Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum 2 Antiques Roadshow

Today, the Roadshow marks a welcome return to Glasgow.

The impressive buildings, old and new,

all around the centre say, boldly,

"This is Scotland's largest city."

Sprinkled among these proud statements of architecture

are buildings by Glasgow's most renowned designer -

and a name we often hear on the Antiques Roadshow -

Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

His world-famous masterpiece, the Glasgow School of Art,

is being renovated.

Sadly, early in 2014,

this iconic building made the news because it was devastated by a fire,

completely destroying the Art Nouveau library.

Now, the building is covered in scaffolding,

and is a hive of activity.

Fortunately, many of Mackintosh's works inside

were saved from the fire,

but, still, it will be years before the building is fully restored,

and all this scaffolding comes off.

Luckily for us, just up the road at today's Roadshow venue,

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, there's more Mackintosh to see.

This is just a small selection of his work -

painting, lighting, furniture.

It covers so many disciplines.

There wasn't much that Mackintosh didn't do.

Born in Glasgow, in 1868,

Charles Rennie Mackintosh started his working life as an architect,

taking evening classes in drawing at the Glasgow School of Art.

From here, his talents flourished.

Mackintosh championed the Art Nouveau movement,

a rejection of Victorian fussiness, using nature as an inspiration.

It was about focusing on the pure sculpture of

an object or architecture,

and, in fact, he often painted a lot of his furniture white

so that the colour wouldn't distract from the object itself.

Well, I don't know if we'll see anything by Mackintosh today.

It would be nice if something turned up,

but let's see what the residents of his home city have brought along.

We both know that it weighs what appears to be half a tonne!

It's a hefty piece of glass.

And how long have you been heaving it around the place?

Aye, it's been in our house for about 20 years.

Before that, it was my father-in-law's -

he was a collector -

and it belongs to my mother-in-law, but her house is a bit small now,

so we keep it in our house.

If I turn it upside down,

there's a very interesting mark moulded onto the base.

We haven't been able to find anything about the mark.

My wife was interested to find out, as I was.

We thought, because of the colour of the glass, it might be Lalique,

but it doesn't look like a Lalique mark.

You're wise to dismiss Lalique, because it's not Lalique.

And, although we're in Scotland,

it would be rather nice to think it was Scottish,

but, in fact, it's good news for people watching in Holland...

It's Dutch. ..because it's Dutch. Yes.

The mark on the base is for Leerdam,

and they were, you know, one of the foremost glassworks.

I'm glad to hear that it's from Holland,

cos I spent a lot of time in Holland,

and lived in Haarlem for a wee while, so that's just coincidence,

but it's quite nice to know.

Yeah, it is good to know,

and behind the mask is an interesting sculptress.

Her name was Cornelie Caroline van Asch van Wijck,

which is a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?

It is a bit. And she was aristocracy.

She was a lady. She knocks on the door of Leerdam,

and says "I've sculptured this particular mask.

"Would you be interested?"

And, to their credit, they cast it,

and she actually won a gold medal for this in...

I think it was 1930 in Antwerp.

They made it either to be just as a piece of sculpture,

or they actually put it within a chromed-metal circular mount

as a wall light.

So, if I hold this up to the light,

you will see that she is transformed once the light starts permeating it.

Absolutely. Erm...

Now, I suppose it would be good to know what it might be worth.

Yes. I'd be interested.

I'm here to tell you that this is worth

in the region of ?3,000.

Good grief!

That is... That was totally unexpected.

I'm sure my father-in-law bought it for a few quid somewhere

in an auction. That's fabulous.

Now, some of us know the Glasgow Boys,

but not all of us know the Glasgow Girls,

and here we've got a watercolour by Norah Neilson-Gray

and, I must say, I think it's completely lovely.

The design of it is just breathtakingly simple and charming

and, yet, it's a sophisticated picture.

It's about, I think, from the early 1920s,

just after the war.

It's yours? We got it at an auction about a year and a bit ago.

Oh, really quite recent? Yes. Yeah, yeah...

And what appealed to you about it?

Probably, just, what you've just mentioned,

and the fact of the colours and the mood it engenders,

and the, sort of, pointillist effect that she had,

and that it was just very attractive.

It's very clever, that, isn't it?

Because you see these broad blocks of colour?

They're very much influenced by Japanese wood-block prints.

That's how the colours appear,

and then you look at them and they're deeply textured.

There's the area, here, for example,

consists of many, many dabs of paint,

like a pointillist picture.

So, what at first sight looks flat, is, in fact, multi-textural.

It goes right the way back,

and I love these trees, which are just so, sort of,

well, they're so Glasgow - so Mackintosh.

Very much so, yeah. They're just amazing.

It's called October In The Highlands. Yes.

Very, very beautiful.

And these two very pretty, little children

and their extremely pretty mother, I assume.

I love the reflection of the heather in the water, don't you?

Just the whole thing is lovely, and all the...

The way she's balanced that up is just beautiful.

So, in that sale, there must have been other Glasgow pictures,

and you plumped for this one?

Yes, we did. We...

I went with my son and my wife,

and they both thought it was by far the best picture.

And what did this make? About ?2,000.

?2,000? Well, yeah, well, we'll come to that.

What do you think about the frame?

It's an incredibly wide mount, isn't it?

I presumed that was original. It certainly looked it,

but, certainly, I felt that probably was original.

I think it's very original, as well.

And do you know what her nickname at art school was? I don't.

She was called "Purple Patch",

because she insisted that her students

look for colour in the darks,

because that's where you found the most tonal range,

and when you look at this picture, you can actually see that.

She's really looking for a great deal of differences in colour -

in her clothes, there, and in some of the darker areas of the picture.

The whole thing is a synthesis of different ideas

that work incredibly well.

So, you only bought it a year and a half ago, and you paid ?2,000,

so it would be crazy of me to put 3,000-5,000

or even, God forbid, ?4,000-?6,000 on it, wouldn't it?

Yes, I would think so.

I'm nonetheless going to do that, ?4,000-?6,000. Right.

That's lovely. And the reason I'm going to do it is because

I don't think anyone was looking at it properly, except for you.

I think it's the most ravishing thing

and, if that came up in London, I think it would do that now.

That's very interesting. Thanks very much, indeed.

It's small. It's battered.

Yeah, it is.

It's broken. Yes.

It's worn... Very.

..but it's amazing.

Is it? It's amazing, yes.

OK. What made you bring it here?

It was the last thing I put in my bag this morning.

But what made you put it in your bag?

It's just, the kids have played with it for years,

in with their farm toys...

Really? ..and when they grew out of the farm toys, it went into a box...

My goodness. ..and then it just, sort of, sat in the cupboard.

Have you any idea where it's from?

No. My grandparents had it

and when they moved into an old-age home, years ago -

And it just was a toy for the children.

Shall I tell you where it's from?

OK, yes. It's from Africa.

Oh! OK.

It's Ashanti. Right.

Wow. And this would have been put on one side of the scales...

Uh-huh. ..while the gold dust would be in a pan, on the other...

Right. ..and the buyer and the seller would know exactly

how much gold the weight of this represented.

OK. And they were always made figuratively

and they represented myths and legends in their culture.

This is probably the nicest one I've ever seen.

Wow.

Erm, it's an equestrian figure.

Yeah.

Equestrian figures represent high status.

Not many people in Africa rode horses.

Right. Its legs are broken...

Yes. ..but it's still amazing.

Right. This is exactly the sort of thing

that influenced modern 20th-century sculptors,

like the Giacometti brothers, Diego and Alberto,

Henry Moore, John Skeaping... Gosh.

They looked at things like this and it inspired them to

make all the wonderful bronzes you seen now...

Wow. ..that are all part of our culture.

People like Barbara Hepworth would... Yes.

..rub and hone things down until they had a beautiful surface

to them, just like this.

The surface is everything.

Its reduced, primitive simplicity

is what they were searching for in their works.

It's small, but monumental. Uh-huh.

So it shouldn't have been in the farm, with the kids' toys?

Well, at least it was used and enjoyed. Definitely.

But this, I can't determine its age properly.

I would say it was 18th-century.

He's got a quirt, can you see, holding here,

whipping the buttocks of the horse? Yeah. OK.

A nice, equestrian Ashanti bronze of the normal type -

it's probably ?150.

Oh, that's exciting. I would stick my neck out with this

and I would think this could make...

?1,000-?1,500.

Oh, my!

OK. I was excited at 100!

Well, it's more than ten times that, in my opinion. Gosh.

I think it's the most beautiful Ashanti gold weight

I have ever seen.

You have made my day.

Oh, I'm glad. I know. You've made my day!

Wow! I'm glad I stuck it in my bag.

I'm so glad you did too.

You know what's quite poignant,

when you look at old jewellery,

is that you realise that they are

a representation of the time that they were made.

When such pieces like this would have been worn very frequently,

you know, a lady would have gone out to some great ball or function -

a cocktail party -

and then they would have worn their diamond watch,

and their diamond brooch,

and they would have carried their powder compact with them.

Now, I'm assuming, therefore,

that these would have been worn by someone that was in your family?

They were my aunt's and she married a wealthy Egyptian in the '40s,

and these were parts of her treasure trove, I guess, from that period.

These have been kept in a safety deposit box for many years,

and I'm just interested to find out

a little bit of their history, really.

Well, I'm going to come on to these two pieces in a moment,

but I just wanted to talk about this, which is a powder compact.

Yeah. Powder compacts somehow evoke

the age that they were really being used.

It's very pretty. You've got this silver-coloured frame,

and then you've got this detail of the two birds in gold,

with little rubies.

Now, we are careful how we open it, not to get the cloud of powder.

There we are.

If I rub away at the edge,

I can see a word there... Uh-huh. Yes. Right.

..and that word is "Boucheron, Paris".

Wow.

Now, Boucheron is one of the great makers...

Yeah. Mmm-hmm. ..and in the 1940s...

Mmm-hmm. ..actually during the war years,

they used to make these powder compacts,

and they were very popular.

And, you know, we need to remember that business went on in the 1940s,

but they... Yeah.

They made the frames, not in silver or white gold or platinum,

they made them in white metal, because there was no money about

and there wasn't the precious metal. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, the watch. Cocktail watches were all the rage

from around about 1925 right the way through,

certainly till the war years. Mmm-hmm.

It's mounted up in platinum.

It's set throughout with diamonds,

typically in a rectangular shape. Yeah.

This watch, when you look at it with a lens,

it's signed "Vacheron Constantin", one of the great makers.

So, here we've got a lady

who doesn't only have very chic items... Mm-hmm.

..but she's had them made for her

by some of the top, leading houses of the day. Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.

Let's move on to the third component of this group. Yeah.

Double-clip brooches were the look of the Deco period. Yeah.

You would wear a smart little jacket -

let's suppose it was navy or black -

and then you would remove the clips

by splitting them into two components... Yeah.

..and then you would put one on each lapel of your jacket,

and you can imagine how chic - how smart. Yeah. Yeah.

So, she'd go to this ball or function

wearing her Vacheron diamond watch,

her Boucheron powder compact and her diamond double-clips.

She was some girl. Mmm-hmm.

Now, white metal - it's not silver.

This box is probably worth ?1,000-?1,500...

Mmm. Wow. Very good. ..or something like that.

The watch, because it's by such a fine manufacturer...

?3,000-?4,000. Whoa. Wow.

Now, the double-clip, in this light,

can you see how white the diamonds are? Yes. Yeah.

They are a combination of brilliant-cut stones

and baguette-cut stones, mounted up in platinum.

I can tell you, having looked at them with my lens,

they are beautiful.

?8,000-?10,000. Wow! Wow.

So, combined value...

?12,000-?15,000.

Fantastic. Amazing.

This is a great little book by Yoko Ono, called Grapefruit... Yeah.

..and it's a, kind of, a little collection of poems and missives

and things like that. Very little poems, some of them -

like one-liners, one-worders. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's very interesting but, actually, what's more interesting about it is

that when I open it up, I notice that it's actually

signed by Yoko Ono and John Lennon, so what's the story?

I was on holiday with my family when I was 15,

and we were in Oxford Street in London. Right, yes.

There was a commotion outside of Selfridges book department. Yes.

It's happened to be a signing session. Right.

We were told we weren't getting in,

but I climbed under the policemen's legs.

My dad threw me a 50p piece.

The door got closed - I was the last one in.

My brother, my wee brother had his nose against the window,

but no luck. Uh-huh.

So I got in, stood in the queue, and after John Lennon had signed it,

he signed it first, I went to take it back

and he immediately took it back and he said,

"Do you not want Yoko to sign it?"

"I'm sorry, sorry, sorry!" Brilliant.

But they were both excellent.

And what's brilliant about it is that it's worth...

?300-?500.

These came out of a box.

Yes. And you paid how much for the box?

?40. Oh, dear. Mmm-hmm?

These are worth ?1. Yes. I hope the rest of the box was good.

Right, yes. And this?

Yes, in with another two or three items, ?28.

Do you know what it is?

A parrot.

A parrot?

I haven't seen a parrot like this for a very long time... Really?

..alive or dead. Right.

Fantastic colours. Mmm-hmm.

I think he's probably around 1780. Right.

He belongs to a group we called Prattware. Right.

Prattware was made all over Staffordshire... Yes.

..into Yorkshire, and even up into Scotland.

I know his wing is broken, but he is very lovely and naive,

that's what people want. He is very naive, yeah.

I would say, you know,

you'd be lucky to buy this for...

?300. ?300.

We've just unpacked this, to my eye, magnificent silver tea service,

from what looks like a storage box,

almost like it's been stored away for a while.

It's been stored in a box since the 1950s,

when the tea set came to my family from another family who owed a debt,

and it was stored in the bank for many years, unknown to us,

until the bank were moving,

and they phoned my parents to say they had this tea set,

and could we come and collect it?

Time to come and move it, yes.

But, obviously it's not been cleaned particularly recently.

Is it something that you now use,

now that you've brought it out of the bank?

No, we don't. We haven't used it.

I mean, is there a reason for that? You just...?

Just, it looks too good to use.

It looks too good to use.

It's made by a firm called West Son of Dublin.

Now, they are top-range Dublin silversmiths,

going back into the 19th century - this is a bit later.

And they made things for the Great Exhibition in 1851.

They copied a lot of medieval-style brooches,

all with this heavy Celtic influence.

Now, this dates from around 1912 -

we've had a look at the hallmarks -

and that ties in with their style for this period.

It's a heavy, heavy gauge of silver, you've probably noticed. Yes.

you would find that that pours,

for instance, the teapot, very nicely.

which is an unusual thing to get nowadays.

when I said Celtic, you'll know what we mean by this -

intertwined, interlaced decoration. Yes.

But, also, the feet,

which I think really lift it into something special.

These, they call it zoomorphic style,

so it's mythical beasts, basically... Mmm-hmm.

..and the same is on the spout of the tea kettle here.

And the thing I like about this is

it's still got the original spirit burner and stand,

so, thinking about the practicality of it,

this would keep the teapot hot using the little spirit burner underneath.

So, it's been carefully thought out

and very carefully constructed. Mmm-hmm.

If that came on the market today,

we'd be looking at an estimate of about...

?2,500-?3,000. Mmm-hmm.

So, it's a good tea set of its type. Yes.

Most tea services are not worth that much. OK.

So, I would not implore you, but urge you, to consider,

For me, one of the most wonderful things about being on

the Antiques Roadshow is that, every time I go on the Roadshow,

I see something I've never seen before,

and here we have the perfect example of

Let's start with the things that I can tell us about,

The handles, of course - this lovely repousse handle.

So, a Scottish piece of furniture,

at least made, perhaps, for a Scotsman. Yes.

More handles on the sides - these lovely brass handles,

suggesting it was made for carrying around. Yes. Yes.

What a heavy thing to carry around.

Quite heavy, yes.

So, what does it do? Let's just quickly open it.

We've got these lopers, as they're called - bureau-type lopers.

This opens up.

So you've got a writing desk, baize-lined.

Lots of little areas for inks and things like that.

It's been well used -

it's not a piece that's been made and stuck in a house and never used.

Mmm-hmm. What history do you have on it?

Well, my parents were given a gift of ?50 sometime in the late '50s.

They went to an antique shop in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh,

which was closing down,

so I hope that meant they got a bargain.

We wondered if it was something in an estate office,

where they maybe had to use it as a desk sometimes,

but it's not been used all the time.

Also, the height of it -

this isn't a height that you would sit at.

It's probably more you're standing,

paying out wages, something like that.

Therefore, they might have taken it from one part of

the estate to another. Yes.

That's a very interesting point - didn't occur to me at all.

But, in that case, why does it have this bottom drawer,

which I had a sneak preview at? Ah, well, that's the mystery.

Why, why do you carry...?

Presumably that's made for bottles.

Well, maybe you want a dram at the end of the day.

That's...

My first reaction when I saw it was

imagining this is in an officers' mess or something like that,

and with the bottle carriers. Yes.

You know those big sideboards? Yes.

They have a drawer like this, a fitted drawer on the one side.

On the other side, it's for a chamber pot.

Ah, so, at the end of the day,

you were fully equipped for anything that would happen.

When the ladies retired. I'm sure that's what it's for, so... Wow.

..perhaps it was used more for an office or something like that,

as a type of campaign piece, I don't know. Right.

So, ?50.

Yup.

Mahogany furniture like this, Georgian furniture,

it's, about, made in roughly 1800,

from the style of the manufacturer... Yes.

..is not popular.

But, it's so unusual,

and I think the handles will lift it a little bit. Yes.

The Scottish handles. Yes.

?2,000.

That sounds fair enough, yes.

I mean, we're hanging onto it.

You know, it's a family piece.

My brother has it now in Glasgow. It used to live in Edinburgh, but...

So I don't think we're wanting to move it on,

but it's interesting to know what you think.

So, it's not going south of the border?

No, no, no.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Some people say swords can't possibly be romantic,

but this one is, and it's got a really romantic story.

When I got engaged to my husband some 50-odd years ago,

I wanted to give him a gift to impress him.

He collected weapons, so I bought him this sword,

which seemed to please him.

I'm not surprised.

I mean, I think that's just a wonderful thing.

Most people give rings or something dreadful.

You gave him this.

Yes. You've got excellent taste. SHE LAUGHS

This is the 1803 pattern infantry sword.

This one is for general or staff officers. Uh-huh.

Oh, right. It's incredibly high-quality.

Oh, right. You've got fire-blue and gilt decoration.

Uh-huh. Stirrup-hilted, in the shape of a stirrup.

Ivory grip - that gives us the clue

it's a general or staff officer's sword. Uh-huh.

Top, top-quality sword.

Oh, right. In terms of, and we'll talk about it as a sword,

as a fighting weapon, erm, no. Uh-huh.

With a curve on it like that,

it's almost impossible to do anything with.

It's a badge of office. Oh, right.

And if we'll just turn it,

without me cutting your fingers off,

the blue on that side is possibly even better. Yes.

This is heat-blued,

but you can see the huge curve on it.

Yes.

When you bought it, what did you pay for it then?

It wouldn't be much money cos I didn't have much money then.

Fine. Well, whatever you paid for it,

it's probably gone up in value a little bit. Mmm-hmm.

I would think, a sword like this, wonderful quality, beautifully made,

I think that's...

?2,500 worth. Oh, wow.

Excellent.

I've brought a pot that's been in my family,

passed down from our Aunt Kitty... OK.

..and we call it "the ugly pot".

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

and there are some people who would think this was a beautiful pot,

rather than an ugly pot,

and I'll tell you why.

It's a double-gourd vase,

but what we have on the base

is this magic name of Christopher Dresser,

and Christopher Dresser was an extremely futuristic designer,

because this probably dates from 1880,

made for the Ault Company.

Christopher Dresser designed for Linthorpe.

He designed textiles, furniture...

He was a big name in design circles.

These are maybe a, sort of, strange gazelle creature

with one of its feet -

you see this on a lot of his furniture

and a lot of pieces of furniture.

And then, these are South American designs.

Christopher Dresser travelled all around the world,

taking bits of Peruvian, bits of Japanese, bits of all other places,

countries, and merging them all together,

and now he is part of British design,

so we've been all around the world,

brought it all together, and now we're British.

But, what do you think about it, personally?

I wouldn't sleep with it on the bedside table.

But there's a lot of people

who would sleep with it on the bedside table

and, for that reason, it's got a value,

and I found that one recently sold...

for ?2,000.

You may have noticed there's a little bit of damage on it.

Your grandfather, who's taken his drill to this,

has put a hole in it, to drill it as a bedside lamp,

so this ugly pot is worth...

?1,000.

I can't tell you how lucky I feel.

First of all, here we are at Kelvingrove,

and you've brought in two oil paintings

by one of my favourite Scottish painters, William McTaggart.

Now, they look in wonderful, original condition.

They look like they've probably been with you for a long time.

Tell me a little bit of the history you have.

Well, William McTaggart was my great-grandfather,

so they've come to me through my mother, obviously,

who is his granddaughter,

and they've been in the family all the time. They've never left.

And they must be cherished.

Oh, very much so, yeah.

He's such a unique artist, William McTaggart -

there's no-one quite like him -

and I remember when I was about 17 or 18,

as soon as I passed my driving test, the first thing I did -

I loved the Glasgow Boys -

I got into my mother's car and drove all the way up to Scotland

and went around all the major galleries,

Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow,

and I discovered McTaggart and his contemporaries.

And there's something so unique and special about his style.

What do you like about his work?

There's a life in all of them.

I particularly like the seascapes he does,

cos it's as if the water is actually moving when you look at them.

Yes. But there's always something going on

and, in many cases, you actually have to look to find it,

because of his style of painting.

You know, sometimes the paintings are easier to see

when you stand a wee bit further away from them. Yes.

Of course, he was born in 1835,

and is he is recognised as the Scottish impressionist artist.

That's because he paints such a free-flowing style.

I suspect these are probably around 1890-1900 in date.

If we look at the little oil on panel over by your side...

All those whites, that's really the panel that's prepared -

the white preparation. Right, right.

And he rather cleverly uses very little paint

to create amazing energy from the sea,

but also the figures are hustled in that boat. Indeed, yeah.

And, of course, they've had a good time, haven't they? Very much, yes.

The boat's full of herrings. Yeah.

He gets an incredible energy.

No, I like it, it's very lively.

so, with the painting that is nearest to me,

you've got probably a study for a much larger canvas...

Yes, that's true. ..which is bustled with activity and energy,

but again, the canvas is used as part of the picture,

and the human element seems to, sort of,

form part of the seascape and landscape.

These figures are almost abstract in the way they're painted. Yes, yes.

You really can sense what's going on.

This lovely figurative group in the boat, in the foreground.

The sails, the masts...

The figure flying the, sort of, white handkerchief

in the foreground on the left,

and you can sense there's a real energy, and wind,

and the weather is really proving itself.

Absolutely, yes, yes. Yes.

I have seen photographs of him on the beach... Yes.

..you know, with the canvas there and the wind blowing around.

and all you could see was the son's legs,

to stop it blowing away.

There's the influence, perhaps, of Constable and Turner in his skies.

Just wonderful. Good, well, thank you.

The little finished oil on panel, even though it's a...

It's kind of a finished sketch.

I'd say ?6,000-?8,000.

Well, thank you very much.

But they are delicious... Well...

So, the language of this glass is pretty clear.

We have, on one side, "James Carmichael" -

a nice Scottish name.

"Dundee".

"1871".

And just a wodge of Masonic insignia.

So, where does it fit into your life?

Cos you don't look like a Mason.

Well, I don't know who James Carmichael is,

but it's my great-grandad's, and it's...

who's asked me to bring it here, today.

Sweet. Well, I'm sure that everything about it makes sense.

This is 150 years old.

and it's interesting that...

I was just doing a little bit of basic research on

Scottish Masonry, and the Masons were founded in Scotland.

It is a Scottish organisation, originally. Oh, right.

It's spread all over the world now, and now it's an international one,

and Robbie Burns was an ardent Mason.

He's famous for one of...

I mean, other than his poetry, he's famous for being a Mason.

And this idea of your wee dram in your tumbler at the Masonic lodge,

I mean, it must be a common language to all,

What's charming about it is the execution of the engraving,

and that really means, if you imagine a ballpoint pen,

but you replace the little ball with a diamond,

You're breaking through the surface of the glass to leave that pattern.

Oh, it's very naive.

This is not the finest engraving,

but I'm sure it was a friend of the Lodge.

It would be a member of the lodge, probably, who was turning them out

for the, you know, for his fellow members.

So, do you ever use it? Was it stuck in the back of the cupboard or...?

Oh, yeah, it was just in a dressing table.

Oh, it's a shame. I do hate glasses that sleep too much.

You know, I like glasses that do a bit of work.

You know, fill it up and...

And I'm not suggesting you have it every...

have your orange juice in it every day or whatever,

but I think a little historic glass like that is really charming,

and it's a, kind of, connection to history.

The value's not astounding.

I mean, it's, what? ?100 or something.

But I just think it's a pretty sweet thing.

Great, thanks for bringing it in.

Thank you.

I'm a great collector of grand tour souvenirs -

I love everything classical and neoclassical -

and this appealed to me immediately,

that I saw this bust,

but, before we go into it,

I want you to tell me what you know about it.

Well, we found him in the garden of a house we moved into

in 1959. You found him in the garden?

That was a good find. Yes, it was just in a border.

Yes. Very dirty,

so I took him into the house and scrubbed him up,

and he came up nice.

What did you scrub him with?

Just soap and a scrubbing brush, I think.

Well, I'm sure you know he's made of marble.

I think that, when he was originally made,

he would have had quite a good polished finish to him.

I would think so, yes. Do you know who he is?

I think he's Antonius,

who was the lover of the Emperor Hadrian,

cos my daughter has done some research on him.

You did a little bit of research, did you? Yes.

I absolutely agree with you, I think it's Antonius,

and he's a rather good-looking young man, isn't he? He is, indeed.

This is a famous classical pose,

always portrayed with this wreath. Yes.

And we can see, actually, that while it was out in the garden,

it probably suffered a little bit, because there are various

chips off of the ivy leaves and things. Yes, yes.

But, intrinsically, he's still in pretty good condition,

I have to say. Yeah.

He's 19th-century.

I think he's probably mid-19th century. Yeah.

He would have been picked up, perhaps in Rome,

by someone on the grand tour,

as they were touring all the main classical sites,

and he would have made a handsome addition to

any kind of library in a grand house,

and I think he's rather lovely. Yes.

Now, for that reason, because he's such a desirable-looking image,

and because he's marble, he does have quite good value.

I think, given that his finish isn't quite as good as it could be,

and there are a few little chips and knocks,

so I'm going to put an auction value of...

?1,200-?1,800 on it.

Oh, yes, yes.

So, not bad for something that you found in the flower bed. It's not.

It isn't, no, not bad at all,

nut he's been one of the family for many years.

Where does he sit now?

Beside the fireplace. That sounds like a nice spot for him.

Do you know what this is?

Yes, I do. It's a 17th-century Scottish quaich,

so it's a drinking vessel. It's a cup.

Absolutely right.

Specifically, the quaich was used for drinking whisky,

but it was also

the traditional present that was given at a marriage

and, if we look at the handle here,

we can see the initials of the original happy couple.

But, you also rightly said that it's 17th-century,

and any Scottish silver made before 1700 is pretty rare.

Now, this is very much the standard form of quaich,

except for one rather tragic, lacking part.

It's missing a handle at the front here.

What happened to that? Do you know?

I've got no idea.

It was like this when it was given to me,

and I have seen another one,

in the Burrell Collection in Glasgow,

and it has two handles... Yeah.

..and I can see there's damage there

and I know there's something missing.

Well, rather sadly, you know,

that has a very serious effect to the value,

which we'll come on to in a moment. Yeah.

So, here, we can see it's lined to look like wooden staves,

because the early ones were often made in wood... Yeah.

..and so they've engraved the silver up to look like that.

It's got the maker's mark, "GY", for George Yorston.

It's got the Edinburgh mark, so it was hallmarked in Edinburgh.

It's got the assay master's mark of John Borthwick,

and the date letter for 1686.

So, this is a really early quaich... Yes.

..but, tragically, something very serious has happened to it.

You haven't got the handle lying around at home, have you?

No. No.

Oh, that is such a shame,

because Yorston is a fairly unusual maker,

and if this was, you know,

absolutely complete and in a really good, original state...

Yeah, yeah. ..we would be looking at something very special,

but it's got great blobs of solder around at the front here,

where the handle has somehow been broken off. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, it almost breaks my heart to tell you what this might be worth

if it was in perfect condition. Yeah.

That's OK. Go ahead.

About ?8,000-?10,000. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

But, in this condition, I'm really sorry, it's more like...

?2,000. Yeah.

Yeah, which is absolutely fine.

I want you to imagine Paris circa 1900.

It was a city that was really at the centre of the design world.

Art Nouveau was at its absolute pinnacle,

and what I'm holding is a wonderful example of that golden period.

We're talking French porcelain,

from their leading manufacturer, Sevres, circa 1900.

So, before I go any further, I've got to ask,

how did it end up here in Glasgow?

It was in a box that I bought at auction

for some clocks and clock parts,

cos my hobby is repairing old clocks.

I've got to ask you the question, how much was the box?

I probably paid about ?10 or ?15.

If we look underneath, there are a couple of lovely marks, there.

We've got an Sevres back-stamp,

absolutely right for that period,

and then, just along the rim, we've got even more detail here -

a double code there of "00", for 1900,

a number "9", which is for the month of September,

and then "PN" for pate-nouvelle.

The body itself is decorated in a technique called pate-sur-pate,

which was actually developed at Sevres

in the middle of the 19th century,

and it's a painstaking process, where layer upon layer of

liquid slip is painted to give a slight 3-D effect.

In terms of the designer, it's not marked, which is really frustrating.

If I had to hang my hat,

it's very much in the style of an artist called Genevieve Rault.

This fluid, floral style is very much in her style.

The one thing that is a great shame -

as I turn the neck round,

we have got two chips there on the top.

The more frustrating thing is,

they look really clean and really fresh,

which makes me wonder,

did they happen at the point when this vase

got thrown into a box with a load of clocks?

It wasn't me, and it was chipped when I got it.

That's all right. I...

LAUGHTER

..I'm not looking to blame. I'm not looking to blame.

You bought a box for ?10 or ?15.

You got the clocks out of it that you wanted,

and this was a bonus. Yes.

OK. Well, in this condition,

your bonus is going to be worth somewhere between ?500-?800.

Oh.

That's good.

Very pleasing.

So, what we have here, in a nutshell,

is a French, inlaid-mahogany portico clock,

but what particularly struck me about this clock is,

well, the pendulum should be hanging there,

but we've got it right here

and, on the pendulum,

we've got the names "John Pascoe" and "James Jennings".

Now, I understand that John Pasco was Nelson's flag lieutenant,

who hoisted "England expects every man to do his duty this day".

Now, whether that is fact or not, I do not know,

and it's come down the family, and it's come to me.

John Pasco was, we believe,

the signals officer on HMS Victory in 1805 at Trafalgar...

Yeah, yeah.

..and then, subsequently, he gave it to James Jennings,

and I suspect that 1853 is the date of manufacture for the clock,

because stylistically that's exactly the sort of date it would be.

I mean, it's a fascinating history.

If that's true, it really is interesting, isn't it?

But, actually, there are some points about this clock

that are quite interesting, too.

The first is, have you noticed how the dial,

which is beautifully engraved with flowers and then gilded,

the seconds and the minutes and the hours are all subdivided?

It's called a regulator dial... Mmm-hmm.

..and the reason is so you can tell more precise time,

so you can look for every second if you want to,

or you can look at every minute if you want to,

rather than the minutes and the hours and seconds being melded up.

Interesting, yeah. And it's a clever way of portraying it,

but, actually, most people find it slightly annoying,

because it's actually quite difficult to read the time.

Do you have any memories of it, back in your time,

in your childhood, at all?

Not really. I remember it being in the house.

Erm...

My mother had it on display, if you like,

but she had it in the room, and...

Did it have a dome at that time?

It had a glass dome, which has got broken. Ah-hah. OK.

There's a little door on the side of the case, here.

Have you noticed that? No, and I've never opened it.

And you've never opened it? No.

I actually unscrewed a couple of screws, there.

Right, OK. If we lift this off...

inside the clock is a music box.

Interesting. And you didn't know that?

I didn't know that, no.

To wind the movement up, you've got to open the door on the side here...

Yeah. ..and I know that we can't do that, but, normally,

you would open the door, wind it up and set it,

and either the clock would set the music off at a certain time,

usually on the hour,

or, in this case, you can also set it off manually.

It's Swiss-made, and the clock itself is French.

It's going to take a little bit of restoring. Mmm-hmm.

Apart from the fact that it needs a glass dome,

and it needs a jolly good clean -

and it'll look a lot nicer when it is -

the musical movement, they cost a little bit of money to do.

Hundreds of pounds to have cleaned, because it's a bit painstaking,

but I would say, in this case, it's going to be worth it.

In this sort of condition,

it's worth at auction between ?3,000-?5,000.

About 4,000 quid.

In perfect condition,

with a really great dome that fits it well,

with the musical movement working perfectly and a bit of a dust-down,

it would be worth between ?6,000-?8,000.

Interesting. Very interesting.

This is making me feel rather like Dame Edna,

so, they look beautiful, but I think I'll take them off.

How did you start collecting these?

Well, I've always loved vintage

and I have always managed to pick up some nice vintage sunglasses.

This particular collection, which is some very, very good names,

was something I acquired just a few years ago at a car boot sale

here in Glasgow,

and there was a woman whose mother had passed away

and she was clearing out her possessions.

And I, just by chance, passing her stall,

saw the little corner of a glasses case sticking out,

and I'd forgotten my sunglasses,

so I thought I'd take a look and out came a pair of Yves Saint Laurent.

I was kind of in disbelief, and she said, "Oh, have another dig."

Another pair of Yves Saint Laurent.

And, suddenly, I could see there was half a box of sunglasses

and I slightly lost it at that point,

but, for the sake of a bargain, kept it cool, to a degree.

So, how much did you pay?

I paid ?5 per pair.

Because you have really got some of the great names.

You've got Christian Dior, as you said, Yves Saint Laurent,

and some French makes, and they are quite distinctive. Mmm-hmm.

Yeah. The great thing about buying vintage is that

you're a one-off, aren't you?

You don't walk down the street and see everybody else wearing them,

and I'm fascinated by this particular style of sunglasses,

because they're quite distinctive.

Yeah. So that was just, they... They suit you?

I just thought they were so beautiful that

it would be crazy not to take them as well.

They just... They're so stylish, and...

Well, I mean, this is the age of glamour, isn't it?

Yeah. From the '50s on,

people loved wearing really decorative, big things.

You know, not these little...

tiny, little sunglasses we tend to wear now.

These are really a statement... Absolutely.

So, you paid ?5 each and there are seven of them... Yes.

..so you paid ?35.

Of course, vintage has become even more fashionable now.

People love these, and I reckon most of these are...

between ?50-?100 each.

Oh, wow.

So, it's not a bad investment. No.

But the great thing is that you wear them, too. Oh, I do.

I love wearing them.

Originally, it came from my great-uncle,

who ran an antique, second-hand store in Glasgow,

and he gave it to my father when he was a boy... Mmm-hmm.

..probably in the late 1920s, early '30s... Yeah.

..and now it's come to me.

But, this fabulous, five-masted clipper in here

is a late 19th-century model.

It has quite a bit of value, to be honest with you.

You know, to a really good, kind of,

ship-in-a-bottle collector or a folk art collector,

this is worth ?400-?600.

Very nice.

Two pairs of very shiny cloisonne vases from Japan.

Now, how did you get these?

They belonged to my husband's grandmother

and, after she passed away, we inherited them,

so I really don't know how she came about to get them,

or anything about them.

You have a copper vase,

you decide what design you want -

it's probably been designed on a piece of paper first of all -

and then you send your workmen to make outlines of the design in,

in this case, silver and bronze wire.

These wires are actually individually soldered

on to the copper core.

OK. OK?

And once the whole design has been completed, including all the leaves,

all the stems, the feathers on the eagles,

once all of those outlines have been soldered on,

you then pass it on to the enameller...

OK.

..and the enameller drops enamel colour into the cloissones -

the cells that make up the design. OK.

Then, when they've done that,

they present it into a furnace, where the enamels shrink,

the glass enamels shrink, and then you take it out,

and you have to add more enamels, cos they shrank,

more until the wires disappear.

You then polish the whole vase

and you reduce those enamels,

that were beginning to bubble up over the surface,

until the wires reappear.

It's an incredibly complicated process... Fascinating, wow.

..but these are particularly good.

And, you can see, I mean,

can you just imagine soldering individually

or sticking these little wires on? Hmm. The detail, hmm.

And the beauty of those vases is you've got a perfect pair.

Eagles among rocks and trees,

and then, over here, another pair.

Erm...

These are sort of mythical birds - what the Japanese call Hou-ou -

and look at the variety of the colours they've used.

I mean, I've tried to count the colours.

I've come to 15 different enamel colours,

including this sparkling one that, you know, that glitters...

Yes, I noticed that one. Yeah. ..which we call aventurine.

And, on these, you've got the added bonus of

the lovely little finials in the form of chrysanthemums.

Now, this is cloisonne work from Japan around the year 1900.

That is the absolute peak of perfection.

I can't put an absolute certainty on the artist,

but there's one particular artist

who is very good, who very often signs,

who is called Namikawa Sosuke,

and I have to say that these two near you

are very, very much in his style.

OK. Do you like them?

Yes, they're beautiful.

I mean, they are absolutely exquisite examples

of cloisonne work.

I don't think anybody has ever made better cloisonne

than the Japanese around this period.

Once you bruise cloisonne, it's impossible to repair.

You can plug a bruise.

In fact, on this one here, that happened,

probably shortly after they were made,

with a lacquer repair just there... Hmm.

OK. OK. ..and that makes a difference to the value.

I think that this little pair here

is probably worth somewhere in the region of...

somewhere between ?2,000-?4,000.

Wow.

OK. Hmm.

And the damaged pair, which I think is quite likely Namikawa Sosuke,

because of the damage,

I think we're going to say...

?3,000-?5,000.

With the damage. Yeah. Wow.

They're still very, very nice objects.

Yeah, they're beautiful. So, together,

you've got a little collection that's certainly worth...

?5,000-?8,000.

Wow.

Amazing.

Well, now, here's a very 1950s portrait,

and it's by an artist I don't know called "Mackintosh",

and it screams the 1950s at me,

which makes me think it must be your mum. Is that true?

Yeah, this is my mum - this is Maudey. Oh.

Maudey was 19 in this painting.

My mum worked in a chip shop

in Riddrie in the east end of Glasgow at the time,

and because she was so pretty and so beautiful,

there was a young artist called John Mackintosh

who came into the chip shop and asked to paint her.

So, he painted this beautiful portrait,

which we've always had in the house,

but he also painted a full-length painting of her in a white dress

and we don't where that is,

and it would be wonderful to find out a bit more about that. Ah.

Well, you never know.

So, what was she like, your mother?

My mum was the most fun, beautiful, lovely, kind woman.

I never met anybody who didn't like her,

but she had a wonderful sense of humour... Did she?

..and just loved her family, yeah.

Now, tell me, I haven't been able to find out much about the artist.

Have you? Have you done any homework?

Yeah, well, last year my mum was very ill

and we decided to find out a bit more about John Mackintosh,

and the Glasgow School of Art here were great.

He was a student there.

He was an award-winning student at Glasgow School of Art,

and he has a self-portrait that was donated to the Glasgow School of Art

hanging up there.

Yeah, so he is a recognised artist? Yeah.

But how come I haven't heard of him?

Well, one of the sad things that we found out,

my mum always remembers that he had a studio in Bath Street,

and at the time he was painting the people...

the people from... the celebrities of the time.

Oh, so he was doing very well? He was doing very well,

but when we started doing research, we seen that he died at 35.

Oh, that is young. That might account for it.

So, this is a really youthful work, anyway, of a youthful person,

and it's absolutely luminous in colour, isn't it?

It screams the date at you.

Yes, but... But that must have been the height of fashion at the time.

because that's not very complimentary,

You know, it really sets off her hair and her eyes

almost like a cigarette postcard idea of a very pretty girl

at the time, isn't it?

And, for that reason, it's going to work anywhere -

and I think it's probably worth...

Really? Yes.

My goodness. I mean, it's invaluable to us,

but I had no idea it would be worth anything like that.

I'm so lucky to see some beautiful jewellery,

and diamonds never fail to impress me,

and these are pretty impressive.

They have a lot of memories for me.

My grandmother, who was born in 1900,

she died about 30 years ago and she cared how she looked,

but it was always about her jewellery.

Her jewellery and furs were everything to her.

And her horses. Oh, and her horses?

Horses, yes. She had, my grandfather and her,

they met in Philadelphia on horseback

when they were 14 years old, and they were both born in 1900. Oh.

And that was the time when, actually,

platinum came into its own, then.

Jewellery hadn't been made with platinum before.

It was silver before then. Right.

But, that era, these pieces really evoke that era.

The piercing here that you can see,

the tiny details that are in the, you know,

the jewellery here and the rings,

is so indicative of this period.

So, when did you acquire these?

Well, it was about a year ago.

My dad is...

He'll be 89 in March and he called my sister and myself

and said, "Can you come to see me?

""Just you, without your husbands or partners."

So, we had a day with dad where he said we were old enough

to have the family jewellery.

SHE GASPS We were 54 and 55!

You had to wait that long! Why did it take so long?

What about my wedding, you know?

But... So we... But it was lovely.

We spent the whole day, and there was lots of jewellery.

What's interesting is these were all made in America

"14-carat", in fact, is inscribed on this bangle. Right. Right.

And these two are platinum... Right.

..and they've both been made by the same person

because there's inscribed, "JKD",

which is the initials of the maker.

Oh, OK.

But I don't who the maker is, but it's inscribed, "JKD". OK. OK.

This is a diamond that was cut in about 1910, that sort of period.

Right. OK. We'd call it a circular-cut diamond,

or a transitional-cut diamond before it became

the modern brilliant cut that we know today. Right.

And this is about a carat and a half,

and then, this one here, we have...

It is again, same style, same period, same maker... Right.

..but this has the three stone diamonds

with the little triangles of sapphires in between,

as well as, you've got diamonds set onto the side, too,

so there was a, you know,

a huge attention to detail for the craftsman. Oh. Mmm.

But what I love, actually,

with the three, is this bangle.

This was her favourite piece.

Was it? Out of all her jewellery, she loved this piece.

What I like is that these diamonds, which, again, are the same period,

but I think they might have come from another piece of jewellery

cos they're all slightly different in sizes.

Yes, I wondered that.

They're not all uniform. Right, right.

But it is this repousse work,

which is an ancient technique going back to 1500 BC.

You would push the metal away and out,

and you would have it on a... On the back side?

On the back side, exactly... Right. ..because this is hollow. Right.

The gold lining has gone inside,

so you've got another layer of gold to give it strength.

Because it's quite light. It's quite light... Exactly.

Values of these?

I've no idea. Never been valued. Well...

You would be looking at, with the bangle here,

something between ?5,000-?7,000.

And then we have, here, the three-stone ring

with the sapphire triangles,

and we would be looking at about ?4,000.

Wow, OK.

And then we have this one here,

and we would be looking at...

about ?5,000.

Wow.

So, collectively, you're looking at about...

?15,000.

Wow.

Go, Grandma!

She had beautiful taste.

"Go, Grandma", exactly. Yeah, she had good taste.

I think these are a better bet than the horses. Yeah.

That's so true. Stick with these. I think I will.

"Go, Grandma" indeed.

What a gorgeous collection.

From Kelvingrove and the whole Roadshow team,

until next time, bye-bye.