Burton Constable 1 Antiques Roadshow

The Constable family, who built this fine Elizabethan hall,

were serious interior designers and prodigious collectors

who amassed incredible treasures,

so the Antiques Roadshow has come to the right place -

to Burton Constable Hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The Constables have been here for 700 years,

and successive generations have added their own collections

from Greek antiquities to Chippendale furniture,

and flamboyance seems to have been written into their DNA.

Take, for instance, the 18th-century grand tourist William,

he was simply pazzo - crazy - about Ancient Rome, collecting sculptures,

paintings and antiquities,

and without even a hint of modesty, he had himself painted

as a Roman orator and statesman.

Not content with Rome, he was drawn to France, too,

fancying himself as the great French man

of culture and literature, Rousseau.

The great drawing room has more than a whiff of French 18th-century bling

about it. This brilliantly bonkers palm tree ottoman,

the whole suite of furniture.

The mirrors, the window pelmets cost, in today's money,

a staggering £165,000.

Typical of wealthy men of the age,

he created a cabinet of collecting curiosities,

but William took it to the next level.

The quantity, range and quality of this

for the 18th century is astonishing.

It's like a chamber of horrors in here.

There's a claw of a giant lobster,

an armadillo tail,

desiccated leg of an elk.

This is a mammoth tooth.

My favourite - a bezoar.

Between you and me, that's a hairball from a cow!

He also amassed collections of rocks, fossils

and scientific instruments.

William Constable is a man we'd like to see at today's roadshow.

You never know, one of his descendants may turn up today

with an ancient trinket or two. Over to our experts,

looking for the latest treasures

from the East Riding of Yorkshire and beyond.

One of the reasons I love this job is because it lets me play with the

ultimate boy's toy.

And what more could you get than this

wonderful, Edwardian vis-a-vis tin plate car?

It dates from around about 1903-1904, that sort of period,

and would have been contemporary with a steam car that you could see

out on the road, so you can imagine a nipper seeing one of these

on the road, a full-size one, and saying, "Dad, buy me one!"

-And at Christmas time, hopefully this would have arrived.

-Yeah, yeah.

So, 1903... Has it been in the family forever?

As far as I'm aware.

I don't know any more than that.

My father used it as a child.

Beyond that, I can't really give you any more of an answer.

And so maybe your father was born in the 1920s?

-1924, yeah.

-So he probably inherited it from his father.

From his father, yeah.

-And when was he born?

-In 1892, something like that.

'92, so you add on a few years. I said this was 1902...

So he'd have been a ten or 11-year-old?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Ideal.

-Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah.

Another exciting thing about this,

it's a steam car that actually worked from steam, not clockwork.

In the back here would have been a little spirit burner and there would

have been a boiler above it, with some water in it,

and that would have actually powered the rear wheels.

Extremely dangerous.

Absolutely, and very exciting!

Very exciting, and what I love about it,

it's in its truly original paintwork.

So this was made in Nuremberg by Gebruder Bing,

and I'll just twist it around here because it is a sculptural piece,

and you can see it from all sides.

On the back is the maker's mark and it's got upholstered seats.

It's called a vis-a-vis because the driver would have sat one side and

your have passengers opposite, so vis-a-vis -

you're looking at your passenger rather than having them behind,

so exactly like the full-sized car, wouldn't have gone very fast.

THEY CHUCKLE

But can you imagine seeing that out on the road as a full-size one?

-Absolutely.

-One you can still see on the Brighton run.

-Yeah!

It would have been an expensive toy to buy at the time,

so it was a special treat, obviously, for your grandfather.

It would have been several pounds, which is hundreds of pounds today.

-Yeah, yeah.

-On the downside, the tyres are deflated.

-Mm-hm.

-It's missing some of the stanchions around the back there.

-Yep.

It's been in the family since 1903.

What's going to happen to it after you've finished with it?

Well, obviously, I've got two sons and a daughter.

-Any of them here today?

-My daughter's with us today, yeah.

-Do you like the toy?

-It's great.

OK. Well, maybe you'll like it a bit more when you know about the value!

LAUGHTER

It is original. It's in... not the greatest condition,

-but it's what every collector wants to find.

-Right.

If it had been boxed, even better,

-but you can't have everything in life.

-No, no, no.

At auction, I would suggest a figure of between £8,000-12,000.

Oh!

LAUGHTER

Now do you like it better?

-Love it!

-You love it!

So, I think where we know where it's going to go in the future.

-Lovely, thank you ever so much, thank you.

-Thank you.

You've brought me this lovely little box.

Before I tell you what I can about it, perhaps you'd like to tell me,

if you would, how come it came into your possession?

Well, my grandfather gave it to me and it was, I presume,

my grandparents', and it was given to them at their wedding in 1912.

Oh, OK. And your grandfather used it to keep stamps in, is that right?

Well, yes, he did in latter years, but I did know if it was

used for anything else before that is.

-Any guesses?

-Well, for snuff.

Snuff, yeah, I suppose that was very popular back then, wasn't it?

-It's actually a bit older than your grandparents' wedding.

-Oh, really?

Yeah, it dates to 1839.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Oh, my goodness.

-And if we open it up...

-Yeah.

..inside, there's a little lid within the lid that's pierced.

-Yes.

-And that also opens up to reveal

-where your grandfather kept his stamps.

-Yes.

It isn't a stamp box.

-No.

-It's not a snuff box either.

-Right, OK.

-This box is what's known

-as a vinaigrette.

-Mm-hm.

And, originally,

where the stamps are now would have been a sponge drenched in scent.

Oh, right, OK.

And when you were walking through the vile streets of...

-Wherever.

-..London or Birmingham, in the days of yore -

when people were less fussy about

how they dealt with their household waste, shall we say politely? -

you might have wanted to hold that under your nose,

-to protect yourself from the vile smells.

-Yes, absolutely.

Vinaigrettes are a big collectors' area.

There are various things people go for. They like exotic grills,

they like them big and grand and gilded and what have you.

The two things they really like are a good maker, that's very important,

and there is a group of vinaigrettes that have castle tops on them,

which are the real prizes, cos they're terribly rare.

Now this one... Actually, oddly enough, it is by a good maker.

It's by a fella called Nathaniel Mills,

who's probably the best box maker of his generation.

He's very sought after and people collect Nathaniel Mills for his

own account - people collect boxes just because

they're made by Nathaniel Mills. And also...

..on the front, there is a relief of Windsor Castle,

otherwise known as a castle top vinaigrette,

which is what all the vinaigrette collectors want.

-Really?

-So it's neither a snuffbox,

nor is it a stamp box, it is a vinaigrette,

but it's a very, very nice vinaigrette.

It's in remarkably good condition.

It looks almost as if it's been put in a box on the day it was received

and hasn't really been got out since then.

It certainly hasn't been polished very much,

cos there's hardly any wear on the top.

I've never polished it and I just keep it in...

-I've always kept it in the dark.

-In the dark!

LAUGHTER

Best place to keep it, really!

OK. That's obviously done it some good.

I've never heard of that as a strategy

for keeping silver in good condition!

Normally a box of that sort of size and type would be worth about...

er, you know, on a good day, £300-400,

but it helps being Nathaniel Mills and it helps being a castle top.

And, you know, if you went into a shop to buy that,

it's going to cost you somewhere in the region of £1,200-1,400.

Really?! Oh, my goodness!

That is great!

So, here we are with two beautiful, vintage baby carriages

from the late 19th century,

and perfectly at home with a house like this,

because to afford a pram in 1870, 1880,

-you would have had to be very wealthy.

-You would, yes, very.

-Why do you have them?

-I just absolutely have a passion for them.

I fell in love with them when I took my neighbour's grandson out in his

pram, and it started from there at the age of eight or nine.

I just absolutely adore them.

And how many have you got?

I've got 95 at the minute.

-95 prams?

-95, yes.

Where do you keep your prams?

I've got them in storage at the moment,

but they do come out and they do go to local events in the area.

And how long has it taken you to collect 95 prams?

-About six years.

-So you've got 95 prams in the last six years?

-Yes, yes.

-So where do you find them?

Er, auctions, internet sites.

I've had people donate them to me because they know that they will be

looked after and cared for and taken to local shows.

And how much do you tend to pay?

The most I've ever paid is for this one here, and that was 500.

This is a particularly fine example.

I mean, there's double-handled,

which people often talk about for two babies.

-They do, yeah.

-But they also say that it's because

it's nice and narrow, so it could go down alleyways.

-Yes.

-But we do have to remember that this was a

very, very expensive thing in its day,

and this beautiful little detail of this is that, of course,

you can take the hood and bring it the other way.

-Yeah.

-This is a rare pram, which I'm sure you know.

Thank you. I do, yeah, thank you.

Beautiful. So this one is sort of 1880-1890,

and where did this one come from?

It originally came from a London department store.

Well, it's certainly the quality that would be sold

-in a very top department store.

-Yes, it is, yeah.

I mean, these were made by top cabinet-makers, furniture-makers,

-carriage-makers.

-Yes.

-This was not a simple thing.

That's why they're so beautifully decorated.

There have always been baby carriages,

but I suppose the Duke of Devonshire, in the 1730s,

got someone to design a baby carriage

-that was to be pulled by a goat or a small pony.

-He did, yes.

-So quite an eccentric thing, too...

-It is.

..if you imagine being pulled along, but these, of course,

would have been probably used by nannies...

-Yes.

-..for the wealthy households of the day.

-Yes.

-In terms of value,

you're a collector so you've got a pretty good idea,

but for this one, I could easily see this for sale,

in this condition, and being an unusual pram,

I could easily see it at £700-800.

-Right, OK.

-This one, less.

-Yes.

-Sort of 200, but if you count up your collection,

you've invested quite a bit of money.

I have, yes, it soon adds up.

-It's beautiful.

-Thank you, thank you.

There's a well-known store, which is known throughout the world,

who specialise in flat pack furniture, which we all know,

but when I look at a table like this...

it was being done long, long before that company ever existed.

So, let's put this table together and see what it looks like

when it's fully set up. Could you help us, please?

So, what's your story about this table?

This table, I know very little about it other than it's been in my family

all of my lifetime, so it has some age.

-Right.

-And, erm...

..I've always described as

the original piece of flat pack furniture.

The only place I have seen anything like was at Cotehele House.

-Where's that?

-In Cornwall.

-Right.

-And they suggested that they thought theirs

-came from a Spanish galleon.

-Ah!

-It wasn't as fancy as that.

-Right.

-Very simple.

-Yeah.

I was in Audley House a couple of weeks ago

and the lady there suggested that it was a refractory table

that they would bring into the dining room in

the days before dining tables were invented.

So what date are you thinking of?

I'm hoping it's 17th-century.

I've always argued it was 17th-century.

OK. So it's possibly Spanish, 17th-century...

Is that what you're hoping for?

LAUGHTER

-I'll make that commitment, yeah!

-Make that commitment? OK!

I think we can agree that it's not English.

It is a continental piece and it's made of oak.

When I look at the ends and we see these balusters,

and the way it's executed...

If it was Spanish, I would expect to see some metal down there.

And being that it's all in oak,

to me, it says it's Dutch.

It is controversial, but that's my opinion.

It just reminds me of lots of Dutch furniture,

which I've seen and handled over the years.

So, yes, I like the idea. It's a metamorphic piece of furniture.

It's to be closed down, then set up.

Did you notice the hinges underneath?

-Yes.

-These lovely hinges, what we call butterfly-shaped hinges.

Nice little feature to see.

The date of it, I'd say late 17th, early 18th-century.

So, it's a transportable dining table.

-That's it, yes.

-It's a nice piece of furniture.

-People look at... brown furniture and say, "It's not fashionable."

-Hm.

When you get something in good taste, which I say this is,

-it's understated elegance.

-Mm-hm.

And this works in a modern household,

it works in an antique household.

It doesn't argue with anything.

-It's simplicity in itself.

-Yeah.

-Less is more.

And, to me, this ticks the boxes.

I would put a value on this around £2,000.

-Thank you. Interesting.

-Does that make you smile?

It's bound to make you smile, isn't it?

It's a surprise. I've just had a text from my son saying,

"How much is the table worth? £10?"

LAUGHTER

That's what kids know!

Well, some visitors to the Antiques Roadshow

love to blow their own trumpet,

and, indeed, you have every reason to blow yours.

-Tell us why.

-Well, I represent the Kirkbymoorside Town Brass Band.

-OK.

-We have a very proud history, going back over 200 years,

and before us we have an artefact of that history

that we're very proud of.

Yeah, and the rather clumsily named ophicleide.

-Yes.

-Yeah, and what an extraordinary thing.

I mean, a queueing visitor said,

"Hey, up, you've got a ship's foghorn!"

-Yes.

-I mean, it's enormous, isn't it?

And it has this huge, single tube or bend,

but it's sculptural quality is quite magnificent.

Why does this belong to you?

Well, it was donated to us by a lady by the name of Jane Russell,

whose ancestors played in the band back in the 19th century.

This instrument was hung for many years

on the back of a joiner's workshop door,

because the joiner in question was Jane's father.

Grandfather and her great-grandfather

played in the band in the 1850s.

Fantastic! So, I'm looking at a photograph here,

which depicts a gentleman, Mr J Frank...

-Yes.

-..holding this very instrument.

We think so. We're not entirely sure of that.

We're about 95% sure this is the same instrument

as in that old photograph.

Incredible, because this type of instrument,

invented in the early 19th century to take over from the serpent,

which was, as its name suggests, a great, sort of, coily thing.

And the modern-day instrument which replaced this is the euphonium,

-or perhaps even the tuba.

-Tuba.

It's sort of in between the euphonium and the tuba.

-What do you play?

-I play the trombone.

-I have played the euphonium, but...

-OK. Can you play this for us?

Well, it'll sound like I'm playing a drainpipe,

but I'll give it a go!

-We have got a tonal home open, haven't we, with no key?

-Yes.

-Give it a go.

-You'll be very impressed.

LAUGHTER

LOW HONKING SOUND

-Wow!

-That's about as much as I can do with it, I'm afraid!

What a treat, to see such a fantastic thing,

but you want to know, presumably, what it's worth.

Well, we're not thinking it's worth very much,

but you tell us differently, that'd be great, yes!

It's funny - just before the record opened,

we spotted that it is actually signed by Metzler and Co of London,

-but, you know, they're quite rare.

-Mm-hm.

So, at auction, I think you'd see,

with the provenance, a price of around £1,200.

Really? Goodness me!

That is a surprise - I thought it would be worth scrap value!

LAUGHTER

This is like an anxious...

CROWD GROAN

-Aaah!

-..visitor.

Does anybody want some tea?

CROWD GASP AND GROAN

Burton Constable is a splendid house there behind us,

but, of course, what we're looking at is, in a way, rather more exotic.

I mean, I can see here portraits of two Maori chiefs.

-Yep.

-Not something usually associated with Yorkshire, but...

-No.

-Who are they? Why have you got them?

Well, my father went out to New Zealand in about 1924.

For the first time. He went out twice altogether.

And the last time, he came back in '31.

We believe he brought these back after his first trip

and know nothing about them, apart from the fact they were always

hung up at home when I was a kid.

Absolutely terrified us, my sister and myself!

And since then, since my mother died,

they've been on top of a wardrobe at home.

So, they've never had... They've been popular, let us say.

-No, no.

-So, what was your father?

Father, well, he served his time as an apprentice toolmaker with GEC,

and he went out, we believe, with GEC, or on contract from GEC,

to do sort of civil engineering-type works in New Zealand and Australia.

So, what he brought back, as far as we know,

are hand-painted portraits of Maori chiefs.

We assume them to be actual people.

Of course, in the 1920s,

there was an increasing awareness of what Maori culture represented.

In the 19th century, they were, sort of, alien tribes,

almost kept at a distance.

Very warlike. By the '20s, in the 20th century,

we were beginning to think,

"Actually, there's an interesting history there."

More and more people were going to New Zealand

and, therefore, Maori culture was very much on the up.

And so pieces like this, which...

Don't take this wrong, but these are, frankly, tourist pieces.

Yes, we thought so.

..would have been available, readily available,

for visitors like your father, who thought,

"What can I take back that tells the story of this extraordinary race,

"that essentially were New Zealand?"

-Uh-huh.

-Now, of course, the Maori culture is very familiar

to most of us, but these do highlight certain aspects.

The body decoration - the tattooing, and so on - is very, very important.

It is tribal marking that identifies where they're from.

And, there is a cloak made of bird feathers.

Again, absolutely classic Pacific, South Pacific and Maori culture.

He's wearing probably pendant jade earrings,

or jadeite or something like that,

and everything about the detail, although typical,

throws an insight into what the Maoris looked like.

This again reflects that increasing interest in, who are these people?

-Yes.

-We'll never know who the artist is.

They're hand-painted on black velvet.

It's actually art projecting a culture into a tourist market.

And similarly this. This is something...

I've read the plaque. It says,

"Frank, from Auckland friends, February 1931."

So, do you think that's when he was actually leaving to come back?

That was the last time, yeah, when he came home the last time. Yes.

And this, again, typical Maori carving,

-but very much as a tourist piece.

-A tourist piece. It looks it, yes.

It's based on much more significant 19th - or even 18th -

century pieces in style, but, by this time,

these were being hand-carved in a sort of semi-mechanical way

for an ever burgeoning tourist market.

-Yeah.

-Two Maori portraits, a Maori carving...

frankly, £100 for the lot.

-Ah.

-But, it's the story.

-Yeah. Thank you.

-Thank you.

We get visitors from all over the place to the Antiques Roadshow,

and you're here with your jewellery.

How have you ended up bringing it to us?

Well, I was home, back in New Zealand,

and my mum has just gone into a rest home,

so my sisters and I were going through her drawers

and we came across these.

We asked Mum where she got them from

and she said that her grandmother had given them to my grandmother -

-her mother.

-Well, beautiful jewellery!

If we start over here, this is a really delicate, pretty - as I say,

glinting in the sunlight - necklace and brooch,

which dates from round about the late '20s, early '30s.

Could even be just a little bit later,

as costume jewellery was really becoming very popular

during this period.

This is made of marcasite, which is basically iron pyrites,

which, when cut, gives off a fantastic sparkle,

as we're seeing here, and was used to imitate diamonds.

And, of course, this style of jewellery has developed as well from

the 18th-century, when cut steel was used again to imitate diamonds

as well, and in the low candlelight that you would have,

lots of people wouldn't really notice.

Contrasting, of course, we've got lots of colour going on here,

-isn't it? It's good.

-Yeah.

Quite a confusing set of colours, in some ways,

but really very pleasing to the eye as well, isn't it?

-Beautiful.

-So, what we're looking at here is a revival set of jewellery,

based on very much the Renaissance Revival,

and looking back at the strong colours that were being used through

the Tudor period. So, in the centre, we've got the banded agate stone,

which is also in the pendant drop down here.

Around the edge, we have beautiful amethysts...

..all centred around, and then some lovely, natural pearls,

and also a little amethyst in the top here,

and then all of this beautiful,

turquoise green, white and red enamelling

that we see around the mount, all set in yellow gold.

The pendant, if we look at the back, we can turn that over.

And, of course, there's a locket in there as well.

Now, that might have had a portrait locket in it, or some hair,

depending on what the owner really wanted to do.

Set in probably 18-carat gold.

Yeah, lovely, isn't it?

So, all in all, I really like both pieces of jewellery.

And I'm just wondering what our surrounding audience are thinking.

Who likes this one here? The marcasite one.

-The marcasite's good.

-I like marcasite.

OK? OK, yeah, yeah. Hmm. No.

Hands up for this one over here.

Oh, OK.

-You said you didn't prefer them. You liked both of them.

-No.

-Well, they're my mother's!

-LAUGHTER

-They're not mine!

-Oh, but they might eventually become yours.

-Well, my sisters and I, yes.

-Brilliant. That's wonderful.

Well, we do have two very differing pieces of jewellery.

The marcasite, although it glistens, it looks fantastic,

it's a popular, market costume jewellery,

we're looking at maybe £20-30 for the set.

-Really?

-Yeah.

When we come to this piece here,

there is some enamel damage on the piece,

-which is a shame.

-Yeah.

But it shows it's been worn.

Jewellery's there to be worn.

So if this came on the open market, went into auction,

we'd be looking at a saleroom estimate

of between £5,000-7,000.

-CROWD GASP

-Wow!

Really?!

Mum'll be thrilled!

Wow! I...I just can't believe it.

I thought it was costume jewellery.

I'm mightily impressed by the size of your anchor,

but you're going to impress me even more if you tell me

-you own the yacht that goes with it.

-Oh, unfortunately not!

No, I wish we did, yeah!

So, um, how come you've got it?

Well, we moved into our house in Hull only a couple of years ago

and it was just left behind, in the garden,

but it was kind of buried in the old pond that was there.

We only saw the top half of it.

When we dug up the pond and excavated it,

it was quite a lot bigger than we thought.

I mean, it's a strange thing to leave behind.

Normally, things are left in the attic,

but, this is the first time I've ever known somebody leave an anchor

-in the garden.

-Yeah, yeah!

I don't know how it would have ended up there.

-We're not far from the sea.

-Yeah.

-And, erm, you know,

Hull was a great shipping port back in the 19th century

and later, so there would have been many of these around.

Maybe this is a souvenir. Where does it live now?

Still in our garden! It's like a feature now.

This is what is termed an Admiralty pattern anchor,

and, probably, going back until 300-400 years,

they are all the same design.

Clever design, because, obviously,

this was at the front of your man-of-war, or whatever it was,

merchant ship, so, the order would have gone out -

"anchors aweigh" or "anchor away!" -

and this would have been thrown overboard,

attached to a chain, obviously,

and it would have hit the seabed as you see it now.

Then, as the chain became taut, it would have flipped over, like so...

..and it starts to grab the seabed.

And that would actually make the whole ship secure

until you wanted to leave.

And then you would have gone over the anchor.

Hopefully, it would then flip back this way

and you could pull it up on to the ship.

Very simple, but very practical, because the last thing

-you wanted, to be drifting with a very expensive ship.

-Yeah.

I'm a scuba diver and I probably see many of these on the seabed,

because often they get fouled and they cannot get them up,

and sometimes they just have to cut the chain and leave them behind,

-so, sadly, it's your buried treasure...

-Yeah!

..but there were many thousands made over many hundreds of years,

-so, not a rare piece.

-Aw!

THEY CHUCKLE

-But a great garden ornament.

-Yeah.

Talking about values, we're probably thinking of,

as a decorative item, somewhere in the region of maybe £300-400.

Great! That's quite a lot more than we expected, isn't it? Yeah!

Even though it's a gorgeous day out there, the sun's really shining,

it's rather breezy.

And although this game blows me away, I think it's so fantastic,

I don't want the pieces to get blown away,

so, we've come in here, into the tea tent, to film it.

If someone had given me this game when I was a kid,

I'd have been in seventh heaven. Is it something you've played with?

We did, yes. When we were younger,

we were allowed to play with these under supervision.

My dad was born in 1927, and they were his when he was a small lad,

so, yes, we did play with them, occasionally.

Cos they were obviously from the late 1920s, early '30s.

-I believe so.

-And they're all different characters.

And it's like early identikit or Photofit

the police subsequently used to identify criminals

-and put up a Photofit image of them.

-Yeah.

-But this is much more fun.

When I was a kid, I loved faces and drawing.

This would have been right up my street.

I've made up a couple of faces here. This one is like...

..the surprised visitor to the Antiques Roadshow

when given the valuation. That's the sceptical face -

"I'm not sure that you're right."

And that was the dead chuffed one.

One face that I'd really like to make up is this one...

..which is the very angry visitor to the Antiques Roadshow.

He thinks we've got the valuation wrong.

But it's the sort of games you can play with these things.

It's clear they're from that period but there's no brand names on them

or anything, no box, so we can't possibly know,

and I find it hard to value, cos I've never seen one before...

-Yes.

-..but I know that it is something that you could even enjoy

today, and, if you were careful, still play with it,

so, I'm going to value this game...

I'm going to make it up, but I would probably give £100 for this...

-Right, yes.

-..not knowing anything about it.

-What it is, yeah.

That's great.

The Antiques Roadshow team have been scouring the local museums this week

in search of something weird and wonderful.

And, Will Farmer, you're normally talking to us about ceramics...

-Yep.

-You've brought this object along from a local museum...

..and we have to guess what it's used for.

Absolutely. And it's a curious, little object and, thankfully,

it's been very kindly loaned to us

by the East Riding's museum collections.

And it looks like a little, miniature gas lamp,

but then with this dish on top.

It's a curious thing, isn't it?

When you think about the era it came from -

we're talking towards the end of the 19th century -

and it falls into that, you know,

"Necessity is the mother of all invention."

And they came up with the most weird and wonderful things to, you know,

combat problems and issues that they felt were important.

So, what are those issues?

Well, there are three I'm going to throw to you.

Number one, this is a vaporiser,

and it's used in medical terms,

so, you would fill it with coal tar,

the scent would fill the room,

and it was claimed would cure all manner of ills,

whether it was bronchitis or whooping cough, or even asthma.

To clear the chest. Are you listening, ladies and gentlemen?

Carefully? Cos I'm going to be asking questions afterwards...

LAUGHTER

..if only for help in trying to work it out!

-OK.

-Second option...

It is actually an insect repellent.

What, in the late 1800s?

Absolutely! The ladies did not want these things flying around their

heads, did they? So, you would fill it with either tansy oil

or Osage orange oil, and burn it gently away where they were sitting,

and it would keep those awful little bugs at bay

and not disturb their calm peace on a Sunday afternoon.

-Midgies and what have you?

-Absolutely.

Possible, possible.

-Next?

-And the last one I'm going to offer you is that this was a

creation brought about for the gentleman

in the fact that, of course, smoking was, you know, a habit.

It was a very social event for gentlemen

at that time and they would have their smoking rooms,

where they would all depart together and sit and talk with their whisky

or their brandy, but, actually, smoking was such on the rise

and so important that, actually,

it was very important for a smoking room to have that

atmosphere, have that smell.

-What, even before they'd started?

-Oh, yes. Absolutely.

It was actually advertised

that you would burn away a tobacco-scented oil,

and the tag line for it would be,

"To avoid that embarrassing, smokeless scent."

So, as you walked into the room...

You are having me on! LAUGHTER

..the aroma was already there in the room.

That's so preposterous. I'm not sure...

Maybe you couldn't make that up!

OK, let's have a hands up for that chesty cough!

Possible, it's possible.

Chesty cough?

Not that many.

OK. That embarrassing smokeless odour.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is that.

You wouldn't be surprised if it is that?

And then the insect repellent.

-Definitely.

-Oh!

Hang on. That's what they're going for, Will.

The only thing is, from what I know of that period,

I don't really associate it with women sitting outdoors.

It doesn't really do it for me.

I think it's the first one. It sounds more plausible.

-Which is which one?

-The tar.

You think it's putting the tar in?

-SCOUSE ACCENT: Where are you from with your accent?

-Liverpool.

Yeah, I thought you might be!

But also, for the ladies, you've got to think about the fact,

early evenings, they're in their conservatories,

they're in their parlours.

I'm going to go with the voice of reason - the voice of Liverpool -

and, er...

..with the coal tar to cure a chesty complaint of some variety.

That's what the going for, isn't it? Yeah. That's the one.

You and I have done a few of these over the years, haven't we?

-And you love it when I get it wrong!

-And I've won every time, haven't I?

-Not this time!

-You got it right.

CHEERING

-I bow gracefully to you. You got it!

-Oh, brilliant.

Yeah, that smokeless, embarrassing thing.

It was a good line though!

It was brilliant! Well, I think we've done rather well there.

-I think we have.

-Will, we caught you out.

-Well done.

-Me and my new friend.

-Well done!

You appear to have brought a pogo stick to the Antiques Roadshow,

but it isn't, is it?

-Do you know what is?

-Well, I didn't until 18 months ago...

-Right.

-..when one very similar popped up

on another antiques programme...

-Right.

-..and I think it's called a fencing musket,

but I don't know much about it from there.

You're absolutely right.

This preposterous-looking device was for training troops in

bayonet fighting, so it's a better idea to give them this, which has,

as we've demonstrated, the end that goes in and out,

as opposed to giving them a real bayonet, which,

if you're practising, you do tend to push through your fellow troops.

-Absolutely!

-Not a good idea.

So, it's a fencing musket,

and they would train with these things.

It's...terribly old-fashioned style,

but all it's doing, it's just a great big tube

and they would practise bayonet fighting.

Superb!

I've had it, must be, what, 47 years now.

I actually found it in the loft of my dad's house.

I was only ten years old.

We'd just moved in. He said, "Go up and have a look what's in the loft."

So, he put me on the shoulders, up I went, and I found it.

I found it behind the chimney in the loft when we'd moved in.

And it's just been propping my garage door open ever since then.

It's just been...

It doesn't do anything. I notice it's got a 1915...

thing on there. But what does the X underneath mean, sir?

You've got 1915 and the broad arrow stamp.

Then the cross means it's released from service.

-Released from service?

-Yep.

How can I put this? Released from service legitimately,

as opposed to somebody nicking it.

And you've also got the maker there, Webley and Scott,

-London and Birmingham.

-Wow!

Goodness me. And it needs quite a bit of force to push it in as well.

Yeah. When you were fighting, you would be padded up,

but it's still...

It's not going to be a lot of fun in your chest.

We're talking First World War. They were convinced that the bayonet was

the thing, the bayonet charge.

It was...terrible tactics against modern weapons.

It's not massively valuable,

but if something like this came up, I would think £200-300.

It could be £2-3 million, to be fair -

it's priceless to me.

-Fantastic.

-I've had such a long time, I'm not going to part with it.

Good.

This is a very pretty, little oil sketch.

It's so swiftly painted. Where did you get it?

I got it from the local boot sale about two years ago

and it cost me 75p.

Good Lord!

-Yeah.

-OK.

All right. Do you know who it's by?

It's by W Kay Blacklock.

You can tell that, cos it's signed clearly, can't you?

-Yeah.

-Did you ever look him up or try to find out anything about him?

-No, I didn't.

-William Kay Blacklock.

Actually, mostly a watercolourist.

Actually born in Sunderland.

So, I did wonder whether this might be Staithes.

You know, there's a fishing village up in the north-east?

-Yeah, I've heard of that.

-Lots of artists went there.

But it turns out it isn't Staithes.

-It's actually Polperro in Cornwall...

-Oh, right.

..which is a sweet, little Cornish fishing village.

Lots of artists went there.

It wasn't quite a colony, but chuck a stick and you'd hit several.

-It was absolutely seething with artists.

-Right.

Very nice it is, too, with this washing all hung out here and just

little dabs of oil paint to suggest the reflection

-of light on the water.

-Yeah.

And the fisherfolk going about their daily business.

No tourists in those days.

We're talking about 1880, something like that.

-Yeah.

-A nice thing. And you paid, what, 75p?

Yeah.

Hm. Well, I think it's worth £600-800 now.

-HE GASPS

-Oh! Really?

That's, er...

-..that's ridiculous!

-It is a bit!

-Yeah.

Sitting here, in bright sunshine, this stuff is just bouncing around,

-isn't it?

-I know. It's gorgeous. I love it.

How long have you been picking it out?

About six or seven years.

I just saw one piece and just fell in love with it

and then got obsessed with it, basically.

So, how many pieces have you got?

Erm, about 100, I think.

I've just gone a bit OTT with it.

Are they all the marigold colour or have you...?

They are. I've got a few in the green and the amethyst,

but this was the one that I started collecting,

so, it's mainly this, yep.

So, you know what it is, its name, don't you?

Yep, it's carnival glass.

Carnival was actually a British invention in America.

Weird, but true. John Northwood,

one of the great legendary glass-makers of Stourbridge

had two sons - John II and Harry -

and John inherited the works, Harry got the hump,

moved to Pennsylvania in the States,

where he used his experience in fine glass-making

to develop this technique.

You get standard pressed glass and you iridise it by

exposing it to a vapour called dope,

and that is a chemical vapour, which, when the glass is still hot,

it turns the glass iridescent, and it's fairly easy to make,

so what happened was that, 1910, 1912, that kind of...

Just before the First World War.

At that date, three Tiffany vases cost the equivalent

of the first Ford motor car.

So, huge money.

Against that, this was sold for cents.

What happened is, of course, the wealthy ladies, who owned...

..Tiffany, went downstairs and saw their housekeeper

owned carnival glass that was almost identical,

and it completely blew the market in Tiffany glass.

This stuff was working-class glass.

It was so easy to make that various manufacturers piled in,

to a point where overproduction meant it was given away at fairs

on the hoopla. So, how much are you paying for something like that?

-Well, my son bought me that...

-That's the best one.

-Yeah.

..for £60.

-Ah, yeah.

-And these, I bought separately, for £10-20.

It is ingenious. The design of this is ingenious, because, of course,

-you get two vases for the price of one.

-Yeah.

-So, you get...

There's your standard vases, which is how you bought it.

-How I bought that.

-But because you recognise it,

you know that it actually is one of two parts.

There, you've got the bowl and the vase in one,

which takes up less space, and it's adaptable. Yeah.

How much did you pay for it?

£20 for the bowl and, I think, 10 for the...

-30 quid.

-And these were just pounds, really.

-Pounds they are.

-Bought separately.

You know what it is? This is a taste issue.

-It really is.

-Nobody likes it in the family, other than me!

So, look, guys...

if this was a tenner, or you could walk away with it,

but the deal is you have to have it out on your sideboard forever,

how any people actually want it?

OK. One. Two.

Well, why does stuff go down in value?

You know why - cos nobody wants it any more.

-Nobody wants it, yeah.

-Here's your son's present for 60 quid.

Well, I think that represents...

I mean, I think you'd be lucky to get that for the entire table.

I really do. I think... It's a yesterday's thing,

but, clearly, it will live to fight another day.

Now when that is, of course, whether it's this year,

-next year, some time, never...

-I just love it.

-Thanks for bringing it in.

-Yep. Thank you.

Maybe if I rub this often enough,

a genie's going to pop out and our wishes will come true!

It's actually made by quite a famous designer.

Right.

I don't know if you've heard the name before - Christopher Dresser.

-Indeed.

-The date is about 1880.

-Mm-hm.

-And you bought this piece in Beverley market 40 years ago

-for how much?

-Round about £5, I would think.

Well, I can tell you, you're comfortably into four figures.

You're £1,000-1,500.

Good gracious! Yes.

Rodrica, we're so enjoying filming in your wonderful home and gardens

here at Burton Constable. Got a little surprise for you...

-Ooh.

-..courtesy of these two ladies here.

Would you like to take up the story?

Yes, I will. We used to live in Sproatley, in the village,

and met lots of people, of course, over the years.

I had a very elderly neighbour, who, when she moved out,

gave me some of her things.

One of them was a drawing of Burton Constable Hall,

which had been done by her late husband,

when he was 16 years old, in 1898.

So, here we are. This is the picture.

And I thought it was just appropriate

-that it came back to you.

-Oh, that is so precious.

-How amazing!

-And it's a wonderful record of its time, Rodrica,

because, of course, this was contemporaneous at the time.

So, I think you should give this to Rodrica...

-There you are.

-..since that is your drawing.

-Thank you very, very much.

-It's our very great pleasure.

This is accepted with love and gratitude.

This is wonderful. This has come home today.

-Thank you so much.

-Indeed.

-Wonderful.

Well, this has got to be the most superlative collection of

costume jewellery I think I've seen for a very long time.

What can you tell me about it?

-Erm, well, it's at least 50 years old.

-60, or 70, even.

It belonged to my mother and her nans.

My aunt had a fabulous dress shop in Doncaster many years ago,

'50s and '60s, and she used to buy in Paris and London,

and, in those days, everything was very glamorous.

And so I guess she wore quite a bit of it.

Some of it will have been in the shop,

some of it will have been worn by the models, who used to model it.

Well, I think you've probably got some of the biggest names here

in, sort of, mid-20th-century costume jewellery design.

I don't really know where to start, to be honest with you.

This bracelet here, for example.

That's a Boucher bracelet.

Marcel Boucher, he started by working as a designer

for Cartier in Paris in the 1920s.

But, you know, if you look at the quality of it,

it's set just the same as real Cartier jewellery would be set.

At a glance, you wouldn't know that that wasn't the real thing.

Absolutely fabulous.

That piece dates probably from the mid-19...

Probably late '40s, early 1950s.

And this set, equally, is by Bucher.

They must have been very stylish ladies.

Well, I've worn this with a plain navy evening dress

-and it looks fabulous.

-Fantastic.

You wouldn't know it wasn't a real thing, would you?

So, even though they're not precious jewels,

they are made in exactly the same way as real jewels

would have been made,

and they wouldn't have been cheap items when they were sold.

-No.

-But it comes from an era when people were terribly glamorous.

Exactly, it was a different age.

Exactly. All the film stars would have been wearing similar things,

and, of course, a lot of the costume jewellery,

particularly in the States, was actually originally made

for the Hollywood stars of the day.

-Mm-hm.

-Moving on a little bit...

These are probably 1970s.

These are Givenchy.

Beautiful. I love the bull's head there.

This is very Art Deco in style.

Obviously, in the 1970s, Art Deco styling was very popular.

There was a very big look back to the Art Deco period

and a lot of, sort of, fashions were copying those designs,

so, it looks Art Deco, but it's 1970s.

This is an Italian designer, Coppola and Toppo.

They were very well known for their beaded necklaces.

Again, that's a fantastic set.

You've got some other little pieces by them as well.

I have to say, I couldn't quite resist putting this one on

because it matches my dress!

And, um, this is the Panetta ring,

same as the two we have there. These are actually, again,

an Italian designer working in New York...

-Right.

-..in the 1950s onwards.

These are both silver rings.

This one is just silver and this one is silver and gold-plated.

Again, at a glance, you wouldn't know they weren't the real thing.

-No.

-So, have you considered values on them at all?

No. I've no idea. Absolutely none.

Right. OK. Well...

I'm sure you know there's a huge market

for good, designer costume jewellery.

Particularly from, you know, the 1940s onwards.

We've got a huge span here from 1940s through to 1970s

and one or two 1980s pieces as well, but, you may be surprised to know

that I've seen this - just the bangle - for sale, for £1,000.

-Gosh!

-Just the bangle.

So, that's a retail price, obviously,

but, for the set,

you've got the matching earrings and the matching necklace.

That's got to be, at auction, £800-1,200.

Collectively, slightly difficult to quantify -

particularly as you have more than this -

but, I would have thought, what we've got here,

you're probably looking at a minimum of maybe £5,000-8,000.

Gosh!

That's amazing for something that's...

I mean... It's really artificial, basically.

It's paste, isn't it?

It is, but, if you look at things like the Boucher pieces,

you know, he was a trained Cartier jeweller,

and this is made in exactly the same style,

but just using base metal rather than the real thing.

Wonderful. Thank you.

And they would have been expensive when they were new as well.

Yes. Thank you very much.

Songs For The Philologists.

It's not a title that's going to see a book

-flying off the shelves, is it?

-No, not really!

But I'm guessing this word here is why you brought it to me.

It is indeed, yeah.

-Tolkien.

-Mm-hm.

-Are you a Tolkien fan?

Yes, I've been a Tolkien fan for most of my life.

And these are, really, a series of songs, obviously,

but they're songs in Old English.

Old English and I think some in Norse, maybe.

So this is very much Tolkien territory,

-isn't it?

-Yes.

-But published in 1936, that's incredibly early,

-isn't it?

-Yeah.

-That must be one of

-Tolkien's earliest appearances in print.

-I think so, yeah.

And I think the story behind it is that he was teaching,

this is soon after the First World War,

-he was teaching at the University of Leeds.

-Yes.

He was teaching at Leeds in the '20s.

-Yes.

-This wasn't published till a decade later, and in London.

And the story is that...

..a student of Tolkien, or a student from the Leeds department,

ended up in London and gave these poems to his students to print.

-Yeah.

-It was a printing exercise.

-So, as we can see, it's quite amateur, if we're honest.

-Yes!

LAUGHTER

That's not the finest printing I've ever seen,

but we have to forgive it, because if we look at the back cover,

you see this Department of English, University College London,

this is a hand press,

so this was printed by students at UCL London with a hand press,

so...historic printing.

So, tell me, you're obviously a Tolkien collector,

you're a Tolkien enthusiast.

Where did this come from? Where did you get it?

Well, it was sort of soon after I'd started collecting and a book dealer

that I bought some things from rang me up and said,

"I've got one of these."

I knew of them and that they were rare.

And they said, "It's £2,000."

And so I talked to my wife, I thought, "That's a lot of money."

And we thought, "Well, we've got the money,"

cos we'd been saving up for a new car - or a new second-hand car!

LAUGHTER

And then we said, "Well, the bank will lend us money for a car."

So we rang them back and said, "Yes, we'll buy it."

Had you bought the car -

I'm not sure what sort of car you'd get for £2,000! -

what would that car be worth today?

It wouldn't really be worth anything now.

Absolutely nothing. So what's this worth?

Now, if you are a serious Tolkien collector, and you understand this,

you may have a copy of The Hobbit,

you may have a copy of The Lord Of The Rings.

Those are expensive books, we know that,

but they're relatively common in comparison to this.

Now, if you were a really serious collector,

you'd want a copy of this.

If you were a completist, you'd look for a copy of this

and you would look long and hard, I think.

£2,000 in '95.

I think today if the same dealer offered it to you,

I'd think they'd be phoning you up and asking

-for £10,000-12,000.

-Wow!

I've got a group of medals in a case here,

a very historic group of medals.

There's one medal in there in particular

that I'm going to come to in a minute,

but this is a maritime story, a story about an expedition,

perhaps one of the greatest maritime and expeditionary stories in the

history of Great Britain, and you are directly connected with that,

and I want you to tell me all about this gentleman, Arthur Casement.

Arthur Casement was my great-grandad.

Er...

Lived in Hull all his life. He was a seaman.

He did what seamen do...

..and a good job of it.

And so, why has he got this medal, the Polar Medal?

Because he was on the supply ship

that went with Scott to the Antarctic.

He and a third ship helped to break Scott out of the ice

when he was frozen in.

-That's the 1901 Scott expedition to Antarctica.

-Yes.

I love this picture here of Morning, the ship,

and also we have a wonderful picture of Arthur on deck.

It's a great visualisation of those men, who were very brave.

-That's correct.

-Now, we all know the story of Scott, don't we?

It's a sad story, it's a story,

which, in many ways, I find one of the most emotive stories

-in British history.

-Yeah.

To read Scott's last letter brings tears to anybody's eyes,

I have to say, and here we have something directly related to an

expedition that wasn't the expedition in which Scott died.

-No.

-But it was the precursor, the 1901 expedition to Antarctica.

Now, Scott set off on that expedition,

of course it was a massive expedition,

but he got locked in the ice for 26 months.

So I wonder if you can tell me a little bit about the technicalities

of how he would have been involved

in trying to release Scott from the ice.

Do you know much about that?

No, I think they tried to break it out and couldn't,

so then they had to send for help.

Yes, the Terra Nova, of course, was the other famous ship and, in fact,

people seem to know more about the Terra Nova

than they do about Morning, in fact.

-Yeah.

-Maybe it's the name, I don't know.

And perhaps, in some ways, people like Arthur don't get

quite as much recognition, being on Morning,

-as Terra Nova gets.

-Mm.

Now, he was obviously a really well regarded seaman.

We have his discharge book here and there are various entries for it.

What's important also is the entry that we have here, handwritten,

for Morning, the ship which rescued Scott and his men, essentially,

the supply ship, and it's dated 09/07/02,

which, obviously, is incontrovertible evidence.

Also, an amazing letter over there, which was from a lieutenant

called Edward Evans in the Royal Navy,

which was basically a handwritten letter of the period, actually 1904,

a reference saying that, "He has, on all occasions,

"shown himself to be a hard-working, zealous and very capable seaman."

It's a great reference, isn't it?

So you've got some wonderful paper and original ephemera relating to

him as well. That medal is an Edward VII medal?

That's correct.

And it's with his First World War service medals as well.

-Yeah.

-Now, the Polar Medal itself is actually a bronze medal.

It was also issued in silver.

The office has got the silver medals.

The bronze medal, in fact,

about 200 have been issued throughout its history.

Now, that's not many medals.

This was given to Arthur Casement

in recognition of his bravery in service

in rescuing Scott and helping to rescue Scott.

I suppose we have to think about putting a value on it, really.

I think that if this were to come to auction, a collection like this

in a really good Polar, Antarctica kind of expeditionary sort of sale

that's related to that sort of material, I think this would make...

-£10,000-15,000 at auction.

-Wow.

Oh...

SHE STUTTERS

It's difficult to price this sort of material.

It's so historic that, in fact,

actually, it's almost priceless in many respects.

Thank you. Thank you!

As our day draws to a close here at Burton Constable,

and if you think back to the very beginning of the programme

when we saw that wonderful collection inside,

I would never have guessed that we would be adding to it,

albeit in a very humble way,

but a rather touching way with this beautiful drawing done in 1898.

And I know Rodrica was thrilled to receive it.

We've had such a lovely day here at Burton Constable.

The sun has shone upon us. We've been so lucky.

From all of us here, until next time, bye-bye.