Baddesley Clinton 2 Antiques Roadshow

On the Antiques Roadshow we love an eccentric, and there were certainly

a few of them here at Baddesley Clinton near Solihull,

in the West Midlands.

Welcome to a return visit of the Antiques Roadshow.

Marmion Edward Ferrers lived in this picturesque moated house

in the second half of the 19th century with his wife, Rebecca.

Both were fascinated with the past.

They dressed up in theatrical costume and lived an existence

from another era, quite secluded from the pace of industrialisation

in nearby Birmingham.

Marmion's wife, Rebecca, was a keen painter, and she created

dozens of images of life here.

The couple never had much money,

so they invited Rebecca's wealthy aunt, Lady Chatterton,

and her husband, Edward Dearing, to come and live with them.

They were quite a foursome.

They became known as the Quartet.

Marmion liked to wear a beard,

intentionally styled into a Charles I style point,

and had a penchant for 17th-century Cavalier-style clothing.

In fact, they all loved dressing up, casting themselves into roles -

the philosopher, the squire.

Baddesley Clinton became a playground where they could live out

their fantasies in privacy.

The Quartet were all the company they needed.

In the evenings, Rebecca would paint,

Lady Chatterton would recite poetry,

the gentlemen would sing or play instruments.

They were true 19th-century romantics.

After 1876, it all began to change when Lady Chatterton died.

A few years later, Marmion also passed away.

As soon as the official mourning period was over,

Rebecca wasted no time and married her late aunt's husband.

The story goes that years earlier, when Edward Dearing approached

Lady Chatterton to ask for permission to wed Rebecca,

she misheard, and thought he was proposing to her.

And, being a gentleman, he was too polite to set her straight,

and so he married her instead.

Now, I think that's taking chivalry a step too far.

The Quartet's time here is recorded on almost every wall, thanks to

Rebecca's paintings, and even on some of the stained-glass windows.

Rebecca had new stained-glass panels in the style of the 16th century

installed, featuring Edward and Marmion's names as a memorial

to her two husbands. Their lives are literally etched

into the very fabric of this building.

Our time at this National Trust house is more fleeting,

so let's get a move on and discover what treasures have been unearthed

at today's Antiques Roadshow.

You've brought along a really pretty filigree box.

Now, filigree was made all round Europe

from the end of the 17th century, copying filigree made in China

from a much earlier period.

Where did you get hold of this particular piece?

Well, I bought it at a watch fair ten years ago,

exactly ten years ago, and I was looking for a box

that I could have as a 16th century watch movement.

And I've been looking for a number of years, and it's fit the bill.

It cost the princely sum of £20.

When I got home, I was anxious to drill the back of the box

for the winding square, only to be told by my wife that I'd promised

to do something else, so it was postponed.

And on the evening when we were sitting in bed I thought,

"I'll just check those marks out," because I hadn't recognised them,

and the book fell open, Jackson's book, which I'd got,

at the page which was the Glasgow goldsmith's.

-Right.

-And there it was, the same marks.

Now, if I tell you in 45 years of looking at silver,

I don't think I've ever seen a piece of filigree from the 17th century

that's had marks.

In fact, I'm trying to think of a piece of the 18th century that's had

British marks in.

This is unbelievably rare.

Not only are filigree boxes seldom marked,

but to have one made in Glasgow, and we've got the mark WC,

for William Clark, we've got the Glasgow town mark in the centre,

and we've got the date letter, which I think is a Q, it's a bit obscured,

for 1696.

So, this has got practically everything you could wish to have

in an early box, but particularly a filigree one.

Filigree is simply a process of coiling lots of little bits of wire,

and it produces this beautiful patterning on the top,

and around the sides,

which is really a stunning form of decoration.

I love it, personally, and if we look at the base,

rather unusually, it's got this rather scratchy decoration,

which again is absolutely typical for the late 17th century.

Now, I've got to put a price on this.

You paid...far too much, wasn't it?

-£20.

-£20.

-I'm pretty comfortable in saying £3,000 to £5,000.

-Oh!

Well, I'm staggered. Absolutely staggered.

It was so good that that book fell open at that page,

because, in the morning, it would have been drilled.

I'm a great believer in fate,

because the value would have been quartered if you had.

You've got an exceptionally rare museum object here.

A massive pleasure to handle it and see it.

Wonderful object. Thank you so much for bringing it along.

Thank you very much. I'm delighted.

Ever since Greek and Roman times,

artists have looked for excuses to incorporate nudity in art,

and in this instance, Fred Yates, the painter, has lucked out.

What's the title of the painting?

Well, the title is, as we think, anyway,

The Nudist Colony Annual Dinner Dance.

Hang on a moment, The Nudist Colony Annual Dinner Dance.

-That's what it says.

-OK, I've got to ask you,

do you have a recreational interest in nudity?

Personally, no, except in the bathroom, which is where it hangs.

It hangs in the bathroom, does it?

Very appropriately!

So, the artist, Fred Yates, and of course when we look at it, I mean,

let's put aside all this nudity for a moment, it looks like a Lowry,

-doesn't it?

-It does, very much so,

and most of his stuff - that we've seen, anyway - is very Lowry-esque

-in the figures that he's done.

-So Yates and Lowry,

-both Lancashire men.

-Yup.

-Lowry, of course, a little bit more sombre,

a little bit more serious, and nothing like as frivolous as Yates.

And this of course is... This is comedy, isn't it?

It's hysterical. Every time I look at it I find all sorts of different

-bits of comedy in there.

-Different bits, certainly!

So tell me, how do you know... How do you know about Yates?

-I mean, how did he come into your life?

-OK. Back in the '70s,

my mum and my step-father, who was a picture framer,

had a cottage, a little fisherman's cottage in Polruan in Cornwall,

and Fred used to live in Fowey, which is just opposite Polruan,

get the ferry over, and do these paintings in the streets.

And I think he needed a coffee one day, and my mum was very bohemian

and said, "Oh, come in for a coffee, no problem at all,"

and they got very friendly ever since.

He used to go there, do his painting, go in for a coffee,

talk to the family, and I think he did this for us.

Whether he did it specifically I have no idea,

but I know that we acquired it from him, and he did lots of other

silly little drawings or paintings on, for example,

the back of a loo seat, which I've got at home.

My sister's got that, actually, now.

And then we've also got a breadboard with little drawings and figures on.

So, he was just very amusing and he also looked like my father,

very big beard, very eccentric, and together they just had great fun.

So, as this painting demonstrates, he was up for a laugh.

-Yeah, sure.

-But also he knew how to craft a picture as well, and,

compositionally, the painting is actually rather sophisticated,

because... Look at the way it's structured.

You've got these curtains on the right and the left,

you're looking down upon this scene of cavorting flesh and nudity,

and the subjects themselves set against this white background,

almost evokes like mosaics or images on Etruscan vases.

But perhaps most potent of all is the humour achieved by these

-figures in the foreground.

-You know, I'd just love to see their faces,

to see if they're approving or not approving of what's going on.

Because they're not just dressed, but they're in thick,

-rather majestic looking coats with hats.

-They are very conservative.

Very conservative, so dressed, and what's in front of them is so nude.

Absolutely. It's highly amusing and every time you look at it,

you laugh at something. So I've really enjoyed watching it

when I'm in the bath, in the nude.

In terms of value, on the basis of your connection with the artist,

great provenance.

Even though he's not made huge sums of money of late, you know,

low thousands, I would put this in the upper echelons.

I think... I think there's a lot of flesh on the bone with this one.

I would put it around about £5,000 or £6,000.

That's fine. It's going to stay in the bathroom.

When I first saw this book with The Black List written on the front

of it, its rather ragged state,

I was just kind of hoping I wasn't going to be on your blacklist.

But, obviously, opening it up, I discovered something very different

to what I expected to find, to be honest with you,

and here we've got a title which says Licensing Act 1902,

Habitual Drunkards.

It actually was issued to publicans, wasn't it?

-Yes, yes.

-And that's where it comes from in your family, I understand.

That's right, yes.

My uncle's father and his father before him ran the Brewer's Arm pub

-in Highgate.

-Right.

So it would have been given to my uncle's grandad first,

-and then it's been passed down.

-Right, and what we actually have

here is a document that was issued to licensees

-for people who had been convicted of being drunkards.

-Yes.

And so publicans were issued with this, with photographs and a list of

their attributes, basically, to forbid them from buying alcohol.

Now, this is just after the Victorian period, obviously,

so what we're doing is we're looking at people who,

to all intents and purposes, look Victorian.

-Yes.

-It's well over 100 years ago, and do you know, it's funny,

because I suppose, initially, I kind of started to snigger a bit

about the idea of these drunkards rolling around and not being able

to buy a drink and then, actually, when I started to look at it,

I realised, actually, this is not a laughing matter.

-No, it's really sad.

-It is a sad document.

-Yeah.

-And I alighted on this gentleman, Charles Christian Page,

who was a bit of a character, I thought,

wearing his kind of quite tall hat,

and I noticed that he was a photographer and commission agent.

"Date and nature of conviction, 20th of January 1903,"

so this is just after the 1902 date on here.

"Drunk on licensed premises.

"Convicted at Birmingham City Police Court."

Now, it doesn't say that he served time or did anything there.

Here he is without his hat on, and I presume they did that so that

you could tell the difference, perhaps, to identify them.

-That's right, yeah.

-If we go on a little bit more...

..pass by a few other people here, we come to this double page.

Now this really, really moved me because I found this gentleman

called Richard Fleming, known as Dirty Dick or Dick the Devil.

Now, if we look at Richard, he is in a terrible,

terrible state, and what this appears to be, really,

is a catalogue almost, and I hate to use the expression,

really, of the dregs of humanity, in many respects.

-Yes.

-These were people who were in a terrible state,

perhaps had lost livelihoods, had gone, fallen into drunkenness.

He was convicted at Birmingham City Police Court, drunk and disorderly,

and served 21 days' hard labour for that offence.

Really, this is a social document of the hardship that these people went

through. They were in a terrible state, a lot of these people.

And there was no help for them like there is today.

No Social Security, no housing associations.

And then to be given hard labour on top of everything else, you know.

They were living hand to mouth, essentially.

That's right, yeah, so it's very sad.

It's a very difficult thing to put a price on.

I mean, it's obviously an integral part of your family history,

-in many respects.

-Yeah, yes, yes.

-I doubt you're ever going to sell it.

-No.

-But I suspect as a kind of social kind of document,

and something that's of interest to people in that way,

I suspect it would make £200 or £300 at auction.

It's been of real interest and quite emotive for me to look at it.

-Yes, yes.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

Well, I'm always a bit of a sucker for a nice English landscape,

but I kind of get the impression that's not an enthusiasm we share.

Not really. No, Lawrence, no.

It's never really caught my eye.

-Why is that?

-Well, it used to belong to my grandmother.

It was given to her by a very good friend, in east London.

She had it on a mantelpiece for many years.

I hated it as a child.

Really hated it, she passed away, passed it on to my mother.

Unfortunately, she passed away, so it ended up with me,

and it's sat in a cupboard for about ten years.

And I was actually going to throw it away with the refuse one day,

and decided to sort of check up on the name, Carel Weight,

and here we are.

The background story is, in many ways, just as interesting.

It's sort of such a central part to what really excites me

about this picture. On the back, this label, what does that say?

It came from an exhibition in 1944, as you know,

the Leicester Galleries.

And it was an exhibition that was really staged.

It was during the war, 1944, towards the end,

during times of austerity, and it was this idea about

artists of repute, but not necessarily big names,

the idea that you come along, they were mixed in there with names

that probably no-one had ever heard of.

Buy something, put it on your wall, take a bit of a punt.

Now, plenty of artists working at this date who sort of came to

release nothing, but Carel Weight is actually a very interesting artist,

I think. The title of this work is Mill Hill, and obviously we know

Mill Hill at that date, which is now a borough of London,

was where a lot of army barracks were, and we know he also served

during the Second World War, so it's possible that's why he was

drawn out to this area. You know, and Carel Weight is a very

-well-respected modern British artist now.

-Right, OK.

I mean, his works can sell for up to £60,000 at auction.

-Really?

-And this...

-Not this one, though.

-Not this one!

But this is kind of a rather unusual work in the sense that

it's quite small compared to the other works you see by him.

-Sure.

-But again, this would have been taken out on

a bright summer's day, sketched, and then off it went.

It sort of would have been a, not a sort of a pot-boiler,

but a small work compared to what he was probably used to

before and after the war. But I really like it,

and I like the fact it's sort of moody, quite sort of atmospheric.

-Sure, OK.

-Now, so you said you were going to throw it away.

-Yes.

-So, presumably you don't think it has any value whatsoever?

There's certainly no emotional value.

I wish I could say there was, but unfortunately there isn't.

So, if it's worth anything, it would be a surprise.

Well, actually, I think it's...

I can give you a pretty accurate idea with this, because there was

a similar work that was at auction five or six years ago,

of a similar dimension, same date, Mill Hill as the subject as well.

-Right.

-So actually I think if this were to be sold at auction,

I think it would sell for somewhere in the region of £2,000.

Get out!

£2,000?

Would you like to buy it?

1,500 for you!

That's incredible. Fantastic.

I'm really surprised. Thank you very much.

-Thank for bringing it in.

-You're welcome. You're welcome.

We live locally, and my husband said,

"It'd be nice to go to the Antiques Roadshow, see what happens.

"Have you got anything to take"?

And I said, "Well, no."

Then I said, "Well, the only thing I could slip in my pocket

"is that medal." It belonged to my father.

This is the South Africa campaign, the Zulu Wars, which was 1877-79.

Obviously, there will be collectors for the Zulu campaign,

and also to that regiment, etc.

So, it's nice. It sort of ticks all the boxes.

If I told you that you're likely to get at auction between

-£600 and £700, how would you feel about that?

-Staggered!

I'm just glad I didn't throw it out with the other bits and pieces

I thought was junk.

Well, they say that the sun brings out the flowers,

and what a stunning flower. So, tell me,

how do you come to be the lucky owner of this?

It was my mother's.

A present from somebody that she played bridge with,

and she probably won a very good game,

because he invited her to his house.

His name was Bill Weedon, and he had a huge collection of paperweights,

and she picked that one out, and he said

"Very good choice," but that's all he said.

-Oh, really?

-And I think he was a great admirer, as well,

of my mother, so he allowed her to keep

probably his best paperweight, I don't know.

But I don't know much about it. Maybe it's French.

So this is a token not only of maybe a win in a good hand of bridge...

It might well have been, it might well have been. I hope so.

Or possibly a slight element of unrequited love as well?

Who knows?

Well, that, I think, is charming, and the sentiment in that actually

does roll itself beautifully in what you quite correctly assumed was

a French paperweight. Not only a French paperweight,

but made by one of the greatest French glass houses.

And whilst there is no markings, no signature within it,

the piece itself is its signature.

The moment I saw this, I knew who it was by.

This is by the great glass house, Baccarat.

They made beautiful weights, and this weight dates from around 1850.

We're talking about what we call the classic period of paperweights,

where the French were absolutely in their element.

There were various factories creating - St Louis, Clichy,

and Baccarat, who were producing the most beautiful weights.

This one in particular is what we call a clematis weight.

It's actually a clematis, double flower.

You have right to the very centre a beautiful complex millefiori,

or star dust cane, and then all around the outside,

this millefiori garland.

The quality of the crystal, the quality of the manufacture,

the finish, the style, the finesse.

-All of it's there.

-Gorgeous.

Your mother... Your mother had a wonderful eye.

-Oh, good.

-It also sounds like she had a lovely admirer.

She did, yeah.

And the value of that gesture?

The value of that moment today?

£1,000 to £1,500.

Oh, wow. I said if it was worth 100,

it would have been good, so 1,000's brilliant.

But I shall look after it, because it's got nice memories.

-It's a beautiful thing. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

I'm sure I've seen this particular chair somewhere before.

-Where?

-You probably have, actually.

It's kept here at Baddesley Clinton, in the chapel.

It looks beautiful in there, as you can well imagine.

-But it's your chair?

-It is, it's my chair.

I see. But on loan to the National Trust, presumably?

It is, that's right, yes.

When we acquired it, we had young children,

-and there was always a risk of it getting damaged.

-OK.

So we contacted Baddesley Clinton 14 years ago and said

"Would you be interested in having it here on loan?",

and they were quite glad to have it, and of course,

it means that lots of other people can see it as well.

Well, thank you, because these are quite rare chairs.

Well, let's go to what this is first.

I'm sure you know what sort of chair it is.

-A Glastonbury chair.

-Of course.

It was one of the most popular chairs of the 19th century.

Copying the famous chair at Glastonbury.

The original one was late 16th century,

and we've got to look at this in a minute to decide what date

this one is, and the original one was in the collection of

Sir Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill, and when that collection

was sold, the vicar - or I'm not sure what status he was -

at Glastonbury, said "Please can we have it back?"

So nobody bid against him, and that chair is now at Glastonbury.

Just to explain, I'm sure that people looking at it will think

-it's a folding chair. Of course, it's not.

-No.

You and I know that it's actually the early flat-pack.

-Yes, yes.

-It all comes apart and can be laid flat for, presumably,

travelling around at the time.

-Yes.

-So from one cathedral to another.

-Yeah.

-There are hundreds, as I said, of the 19th-century ones.

There is a small handful of the early ones.

This, to me, looks like a really nice 17th-century chair.

What's your...? Do you have a feeling about it?

Have you researched it at all?

Er... Only a little bit.

I mean, we acquired it originally from our local church.

I'm an antique furniture restorer, and they were having a sale

of various items, including pews.

When I walked in and saw this, I thought, "That's an early chair."

What we found out from the church is that it originally came from

Barbara Cartland's family, who were the local family to the church.

-The novelist?

-That's right, that's correct.

-The famous Barbara Cartland?

-That's the one.

-Wow!

-Yes, yes.

Right, OK.

But it's quite sad because in May 1940, on the 29th of May,

her brother John was...

He died, actually, of wounds received on the battlefield,

and then a day later, his brother, James, was also killed.

At that point, they had to make a decision, so they decided to sell

what was the Priory, which was the family home

in the area that it was in.

-Right.

-And somebody bought this at auction,

I believe on the second day,

for the church and there it was until we bought it 15 years ago.

It's a lovely oak chair.

It really is. I mean, this carving is clearly 17th-century.

Shall we say the early part of the 17th-century,

which is consistent with this small handful?

I only have heard of about 15 or 20 of them myself, personally,

that are old.

What a super chair. It's a rare bird.

So, valuation. Hmm.

I'm going to have to be conservative to start with,

-and say £2,000 to £3,000.

-Yeah, yeah.

Which is, for what we paid for it, is wonderful.

What, it's more than you paid for it?

Oh, it's a lot more than we paid for it.

But you see, it should be worth much more than that.

It really should be worth more.

It's a rare item, and it's an icon against all the thousands, hundreds,

of the 19th-century copies.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you.

Well, two spectacular icons blazing in the sunshine in silver

and silver gilt. But tell me about them with you.

They came into our family as a gift from the fiancee of our son,

from her parents as a gift when they got married here in this country.

-And the parents came over from Ukraine.

-Yes, yes.

And we were flab... Absolutely amazed.

I knew immediately what they were, and I understood the emotional value

of them, so we cherish them, very much so.

They have pride of place in our living room.

Our Lady with candles and flowers,

and we say our morning prayers in front of her,

and Saint Nicholas by the door of the living room

and he gets special flowers at Christmas time,

because Saint Nicholas is the original Father Christmas.

-Wonderful.

-Yes.

-Well, I should think there are very few icons

in the United Kingdom that would be honoured and venerated in that way,

and it's exactly what happened in the Orthodox tradition,

and Saint Nicholas is desperately important in that tradition.

Rather conveniently he's labelled here in Cyrillic, isn't he?

-Yes.

-Have you noticed that?

But he's accompanied by Christ Pantocrator,

the Christ in blessing, and Mary the mother of God here...

-Yes.

-..who's ascended into heaven.

There are other references to... Well, here are the Gospels,

with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John here.

-Right.

-And another image of Christ Pantocrator as well.

Yes, that's very Orthodox.

Yes, very Orthodox, but also, of course, very Christian

-in the strictest sense of the word.

-Yes, yes.

The thing about icons is they're not representations of the divine,

they ARE divine in the Orthodox tradition, that these are...

Have a sanctity all of their own and they're a window into heaven itself.

And beneath this silver gilt mount, called the oklad,

is the full icon.

It's hiding behind here, and it's probably never been seen.

And there's a sense, too, of touching icons is terribly important

because if they are divine objects,

the touch of them imbued you with some spiritual beneficence.

I didn't know that, Geoffrey.

That's interesting.

This one is, I feel, almost certainly Russian.

It's slightly different, isn't it, in the engraving?

And it has an earlier feel to it than this one.

Here are the blazing halos.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Anyway, what an amazing story to have you venerating icons

in the United Kingdom, and they were venerated in middle Europe

in the 19th century, which is when they were made.

This one probably 1870.

-Wow.

-This one, I think, just before the Russian Revolution took place,

maybe 20th century.

Perhaps this one may be £400 or £500.

-Wow!

-And, ironically, even though this is larger,

I think just a tiny bit less, maybe only £200 or £300.

-Yeah.

-You don't care,

and I certainly don't care, and here we look at something

that's not a representation of the divine,

they ARE divine, and thank you very much for bringing them.

Oh, thank you for the valuation.

-Thank you.

-Wonderful.

You've brought along what looks like, at first sight,

a silver mounted wooden bowl.

How did it come into your life?

Well, it belonged to my late father, and he will have acquired it

during the course of his work. He was an antique dealer in London

in the '50s, '60s and '70s, and he kept certain things

that appealed to him back, they didn't go into the showroom,

and that's how it comes to me.

It is, in fact, a tumbler cup,

which was a common drinking vessel from the 17th century,

throughout the 18th century.

Supposedly, you weren't meant to spill anything with it,

-it was always meant to right itself.

-Yes.

It's made out of treen, but the interesting thing about it is that

-it has this very special inscription around it, doesn't it?

-It does.

"Bought at ye fair upon ye ice on ye River Thames in ye great frost,

"January 26 1683, for Priscilla Tavener."

Now, is she any relation of yours?

No. I'd love to know who she was.

I picture her as a very small child, but I don't know.

-She might well have been.

-Mm.

Your tumbler cup has a bit of damage to it.

There's cracks on the sides here, held together by Sellotape.

So that will have a detrimental value to the piece.

But, still, 3,000-4,000.

Wow. Thank you.

So your father knew what he was buying.

He did. He did.

Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

Right. These are firearms as a fashion statement.

-Yeah. Beautiful.

-I mean, yeah.

We're not really interested in their use as a firearm.

It's just, they're so beautifully put together.

I can't think of a reason why I wouldn't buy them.

What was your specific reason for acquiring them?

Well, I'd collected a few other firearms.

-Yes.

-Flintlock pistols, and I was at an antique fair

just over 20 years ago, and I saw this pair and was blown over,

like you, with the beauty, rather than anything else.

Unfortunately, the person that was selling them was going through

a divorce and he had to sell all his firearms,

which was unfortunate for him, but good for me.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

When I said fashion statement, I mean, if we look at these,

I doubt if these have actually been shot.

They're by Parker of Holborn, who's a very good maker.

I'm of the opinion somebody went in to Mr Parker and said,

"Mr Parker, a pair of your finest pocket pistols,

"and don't spare the expense". And he was obviously a dandy.

I mean, nowadays he'd be the sort of bloke wearing, I don't know,

a ridiculous shirt and... Oh.

Trousers like this.

Yeah, a gentleman would carry these and he'd be down in the tavern and

say, "Look chaps, I've just got this new pair of pistols from Parker".

I mean, can we have a look at one?

-Yes, sure.

-So, flintlock, turn-off barrel.

So barrel unscrews,

fill, as you know, that's the top with powder, then a ball...

..screw it back on,

prime the pan, and we're good to go.

-Yeah.

-And, of course, lovely little touch,

safety catch to keep it all there.

These are just top, top, top quality pistols.

You bought them because you could see they were top quality.

Absolutely.

And, period,

late 1700s, early 1800s.

They're just wonderful, wonderful pistols.

And now we have to address the question,

if you wanted to be a dandy again and go and buy them,

what would they cost?

They are SUCH good quality.

I can see them making minimum of £2,000, the pair.

-That's a lot more than I paid for them.

-You astound me.

They are really one of the nicest pair of pocket pistols I've seen,

-and thanks so much for bringing them in.

-It's my pleasure.

-They're really great.

-My pleasure.

-Thanks a lot.

So what we have here is a fascinating

early 19th-century

English table clock.

But as soon as I see it, I notice an instantaneous theme about it.

Can you tell me more about what that is?

Well, we call it an Egyptian clock.

I inherited it after my aunt died and her father, my grandfather,

apparently, according to some people in the family, bought it in Egypt.

So we call it an Egyptian clock, because he was in the

First World War in Egypt, and we think he bought it there.

Or is it because of the logo on the front?

And was it sent to Egypt, he brought it back?

We don't really know.

But we certainly call it the Egyptian clock.

Let's have a look at it. We see it's signed "Benson Higgs" on the dial.

I do know the company Bensons, and I do know the company Higgs,

and at some point, they must have joined together.

I do know that, from the shape and the style of the clock,

that it was made around 1835 to 1840,

which is in a period of time where the English and the French

-were mad about Egyptiana.

-Oh, right.

Yes, it's got Egyptian themes to it.

It's got lovely sweeping volutes to the case, which are made in ebony.

It has lovely brass inlay to the front, and you're absolutely right,

we've got this lioness chaise longue on the front,

and the whole thing is very Egyptian-styled.

I think it's highly unlikely that it was brought back from travels

in Egypt in the First World War.

I can't imagine why it would be in Egypt at that time,

because they had plenty of these things, not clocks like this,

but they were surrounded by Egyptiana,

because that's where it all comes from.

It's the English and the French that were obsessed by

Egyptian style, the whole mythology about the whole thing.

Because they were so obsessed by it,

they copied this style, and often using mahogany, in this case,

mixed with ebony and brass inlay,

in beautiful shapes and forms.

What I like about the clock particularly is its shape, its form.

I like the fact that it's shaped on the top in a very elegant way,

and then it has much more masculine volutes at the front,

and it's finished off with these rather large, outsized

what I would call almost acorn, inverted acorn feet.

And it's very appealing.

I hinted that this style isn't the flavour of the month at the moment

in the market, and it isn't.

In the 1990s, it was... They were flying high.

Today, they're a little bit less than they were.

I love it to bits, I think it's a fabulous clock,

I'd love to have it in my house.

Would I buy it because it was a great investment?

I think that, at the moment, the value at auction would tell me

that it's a good time to buy it.

And today, at auction, between 1,500 and £2,000.

Probably not going to shock you.

No, no.

And ten years ago, probably 2,500 to £4,000.

Oh, interesting.

Yes, yeah, that would have shocked me, then.

-Yes, yeah. Very interesting.

-Yeah.

Now, how has this survived in such amazing condition,

considering its age?

Because it hasn't been used that much.

I don't know what the origin is,

I don't know whether my father acquired it.

I mean, he was a farmer, so why he would acquire an engine like this,

I don't know.

Whether it was something that was handed down to him or whether

it came down from my mother's side of the family, I don't know.

But did you play with it?

I played with it a few times, and in fact, when I got it out

to bring it here, I found a note inside that said

I had last played with it in 1963.

-So it's untouched.

-Yes, basically.

Well, that answers part of my question.

You know, it's lived a lot of its life in very careful conditions,

-probably by mistake, rather than by intent.

-Yeah.

Because it is a wonderful thing, and it's a wondrous thing to see.

Did you enjoy playing with it?

Oh, I loved it. Yes, because it goes in a circle, in fact.

-And you could make it do that?

-So that was great fun.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. Well, I did fiddle about a bit, and I got the key.

-Right.

-And I did wind it up, and it does go.

Yes. And you can brake it, can't you?

-You can change gear.

-Yes.

You can make it go forwards and backwards, and there's a brake.

-Yeah.

-And everything is as it should be.

-OK.

-We're looking at a train which is now - it goes back to about 1900.

-OK.

-So it's very old indeed.

The box is hardly ever seen for a train of that period,

because they didn't survive. This box is in pieces.

-Yes.

-But it has kept the train intact.

-Yeah.

-For 40 years or whatever it's been sitting there, dust free,

dirt free, uncared for, but untouched.

-OK.

-We don't know the origins, so we go back to 1900.

-It's made by a German company called Ernst Plank.

-Yeah.

At that point, we didn't really make trains in Britain, we imported ones

from Germany, and they dominated the market completely.

-Names like Bassett-Lowke and Hornby would come a bit later.

-Oh, yeah.

-Yeah.

-And so what we've got here is a sort of generic train,

it's not particularly British, it's not particularly German,

and you can see on the side of the tender the initials G N R.

-Yeah.

-Now that is Great Northern Railway.

Well, that's what I thought, and yet you said it's German.

Yes, but it was made for the British market.

-Ah.

-And so they've branded it as a British train,

-and in fact the colours are relating to that.

-Yeah.

So you could buy ones that appeared to be British trains...

-Yeah.

-..in various companies but they were always German-made.

-Oh, I see.

-So you've got this great story.

-It's what's called gauge 1, which is bigger than O gauge.

-Yeah.

And what, to me, is miraculous is the condition.

You know, it hasn't been repainted, which would be really bad news.

It is as presented in the box.

-It's had a bash at the front.

-Mm.

There's bits and pieces of wear, but essentially,

it is a remarkable survival from its time.

-You are very lucky to have it.

-Really?

Yeah, cos even... It was rare by the time you were playing with it

-in the

-'60s. Right.

Well, it was by chance, because I'm one of four sisters,

-and just things were distributed.

-You got the train?

-Yeah.

-Well, where does it go now?

I don't know, we'll have to discuss that.

Will we? That sounds ominous.

If you're coming up with something interesting...

Oh, I see, you're talking about value.

Well, I don't know.

Could be. OK, let's do value.

And so we are going to look at 1,500, £2,000.

Really?

They're very, very rare things.

I had no idea.

It was a last-minute decision to bring it along.

-Well, I'm jolly glad you did.

-Yes, so am I. Thank you.

This is a model, as it says on the side,

-of the Rolls-Royce Supermarine, the S.6.

-Yes.

Which won the Schneider Trophy in 1929.

-Yes.

-Now, the Schneider Trophy was a race,

specifically for aircraft that could land on the sea.

-Yes.

-And, obviously, this model is one of those.

So, I've never seen this particular trophy before,

although I've seen similar models.

So, tell me how you came by it.

Right. The model came into our possession through my grandfather,

who at the time was the chief designer at Rolls-Royce.

And designed the engine that powered the seaplane that won the race

in 1929. That engine was then developed further in 1931 and then,

after the 1931 race, it won the speed record for 407.5 mph.

And that then was further developed, with a Merlin engine,

which powered the Spitfire.

-So, this was the start of the innovation for the Spitfire?

-Yes.

And in 1929, at the end of the race, they gave three of these models,

one to my grandfather, one to Mr Mitchell, the designer,

and one to the pilot.

So this is one of only three known?

That is, as far as I'm aware, that is correct, yes.

-No wonder I've never seen it.

-Yes. There we are.

And that was a race over the Solent.

-Yes.

-Just off the coast of the Isle of Wight.

-Yes, that's right.

-And because it was way up there in the sky and

everybody could view from the beach, and also from their yachts,

apparently there were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people

-who used to go and watch.

-I can believe it, yes.

So it was very, very popular.

-Started in 1913, I believe...

-Correct, yes.

..and it went all the way through to about 1931.

-Correct, that is right. Yes.

-This aircraft beat the

-world speed record at 357 mph, which was incredible.

-Yes.

What a wonderful tribute to your... It was your grandfather?

Grandfather, yes. Yep.

Well, it is what it says, it's got all the information on it.

It's not silver, it's silver-plated bronze, I think.

Oh, right. I thought it was silver-plated, yes.

It's got the silversmith's mark on the front, but no hallmarks,

-so that's what I think it is. Very heavy.

-Yes, yes.

But an exquisite model.

And being Rolls-Royce,

they would have made it to perfection and gave it to

-the three most important people involved.

-Yes.

One being your grandfather.

-That's right, yes.

-What a wonderful thing to own.

Yes. It is, actually, yes.

Now you're going to ask me what it's worth. When we value things,

we compare directly with similar things we've sold in the past.

-Yes.

-One has never, ever appeared at auction.

-Yep.

So whatever I say is not based on knowledge of a similar one,

it's just on how important I think this is.

And I think people are interested in aviation, world records, high speed.

It has all those elements, and let alone,

-it is a beautiful, beautiful model.

-Yeah.

I wouldn't be surprised, should you ever decide to sell it at auction,

it would fetch between £5,000 and £8,000.

Really? I AM surprised.

I thought it would just be the historical sort of story

that would be important, not the actual item itself.

-The piece comes with the story.

-Gosh.

Without the story, the piece is worth a few hundred pounds.

With the story that you've just told me, it becomes really important.

Gosh, I'm surprised. Yes. Thank you.

Write it down, put it with it, in future generations,

-they need to know.

-Yes. Yes.

-I certainly will. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

You may remember at our Antiques Roadshow at Harrogate

that we showed you the FA Cup. Splendid piece of silver,

and Alastair Dickenson, our silver specialist, valued it

as the most valuable piece of silver we'd ever seen on the Roadshow.

It was a thrilling moment for all of us.

Now, Clive, you were watching this, and you win the prize for

eagle-eyed viewer, because you noticed that

something that Alastair said about the cup wasn't quite right.

I suspect this might have been an off-the-shelf piece.

That it was not specifically made.

I cannot see why it should have fruiting vines on it.

Although the marks are completely worn,

we know it was made by Fattorini and Sons.

Alistair thought that because of the design on it,

the grapes and vine leaves,

it was bought off-the-shelf,

and it wasn't specially made for the FA Cup.

But you know that's not the case,

because you've got the design for the FA Cup.

Well, I collect sporting memorabilia from approximately 100 years ago.

And amongst my collection I have a photograph of the original design

of the FA Cup. And also a letter from a Fattorini member

to another collector, saying so.

And, Tom, you're from Fattorini...

-I am, I'm Tom Fattorini.

-..who made the cup.

Indeed. That was in 1911.

And, in fact, 150 designs were submitted to the FA

for the new challenge cup, and we were fortunate enough to be chosen

as the winning design.

And that design is in our managing director's office,

and I stare at it every single day.

-And this is it.

-And this is it.

-This is the design for the cup.

-Absolutely.

Well, Alastair doesn't know that either of you are here.

So I thought we might go and surprise him and tell him

just a little bit more about the FA Cup, and how it was, in fact,

specially made for the competition.

I'm looking forward to seeing his face.

-That should be a bit of fun.

-Yes.

I like your eye. You've brought this lot out,

and you are seriously into antique glass, aren't you?

Yes, I definitely am, yes.

Go on, tell us about it.

Well, I started in 1990. I've been collecting ever since.

I've just got this passion for the Georgian and Regency periods.

I did eventually have about 1,800 pieces.

-Wow.

-I did gradually downsize and just kept all

-what I would call museum quality.

-OK.

So, what is the appeal?

I just love the shapes and things, with blown glass, basically.

What sort of money are you spending on these things?

Well, some I paid good money, like the Milchglass,

one at the front there, I think I paid about £103 for that one.

-£103?

-An odd figure, but, yeah.

-That was bought on an online site.

-Yes.

And this one here was bought from a charity shop for £3.50.

So what do you want to know about them?

-Well, basically, I just wondered about this piece in particular.

-OK.

Whether you thought it might be the last quarter of the 17th century.

-No.

-No?

-No, I don't.

Late 17th-century glass is rarer than Leyton Orient winning the cup.

-Yeah.

-So this is 1730.

-Right.

-1730.

This baluster glass is 1720.

That was a good buy.

This decanter, 1765, 1770.

This extremely rare bobbin meets King's Lynn tumbler, 1750.

-This one, completely fish out of water, 1860.

-Yeah.

There are a couple of 19th-centuries over here,

but I've concentrated here.

-This one, because it is so atypical of what you've got.

-Right.

So if we move that out of the way,

you have a very nice collection of early Georgian glass.

And bearing in mind you paid three quid for that,

so that's 200 quid for that, auction.

-I'm giving you auction values, right?

-Right.

Which is the fair. If you were to sell them,

how much would you get for them?

Lynn glass.

How much did you pay for that one?

-£15.

-15 quid. Erm...

450.

-How much did you pay for the...?

-£1.25.

-BLOWS RASPBERRY

-Car boot, that one.

1730 - 400 quid.

That's surprised me.

This is really good, you've got a good eye.

There's very little I don't actually like in what you've brought.

But my favourite, of course, is the decanter,

because it just seems to symbolise the act of sharing, really.

It makes wine work, it makes wine taste better,

and we are going to share this,

this is the fountain of the social intercourse,

where you come to mine, and we pour and we drink.

And I love that sharing thing.

-How much did you pay for that?

-That was £8.

-Eight quid. There's 400 quid there.

-Yeah.

So how much have you spent on this whole lot?

Oh, on both tables there, I bet we're talking about

probably about £200 with that other decanter.

Well, if you multiply auction, this is the lowest valuation

I can possibly give you, is 2,000 to 3,000,

and in a shop, it's five.

I'm going to have to send you packing, cos I am dead jealous.

Thanks a lot. This is a really nice collection.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Next.

-Alastair, it's us next.

Can I introduce you to Tom Fattorini?

-How do you do?

-That name rings a bell.

-Do you remember the FA Cup item we saw at Harrogate?

-I certainly do.

-Now, Tom's got some information about it for you.

-Right.

-Have a look.

-I'm bringing you the original design from 1911.

Isn't that fantastic?

Do you remember, you were conjecturing whether it was bespoke

-or off-the-shelf?

-Yes, I was saying I was going to be banned from every

football ground in the country for saying it was not specifically made

as a football trophy. How wrong could I be?

But where did this come from?

-This is owned by us, Fattorini.

-In Birmingham.

-In Birmingham.

And we got this original design,

since it was returned to us by the FA.

There were 250, or thereabouts, submissions, if you like.

Design submissions for the new challenge cup.

-This is in 1911.

-1911.

-Yeah.

And this was the one they chose, so it was very deeply thought of,

at the time, in the sense the bacchanalia

-- I think that's the right word -

-Yes.

That's the fruiting vines.

This is the sort of evidence that experts like me

absolutely love to see.

It's all here. I can't refute the evidence.

What value did you put on it?

-Over a million, I said.

-And you're still standing by that?

Absolutely. And this can only add to its value.

So whether it's one million or two million, who knows?

But I grew up watching this being lifted aloft

by all the great captains of all the great teams that won it.

And I think most people that watch this show probably agree with me.

I absolutely agree with that, yes.

So here we are, quite appropriately,

shoehorned in, and this is the object you've brought us along.

-It is.

-What can you tell me about it?

Well, this is a shoemaker's measure.

And it was bequeathed into my family in the 19th century

from a Stratford family, who, legend has it,

were contemporaneous with Shakespeare,

and this may have been used to measure Shakespeare's feet.

So my great-grandfather believed.

So, I'm going to slightly debunk that story

because, stylistically, when I look at this shoe,

it's a lady's shoe dating from the late 17th century.

And, of course, Shakespeare would have been 100 years or so earlier.

Right.

That's a pity. My grandfather had a card printed to say,

"As used by Shakespeare."

-Oh, really?

-Yes. We'd better tear that up.

You're absolutely right, it's a boot measure, a shoe measure.

Made in a fruit wood in England.

In the late 17th, early 18th century.

These sort of treen objects, one of the things treen collectors look for

is great colour, patination and I think this has it in spades.

It's absolutely just a fantastic colour.

It's been used, a lot of happy hands have held that over the years.

-Yeah.

-I mean, it's just a wonderful, rewarding thing to hold.

I've never seen one like this before,

so I'm going to say this is a one-off, a unique thing, possibly.

And because it's so unique, and because it's got great colour,

I think if that came up for auction, it is worth around 1,000 to £1,500.

-Really?

-Yeah. It's a very, very nice thing.

I'd better have a word with the insurance.

Now, it's lovely to see these working.

And here we've got a knitting automaton.

-Indeed.

-When I first got her started, I thought, actually,

is she just twiddling her thumbs?

But, no, she has got knitting needles there,

she wasn't just tired of waiting to see us.

She knits, and I understand, being from France, and a French doll,

I recall seeing written somewhere when we first got it, "tricoteur,"

or something like that, which was French for knitter.

Ah, well, that makes a lot of sense, because these would have been

marketed in a catalogue from the maker,

and it would have been marketed with that French name under it.

And these lovely automated dolls, they were very popular in France.

A few French makers, there was Gustave Vichy,

there was Rouellet et Decamps, there was Phalibois,

there was Bataille, there were a number of makers

that were thriving in Paris at the end of the 19th century,

and, in fact, Rouellet et Decamps, one of the big makers,

only went out of business in the 1990s,

so an incredible long run of success.

Now, I have to say that you are not the obvious owner for a pair

of very, very pretty French automaton dolls.

-Probably not.

-Tell me the story.

Very briefly, my late wife, Sally, she was extremely interested

in collecting dolls through a friend of hers.

Sally, unfortunately, passed away many years ago.

-Oh, I'm sorry.

-And there was a collection of dolls.

There's three automata. I've brought two here today.

There's another one, a boy playing the fiddle.

And there was other dolls as well.

And they have been at my home for 25 years or more.

I found out you were here,

so I thought I'd bring them down to have a look at them.

Fantastic. Well, we're very privileged, aren't we?

Thank you very much for doing that.

And the reason doll lovers, really, are attracted to automata

is, of course, because the makers use really top-quality heads.

And here, in fact, we've got a head made by the Jumeau factory,

which is certainly a name...

-I'm well aware of that.

-Oh, you would have been.

That also looks like a Jumeau head,

these big, wide eyes, and rather thick eyebrows.

This is unique. This is why I brought it first.

-Go on, tell us what happens.

-Well...

-Describe it.

-I have wound it up and pressed the button.

What happens - the lady brings her head up,

the trap opens, she brings the stick up, and wallops the rat.

The rat runs out of the trap, gets hit by the stick,

and runs back again. It's great.

I turned it on for the first time for 20 years.

Of course, it's got dusty or something.

It's just seized up.

Put yourself into that atmosphere in France in the latter part

of the 19th century.

Here are these incredibly expensive

and opulent adult toys.

And they're created by?

Little children.

-Really?

-They were sweatshop made.

-I feel guilty now.

-Don't feel guilty.

This is... One has to say, that is how manufacturing was.

What we have are great objects, and this one here,

I would put at, perhaps, £800 to £1,200.

And actually, although that's a much more complicated and interesting

-automaton, it's broken.

-Yep.

So I think I would put perhaps 1,000 to 1,500 on it,

knowing you've got to spend some money on getting it restored.

-Thank goodness I'm not looking to sell them.

-Exactly.

I've got two daughters, and they'll have the rest of the collection.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much for bringing them in.

Well, they say that gold is the colour of the sun. It's an element,

it does come from the sun at the foundation of the world. And then,

craftsman comes along and makes something utterly sublime like this.

-Yes.

-But they're family things, aren't they?

They are. It's my husband's family.

And there were seven generations, all surgeons, from Oxford.

Goodness.

And the First World War stopped the run,

like it did for a lot of professional people.

Indeed. But these date from 100 years before then, don't they?

-And more. Yes, that's right.

-But the thing is,

not everybody might understand that these are snuff boxes,

and they're to be carried by people in their pockets,

and every part of their arrangements would have been at this

level of luxury and superlative craftsmanship.

-Yes.

-And I had a little sneak preview earlier,

and I discovered this one is made by a very famous craftsman

-called "Straughan," who is actually spelled Strachan.

-Yes.

And he's a famous goldsmith in his own right.

And this one is 1818.

And this one is French, and about the same period.

And snuffing was everything.

There was a huge ritual associated with this.

You'd open your snuff box, offer snuff to all your friends.

I'm very intrigued at the coloration there.

-Yes, well...

-And what it is.

This, we call four colours of gold.

The way to tint it, to colour it, is to alloy it with other metals,

and here we can see roses picked out in pink gold,

which is alloyed with copper.

And then leaves of the roses in tin, to make it green gold,

and then even white gold here,

which is probably zinc or silver for the heads of the little thistles.

-Yes, yes.

-And it's a fantastically time-consuming job to accommodate

all these colours. And then to chase them up and to work them.

So, let's look inside and see a hint of the provenance here.

And yet more gleaming gold, polished gold here.

"To Frederick Symons, from Chermside's grateful children."

And then an inscription below in French, saying that they hoped

that this small gesture would meet their gratitude to him

for his kindness to their father. But they're treasures, aren't they?

And they take us straight back into an atmosphere of a slightly

claustrophobic social milieu, but in a way, something that these

evoke perfectly, and the gentleman would have carried it,

he would have a silk waistcoat and a silk coat, and he'd be a surgeon

and he would demand hefty fees for doing all kinds of

unimaginable things without anaesthetic to his patients.

And then they were grateful and gave him a gold box.

But stunning stuff, and I'm utterly thrilled to see them,

and so I'm going to say that this one is worth

£5,000 to £7,000.

And I think this one is worth £6,000.

Which is virtually the same.

Well, I'm 85, so my girls will enjoy them, I'm sure.

Nonsense, you'll have to wait another 100 years.

And they're quite right, too.

No, utterly marvellous, and thank you for bringing

sunshine into our day today with your gold.

Wonderful, thank you.

One of our visitors brought this along to the Roadshow earlier today,

and I'm told it's an ancient contraption

for measuring feet, yards and miles.

And I'm told it's 123 miles to our next venue,

so I'm off, and I'm going to see if this works.

Until the next Roadshow, bye-bye.