opened up another business in Bradford.

And that's where this cup was made.

-Made in Yorkshire.

-Yes.

So if this wasn't designed and made for the FA Cup,

what would it have been used for?

Well, I think the fact that it has got all these vines and grapes on it,

it might have been used as a wine cooler,

or a champagne cooler, something like that.

I'm sure it has had plenty of champagne inside over the years.

More than you and I could possibly think of, I think!

Is it possible to put a value on something like this?

With all the history that you've just described?

I was just going to say,

the hardest thing of all about this is trying to put a value on it.

This is probably, along with maybe the Wimbledon trophy,

the most famous cup in the country.

I think quite comfortably this has got to be worth

-well over £1 million.

-Wow.

The highest value piece of silver

-I have ever valued on the Antiques Roadshow.

-Wow.

I've brought it on behalf of my boyfriend.

He actually dug it up in the garden.

So, just digging a hole one day, to plant some things,

Mum was going to land some things, and found this.

What a fantastic collection of film posters.

Tell me, how did you get them?

Basically my father had a carpet shop

and next door was a video shop.

So I used to spend a lot of time in the video shop basically.

and fortunately, for me, they gave me these posters.

-What do you reckon it is?

-Possibly a cane topper.

-Or something like that.

-Spot on. Looks a bit distressed.

It's silver and it's Norwegian.

It is made by a chap called Muller of Trondheim.

So look at this bearded figure. Like an early Nordic king.

I was a massive fan of Hammer House of Horror films in the 1970s.

And I love that.

It is absolutely fantastic.

I saw this film and I was young

and it scared the living daylights out of me.

Yes, that is when horror films were actually scary rather than gory.

-Yes.

-And then another one that caught my eye, The Italian Job.

Yes, classic.

The imagery on that, do you know,

it so sums up the 1960s, doesn't it? It's fantastic.

-Your boyfriend has dug you up around about £200.

-Fantastic!

Hold on to him, and hold on to that.

Obviously there's a massive following for Hammer films now.

Given the condition of it you are probably looking at

-around £300-£400.

-That's fantastic.

And The Italian Job, slightly more tricky to value,

because it is an Australian version rather than a UK one.

-But I would have thought, £200-£400.

-OK, lovely.

This is such a wonderful, magnificent sofa.

But it is really quite a large size, isn't it?

Yes, my husband brought it home unannounced in the back of the car.

So, hang on, you brought it back unannounced?

I did, yes, I used to work for a large antique dealers.

And I noticed some unusual pieces coming into the warehouse.

And it turned out that they had been shopping abroad

in some of the auction rooms in Europe.

And when I saw it I really liked it so I thought I'd buy it.

-And it fits in your lounge.

-Just!

-We love it.

It doesn't quite fit in the house,

it is quite a stately piece of furniture

and we live in a fairly modest house, but we like it.

But we have plenty of family gatherings

and all the children sit on it and it is a great photo opportunity.

So you've got a photograph in your hand, is that a family photograph?

Yes, this is one of my sons' christenings.

We have all the children sat on the sofa at the family gatherings

and take photographs.

That amazing, how many have you got on there?

-It's extraordinary. What a wonderful centrepiece.

-Quite a few.

Thanks for showing me that, that is glorious.

Well, I am sure people don't realise that it comes to pieces

so that is how you got it into the car.

The back comes off, the seat comes out, and do these arms come off?

They do. They are just pegged underneath.

-Take the pegs out and the arms just lift out.

-So do it yourself, really?

It is, yeah. Flatpack, almost.

The important thing, when you say from a continental house

or something like that, where do you think this comes from?

Well, I am fairly sure that it came from a saleroom in Denmark.

-You think it's Danish?

-Well, on my receipt it's described as Regency.

And by that I assume it means English.

But another dealer did say it was more possibly Biedermeier.

Which I think is like the European equivalent of our Regency.

So I am not sure, really.

Absolutely. Well, it is Biedermeier style.

Biedermeier is German for "plain man".

But this is not plain at all, is it? Quite elaborate.

It is the sort of style that emanated in Berlin and Vienna

and went all the way up into Denmark.

And even further into Russia.

-It was a very popular style at about the 1820s.

-Right.

Which is when I think this was made.

So it is the equivalent of English Regency

but is very definitely Danish.

What I love about it is the veneers here, you have got these...

Well, they are very pretty veneers, mahogany of course.

They are not quite matched, are they?

They are slightly out of kilter.

It was very expensive for them to why this type of wood at the time.

Because this mahogany comes from the Caribbean

and of course there was a blockade of the Baltic fleet.

The English fleet was blockading the whole of that area, Northern Europe.

And luxuries like mahogany couldn't get through.

What I love about this, I mean,

you've got these lovely scrolls here, which were repeated down here.

Sometimes, more northerly than this Danish one,

these would open and you would have little sewing things

or little trinkets inside.

In terms of value, well, you bought that 18 years ago, you say?

That's right. Yeah.

It may not be worth a lot more than you paid for it.

I mean, things haven't gone up a lot.

But my valuation today would be between...

I am nervous about this now. £2000-£3000, something like that.

-Well, OK.

-That's good.

-I paid £800 for it, so that's not too bad.

Well, that's pretty good.

Well, keep on with the family photographs,

come back to the Antiques Roadshow in 20 years' time

and we will see that little boy for his wedding photograph,

-21st birthday or something.

-That would be nice.

-All right.

This dates from the English Civil Wars, it is about 1645.

How did you come by it?

I remember as a child my grandparents' drawing room

on the first floor, which was full of militaria,

the walls were covered, you would have loved it,

covered in swords, and guns, and helmets, and so on...

I can imagine what it looks like.

..and I've inherited a small portion of that.

Well, having said it's from the English Civil Wars,

it is not actually English.

It came from the low countries, the Netherlands, somewhere around that.

There was a big ironworking tradition there

and as soon as the English Civil Wars started, both sides,

both the King's forces, and Parliament's,

they were desperately, desperately short of arms and armour.

So the Dutch thought, well, we better supply these English people,

if they want arms, we will supply them.

It's very interesting, and it's got this big bar on the front.

And that was to protect your nose.

And you could adjust it so you got the right length.

The rest of it is very simple, the skull as we call it,

that covers your head,

that's one piece that had just been stamped out,

and they would have stamped the brow piece out, that little visor,

riveted it on there, put the nose piece on it,

and the other bit that tells you it is reasonably good quality

is the neck piece is made from different plates, so that it moves.

Almost like a lobster's tail.

-Hence the name, lobster pot helmet.

-Yes, exactly.

And as you put your head back like that it moved with you,

and that is a great feature of really well-designed armour,

-that it moves with you.

-Yes.

I would think that if you bought this at auction

you'd be paying probably... £2000-£3000.

-Oh, as much as that?

-Because it is so good.

-Thank you, I'm really fascinated to learn so much about it.

-Thank you.

Well, British Bulldogs,

that's all very well, but they actually are from Austria.

-OK.

-And almost certainly made by

perhaps the greatest exponent of bronze figures,

-from Vienna, Franz Bergman.

-Right.

And his workshops produced literally thousands of different models.

Mainly animals.

He did amphibians, snakes, butterflies,

he did tiny little ants,

but then he did a range of African animals, particularly game species.

So, his designs saw no boundaries.

And of course the realism is what people love.

These are brilliantly observed,

-and really they don't get better than this.

-No, absolutely.

Where on earth did you get this very rare set?

Well, my mother was given them for her 21st birthday

-and that would be 1936.

-Right, what a strange thing to get for your...

Well, it was given by her godfather,

which again gets stranger, doesn't it? Yes.

They've now been left to my son who hasn't actually claimed them

-so, they still live with us, he has not got his inheritance yet.

-OK.

I mean, do you like them?

Yes, we played with them as children, because they stack up,

and we can turn them upside down and stack them up.

So we have all played with them, because they are indestructible!

Yeah, I mean, they are made of bronze. They are cold painted.

And obviously if you were sort of stacking one on top of another

and they fell, you'd obviously chip some of the paint off,

-and I can see that they have played with...

-OK, right.

But, you know, why not? Of course, they are beautifully cast.

I mean you've only got to look at the face of this large brute here

to see all the detail.

The jowls, the beautiful, pimpled sort of snout, the snub nose,

and of course we go from the huge example here

right down to the tiny one.

I mean, was that it, or...?

Well, I think there was talk of a smaller one that went in the hoover,

my mum used to say, but I don't know. I don't know.

-A little tiddly one.

-OK. So these now belong to your son?

-They do, they do.

-So when do you think he is going to acquire them?

-Well, probably after your show!

-If I put enough value on them!

Well, I must say, they are super examples, they date to around 1900.

Right.

So when they were given as a gift they were already 30, 35 years old.

I think if I was putting these in an auction

my auction estimate for the set,

and you normally only find singles,

and to find a big one is unusual...

-Right, right.

-£8000-£12,000.

Really?! Oh, my goodness! I'm sure my son will...

That is really good news, goodness!

A formal portrait, a man dressed in respectable clothes,

looking stalwartly out of the picture,

and he is a factory worker.

-And he's your ancestor?

-Yes.

He is my great, great, great, great grandfather.

He was a friend of Richard Oastler...

The campaigner and reformer.

The campaigner and reformer who was trying to bring in the 10 hour bill,

so that children and young people in the factories

only had to work 10 hours.

-Pitiful, but that in itself would have been a huge advance.

-Yes.

And so these books refer to the campaign by Oastler

to improve the conditions in factories?

And during the campaigning, Oastler was imprisoned

in the Fleet Prison in London

and Robert Pounder wrote to him, well, more than two letters

but two were printed in the Fleet Papers

and then were referenced in other books.

And we only know about him because he wrote some notebooks.

Which was quite an unusual thing to do at that time.

He left school at eight. He went into the factories at eight.

He became the family breadwinner at 13, his father died.

So he was self taught.

Every time he had a little bit of money he bought a book.

A working-class man, self educated, turned into a campaigner,

for this great man, Oastler, who is in prison.

Finally, the act was passed so that children

and young people only had to work for 10 hours.

-Which of course was a huge achievement.

-Yes.

My children said they didn't like him

because his eyes followed them as they came down the stairs!

They do, a bit, don't they?

But it is wonderful, it seems to right the balance.

They are so many portraits of doctors, lawyers,

and military figures of superiority,

but great to get a man who, in a small way,

and, through association with Oastler, in a big way,

changed the culture of industry and factory practices in Britain.

When it comes to a valuation I think it's worth £2,000,

possibly even a £3,000.

It is such a rarity of industrial social history.

Yes. But it won't be going anywhere.

-So his eyes will continue to follow you?

-Yes, well, yes, they will!

One tiny ring, one blue stone, tell me about it.

It was left to me from my very dear friend,

who I'd known for many years, and he passed quite recently.

I'd not seen him for nearly two years though, and I just got

a letter out of the blue saying I had been left a load of his things.

How marvellous.

He was a great man, he collected everything, artwork, jewellery.

He loved jewellery.

When I was very little I used to go into his shop,

he had a shop at the time, and I would go among different objects

knock things over,

the odd time I think I was probably screamed out of the shop

then welcomed back!

And what a lovely thing to leave in memory of him.

-What did you think the blue stone was?

-I thought that was a sapphire.

-And you are right.

-Really?

-Yes.

But it is a much, much more, complicated story than that.

-What else have you noticed about it?

-I know it has got a carving.

I think it is of Julius Caesar.

Well I think it is too, and that is exciting enough, certainly,

and points towards something from Italy, perhaps Rome.

We should just say that sapphires

are the second hardest material known to man

so to carve it in what we call "intaglio",

which means to cut in, is a tour de force, seldom seen.

And what else have you noticed about the ring?

I know it has a little signature on the bottom, it looks like a niggle.

A niggle? Well, it is a niggle!

No, actually it's more than a niggle,

because it is back-to-back C's

and back-to-back C's are the monogram

of possibly the most famous jeweller

working in the 19th century in Europe.

It is the monogram of the Castellani Atelier in Rome.

They were at the Piazza Fontana di Trevi in Rome,

-next to the Trevi fountain, everybody went there...

-I, yeah...

-Have you been there?

-No, God, please, go on.

It operated between 1860 and even as late as 1930.

But everybody went there.

It was a sort of honey pot for the elite of Europe,

without a shadow of doubt.

You have a neoclassical head of Julius Caesar,

carved by the Castellani Atelier, in a tiny signet ring.

So tell me what it means to you.

I wouldn't replace it if you told me it was worth £1,000.

And you couldn't replace it because it is a token of your friendship.

It was.

And I have a funny feeling

he might just have known some part of all this

and perhaps he wanted you to discover it.

His words were, "never let it go".

Well that's pretty good, isn't it?

And these things are very, very touching.

But unfortunately you have to make a choice about something else,

because it is not worth £1,000, it is worth £5,000.

Oh, my God.

-HE LAUGHS

-Wow! That's amazing.

-Hmm.

I'm a very affected by it, and I think you are too, aren't you?

I am, I am stunned, honestly. Wow!

What an emotional story.

And not the only high-value item to grace the roadshow today.

Alistair Dickenson said that's the highest silver valuation

he has ever done on the roadshow, but with this FA Cup

it is the highest evaluation we have ever had on the roadshow.

We have been up to £1 million before,

now we are over £1 million.

With all the FA Cup sporting action in the next few months

I wonder whose hands will next be holding aloft the FA Cup?

But with this one, for now, it is me,

yipee, for the Antiques Roadshow, bye-bye!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE