Condition Flog It: Trade Secrets

Over the years on Flog It!, we've seen thousands of items.

And we're always going on about condition. It's so important.

Things that have been looked after, unrestored and look good for their age, tend to be more valuable.

It's also fair to assume that items of beauty are more likely to find a willing buyer.

But, in both cases, it's not necessarily so.

Today, we're lifting the lid on what difference the appearance of an object can make to its value.

Coming up, we find out where chips and cracks matter.

-It is in a bit of a state, isn't it?

-I know.

-Was it like that when your husband got it?

-It was.

Which is why he was heading for the skip with it.

I think so.

And when buyers will still stump up the cash even when something is badly damaged.

-800 I'm bid, please.

-Yes.

-820.

-Come on. We want more.

And our experts give us their best tips for antiques with a chequered past.

It can add to it in a way, especially if it's been repaired 100 years ago.

It doesn't matter. If you love it, buy it.

Now picture the scene. A busy Flog It! valuation day

and a visitor at the head of the queue begins to unwrap their item.

Our experts' hearts beat faster and faster as the protective layers

reveal what looks like a work of art in perfect condition.

But, after closer inspection, it's cracked, damaged or, even worse, a complete fake.

It's something that happens a great deal of the time, as our experts on the ground can testify.

You've got a chip out of the glaze there. And a five-line star crack coming from the centre.

One, of course, is completely smashed to pieces.

One has a massive chunk out of it and it's been re-glued.

So you have been warned on these.

There are two main times when one can

ignore damage with a clear conscience.

One of them is if it's such a rare opportunity to buy something

and it's very unlikely you would find a more perfect example anywhere else.

Of course, the other time is when your pocket is not deep enough

to be able to afford one that isn't damaged.

Collectors often start by buying cheaply things which are damaged

just to have an example in their collections.

Personally, my way of looking at it is,

anything pre-18th century, it's fine.

If it's damaged, you can forgive that. Post, ignore.

Gosh, that's tricky. I'm an 18th-century teapot collector.

I ignore damage all the time. I can't afford teapots that have lids.

So I've got about 20 or 30 teapots and about two lids between them.

So that's when I ignore damage personally. When you can't live without it.

Where did you get this pocket watch?

It's been in the family a very long time.

Great-great-great-great-grandad, that's all I know.

'I remember the very early days, years ago on the Isle of Wight,'

the most fantastic watch or part of the most fantastic watch came in.

A superb enamelled case.

And it was something that I was more used to seeing from my previous life at Sotheby's.

It's a familiar thing to me at the top end of the market

but it's not something you expect to see on a Flog It! valuation day.

I was quite taken aback.

If you look at the outer case, the shagrine case, and this gilt metal outer case,

they're from about 1760-1765, they're English.

So that's absolutely right with your idea of date.

But the treat is when we turn it over, the back of the case,

these wonderful rich coloured enamels.

-And this is actually French enamel.

-Is it?

-It's the Blois school.

And that flourished from 1660 up until about 1680.

Gosh! So it's really old. It's really old. It's 300 years old.

To see an English movement in a French case is uncommon.

But it's this whole thing of something being of superb quality,

a fragment being reused.

Often, these watch cases were reused.

Sometimes, they were put onto walking cane heads.

Sometimes, they were turned into snuff boxes.

In this case, what's happened

is this has got into the hands of a London watchmaker,

probably in the 1750s, and it's such a wonderful case

-that he's made a movement that fits into it.

-Oh, wow!

If we open it up, we can see that it's signed Samuel North, London.

I don't know his dates but, from the style of the watch

and the fact that it's a verge escapement,

it can be dated to about 1740-1750.

The major problem is that the case has had a few chunks taken out of it

when, I suppose, someone was wearing it in the 18th century.

It's incredibly fragile.

The damage to the watch case was basically at the bottom of the case.

It's obvious to me that it fell on the floor and just got damaged.

And the enamel flakes off and there's nothing you can do.

But it's a testament to the rarity of the thing in the first place

that when that did happen it was still treasured and kept.

It's a bit of a mismatch in terms of style and of how it's put together.

That makes it interesting from my point of view.

The fact that the movement was later and it was a fragment

made an enormous difference to the valuation.

It was mentioned about £400 about two years ago.

-I think you could pop it into auction at £400 to £600, if that meets with your approval.

-Yeah.

If that had had its original movement in it and its perfect case and its perfect enamel cover as well,

I didn't tell the vendor on the day, but it would have been in the region of £30-50,000.

Good luck, everybody. This is it.

1,000. Yes. 1100.

-Yes.

-1200. 1300.

-No idea.

-1300 we're selling to the white phone.

At £1300. All done in the room at 1300.

-Yes, it's gone. That's more like it. £1300.

-Thank you very much. Gosh!

I would never advise anyone to worry about damage.

I think, if you're a true collector, if something's rare enough and beautiful enough,

the only thing you have to worry is are you paying too much because it's damaged?

But there's a whole movement now that perfection is what's sought after.

Once it's lovely to have a perfect object, it always is,

you shouldn't dismiss something because it's damaged.

Quite the reverse. It's more affordable.

I think the damaged market is neglected except by the poor and the academic.

And being both I give it my full concentration.

So the watch's rarity and beauty outshone its imperfections.

But it can be harder to disguise broken ceramics.

Phil was excited when he spotted a special piece of Worcester porcelain back in 2005.

But there were problems.

It's marvellous. I'm from Worcester.

-Yes.

-And so is this. There are Worcester porcelain artists

and there are Worcester porcelain artists.

And one of the top three, in my view,

is a man called CHC Baldwin. Charles Henry Clifford Baldwin.

He specialised in painting swans on this powder-blue background.

And this single swallow, a Charlie Baldwin trademark, on the back.

There are lots of painters in the 20th century,

English porcelain painters, who produced a scene.

But no one painted swans like Charlie Baldwin.

I do admire it now. I can see the beauty, the exquisite workmanship.

But I think it deserves an appreciative home.

You see that little lug just there?

It's missing on this side. That's our first bit of damage.

The second bit of damage is we've got this lovely protrusion just here.

-On this side, it's come off.

-A tiny little bit.

-It's tiny.

Condition is everything for porcelain.

One of the things we almost got away with that Charlie Baldwin vase

is that the little nibbles on it could be restored in almost an acceptable way.

It's not as though there was a great big crack right across the swans.

So, I think, it was damaged.

It wouldn't be overly expensive to put it right. Perhaps 3 or £400.

But Charlie Baldwin, I think he was just the best.

At £3,900 in the room. At £3,900.

£3,900. That is a classic Flog It! moment.

No one painted swans like Charlie Baldwin.

He was the best.

Remember that name. Luckily, this artist is so much in demand

that the damage didn't detract from the vase's value.

But there's nothing subtle about the damage to this lovely charger.

-Nice to see you coming along with this great big plate in several pieces.

-I know.

In Cheltenham, I took in a great big maiolica charger that was very badly damaged.

I took it in because I thought it could show people that,

just because things were damaged, it didn't necessarily mean they were worthless.

-You're spoiling us here.

-I am.

-Where did you get it from?

Actually, it was given to my husband.

There was a pub opposite that was being demolished. This was going to go in the skip.

Damage is never acceptable. Damage is acceptable on certain wares

that are know to be quite brittle and subject to damage anyway.

Such as this maiolica and majolica, they're tin-glazed or lead-glazed earthenwares.

They're brittle, they easily break, and chips come off them.

That's another reason why I still took this charger in because

you expect to see majolica and maiolica with an element of damage on it.

If it's perfect, it arouses suspicion because you think,

"How could it have survived 100 years, 200 years with no damage at all?

-It is in a bit of a state, isn't it?

-I know, yes.

-Was it like that when your husband got it?

-It was.

-Which is why, I guess, he was heading for the skip with it.

-I think so.

There's some confusion about the terms maiolica and majolica.

Sometimes, we get them a bit mixed up.

Basically, maiolica refers to a tin-glazed earthenware.

And majolica is a lead-glazed ware.

They're quite obvious when you put them next to each other. Honest.

It looks to us 19th-century Italian. A type of maiolica, tin-glazed earthenware.

Some know it as Delftware.

We've got a signature, M Rodriguez.

And we've got this sort of Baroque-style earlier period.

Today's restoration techniques are amazing.

Cutting-edge technology. They can mend anything and make it look like it's never been damaged before.

So the right restorer could have made that charger look wonderful.

Only trouble is, it would've cost hundreds of pounds, which is more than the final value of the item.

There we go. Bid me for that lot. Start me off. Bid me £100 to start.

Bid me 100. Bid me 50.

'I thought it was a lovely thing.'

I thought it was quite decorative.

But there's a difference between damage and wrecked.

And this was properly wrecked. It really had been through the mill.

And there comes a point when acceptable restoration...

There's a massive difference between that and complete renewal.

I put an estimate of £100 to £200 on that charger because it was a great big decorative object.

And a lot of Italian maiolica can make hundreds even thousands of pounds.

I was giving a nice wide estimate indicating, "Well, we're not really sure, could be 100, could be 200."

I think, at the end of it, it didn't quite make that, did it?

Any more? The maiden bid will take it.

At £50. And it's done and sold at £50 and away.

-No reserve.

-No reserve, that's fine.

We had one bid and it was £50 and that was it.

I was surprised. I thought it might do better than that.

But there's no doubt its condition really was the all-prevailing factor.

No kidding. Sometimes, the cost of restoration is just too much.

But even if an item is badly damaged, don't throw it away

without getting an expert's opinion.

Judith, you've brought this monstrosity in to show us.

Before we have a proper look at it,

can you give us any information about it yourself?

Yes, I bought it in Tamlyns Auction House

in Bridgwater about five years ago.

I paid about £25 or £28, I'm not sure.

Do you know, I look back very fondly at Weston-super-Mare

when that lady brought in that rather sort of deformed

Clanger-looking lamp by Guy Sydenham.

-'Terrible condition.'

-I bought it because it's quirky.

It's certainly quirky, isn't it?

But did they know exactly what it was?

I don't think so. I honestly don't know.

It was tucked in the corner and nobody looked at it.

It was tucked right away. It was only me and a lad that was bidding for it.

I can understand why somebody would overlook it.

It's not exactly an attractive-looking object.

I know you and I share a love for the Clangers.

-Oh, I love the Clangers.

-As soon as I saw it, I thought,

"It looks like a deformed Clanger."

-It looks like the Soup Dragon, one of his houses.

-That's right.

Fortunately, I knew exactly what it was

because I worked for a large London auction house a few years before

and we'd sold one exactly the same with a bright colour.

And I knew they were worth a lot of money.

And, of course, it's Poole Pottery designed by Guy Sydenham.

We've got this lovely little brochure of him making one of these.

I believe he only made a handful, is that right?

As far as I know, he only made four.

So it's quite a rare object as well as being quite a funky shape.

We have got some problems with it, haven't we?

Oh, yes. It was broken when I bought it.

'Absolutely shocking. It was cracked through the middle. There were several bits of restoration.'

'There was some glaze flaking and losses.'

Some of the little nodules had come off.

But you have to remember he made a handful of these.

You know. So, of their type, they are very rare.

I contacted Guy Sydenham, the actual potter. He offered to restore it for me.

But, because of family problems, I couldn't get over to see him.

-And it's been in the cupboard ever since.

-Ever since.

-Yeah.

Guy Sydenham was a very interesting designer.

He worked for Poole Pottery in the '60s and '70s.

And produced these wonderfully bizarre creations.

I'm not sure about it. I think Mark's right with his price.

A price difficult to determine because of the extensive damage.

It is an unknown quantity. Yes, we've asked on the condition of this

to have the reserve reduced to have a sensible price which we believe this will be sold.

The auctioneer called you and said, "I don't think it's going to do it. Let's make it £100 to £200."

That must have disappointed you.

-It did a bit. But, on the other hand, I don't feel too bad.

-OK.

I was also surprised when Paul mentioned to the vendor that the auctioneer had been in touch.

They'd tried to reduce the estimate to 100 to 200

but they'd settled on a happy medium of 2 to 3.

Not surprising, I suppose, when it was bought at the same salesroom a few years before for 28.

I had every confidence it was going to make my estimate and more.

We'll go slowly. 120.

120. All done with then? 200.

300. 400. 500.

-Keep going.

-600.

-Yep.

-700 bid on the phone.

-800 I'm bid.

-Yes.

-Yes, a late bidder.

-Fresh bidder. 900.

1,000 now, sir. 1100. Phone's out?

At £1200.

£1200. Hasn't gone down. How about that?

Wonderful.

I wasn't at least surprised when it rocketed past

even my modest estimate of 3 to 500 to sell for what it did.

Because there's a handful of these known.

And if you're a collector and you want one,

you either have one damaged or you don't have one at all.

While the condition is of paramount importance, most of our experts agree that, if you love something,

it's OK to buy an antique that's less than perfect.

But not all of them.

"One man's rubbish is another man's treasure," still very much the case.

Yes, people are more informed nowadays because of programmes like Flog It!

But it's still possible to find things

that have been discarded by some and are hugely sought after.

You never ever want to buy really damaged items.

The only exception to that is when rarity dictates that the only way you're ever going to own something

is by buying something that might have a bit of damage to it, then it's acceptable.

Never ignore damage.

I know there are people who collect in very academic fields who say,

"I don't care if this Worcester teapot's got a chip in the spout because it is so rare."

But, unless you're collecting in those fields, never never ignore damage.

It can wreck the value of an item just as much as it wrecks the item itself.

I found in a house clearing in Worcestershire the most beautiful Delftware 17th-century cat.

He was wonderful but he was missing an ear.

It didn't seem to matter because he went on to sell for 52,000.

He was rather lovely.

The main thing is, if you're going to buy something that's broken,

do it with your eyes open.

Here's a tip and please, please do remember this.

Don't be frightened to look at things you want to buy. Turn them upside down, pull the drawers out.

Look at the construction. Look at things with a magnifying glass.

And, also, if it's dark, shine a torch on them.

Always ask about damage or restoration as sellers

may not volunteer details they'd rather you didn't spot.

If there is damage and you still love it, try and strike a bargain.

Earlier on, we saw that beaten-up Poole lamp base

sell for an incredible £1200 because of its rarity.

Poole Pottery is still being produced today.

So let's take a look at what makes it so popular

and how it's doing in today's market.

A typical Poole charger, typical colours, designed by Truda Carter.

The same firm. Do you know which one is worth more?

I imagine that one there will be worth more.

Generally, when you're in this sort of business, the older the better.

Unless you're talking about specific 20th-century designers and signed pieces.

In the centre and selling at 150.

-Top end. £150.

-Very satisfied with that.

-Got to be, haven't you?

-Yes.

I don't know how much you know about Poole factory.

The original factory was inherited in 1873 and, by 1921,

Carter, Stabler and Adams

set up a firm making very versatile usable products.

By the time they got to the 1960s and 1970s,

they produced what they called "psychedelic ware".

They used the bright, almost pop colours and Pop Art of that time

along with interesting shapes.

And they really produced this ware between about 1966 and about 1980.

But this one is by a lady called Carol Cutler.

She monograms it "CC" and she's one of the most famous

designers and decorators that they employed.

This one has suffered damage with a chip on the underside of the rim.

From that point of view, it's slightly hampered by that in terms of its value.

My bid 45, if you're all done.

-Yes. Margaret will be pleased.

-She will.

The Poole Pottery company's fortunes have fluctuated in recent years.

They were forced to stop production in the town in 2006,

before they moved to Staffordshire.

I got a chance to meet the collector Ian Felton who talked me through some of his prized possessions.

Where does it start? What's the early date?

This is the earliest piece I brought along here.

This is a candlestick from the early 1920s.

As you can see, at that time, the patterns were very simple geometric-based.

This was the start of Truda Adams who became Truda Carter.

Truda Carter was the designer.

There were a number of ladies there decorating.

But it was Truda that was responsible for the actual production of the patterns.

-This is what we see a great deal of.

-The start of the '60s was really when

Poole studio was reinstated.

And what the public really recognise as being Poole Pottery,

the Delphis range, that came in about 1963.

So Delphis, that's the Latin name for dolphin, which is the Poole symbol.

The range carried on right up until 1980.

But it's the earlier pieces that are much more sought after.

Mid-20th-century Poole is a great choice for want-to-be collectors

because it's inexpensive, well marked

and fits in well with today's love of retro.

Look for monogrammed pieces.

Because Poole is plentiful, avoid anything that's damaged.

Poole Pottery just keeps on going.

Today's designs are still inspired by the everyday,

the elements, nature and the world around us.

Very stylish items.

And now you get a sense of how you arrive at this very sophisticated end form.

Poole Pottery, definitely a family heirloom of the future and a Flog It! item for tomorrow.

The most musical of Flog It! regulars is, without doubt, Adam Partridge.

If an instrument comes in to one of our valuation days, it usually has his name on it.

Adam admires the beauty of the music and the aesthetic design

of the instruments themselves.

And it breaks his heart to see them abandoned, broken and unloved.

Today, we're taking him to see a man after his own heart.

-Hello, Adam.

-How do you do? Thanks for inviting me.

I'm glad I got directions. It's a great spot, isn't it?

The first thing I noticed was the smell. Takes me back to being 10 years old.

Possibly this. Possibly the animal glue.

Oh!

LAUGHS

Michael, this is where all the magic happens. How long have you been doing this?

Well, I started taking instruments apart when I was aged about 11.

I used to enjoy taking it apart, cleaning it and putting it back together more than playing it.

I was the opposite. I was better at playing it. When it came to anything practical, I was useless.

If I took one apart, it would never get back together.

My grandad was an amateur restorer of violins.

It's in my family. Both parents were professional violinists.

Are you using traditional methods?

I use the methods of Antonio Stradivari, which means no electricity.

How did you learn? You're not self-taught. You must have had formal training.

I was self-taught to a degree. Then, at the back end of the '90s,

-I decided to get some formal training.

-Yeah.

-So now I'm qualified to work on Stradivari violins.

-OK.

-While we're standing here talking, we could be doing a bit of work. Shall we crack on?

-If you think so.

I need serious direction. My wife won't even let me hold a paintbrush in the house.

Let alone hand tools and stuff like that.

If you make mistakes, it's because of the quality of the teaching.

-OK. That's very kind of you to say so.

-OK, so...

All we're doing, these holes are too big on the instrument.

Peg goes in, gets turned and slowly the hole gets bigger.

What we have to do is close the hole and then re-drill.

This is a tricky one for you because it's your business

but would you advocate restoration prior to sale?

Always. Yeah. I always give an example, it's like a car.

if it isn't fully MOT'd and it hasn't got four good tyres,

somebody's going to knock you down on price.

OK. But what if the cost of getting the car roadworthy outweighs the final value of the car?

-You've got to weigh that up.

-If they came in with a £100 German violin

and it needed 300 quid's worth of work on it?

-There's no point.

-Unless it was sentimental. Not for resale.

-Yeah.

-There you go.

-Your turn.

Well, that looks simple.

Let me show you how it's done.

LAUGHS

Then you're going to turn it clockwise. But don't force it.

-When you turn it, feel it resisting.

-Oh, yeah.

-That's because it's not round.

-Keep going?

-Yeah, keep going. You're not forcing it.

-There's less resistance.

-Yeah. Perfect.

Push it in as it goes.

What from a restorer's view...? How can you tell looking at a violin what's quality and what isn't?

What I will say is, don't believe the label.

I'd say probably 90% of all violin labels are spurious, aren't they?

-Yeah, if not more.

-Most of them say Stradivarius, don't they?

-That's right, yeah.

I need some soap.

-Wow! That soap makes a lot of difference.

-Bit more.

-Bit more?

Push it right the way through. Give it a little turn. Brilliant.

-an you feel it biting?

-I can.

-OK.

-That'll be good for 300 years.

-Will it?

The next step will be to trim them back and then pare it back with a chisel, then re-drill the hole.

Obviously, this time we'll drill it smaller.

-Then we'll cut it down.

-That will be cut down to go through there.

We trim that end, polish it and dome it. That's a sign of a quality job.

Look at the other end of the peg and see if it's polished.

-That is a little tip for people.

-Yeah, yeah.

-These are ebony, right?

-They're ebony.

So, eventually, they will turn

and you turn it to adjust the pitch of the strings to get it in tune.

-They will turn without slipping and it'll be easy.

-It'll be a nice thin peg.

So you'll get a big turn for a small change in pitch.

And you won't need the metal on the tailpiece.

-OK.

-So your tailpiece will vibrate nicely.

I hope I've done a decent job and you won't call me back to do it again.

I'll leave this with you.

What I'd like to do is see you in action making a real Michael Phoenix violin.

OK. If we set off now and go to Bluecoats in Liverpool,

we'll have a look at how to make a violin.

-Great stuff.

-OK, let's go then.

Make yourself at home.

Wow!

This is one you're making at the moment?

This one is for my eldest son.

-OK.

-So, don't worry if there's any mistakes made.

-It's not like it's important.

-If it was a customer, we couldn't do it.

-If it was a customer, I'd have to make it because it has to be my own hands.

-Right.

-Is this inlaid by you?

-Yeah.

-By hand?

-Yeah.

-Some people cheat and stencil it on, don't they?

-Yeah, it can be drawn on.

But that doesn't help its function because it's not just for decoration.

-What's it for?

-In case the instrument gets hit on the edge.

A crack would run up through the grain.

-It's a protective border.

-It's a barrier.

-I never even thought of that.

-Yeah.

-When I'm making an instrument, I'm going for perfection.

-Yeah.

-And so it's slow when you're making it.

-How slow?

250 hours, then another 250 hours

for varnish but over a period of six to nine months because there's drying time.

If I was interested in purchasing one, how much would I be looking at?

Don't do me a favour. How much would the public be looking at to buy a violin? What's the range?

You'd be looking at around about £8,000.

Do people come and order bespoke and say, "I want one like this"?

-It's all by commission, yeah.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-Tell me a bit more about varnishing.

-I make the varnish from scratch.

-All natural materials.

-Do you?

That looks like animal poo.

What it is, is the lac beetle, lands on a twig, eats the sap,

and lays eggs, covers the eggs over with this sticky secretion.

And then, twice a year, this is harvested off the tree.

-So there's a twig running through there.

-Yeah.

Very interesting.

Michael's so passionate about using the same method as Stradivarius

that he even crafts his violins by candlelight.

So, do you find there are benefits of using candlelight?

Or is it just your aspirations to be as close to Stradivarius as possible?

There's practical reasons for it.

When you use natural daylight, the light seems to spread all over the instrument.

Makes the instrument look very flat.

-When you use a candle, it's just one single source of light.

-Oh, gosh.

-And it picks up every bump.

-Yeah, things I hadn't noticed at all.

Sandpaper tears the fibres of the wood. What we use is,

-we use a scraper and that works like a plane.

-Yeah.

-It actually cuts the wood. If I do on this side.

-Yeah.

It looks like dust but it's actually very fine shavings.

-I see. It's coming good.

-It's got to be blended out now.

It's slow work but what you're doing

is making it absolutely perfect.

-Right. I think that's looking OK now.

-Yeah.

Do you want to have a go at this side?

There's plenty of blemishes for you to have ago at. There you go.

-Thank you. Make sure you supervise me.

-I will do.

-This is your son's instrument.

-It is my son's instrument.

-No pressure.

-No pressure. I'm not taking my eyes off you.

Oh! What are you doing? No, go on, carry on.

BOTH LAUGH

-Looking good there, Adam.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

How are we looking?

Probably just a little bit on this side.

-On that edge?

-Yeah.

-OK, boss.

Adam's done well so far. But Michael feels safer with the lights on

as they get started on the inside of the violin.

What we're going to do is pretend this is a field and you're just going to plough it.

We start on this inside line, which is six millimetres.

For a man of your calibre, no problem, Adam.

LAUGHS

-Want have a go?

-Yeah, go on then.

Just take it easy. Get the angle right.

That's it. Go on. Bit deeper.

That's it. That's better. Now you're getting it.

-Use that one.

-You're having a laugh.

-No. Go on. That'll be better.

-Yeah.

-This is your son's violin?

-No, it's OK. Just don't go deep.

-Give it?

-Yeah, yeah.

As long as you've got the angle right, you're OK.

That's it. Go on.

Oh! That's all right.

I'm actually really enjoying myself.

-It's as you get nearer to the front.

-When the skill comes.

Then you'll have to use the small planes.

Here's the smallest plane that we use.

-Have a go with that. It's a little baby plane.

-Ah! A little baby plane.

Perhaps I'd have been a better maker than a player after all.

-I hope your son is pleased with the final result of the violin.

-I'm sure he will be.

Just to remind him that you were involved in the making of this instrument.

-You've not done a special label? Oh, my goodness.

-I've done a special label.

OK. My top tips for old violins.

Don't be put off if there's no strings on it and it looks in a general state of disrepair.

You could bring it somewhere like this and get it sorted out.

Whatever you do, please don't try and mend it yourself.

I've seen so many people have a go and ruin perfectly decent instruments

by using basic products from hardware shops.

They need to be seen by a specialist.

VIOLIN PLAYS

-I'm not in form.

-Ah, very, very good.

-Need to practise more.

I always suspected Adam had hidden talent.

It's not only violins that need special attention if they're damaged.

It's always worth getting an expert's opinion

if you have a musical instrument that's been neglected.

Coming up, we find out that looks certainly aren't everything

when it comes to an item's value.

Hazel, what a curious teapot. I was drawn to this in the queue outside.

We catch up with the woman who exchanged an antique for a power tool.

-The money is going towards what?

-A chainsaw. A new chainsaw.

And I meet a team tackling a massive restoration project.

We've all got something at home, that one special item we're particularly attached to.

But I want to know, what's the one thing our experts would rescue from a burning building?

And, today, it's Anita Manning's turn.

I have many pictures and I love all of them.

If there was a fire in my house, I would find it very difficult to choose one over the other.

But I've brought this little oil along today.

It's by Peter Howson. Peter Howson was one of what are called

the new Glasgow Boys.

These were a group of artists who emerged from Glasgow School of Art in the 1980s.

In the '80s, Howson was doing a series of pictures on,

I suppose, the underclass of urban life.

And this is one such picture.

He painted the street fighters, the dossers,

the poor and the unemployed.

I find this picture very moving. When I look at it

and I see this well-muscled back hunched in despair.

He's looking down, he's desolate.

His face is wrinkled beyond his years.

But the expression in his eyes is intelligent and sensitive.

And I think that Howson has combined this body

with this expression so beautifully and so movingly.

And I just love this picture.

Over the years, you have brought to our valuation days things which are just plain ugly.

You hate them and you can't wait to get rid of them.

That's where our experts come in rather helpful.

During that time, quite frankly, we've seen things that only a mother would love.

But they tend to sell. So who's buying them?

-That's a dog, isn't it?

-Oh, is it?

-That's a dog.

-Oh, right.

I remember in Dulwich, a lady brought along a teapot, which she described as a monkey teapot.

It was that grotesque. But when you looked at it, it was a pug dog in a hat.

Hazel, what a curious little teapot. I was drawn to this in the queue outside when you showed it to me.

-You said it was...

-A monkey.

-Monkey? I would say it's a little pug.

-Which is really good news because dogs are very collectable.

-Yes. Yeah.

Anthropomorphism was popular at the end of the 19th century.

You're basically posing animals in human roles.

It's putting a hat on a dog.

Or dressing up figures so that they're doing activities.

It's like the painting of the dogs playing snooker.

It's all that hideous, sort of cultural vandalism

that went on from the end of the 19th century into the beginning of the 20th.

We've got the factory mark there.

And the depose mark, which is the French patent mark.

-Right.

-Sadly, I can't tell you which French factory it is.

-Right.

-There are hundreds if not thousands of small factories

working in and around Paris and in and around the Limoges area.

-It's good to know it's French.

-We can't pin it down.

What I can tell you is the date. These little amusing

anthropomorphic pieces that you get

tend to be about 1890 up to around 1900, 1910.

I don't know which designer had conceived a teapot in the form of a pug dog in a hat.

But I hope they didn't make many more teapots after that.

-The novelty factor always enhances the value of antiques.

-Yes.

-So I think, if we're sensible and say 20 to £40.

-Right.

We just hope there are two people that really love pugs there and decide they can't live without it.

The fact it's a pug dog means that it's of interest to dog collectors

and it will have a value because of that.

It's quirky, sometimes it's obscene, but it's always popular.

So, 45. 48. 50. And 5.

-This is very good.

-60.

At £60 on the pug teapot.

-Over the top.

-£60. Pug's away. How about that?

-Yes, very good.

-Got to be happy.

-Yes.

-First experience, a happy experience.

I thought the thing was absolutely hideous.

Frightful. I wouldn't have taken it away if you'd given me money.

At least two people in the saleroom thought differently.

And you should never underestimate the popularity of dogs.

Even really ugly ones.

As the old saying goes, "One man's meat is another man's poison."

Taste in all things is highly personal. It's so subjective.

And two of our experts couldn't have disagreed more over this plate.

-Hello, Chris.

-Hello.

-You've brought this lovely plate in to show us.

-Mmm.

-You don't like it?

-No.

-Why not?

-I think it's horrible.

-Really? Where did you get it from?

-It was given to me four years ago.

I adore majolica ware. I love the designs.

I love the bright use of colours.

And I thought the combination of that cobalt blue

and that wonderful cheeky French poodle on the front with his little bow

was absolutely adorable.

You're quite right, it is majolica.

But it's not British majolica.

It is indeed stamped inside there majolica, but it's by Sarreguemines,

which was a French factory.

Which is sort of like our Minton and George Jones.

They were producing at the mid to end of the 19th century unusual pieces,

as you quite rightly say, in majolica.

This very high glaze type of pottery.

Here we've got this wonderful vibrant cobalt blue.

Then, when we turn it over, we have an equally vibrant turquoise blue.

Look at you laughing your head off. I love it. I like dogs.

But I personally wouldn't have a dog like this on a piece of majolica.

-Yeah. Be tactful.

-You have to be very tactful.

There's lots of people watching who will adore this and there's always a buyer for something.

So, hopefully, it's going to sell. 100 to £150, Mark Stacey put the estimate on this.

-I do think it's a lot.

-So do I.

I'm smiling just thinking about it.

The plate. My goodness.

Majolica is lovely, I do actually like majolica.

But the plate itself took me a bit aback because the poodle...

It actually comes across photogenically quite well on camera

but to see the plate in reality was rather a shock.

It was sort of a blob on a blue ground, it didn't suggest anything.

It didn't inspire me to sort of enthuse at all.

Um... So it was a bit embarrassing that it took so much hilarity on the day of me selling it.

But I had to eat my words, didn't I? Because it did quite well.

LAUGHS

Well, of course, hideous is in the eye of the beholder.

I thought it was lovely. She didn't.

I was about to talk about it and Elizabeth burst out laughing.

I said, "Mark knows his ceramics."

Well, I think it's all about opinion.

If you've got a serious majolica collector.

I've never seen one like that before.

It's not as good as Minton or George Jones but Sarreguemines are well known in the majolica field.

I don't know. It just touched a funny bone when I saw it.

My professionalism slipped. I have to apologise to Mark about that.

5. 70. 5. 80. 5. 90.

-That's sold.

-95 is the gentleman. 95. Where's the 100? Round it up.

-Oh, come on.

-At 95 and selling.

-95.

-Sold, just. Somebody did love it.

-We had a discretionary reserve.

-Correct valuation.

-I'm disappointed. It should have gone higher.

I started low and I kept working at it even though I wanted to smile while I was selling.

How popular are French poodles in Norwich? I'm not sure.

But there are a lot of majolica collectors around.

I would have bought it.

Yuck! I'm a dog lover and I wouldn't give that house room.

But dogs, owls and pigs are always popular.

So they make good collecting fields. And, honestly, Elizabeth,

I can't believe you think this is more appealing.

I don't know why I'm drawn to this chap but I'd like to know all you can tell me about him.

This is the reason I've come to see you

because I didn't know what it was or what it was used for.

The devil's head stood out of the room like a sore thumb.

But it was just so obviously different to everything else that was in the queue.

And I've never seen anything like that before.

Wouldn't one be drawn to something like that?

-How did you come by him?

-Well, in the early '80s, I was at a little sale.

It was in a box of odds and bits.

It was the other stuff I was more interested in. It happened to be there.

-But I never had it on display.

-It would frighten the neighbours too much.

-That's true.

I've never seen anything like him.

I certainly think he scores ten out of ten for novelty value.

-So he's been locked away.

-25 years in the loft.

-In the loft.

What we have here is a piece of porcelain, which I believe is German.

The mark underneath is a blue capital M printed beneath a crown.

Several factories used that. It could be one of the Nymphenburg factories.

It's a very white glassy body of porcelain.

At the back, we have these two holes and I would suggest they were

intended to take an electric flex.

There's a chamber inside his head, which would take some sort of scented oils or something.

-From the heat of the lamp, aromatherapy was issuing from it.

-Ah, yes.

The lights inside would shine through this semi-translucent porcelain,

-and then, of course, through the eyes a little bit.

-Lovely.

You'd never sleep, would you?

-It would be nice if something smoked.

-Yes, it would. It would be eerie.

I don't think one has to be into devils per se, as it were,

to find that it would add a facet to a collection.

Have you any guesstimate to what you think it might fetch?

-It's got to be worth 20 or 25 quid surely.

-Yeah.

I would think 25 to £35, that sort of region.

A few pints down the golf club.

A very niche market.

'Or you could just enjoy Halloween.'

Another creative thing to put on the side when people come trick or treating.

One of the more attractive pieces of porcelain in the sale today.

You shove a bulb in it and his eyes shine.

That is so spooky. I don't like it.

-22. 25.

-It's gone. It's not going home, Ken.

-Good.

38. 40. Are you bidding? All done at £90.

I didn't notice that there was a 666 bidding card.

That's very appropriate with connotations of devil worship.

No, I didn't. I was so wrapped up with the action of the moment.

No, I didn't notice. Did they get it?

SCARY LAUGHTER

# Oh, you pretty things #

There's nothing supernatural about something odd fetching a high price.

It's happened again and again on this show.

But this next one is just plain weird.

Look at this. One word springs to mind.

-Why?

-I'm fascinated by it.

OK. Fine. Yes.

Especially the frogs.

-I love frogs.

-Do you?

I was interested in the development of the frog from the egg to the frog itself.

So that's why I have them.

This really lovely girl, who looked incredibly normal, appeared.

And she produced this box and another box and another box

of sort of anatomical dissected frogs

and bits of innards and outards and other things.

She looked incredibly normal. She loved these things. I thought, "Oh, strange lady."

How old are they? I'm going to guess. '50s?

-I'd imagine so.

-1950s.

-Yeah.

They're made out of plaster.

I believe most of them are plaster of Paris.

Right. How did you come by them?

I work in a school,

and a few years ago, we were clearing a few things out

and these were for the skip really.

-I decided I would keep them.

-Right.

Strangely, I think there is a market for them.

This would be great for a museum or someone who collects medical things.

I'm really guessing here.

-I think we've got to estimate them at 80 to £120.

-OK.

-That sort of region.

It's a question of one man's meat is another man's poison, I suppose.

But there are people who collect these post-mortem sets.

They collect trepanning sets. Field surgeon sets.

And all that type of thing. I think she was one of those.

Obsessed by the morbid.

I've got nowhere to put them. I'm fascinated by them but I've got nowhere to put them.

-Which is your favourite?

-I love the frogs.

These are good too. I like the insides.

Ugh!

Initially, they would have been purely educational toys for either pupils at school...

Educational toys. They would have been educational models

for pupils at schools and for medical students.

Quite what you'd ever do with them, though, I do not know.

Well, what do you say about these things?

Good gracious me.

I think we've got the life cycle of the tadpole to the frog.

We've certainly got two that look very much like ET.

LAUGHTER

Come on, Martin. 210.

210.

230.

240. No, that'll do.

Anybody else want to put them on the mantelpiece?

All done at 240 then.

-240 quid.

-Thank you.

-That's good, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Good diagnosis from Dr Lot here.

It's one of those areas that there is a demand for them.

As a dealer, you could buy those and sell them tomorrow, if the right chap walked through the door.

Or you might keep them in your shop for a year. You've really got to want to own those.

And here's our experts' final word on the subject.

Sometimes, the most ugliest things can make the most money.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Some of the things we sell, I look at it and I go, "I couldn't live with that."

But then, someone else loves it. So it's all a matter of taste, isn't it?

Somebody came to one of my valuation days with this walking stick,

which had an automaton movement.

When you pressed the head, its eyes changed colour from brown to blue.

And its tongue came out. A lot of people went, "Ooh! That's really horrible."

But it made a huge amount of money at auction. It made way over £2,000.

Very odd, very ugly, but very rare.

Don't dismiss ugly, it's not a bad thing.

Earlier, Adam saw just how much work goes into restoring one violin.

But take a look at what happens if you've got a much bigger project on your hands.

I visited Temple Newsam in 2011.

It was home to the Ingram family for more than 300 years.

The mansion was sold in 1922 and is now managed by Leeds City Council.

And there's just one small dedicated team responsible for restoring and conserving it.

With over 100 rooms, three floors,

and some 20,000 antiques, they have quite a task.

Hello, Polly.

-Hello. Lovely to meet you.

-Meeting you in the butler's pantry.

I didn't realise the place was so vast.

You've got a big project on your hands. What are the main problems with restoration?

Just as you said, its size, isn't it?

There are something like 20,000 objects here.

Just trying to keep track of them is one of the things.

-What motivates your work?

-Sometimes, when you go around a gallery space,

and you just see a little child smiling and a family smiling,

that's what motivates me.

Those two minutes when they're looking at something beautiful and great.

Having an in-house team is becoming rarer and rarer.

But for Temple Newsam it's essential. And a never-ending mission.

In the 1940s, the historic interiors were ripped out.

But in the 1980s, Leeds City Council took the groundbreaking decision

to restore the house to its former glory.

Over the last 30 years, that's exactly what's happened room by room.

Another objective was to collect as many of the house's original treasures.

Treasures that had been sold off in the 1920s.

Probably the most significant was the return of the paintings that hung in this spectacular room.

The picture gallery.

Lord Halifax, an Ingram descendant, returned 85 heirloom paintings.

The majority of those were family portraits.

So, once again, the house was coming back to life.

Unsurprisingly, the picture gallery was high on the list to restore.

In 1986, to mark the room's 250th anniversary, that's just what happened.

They found a scrap of the original green flock wallpaper

from when the room was created in 1746 and replicated it.

It was the first facsimile wallpaper in the country.

Traditional methods were used.

The design was hand printed using a specially carved block.

And the wool used to create the flock was painstakingly chopped and sprinkled on by hand.

More often than not, when you start a restoration project, one thing leads to another.

Nobody knew this was one huge display cabinet full of china.

This, at some stage in its history, was split up into separate units

and distributed all over the house in different bedrooms.

Now, there was carpet on this flagstone floor.

During the restoration project, when the carpet was lifted up, it left

a footprint running along this wall where something had been there.

A few measurements later, and a bit of detective work,

all these cupboards were reassembled back into this room.

It's a small but very significant part of the history of this house.

Something has been restored, how it would have been, back to its former glory.

Old houses are like a jigsaw puzzle, a mosaic of styles and fashions.

They pose many questions, especially when it comes to restoration.

And the current challenge is a bed.

Polly, you've got a big project on, this Queen Anne State bed. Why did you buy it?

Temple Newsam has the most marvellous furniture collection and no furniture collection

is complete without a grand state bed.

We can date it precisely to 1711.

Right at the end of Queen Anne's reign. Do you think she slept in it?

It's a funny story. John, 1st Earl Poulett was desperate to find favour with her.

So he remodelled his whole house, creating the Queen Anne suite of rooms.

He even named his third son Anne

and invited her to the christening in the hope that she would perhaps sleep in this bed.

-And she never did.

-And she never did.

There's later elements. I can see lots of new oak, green oak, going into this.

Yeah, there's a lot. But we've saved the main elements.

So, the headboard, the inner canopy, the valances.

Was it always in this configuration or did it actually hang?

In about the early 19th century, there were actually four bedposts.

And now the canopy suspends from the ceiling.

And actually restoring it back to suspension is helping save the bed a little bit more because

the canopy would collapse in the middle if pressure comes in from the wrong place.

-What an exciting project.

-Yeah.

-And it looks fabulous in this room.

I think it's going to look even better when it's finished.

A real treat, I think, for people.

And a wonderful bit of work to have done.

More than 30 people over 18 months have worked on this bed.

It's a fabulous example of how many various crafts and skills have collaborated,

each one key to the overall success of the whole project.

Well, I must say it's been a real privilege to get an insight into the work and the dedication

it takes to conserve and restore a magnificent historic house like this.

It gives us a glimpse into the past. So when people like you and me come to visit, we can step back in time.

Like you, I want to know more about how an object can change the life of its owner and their family.

So we caught up with some past successful Flog It! owners.

Sandra, I really became quite excited when I saw these two wonderful tiles.

I always say to people to look for items in good condition.

But there are occasions when items which are not perfect

will make high prices in the saleroom.

And one such item was a pair of De Morgan tiles.

These tiles are quite rare.

Tell me, where did you get them?

As a young child, I lived in Dunoon where there was a large villa

behind my house and, in those days, children were allowed to run free.

I found them in the late '60s up in Scotland where I used to live.

My sister and I... There used to be a lot of burned-down Victorian villas.

And we just found them lying on the ground.

They were so beautiful that I had to bring them home.

De Morgan was one of the most prestigious designers in the Arts and Crafts movement,

who specialised in stained glass and the manufacture of these wonderful, wonderful tiles.

Now when you think of the function of tiles, they are to decorate a wall.

To get them out, by necessity, you have to wrench them out.

So it's difficult to get these things in perfect condition.

The condition isn't wonderful.

We have some damage here and here.

Someone has tried to do a wee bit of restoration. Was that yourself?

-It might have been my mother.

-It might have been your mum.

-And we have some damage here and this is quite a big chip.

-Yes.

I would date these tiles from about 1890 to late 1900s.

If we look on the back, we can see the back stamp, which is an embossed back stamp.

And we have W De Morgan and Sands End Pottery.

I would estimate these tiles, to be sold as a pair,

-between 2 and £300.

-Oh, good grief.

Why do you want to sell them now?

Unfortunately, I need a new chainsaw.

-You need a new chainsaw?

-Yeah, for the garden.

Well, I desperately needed a chainsaw because, as you can see,

I've got lots of trees around here.

Whilst I can get a man to cut them down, he won't take them away.

So, as I have a coal fire, I put the wood on that.

So I chop the wood up myself.

That really amused me. It was fabulous, you know.

If you're going to get a chunk of money,

why not use it for something that be very useful to you?

And 330 now. 330 again showing.

The De Morgan ties there for you.

-460. 480.

-Wow.

-They love it.

-500.

And 50. At 550 I'm bid.

No, thank you for your help. At 550, original bidder still.

At £550.

-This is actually the fun part.

-'Yes.'

-That is wonderful.

-£550.

-Oh!

-Not only can you get the chainsaw,

you can get the safety goggles, the helmet, the boots, everything.

A new garden possibly.

They were the Rolls-Royce of tiles.

They fetched 550, which I wasn't expecting.

She was astonished when the tiles made 550.

And because I loved my tiles so much,

when I was at the William De Morgan Centre, I bought these replicas.

They aren't replicas of the ones I sold

but they're still that beautiful blue colour.

What a great reminder for action woman Sandra when she's sitting beside her blazing fire.

Maybe you've got a few ideas yourself from today's programme.

Do join me again next time for more memorable moments and top tips from the team.

But, until then, it's goodbye.

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