Shaw Cash in the Attic

Welcome to the show that rummages around people's homes, finds all the hidden gems

then takes them to auction to raise funds for our families.

We all like getting gifts, but let's be honest, some of them remind us of things that are best

forgotten, a bit like today's lady, who wants to clear out all

that type of clutter and that's why she's called in Cash In The Attic.

Coming up on Cash In The Attic, some unexpected finds get us all very excited!

Did I hear a magic word just then?

You heard the word "Cartier"...

And some heavy-duty candelabra get a rather hefty price tag...

Very good valuation, James.

Thank you, but can we find something a little lighter next time!

I'm sure we can!

So, will we all be laughing come auction day?

You must be pleased with that!

-I am!

-That is really good, isn't it?

Find out when the final hammer falls.

I'm in the really picturesque village

of Bearsted in Kent to meet Annette.

She's had a lot to deal with in the last few years but she's decided

it's time to move forward with her personal life and provide some stability for her children.

Annette Shaw has lived in Kent for the last six years, together with

her two children, 12 year-old Charles and 11 year-old Olivia.

Annette is a former baroness but she lost her title

when her first marriage ended,

but happily she found love a second time around with Adie, who she met

on holiday in Egypt and the couple tied the knot just over a year ago.

Annette suffers from multiple sclerosis and has plans of moving

to a new, more manageable home

but having amassed a lifetime of collectables,

she has decided a clear-out is required

and has called in her mum, Anne, and the Cash In The Attic team to help.

James Rylands is our antiques expert today, so whilst he makes a start, I'll meet the girls.

Aah, good morning.

-You must be Annette?

-I am indeed.

Hi, hi, and you're mum?

-That's right!

-I thought so.

-Lovely to meet you.

-And you.

You've called in Cash In The Attic, haven't you?

Yes. I've got so many things indoors that I no longer use

and hopefully some of them are valuable.

They're collectables and I just thought we could make a few pounds.

What do you want to raise the money for, then?

We'd like to put it towards a deposit on a house.

-This is only rented and also because of the MS, I need some adaptations.

-How long have you had that for?

20 years, about 20 years, so really we need as much money as we can towards this house.

Have you got a figure in mind of how much you'd like to raise?

I think realistically £800 would be fantastic.

OK, so we need to raise £800.

We won't get much time for a break today.

Shall we see if James has found any of these lovely items yet?

-Yes.

-Come on, then.

It sounds like today's rummage could have life-changing consequences for Annette

so let's hope we can uncover plenty of valuables and raise that all-important deposit.

One man who has plenty of experience handling objects of desire is James Rylands.

He has spent his life immersed in the world of antiques and he has already discovered

something that may just be worth its weight in gold.

What have you got there?

-Something that's very heavy!

-You're not kidding!

Now that's impressive. Can you impress us with your valuation?

I'll impress you with something else.

It's one of a pair. I've just seen the other one sitting there.

Tell me the story about these candelabra, then?

These were given to me by my ex-husband when we lived

in a very large house, but here, they look slightly out of place!

You could say they are very grand, aren't they?

Of course, we just take the idea of electric light and electricity for

granted but before that, quite often you'd have these on the mantelpiece

with a clock in the middle so you could actually see the time and all of these obviously would be filled

with candles, so we've got this combination of green marble and then what we call "gilt bronze",

or "d'or moulu",

which the "d'or" is the gold in French, and then "moulu",

which was actually the process of putting it on where they

had the gold leaf and they mixed it up with mercury and once it had been put on, they then used heat

and flames to actually burn the mercury off, leaving the gold...

And die shortly afterwards, presumably!

-That's exactly what happened, that is exactly what happened!

-Oh, no!

They all died of mercury poisoning so it was a hugely expensive process.

And how old are these as a particular example?

I've looked underneath and they've actually got "Made in Italy"

which tells me they were made in the 20th century.

What sort of value could we be talking about, James?

When it comes to value, I guess we're probably looking at

about between £80 and £120. We're talking about decoration

-rather than rarity.

-What do you think of that valuation?

-It's absolutely fine!

-Yes, I thought it was a very good valuation, James.

Thank you, but, Annette, can we find something

a little lighter next time?!

I'm sure we can, indeed!

I can only imagine how grand Annette's previous house

must have been, but those candelabra have certainly got us off to a great start.

I begin my search upstairs in Annette's bedroom and I find

a pair of his and hers watches that she was given as a wedding present.

They were made by Asprey & Garrard, the London-based

jewellers best-known for their upkeep of the Crown Jewels.

Annette's house may be hiding more than we imagined!

James values the pair at £60 to £100

and it seems the collectables aren't just confined to the house!

Hey, James... What do you think of this?

What have we got here? Ooh, we've got lots of sculpture you've found.

Where did these come from?

I have no idea!

Well, what have we got here?

-Now do you know why I'm doing that, tapping that?

-No.

-Well, if I tap it, that tells me what material it's made out of.

-How clever!

In this case it's made of bronze, so this one here, which is a nice charming group and it's

based on a 19th-century original French piece, probably dating to the 1860s, 1880s, something like that,

some time in the second half of the 19th century,

and there is a bit of a signature in the back

which is difficult to make out

-but this one, do you know how old this is?

-I have no idea.

I think that this has probably been made in the last

sort of 20 or 30 years and not in France,

actually out in the Far East,

probably in Thailand and the material that bronze is made up of

now is about 90% copper and 10% tin,

which is why over in the Far East in China, Thailand, India, places

like that, they can actually now do it a lot cheaper and of course

their unit costs, their labour costs are much cheaper

so they've now started a big industry making things

in European style but sort of modern.

This is very European, isn't it?

Well, look I'm tapping her again.

-She's beautiful!

-She is beautiful.

She is actually not bronze, she's actually made of a material that's

a resin, so it's a sort of composition copying bronze.

We've got a little signature here,

who I don't know but I would think that probably

this would have been made in the 1970s

and very much in the style of that great impressionist painter and sculptor, Degas.

The original would have been done at the end of the 19th century

and so this man has copied that,

so basically what we've got here is a real bronze,

albeit it modern, and then two copies of bronzes made in

a resin-based material but not sort of old or rare or whatever...

They basically have a sort of decorative price.

I'm going to say I think probably between £50 and £100.

Well, that's very interesting.

-It's money in the pot, isn't it?

-Yes, it certainly is.

You seem very sure of that, James,

but exactly how much money remains to be seen on auction day.

A bit of interest in the book, straight in at £50, any advance?

Good! It's got a bid of 50.

-Lots of places, now. 52, 55, 58, 60, 62...

-Oh, look!

65, 68, 70, 72...

Find out later in the show.

So far, we've uncovered items with an estimated auction value of £190

but with an £800 target to reach, we still have a long way to go.

Annette, I spotted this as soon as I walked through the door, so tell me about it?

-Where did it come from?

-I actually purchased it at auction,

a local auction and I just fell in love with the walnut inlay

and the wonderful patterns and if you open it up, it becomes a games table.

-It's got a surprise inside, has it?

-Yes, absolutely.

-Let's have a look.

Wahey-hey, absolutely right! This would keep you amused for hours!

-Absolutely!

-So what have we got?

-We've got sort of draughts or chess, backgammon...

-Backgammon.

That's been the downfall of many a person.

Beautifully inlaid work, I must say.

-How old do you think it is?

-I don't think it's that old.

It's a wonderful inlaid table and it's basically in the style

of something that I think would have been made perhaps

in the early part of the 19th century,

let's say sort of 1840-ish, but this example, I think, is 20th century.

It's been made in the last 50 years or so and even though it's new,

it's actually very, very good quality

the way it has been done, because the carcass of it is actually pine or another softwood,

but then onto that is these veneered sheets of walnut and walnut is quite a valuable wood so you wouldn't want

to use it to sort of make the entire thing but they've cut the sheets of it very, very thin and then glued it

onto the carcass but the real piece de resistance on this

is the actual marquetry inlay

which has actually been very much a part of English furniture,

mainly since the early part of the 17th century.

It is a heck of a lot of work that has gone into that

and I guess we have got to weigh up on

one hand, a huge amount of work, on the other hand, it's not an old,

absolutely period antique so I'm going to slightly hedge my bets

and say probably between £200 and £400, something like that?

Let's hope that all of those punters at the auction will go for it!

-Wouldn't that be wonderful!

-That's what we want.

-And many hours of fun.

James is clearly a fan of the games table

so let's hope its fine quality starts a bidding war on auction day.

Anne has been concentrating her efforts in the packed garage

and her hard work pays off when she digs out this rather impressive glass decanter.

It was made by the Czech company Mosa who specialised in producing high-quality Bohemian glassware.

Annette bought this at auction some years ago and remembers paying quite a healthy sum for it.

Sadly, James thinks that £30 to £50 is all we can expect from it today.

While the others rummage, I thought we'd take a little break.

You and your mum seem really close.

We are. We've always been close and I think a good family network

is a very important thing to have.

Obviously, she's your mum and you're her little girl,

so it must have been hard for her when you were diagnosed with MS?

Mmm, I think it was.

She's a mother and no matter that I'm 45 now,

it would still hurt her just as much.

Was the fact that you had your mum around vital to helping you keep going? Because everybody

needs a breathing space, especially going through something like that.

Yes. Mum and Dad are wonderful, absolutely wonderful

and I think, yeah, family bonds you together and keeps you going

and as much as my children are important to me,

my parents are as well.

Tell me about the family background, because you're all quite musical, aren't you?

My father was a pianist and my mum was a singer and we all had a musical talent of sorts.

I used to play the flute and my brother was a viola player.

There was cello, guitar and clarinet.

You came from this musical background.

What did you go onto, because you didn't stay in music.

-No, I became a legal secretary.

-Is that how you met your husband?

Yep. I met my husband, he worked in the City as well

and married for 11 years and two gorgeous children.

How do you feel, now that we're selling some of these things,

which obviously are quite a reflection of the life you used to live?

Does it feel strange to be getting rid of them?

No, that time has passed.

Is it the opposite effect, then? It's actually quite nice to see them go at this stage?

Mmm, yes, it is.

Well, I'm pleased Annette has no qualms about parting

with her collectables so the more we can find, the better.

Anne has finished her search in the garage and is now busy in the house

where she soon finds a pair of highly decorated plates.

They were given to Annette as a gift and were designed by Versace, no less!

Sadly, and despite the name,

James isn't convinced of their collectability

and values them at a rather disappointing £20 to £40.

James, Anne, are you there?

-Hiya.

-Well, done!

-What do you think of this?

I should think you are just about to serve us some tea!

I've got a few pieces out of the box but do you know what is in there?

I believe it's a tea service.

That's fantastic and I'll tell you what's great is here we have the history of Meissen on one plate!

The thing about Meissen is it was the first European porcelain factory

that discovered hard paste porcelain.

Before then, it had only been made over in China and the Orient and the Europeans were desperate to find out

how to actually make it

and they discovered it in Meissen in about 1710 which is when

the factory here first started

and they used very hard, kaolin sort of clay to actually produce it

and on this plate here you've got all the various histories,

like you've got "AR" at the top there.

That's for Augustus Rex who was the king over in Germany

when it was first produced.

KPM, which stands for "Konigliche Porcelain Manufacture",

and then down here, we've got Bott...

Well, I'm not even going to pronounce that

but basically it's named after Bottger who was one of the original

starters of the Meissen porcelain factory.

It is good quality but it's not especially old

so I think for the whole lot we'll probably put something like

£200 to £400 on it, something like that.

-Goodness me!

-That's a nice thing to have in the kitty.

-Brilliant!

-You seem pleased with that then, Anne?

-Oh, yes!

It's going to help a lot, I think.

The bad news is we haven't got time to sit down and have tea!

We've got to find more! Let's go!

That's a super addition to our auction haul.

A few more discoveries like this and we'll breeze past our £800 target.

I'm on a bit of a roll as, like a magpie to diamonds, I spot these

very desirable hand-printed, hand-stitched Hermes scarves.

If these were once good enough for

Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, then I'm sure they're good enough for the bidders at auction

and James thinks this collection of six could fetch somewhere between £30 to £80 on the day.

-Hello, there you are! Are you having a rest?

-Absolutely!

-What do you think of it so far?

-I think it's good fun, don't you?

-Marvellous!

-Very knowledgeable is our James, isn't he?

-Very, yes.

-He is, yes.

-A very nice man as well.

-Do you like him?

-Yes.

-Well, I'm glad.

Now talking about men, I want to know a little bit about your new man?

We met in Egypt. We were there on holiday. Mum and I and the children

for a couple of weeks and he was out there teaching scuba diving and selling trips

-and it just happened.

-So obviously, that's one thing, you're on holiday.

How did you pursue this romance when you got back, then?

Well, if anyone said to me

that they were moving somebody in after three days,

I would think they were absolutely mad, but we just knew

it was right and I got him a flight back

and he moved straight in and there we are.

-Is he a good son in law?

-He is a very kind man and when I first met him,

I thought "Aye, aye, this could turn to something else,"

and it did and they're very happy and the children love him to bits.

You're going to be changing things again, quite dramatically, with this move.

What have you got in mind? What sort of place do you want to go to?

We're not sure yet because the MS is progressing, so it won't be a townhouse on three levels,

but we do need to think carefully

and we just need to get a decent deposit together.

I think what we need to do is make sure we raise that £800

you're looking for, so if you want to stay and have a rest,

I'll track down James.

-Hopefully he's found something else for you to look at.

-OK.

-Won't be long.

Whilst we've been chatting, James has been conducting a final search of the garage

to see if Anne missed anything and he discovers a box

containing a full set of Stuart Crystal glass.

They're in perfect condition and as a wedding present from her first marriage,

Annette is more than happy to see the back of them,

so they head to auction with an impressive £100 to £150 price tag.

-What have you got there, Annette?

-It's a Hermes ash tray.

-I forgot I had this!

-Really!

It's a jolly nice thing to forget that you actually had.

The firm was started in 1837 by Thierry Hermes and originally

they made harnesses and bridals for carriages.

That would be the connection with the scarves and the equestrian connection?

Absolutely. Originally, that's who it was and that's why some

Hermes styles, you're right, have bridals and things on them

but it wasn't actually until the early 20th century that Hermes were really on the map

with one of his descendants, Emile-Maurice Hermes, because they were still making leather

things but rather than harness-wear they had gone into leather clothes and he got a sort of franchise,

an exclusive deal to produce clothes with the first zipper on them

and then in the 1930s - 1937 - was when they actually started,

they opened their first factory in Lyon in France purely devoted to making scarves

and it was out of that, really, they then in later years went into this sort of luxury line

of producing everything from watches to ashtrays to lots of other

sort of really high-end design things. This one here is actually made

of Limoges porcelain, so one of the leading French porcelain factories as well.

They still do have value.

I would think something like this

is probably worth around about £50 to £80. How does that sound?

-Fair enough.

-Not bad for an ashtray!

-Not bad at all.

Annette really has collected some lovely pieces over the years

and in the bedroom, her mum finds more evidence of this when she spots a very attractive Limoges tea set.

It was a gift from her first husband and James thinks it could fetch

another £80 to £120 on sale day.

-What have you got there?

-A watch.

It's not just any old watch...

That is a Cartier watch!

Ooh, did I hear a magic word?

You heard the word "Cartier", yes!

-Let me have a look, let me have a look!

-Have you got the box for this?

No box. I bought it off of my ex-boyfriend's mother.

-That's a bit tortuous, isn't it!

-Yeah, it is!

-22 years ago.

Well, you do like nice things, don't you?

-I do.

-Obviously an eye for quality because I mean Cartier, that is the name to conjure with.

In particular, it was the Santos, wasn't it?

Right, the absolutely right one. You know, the Santos

is named after a Brazilian airman called Alberto Santos-Dumont and what happened was that until then,

everybody had worn pocket watches and flying around in a plane and trying to steer it and pull

a pocket watch out of your waistcoat wasn't very practical so he asked Louis Cartier to make him

a wrist watch that he could actually wear while he was flying the plane. That was in 1904.

It was commercially produced from 1911 onwards

as the Santos and that's how the first wrist watch was born.

Thousands of pounds are paid for these things new.

Is it the same with this one? Is that worth £1,000?

We're not talking thousands of pounds. It's 20-30 years old, something like that.

On the back here, actually, it does tell me that

it's got all the Cartier marks, which is great,

and it tells me also that it's gold-plated rather than solid gold,

so that all has a bearing on the value.

We're probably looking at between £150 and £300.

What do you think of that, Annette?

-That's more than I thought.

-Really? That's good!

-Presumably you're pleased with that, yeah?

-Absolutely!

-Well, done!

OK, talking of time, we're out of time when it comes to our rummage so I expect

you'd like to know how much we've made, but before I tell you,

we wanted £800 towards your house move.

Do you think we've got near that, Annette?

-We seem to be going in the right direction.

-What about you, Anne?

-I think she'll be very lucky.

-What, to make 800?

-Yes.

-Ye of little faith! You'll be delighted when I tell you

-that the value of everything going to auction comes to £1,050.

-Wow!

Oh, marvellous!

The next time you see all your lovely things

will be at the auction house, so we'll see you there.

-Okey-dokey.

-Can't wait!

What a hugely successful day we've had in Kent with Annette Shaw

and her mum and what a terrific array of items we've got for auction.

The magnificent pair of 20th-century candelabra...

You'll need a big house to keep them but not a huge fortune to buy them.

We're looking for £80-£120.

The beautifully inlaid pine and walnut games chest. It's not antique but the

quality is superb and will hopefully tempt the bidders into paying

upwards of its £200-£400 estimate.

And the collection of Meissen porcelain

that includes that plate charting the history of the German company.

We're hoping the porcelain bidders will be out in force

so we can raise upwards of its £200-£400 price tag.

Still to come on Cash In The Attic...

I find out what James and Anne got up to on rummage day...

And that was when you and I were alone together in the garage!

It was lovely!

All right, anyway, moving swiftly on...

And there are high hopes for a stylish crowd at auction.

I'm sure here in Essex, the fashion aficionados are going to be out in force.

So, will our items be in vogue?

Find out when the final hammer falls.

It's been a few weeks since we met Annette and her mum over in Kent.

We found lots of lovely items that we've brought here to Stacey's Auction House in Rayleigh, Essex.

Remember, Annette is looking to raise around £800 so she can move on with her life

so let's just hope that the bidders get their cash out when the bidding starts today.

This family-run auction house

has been holding regular sales since it began trading back in 1947

and it would seem that they are as busy as ever with a staggering 1,200 lots on offer in today's sale.

Hopefully we won't have too much trouble spotting our items amongst the hundreds on display.

I know two that shouldn't be too difficult to find.

James, this is what I call a statement!

You know me, never hide my light under a bushel!

They're quite magnificent but not much age?

Not old, I mean relatively modern and I think as a result,

we've got £80 to £120 on them but they should do that, I think.

I do hope we do get them away today.

-She had some real designer items, I suppose.

-Designer queen!

-Those scarves were amazing, weren't they?

-Maybe for you!

The thing is, if you have got a very good name,

it does always help in the auction room, doesn't it?

Absolutely and we've got some great names.

Cartier, we've got Asprey's, Hermes as you say,

so I think that's what people will focus on.

OK, let's hope these get away because they'll make

-a big difference to our target.

-And the rest.

We're depending on the buyers of designer labels to be out in abundance today and seeing as we're

in a fashionable part of Essex, let's hope that's the case.

-Morning, ladies.

-Hi, how are you doing?

-Hello, hi.

-Good morning.

-These are lovely

but I noticed in the auction catalogue, we're missing a couple.

I actually found a buyer for four of the scarves.

Why are these two being held back?

Just because they preferred the other four.

Something else has happened with the glass collection.

-What's going on there?

-Yeah, the same thing.

I had a buyer who offered me £500 for them, so...

I can't blame you for taking that!

-Busy girl. That's good news!

-Absolutely!

-We've still got the water jug?

-Yes, right.

And you're not missing any of these items?

-You're happy for them all to sell?

-All of them.

-Right, OK.

You've already obviously banked £500 plus a bit extra

-before you got here, so let's see what we can make today.

-OK, then.

Well, Annette has done brilliantly selling her collection

of glass for £500

but if we're still aiming to raise £800 today, the items that have made it will have to perform amazingly.

I do hope the bidders are feeling generous!

We'll soon find out as it's time for our first lot of the day.

It's the Hermes ashtray. Annette forget she even had this!

Now we've got £50 to £80 on this, James?

It's probably a lot less than what it would cost you in the shops.

I dread to think what it would cost new, to be honest.

So someone's probably going to get a bargain

compared to the new price but not too much of a bargain. Here we go.

We have the Hermes ashtray.

-Pretty thing, ladies and gentlemen, lots of interest here on the book...

-Good, good, good!

Right here now it's £70.

Any advances on £70 now, it's here with me, are we all done then?

-Commission bid and I'm selling at £70.

-Great!

Wow! It didn't even get to the room because it went straight on commission. Fantastic!

That's how we like to start an auction -

just £10 shy of James' top estimate, and most importantly,

we have our first contribution towards the deposit for Annette's new home.

We wanted the big buyers to be in today and if that last sale

is anything to go by, then we may be in luck

and names don't get much more recognisable than our next lot.

Ooh, one of my favourites, I love Versace stuff. Strangely enough, in Essex.

What made you get this?

-They were a gift.

-Right.

-Never been used, always been boxed.

OK, what do you want for these, James?

Well, we've got £20 to £40 on them which doesn't sound a lot,

so let's see what happens.

Where shall we be for these? A pretty pair of plates,

£10 to start, then. Nice pair of plates for 10, 10 anywhere? 10 I'm bid.

12, at £12 now. Are we all done?

£12...

At £12. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, they didn't sell. Moving on now...

Under £20, I'm glad they didn't sell.

-What? £6 a plate! That's ridiculous. Are you happy to take them home?

-Absolutely!

I can't believe that!

We're in Essex and not one person put up their hand to bid

for an item with that name on it!

What on earth is going on?

I really hope we have more interest in our next item.

It's the collection of reproduction statues depicting the work

of famous sculptors including Degas.

Next, we've got the three statues

and that's when you and I were alone together in the garage!

Yes, it was lovely!

-Three... Anyway!

-All right, anyway, moving swiftly on...

Three statues, one is bronze, two are sort of a resin-based material, quite decorative, £50-£100.

I'm hoping they will make it.

OK.

-A bit of interest in the book, straight in at £50, any advance...

-Straight in at £50!

Lots of places now. 52, 55, 58...

60, 62, 65...

68, 70, 72, 75, 78...

-Brilliant!

-80, 85...

-This is what we want.

-90...

-That's fantastic!

-95, 100. At £100 now, back of the room.

Are we all done? Selling, make no mistake, the hammer's up at £100.

Thank you, sir.

£100 - absolute top end of the estimate. Well done, James.

That's much more like it.

Anne may not have liked the sculptures

but plenty of people in the room did

and it's another much-needed contribution to the new home fund.

'One of my favourite lots next. I love these.'

It's the collection of hand-stitched Hermes scarves.

We've got to adjust for the fact that there's now only two

and not six, James,

so what sort of estimate do you think?

Again, we're in a situation where what it would cost to buy

a new scarf is a lot of money.

We've put them in, the two, at £10-£20,

so we're hoping at that sort of level, it will ellicit

some interest but I'm sure here in Essex, the fashion aficionados are going to be out in force.

I think Hermes might be a bit too posh for us!

We can't even say it properly! Hermes...

We have two Hermes scarves, there we are, a bit of interest in these, ladies and gentlemen...

-I should hope so!

-Lots of interest on the book. I must start the bidding at £50.

Are we all done then, it's you and me, lots of places now...

55, 60, 65, 70, 75...

-80, 85, 90...

-Aah!

At £90 now. 95 back on the book against you now,

at £95 now, commission bid on the book against you in the room.

Are we all done and I'm selling against you all. It's on the book at £95.

-Well, done!

-You must be pleased with that!

-I'm happy.

That is really good!

The good folk of Essex may not be interested in designer plates

but the designer scarves got their attention, and deservedly so.

It's anyone's guess what they'll make of our next lot,

the pair of candelabra.

A few years ago, they may have caused a bidding frenzy

but could these just be a little bit too nouveau riche for today's crowd? We'll soon find out.

Next up, we've got the pair of candelabra.

Quite decadent, quite big, quite sprauncy,

gilt bronze and marble, estimate £80-£120.

Sounds quite good value again.

Straight in at £50 on this lot

then 50 anywhere, 50 to start, 50 I'm bid, 55, 60.

At £60 now, are we all done then?

Any advances on 60? At £60 now.

£60, 65 I'm bid, thank you.

At £65 now. Are we all done at £65? 65.

That's not a lot of money compared to our estimate.

-How do you feel about that?

-I don't mind.

I'm pleased Annette's not too disappointed

with that result and it goes to show the change

in our tastes when it comes to interior fashion

and I don't think that's altogether a bad thing.

OK, we're at the halfway point as far as we're concerned.

We've got more lots coming up this afternoon. Would you like to know how much we've made?

Well, we've banked £330.

-Good, good.

-That's good, isn't it?

Don't forget, we've got one unsold item, or two rather,

in the Versace plates,

but they're portable and easy to take home and try another day,

but we have got a bit of a break, so you can finally have a sit down.

If you're thinking of heading to auction then do remember

that fees like commission, VAT and other charges may be added

to your bill so please do check with your local auction house first

to avoid any unwelcome surprises.

With 1,200 lots on offer in today's sale,

there's plenty to keep our expert amused,

but somewhat predictably, it's an item from his childhood that's got him all over-excited.

Trust you to have found the toy department!

You've caught me, haven't you?!

There are lots of trains in here today, aren't there?

I'm not sure why but I'll tell you what -

there are trains and trains, and what's caught my eye

is this set of four by Wrenn's Railways. Have you heard of them?

No, I can't say I have.

-You're a local girl, you should have heard of them!

-Are they made locally?

They are, and that's amazing because although the firm started up in the east end of London in 1950,

they moved to Basildon just down the road from here in Essex but it's not a name that everybody knows.

Mainly when you think about modern trains

you think about Hornby, Meccano, you think about Duplo, Tri-ang,

and in the 1960s, a lot of these companies had real problems

because of foreign imports coming in, and a lot of them folded.

In fact, the Wrenn Brothers that made this were bought out

by one of those big companies which then went bust in the early '70s

and they managed to buy their business back and for the next 20 years they were making these trains.

Wow! So what's the estimate?

It's interesting because the auctioneers for four of them

have got an estimate of £80-£120 but I'll tell you what, I've actually

found the original receipt in the box here - it's dated 1982 and it's for 20 quid

but I've had a word with the auctioneer

and he's got loads of phone bids, commission bids.

I reckon they're going to make more than 1,000 quid.

-Really?

-So, 20 quid, 1982, 30 years later -

£1,000 for four... Not bad, eh?

You see, that's what makes Essex what it is James, come on.

James clearly loved the model locomotives and it would seem

he's in good company as when they take their turn in front of the sale room they sell...

for £1,250,

once again proving the popularity of this area of collecting.

It's time for the second half of our sale to commence

and we kick off with another highly prestigious maker's name.

Asprey and Garrard -

it doesn't get more luxurious than that, does it?

So have you used these?

The brown one I've worn more than once. The black one has been worn about twice.

I get the impression you're not bothered about this stuff going.

I'm not. They just sit in a box at home.

Might as well sell them.

Where should we be with these, then? Start me at £40 then, 40 anywhere?

40, I'm bid on the book. Any advances on 40? 42, thank you.

45, 48, 50.

At £50 now, still with me on the book, commission bid,

and I'm selling then at £50.

£50, that's not a lot of money is it, eh?

Oh, dear, now that's the result we were hoping for.

Although just £10 below James' estimate, we were all

hoping for a tidy sum on those watches but sadly it was not to be.

Will the bidders take to our next lot any more favourably?

It's the rather lovely Limoges tea set

that James valued at £80-£120.

Our next lot, I must admit, I love Limoges porcelain

from that whole area in France, not one specific town,

but they made such a variety of items and they're just so pretty.

Also, it's that classic, just blue and white pattern which makes it much easier to fit in

because they did produce a number of different colours but this one - classic.

Where should we be for this? Pretty little set, let's start at about 20...

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have tea served on this? Fantastic!

22, 24, 26...

28. At £28 now, lady's bid, any advances on 28?

30, thank you, sir. Against you. 32, 35, at £35 now,

against you seated, madam. Are we all done, then?

Back of the room and selling, make no mistake at £35. 35 all done.

That was a huge bargain for somebody, wasn't it?

I guess that just goes to show how times have changed

and that taking afternoon tea is very much a thing of the past.

Our last couple of sales haven't gone the way we would have liked. I hope the bidders haven't spent

all their cash already,

as we've got one of our star items up now...

it's the wrist watch by none other than Cartier.

You must have had a wonderful time

-with all these expensive watches on your wrist.

-I've had many nice objects.

But it's only stuff and we're now going to convert it

-into cash, that's the name of the game.

-Absolutely.

We come now to the Cartier gold-plated tank watch,

interesting watch, ladies and gentlemen.

Where should we be for this? Cartier, we're selling.

Start me up at about £30 on this lot, then.

Cartier watch for 30, 30 anywhere?

30 to start, 30 I'm bid, 35, 40, at £40 now.

Are we all done then at £40?

42, 45, against you, 48...

50. At £50 now.

Are we all done and the bid's on my left, are we all done at £50?

'That really is a huge disappointment.'

We'd hoped the name at least would take us to our lower estimate

but we failed to reach that by £100! Ouch!

Sadly, the outlook for our next lot isn't much better.

It's the now standalone example of Stuart Crystal glass.

You've sold all the glasses that went with it?

Yes, I had a buyer.

Good, it's all about raising money.

The only thing is, where does this leave our estimate?

Most of it has gone so we'd probably better come down to about £20-£30 for the jug.

That sounds about right. Let's see how we get on.

A bit of interest on the book, ladies and gentlemen - straight in at £20.

Any advances on 20? It's here with me, it's on the book. Are we all done then at £20?

And 22, 24, 26, £28 now.

Still on the book here with me and I'm selling, ladies and gentlemen, commission bid at £28.

-28.

-Happy with that?

Good.

After some of our recent sales, that's a pretty good result,

selling for just £2 shy of James' higher estimate.

And that's on top of the £500 Annette has already raised

by selling the rest of her glassware before coming to auction.

Fortunately, our next item has arrived in its entirety.

Next up, we've got that multifunctional bit of furniture,

the games table. Again, not particularly old,

but really, really good quality and quite ornate.

Do you remember, the lid comes off and you can play chess, chequers...?

We've got £200-£400 on it, so let's hope there are some real players here today.

A bit of interest here, ladies and gentlemen, straight in on the book at £100, any advances on 100?

It's here with me.

110, 120, 130. At £130 now, back of the room against you.

140. At £140 now, are we all done then? Make no mistake

and selling then, the hammer's up at £140.

I think that was quite cheap.

-Do you?

-But again, if it's not old, it doesn't have an antique value.

It's purely down to how much you like it.

Yes, yes, but it all goes towards the total, so...

Despite interest in the room and on the telephone, we still failed

to reach the lower estimate on the games table by £60.

The success we enjoyed in the first half of the sale

seems like a long time ago and we have just one lot remaining.

Our next lot is quite a mighty chunk of our

total with an estimate of £200-£400 and it's all that Meissen.

How do you feel about this being sold?

-Let's just see what it gets.

-OK, we've got no reserves on it?

-No.

-All right, OK. Somebody might get a bargain - let's hope not!

We come to the collection of Meissen tea ware, there we are, very interesting collection,

ladies and gentlemen. Bit of interest here, ladies and gentlemen, straight in at £160 on the book.

Any advances on 160, it's here with me? 170, 180, 190, 200, against you, sir, at £200 now,

it's a commission bid, ladies and gentlemen, and I'm selling at £200.

£200, that's fantastic!

Thank goodness for the Meissen!

So, after a tricky second half of the sale,

have we managed to snatch a respectable final total

from the pockets of this prudent crowd?

Like all auctions, it was swings and roundabouts.

We were up there one minute and down the next.

It's a very difficult market but you wanted £800

-and I'm pleased to tell you, you've actually made £833!

-Wow!

-That's good!

-Brilliant!

-Excellent! Well, done, darling.

-That's all right!

A couple of weeks after that rather unpredictable day at auction and Annette is headed to Maidstone

with her mum to begin planning the next chapter of her life.

OK, so we've done the auction, we've got some money towards our deposit and now we're going to look

in the estate agents at any properties that we might like the look of.

Hoping to find Annette her dream home is estate agent and branch manager, Brett Young.

How are you? I'm Brett. Nice to meet you.

-How are you?

-All right, thanks.

I understand you're looking for a property.

What are you looking for?

-Three-bedroomed, preferably with a garden.

-OK, well,

we've got a selection of properties

and we might be able to find something suitable.

They're in price order...

'We've had fun, haven't we?'

'We've had a lot of fun.'

Every penny we can put towards that deposit really helps.

I think this looks a very good bargain.

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