Baddesley Clinton 1 Antiques Roadshow

In this idyllic setting, it feels as if we've stepped back in time.

It's hard to believe we're only 15 miles from Birmingham.

And the history of this picture-perfect moated manor house

stretches back 800 years.

But it was in Tudor times that things got really interesting.

That's when the Ferrers family took up residence,

and one of them, called Henry,

earned himself the nickname The Antiquary.

So I like to think he'd be pleased

that the Antiques Roadshow has come to his home.

Welcome to Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire.

A 16th-century lawyer, Henry Ferrers had quite a passion for history

and was very proud of his ancestry.

He lavished a fortune on this house,

making it a home he could be proud of,

fitting for a man of his stature.

He commissioned heraldic stained-glass windows,

ornately carved mantles -

he couldn't get enough of it.

There are heraldic carvings everywhere.

Henry kept a record of his many purchases,

and he was particularly proud of this chimney piece

he had made for the grand master bedroom.

Can't say I blame him. Certainly rather impressive.

And Henry kept a list of things that he owned

and things he'd like to own,

and he placed them under certain categories. -

for storage, for necessity,

for profit, or for pleasure.

Sounds like a few of the antiques experts I know.

By the late 1580s,

Henry was struggling financially

and made the decision to lease out the house

to an ardently Catholic family.

Showing any Catholic leanings

during the reign of the Protestant Elizabeth I was risky.

It was an act of treason to harbour

a Roman Catholic priest in your house.

But his tenants were undeterred.

One day, in October 1591,

a handful of Catholic priests were staying here

when there was a knock at the door.

The priest hunters had arrived, and they wanted to search the house.

Quick as a flash, the priests ran for the privy,

which gave access via its waste pipe

to a well-concealed priest hole in the medieval sewer below.

Compared to the fate that awaited them if they were caught,

this must have seemed like the preferable,

if distinctly unpleasant, option.

Of the priests that hid at Baddesley Clinton,

three were later executed for treason.

Although Henry Ferrers was dangerously close

to these illegal activities -

either due to luck, or friends in high places -

he managed to escape any blame.

Successive members of the Ferrers family continued to live here,

enjoying the building and possessions

that were Henry's labour of love,

until it was all handed over to the National Trust in 1980.

We're hoping to see more fine antiques and artefacts

at today's Antiques Roadshow.

I wonder which of them will be for profit or for pleasure?

Let's join our experts and visitors and find out.

So, this is quite a heavy pedestal. How on earth did you get it here?

Well, we pushed it in the back of the car somehow this morning,

and when we got to the car park, there were some very nice gentleman

that carried it all the way in for us.

That's fantastic. Well, thank you for bringing it in.

It's an interesting item.

Do you have any story about it? Do you know anything about it?

It came from an old country house where my aunt was a housekeeper

58, 60 years ago,

and they were clearing it out,

and this was destined to go on the bonfire

because they considered it wasn't any good,

that it was plaster or something like that.

And my husband knew I liked things like this,

and he said, "Could we have it"?

So I've looked after it. In a fashion.

Saved from the bonfire.

Yes, it was before skips!

LAUGHTER

Well, OK. We've got to date this.

Do you know anything about the house at all?

-Do you remember the name of the house?

-Yes, it was Northwick.

-Northwick.

-Yes.

Right. Well, if we could do some research,

I think we could find out possibly who made this.

Have you any idea of what date it is?

I just called it my Adam pillar,

because it reminded me of the way Adams do their fireplaces

so we just called it Adam.

You don't need me at all here, do you, at all?

-It's exactly what it is.

-I do.

You're going to tell me how badly I've looked after it.

Well, what have you done to it, then?

Why are you so worried about it?

-Have you had it stripped or something?

-Yes.

-Ah.

So, what colour was it?

It was a sort of dirty grey-green.

Ah. You mean, it was the original Adam grey-green?

-LAUGHTER

-Probably.

The Adam grey-green from the late 18th century?

1775, 1780.

I don't know.

I just assumed that it was Adam.

Something to do with Adam and then...

-Yes.

-And you still had it stripped?

Well, yes, because my father-in-law painted it again,

-and he painted it blue and white.

-OK, OK, OK.

-Let's end that one.

-Yes, I know, you didn't want to know.

This is beautiful. It is a Adam-period pedestal

of the 1770s, 1780, from a grand country house,

possibly one of a pair, originally.

What I love about it is the quality of this pine.

I know it's been stripped - so many of these pieces have -

but just look here, the lovely, lovely straight-grained pine...

-I think it's beautiful.

-It's beautiful. But look at this.

What do you think this is made of?

-Well, I'm sure it's wood.

-Mm-hm.

But everybody kept telling me it was plaster.

But when little pieces come off, it's wood.

It is, isn't it? You can see it's clearly wood. But not pine.

It's probably a lime wood, which is the best wood for carving.

And just look at the detail of the ribbon, the flowers.

-Look at this.

-It's gorgeous, the ram.

And that's typical of Adam.

The ram's head is so typical of Robert Adam, the architect.

It would've been made, probably, for standing a candlestick on,

a candelabra, for lighting.

I always thought it ought to have a bust on it.

-I don't know why.

-I think candelabra.

I think lighting, I think for lighting.

It's a fantastic object.

So... Well, you clearly don't value it at all,

if you had it stripped from the original Adam green.

I just love it.

And I wanted people to know that it was wood

and not keep telling me it was plaster.

It's carved wood, very special.

Difficult to value.

A minimum, I would say, of £5,000.

-CROWD:

-Oh!

Thank you.

Thank you.

LAUGHTER

Perhaps my daughter will appreciate it a little more now!

The sort of secret Catholics

that would've lived in the house behind me,

had they seen objects like this,

had they been around at the time,

they would have been deeply impressed.

So, you're a vicar, and these are your saints.

Yeah, they sit in our church on a Sunday

and just add to the beauty of the building.

It's St Mary Magdalen's in Coventry.

We're famously known as the church with the blue roof in the city.

So, where do they come from?

There's a little bit of a story

that one of the early vicars went over to the Continent

and brought them back to decorate the church for its worship.

It's a 1930s building,

yet there's something about them being 18th and 17th century.

With this one,

the story is that it's St Joseph

with the toddler Jesus, from Germany.

It looks to me as though it's St Christopher with his staff

but you're the vicar.

We just know it's roughly about 17th century,

but that's what's in the church archives.

Well, I would put it a little bit earlier.

I would say it was late 16th, early 17th century.

I think you're possibly right, southern German.

Now, the one to the left of that, well, she's very different.

Of course, she's polychrome, she's painted,

and gives an idea of the extraordinary colour

that would've been around in churches

in the 16th and 17th century,

that is so lost to us in many of them now.

I would say, though, that it was 18th century, probably Spanish,

and it certainly looks to me

to be a good example of oak carving.

This one is supposedly of St Anne,

and it's St Anne teaching Mary how to read.

What a wonderful image.

And this is baroque.

It's beginning to move.

It's quite different from the one we've just seen.

Well, actually, not as active

as the figure next to which it stands.

St John, is that?

Supposedly so, yes.

St John with a lamb that's jumping up at him.

What I love, though, is this is full-blown baroque

going into rococo.

It's like a cloud that's fused with a human being.

And I would say that was late 17th, early 18th century.

I suspect, Spanish again.

And a rather different image at the end.

Who are we calling him? Is it St George?

It is, it's St George killing a dragon.

Ah, I see, he's wrestling with it.

But how does he go down with the congregation?

Well, he's started to cause a bit of problem with the congregation

and worry a few of them.

And that's because...?

Well, it caused a bit of concern

when it silhouetted against a window.

Oh, I see, OK.

And so what's the solution for that one?

He's been relegated to the organ loft nowadays.

-The organ loft?

-Yes.

I can understand where you're coming from.

Well, let's talk about some valuations, if we may.

So, starting with, it could be St Christopher, at the end,

I would say somewhere in the region

of £10,000 to £15,000.

Wow.

I think the 18th-century Spanish St Anne and Mary,

I think that's £15,000.

The St John, a little bit later, but with all of that animation

and movement and twisting bodily form,

again, something that attracts the eye.

£10,000 to £15,000.

And I've thought long and hard about the problematic St George.

I'm beginning to wonder whether he could be much, much later.

But I'm going to say only about £2,000 to £3,000 for this.

-That's good!

-So, a valuation for the group,

somewhere in the region of about £50,000.

I think we'll have to have a meeting

because we've lots of children running around,

I think it's going to cause me a bit of a heart attack now!

When I look at a pocket globe like this

it immediately takes me straight back

to the time that it was made.

A time when it was about discovery.

It was about discovery in astronomy,

it was about discovery in geography,

it was about discovering new lands,

and a little object like this catalogues it all.

How did you get hold of it?

It belonged to my late father.

I don't know where he got hold of it.

He showed it to us

and pointed out some interesting things about it when I was a lad,

but in those days I wasn't terribly interested,

and I probably shrugged my shoulders and walked off.

But now I'm fascinated by it

-and I want to know some more about it from you, please.

-Very good.

Well, the first thing is,

-I'm going to be really pedantic and put on gloves.

-Right.

Now, the reason I'm putting on gloves

is that the acid in your fingers

interferes with the coating over the globe.

And, fine, you've been handling it very happily

for the last I don't know how long,

but what I would say is that, from now on,

it would be really handy

to use gloves, to stop anything happening.

-You know, it's in remarkable condition.

-Yes.

First of all, we've got the cartouche here,

and it says the name of the maker,

Nath Hill - Nathanial Hill - and the date, 1754.

Well, Nathanial Hill was a globe maker.

He was thriving up until about 1768,

about that period.

But the interesting thing is, it's this particular globe,

the 1754 globe, which seems to have been incredibly popular,

judging by the number that have survived.

And at that time in 1754,

there were all kinds of stuff going on.

-How closely have you looked at it over the years?

-Pretty closely.

I always notice the fact

that half of Australia hasn't yet been discovered,

so it isn't on the globe.

Exactly, it's pre-Cook.

It's pre-Captain Cook.

Now, I've got my lens here,

and I'm just going to give myself a bit of an aid.

Yeah, you see, this is... This is fantastic.

Up here at the top of America where Alaska, we now know it to be,

it says, "Unknown Parts"!

THEY LAUGH

It's the parts that explorers hadn't yet reached.

So, one has to remember,

in the Age of Enlightenment,

that this was a time when cultured people were encouraged

to get a knowledge in the broad arts and sciences,

and this was part of that education.

We have astronomy here, with the Northern Hemisphere

and the Southern Hemisphere printed inside the cover of the globe.

And it would've been a conversation piece,

you would have discussed it with your friends.

"Ah, I've got the 1754 one."

"Well, what's happened since the last one was printed?"

"Well, look, they've discovered another little bit of X, Y and Z."

So these were talking points,

but also, they were educational amusements as well.

I would say, at auction, we're talking about

between £7,000 and £9,000 on it.

-CROWD MEMBER:

-Wow!

-LAUGHTER

Don't fall over!

Could you say that again, please?

Shall I write it down?

With all the noughts!

£7,000 to £9,000.

No question.

It's a cracker.

Well, at first glance, this looks like it's a fairly typical

little silver, late Georgian pillbox,

maybe a patch box.

But it's slightly more interesting than that, isn't it?

You can see on the lid here,

-it's engraved with an eye and an inscription.

-That's correct.

What can you tell me about it?

It's a small silver box

and, inside it, it contains a wooden peg.

The peg is about three quarters of an inch long

-by about a quarter of an inch thick.

-Little peg there,

-and it's beautifully attached to the box on a little silver chain.

-It is.

And around the outside,

it tells a story

of a young boy called Ben Taylor,

and when he was nine years old, he had a fall,

and the peg that is in the box

went into his eye.

It was in his eye for around five months...

..and then it was removed by a surgeon

called Richard Sandbach.

Now, I'm assuming that as the date of it was 1730-1731

that this would have been a barber-surgeon,

not a surgeon as we would know today.

Well, in fact, I had a quick look at it

and the date on it is actually 1781.

-Oh, right.

-It's slightly...

It's in old script,

so it's quite difficult to see.

I've spoken to our silver experts,

and they agree that it is 1781.

-I think it's just got a little rubbed.

-OK.

So he wouldn't have been a barber-surgeon,

he would've been a pretty skilled surgeon

to have done an operation like that.

So, how did you come to own it? Is it a family piece?

It belonged to my late husband.

It was in a shop, possibly one of his father's shops,

in the back of a cupboard.

It was black...because it had obviously been there

for many, many, many years,

and didn't discover what it was until it was cleaned.

So we don't know any history about it really at all?

We don't know any history at all.

Well, I think it's a fantastically macabre little piece.

Probably a little pillbox, dated from the 1780s.

No hallmark on it, and as a box,

-it doesn't really have a great deal of value.

-No.

But with the story behind it, and its beautifully engraved

inscription giving us a detailed history of the story,

it's something that would be really, really collectable.

I would like to see it in a museum.

And have you tried to research the name of the surgeon at all?

Yes, but as I was looking for 1730 as opposed to 1780,

that may be why I wasn't very successful.

Obviously, we have to talk about value.

I think, if it came up for sale,

it would really appeal to a doctor or a surgeon

who collects things of a medical nature,

and in a medical sale, I think you'd be looking at a price

of maybe £700, £800,

something of that sort of order.

That's more than I expected,

but it's not for sale.

Nowadays, I try and avoid using superlatives,

but I have to tell you,

this is probably the finest piece of electroplate

I've ever seen on the Antiques Roadshow.

LAUGHTER

What can you tell me about its history?

Well, it's been in my family

for as long as I can remember, obviously.

My grandfather bought it originally,

I believe from a country house sale not far from here.

I think it was Wootton Hall,

-which I think might have been in the Guinness family.

-OK.

I expect you might know also who might have made it?

I know the top is Elkington.

-That's correct.

-And the base,

I've never been able to find a mark,

but whether there is one...

Well, Elkingtons were the great pioneers of electroplate

in the 19th century.

They didn't invent it,

but they adapted the process

to such a terrific degree

that they went round museums all around Europe

copying great works of art,

and they did this by a specific process,

and that's called electro-forming,

or then it was called electro-typing.

And, very oversimplified,

electro-forming is building up layer upon layer upon layer of plate

on top of a mould,

and it produces the most perfect copy.

Then, as with this piece,

gold is used to just highlight it

and make it, aesthetically, a stunning object.

-There's one thing I didn't say.

-Yep.

The family history also says that they believe it might have been

an exhibition piece at the Great Exhibition,

-but I've got no way of proving that.

-OK.

All right, well, we'll come to that in a moment.

Let's have a look at the decoration on the top here.

We've got...astrological signs around the outside.

For example, we've got October here,

and then we've got the scorpion for Scorpio on the edge.

In the centre,

it looks like harvest time.

The fruits of the earth sort of symbols.

And in answer to your question about

whether this was made for the Great Exhibition,

-I can tell you, no, it wasn't.

-No.

Because this little mark here

-is a registration mark.

-Yeah.

And from that, I can tell you

that the design was registered

on the 5th of October 1869.

So it should be an exhibition piece -

that you are right about -

but it's not for the Great Exhibition.

You know, nearly 20 years too late.

I think we're looking at something between

£7,000 and £10,000.

-CROWD MEMBER:

-Gosh!

-Very nice. Thank you.

-Thank you so much.

-Wonderful. Thank you very much.

-Great object.

-I think I've found the coolest item today.

-Oh!

Tell me about it.

OK. My friend Tony give it to me in about 1985.

He run a pub in Liverpool, someone come in the pub one day and said,

"I was working in a cinema, I found this in the attic."

And Tony says, "Oh, I like that," he says. "Come in the pub," he says,

"you can have free beer for, like, two nights."

It's just different.

I like it on the wall, but the wife doesn't like it on the wall

-so it's stuck in the attic most times.

-Hence the dust!

I was going to say...

It's very basic in form

-and, literally, to do what it said.

-Yes.

It's a sign to say, "This is a talking film".

Yeah, that's correct.

Get it up on the wall,

cos it's worth £300 to £500.

OK. You know, it's going to stop in the attic, unfortunately!

LAUGHTER

So, look, "The world of fashions and continental feuilletons.

"A monthly publication dedicated to high-life fashionables, fashions,

"polite literature, fine arts, the operas, theatres,

"embellished with London and Parisian fashions."

What a great thing.

-Is it yours?

-It's my grandma's,

-and she had it when she was 15 from a family friend.

-Right.

-And she's kept it ever since in her wardrobe.

-Right.

Wrapped up nice and neatly.

She used to read it when she was younger,

and I've had a look at it and I think it's fascinating.

It's wonderful, isn't it?

I mean, it's got some fabulous drawings in, from back in the 18...

1832, it was.

Yes, these are engravings, so these are prints, engraved prints,

but they're lovely because they've been hand-coloured at the time,

-so the colours really leap off the page.

-Yes.

-I suspect that's something that appeals to you?

-Definitely.

-I love anything with colour.

-Right.

Colourful clothes, colourful pictures,

so it's definitely appealing to myself.

It's incredibly opulent, isn't it?

These over-the-top gowns, fantastic fabrics, silks,

lovely sequence of hats here,

just on their own.

-Yeah, so quite an unexpected piece.

-Yeah, it is.

I mean, it's a wonderful book, and to have kept it for that long,

nearly 200 years, it's just wonderful.

-It survived very well.

-It has.

-It's lost its covers, unfortunately,

and I think it may have lost a couple of pages, front and back.

-Here and there.

-It's not a big problem.

It has a value.

People will always love colour, people will always like fashions.

So, what's it worth?

-£150, £200.

-OK.

I wasn't expecting it to be quite that, worth quite that much.

No, that's great.

When I was told by one of my colleagues

that there was an owner at the counter

with an archive material relating to the Mayflower,

from Plymouth to the New World,

I thought all my birthdays had come at once.

And then, subsequently, I heard that

you had... It was his grandfather

who'd been cook on board, I suddenly thought,

-"That can't be right."

-Doesn't add up.

Doesn't add up. 1620? No!

So it then clicked that this must have been a later voyage.

It was. If you roll forward to 1955,

they hatched a plan to recognise the close relationship

between Great Britain and America

during the Second World War

by recreating the voyage of the Pilgrim Fathers

from Plymouth to Plymouth Rock, Cape Cod, etc.

And so they commissioned a builder in Brixton to build from English oak

an exact replica of the Mayflower,

called the Mayflower II.

That was crewed by 33 men,

went to sea for 50 days

and the cook was my grandfather, Walter Godfrey.

I mean, was he a ship's cook normally?

Yeah, he was chief steward

on the General Steam Navigation sailing steam vessels

that went from Southend to Broadstairs,

and that was his living.

He was 57 when he sailed on the Mayflower II.

And one assumes, then, they lived the life on board, they...

Did they dress in modern clothes or contemporary clothes?

No, they had an outfit

which was contemporary in 1620,

and he can be seen here wearing the outfit.

One hears about the awful food

they used to eat in the 17th century,

you know, ship's biscuits with weevils in.

Did they have a modern menu?

I think... No, they didn't have a modern menu.

When you look at his menu book, which is here,

it details everything that was served,

three meals a day for 33 men, 53 days.

And generally starts with rolled oats,

so that was a sort of kick-off point,

but the crew really appreciated the efforts he was making.

Some of the notable things he did was to issue lime juice,

-which is, of course, a great scurvy inhibitor.

-Yeah, yeah.

So I think the crew really appreciated his efforts.

And bobbing around in a ship like that...

Yeah, interestingly, when you read his diary, his handwriting,

when he says "a rough sea", you can tell!

Because the handwriting...

is almost following the waves!

And did you know your grandfather at all?

I knew him till I was about six.

He was a bit of a character.

This photograph here,

when they arrived in America, they were feted.

Just tell me what's going on here.

What's happening here, they arrived at Cape Cod

and sailed up the Hudson,

past Lady Liberty and landed at Manhattan

and were given a ticker-tape parade through Broadway,

celebrating the close union between the two countries.

And they were welcomed very, very...

Grandpa went on American TV shows

doing cooking programmes,

you know, met the President, and they had a fantastic time.

They were welcomed with open arms,

and it was a celebration of a union.

And a true adventure.

And a true adventure, yeah.

I mean, they talk about lightning strikes,

they had no fresh water to wash in,

when it rained they all went on deck starkers

and ran round cleaning themselves.

So, they had a good, fun trip.

Monetary value - we have to talk about that -

we're not talking about, you know, thousands of pounds.

I think it's important, it must be kept together,

to donate it to a museum would be ideal.

And in real terms, it's worth, I don't know,

maybe between £600 and £800 for the whole archive.

-But that's not the point, is it?

-No, no.

It's a reflection of his memory,

of what was a daring and exciting voyage.

Well, thank you so much for bringing it and sharing it with us.

It's a pleasure.

Well, antiques come with stories...

and they come with other stories -

and this one's a blinder.

So, take it away.

Well, my great-great-grandfather was in Paris, I guess, in 1848

when the Revolution happened,

and he somehow got a hold of this

and, several years later, brought it out to Australia

when he emigrated, with him,

and it's just stayed in the family ever since.

So, what we have is a picture

of your 16-year-old great-great-grandfather

in Paris, tumultuous Paris,

in the middle of yet another French Revolution

in which the King, Louis Philippe, is deposed,

and here we have a glass

that I don't doubt is from his dining table.

So how do you interpret that?

Are we talking about a looter or...what?

Erm...possibly he helped the King and maybe the King gave it to him.

I see. That's what it was - he was a royal servant aged 16.

-Possibly!

-Very likely story, don't we think(?)

Well, good on him.

I mean, the idea that this has been

transported from a royal palace in 1848

through you, an Australian,

to bring it here to the Roadshow is magic.

You know, it's history come alive.

So, what are they going to make of this in Australia when they see it?

I haven't actually told anyone I was bringing it over!

You spirited it out of the country?

I'm sure nobody'll find out out there,

nobody watches the Roadshow in Australia -

you've got nothing to fear!

It's only on eight times a day!

So, I mean, it's a story piece, of course.

I mean, value, not magnificent -

not as magnificent as the story -

£150 is about it.

But please get it back to Australia,

cos if you don't get it back in one piece, you're mince.

Thank you!

We've brought along a rather gruesome little object

for you to look at for this week's Enigma Challenge,

which is when our experts trawl the local museums

to see what they can come up with

and see if they can fox us - fox me in particular -

as to what it's used for.

And Marc Allum, you've brought this along.

I say "gruesome" because it is a bit.

You've got a few options as to what it was used for,

only one of which is right.

-That's right, yes.

-So let's hear them.

Well, the first one is that this is a prototype prosthetic hand.

So it's a very early prosthetic hand,

and this one was particularly designed

for a pilot who joined the First World War,

crashed, and unfortunately lost his hand.

Where would this go? Up his arm?

Yeah, basically that was concealed up his arm

and that's a number of levers and manoeuvrable sections

that went on a belt inside his jacket,

and he could operate those parts to make the hand move.

Now, the hand was interchangeable.

This is just one of the hands. But this was the first of its type.

-What do we think of that? CROWD:

-No.

-No.

-The date's about right.

-I'm not sure about that.

-Date about right? Yeah.

-Well, just after the First World War.

-Yes, absolutely.

Right. So, a prosthetic hand. What else?

Secondly...

..cars in that period weren't very well equipped

with kind of indicator signals and things like that,

and it became a bit of a problem on the roads.

So they decided to make this object,

which was a kind of an add-on indicator

that you could clip on to the side of a car,

and then the driver, as he was driving along,

could operate the lever and the hand would go like that.

-Or go like that, presumably.

-Or go like that!

Whatever you wanted!

And would indicate that you were going in that direction.

OK, so a hand indicator - literally - for a car.

Intriguing.

What's your final offer?

My final offer is, are you a member of the AA?

-I used to be.

-You used to be, OK.

Well, you're not old enough, Fiona, to remember that when AA repairmen

used to ride motorcycles,

that essentially there was a kind of camaraderie on the road

between them and the people that were members of the AA.

You would have an AA badge on the front of your car -

many of you will remember those chrome and yellow badges.

The AA man on his bike could see that badge on the grill of your car

and, as he came towards you, he would salute you.

-Everyone knows about the AA salute.

-Yes.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Now, the problem is that as the roads became busier and busier,

it became a real problem

because AA men were having to salute a hell of a lot

and it was getting dangerous.

They were taking one hand off their motorbikes,

they were saluting,

and this was made as the solution to that.

-LAUGHTER

-Flick the lever, the hand saluted,

people got their salute and the AA man carried on.

An AA saluting hand.

So, what do we think, folks?

You think it's the AA saluting hand?

I think it's possible... I think I'll go for option three.

You're going for AA saluting hand.

I was going for two, but I'm going for three now.

OK, well, this is what I think.

As a prosthetic hand, it's a bit useless.

-I'm not sure I buy that.

-OK.

-Then the indicator...

-Mm-hm.

..you wouldn't just have one, would you? Cos you'd have to have two.

You'd have to be driving along, you know,

and pressing your little levers...

-So we don't think that, do we?

-No.

I mean, I had no idea about the AA salute,

-but I'm inspired by you, sir...

-Yeah, so many people...

..who remembers it, remembers the AA salute.

That's what we think, isn't it? The AA salute.

-CROWD MEMBER:

-£3 a year to join.

£3 a year to join!

-A princely sum. AA salute. Are we agreed?

-Yeah!

Apart from you, in the bowler hat. The AA salute, Mark.

Do you know, I am just SO pleased.

No.

-CROWD:

-Aw!

Really? Is it the prosthetic hand?

I knew I would be good at Call My Bluff.

It's number two.

It's the transport semaphore direction indicator.

-Really?

-Yes.

And it comes from the Coventry Motor Museum.

I think it looks like a wholly unreliable object, I have to say.

It's probably the reason it never really caught on.

HE CHUCKLES

Well...you foxed all of us, didn't he?

-Well done.

-Thank you, Fiona.

We've got a bit of a blue thing going on today -

our clothes, the brooch.

How has this come into your...?

It belonged to my grandmother,

and it's passed down to me as I'm the oldest granddaughter.

Lovely.

My grandparents lived in Berlin

and, in actual fact, they had to escape the Gestapo.

-Gosh.

-And she managed to take her jewellery with her.

But, obviously, on their travels,

she sold most of the pieces for them to live on,

and this is the one that remains.

Oh. It all sounds quite dramatic, doesn't it?

Escaping from the Gestapo and all that.

But thank goodness that they had something portable.

And she was a very stylish and sophisticated lady.

-Was she?

-So this is one of the pieces she kept.

It dates, actually, from the 1925-1930 period.

We've still got quite a bit of colour going on in it,

which the 1920s Art Deco period was all about, colour and vibrancy.

And then as we head towards the '30s, diamonds start to overtake,

so this is a sort of crossover style, basically, between the two.

Obviously it has been worn, which you can tell,

because it's been abraded

and it's been a little bit knocked around in the mount.

But I love the colour, and there are some, what we call,

inclusions or flaws going on inside it,

which, in many ways, gives a little bit of character

alongside the story, which adds to the fun

of the piece of jewellery, really, doesn't it?

Sapphires are beautiful.

Unusual cuts of diamonds, cos we've got square step-cut diamonds

which, again, takes it away

from that very traditional use of brilliant, round diamonds.

We've got a little bit of something exciting and extraordinary

going on with it, haven't we?

-Did you know your grandmother?

-Yes, I knew my grandmother.

Do you remember her wearing it?

Oh, yes, she wore it, and she was very stylish.

Even in her 80s, she was always very elegant.

Fantastic. Elegance is the key, really, isn't it?

As far as value is concerned, I'm sure you're never going to sell it.

-No, no.

-It goes to the grandaughter.

-That's the way forward.

But should it appear in a saleroom environment,

I can see this, at auction,

fetching round about £2,500 to £3,500.

Thank...you.

On a good day, because it's Art Deco, you never know,

it might fly a bit further.

Here we are, in this beautiful Midlands garden,

and what we were missing is some locally made garden ornaments,

and then you arrived with this.

What can you tell me about it,

and how did you come by it?

I found it underneath a stall

at a Leicester antique fair.

It was covered in about 30 shades of Dulux,

and I decided that it was nice and I bought it.

What I do know is, before we get going,

-I know this is one of a pair.

-That's correct.

I don't think the car springs would've taken both of them.

These must be displayed beautifully at home.

-Where do you have them at home?

-In the garage.

LAUGHTER

-And they've been in the garage for how long?

-For 45 years.

-OK.

So they came home, they went in the garage,

and that's where they've sat.

Well, that's a shame.

They probably deserve to be out and enjoyed,

they are marvellous things.

What we do know about this is it's made, as I said, locally.

It's made by the Coalbrookdale factory,

very near to here in Ironbridge in Shropshire,

and very famous for this type of iron production,

garden furniture, garden ornaments.

How do we know it's Coalbrookdale?

It's very distinct in its look, but we do know it's Coalbrookdale

because, if we look here, we can see it's got stamped "Coal" and "dale"

and obviously the bit in the middle, we can't see, the "brook",

because it's being blocked by that.

What is it?

Well, it's a curious thing, but actually what I think it is,

it's a lantern base.

So it would've had, on the top of it, probably a huge lantern,

so it may have ended up standing...

What have we got there? About three or four feet.

With the lanterns on top, you could add at least another three feet,

so it may well have ended up standing about...

something around six or seven feet, which I would've thought

would have stood rather nicely outside a grand house,

flanking the beautiful stepped entrance coming in.

What is nice about this one particularly

is these cast dog-mask finials here

with this lovely fruit hanging down in the mouth.

I think they're going to date

probably from around 1870, 1875, something like that.

In terms of their value,

I think, today, if those came up at auction as the pair,

those would carry a presale auction estimate

of between £2,000 to £3,000.

Yes, yeah.

And now you can tell us what you bought them for 45 years ago.

-£47.

-That's not a bad return on your money.

Although, having said that, £47 was quite a lot of money.

It was as much as I had at the time.

That's the typical collector's story, "It's everything I had".

The kids don't eat that night,

but look at this wonderful pair of lanterns I brought home for you.

Thank you very much for bringing them down. Lovely.

This was made for a Mr Plumb.

Are you are Mr Plumb?

I am indeed a Mr Plumb.

-So this has been in your family since 1842?

-It has. It has indeed.

And did you carry this all the way here today?

I did. Only from the car park,

I'm pleased to say.

It's the most magnificent jug.

I mean, it really... It's a tour de force,

and just before you put it on the table, I had a look inside.

-This has actually been cast in a mould.

-Right.

So, if you can imagine, not only is this jug huge,

when you saw the size of the mould,

the mould would probably be that much bigger

all the way around.

Can you imagine, not only pouring all the clay into it,

but then tipping the clay out

after the outside had dried?

It would take, I don't know how many men - four, five men.

So this was something quite special.

-And it was made for an ancestor of yours.

-Yes.

What did he do? Do we know?

-My family were farmers.

-OK.

-So we were farmers.

What we have to remember, in the 1840s,

the birth of a son was much more important.

It meant that the farm would survive.

So this was a celebration, not only of the birth of a son and an heir,

but the fact that the farm would continue.

Have you seen how it's a bit rough and a bit mucky?

Yes, I've seen it's a bit mucky.

-Do you know why that is?

-No.

That's because it had another name on it.

-Oh!

-And that's been rubbed off with sandpaper.

Oh!

And the name of your ancestor has been painted on,

-possibly by the local coachbuilder or the sign writer.

-Oh.

So this jug actually dates to 1820, 1830,

so it would've been second-hand, I suppose.

-And, not that you're ever going to sell it...

-No.

-..but if you did,

I think you'd be celebrating to the tune of £3,000.

Because where would you find another one?

This is the Rolls-Royce, to go with your Rolls-Royce, of tea sets.

What do you know about it?

Well, it's a travelling tea set.

I believe it was made in the late 19th century.

My late mother saw it in an antique shop

and she obviously thought it was very pretty,

and bought it and brought it home, showed it to me.

I was very impressed, I thought it was lovely.

You have a little silver-plated tray,

then you have the teapot.

And then you've got all the fittings inside,

but then when you open up these pieces...

Little jars, sugar.

And the great thing is, it's crested.

Have you done any research on the crest?

Yes, the crest is from the Monson family,

Baron Monson.

I think, from my research,

the baronage was created in 1728

and it's still alive.

There is a Baron Monson now,

but I've never had the pleasure of meeting.

Well, that kind of sums up the type of wealth you need

to have purchased something like this. This wasn't cheap.

Although it's silver-plated,

you've got a gilt lining,

you've got Leuchars and Sons, Piccadilly -

that's the retailers -

in this red, kid leather, or Morocco leather, case.

It's just everything that you'd want.

I think that, at auction...

..because of the condition,

and it's got a great crest and provenance,

easily £1,500 to £2,000.

Good heavens.

Thank you very much.

Well, I have to say this is

the most superlative collection of buttons that I've ever seen.

Somebody must have spent a very long time building the collection.

What's their history?

Yes. When I was a youngster, when I was about ten or 11,

my mum and I started collecting buttons,

and when I was about 15, 16, I got bored,

and she bought them all back of me

-and she'd carried on collecting for years and years.

-Really?

So, where did your mum collect them?

Well, every weekend, my dad and her were off to fairs.

-Local antique...

-Always local.

I wonder, did she divulge to him what she was spending on this...?

Probably not.

She'd probably just have a little bit of money

and then just ask for a little bit extra to buy that last piece.

She obviously didn't have any particular style or era.

Anything that appealed to her.

This, I understand, is only a small part of the collection.

-This is only a small part, yes.

-Goodness. Right, OK.

Let's talk about a few of them, because obviously we have so many.

The ones that immediately caught my eye

were these little Essex crystal buttons here.

They're actually cuff links.

And these are doubly good,

because they're Essex crystal,

which are very collectable,

but they're also dogs, and people love dogs.

Other ones that particularly caught my eye were these French ones,

mother-of-pearl and enamel.

-They are French.

-We wondered, we wondered which country.

Late 19th century.

Had you ever considered these?

Other than knowing that there's a date on them,

we thought they must be gold.

What they actually are,

they've been made out of 18th century watch backs

that have been cleverly cut and turned into a set of buttons.

How amazing. We had no idea about that.

That's incredible.

Again, you've got the cabochon amethyst there,

with the silver mounts.

-My favourite colour.

-Fabulous things.

And these here,

these are Japanese.

-Are they?

-Ivory, with little silver backs on them.

Gosh, you know, I'm lost for choice on words here.

Another favourite of mine, I ought to point out,

are these little Italian mosaics

made out of tiny, tiny, little pieces of marble,

made in Italy for the tourist market, essentially,

in probably the 1860s, 1870s.

She must have been quite an authority on buttons.

-She was.

-After decades...

She was actually the co-founder of the Birmingham Button Society.

What sort of date would that be?

This is in the 1980s.

They organised lots of events,

and even just two weeks before she died

the retirement home that she lived in had a summer fair

and she was asked to do a little presentation of her buttons.

Everybody came and asked questions. They were fascinated.

-So that was a really big day.

-It was a nice legacy for her.

There's a very big interest in buttons, as a collector's subject,

and also in America

there's a huge amount of interest in European buttons.

Just to give you a little example,

the Essex crystal cuff links,

they would probably be £400 to £500.

-Because they're dogs.

-Gosh, that's just for a pair!

Just for a pair!

A little French set like this,

again, would probably be...

maybe £150, £200.

And as this is only part of the collection, it's really kind of...

Without going through it in great detail,

it's rather unquantifiable, to be honest with you.

But I would've thought, at a minimum,

it would be £5,000 to £8,000,

and more than likely more than that.

-Gosh, incredible.

-Gosh.

Absolutely incredible.

-Gosh. Thank you very much.

-It's a pleasure.

-It's a bit of a...

It's lovely. It's so beautiful to see them all displayed.

I've never seen them displayed like this. It's truly beautiful.

It's a lovely legacy for your mother.

Yes, just looking at it today, it looks beautiful for us.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

So, you went to view an auction,

you saw this in a corner,

what happened next?

Well, I saw it was a snuffbox,

and I thought how well it had been sort of worked,

and I was really interested in it.

Then the lady who presented it to us

said there's a secret picture in there somewhere

and, to our surprise, there's a lovely picture of a lady there

which sort of made it a bit special as well.

With the ringlets down and that, she'd got such a pretty face.

If you were a gentleman and you wanted to have a portrait done

of your wife or your daughter,

you may not walk around wearing them on your chest like this, all proud,

you'd have them tucked away.

Pocket-watch cases, for example,

or they'd hide them away under the lid of a snuffbox.

Women would wear them in a far more open way.

They'd have them either at their breast on a brooch, perhaps,

-or on their wrist.

-They'd display it.

They'd flaunt them a lot more than gentlemen would,

who were, on the whole, far more secretive.

So, what about the artist?

Where did your research go after that?

Well, I had it cleaned,

and someone took the picture out

and they advised me

to check the artist out.

It was Chalon,

and it had got 1835 on it.

And it had got RA after it, and that was Royal Academy.

You showed me an image of the reverse

when it was taken out the frame,

and it's totally right, it's in his hand,

that's how he would inscribed the reverse of his works.

Arthur Edward Chalon.

He was born in Geneva

and he moved over to England in the late 1790s,

and he really became one of the most important artists of that period.

Interestingly, with this, and given this is the original case,

we should also probably look at what's on the top of it.

Given that we have this rose here in full bloom,

it could be to celebrate their death.

And given the black nature of the box at the bottom,

the black colouring,

it's quite possible that, in fact,

this miniature was painted

to record the likeness of a lost loved one.

It's very personal with miniatures.

You don't really have this as much in the larger oil paintings.

They're very personal items.

And actually, I think, if this were to come up at auction,

it would sell for

anywhere between £3,000 and £5,000.

Wow.

-Excellent.

-Thank you for bringing it in.

Thank you.

Before we really closely examine it, tell me what you know about it.

Yes, it was given to me

by my Aunt Minnie and Uncle Barney on my wedding.

They bought it at an exhibition at Watches Of Switzerland.

It was a brooch. It had a rather large, curved pin on it,

and the pin would have done serious damage

to any jacket that you wore it on.

I know my aunt never wore it for that reason,

and she gave it to me, and I had it made into a pendant

which makes it more wearable.

-We know that it's made of yellow gold and white gold.

-Mm-hm.

-We also know that it's in the shape of a Beefeater.

-Yes.

And what is really interesting, and it's very exciting for me,

is that when you press

this little button here,

the drawbridge comes down

and it shows the watch.

I love that, I think it's absolutely brilliant,

but it's upside down, so you read it like a pendant.

-Don't you think that's the best thing?

-Beautiful.

I think it's just really cool.

I've never seen the like before,

and the jewellery department have not seen the like before either.

I also thought it was quite fun,

the fact that it's Baddesley Clinton we're at now

and it's a moated house, and here we are with the drawbridge.

-Don't you think that's just great?

-It's wonderful, yes.

-I think it's a beautiful piece.

-It's really wacky.

-Does everybody like it here?

-CROWD:

-Yes.

Isn't it great?

For me it dates in the 1960s, possibly 1970s.

When, can I ask, were you...?

It was 1990, I was married,

and I know my aunt had had it some time before that.

She'd had it for quite a while, I don't how long.

But, obviously, it's got London written all over it.

It's a Beefeater, the Tower of London,

this wonderful drawbridge mechanism.

This is a Swiss-made watch, which is almost irrelevant

because it's a lovely piece of jewellery which is integral.

Ruby set, a diamond set emerald set,

but they're only tiny stones, they don't really add to the value.

What I love about it is just its intrinsic quality,

and the fun of it.

Fashionable? I don't know whether it's fashionable.

-Do you think it's fashionable?

-Um...

-You either love it or you hate it.

-It's so quirky.

If you love it, you're going to want it.

So, at auction, I would say

probably between £2,000 and £3,000.

Right, lovely. Thank you very much.

This is a wonderfully detailed model

of a 12-metre racing yacht.

I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful model.

I really, really like it.

I'm going to ask you a little bit about it first

before I go into the history of it and things.

What can you tell me about it?

Well, it was donated to the London Model Yacht Club

by Sir Thomas Glen-Coats

when he was president of the club in 1937.

Now, I know that name, Coats. That's Coats Textiles and Cotton.

Correct. Yeah, from Paisley in Scotland

Very, very wealthy family.

So wealthy that he never had to work in his life.

And he, as a young man, loved boats and sailing,

and he became a yacht designer.

And he designed himself several yachts

which were built by Mylnes, up in Scotland.

And this particular yacht, Iris, in 1926, I think it was,

which was an exact replica of his design,

which is in this photograph here.

I can see it flying the waves there.

Absolutely beautiful.

We can see the same 12-metre K6 class on the sail

which is engraved into the top of the sail here.

One of the most amazing things about this yacht is it's SILVER!

-Yes.

-It's beautiful, and I'm not going to pick it up,

but I have picked it up, and it's very, very heavy.

There's a lot of silver in it.

And I can also see... I looked at it earlier.

It's actually hallmarked along the front here for 1935.

-It's a little bit later than its '26 building.

-That's right.

I think what I really, really love about it is the detail.

It's an absolutely perfect representation

of the full-sized yacht.

What I really like about it as well

is that it evokes a place in yachting history, doesn't it?

In the early 20th century,

this was the domain of royalty, wealthy people,

and these beautiful, sleek yachts were just part of that world.

Something to a certain extent that's really disappeared now.

I mean, we all go on about the America's Cup and things like that,

but you did have to be very wealthy

to build yachts like this and run them.

You say he had several designed and actually had several built.

He did, yeah.

I think this is an absolutely beautiful thing.

I'm going to put a value on it,

because there's a lot of history imbued in this.

I think, if this came up for auction,

that this would make

£5,000 to £8,000 at auction.

Gosh, yes.

It's a very treasured item of our club heritage

and we will look after it very carefully.

-I'm not surprised.

-It won't go anywhere.

So, you've brought along this charming and small oil

of what appears to be a castle in the countryside,

with the sea beyond.

Obviously an amateur hand.

Normally I would say, well, very pretty,

obviously personal to you,

but worth just a few pounds.

But maybe it's more special than that.

Tell me.

This was given to me by my aunt in Ireland,

and it was gifted to her by a very special chap

who was a bodyguard to Lord Mountbatten.

Oh, right.

And the painting is actually by Lord Mountbatten,

and he gave it to him after many years of service.

And I think he gave so much as a police guard,

and I think that was his way of showing his gratitude.

And on the back it, it actually says, I think,

"With gratitude from Lord Mountbatten".

Well, that is a story, isn't it?

And suddenly that transforms what is an amateur oil

into something much more personal,

and I had no idea that he also painted.

And this is of the castle and Mullaghmore.

-And where's that?

-In Sligo. County Sligo.

That was his summer home,

so he would have gone there to relax during the summer with the family.

And then very sadly, in 1979,

that's where, just off the coast there,

he was assassinated.

Yes, that's right. Yeah.

And apparently, the bodyguard was actually

on another mission that day,

so he wasn't there at the time.

But obviously tragic and very distressing for everybody,

and, yeah...

I think it's a charming picture.

And with the story associated with it, it comes to life, doesn't it?

And here is the home he loved so much

and the time he spent with his family to relax,

so a lot of story there, a lot of emotion.

Please write it down and attach it to the base there,

because I think it adds to the story and it adds to the value.

Cos I think, if you ever did decide to sell it,

because of its story, I think you're talking of a figure

of, well, certainly between £600 and £1,000.

Wow. Wow! My goodness.

Such a little painting.

-But a big story.

-With a big story.

-Thank you so much.

-Thank you.

Diamonds sparkling in the sunshine here.

This is almost Hollywood sunshine, isn't it?

It is indeed, and that's exactly where this was bought.

Wonderful. Tell me every part of how you got it.

It was bought in Hollywood Boulevard,

and the lady who had the antique and jewellery store

only opened on Saturdays.

We were introduced to her.

I knew her, then, until she passed away, for about 24 years.

In fact, we used to go and stay with them in Miami.

-It's always nice to have a jeweller as a friend.

-Isn't it?!

And I had an inheritance,

so I thought I would put it into something

that was tangible and also pretty,

and also...probably a better investment than the bank.

Your best friend, a girl's best friend,

all these cliches are tumbling out.

And that was it.

But it was 23,000.

£13,500.

But, in fact, it had belonged to Rita Hayworth.

How marvellous. That's very good to know.

It was given to her by her husband, Aly Khan,

who was the son of the Aga Khan.

So, Rita Hayworth was married in the '40s,

but tell us a bit more about this wonderful star.

Well, she was an amazing star and she was a real Hollywood A-lister.

She acted with absolutely everybody in Hollywood at the time,

Glenn Ford, Frank Sinatra, Orson Welles.

She was in Only Angels Have Wings.

-Much adored, much loved.

-A very glamorous lady.

And perhaps the only girl in the world

-who didn't need the diamonds, but she had them anyway.

-Absolutely.

But this is '40s, American, fabulous Hollywood glitz.

I've looked at many, many, many pictures of Hollywood and so on,

but I can't find her wearing it!

I will send you home to actually look for those photographs,

-and maybe even her will would be interesting too.

-Yes.

You've got to go in for a bit of opencast archaeology here,

because the provenance of these pieces is absolutely crucial

in every sense of the word.

Because they are heirlooms, they're talismans,

and when you can associate them with somebody famous

and somebody utterly glamorous like this, in lifestyle and in looks,

then this adds hugely to your...

Well, which was an investment, in some regard,

but it's not only an investment cos you love it, don't you?

We know the diamonds are really of very nice quality

and they add up like mad,