Trelissick 1 Antiques Roadshow

For this week's Antiques Roadshow,

we're travelling to the southernmost area of the UK,

to a destination that lies along the banks of the River Fal in Cornwall.

People have been crossing the River Fal at this point

for thousands of years

and, these days, a lovely, clinky, chain-link ferry

is the perfect way to come across the water.

And this route forms part of the Pilgrims' Way.

That way, travellers went to Glastonbury in Somerset.

But today, I'm heading south in this gorgeous 1926 Bentley

to our idyllic venue for today's Antiques Roadshow.

Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow's pilgrimage

to Trelissick House and Gardens here in Cornwall.

Since the 1600s, there's been a house on this site,

owned by various families involved in agriculture, tin, copper,

but, more recently, in fine porcelain.

Ronald and Ida Copeland

owned the Spode Copeland China factory in Stoke,

but lived at Trelissick, a house with an extraordinary view.

The house was given by the Copeland family to the National Trust only

recently, so the bit of wear and tear you see now is how it came.

Actually, that's rather exciting,

cos we don't often get to see country houses au naturel

before they've been rather grandly reupholstered.

For instance, climbing the lovely wooden stairs,

you might notice the rather warped banister rail.

It's been so damp,

the wallpaper and paint are peeling from the walls and ceiling.

There's quite a bit to do.

The sunroom is cracking up and condemned,

the exterior portico is crumbling,

and the roof leaks.

The whole place is ready for a country house makeover.

I wouldn't mind having a go!

If you look into the distance,

you can just make out the port of Falmouth.

And from there, a specially commissioned ferry service

will bring our visitors all the way here to Trelissick.

It's a different way to travel to the Roadshow!

Let's hope it's not too choppy

as our visitors from Truro and beyond come to meet our experts

in this wonderful setting.

Let's see what they've discovered.

What a classically inspired house

and a classically inspired brooch.

How did it come into your family?

Well, my mother passed it down to us.

Originally it came from her cousin,

who passed away, I think, in the early '90s.

I don't know its full history.

I believe that cousin originally purchased it in Italy.

Probably in the 1940s.

-Right.

-I believe it's called a micro-mosaic.

It's made of extremely intricate, tiny pieces of I don't know what.

-Yeah.

-So apart from its value at the moment,

I'd like to know more about it and in particular how it was made.

I gather it's 19th century.

Date wise, we're looking at between

1860 and 1865 as the period

that it was probably made.

What's fascinating is that it was actually bought in Italy,

which is wonderful, really, because there was a very important family

of jewellers who were based in Italy, called the Castellani family.

They were a father and son set-up.

There was Fortunato Pio - what a great name - and his son Alessandro,

who came into the business.

Now, as a family, they started off in Italy

but then came over to England and were very influential

within our market over here as well.

And every jeweller throughout the Victorian period

would look at them for inspiration.

So would this be a copy?

Well, this is where it becomes a little bit tricky

because we've had a really good look at this piece.

You've had it for years, you've had a good look at it as well, I know.

And we can't find any markings on it.

So it is in their style, but not necessarily by them.

But it is of a quality that is really quite exceptional.

And the micro-mosaic, which are these tiny, intricate pieces,

are what we know as tesserae,

which are made up of a glass compound and a paste compound.

And each of those individual pieces are hand applied and built up,

rather like a jigsaw.

But in such detail.

The patience, really and truly, it's quite, quite extraordinary.

Of course, the subject matter is quite sorrowful, really, isn't it?

It's this young lady looking lost and forlorn and sitting by an urn,

and is naturally to do with mourning,

and she's obviously lost somebody very close to her.

But that was a theme of neoclassical inspiration

which started in the Georgian period.

We were reviving this idea of going back to the classics

and getting a feel for what they had been producing

back in those ancient times.

And I just think it's inspiring, isn't it,

that things like this could be made?

Is it a subject matter that sort of upsets you, or...?

No, it's just a bit drab, I think!

And I wouldn't wear it.

You're absolutely right, it is a rather dark, sort of sombre mood

and colour, isn't it, with the grey and the black?

But to brighten things up,

the gold mount is something quite extraordinary.

If it went into an auction

then I would expect it to fetch between £4,000 and £6,000.

-Really?

-Wonderful. Thank you very much.

It's been stuck in a drawer!

THEY LAUGH

That is hideous.

It's a monstrosity.

Why on earth have you bought that?

They're the sorts of things my mum would have said to me

if I'd have turned up at home with this!

We're looking at a nail sculpture art piece

by the Danish artist Oluf Gravesen.

And it's signed just down here.

Why did you buy it?

I didn't buy it. I actually came across it.

-OK.

-I'm a carpenter by trade

and this was on another job just past my job,

left in the garage with all other stuff that was being abandoned

and I happened to see it and asked if I could then take it.

They said, "Yes," and then I owned it, basically.

So presumably, if you're a carpenter,

the whole idea that somebody had used nails,

which are very much the tools of your trade,

to create a piece of art?

Yeah, made it all the more appealing to me.

Do you know anything about it? Have you done any research?

All I know is what the owner of the house told me.

-OK.

-That it was commissioned for the director of EMI

and this was apparently done for either his birthday,

I'm not too sure on what the occasion was,

but basically commissioned for him to replicate an LP.

He then gave it to his producer

and the producer obviously had the holiday home where I got it from.

Well, I suppose you can see the sort of record shapes here,

-that are undulating.

-Yeah, the shimmers and... Yeah.

It's also a little bit sort of moon landing-like as well.

-Yeah.

-Especially with these craters.

Gravesen's an interesting guy.

He was born in Copenhagen and he was one of the youngest artists

to be invited to exhibit at the Copenhagen Royal Academy.

And during the 1960s and '70s, his profile sort of grew.

He exhibited in Paris and in New York

and he led quite a colourful life, let's say, in New York,

and died relatively early, sort of in his early 40s, in 1987.

I think there's just so much going on here.

-Yeah.

-I mean, for me, I love it.

It does exactly what you should see from the 1960s and '70s.

A sort of size and monumentalism.

As well as being sculptural, sort of almost tribal arty.

-Yes.

-So I think it's got a sort of incredible amount going on.

-Yes.

-But it isn't everybody's cup of tea.

-Probably not, no!

-Are you married, girlfriend?

Girlfriend, yes. Likes it, loves it.

-Seriously?

-Yeah, yeah.

This is our kind of era, I suppose.

-OK.

-So, yeah.

-I love it.

-His pieces at auction are slightly sporadically priced.

I've seen them sell for as little as sort of a couple of hundred pounds

and my feeling is that with that provenance and with that connection,

you're looking at somewhere between £800 and maybe even £3,000.

Oh!

-Very nice.

-Not bad for a garage find.

Not bad for a garage find, not at all!

Well, you've brought some interesting glasses along here

and I'm wondering what your focus is, why you're here.

Well, they're my father's collection.

My father died three and a half years ago.

He started collecting them back in the early '60s

and as a child I remember some of them out

and breaking one

and absolutely all hell being let loose

and they were rapidly packed away and put back in the loft.

You stopped him in his tracks!

-Yes!

-He used to hide in the loft to look at his glass.

-He would disappear up the step ladder...

-He would disappear, yeah.

..crawl in there, and unwrap his glasses and admire them?

That's right, yeah. Because he liked handling them, actually.

I'm quite proud of the fact I've got them here all in one piece today!

Well, well done, you.

And presumably he'd be made up that we're all sitting here...

-He would be thrilled.

-..appreciating his collection

-and giving it a critique.

-Absolutely.

So, let me examine these glasses that he bought in 1968, etc.

He got a lot and we have his buying book here and I've separated them

into sort of run-of-the-mill

and interesting, for various reasons.

Let's do a turkey shoot first.

And it's interesting...

-That is one.

-..that that's a turkey.

-I know. But he liked it.

-So this one...

-Would you like to tell him?

-Tell him.

Hello, Dad, I'm really sorry to break the news to you,

that is actually a 20th-century copy.

Yes, as we thought.

This is in the manner of 1750, but actually 1925.

This is an "if only" glass.

An English glass of that form,

with that stem,

would be £2,500.

-Oh, I wish.

-It's not, though!

Absolutely correct.

It's a Dutch one and thus is worth 70 quid.

That's great, it can go in the glass cabinet at home now and enjoy.

Go in the glass cabinet.

The earliest and nicest glass here, in my opinion,

is this flamiform ale glass,

dwarf ale glass.

This dates from 1725, it's really early,

and it's a really interesting academic glass.

Let me see how much he paid.

He paid for that...

This one he bought on the 18th of January 1968.

It's a dwarf ale, two-piece, moulded gadrooning,

set directly onto a domed and folded foot,

circa 1700.

Well, he was out by 20 years

and he paid 15 quid for it

and then later, when he went up into the loft,

he said that he reckoned it was worth 100.

So he's actually bumping up, he's appraising his collection.

So I'm illuminating what he did up in the loft.

He was going through and writing down

-how much he reckons they're worth now!

-Yes!

Well, now that's 350, 250-350.

So he's done OK on that one.

This is a firing glass.

It's called a firing glass because if you are at a function

and there's a toast and then the cheers...

Well, the firing glasses, if you get 100 blokes doing that on a table,

then it sounds like cannon fire.

That one today, 400 quid, thereabouts.

And that one, which is really the prettiest,

the most commercial glass.

-It is beautiful.

-Lovely.

Look at it, that stem in the light.

It's a bit chippy, the foot's a bit chippy, I'm afraid.

Going to cost you 50 quid to get it fixed

and then without the chips,

600, 700, 800.

So there you are, Dad. And we're happy to talk about your glass

-and I'm just sorry you're not here to be with us.

-Yes.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you. He would have loved to have met you.

Many years ago, I bought a wonderful bowl and sold it,

made of serpentine, and I thought I'd collect it.

But I found it so hard to do that

and find the good pieces. And now I know why,

cos you've got them all!

-Not quite!

-I mean, these are fabulous examples

of Serpentine carving.

-Thank you.

-Have you been collecting, were you bequeathed them?

No, I spent the first 58 years of my life at the Lizard,

which is where all this stone comes from.

The most southern tip of Cornwall.

Being associated with the Lizard,

I started about 40 years ago collecting.

First of all buying odd bits and pieces from the local turners

and then auctions, junk shops, so on and so forth.

-So, how many pieces do you have?

-About 180.

No!

That's extraordinary.

Well, you know that obviously serpentine is the name

for a group of minerals, don't you?

And you get various serpentines

and it's been used all over the world for about a thousand years,

a couple of thousand years.

The Aztecs loved serpentine, the very green stuff.

The Indians use a translucent type of serpentine called bowenite,

which they called false jade cos it looks a bit like jade.

But it's funny that you've got this natural material here,

so you can see how it carves and polishes up.

-That's right.

-And this has got lizards on it.

-That's right.

-And it's from the Lizard.

-And it's from the Lizard.

-And there is a type of serpentine called lizardite.

-There is.

-Did you know that?

-Yes, I did.

And that's one of my favourite pieces here.

And it's not uncommon, serpentine,

you can find it readily.

But these pieces are amazing examples.

Those candlesticks are fantastic.

Which is your favourite piece?

-That one.

-I love that little font.

-Little font.

-Do you know where that was made?

It's probably made at the factory at Poltesco.

And do you know when?

-Late-19th century?

-Yeah, I would have thought that.

Most of these pieces are late-19th century.

And, of course, this has a practical use, with the infant mortality,

children dying and so on, so they were christened

with actual serpentine fonts.

Yes, and that tazza, that bowl, the footed bowl over there,

the size of it!

Well, that's one of the reasons why I bought that,

because you just cannot get that size now.

-The size of the material.

-Yeah.

Do you know why it's called serpentine?

I don't know why it's called serpentine.

Well, because a thousand years ago or so, they thought

the surface of it looked like the surface of a serpent.

Let's get down to value here.

I think the most valuable piece here is probably the tazza,

-the footed bowl.

-That's interesting.

Because of the size of the material and the quality of it.

You see, all these pieces are perfect.

I would value that at, in auction, if two people wanted it,

a good £500-£600.

Is that right?

Those candlesticks, I think, are magnificent.

They really do make an impact and I'd value those at about the same.

This beautiful little font,

about the same again.

So I think on this table we've got £2,000-£3,000.

-Oh, dear...

-But if you've got 170 pieces,

that's something like...

No, no, no, they're not all of this quality, I would hasten to add.

It's still something like £10,000-£12,000,

from what you've told me.

LAUGHTER

Is it really?! Don't tell my wife, will you, please?!

Now, I'm used to filming

and valuing dolls on the show

but, I must admit, I've never filmed

or seen a silver doll.

Tell me, where did you get it?

Well, my dad was a butler

for people called Sir John and Lady Tremayne

and they lived in a place called Croan, a big house,

which is near Weybridge.

Lady Tremayne gave it to me when I was five as a toy to play with.

-Goodness.

-And, of course, I've broken...

Oh, you did the breaking, did you?

-Yes.

-Naughty girl!

I think I must have, you know,

but it's been in the cupboard and I don't know what it is, Bunny.

Well, I'm very glad you brought it.

-I don't know.

-Now, she or he... Do you think it's a she or a he?

-Well, I would say she, of course.

-She, OK.

Well, she should have a companion.

-Oh.

-Because she's not really just a doll.

-Oh.

-She is a pepper.

-Oh, she's pepper!

-Pepper.

So she should have a salt.

What did you think it was, snuff?

Just thought years and years ago

when people used to write with quills,

they used to have something on their desk, like sand or something,

to dry it, didn't they?

Oh, that's a very good idea. So it's extraordinary,

but it's so unusual because it's articulated and, I mean,

so you can play with it.

She's got wonderful articulated legs,

and the thigh, and the knee,

which is so unusual. It's a lot of work in there.

The head is not made of silver.

-No.

-It's made of porcelain,

so basically the head screws onto the body.

-Yes.

-It was made, almost definitely, by Sampson and Mordan,

who worked in Birmingham and in London.

Sampson and Mordan made propelling pencils, all sorts of things,

but novelty things. They're very proud of themselves,

cos they put the silver mark all over one arm, all over the back,

and on the back it says, "Percy Edwards".

That is the retailer in Piccadilly,

so they were the shop that sold these novelties,

made by Sampson and Mordan.

-Right.

-They started in 1883 in Piccadilly,

so we're talking about...

probably about 1890 for this.

-Oh, right.

-So it's quite old, isn't it?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Isn't she?

-Yes, she.

Anyway, have you any idea what she's worth?

I'm not really worried what she's worth,

-I just wanted to know what she was.

-You're not worried?

-The trouble is, I've got to give you an idea.

-Oh, have you?

-Yes.

Right, I would say...

..£100, perhaps.

Two?

Three?

No, no, no, no.

Even with the damage.

Even with the damage!

800.

Oh, my gosh.

No! 800?

-Oh, my gosh.

-You'd better go and look for the salt, hadn't you?

-I've gone all hot!

-LAUGHTER

So, you've brought me this rather intriguing figure of Churchill.

It was actually in a lake, and the level of the water had gone down,

and just his head was poking above the water.

So it was a question of going in, not far, and retrieving it.

Well, it's signed F Belsky,

who was the artist Franta Belsky,

who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1921.

He actually fled to Britain when the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia.

He had kind of rather a sad life.

Most of his family had died in the Holocaust.

To all intents and purposes, it looks like it's bronze,

but it's actually a resin maquette.

Bronzes would have been cast with this,

and he did a number of different bronzes of Churchill,

both whole figures and busts,

but obviously, this being the resin maquette, it's the original.

I would have thought it might make 1,000-1,500 if it came up for sale.

Really? Crikey.

-So what's your gut instinct?

-That it's a knock-off.

-OK, wrong.

-Oh.

The hieroglyphics on it all look right.

I think it's about 1500 BC.

-That's pretty odd.

-Pretty old, isn't it?

What about this?

Yes, my brother hardly even noticed

it had been broken and glued back together.

I think this is broken,

I don't think it's an accident.

-Really?

-On the better pieces, what you'd do, you'd break into a tomb,

a tomb robber...

Because obviously a lot of the tombs were cursed,

it was a way of protecting them,

to release the spirit

they would snap it

and then re-glue it.

That released the spirit, which meant you weren't cursed.

I never heard of that.

I think at auction, £1,500-ish.

Really? That is a surprise.

Now, how many people have got a little sketch

done by their kids on their fridge at home?

This looks fresh and new,

as if one of your two boys could have sketched it yesterday.

But there's a little giveaway, which is the date here, 1874.

And it's a tale, really, that this gets us into, of two families.

There's one family,

the family that was responsible for the sketch

and then there's the Durrant family, which is what all this is about.

Now, who is Captain Durrant?

Captain Durrant, he was my grandfather's great-uncle.

He eventually became Admiral Durrant

and he was Commander of the Royal Yacht Osborne

and also he was Governor to Prince George and Prince Edward.

We have some of the memorabilia that I've been aware of,

but only recently, within the last couple of years,

when unfortunately my dad died,

that we found some of these extra little bits and pieces,

that have obviously really interested us in the family.

We're not actually talking about Edward VII

or the child of Queen Victoria

that went on to be Edward VII,

we are talking about Edward VII's children.

We're talking about Queen Victoria's grandchildren.

-Yeah.

-So, we've got here Prince Albert Victor,

Eddy as he was always known,

and his brother, George, who went on to become George V.

Now, there was only a year's difference between them,

-probably a bit like these two.

-Very much like these two.

-There we go.

You should have christened them Albert and George really!

It's dated 1874, so he was about 10 then.

-How old are you?

-I'm ten.

You're ten, OK. So that's the sort of date that Eddy was drawing this.

It's a picture, I think, of the Royal Yacht.

There's the captain at the helm

and turn it over

and there's a fabulous picture of...

Well, it looks like a soldier

sticking his tongue out,

-which I'm sure happened a lot.

-LAUGHTER

And along with all that,

there's a lovely continuum of letters as they get older,

but also a lovely letter here from Queen Victoria,

a cable message, dated 1884, saying,

"Delighted at good news of dear George passing his examination.

"The Queen."

They went on wonderful journeys...

-Yes.

-..to visit, of course, all their aunts and uncles.

Western Europe was governed by Queen Victoria's children.

Nine children, she had.

-This is in Durrant's hand?

-It is, yes, yes.

"The Duke of Edinburgh arrived on board shortly after 11am

"and the Tzar accompanied by the Tzarina the Duchess of Edinburgh

"and all the grand Dukes came at a quarter to one,

"and shortly after sat down to lunch."

There we go. A party of around 40.

So you can see he was part of this extraordinary world,

-governed by...

-A very different world.

It's a different world and it's a really collectable world.

The little sketch, I would say,

is going to be worth perhaps £1,500.

The little letters,

the young letters from the young princes, again I would say

they'd probably be £1,500, maybe even £1,800...

-Blimey.

-..for the two.

The letter from Queen Victoria which everybody would probably go,

"Ooh-ah, a letter from Queen Victoria!"

-actually she was a great letter writer.

-Yeah. Quite a few, then.

There are quite a few around.

So that's going to be in the sort of £300-£400 bracket.

But putting it all together, I would have said,

we're certainly talking about £5,000-£7,000.

-Wow!

-And I know that there's more in your bag.

-Yeah.

-So it is a remarkable collection

and I think a great archive to hand on to your two boys.

Family history, we are immensely proud, all immensely proud.

-Yes.

-Brilliant.

-Thank you ever so much.

-All of that is brilliant.

-Lovely, thank you.

Eight medals here, which show a man who has served from the Boer War,

1899-1902, all the way through the First World War,

and then through the Second World War.

Now, that is an impressive row of medals.

-It is, isn't it?

-And from a military perspective,

that's really quite unusual. That's at least

45 years' service and most of it on what we would call active service,

so this man isn't just in a garrison,

he's actually out there fighting.

Yeah.

But these medals have a social story as well, don't they?

-Yes.

-Cos these medals belonged to someone in your family.

-And who was that person?

-He was my grandfather.

John Jackson. He was a company quartermaster sergeant

in the King's Rifle Corps.

He was wounded during the defence of Ladysmith in the Boer War.

When he left the Army in 1919,

he found it hard to get work and he eventually ended up

having to pawn his medals to raise a loan

to buy clothes for his children.

And, incredibly, you've still got the pawn ticket here.

-Yes.

-Dated the 30th of June 1924.

And he pawned them for 15 shillings.

-That's right.

-That's about 75p...

-Really?

-..in today's money.

-Is that right?

-Yeah. What happened then?

He received a letter for the interest on the loan

which he couldn't afford to pay, so he lost the medals.

He kept the pawnbroker's ticket and the letter all his life,

which I still have, of course.

He was obviously very proud of these.

-Yes.

-Because he had served in some amazing places.

I mean, the Boer War here with that defence of Ladysmith,

where you say he was wounded.

1914-15 Star, British war medal, victory medal.

But he has here the quite rare thing called the Delhi Durbar Medal...

-Yes.

-..of 1911, for the coronation.

So the big procession held in Delhi for the Emperor of India

as King George V came to the throne.

And then he has his long service and good conduct,

which for him in those days was 18 years' unblemished service.

-Yes.

-So he was very proud of these medals.

He then went off and served in World War II.

What did he do in World War II?

Well, he emigrated to New Zealand in 1929.

He put his age back ten years to enlist as a patrolman

in the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

And that's the uniform that he's wearing in this picture here...

-That's the uniform.

-..as an airman in World War II.

-Yes.

-So, World War II finished.

Did he claim his medals?

No, no, he didn't.

No, he'd lost his others,

so he didn't claim those two.

And when did we get these two?

My father, as next of kin, he claimed them in 1980.

It kindled an interest

as to what had happened to the rest of his medals.

I hunted around antiques shops

and with collectors and dealers and so on for years

until I advertised in a medal finders service

and an American collector responded.

When I contacted him, he said he did own the medals

and he was willing to sell them to me as I was the man's grandson.

-Isn't that amazing?

-It is amazing, yeah.

-After, what, 75, 80 years...?

-75 years.

75 years of them not being in the family, there they are,

proudly displayed,

as they should be. And they are a superb set.

And an auction valuation for these in British money

would be between £500 and £600.

-Really? That much?

-Yeah.

-Definitely.

-Really? I'm surprised.

It's a very lovely set of medals. Well done in finding them.

Thank you very much.

This is absolutely gorgeous.

-Where did you get it from?

-I got it in an antiques shop in Oxford.

-About four years ago.

-You lucky person.

I'm so jealous. It's so charming.

-Obviously a little milking stool.

-Yes.

This to me, I've never seen this before,

but I think almost certainly,

-you would just tie that with a sash to your waist.

-Oh, OK!

I'm sure. That's why you've got these two little lugs

and this shape here.

But there's so much...

Look at this. The colour here.

Look at that. Now, you know what that's from.

That is patination.

That is to me half the value of this piece of furniture.

When she's been milking, she's got probably dirty, sticky hands,

from the teats, you pick it up like that

if you're right-handed and tie it to your body.

-Ah!

-And then you do that day after day.

This is 1840, 1850.

Mid-19th century.

Elm top, and the sticks...

Look at these. They're just sticks.

From the hedgerow. Still got the bark on them.

Made by a local chap, probably for his daughter, the farmer's daughter,

to go milking. It's a wonderful icon of 19th-century life.

And probably English. Did you pay a lot of money for it?

It was on sale for £225

and I managed to get it for 175.

Which is quite expensive, but it was worth it.

It is expensive for a little milking stool, isn't it?

But I really wanted it, so...

Well, if I tell you that is now worth £400 or £500...

Ooh! Wow!

I'm very, very jealous.

Thank you, I'm delighted, because I really didn't think

you'd be very interested in it.

I love it. I want to keep picking it up.

This week's Enigma has to be, I think, one of our strangest yet.

So perhaps it's no surprise

that it's been brought along by Ronnie Archer-Morgan.

You've been trawling the local museums

and you've brought along this intriguing little thing.

What could it be?

I think it's an amazing object.

It's so surreal.

It's like conceptual art.

It's from the Boscastle Witchcraft Museum.

Oh, it's the witchcraft museum, is it?

Can I know what's inside it?

I believe that's mercury.

And what are these things here?

They look like whelk shells.

-They're shells, anyway.

-Talk me through the options, then.

What's my first option?

Does it contain the spirit of a sailor lost at sea?

Someone who has lost their husband at sea or a loved one at sea

might go to a wise woman.

The wise woman would say, "I'm going to put the soul,

"the spirit of your loved one in a bottle to protect him."

And then the person would take this home and keep it with them.

Yes, keep it with them to protect a loved one's soul.

You've got another option, about the weather, haven't you, Ronnie?

So explain that then.

Well, you would go to the wise woman again and you'd want something...

-The wise woman plays a large part...

-Well, it is a witchcraft museum.

-OK.

I mean, the wise woman is another name for someone who uses witchcraft

to help people.

So you'd go to the wise woman, you would say, I need something

to tell me about the weather because when I go out to sea,

I need to know what's going on.

And she would say, take this little bottle

and put it on your windowsill. And when something might happen,

you'll know what the weather is going to be.

The thing is, with wise women, and with witchcraft,

the more that is explained about how it works,

-the less it's supposed to work.

-The less magical it is.

-Yes.

-That's rather convenient for you right now.

-Exactly.

Which is not going to help you.

So, we've got the soul of a lost sailor,

something that helps you tell the weather,

-and what's the last option?

-A sailor's friend.

-A sailor's friend.

So if you're bringing contraband up the estuaries,

like this beautiful estuary here, at the dead of night,

and you don't want to be stopped by the customs officers,

you hang this over the side of your boat to make yourself invisible,

so you believe, so that Customs can't see you.

-A form of invisibility cloak.

-Absolutely.

-OK.

What does everyone...? What do you think?

-The weather.

-It's nice.

-It's nice!

-Good answer.

-The weather, cos the mercury rises.

You think weather cos mercury rises.

So, who thinks it could be the spirit of a lost sailor?

-Anybody?

-I think so, yeah.

-You think it could be?

-I do, yes.

-Does that appeal to your sense of...?

-Yes. Yes.

-Of romance and witchcraft.

-Oh, yes.

I mean, how long ago would something like this be used?

It's about 100 years old.

Maybe the beginning of the 20th century.

I think it's got to be the weather.

Because it contains mercury.

Yeah...

Don't you think that's too obvious, though?

-Yeah.

-That's why I like it. I think that's why we like it.

OK, do you know what, I'm going to not go with the majority view

cos because this came from a witchcraft museum.

So why would a barometer type object be in a witchcraft museum?

So, let's go for...

the spirit of a lost sailor.

-Yes.

-That's what we're going for.

-Come on.

-You're so...

-Fickle.

-Wrong.

Oh!

-Is it the weather thing?

-We had you.

You were so on to it.

So why have something like this than just a common-or-garden barometer?

Well, maybe someone that believed in witchcraft

didn't want a common-or-garden barometer,

so the wise woman saw an opportunity to make some money.

Yeah. Well, you've worked your magic here, Ronnie.

Well, it's the first time I've won with you.

So...

All the other ones I've done with you, you've won.

And I've been very happy for you.

-So be happy for me.

-Well done.

Well done.

I mean, the quality of this is absolutely astounding.

It's unbelievable. And if you turn it over,

it gets even better.

You've got this fabulous water dragon rising out of whirlpools

and foam and waves and even the eyes, they're picked out,

I think, in silver.

When objects like this

arrived in the West

from Japan in the 1870s and 1880s, Western collectors were entranced.

They were amazed. But where did you get it?

Well, my great-grandfather went out to Japan in 1864.

I think he'd had an argument with his father,

who was part of Hunt and Fry's, the chocolate...

-Oh, the chocolate makers.

-So he went off to make his fortune,

he became a dealer in tea and a tea exporter

and eventually formed his own company in Japan.

And before he retired,

he collected a whole lot of bronzes and inro, netsukes,

ad things which belonged to the family then.

-So, you have a whole collection of Japanese...?

-No, unfortunately,

the family was rather large and it split up.

-We have a few.

-Well, this is a fabulous little piece.

It's a very interesting time in Japanese history.

You have the Meiji restoration, took over from the Shoguns.

The Court moved from Edo, which is now Tokyo, back to Osaka.

But this little box, I'm sure you know what it is,

it's called an inro. It's made in lots of sections,

which, they are very tightly fitted together, but they can come apart.

And it was designed to hang from your belt and your robe

and supported by this toggle, which is a netsuke.

This netsuke, it's a flattened one,

but it's also reticulated and they call it a ryusa netsuke.

And there's also the gold lacquer made from the sap of trees -

you've got a raised lacquer, called maki-e,

and then we've got this gold sprinkling,

which is nashiji lacquer.

It's a fabulous technique.

How they perfected it, I do not know.

And they would have kept their medicines in it?

Well, realistically...

I think this was made for a Westerner.

I don't think this was ever used.

It's in fabulous condition.

So many things were made in the Far East for Westerners,

this was made for a wealthy Westerner.

It was your grandfather, you said.

-Great-grandfather.

-Great-grandfather.

-Well, he was obviously very successful.

-Yes.

Because he bought some of the best things

that could be bought at the time.

The value of something like this... It's slightly disappointing,

they were worth more years ago, but I think, at auction today,

it's in the region of £1,500.

Good heavens! I never realised that.

-That's amazing.

-I don't think it's that amazing, for the quality.

I mean, look at it. It is staggering.

When you brought this clock to me,

the first thing I noticed was the name Robert Philp on the dial.

What do you know about it?

It was my father's. He had it, virtually,

as far as I can remember, all his life.

And it never ran.

Ever.

And after his death, I inherited it

and I discovered in fact that it had a broken mainspring,

which was the reason why it never ran.

I had it fixed, but the restorer said at the time,

this clock has hardly ever run through its life.

How long the mainspring had been broken, I have no idea.

But he said it's in almost pristine condition.

Well, that's one of the things that I particularly liked about it.

In fact, probably the bit that I most like about this clock

is not so much the dial, but the backplate.

What I really like is the fact that

the pendulum is the original pendulum.

It's been cut off just here so the door can fit when it's snug.

It looks a bit strange like that, but it's been done on purpose.

-Right.

-And the other thing that everybody will notice

-about the backplate is that it's beautifully engraved.

-Mm.

And you've got this lovely scrolling foliage

with the central urn issuing flowers and husks

and all sorts of things going on.

But actually, that isn't particularly unusual.

This is a typical type of engraving

for an English table clock of the third quarter of the 18th century,

so we are talking about 1770-1780.

So, as you pointed out, it hasn't been used very much.

And you often find alterations to the pendulum and the escapement.

But this one is exactly as it was made.

In fact, this part here, which is the pulley for the alarm system -

so it's got an alarm, which is slightly unusual -

has the original engraving on there

and as soon as you see the original engraving on the barrel cover there,

you tend to realise there's very little been done to this.

Because often the alarms get pulled out by clockmakers

in the 19th century because it's such a pain,

-because they never work properly.

-Right.

I've always thought it slightly strange to have an alarm

on a table clock. I mean, when are you going to need the alarm?

Are you going to take this upstairs and have it in your bedroom?

I suppose you could do. I mean,

it's an enormous thing to carry upstairs every time, isn't it?

It's strange. So, just turn it round.

It's a very simple plain dial.

Silvered brass.

Ebonised fruit wood case.

Typical of its type.

With a bell top, bracket feet, it's quintessentially typical.

But Robert Philp was well known for his musical clocks.

-Right.

-And this is not one of them. I mean, were it to be that,

we'd be in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, perhaps.

But he was capable of making clocks of that quality.

This is one of his more simple clocks,

but I like it because of the cleanliness of the movement,

the originality, so let's put a value on it.

I doubt it'll be a surprise to you, but at auction today,

it's got to be worth between £3,000 and £4,000.

-Right. OK.

-Which I suspect is where you thought.

Yes, probably. Yes. I haven't really thought about its value.

I've always just simply kept it.

-Well, thank you very much for bringing it in.

-My pleasure.

Now, Stoke Mandeville Hospital is world famous

for the work it's done on patients

who've got spinal and other injuries.

But what's your association with the hospital?

My mother as a young lady became the medical photographer there in 1954.

So a lot of her work was involved in taking the photos of

the disabilities of people that had been maimed in accidents.

-And who is this here?

-This is my mum, Margaret Bennett.

In 1955, she was there, they held the Stoke Mandeville games.

-Right.

-And so she took a lot of photographs for that.

And any occasion that happened at the hospital,

she put herself in the position of taking the photographs for it.

And here we've got an aerial view of the hospital.

-Yes.

-And that was founded in, well, 1944...

-Yeah.

-By, I believe, a Dr Guttman.

-Yes.

-Who himself had a spinal injury.

-That's right.

-And he started, you know, this fantastic history...

-Yes.

-..that's gone on to the present day.

-Yeah.

And here we start the Stoke Mandeville games. August 1955.

Eight years after the very first one.

So, the Paralympic Games all started

way back in the 1940s by Dr Guttman -

there he is, at the prize-giving.

And it's expanded into this major media and sporting event

that we see today. Here are the games very early on...

-Yes.

-Netball, javelin throwing...

Table tennis. And here is the very famous Roger Bannister.

Yes. Yes, indeed.

For the march-past, I believe.

-And now today...

-Yes.

..it's the second most popular sporting event in the world.

-Yes.

-And 4,000 athletes,

160-odd countries.

-Yes.

-And it is estimated at 1.5 billion TV viewers.

Oh, it's just become phenomenal, hasn't it?

Since 2012, it's just become such a fantastic showcase

for people with a can-do attitude.

And what was interesting, in my mum and my father's case,

my sister was born with a disability,

so a lot of our life as children, and as my parents,

was involved in promoting equality and searching for opportunities.

So exciting to see an archive like this

that obviously has never been published.

And I think, you know, from a historical point of view,

I'm sure that people would be interested to see.

-All the history is here.

-Yeah, yeah.

And it's in fantastic condition and she was a great photographer.

-Yes.

-So, you've got all those elements.

Now we have to think about price.

I mean, when you're thinking about the Olympic Games,

everybody wants the gold medal.

This is rarer in many ways, but it's not going to be as valuable.

For the social history of it, you can't do better,

in Paralympic terms. So I would have thought

if you ever did decide to sell it,

it would fetch certainly in excess of £1,500, maybe as much as £2,000.

Wow! I had no idea it would be that sort of thing.

Gosh.

Do you know what this is and where it comes from?

It's a gold box, that's about all I know about it.

My sister found it in a car-boot sale in France.

You're having me on.

No, serious, yes.

She picked this up in a box of bric-a-brac and...

About 20-odd years ago, and it's just been sat at home,

and when we were coming down to Cornwall,

we said we were going to go to the Antiques Roadshow,

she said, "Take it and see."

-So here we are.

-Right!

Well, it's a snuffbox.

It was made in France, in about 1785.

It's got this delightful little cameo on the front here.

We've got a dove

sitting next to a flaming heart.

And then another dove holding a ring above the heart.

So I suggest this was probably made as a wedding present.

-Oh, lovely. Romantic.

-The condition is outstanding.

Absolutely stunning.

If we open it up,

we see it's got some marks right tucked in the corner down here.

Oh, yes.

And the French actually marked things

when they are in their constituent bits,

before putting them together.

So it ends up with the maker's mark being unreadable,

and I can't actually tell you who made it.

But this is, I have to tell you, a real collector's box.

Wow!

-She'll be chuffed.

-Yeah.

And a collector would probably pay...

£15,000.

Oh, wow!

That's brilliant. Wow.

Not bad for a box of bric-a-brac.

No. Gosh. She'll be well pleased.

So, you're going to have a good visit back to your sister

and tell her it's worth £5 and you'll buy it off her.

-LAUGHTER

-Wonderful.

-Thank you. Lovely object.

-Fantastic.

Well, Mr Sandon, you're a ceramics expert -

I have a test for you. Do you know the name of this pattern?

It doesn't look familiar.

Oh, it's Sandon, the family china! How wonderful.

Sandon Hall was close to the potteries,

so a lot of factories call their patterns Sandon.

And mostly, they are awful.

But that's a really pretty one.

You're trying to dig yourself out of a hole now. But anyway.

-All yours.

-Isn't that great?

You can imagine having breakfast on that, sprinkling Worcester sauce...

That'd be lovely.

I discovered this under my front doorstep in my cottage.

It was up like that, in the ground, all I could see was that.

And as I picked it out, it came out like that.

It's half a bottle of something.

I would really like to know how old the bottle is,

and more or less, what's in it.

Well, old bottles are not all that rare.

But finding old bottles with their contents still in is pretty rare.

And what was revolutionary about the cylindrical bottle

is that by making it having straight sides,

you could stack them, and secondly, you had a cork,

and the act of keeping the cork moist

kept it expanded, which prevented air from going in,

which would spoil your wine

and turn it to vinegar.

This bottle dates from 1800,

but the idea that it's still got its contents in,

I want to find out if this worked as a concept.

I know bottles have been found from 1650 by the Museum of London,

where they have tested the wine and it has been found to be good.

CROWD "OOH"S

How brilliant!

It's very brown.

LAUGHTER

Down it!

Have a smell.

Oh, it's really rank, actually.

-I'm not going to go...

-Yeah.

It doesn't taste bad, but...I think it's port.

It's port or red wine, it's one or the other.

Or it's full of rusty old nails, and that's rust.

You've been really good... You've been really game about this.

Thank you very much indeed.

What it proves, actually, that could be worse...

It proves that not all corks worked all the time, I suspect.

But at 200 years old...

I wonder what we'd taste like when we're 200 years old.

Anyway, thanks very much.

-No problem.

-It's been great. Lovely. Thank you.

The first thing I do when I see a really nice handbag

is grab it. Tell me about it.

Well, I organise,

or am involved with organising, an annual fundraising event

and this year I thought, for a change,

we'll have a hats and handbags stall.

So I put the call out to friends and family,

and a friend of my mother's said that she had a couple of things

that she would like to donate,

one of them being "some old handbag with a light in it".

And I didn't really know what she meant.

And it wasn't until I saw it that I thought,

"This is more than just an ordinary handbag."

And there was no way I was going to put it on the stall

with a £2.50 ticket on it. I wanted to find out a bit more about it.

Well, it's brown and it's got this little diamond-shaped thing there.

You know, not very inspiring so far.

But then you open it up

and, oh, my goodness.

Straeter, so Dutch.

1950s.

And my goodness, have we gone downhill since then!

Because look at this. It's got a light for your make-up...

A light that shines down in your handbag, how clever is that?

It's got somewhere for your lipstick, your perfume.

Not that we do it any more, but a little place for your cigarettes.

And in 24-carat gold.

Amazing.

I mean, this is it.

You know, I think this is something that some handbag designer today

could take a patent out on.

-I think you're right.

-Because, look, it's amazing.

It's really well thought out.

And amazingly, it was designed by a man.

-Oh, right!

-So... I know!

I know.

I mean, what can I say?

Now, the bad news.

-OK.

-It's not leather.

-Oh!

-They were often in, you know,

leathers and crocodile and various things, but this isn't.

This is synthetic.

Why would you put 24-carat gold in a non-leather bag?

-Exactly.

-But they have.

But it's still, you know, a fantastic piece of design.

And, you know, it's good vintage, vintage is in.

-Mm-hm.

-So I'm very glad you didn't put it on your stall.

-So am I, now.

-For £2.

Because I think it's very, very easily

£150, £200.

OK. Thank you so much. Very much. That's fantastic.

When I knew I was coming to Trelissick, which, as you can see,

couldn't be much closer to the sea itself,

I was hoping beyond hopes

that I would find things that came with a great maritime history.

And well, thank you very much,

because certainly you have not let me down.

So, we've got a life ring and a life belt

-relating to the Flying Enterprise, the SS Flying Enterprise...

-Yes.

-..on its way from Hamburg to New York.

-Yes.

Heading out across the Atlantic, and then what happened?

The story is that the Flying Enterprise in 1952

sank about 40 miles south of the Lizard, really bad storm,

and it's thought that she struck a rogue wave -

or vice versa, the rogue wave struck her,

raised her up and broke her back.

Her framing was broken, there was a crack across the weather deck.

And the cargo shifted and she was then listing in bad weather.

And the captain, Captain Kirk Carlson, stayed aboard that vessel,

refused to leave it, would not give up salvage of that vessel

until that ship slipped below the waves.

-I love this image here...

-Can you just quickly identify who is who?

Yes, certainly. On the right,

wearing the cap, is Captain Dan Parker.

He was the master of the salvage tug, the Turmoil.

On the left, wearing the beret,

that's the first mate of the Turmoil, Ken Dancy.

He's the guy that jumped aboard to help Captain Carlson,

who's seen pictured there in the centre.

So it was in trouble, it sent out distress messages...

-Yes.

-And the tug came from not a million miles away, did it?

The Turmoil was often berthed in Falmouth...

-Just over there.

-Just over here.

We're looking right down the river Fal.

And they would react to any maritime maydays

and they would go out to bring the salvage back to port.

So, on their way back, it slipped its tug...

It slipped its line or...?

They got a line on it, bad weather hit them again.

The tow parted. Her back was broken

and there was no way she was ever going to make it back to port.

And it was at that stage that Dancy and Carlson realised

that she had listed so far over that she was about to sink.

They called the Turmoil alongside and Captain Carlson,

wearing this life jacket, and Ken Dancy, carrying that life ring,

ran along the now-horizontal funnel,

jumped into the sea, and for about five to ten minutes,

swam to the Turmoil and were then hauled aboard

and fortunately given some rum and dry clothes,

they were healthy and happy.

Carlson went back to New York, where he was...

Although he was Danish, he was a resident in New York

and he was given a ticker-tape parade welcome.

This had become such an international media event.

Ken Dancy was honoured,

as was the captain as well.

But it was really the bravery of Carlson

that captured the public imagination.

There's also, you know,

a conspiracy theory about, why was there so much interest in the cargo?

I mean, it was meant to be pig iron and cocoa, or something like that.

The conspiracy theory was that

she was actually carrying, covertly, zirconium,

which was going to be used to make nuclear fuel

for the first American atomic submarine, the Nautilus.

And in fact, the launch of the Nautilus was set back a year,

coincidentally, from this disaster.

So, these things were saved,

and how do they relate to you and your family?

Well, the man you can see here in this photograph

is Jock Drennan, and he's my grandfather.

He ran what was at the time the most famous maritime, mariner's pub

in the world, the Chainlocker in Falmouth.

Ken Dancy, the family friend that he was, brought both of these items in.

He'd been given the life jacket by Captain Carlson.

He brought them in to my grandad,

my grandad had them cased and put them on the wall.

After my grandfather died, his son Bob, my uncle Bob took over the pub.

Sadly, Bob died and then when his widow retired,

she sold the pub and its contents.

And I just happened, just by pure chance, to see these

in a local auction room at St Day, a few miles down the road.

And I couldn't stand to see them go completely out of the family,

so I just had to go and buy them and bring them back in.

I think you'll all agree that is an amazing story.

And Hollywood couldn't have made a better one out of it.

They are poignant items.

The conspiracy theory sort of adds speculation to it all.

But more than anything, his bravery, or their bravery,

-I mean, that was truly amazing.

-Definitely.

So, what do we say?

Difficult because they're unique,

but certainly I would think, if you ever did decide to sell them,

in an international saleroom, I would see them fetching

certainly between £10,000 and £15,000.

Wow!

Seriously?

Oh, I'm very serious.

I'm amazed.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you!

APPLAUSE

All day I've been watching the yachts

coming and going in the estuary there

and thinking about that shipwreck

that Jon Baddeley was talking about, back in the early '50s.

Just as the waters closed over that ship,

the years have folded over that story

and it's been largely forgotten now.

But that's the great thing about the Antiques Roadshow -

we can bring these stories back to life.

From Trelissick House and Gardens, until next time, bye-bye.