Episode 28 Antiques Roadshow

We've travelled the length and breadth of Britain in this series

of the Antiques Roadshow.

From a Scottish mill town to a Cornish retreat

close to our most southerly point in the land.

And now we're coming to the end of our series.

Tonight we've something special in store.

So many great items turn up to the Roadshow that we don't have time to

show you them all, so tonight's our chance. Keep watching for unscreened

footage of dazzling jewellery, rare ceramics,

tantalising family legends -

even royal relics. It's all to come.

Tonight's locations are as diverse as the finds.

We're stopping off at Holker Hall & Gardens in Cumbria -

home to the Cavendish family for three centuries -

and Audley End, a Jacobean stately home in Essex.

But for our first helping let's visit a property that dates back

more than 500 years -

Ightham Mote near Sevenoaks in Kent.

Nothing on the bottom. A very simple Chinese-looking cup.

-What do you know about it?

-Well, not a lot,

other than that we found it in my mother-in-law's house when we were

clearing it. My husband and I were clearing it out.

And I just thought how pretty it was.

So, it didn't go to a saleroom or anything. I thought,

-"No, I'll keep this."

-You just wanted to hang onto it.

-Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know anything about it, really.

It looks Chinese in the sort of blue-and-white design.

But this was made at Worcester.

-Oh.

-That's exciting to me

because I know the shape and design quite well.

But I've only ever seen one of these before - in many, many years.

-So I'm quite excited.

-Oh!

-I just love the simple shape of it.

-Yes.

-A little spreading shape.

-Yep.

-What excites me is that this is right at the beginning of the

Worcester factory, when they started out to make copies of

Chinese porcelain. And they painted it in the blue, in the Chinese way.

Here, what I like is the texture of the blue painting.

-It's a bit smudgy and blobby.

-Yes.

-But it's in little tones of blue.

-Is that flow blue or not?

-It's the same idea.

-Yeah.

-It blurred a bit.

They couldn't control it very well. That's a sign of trying to get it

right but they didn't really know how to.

That goes back to 1751 or '52, right when the factory started up.

Oh, wow.

-So, it's the middle of the 18th century.

-How lovely.

-Wow.

-And not only old, it's actually pretty rare.

-Oh!

-So, I'm excited.

-Oh, so am I!

But it's got that chip.

-It's got another chip there.

-Yeah.

-But I don't mind that.

No, I don't mind it, either.

Especially as I've seen only one before.

So, it's quite valuable.

-Is it?

-£2,000.

Oh! Wow.

Oh, wow. That's marvellous. Thank you very much.

This is really nice. What made you bring this?

Well, it was yesterday, actually.

I was round my parents' house.

My father's a retired bookbinder.

And he rustled this up out of the wooden box wrapped in a newspaper

-40 years old.

-Quite a rustle.

-Nice.

-And he used to teach

in a convent, bookbinding, art and woodcraft.

-Oh, yeah.

-He was there for 20 years. And when he left

they gave him this as a gift, as a parting gift.

The nun said it was from the French persecutions.

So I'm not sure what era that is or what...

Well, from the date of this, which is about 1700,

it's possibly the Huguenots.

-Really?

-This is that old, yeah.

And it's got its original polychrome and gilding.

And it's probably a cherub that was fixed above a carved altarpiece

in France. And as such, being that age, in a really nice condition -

you probably think it's distressed.

-Well, I did glue that wing on...

-You've done a very good job.

It's got a bit of a value.

It's got a decorative value cos it's cute.

In auction this would make 200-250, safely.

-Fantastic. Oh, Dad will be pleased.

-They're a very nice thing.

Fantastic engraving.

"Tis is my delight, the French to fight."

If you were a Napoleonic Frenchman

-this is the last thing you want to see pointed at you.

-Absolutely true.

Brass barrelled.

-Blunderbuss.

-Yes.

-By Appleton of London.

-Jolly good.

The lock is a military lock.

-Yes.

-This sort of thing is used for home defence.

Coaching defence.

You bought it. What did you like about it?

Well, I liked the inscription, which attracted me.

But the whole gun is small and handy and useful, especially up close.

The exact definition of a blunderbuss.

-Yes.

-This is an 1800 sawn-off shotgun.

-Ideal antipersonnel weapon.

-Right.

-You've got a little bit of repair work here.

-Yes.

Little bit of repair work there with very nice finials.

-Yes.

-Value...

If that was on the market with...

its current state, and the wonderful engraving at the end...

-Right.

-..£2,000.

Lovely. That's marvellous. Absolutely marvellous.

It's a fantastic thing and I just love it to bits.

Well, you've brought me a little purple haze this morning,

haven't you? Tell me all about it.

It's a little cross that was given to my mum who is now in her 90s,

on the eve of her wedding in 1956

by an elderly neighbour who was very, very fond of her

-and had no-one to leave it to.

-Oh!

And this neighbour gave her the story that she had been

a companion to a Countess von Fersen in Sweden.

And when she left her service, the Countess gave her this cross.

One of the Countess' ancestors, I understand,

was a confidant and some say lover of Marie Antoinette.

-Goodness.

-And the story that was given was that...

..on the night of the escape from Paris, she gave him this

as a memento because she knew she was going to the guillotine.

Obviously, I have no proof of any of this.

Up until the time it was given to my mum.

-So that's why I brought it here today.

-Marvellous.

Well, my late boss said beware of asking a question for fear of

getting an answer. Because I will give you an answer.

And the French Revolution was in 1789.

But your cross dates from about 1889.

-Right.

-And so it is, unfortunately, a complete impossibility.

-What a shame.

-It is a shame. And I'm sorry about that.

But these stories abound about the tragic French Queen.

But I'm sorry, this simply can't be it. But, anyway, we're going to

enjoy it for what it is. And it's made of... I think you know,

-tell me what it's made of.

-I think it's garnet diamonds.

Yes. It is. Absolutely.

Almandine garnets. And another irony is, it's almost certainly English.

-It's a style that one recognises.

-Oh, right.

-And you might say, well,

how on Earth does this old boy on the Antiques Roadshow

know all this? But it's no more complicated than walking with you

up a street in London and you telling me that's a Victorian house

or that's an 18th-century house from 1789.

And jewellery is like that. It has a sort of signature element to it.

So this is an age where religious devotion was absolutely everywhere.

And purple stones stand for devotion.

And diamonds, forever devotion.

Right. So forever devotion to Christ. And so it does have

an emblematic meaning but it's not the one you thought it was, is it?

-No, no.

-I know, I'm disappointed, too.

-What a shame.

-I would have loved it to have been. It simply can't be.

But we'll just look at it as it is. Everybody would want to own it.

And so I'm going to say it's worth £700.

Oh, right, well, that's a nice surprise. Thank you very much.

Do you know, when I saw this it took me straight back to my childhood.

Blake's 7, Space: 1999.

All the classic shows. Are you a space nut?

Yeah, I really enjoy space and television sci-fi,

-all that type of stuff. Yep.

-And why this?

I was working for a book publishers and I was sent out to Moscow

to photograph various spaceships.

And one of the things was this probe which is Luna 16.

And I was going past the market in Moscow and I saw this model there.

I knew exactly what it was. So I paid 35 US dollars.

-OK. And did you think that was a lot?

-I thought it was an incredible

-bargain because I thought it was a beautiful model.

-Exactly.

That's the thing. It's just pretty.

Cast in aluminium on this lovely Perspex stand. Nicely engraved.

-Have you found out what this engraving is?

-Yes.

This was to one of the people who was very high up in the politburo.

His name was Viktor Vasilyevich Grishin.

And he was one of the guys who was

responsible for the making of machines. So he was partly

responsible for making a lot of the Soyuz spaceships

and the various different probes that went to the moon.

What happened was, the Russians couldn't actually afford to send

a man to the moon but they desperately wanted to actually get

some rock samples so this is why they sent up this particular probe.

All of that, again, adds to it,

because a lot of these were for people high up in any organisation,

suppliers of parts and instruments.

They were presented like this.

The higher up it gets up that food chain, the more exciting it becomes.

Which is good for this.

And I think that easily in auction at the moment, £2,000-£3,000.

Wow. OK. Thank you very much.

-It's so cool, it's a pleasure.

-Thank you. Thank you.

With that space-age find, let's leave Ightham Mote for now

and travel more than 300 miles north.

At Holker Hall in Cumbria, the deer park and vibrant formal gardens

made the perfect setting for our experts and visitors.

From glorious Technicolor

to very severe and austere black and white here.

Both of them different kinds of print.

-Yep.

-And both of them, I think,

dating from just after the First World War.

Does that fit with your family?

It does fit with what I know about them, yes.

I had this amazing granny who lived in South Africa,

-married to quite a well-off lawyer.

-Yeah.

-And was self taught in art.

And my knowledge is,

she had a wonderful friend who was an artist called Teddy Wolfe,

-Edward Wolfe.

-The still-life and nude-painter.

-They went to Paris.

And I think they were there for at least six months, if not longer.

-In about the '20s, the 1920s.

-What a great time to be there.

-And she bought.

-She bought, she collected?

-She collected.

And, I mean, for instance,

when she sold the house when my grandfather died in South Africa,

distributed among the family were things like a Chagall painting.

-Oh, goodness.

-A Vlaminck painting.

-Oh, my goodness.

And these two came to my mother.

-So you didn't get the paintings, you got the prints?

-Well...

-She also got the Vlaminck, but she sold that.

-OK, all right.

But we've got those two. And I've always loved that one.

This one by Picasso. This is a very early print, isn't it?

It was done when he was doing his Saltimbanques,

which is French for acrobat, I think...

series of circus performers...

is a drypoint, which is when, instead of an etching, on a

copperplate you just make the marks directly on with a sharp point.

And it throws up a burr,

and that burr around the line that you've scratched in the copper

also holds ink. And, of course, you could imagine that if you're

squashing a piece of paper on that copper that's been inked,

and you take a pull from it,

it often squashes that burr very quickly.

And so, you see this, the way the line is slightly fuzzy down here,

and this sort of shading around the horse's head?

Well, that goes very quickly.

So that suggests that is quite an early one, then?

-I think it is quite an early one.

-Oh.

-Is my point.

Yeah, exactly. Because you can still see that sort of quite strong line.

-It hasn't gone ghostly yet.

-It's a wonderful delicate line, that's what

-I've always loved about it.

-Yeah, it's a very pretty thing.

And early Picasso is really interesting, I think.

Anyway, moving from him to this one. This, of course, is a Gauguin.

Paul Gauguin is in Tahiti towards the end of his life, isn't he?

He was very interested in making woodcuts...

As opposed to this, where the ink lies in the mark that you've made,

this, the ink lies on the ridges you've left.

So he's cutting away and the ink goes on top of what's left.

And he's done it on four wood blocks because, of course,

the trees aren't big enough to make a print this big.

-You have to join them all together.

-Yeah.

-And he shows a group of

Tahitians all sitting round a fire.

And I'm afraid I don't know what that means, "Mahna No Varua Ino."

-I think it means "The Devil Speaks."

-The devil speaks.

-The devil speaks.

-Crikey, that's rather occult, isn't it?

-Isn't it?

-You know,

-this fireside light, it's very primitive, isn't it?

-Yeah.

This is what he wanted to do,

get back to a sort of truth with primitivism. Now, with prints...

This is a very complicated area.

It all depends on whether it's the first printing during the artist's

lifetime or the second edition by Ambroise Vollard,

who was dealer to both Picasso and Gauguin.

And he's the man who published these.

Now, these are not, either of them,

from the very first edition of these prints, so don't get too excited.

No, I'm not. I'm not.

OK. But this Picasso is from very early on in the second edition.

So the plate is still very fresh. And what it translates to in crude

market terms is probably about £2,000 or £3,000.

-Which is rather nice, isn't it?

-Mm!

Now, the Gauguin is nonetheless fresh for being a bit later.

In the second edition. So these must have all been published round about

the time your grandmother was in Paris, so that makes perfect sense.

The value on this one is a bit more.

Not a huge amount more. £3,000-£4,000.

-OK.

-But it's amazing, the difference it makes,

just to be in the second or first edition.

Cos if this was in the first edition, we're talking a huge...

-You can add a nought.

-Yeah.

Well, which means I would keep it in a vault rather than have it

on the wall, and I'd rather have it on the wall. I love that one.

What a gorgeous casket.

It's rather nice, isn't it?

Very much Arts and Crafts in feel.

You've got all this planishing giving this wonderful surface.

What I particularly love... the enamel at the front there,

with the two children dancing. Absolutely super.

It's got the whole feel of the Arts and Crafts.

-What do you know about it?

-It was my grandmother's.

I can always remember it being on the fireplace, on the mantle shelf.

She said she wanted her ashes putting in it when she passed away.

-We didn't do that.

-Should I open it or...?

No, please, please don't!

No, we didn't do that.

-She loved it.

-We've got a lovely set of marks there for Chester

in 1919.

-In that case, I think it was perhaps a wedding present.

-Ah...

Right. That would make perfect sense.

-Yes.

-I mean, that's a very joyous object to have as a wedding present.

Now, the maker's quite intriguing.

He's John Gatecliff.

And he was working in Otley.

Interestingly, he didn't register as a silversmith.

-He registered as an artist.

-From what my grandmother said,

he was the lecturer at the local art college.

All adds up. All adds up very nicely.

So what is a rather super Arts and Crafts-style casket by,

one has to say, an unknown,

from the point of view of silver, going to be worth?

But it's such a gorgeous piece.

And I think, I could easily see that at auction at about £2,000.

Oh.

-Very nice.

-It is very nice.

Yes. But I shan't be selling it.

Quite right, too.

One of the most moving moments this year, for me,

was when a gentleman called Bill

brought along a family archive relating to his late father.

You only first looked at this three days ago?

-Correct.

-And it belonged to your father?

Yes. We think my grandparents probably

put all his artefacts into there

many, many years ago.

And I had never wanted to actually open the box

cos I knew it contained a history from the First World War.

Cos your father was a soldier in the First World War?

He was Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery.

And he fought at the Somme?

Well, we only found that out...

He never spoke about it at all.

So you only found out that he was...

He was in the Second Battle of the Somme, yes.

Three days ago when you opened this case?

-Correct.

-What else did you find out?

-That he'd been a prisoner of war.

His trench was overrun after he was wounded.

And he was transported to a prisoner-of-war camp

in Quedlinburg in Germany.

And this picture, is this your father here?

This is my father in the local paper.

And look, "Young Officer Missing".

-How old was he?

-He would be just 18, I think.

"Second Lieutenant JB Bennett."

There's other things in here it looks like you haven't opened yet.

-No, the letters...

-What are these?

-These are letters from your father?

-Yes.

-Which you have never opened?

-Have never opened. I never have.

-Why not?

-Sorry...

-It's OK.

I felt I was intruding onto his space.

It was only when we decided to open them that I could go into there...

I haven't opened the letters.

But you're welcome to open them.

-Are you sure?

-Well, I think it will bring a catharsis,

-to be honest with you.

-It's obviously hugely emotional for you.

-It is.

-Of course. He's your dad.

Absolutely.

-There you go.

-So this is just short of 100 years old.

-Yes.

-Do you want me to open them?

-Yes, please.

-Are you sure?

Yeah, I'm positive. Yeah.

-Let's open one of them, shall we?

-Yes.

-Passed by the censor.

Right. And that was towards the end of '17.

-On active service.

-Yep.

"Dear father and mother, I haven't had a letter yet of any sort.

"Still, I expect one will be up soon.

"Please send me some writing paper and bootlaces,

"and matches if possible.

"I saw a Fritz plane brought down. It was a fine sight.

"He dropped about a quarter of a mile away and blew up,

"as he had a load of bombs on board.

"Tell me how long it takes for this letter to get to you.

"Have you discovered where I am yet? Will stop now. Love, Barry."

Young, young man, writing to his parents.

-Absolutely.

-So, this...

These are Barry's letters from Germany.

-So this will have been after he'd been taken prisoner.

-Yes.

There we are. That was his number.

-Prisoner of war 1052.

-Yeah.

"We are well treated and get plenty of food,

"although it is quite a different type

"to what we're used to in England.

"We have no permanent address as yet.

"But I have hopes of being settled in a few days more.

"The last time my leg was dressed it was done by an English doctor.

"The doctor said he thought it might be possible to get an exchange."

Exchange prisoners of war, I suppose.

I think that's what it means. "Heaps of love, Barry."

The fact that he was wounded in the Somme at such a young age

is probably what saved him. And what made it possible for you to be here.

-Absolutely.

-You've got some reading to do now.

There's a whole other pack here for you to start.

So, good luck with that.

I feel hugely privileged, actually, that you have let us do this,

-for the first time, today.

-I appreciate... Sorry.

-I appreciate it.

-I know, it's emotional, isn't it?

That cache of unopened letters

is a poignant example of the lasting impact of World War I.

We're planning a special episode for next year to mark the centenary of

the end of the conflict.

We'd like to hear from you if you have family stories about the human

cost of the First World War and its legacy. You can e-mail us...

These are such charming chairs. Hepplewhite style.

That big shield back and this, almost like the feathers here,

but there's something wonderfully naive about them,

sort of provincial look about them,

which draws me to them the more I look at them.

-How many do you have altogether?

-Six in total. Four more like this.

Four side chairs and one armchair.

-Yes.

-I think it probably would have been a much longer set, originally.

I suspect. But just look at the way this is drawn, it's so sweet.

And there's one maker in this area that I think of immediately.

-Can you think of who I'm thinking of?

-No.

-Gillows.

-Oh!

-Are they Gillows? I don't know.

But it's got that lovely early feel about Gillows.

What do you know about them?

Well, they belonged to my father's mother's family.

They were sold in 1937.

My father knew where they were.

And then he had the opportunity to buy them back in 1973.

After he died in 1980, my sister bought them from the family.

And then they were surplus to her requirements and so she sold them,

with the agreement of the family.

And then three and a half years ago

-they turned up in a local auction to me.

-You just found them by chance?

-Yes.

-How extraordinary.

-I couldn't let them go.

-So they were in the family prior to 1937?

-Yes.

What date do you think they were made?

-I've no idea.

-What do you think?

-I don't know.

OK. They are a really nice set, a small set.

A short set of genuine Hepplewhite chairs.

Of the 1780s.

-Oh! Right.

-And they are so beautiful, and so provincial,

that I just love them.

If I just take the seat out here,

and very quickly, there are two things.

Firstly, look at the way this shield here hangs.

A copyist would never have dared do that with that gap.

He would have had that sitting on the bottom rail there.

-Right.

-And that, to me, is a wonderful quirky thing to do.

But if I just tip this forward,

you can just see there the saw marks. You can see the irregular

saw marks where somebody's been doing it by hand. If that was

a modern chair or a 19th- or a 20th-century reproduction -

and there are plenty of those around -

especially this popular model, that would have been done by machine.

This is handmade. And charming.

There are six of them. I would have thought they would have been

-a set of 14 originally.

-Oh.

-I would have thought so.

So, they were in the family, came out of the family in '37.

They went through the '70s and '80s,

-buying and selling.

-Yes.

-You bought them back - how long ago, did you say that was?

-In 2012.

So, four or five years ago, something like that.

And I'm going to have to ask you,

the market for this sort of thing is disastrously low.

-I know.

-Nobody wants this sort of mahogany

and nobody wants dining chairs.

-Dare I ask you how much you paid for them?

-Hammer price £260.

-What was the estimate on them?

-70-100.

Sorry, I have to repeat that, the estimate was £70-£100?

-Yes.

-For a set of six dining chairs?

-Yes.

-OK, fine.

-And you paid 260?

-I did.

Well, if we multiply that by ten...

..2,600, 2,500, something like that.

-Wow.

-At least.

-Really?

I think you've done very well. They are a super set of chairs.

-But more important than anything, they're family chairs.

-They are.

I fancy myself as a bit of woodworker.

And I've got some quite nice tools.

But nothing like this.

And this just takes the biscuit. What do you know about it?

Well, my dad's always talked about the fact that we have a tool from

the Great Exhibition and I just thought he was talking nonsense.

But until he actually showed me it...

And he's used it until recently.

-And then I saw the head of Albert there.

-So it's used?

Yes, he has used it, yes.

It was in the garage being used to cut up wood.

Anything from the Great Exhibition has a sort of iconic status,

-doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-And here is Prince Albert,

the instigator of the Great Exhibition.

One of the great patrons. It was his idea.

And so these people, Russell, Horsfield & White -

do I gather White is your family?

Yes, that's my dad's mother's family.

-Right.

-They had a factory in Sheffield.

And so there's a wonderful direct connection.

But the crowning glory of the whole thing is this.

-That's what gives it Exhibition status.

-It's very heavy.

It's going to be a cast heavy metal with the silver-plated finish.

And this would have been the exhibition handle that would have

fitted on this saw. Cos if we...

I'll turn that upside down.

And turn the saw upside-down.

And you can see that the three screws line-up

with these screws there.

There's no doubt that that is the handle that this saw,

that was at the Great Exhibition in 1851...

-How do you value such a thing?

-It's just a tool.

It's just a tool... No, it isn't. It's a very, very special tool.

Anybody with an interest in tools or objects from the Great Exhibition

are both highly collected areas.

Really highly collected and special areas of interest.

And this saw with its handle from the Exhibition with clear lineage

has got to be worth towards £2,000.

-It's not for sale. It's staying with me.

-It's a very special thing.

Antique jewellery, which absolutely gets to the core of my being.

These are fantastic pieces for you to bring to show me.

Tell me a little bit about them.

My family had a jewellery business in London.

35 years ago we decided a change of life was needed and we moved up

into the Scottish Lowlands.

And completely changed from being jewellery-minded to animal-minded.

-So, you swapped the sapphires for the sheep dip?

-We did, yes.

-Yes.

-So now, these represent...

-shop stock or are they personal pieces?

-These are family items

that over the years the family have kept back for themselves.

I'm going to start off with this pad with this luscious pink necklace,

with a drop suspended at the bottom.

Which is actually costume jewellery.

Today, we see hundreds and hundreds of pieces of costume jewellery.

The difference between those and this is that this particular

necklace was actually made in around about 1740.

Oh, right.

So it's 18th-century costume jewellery and that makes it a very

different kettle of fish from the more contemporary stuff that we see.

It's very rare.

You can see that they almost have

this sort of lustrous quality to them. They're sort of pinky blue

in colour. When you look at the backs of the mount, if I just

turn that upside down,

can you see it's actually pretty ordinary-looking? It's base metal.

You can see the metal content coming through there.

But the age of it is significant.

That's the first one. Second one, this piece, in my opinion,

was made in around about 1670-1700.

What it is,

it's a slide and in the centre

you have a crystal.

Underneath the crystal is a woven panel of hair with two tiny little

figures and a gold thread monogram.

The mount is in gold and it has what's called a pie-crust setting.

Almost like a little pie crust that you make going round the edge.

And then surrounding the centre is a hoop, if you like, of real pearls.

But it's when you turn it over and look at the back of it that the

whole thing explodes.

The back is enamelled scrolls

in white, pink and black and that's how I can date it.

Let's move forward in time.

And this time let's go to this pad here.

This is a tiny little locket,

probably made in around 1870 by Carlo Giuliano.

He was the great Goldsmith of the 19th century.

He did revivalist jewels. He produced enamels.

He was a fantastic craftsman.

This is only a modest little circular pendant with diamonds,

but it is by Giuliano, and, excuse me,

the original Giuliano fitted case.

That is terribly, terribly important and terribly rare.

Surrounding that, to finish up with,

we have this luscious fabulous moonstone necklace.

Typical late 19th-century design.

And you can see that the stones are like little sweets

in the way that they are just so rich in their colour.

Individually set in gold.

In closed collet settings

that enclose each of the stones beautifully.

This is a great necklace.

So, 35-40 years, just kept it there, lying in a drawer.

Well, a padded drawer.

OK. Shall we start with that?

The costume necklace, base metal and glass, costume jewellery - £2,500.

-That's a good start.

-Mm-hm.

-I'm going to leave that one....

-LAUGHTER

The little Giuliano pendant is a teeny bit damaged.

There's a few flakes off it,

so let's be careful, let's not go crazy.

-And let's say £1,500 for that.

-Right.

-Probably would make more.

-But let's be careful with it.

-Right.

This one, the moonstone necklace,

let us say £4,000-£5,000.

Right, OK, yep.

Now, this thing here is eclectic, it's rare,

it's incredibly difficult to price.

Because that, for me, is one of the best of those slides that I've seen.

So it's got to be worth £4,000, hasn't it?

Really. So, let's do a quick tot up for you.

-£12,000-£15,000, I suppose.

-Thank you very much.

-Are you happy with that?

-Ecstatic.

-Yes, ecstatic.

-Yes, worth more than you thought they'd be worth?

Absolutely, yeah.

We're looking at a butterfly, quite crudely made.

And it says, "In memory of summer, 1945.

"Made of the rubbish of the ruins of Berlin."

Well, how have you got it?

-What's the story?

-It was my grandad's.

He was over in Berlin towards the end of the war.

And he brought it home with him.

And is that all you know?

That's all I know. He was a very private man.

He really never spoke about the war or anything.

And when I asked him about it, he said, "We don't talk about that."

-Really?

-And that was as much as he would say.

-But it was always on the wall?

-Always on the wall.

I remember it from being a little girl. Always there. Same place.

-Yeah.

-And he's gone?

-He has, yes, sadly.

-So the story's gone with him?

-Absolutely, yeah, which is sad.

-We have to assume he bought it.

-Yes.

-And you don't even know what he was doing in Berlin in the summer

-of '45.

-Not really, no.

-I mean, the war ended in May.

I think what it takes us back to

is that period of total chaos, total destruction.

A vast city utterly destroyed.

By us and by the Americans and by the Russians. And people

trying - those who'd survived - trying to get back on their feet.

-Yeah.

-To me, it's all on the back.

As you say, there's this long text.

I'm only going to read a bit of it.

"When the battle of Berlin was over, they met again,

"just a small group of friends: some painters and designers,

"and a woman well acquainted with all kind of fancy-work.

"They looked around and none of them said a word. What could they say,

"what did they feel facing the dead under blooming lilacs

"and the smouldering ruins of their beloved town?

"With the churches burnt out

"and their old windows beautifully coloured gone to pieces,

"the bridges fallen down into the river,

"the rails bent and the trees burst, and with mountains of rubbish

"barring the streets once full of life."

You know, you can see it, can't you?

-It's very emotive.

-I think it's extraordinary.

And this is a chap called Kurt Panzer, strangely.

And he obviously got together a group of friends and they began to

make things. The butterfly's made from crushed brick, broken tiles,

bits of glass. And, obviously, they did a sequence of these.

And I can imagine British or American soldiers

walking down the street and seeing them, and thinking,

"Yes, we've got to bring this city back to life."

-Yeah.

-Do you think that's the story?

-Yeah, that's what I like to think, yeah.

-And was he a sensitive man?

Oh, very, yeah.

-So he'd have felt that he had to make a contribution?

-Oh, definitely.

It wasn't just about making things to bring the city back to life.

It was about earning a living. Presumably they sold these.

-I hope you'll always treasure it.

-Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

What's it worth? £10, £20, who cares?

-Yeah.

-But the story is amazing.

-Yeah, thank you.

-Thank you.

How fascinating that something so unassuming should tell a story

of the aftermath of the Second World War.

It's not just the valuable finds we remember.

Now, let's stop off at the magnificent Audley End in Essex

where Bunny Campione had a colourful start to her day.

So, here we have a collection of bead bags.

Now, bead bags were really made in the early 19th century

for the sort of woman who was going to a soiree, an evening do.

She'd have it on her wrist, hanging there.

And she would be asked to dance.

She'd have her little dance card.

"Lionel or George, at eight o'clock. Nine o'clock."

And she might even have some scent, you know,

a little bottle. And... before her dance.

So she'd be dressed to the nines.

Just imagine how romantic that is.

And what a wonderful collection.

Tell me, did you buy them or inherit them?

My great-grandmother started the collection,

she actually died at 29 in 1895.

So then her daughter, my grandmother, carried them on.

And I've got a book with both their handwritings in.

And have you got a particular one that is very precious to you?

Well, I used that one for my wedding 40 years ago.

-Goodness me.

-So that's quite special.

-That is very special.

And I've taken them to quite a few nice dos.

But I don't put smelling salts and hankies

which were sort of dropped so some beau would pick them up.

Well, they are stunning.

And what's so lovely about them is they're all different,

with these wonderful colours.

And very often you can tell the date or certainly within 50 years by the

different colours that they used.

-Ah.

-Probably your earliest one is this one.

This comes from an etching or a print of 1820.

Now, it could have been done later than 1820.

It's poetic licence, if you like.

They liked the print and therefore maybe in the late 19th century

they would have made this.

It would have taken a very, very long time to make these.

It's intricate. You have to thread this fine, fine, probably silk,

through a tiny, tiny bead.

I mean, you just have to look. This is your biggest one.

Which, I mean, just look at the work in that. It's just mind-boggling.

-1918.

-And that's 1918.

Which, thank you, that's what we need.

We need people to tell us when they made it.

And I think most of them are German.

-Is that possible?

-I would imagine they're all Central European,

-probably German.

-Yes, yes.

-They came from Frankfurt.

-Did they?

-My great-grandparents

and then my grandparents came over in 1937. And my father

carried on the collection a little bit and I've carried it on.

-You've got lots more at home, you say?

-About the same amount again.

Gosh. So, um...

value.

The large one, I think we're talking about possibly 300, 300-400.

The little tiny one which is for a finger rather than a wrist,

something like £40-£60.

-Right.

-We're talking about somewhere in the region of £4,000-£5,000 here.

Gosh.

Got the same again at home?

Similar. I brought the best.

I brought the favourites.

-OK. So, we're talking about 6,000 plus, yes?

-I have two daughters.

-They'll be delighted.

-There's going to be a fight, isn't there?

When I saw these earlier, I thought,

nice, late-Victorian brass, sconce.

But then you tell me there's a bit more of an interesting story.

There is, yes. We bought them at an auction in Saffron Walden

about 10-12 years ago.

My partner Lorna did some research on them and we believe they may have

-come from King's College Chapel.

-In Cambridge?

That's correct. From the high altar,

whenever they did the refurbishment in the '60s.

Sure. What were they catalogued as?

They weren't even catalogued in the sale. They were sitting in a box

under one of the tables in the auction house, and Lorna actually

asked them, were they're going to put them in the sale?

And they said they'll put them in at the end,

so we waited until the end of the sale and bought them for £50.

OK. I actually remember that sale,

because within the antiques world it caused this huge debate, really,

as to whether public buildings

and colleges and universities should sell off items which they've had,

-which were designed for the building.

-Yes.

-And, provenance

with these is everything.

Now, an architect called Sir George Gilbert Scott had a lot to do with

King's College Chapel in Cambridge.

He is most noted for the Albert Memorial in Kensington Park,

for the Midland Grand Hotel in London.

I mean, like, serious...

One of our best and most sought-after and revered architects.

-Yes.

-And when his items come up for sale, they make a lot of money.

-OK.

-But they're not by him!

LAUGHTER

They're actually by his son, I think.

-OK.

-George Gilbert Scott Jr.

-OK.

-And he did a lot of the metalwork and light fittings

and fixtures for the chapel, for his father.

Actually, it's a family of architects. I mean, between them

they designed the red telephone box and colleges and churches

all over the place. And so you've got a set of eight of these,

and I think that for the set at auction, conservatively -

and provenance is everything with these,

so you must keep all of that -

£2,000-£2,500.

Wow, lovely!

This is wonderful.

"Liberty Bodice" it says.

And this is obviously a chest of drawers that would have been used

in a haberdashery shop for displaying liberty bodices.

Now, who remembers the liberty bodice?

-Before my time!

-I'm too young!

-Exactly!

Let's remind ourselves, actually, what it looked like.

Because here on the glass front of the drawer

there is a picture of a little girl

standing on tiptoe,

looking very happy in her liberty bodice.

Now, were your family in the haberdashery business?

-No, not at all! No, not at all.

-Oh, so what's the story here?

I just fell in love with it.

I saw it, I fell in love with it, I did walk away from it!

And then it haunted me for days,

and I went back, heart beating, and yeah,

I went in and it was still for sale. So I thought, it's definitely mine!

Haunt me no longer!

-It was meant to be!

-Yeah, I just love it.

-Paid a fortune?

No, no. £170, actually.

-Pretty good. Pretty good, I'd say.

-Yeah.

So, let's have a look at it, because here it is,

this sort of remnant from a previous age of shop fittings.

You know, there is such a lot of interest in industrial,

commercial things. It's not a work of art,

it was never meant to be beautiful and adorn some great country house.

This is a working piece of equipment.

I could see... I don't know when you bought it,

I could see it easily fetching £250.

I mean, I think it's just great, but, you know,

the real thing for me is what it might smell like.

LAUGHTER

Sorry!

Call me quirky! But...

There is that fabulous, fabulous smell, which is all my...

I remember...

I think I've broken it, sorry!

-It is temperamental. It's old!

-It's old!

It's all my memories of going into a really old-fashioned haberdashery

shop in the village where I grew up.

And, you know, it comes back straightaway.

This is a well-loved teddy.

-What's his story?

-The story is, he was sent to me by my father.

It was my sixth birthday, the 15th of June 1944.

My father was in the Navy, and the little bear arrived...

-With this little note here?

-With this little note,

wishing me a happy birthday.

It says, "I wish I could come to your party.

"Save Daddy a piece of cake. Much love from Daddy."

Unfortunately, on the same day,

the 15th of June 1944,

his ship was torpedoed and it blew up and sunk within minutes.

And my mother got a terrible telegram

saying missing, presumed dead.

So this is the last communication I have from my father.

And this little bear has been with me ever since.

He doesn't see the light of day very often,

but I thought I'd bring him along today.

-Glad you did.

-Thank you.

This is a lovely, lovely Davenport.

Do you have any history at all about it? Do you know anything?

The only thing I know, it came into our possession in the early '70s,

it came from my great-uncle.

He used to travel, and he used to travel in northern France

and Belgium, and we think that he bought it there.

The trouble is that, if he did,

it must be 90 or 100 years old,

and to me it looks more like five years old!

But your family history proves that it's more than five years old,

doesn't it? So that's something!

Well, let me make you relax immediately.

-It is a Victorian Davenport.

-Right.

-This dates to 1880, that sort of date.

-Oh, really?

The whole concept of these started in the early 19th century,

but this one and this beautiful, beautiful satinwood,

-this golden satinwood...

-Oh, that's what it is?

-Yes.

If I just have a peep in there, look at this, this wonderful colour,

all the little compartments and semi-secret compartments,

and things like that. That is such a wonderful colour.

-And, yes, it's kept its colour, hasn't it?

-It has, yes.

-But the lady

of the house would probably use it in a well-to-do,

comfortable middle-class family,

would have used it for writing letters, almost every day,

-or several times a day.

-Yes.

Sometimes they have drawers on the side. What's this got here?

-Yes, it has.

-Oh, lovely. Gosh, that's such...

The quality here is amazing.

This is by a top firm, I don't know who by. Mahogany inside.

Oh, look, I can't resist this.

Mahogany again. This was the fun.

-Look at that. You know what that is?

-No, I don't.

-Cedarwood. Oh, is it?

-Isn't that lovely?

-Oh, that is nice, yes.

And just to be absolutely sure, it is English, and that is...

Virtually only England ever did that sort of beading in the corner.

-So it's English?

-English, 1880s, Victorian Davenport.

-Right.

-Of the top rank, really.

It does look pretty new, but it's in quite good condition.

One or two little bumps and scrapes, as you'd expect.

Well, prices of this sort of thing are very much in the doldrums,

-English furniture.

-I know, yes.

-But to go to an antiques shop,

to try and find one as good as this, £2,000.

Really? You surprise me, because had you asked me what I thought,

-I would have said £200!

-I should have done, I should have asked you!

For tonight's final selection, we return to beautiful Ightham Mote,

a place where the finds just kept coming, as Philip Mould discovered.

This is a soulful pastel portrait of a young girl,

heightened with a bit of pencil.

-Where did you get it from?

-From a local charity fair.

-And how much did you pay for it?

-All of £5.

-£5?

So, the label on the back says two things.

It says the Leicester Galleries,

that well-known organisation that hatched and looked after many major

artists in the 20th century.

And also, the name of the artist, a female painter, Mary Kessell.

Yes, I think she's an important one.

She is a war artist,

one of two female war artists in the Second World War.

Yeah, and she entered Belsen camp, didn't she,

and produced some very arresting images.

Perhaps not that far away in the tortured murmur

that the characterisation of this is done.

And I can't help feeling that,

actually, we're getting two portraits

here for the price of one. Because the more I look into it,

and particularly with the light pouring down -

perhaps not quite enough sunlight, but just enough -

you can see that there is a drawing of a head behind the portrait

-of the figure.

-It's something that I didn't notice at the time

I purchased it, and it's only by looking at the fold of what appears

to be a kimono dress - can you see the right eye of the image

from the background image.

Quite often artists did use other paintings and other drawings,

in this instance, upon which to do their own work.

Possibly an earlier drawing, or possibly the work of another artist.

But here, Mary has incorporated the features of the first image

into the dress. So therefore you see the crease of the mouth is now part

of the crease of the back of her dress, and the chin beneath

the figure in the background.

It's almost two faces of the same person, perhaps.

The rather soulful one, and the rather more open one.

It's reflective, it's thoughtful, and it's a great buy for five quid!

-I hope so!

-I mean, she is an artist who I think will go a long way.

The more one looks into her life and reflects on what she did,

clearly she is someone who will, I think, art-historically,

make a lot more noise than she is now. But your £5 investment

is definitely worth £600-£800, and perhaps -

-who knows? - one day an awful lot more.

-That's great to hear.

I'm going to 'fess up straightaway

that this is not my strongest subject.

However, they are an interesting area

and I don't think they have ever been on the Roadshow before,

and I want you to help me by telling me how they fit with you.

I can't tell you very much. We were clearing out my mother's house,

and these were with a collection

of items that belonged to my great-aunt.

Does the name Christopher Dresser mean anything to you?

-No.

-OK. So, he was a doctor of botany, but also was a designer.

He worked for Minton, Colebrookdale,

numerous commercial organisations.

This is a man who drew lines on a piece of paper and sold them

to Minton, for instance.

"You make my designs and I'll take a design commission."

Absolutely the way of the world today, but that was new then.

One of the people that commissioned Dresser to design glass

was James Cooper and Sons of Glasgow.

And these are the result.

Two pieces of Clutha glass, this is the name of the range, Clutha.

C-L-U-T-H-A.

Made by Cooper and Sons in Glasgow

from the 1880s into the 1890s.

Dresser was the first designer

of the Clutha range, then George Walton -

another important designer of the period - designed from then on.

I seriously have to admit I don't know enough about it to determine,

especially unsigned pieces, Walton from Dresser.

However, your little serendipitous find that you had never seen before

in your life are semi-kind of magical things in their own way.

They are not worth a fortune.

£300-£400 each.

-Gosh.

-But now you go away armed up with a bit more info and I hope that

-makes you a happy gal.

-Thank you very much. Thank you.

-You have a medal.

-Yeah.

-So who was this gentleman to you?

That gentleman was my great-uncle,

who was killed in the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879.

Trooper William Fletcher,

-of the Natal military police.

-Yes.

So, what we've got is the South African medal, 1877-79.

Now, the Battle of Isandlwana

is the biggest disaster in British military history.

Up to that moment in time.

And it stayed that way until the 1st of July 1916 on the Somme.

1,300 British soldiers

camped at the foot of the mountain called Isandlwana, went into camp,

they set up their campfires, they were just getting ready for the day,

when they were attacked by a Zulu force numbering somewhere

between 18,500 and 20,000 Zulu.

And they killed 1,300 British soldiers, including your ancestor.

Yeah.

This is a very nice medal.

They very rarely come onto the market.

There are 1,300 of them, but most of them are in museums,

and over the years these have become a very desirable medal

for medal collectors. And if you were to put this...

on the market,

-you can expect somewhere between £10,000-£12,000 for it.

-Really?

Yeah, very, very nice,

but it's got a very strong family connection, as you can appreciate.

-So thank you very much.

-No problem. You've made my day.

I didn't expect to see anything from the battle of Isandlwana,

so thanks very much for that.

If your doll's house has a dishwasher,

I wouldn't put those in there.

They really are the most exquisite quality miniature pieces.

What can you tell me about them?

In 1968, my mother was going to go to Hampton Court Palace

to buy Lady Ironside's doll's house, because she was a collector.

Hampton Court Palace?

Hampton Court Palace, to the grace-and-favour apartments.

And she sold the doll's house eventually,

but she kept the tea set for the dinner service that was in it,

because she was told by Lady Ironside that

the one in Queen Mary's doll's house was identical and they made

Lady Ironside one because as children they'd play together,

they knew each other.

Wow, isn't that wonderful?

That's a royal provenance, isn't it?

-Yes.

-But, well, Queen Mary's doll's house, which most of us know about,

and it was completed in 1924.

-Was it?

-And it was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens,

-one of the greatest English architects.

-I didn't know that.

And it's a national treasure and it's on display at Windsor Castle -

-you've seen it, I presume.

-I haven't. I've never seen...

Wow, you should go and see it and see the sister service.

Yes, I've seen the book with it in, but that's all.

Wow. Well, we know it's from Queen Mary's doll's house,

because it actually has Queen Mary's cipher...

..written on the plate in gold.

-Is that gold?

-That is 22-carat gold.

-Is it? I didn't know that.

-And on the back,

in absolutely minute lettering, it says "Made by Minton's limited."

I did know it was made by Minton.

Yeah. Well, that's incredible, so exactly the same service as this...

-So I was told.

-..is there.

Whether this is a full set or not, I'm not sure,

but there are 18 plates - I'm sure that's the right number.

There is three of these sauce tureens

with tiny individually modelled lids.

There is only one sauce boat,

but you've got platters, oval platters of various sizes.

So this is a duplicate, it was made at the same time,

and I know there are other pieces out there from other sets,

but there can't have been more than three or four sets made.

The quality is incredible,

because when you are making a piece of porcelain,

it's much more difficult to make it in small size than full-size,

the detail and the gilding is absolutely marvellous

and that's what you would expect from Queen Mary's doll's house.

-Yes.

-Because as you probably know,

a large number of contemporary artists were asked to contribute

paintings, and writers wrote miniature books for the library,

and it was a massive effort by the nation

to provide this wonderful house.

So it's an important thing.

I mean, it's incredible. If you pick this little plate up,

do you think that could have any real value?

Can anyone give me a suggestion about what that might be worth?

-£100.

-£100?

£100 for that?

Must be mad.

Well, when I tell you that in a sale a few years ago,

one of these little tureens -

just one little tureen with its tiny little cover -

made £1,200...

-Really?

-But that was a fluke.

-What?

-That was a fluke. That was a silly price.

I'm going to ignore that £1,200. It's ridiculous, it's too high.

It's not going to work, is it?

I'm going to say that this service

is worth £7,000- £10,000.

CROWD GASP

I'm speechless!

Really?

It's been in a drawer ever since my mother died.

I can hear my mother up there going, "Woohoo!"

Been quite a year for Fergus Gambon, hasn't it?

Remember those remarkable early English doll's he saw at Tewkesbury?

And these miniature treasures just keep turning up for him.

And to think those pieces were destined for the famous

royal doll's house at Windsor.

That's just about it for this programme. Remember, we're back

on the road very soon with the Antiques Roadshow and we would love

to see you at one of our shows.

All the details of where we'll be and how you can tell us your story

before you come are on our website. See you soon, I hope.