Lyme Park 2 Antiques Roadshow

When the actor Colin Firth dived into this lake

in the TV adaptation of Pride And Prejudice,

the author, Jane Austen, could not have foreseen

how hearts would quicken in the national bosom

as he emerged dripping in his wet blouse.

Welcome back to a second chapter at Lyme Park in Cheshire.

Thanks to the revolution in publishing

brought about by the mass-produced paperback,

authors like Jane Austen have sold millions.

Now there's a new revolution.

With just one click,

we can download as many books as we like.

But where did it all start?

Well, a clue lies within those perfectly pilastered walls.

Lyme Park is home

to one of the country's most treasured possessions,

and you've probably never heard of it.

You could say it was the hand-held device of its day,

and it's no overstatement to say it changed the world.

This is one of the first books to be produced on a printing press.

It's a prayer book called the Sarum Missal,

and it's the Adam, or Eve,

of the mass-produced printed word.

Its creator, in 1487, was William Caxton,

and this is his trademark.

It's been with the former owners of Lyme Park, the Legh family,

for almost as long as they lived here - over 500 years.

Of the original print run,

this is the only one left.

It's written in Latin,

except for the marriage service,

where there are blanks, deliberately,

so that the man and woman getting married

could repeat their vows in English.

So written here is "I, N," - obviously the name -

"take thee, N, to my wife,

"to have and to hold, for richer or poorer",

and on it goes, pretty much the same as the marriage service today.

Except for this fabulous bit at the end

where the wife has to promise to be buxom at bed and board.

The Legh family left Lyme Park with the missal in 1946.

It returned in 2009

to the safekeeping of the National Trust.

Now let's join the congregation on the lawns of this great house.

-So it is a tea caddy.

-Yes.

-But in the form of a stack of books.

-Yes.

I have seen these before, but very rarely.

When did you first see it?

I must have probably been about four or five years old,

just wandering in the living room.

It was just sat on a bookcase at a little jaunty angle

and at sort of a low height for me to look at,

and I remember, when I was younger, trying to look at the books

and wondering why it didn't quite open properly and all that.

Then my dad told me not to touch it any more!

Where did it come from?

-Where did your father get it from?

-I think he...

Well, my father's a lawyer,

so he does sort of probates and stuff like that,

and I think it was in this lady's house and he...

You know, obviously he likes antiques,

so he must have commented to her at some point

and, when she unfortunately passed away,

her children gave my father this as a keepsake.

And what's your interest in objects like this?

I find antiques completely fascinating and interesting.

I especially like things like this, you know,

with, like, a secret, hidden function and things like that.

So I always like the... Like the book boxes you get

and the book tea caddies. Just... I think they're interesting.

So, as tea caddies go,

the least interesting ones in general

-are just the standard rectangular ones.

-Yeah.

And the novelty ones like this

are probably some of the most fascinating ones.

And this is quite different, in that it's made of papier-mache,

with flower-carved, mother-of-pearl handles,

and even traces of the zinc lining

inside the two compartments for black tea and green tea.

And so, in your interest with antiques,

what date would you put on it?

I'd probably say it was about 1850,

maybe 1860 at a guess.

I agree.

And there's a bit of a clue here.

Because there's a reference, one of the books - Pickwick.

-Yeah.

-And it's the book

that really made Dickens more sort of very, very widely popular.

And that was first published in 1837.

So what value would you place on something like this?

Erm... Depending on where you saw it...

I mean, I might... Probably up to £1,000, maybe, in some places.

At a guess.

I think your guess is very good.

I think you've got a great future in antiques,

because I would estimate it at around £1,000, maybe £1,200.

So, stack of books, tea caddy -

it's the dark art of disguise, really, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Pretty valuable one at that, though.

Thank you very much.

So, a sampler of the world.

-Yes.

-Where did you get it?

My husband bought it in a local auction house in Macclesfield

about five years ago.

OK. And what attracted you to it?

I think he just thought it was really unusual.

We've got quite a lot of samplers, but nothing quite like that.

And, you know, it's very early -

you can tell by the names of the countries how early it is.

Well, it's very interesting

a sampler like this gives us glimpse of the world

as it was in the 18th century.

-Yes.

-Cos we've got New Holland, we've got all the South America.

Some places are, you know, Paraguay...

But virtually everything is the wrong shape.

-Yes.

-Because, obviously, when people were doing this,

they didn't know, as we do now,

what the countries looked like.

I mean, If you look at New Holland, Australia,

this side is quite correct,

but the rest of it isn't.

-Yes.

-Again, the Frozen Greenland,

it's completely wrong in terms of what we know now.

And, obviously, we've got some things

that people would find very shocking now.

Like Negroland.

-Yes.

-But you have to look at these objects

-from the perspective of when they were made.

-Yes.

So, of course, stitched on silk,

which is why, obviously, you've got quite a bit of damage here.

-Yeah.

-And this...

Normally with a sampler, this sort of damage,

this tearing and fraying,

would take a lot off the value.

-Yes.

-But what this has...

And I think, you know, you've had it framed beautifully,

it complements exactly what it is.

It's very similar to... If you think of the globes of this period...

-Yes.

-..in the little shagreen cases.

This symbolises that same idea,

which works incredibly well...

-Yes.

-..and would have taken a lot of time to do.

Probably some very aristocratic lady

sitting stitching this.

This was very much the passion in the 18th century,

this is what you did in your spare time

as a lady of the manor.

And in terms of value,

it's quite a difficult one to value,

because samplers on the whole -

and you probably know this if you've got samplers -

samplers have gone down in value quite considerably.

But this is such an interesting sampler.

I would put this at between £3,000 and £5,000.

You're joking?!

Oh, he'll be very pleased about that!

Good heavens.

That's considerably more than he paid for it!

-That's always nice.

-Yeah!

The sun has come out on cue

to show off this fabulous diamond.

And what also caught my attention as well,

apart from your wonderful stone,

is the original receipt that you've brought, too,

and it's dated 1963.

And it cost £635.

Now, who was that who bought it?

It was my father, for my mother.

Yes. No particular...

Nothing special.

-Nothing special?!

-No!

THEY LAUGH

Not for any particular reason that I'm aware of.

And have you had it valued or anything like that?

Well, funnily enough you should ask that,

but about five years ago,

in this area every so often

local pubs have, like, people go in and do valuation days for charity.

So I took it along and, erm...

they suggested a figure of around about 2,000.

And I thought, well, perhaps it might be worth a little bit more.

But I wasn't sure, and that's where I left it.

That was quite brave of you,

to go into a pub with a lovely big diamond!

In hindsight, yes.

I'm pleased you came out of the pub with the diamond.

Well, the receipt is 1963,

and, yes, the mount is probably of that period.

But the diamond is definitely an earlier stone,

and it's what we call sort of a circular-cut diamond.

In its mount, I have approximated the weight of it,

and it's approximately about 2.3 carats.

And I love these cuts,

these 1920s cuts,

I just find really special.

So...

conservatively, I would say, at auction,

you would be looking in the region

of around £7,000-£9,000.

SHE LAUGHS

Oh.

Hmm.

Well, it was something my mum got from an antique shop.

-Right.

-Quite a long time ago.

My mum was always going to antique fairs and bringing things back.

And she kept saying to me,

"I've got this, and it's worth loads of money and you must keep it."

And so my mum got ill and went into a care home.

-Right.

-And there was lots of things that I took off to charity shops,

and I hung on to this,

because she kept telling me, you know, it's really nice...

She obviously set a lot of store by it.

-She did.

-Do you know what it was used for?

Well, only because I watch the Antiques Roadshow!

I have seen one on,

and they said it was for paint brushes.

-Yeah, it's a brush pot.

-A brush pot.

It's actually bamboo. It's Chinese.

You turn it over, you look at it - actually, I love that,

it's got a little mark, a little signature on the bottom,

I think that's probably a collector's mark.

I love the patternation and colour on it,

that's all really, really lovely.

And it shows signs of use as well.

Do you know, I think this is late 18th century, or early 19th century.

I think it's a really old one.

And, do you know, this is worth £2,000.

-Wow. That's a shock for you.

-Your mum...

-Your mum was absolutely right.

-She'd be so pleased.

She was absolutely right, and it's absolutely gorgeous.

She'd really be so pleased.

So, congratulations, you've kept the right thing

-and you've kept it for all the right reasons.

-That's lovely.

I'm getting quite upset!

Thank you ever so much. Thank you for bringing it along, it's lovely.

-Thank you very much.

-Great.

-I can't believe it!

Well, holding this box set of catalogues

takes me right back to a 15-year-old boy in Derbyshire

who absolutely got transfixed

by this auction sale.

I remember pleading with my mum and dad

to buy me this set of catalogues,

and in the end my mum buckled and said,

-"You can have them, but they're an early Christmas present."

-Right.

You've gone one step further -

you've got something from the sale.

So, tell me, how do you come to own this,

that obviously originated out of this amazing auction?

The sale actually took place in 1988,

and it was bought from the G-Mex antiques fair,

which was held in 1989.

And my father bought it as a surprise,

because my mother had seen it from a distance

and she loved it straightaway,

the image of Sarah Bernhardt,

the famous Victorian actress,

Lady of the Camellias, hence the flowers around her.

Was the connection, for your dad, then, and your mum,

was it about the Sarah Bernhardt and the actress,

or was it the Elton John thing?

No, it was more to do with the fact

that my mother is involved

in dancing and acting and producing shows

and, funnily enough, she did a bit of acting class

and a gentleman that she was working with there said,

"You know who you are like?"

And he said, "You're like Sarah Bernhardt."

What it is, in context for yourself, it's a beautiful lithograph,

you know, that circa 1900, that high Art Nouveau,

that continental Art Nouveau movement of Sarah Bernhardt,

who was, you know, this wonderful character,

this star of the stage.

You know, she was this enigma.

It's amazing, because even from your side, then,

there's that little touch of magic, isn't there?

That little bit of theatre.

And, really, we've got to be honest,

-you don't get much more theatre than Elton John.

-No.

I mean, this was a ground-breaking auction of its day.

It captured the press,

it captured the world's imagination.

Because here was a man who was going through

an absolutely unbelievable change of life.

He actually said, you know,

this sale for him was about cleansing.

It was about drawing a line under his old life,

drawing a line under his marriage with Renate

and his relationships,

and him basically coming out.

And the point of it all was this sale.

He saw it as a way of saying goodbye

to the man that he'd pretended to be -

this front, this theatre -

and from this point on,

it was going to be a new Elton John.

And, actually, you know, the sale was broken down

into all kinds of elements -

his Art Deco collection, his theatrical costumes.

And this print actually features here

in what was called the Diverse Collections.

And there it is, you know...

Paul Berthon, lot 1177.

With a presale estimate of £300-£400.

I've got to ask a question -

what did your parents pay for it?

Well, they paid £1,300 for it.

OK. If you were to sell it today,

I think you're looking at an auction estimate of £2,000-£3,000.

Right. Excellent. Excellent.

Good news.

Well, it's tantalising.

Of course, I'm hoping...

this is a highly important Imperial Chinese teapot.

Maybe!

Do you know when it was wrapped up?

Well, the newspaper's all from 1980.

Well, it came from my father,

but he got it from a lady in Colwyn Bay

who he used to do odd jobs for.

-Yeah.

-But she wouldn't use it because, erm,

she said it was cursed.

-So here we go.

-Right. Exciting.

-I think it starts here.

-Think it does.

Will it come out? Look at that.

Cursed in which particular way?

Well, she was a bit of a cricket fanatic,

and every now and again Lancashire would play a game at Colwyn Bay...

..and she was watching the cricket,

and the opposing team stuck at the wicket

and they couldn't get them out.

Oh, gosh.

And the lady - if I may -

took the stick and went, "Next ball, you will be out."

And...

bowled.

No!

Is it going to be a £2 million teapot?

I doubt it very much, unfortunately.

So that was the end of the stick - it was cursed.

-My goodness!

-So...

This would ensure that we got the Ashes every year. Brilliant!

Shelley, Art Deco, 1920s.

Chipped at the front, cracked at the back.

I don't know...

-£5 if you're lucky?

-Ooh!

Good job I didn't go out and spend it!

THEY LAUGH

As a walking stick, it's worth £150, maybe £200.

But as...

the magic wand which will ensure

-that Australia never win the Ashes again...

-Priceless!

..it is priceless.

So, one of these men was your grandfather.

And Grandfather and his friends in the photograph

were part of this territorial unit

that went off to France, together,

and they were part of the unit that actually created this sign

-in the trenches just outside Ypres.

-Yes, that's correct.

-And which one...?

-It's the gentleman seated in the centre.

-And what was his name?

-He was named Levi Hall.

He was a member of the Sappers and Engineers

of the Sherwood Foresters that served at that time.

-He was a Royal Engineer.

-Yes.

And where did he come from?

He came from New Mills, and joined, we think, in 1915,

and served through the war then until 1918.

Now, he wrote very detailed accounts of going into the trenches.

And one of those trenches he was in was just outside Ypres,

a very famous place known to the soldiers as Wipers.

And the trench was named after where they came from.

That's correct, yes.

Tor Top is a part of New Mills,

in the centre of New Mills,

where we believe that most of the lads,

or Pals, if you like, came from,

and they joined the Sherwood Foresters.

And we know that there were signposts in the trenches

familiar to them.

Piccadilly Circus.

Hyde Park Corner.

But one thing that we never see

is one of the original signs from the trenches.

-So you look after this sign at the Heritage Centre?

-Yes.

It's New Mills Heritage Centre in Derbyshire,

and it's one of our main items in the collection.

Is New Mills Heritage Centre close to Tor Top?

Yes. It's actually on Tor Top, virtually.

And it's called Tor Top Tunnels.

Yes.

We forget that World War I

is fought at land, on the sea,

in the air, but also underground.

Victoria Crosses are won underground

during the First World War.

Tunnelling underneath the German trenches,

laying those mines that were then exploded underneath strongpoints

to allow our infantry to attack.

And this sign survived.

It's so rare that you see a real trench sign.

I think you need to insure it

for somewhere between £400 and £600.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you for bringing it in.

-Thank you. It's a pleasure.

-Thank you.

It feels like I've known these for 50 years, you know,

because, when I was 12,

I started going into antique shops

and started buying my own stuff

for the first time -

my mum and dad had been doing it for a time. And I'm telling you

that one of these, a smaller version of that

is probably the very first thing I ever bought.

So how long have you been into it?

Well, I've been collecting them over the years, as I've seen them.

I think that they display really nicely

and they're fascinating,

the way the people who make them manage to get

all of these lovely sort of shapes and things inside them.

-So, probably about 15-20 years.

-OK.

Well, they're interesting

in that they are a decorative product

of the Yorkshire glassworks.

South Yorkshire - Rotherham, Doncaster, Batley.

Around there, they had coal and sand

and the workforce was brought to their materials

cos you were dealing in heavy materials.

And according to repute, these were end-of-day,

we call them friggers in this country, and these are...

Once the glass-makers had got through the production

that had been agreed and once that quota had been exhausted,

you had done what was expected of you,

then word was that you could empty the pot, you still had glass

left in your furnace pot that you could make for your own stuff.

They date from late 19th century, 1880, thereabouts.

And one of the big makers of these was Kilner.

Most famous for their jars, so typically they made the jars

during the shift and then they made the end-of-day pieces later.

What a variety.

Now, I've never really worked out how they made the flowers in these.

I mean, really, how did they do that?

I mean, that is an extraordinary creation.

Some of it is just air in there, isn't it?

It's like me, no visible means of support, really.

-Extraordinary.

-Yeah.

However, I have to tell you, that the money I was paying for them

50 years ago when I was 12 is about the money they go for today.

-Probably.

-How much are you paying for them?

I would say not more than £50.

They're going for 50 quid.

I think they're wonderful, and what a variety.

And at 50 quid, bloomin' hellfire.

-A little bit of history dating what? 1880?

-Yeah.

-Lovely. I love them.

-I do too.

-Good on you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

You're most welcome.

From its very earliest days of its conception to

the Great Train Robbery,

the Post Office has always been under attack.

And this is the 19th century solution to stopping that attack.

A fantastic pair of flintlock pistols marked "Post Office."

I wonder how you came by them?

I bought them at auction a few years ago at Bristol.

I do collect a lot of Post Office memorabilia,

and of course, any Post Office collection has got to have

-a flintlock pistol from the Royal Mail coaches.

-Absolutely.

So, on the Royal Mail coach, you would have got these

flintlock pistols and how many would the guard have?

He'd have a pair of flintlocks and a blunderbuss.

-So he was pretty heavily armed?

-Definitely.

And it's well recorded that there was never any actual attacks

on Royal Mail coaches.

These are an absolutely fantastic pair of pistols.

And you very rarely see Royal Mail pistols,

which makes them so very interesting.

If I could just look at this first one.

I think it's very interesting because it has that down the side.

And that was there so you could...

stick it down the front of your trousers...

with reasonable safety.

So you would be able to walk around and do your job,

pulling ropes and things and you would be armed and ready

in case there were some dastardly French privateers

who attempted to rob the Mail.

This pistol is made by Henry Nock of London who was one of the most

celebrated gunsmiths of his day.

And it's fantastically well made.

The first one's about 1800.

This one, about 1810, something like that.

It was made by HW Mortimer, who was gunsmith in ordinary to

King George III, so he was a royal gunsmith.

So the Mail went to this fantastically important gunmaker

and said, "We would like some pistols, please."

And I suspect they ordered quite a large number of them.

Because if we look on the barrel, we can see the maker's name

and also it says, "Number 91," so they must have ordered more than 91.

They probably ordered 100.

Now, I've said that these are fantastically rare pistols

and I've seen very few of them. What do you think they're worth?

I would suggest a couple of thousand each.

I think you could stick another thousand on them

to about 3,000. They are very, very rare things.

They're very, very desirable

and they're a real part of England, sort of coaching and mail history,

and I think they're great.

Thank you very much for bringing them.

-I didn't realise they were worth that much. Thank you.

-Thank you.

If ever there was a title that would attract the public,

it's a title with "Magic" in it, so this title here, "Mathematical

"Magick: Or The Wonders That May Be Performed By Mechanichal Geometry."

And it's by J Wilkins, John Wilkins, late Lord Bishop of Chester.

And it's printed in London in 1680.

Tell me about it. Where did you get it from?

It's my husband's book.

And it's been in his family all his life.

And he has no idea where it came from.

-Just it's always been...

-It's always been there, yes.

John Wilkins was a very interesting man and also, 1680,

this is a very interesting period for Great Britain.

We'd just chopped Charles I's head off in 1649.

Oliver Cromwell had been reigning in the interim

and then we had Charles II, the great monarch who came back again.

And it was a time of great thought, of great thinking, "Who are we?

"What are we?

"What are we doing?" And all this sort of period.

This is the 17th century.

Have you done any work on this?

I looked him up on the internet.

And I found out that they still print it now.

There are modern versions of it.

It is a great famous book.

We've got a picture here.

The modern Exocet I suppose it can be.

These arrows are fixed into this board here

and expelled by this ruler type of thing here.

This pings into the arrows and they go shooting off.

It's not a first edition of the book.

He was dead by this time, Wilkins.

This is a portrait of him

and he looks rather cavalier here with his wonderful lustrous locks.

But in 1680 he was dead, he died in 1672.

So this is not a first edition but a second edition of the book.

And it's bound, as you can see, this is a contemporary binding.

It's bound in sheep.

Now, sheep tends to be cheaper than calf,

as far as binding is concerned,

it's been gilt on the spine, there's a few gilt bands here.

So I would say, generally, for a book of this age,

-it is in good condition.

-Yes.

So, valuation. I think somewhere between £800 to £1,000.

Wow! Right. Thank you.

I don't suppose in your career you were a butler or maybe a steward?

I'm afraid not.

You see, I was jumping to all sorts of conclusions when I looked at

the bottom of this tray and I saw it said, "Cunard, Liverpool."

-My hometown.

-It's your hometown.

And I need to ask, how did you get hold of this,

because it looks as thought it might have been the property of Cunard?

-Yes, it came home for a visit and never went back.

-I see.

-It was on shore leave?

-Yes.

OK. Right.

Because I think this would have been

somewhere in a first class cabin

on one of those great cruise ships dating to the 1930s.

This is a very, very nice little tea service.

I love this thing because first of all, the tray is fantastic.

It's a rosewood tray.

Thick rosewood, which today is a listed material.

You can't get this stuff. It's very, very rare.

But the porcelain itself is exquisite.

Look at that creaminess of the porcelain.

It is brilliant, brilliant white.

Decorated with this very Chinese style grapevine design.

And underneath, we've got everything we need to know.

In fact, we can learn it's made by Tuscan China of...

Well, it says, "Liverpool," that's where it would have been retailed.

I particularly like the teapot

because there is a spectacular small perfectly formed cube teapot.

These were designed for the tearooms of England to be stacked,

so that in the tearooms you could simply put them one on top of the other.

But here, these were made for the cabin.

I think it's absolutely lovely.

-Do you ever use it?

-It dribbles quite badly.

It would do because one of the problems creating a cube teapot

is where do you put the spout?

And you can see the spout is really not going to do much

but dribble off the edge there.

Lovely thing.

You looked a bit nervous

when I asked you how it had come into your hands?

Yes, it was probably listed as AWOL.

But I think I can give you some solace.

If this has been worrying you, let's have a look at that mark again.

Because not only do we have the maker,

and nice little mark there, but we have the word "Souvenir."

Oh! Right.

I think when they commissioned these, they expected them

to leave the cabins.

I think we should take it in that spirit.

What's it actually worth?

I'm going to put somewhere in the region of £400 to £700 on it.

Oh, thanks, Mum.

Thank you.

Well, we have the perfect sunny day to be using your sundial.

What do you know about it?

I inherited it this year from my parents.

It was my father's and it was my father's father's,

so my grandfather.

And my father loved it, treasured it,

played with it a little bit, so I had an idea what it was,

but I wasn't really allowed to touch it until this year.

-So what we've got here is a little pocket compass and sundial.

-Right.

So if we flip up the centre, like that.

And if we point it between the north

and the south poles we can tell what time of day it is.

So that's why we've got the compass on there.

So if I point it in the right direction,

by my reckoning, it's about ten past three.

Great. Perfect.

It's signed here.

And it's made by a maker, it's signed Watkins of London.

And that's a gentleman by the name of Francis Watkins and he set up

business making these types of instruments in 1747 in London.

What's interesting about this one is that this case is made from

what we could call vernis Martin, which is a type of imitation lacquer

copying that sort of Chinese lacquers.

And I think that would have adorned any gentlemen's table at home

and I think it's a great object.

Sundials have been around for a very, very, long time.

What I really love about this one is the age and I think date-wise,

it's probably going to be something around

latter part of the 18th century.

So I reckon about 1790, something like that in date.

Maybe through to about 1800. So sort of 1790, 1800.

What I'm coming onto,

what I really like is actually the condition is really very good.

I think anybody who collects this type of thing would die to

get this today and I think if it came up at an auction,

it would carry a pre-sale estimate,

I'm going to say, between £800 and £1,200.

Gracious.

This is a story of how one of the richest football clubs in

the world was saved by a St Bernard.

-This St Bernard.

-Exactly, yes.

These are some items from the archives of one Elsie Davies,

whose father was John Henry Davies.

John Henry Davies was a famous brewer.

He owned the Manchester Brewery Company in Manchester,

and he got involved with a team called Newton Heath.

And the way that happened was

Newton Heath were in desperate straits, financially.

And this was when? What, the early 1900, turn of the century?

He got involved in 1902, we're talking.

So to raise money the captain of the side,

Harry Stafford, he got a St Bernard dog.

And he took it to the fundraiser event in Manchester with a box

strapped to it's back for people to put money in.

What happened on the day, the dog got lost,

but it was rescued by one of the licensees in one of his pubs.

Took it back to John Henry Davies, said,

"Can you find the owner of this dog?"

He says, "OK."

They found the owner who happened to be the captain of Newton Heath.

The story comes out then that they need financial help and he says,

"You give me the dog for my daughter and I'll help you save the club."

And they did. Him and four other gentlemen, they raised £500 each.

They paid off their debts. They improved the ground facilities.

Now, not everyone will know, but die-hard fans of this club

certainly will, that Newton Heath then became...

Manchester United.

And do you know why Newton Heath chose to change their name?

I don't really know the real sort of understanding from it,

but Newton Heath, basically, they were made up of railway workers.

That was the formation of the team.

But even then, they were attracting crowds of 20 and 30,000

to the Bank Street Stadium in Clayton.

But actually where the United came from, I think

the fact it was Manchester, a Manchester team,

he owned the Manchester Brewery, perhaps that was the...

It was a team for all Manchester.

He wanted it and then obviously it was united.

It was very nearly the team that never was

-if it wasn't for this St Bernard.

-If it wasn't for that St Bernard,

who knows what would have happened to Newton Heath.

Well, I think it's fair to say that this girl cannot be

-described as a local Cheshire lass.

-Quite right.

Well, this is a real case of little and large.

An extraordinary size of jug.

-Did you inherit it?

-Yes. From my father.

He went to Manchester and came home with her.

We think it was from an auction.

And my mother was very impressed at his good choice.

-Really?

-Yes.

Well, what an understanding wife.

She wanted a hot water jug to go with her teapot.

To go with the set.

Imagine her surprise when she opened up the parcel.

She was not very happy.

I'll bet. But in some ways, it's remarkable.

I've never seen a jug that size in silver.

If I dare boldly go and show this lady's sort of, um, garment.

I'm not quite sure what you would...

What would you describe? You're a woman.

-You know what these are called.

-Well, not quite knickers, are they?

Not quite, no. They're a bit more exotic than that.

So as far as the value goes,

it's not worth a lot more than the actual silver weight.

-Yeah.

-You're looking at maybe £1,000, up to £1,500.

-I didn't expect much more, actually.

-So it's going to go back in the box

and then you're going to bring it to the next Roadshow

in five years' time and hope the price of silver's gone up.

-This has got a maker on the back.

-Yes.

-OK.

-And the maker's name is there. Galli.

-Yes.

Your odalisque, to give a respectable title,

is worth in the region of about £500.

Well, you'll see that the box is labelled in gilt letters.

Liberty and Co. Now there's a name to conjure with.

My mother-in-law dabbled in antiques.

And she bought for our wedding present a honeymoon in Paris.

Oh, wonderful, yes.

And the beautiful teaspoons.

And I would be very surprised

if they achieved a figure of less than certainly £300 or £400.

Wonderful. Thank you very much.

Well, two rather nice objects, if I might say so.

Thank you.

A lovely big watch in the hand.

Am I to assume that it belonged to one of these two chaps over here?

Yes. That's my great grandfather Thomas Dickson Hunter

who was a grocer, an agricultural merchant.

I'm assuming it belonged to him.

You can see the chain there, so I assume he's got it in his pocket.

OK. And how did you get them?

Just came down through the family, really.

Through various wills and ended up in my bottom drawer.

-So really in your bottom drawer?

-It is.

-You don't know anything about these things at all?

-No.

OK. Well, let's start with this.

It's a big, big watch in the hand, a heavy watch.

And it's dating from the English Regency period, so about 1820.

But it's got a lovely machine-turned dial,

lovely heavy raised gold numerals.

Jolly good object.

And a beautiful engine-turned case at the back.

Now, it happens to have this rather long pendant.

-Do you know what that does?

-Sorry, no idea.

So if I pushed it like this...

FAINT ALARM SOUNDS

-You haven't heard that before?

-No.

OK. That is what we call quarter repeating.

OK.

So now it's just sort of after quarter to one, so it did

the 12 and then it done the ding, dong, ding, dong for each quarters.

But very rapidly because it obviously needs adjustment.

There we are.

So it's by a chap called Samuel Quilliam.

-Right.

-I don't know much about him.

But I do know that he is a Regency watchmaker and case maker.

The important thing is the escapement.

So, looking at this balance we have two big heavy brass

compensation weights

and down there, we have a lovely blued steel helical balance spring.

And this is the clue that it is a pocket chronometer.

The pocket chronometer is absolutely top of the range.

-OK.

-It's a spring detent escapement.

So we have a quarter repeating pocket chronometer.

All I can tell you is that the grocer shop

must have been doing very well.

This would have been...

probably ten years' salary for the average working man when it was new.

-Gosh.

-So, he left you that and he left you this clock.

He did. It just reminds me of being at my grandparents'.

It sat in the hall and it was very familiar.

And he always used to say to me, "Oh, this is a very early clock.

"It's a very good clock."

And that's, apart from looking up the name, and where it's from,

I don't know anything more about it, really. I was intrigued.

Well, Thomas Bruton and that's Bow, obviously, in London.

The joy of this clock is that I have had the chance to look inside

and it is the original verge escapement.

But it's basically a really lovely early English dial clock.

That's what he always used to tell me.

Dating from just a little bit earlier than the watch.

Approximately about 1810, something like that.

So, both very similar periods.

Which do you prefer?

Probably this because it's just so familiar with hanging in the hall

and running down the hallways as a little girl, hearing the tick tock.

That's quite manly, I think.

OK, well, you've chosen that one.

-I'm going to choose this one.

-OK.

Price at auction on this is going to be in the region of £2,000.

Very good.

And quarter repeating pocket chronometer in 18-carat

gold by a London maker...

..£5,000 to £6,000.

-Gosh.

-Lovely thing.

-Thank you.

I understand these have been in the attic for how many years?

-40 years.

-Why is that?

Well, when my grandmother died she loved these things,

they'd always been on her sideboard.

And nobody in the family wanted them.

And I just couldn't send them to the tip.

It would have broke my heart.

So I took them home, but I had nowhere to put them.

-Where would you put three firemen like this?

-Well, exactly.

And I think this is really why many other people would have

put them in the attack as well.

When these were produced in the 1870s, 1880s,

large dining rooms and large areas with large pieces of furniture

took these pieces really very well.

And now suddenly we're all living in smaller accommodation

and consequently there's nowhere to put these outsized pieces.

But do you know anything about them at all?

Supposedly my grandfather brought them

back from the First World War when he was serving in France.

Other than that, I don't know anything.

Well, that was quite a brave thing to do.

Most soldiers brought back a small dish.

And here he struggled back with three enormous spelter figures.

-Well, he was a bit of a character.

-He must have been.

These initially would have had a simulated bronze finish.

They would have looked much grander than they do now.

But they've rather pickled back and we're down to the basic alloy

of which they were made.

But I love the dramatic effect that we've got here.

Here we've got this one fireman saving this young child.

But there he is. If you look at it, he's balancing right on the ridge

tiles of a cottage or a house.

In the centre, we've got the main firemen there with his

two medals, saving a colleague.

Again, they're standing on the prow of a cottage there with

flames piling through the slates.

And on the far side, we've got another fireman rushing up

the steps there with a hose which actually looks rather too small

to do the job, I have to say. So what's your plan with them now?

Well, I'm moving to an even smaller house

so I'm afraid they have got to go.

I was hoping that if they were taken from a fire station

or something in France, they could go back there.

I think they will end up in a collection of that type.

Somebody who collects fire memorabilia, fire engines,

fire effects, really.

So what were they likely to make?

You should get 300-350 for the set.

Yes, I'm not bothered about the money.

I would just like them to be preserved.

I just don't want them to be destroyed.

I think they've been with us long enough to have survived.

OK. Thank you very much indeed.

Well, I don't think this is the Good Ship Lollipop.

Because I've got the suspicion she was called The Three Sisters.

That's correct.

The initials on the back of the glass belong to

the master of that ship.

His wife had two other sisters who married brothers of

my great great grandfather.

His sister married my great great grandfather.

-Very complicated arrangement.

-Yes.

But to assume that he called the ship after his wife

and her two sisters and it was sailing out of Scarborough

in the 1790s, supplying Wellington in the Peninsular War.

-That right? What's his name?

-Richard Crosswood.

I don't know what the "N" stands for.

OK. His middle name.

What is she?

She's a cargo vessel, is she?

Yes, it was a vessel called a snow, which apparently is a type of brig.

-OK.

-About 300 tonnes or thereabouts.

Isn't that magical that you can trace lineage?

This bond that we enjoy between ourselves and stuff.

And, Guy, your story, it's just... Really, it's in a nutshell.

It's a beautifully executed glass. The engraving is a high quality.

It has a lemon squeezer base.

It's inconceivable for us to imagine what it's like,

life without electric light.

And so the table was bedecked and the room was bedecked with candles.

Hundreds of candles to generate enough light.

And the purpose of the lemon squeezer,

it's formed on exactly the same principle as the common lemon

squeezer they use for squeezing lemons, believe it or not.

And the idea is that you have a series of arcades within

the foot, all of which are designed to capture light,

take it in and fire it out again,

to sparkle in candlelight.

It's a lovely glass, beautifully executed,

and it's direct lineage to you, which is the best element about it.

-Do you ever use it?

-I haven't done, no.

-Well, I think you should break...

-Not quite big enough.

Not quite big enough. A man after my own heart!

It is bit titchy, I must admit.

Anyway, look, you've got three of them, as it happens,

which is just triple bonus.

And their value, I suppose retail would be about £250 each,

which is worth your while putting a little wine in them

tonight and cheering your good fortune.

-Will do.

-Cheers.

-Thank you.

Well, an amazing comical crow.

And the thing that will surprise a lot of people is who made it.

And it's not until I do this that all becomes clear.

It's the one and only Ms Clarice Cliff, who for me,

as many people know, I think

is one of the greatest ceramic designers of the 20th century.

But what on earth is she doing producing a crow like this?

And also...

where did it come from? How on earth did you come to own it?

Well, it was my sister-in-law who bought it from a flee market

in Stockport about 40 years ago for her mother.

And that's the history I know

and it's always been in the family from then on.

And did you always know it was your Clarice Cliff crow?

Later on. Not at first.

Yes, later on when Clarice Cliff became a bit more popular.

But mostly with her china and her cups and saucers and plates.

Well, I have to tell you something.

I've been doing Clarice Cliff now for 30 years. I've never seen one.

-No.

-It's the first time I've ever managed to

get my hands on one of these.

I'd heard about them, I'd seen a little photograph in a book,

but I've never ever got one.

And in terms of the date,

it's in a very specific period of between 1937 and 1952.

And actually that's about when the market was changing.

Clarice realised that all the bold and the jazzy stuff wasn't quite

so popular and she reverts back to doing what

she loves the most, which is modelling.

I think it's so good to see because I think it's actually shows that

there was more to her than just crocus flowers

and bold jazzy paintings and all these abstract patterns.

He's comic, he's fun.

He's not necessarily everything that a typical Clarice Cliff

collector would want.

I know that there are collectors out there who'd love these.

And do you know what?

Get one of those, they'll give you £200-£300 for him.

Gosh. Well, that's amazing.

The Freemason Fraternity is one of the world's largest

non-religious, non-political institutions.

So you brought along items that all have emblems relating to

the Freemasons, so I can assume that not only are you a collector

of all things Freemasonry, but you are a Mason yourself?

I am. Signed up. Affiliated. Yes. I have been for many years.

So there was a lot of material manufactured over the years.

And this is a mantel clock, but not an English one.

-This one's French, is it?

-Yes.

They do them in French enamel.

That particular clock dates to circa 1920s.

Lots of triangular things around the time of Tutankhamen et cetera,

and Masons went into the symbolism.

-And you get the all-seeing eye.

-Yeah.

And obviously other tools that would have been used by Masons,

-so the compass, the rule.

-Yeah.

And the scales, what do they represent?

That's the level, basically.

-It means people meet on the level, et cetera.

-Ah!

Yeah, so you go that way.

Tell me about the fraternity itself.

Well, Freemasonry has been going back to the times,

I would say, of King Solomon and his temple.

So you're going back several thousand years, basically.

And it was all to do with stonemasons.

As they went through apprenticeships,

they would need to be recognised as being quality stonemasons.

So they would pick up signs, tokens, handshakes, et cetera,

to identify them when they're moving from job to job.

And that was basically your CV.

Over the years, it's now progressed.

Freemasonry has changed

and it's now become more of a charitable organisation.

Now, obviously, your prize possessions is this amazing

chain of a whole range of pens.

There's what looks like a football, but they all open up.

They do. They open up mostly into the signs of crosses or stars.

The symbols on the inside of them tell a story

and as you go through the different degrees in Freemasonry

you would open up the cross, read them,

normally you would read them from bottom to top

and then down the cross.

-And it will give you things to moralise on.

-OK.

-Sort of like an aide-memoire?

-It is, yeah.

And you got a miniature book.

That is the Volume of the Sacred Law.

Basically, it's the Bible.

But that particular one comes from Glasgow.

It was made in Glasgow round about 1920s.

It's unusual that it has the gold binding

-and the gold pages on the inside.

-Fantastic.

And how long have you been collecting?

Probably round about four or five years now.

You've achieved a remarkable...

-Thank you.

-..collection in such a short time.

-You must be very enthusiastic?

-Yes.

That's great because collecting's all about passion.

And you're obviously a passionate collector

and you've put together a wonderful collection.

-And it's worth money.

-Thank you.

The watch does turn up quite regularly at auction, but also

with the chain attached, I mean, I think that is a quite rare thing.

I would assume at auction we would put a value of between

-£1,500 and £2,000 on that.

-Thank you.

This is rarer. I've never seen one before.

So, by itself, I would think between £2,000 and £3,000.

OK.

But this is a difficult one.

There are things there I've never seen.

You must be talking about a figure between, I would think,

£8,000 and £12,000.

They are gold, they are silver, they're incredibly rare.

Fantastic collection and thank you so much for bringing them along.

You're welcome.

Firstly, what a beautiful colour.

Jade green. Oriental jade green.

It looks beautiful against this backdrop. It looks great.

So this was a very early woofer or tweeter.

And it's made to amplify the sound out...

-I see.

-..in your posh cruise cabin.

It would sit on a sideboard and it could cover a speaker.

So it would hide it, it would make this cabin more functional,

spacious and you can imagine the first time it went off.

"This is the captain speaking."

SHE LAUGHS

Fright of your life. "This Buddha is talking to me!"

So it's also functional and beautiful

and goes with the height of luxury travel in the '20s and '30s.

Tell me, what do you know about it?

Well, it belonged to my great uncle.

He was fond of anything that was a bit different.

He died and left it to his sister, my grandmother.

Who then of course died and then left it to my mother.

And I've got it now.

And I love the colour, but I don't know a lot about it.

It almost looks like a contemporary colour.

It will go in with any room set in today.

Even though it's made in the 1925, '35 period,

and made by the Doulton factory

around the Staffordshire potteries area

for Artandial and Co.

And Artandial supplied the cruise liners of their day,

some of the biggest cruise liners.

This is the time when people carried Louis Vuitton cases with them

and went across the world, oceanic transport.

So it's a generic oriental style.

It's neither a Buddha, a sage or an immortal.

And it's got this beautiful fretwork, the style underneath it.

Lets the light just fall underneath it.

So where do you have it in your house?

It's in the window, funnily enough.

I just like. It goes in the room and I just like it.

I would love this in my room. I think it's beautiful.

There's not a lot of them around or made.

I have seen cockatoos making £200, £300-£400.

But I will put this in the region of £500-£600.

Oh. Wonderful.

And I think it's an achievement, that. It really is.

So take it back home, put in the window and enjoy it.

-I will.

-Thanks for bringing it along. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I always get a thrill from historical portraits.

And of course we're looking at a face of speed and locomotion.

-This is George Stephenson.

-It is.

-The great locomotion architect.

-That's right.

-Designer...

-Engineer.

And engineer. Am I right in thinking this has been in a factory?

Yes.

The company that his son set up, Robert Stephenson,

was based in Newton-le-Willows by the railway

and we inherited that company.

I see. And so where was it actually hanging?

In the boardroom.

It's been in the boardroom for as long as anyone knows, really.

And it still is. It's still in ours now.

So the face of someone who has inspired the business,

the factory, and of course the history of locomotion

-has been looking down upon you...

-In the boardroom, yeah.

-..as they're working and making decisions.

-Yeah, that's right.

We like to think of him as the grandfather of the company.

So you're looking at a portrait which is, in some ways,

a typical Victorian worthy, although it's very, very early Victorian,

if it is Victorian.

It's painted... Actually, why should it not be painted in 1845,

the date that is says here?

And every portrait that is of a historical person tries,

if they're famous during their day,

to say something about the achievements of that person,

that man or woman.

And here, it's all in the left-hand corner.

There you have a pair of dividers.

That is rather wonderful, in a way,

because the picture leaves you in no doubt as to his qualifications.

-Sure.

-He was a very interesting man.

I mean, his parents were illiterate. He was self-taught, wasn't he?

Yeah. And he also invented one of the miner safety lamps.

Like the Davy lamp, but his version of it.

Well, what is this painting, in terms of our history?

You can see down there it says Henry Pickersgill.

Henry Pickersgill, early 19th century,

an artist of celebrities and leading figures.

But there's a problem

because there's a portrait by Henry Pickersgill.

Have you seen it in the National Portrait Gallery?

I've seen it online in their collection, yeah.

-Exactly the same picture.

-So you have exactly the same picture?

-Yeah.

Is it a fake?

Is it a copy?

-Did he do copies? I don't know.

-Artists sometimes did versions.

They replicated their own works.

-OK.

-They did variants.

And if you look into this picture and areas of this picture,

the quality begins to shine forth.

I mean, look at the arm of that chair.

Look at the way the creases are done in the material, the fabric.

Is it leather? I'm not sure.

But this is an artist who knows his way around a still life object.

-Yeah.

-And then there's something else which is rather reassuring.

-A signature on the bottom there. Have you seen that?

-Yeah.

That looks to me like the cipher of Henry Pickersgill.

-So you've had it cleaned recently?

-Yes, we had it cleaned last year.

And it's been in boardrooms all its life,

so it's had nicotine all over it, no doubt.

So now we come to the gritty subject of its valuation.

Well, as a copy, as a contemporary copy, it would be worth £1,500.

And on reflection, having looked at all

the elements in the painting,

having looked at the quality of some of the areas,

having read through the condition and working out how it might look

if it were better restored,

on balance, I think it is by Henry Pickersgill.

-And, therefore, it's not a copy.

-OK.

Probably worth about £25,000.

Gosh. Really? More than we thought.

Well, thanks, Philip. That's great.

Do you remember how at the beginning of the programme

I mentioned that Mr Darcy moment when Colin Firth emerged from this

lake, dripping and glorious in the TV adaption of Pride and Prejudice?

Well, sadly, Colin Firth hasn't turned up today.

But our arms in military expert Robert Tilney is threatening to

re-enact the scene for us.

And we're all rather hoping he doesn't.

From the Antiques Roadshow team, bye-bye.

Subtitles by Ericsson.