Glorious Georgian Flog It: Trade Secrets

Over the ten years on "Flog It!",

we have valued thousands of your items

and been with you as you've sold them at auction -

sometimes for a small fortune!

Sold, £30,000!

During that time, we've learned a great deal

about antiques and collectables

and, as a nation, we cannot get enough of them.

Now, I want to share some of that knowledge with you.

So sit back and enjoy,

as our experts divulge their trade secrets.

In today's programme,

we're celebrating one of my favourite design periods -

the 100 years or so that came to define the Georgian style.

The experts and I long for the day

when a piece by Chippendale or Gillow

appears at one of our valuation days.

But aside from the celebrated makers,

what should we be looking out for?

Here's what you need to know.

Coming up, we've got great tips on how to spot a Georgian gem.

Philip tells us how to fall back in love

with brown furniture.

Let quality speak to you. And it always will.

And then you've got to listen to what you hear.

Charlie gets hot under the collar.

It's quite a, dare I say, sexy thing.

And Michael has got reasons to be cheerful

when one item clocks up a top price.

At £2,100, then, for the last time...

We don't see that many Georgian items on this show,

but we're all delighted when they do turn up.

And sometimes, they can be quite valuable.

I think the real good tip about the word "Georgian"

is it's a great thing for an auctioneer to use,

because it covers about 120 years.

You're going from about 1710 through to about 1830,

so you've got this huge chunk of time and you can call it "Georgian".

So it sounds really knowledgeable - I like that.

I think sometimes it's a mistake

to think that just because something is old, it's going to be worth money.

That never follows.

So a lot of older things are actually very affordable.

Buy a small walnut chest of drawers

or a little cellaret - something small.

A little side table that will go in anybody's home.

I would say it's a great time to be buying Georgian furniture.

It can only go up.

Antiques are for everyone,

and just because the word "Georgian" is attached to "antique",

it doesn't mean that you can't afford it.

You can buy a Georgian teaspoon for under a tenner.

So go out there, find the things that you want and buy them.

So, here are some of the best Georgian items

that we've seen on "Flog It!".

Charlie Ross was delighted

when a quintessential Georgian silver piece crossed his table.

I think every posh person in the Georgian period

had a snuff box.

-I think it's a snuff box.

-I think it's a snuff box, too.

It's rather an attractive one.

Snuff boxes come in all sorts of sizes and materials.

Do you know what it's made from?

-I presume it's silver...and ivory.

-It is silver and ivory.

Absolutely spot-on.

If it were bone, which might be another material,

it would have a little black flecking through it,

which you don't get with ivory.

It's interesting that the colouring's going

on the top there.

-I thought that.

-I've opened it up and...

What did you make of the inside?

-I thought it was wood, first of all.

-You thought it was wood?

-I did.

I can see why you thought that -

-it's got a woody grain to it, hasn't it?

-Yes.

You see, what's happened is that it's become discoloured,

and the reason it's gone that colour is because it's been used for snuff.

You need it to have that lovely, light ivory colour,

and of course, things like smoke can discolour it.

You can clean it.

DON'T bleach it,

because if you bleach ivory, or try to bleach it,

you will lose the surface patination,

and that's fatal.

The inside, it appears, has been gilded at some stage.

Right - why would that be?

Um, for protection of the silver and also for quality purposes...

So, what's the sort of person that would have a snuff box like this?

Oh, quite a gentry.

I mean, this is high quality in silver.

If you were an important person and you wanted to be taking snuff

and you wanted to pull it out of your pocket and take snuff,

you really wanted to be having a silver one.

Or, better still, a gold one.

We can tell that it's George III,

-because we've got George III's head on there.

-Yes.

The date stamp is unclear,

and I've come up with two possibilities -

-1790 or 1810.

-Right.

For the purposes of valuation, we'll call it 1800, George III.

I'd give a wide estimate of £100 to £200.

-Right.

-I think it's certainly worth £100

-and I'd like to see it make nearer £200.

-OK.

Strictly speaking, ivory that is pre-1947 is acceptable.

But I think...it's almost true to say that all ivory

is becoming less and less acceptable,

even the very early ivory.

So were the bidders put off by the ivory when it went to auction?

Or did they go for a quality piece of Georgian silverware?

Can I start the bidding at 100?

-100...

-Ooh!

-130...

-That's good, we've sold it.

At 130, at 40, at 140.

150. 160. 170...

That's good.

-200. 210...

-John!

210, commission bid.

220. At 220 in the room, now.

240. 260. 280.

At 280...300.

-Serious case of under-valuation.

-But then they come and buy it.

-Yes.

At 300. At 300, then, we're all done, then.

-At £300...

-Wow!

They loved it! At £300, the hammer's gone down.

With a sale of £300,

the buyers clearly loved the finesse as much as we did.

They connect you with history, with a bygone era.

And they're quite often beautifully made.

You think of someone like Nathaniel Mills,

who made silver snuff boxes, the workmanship is superb.

Keep in mind, snuff boxes come in many shapes and materials.

The wooden ones are a great way

for you to start collecting gorgeous Georgian at reasonable prices.

But it's not just Georgian knick-knacks we come across.

Philip Serrell is also a man with an eye for Georgian value for money.

In 2003, he found a versatile piece

of often-overlooked Georgian brown furniture.

You see, I think, as tables go, it's a really useful little table.

You've got a drawer at the front.

You can use it as a side table up against a wall.

It's a fold-over tea table.

We can put that up against the wall,

put little knick-knacks on it there, use it as a display table.

It's about 1800, give or take ten years.

-Timber - any ideas?

-I always thought it was mahogany.

The real tip here is to go and handle as much timber as you can.

Once you've handled it,

you'll just grow to know more about it.

It looks like it's mahogany. This grain here is mahogany.

But it is... If you lift it, it's really, really heavy.

Now, that could be for three reasons -

first reason is that it might not be mahogany.

It might be something like padauk wood,

which is a really seriously heavy wood.

A lot of these oriental planters that you see with marble tops on,

the aspidistra stood on them,

a lot of these are made from padauk -

and boy, is it ever hard and heavy.

Second reason is that a lot of these tables are actually veneered

and this is solid, and because it's solid, it's heavier.

And the third reason is I'm just getting weaker in my old age.

Um... What have you had done to the top?

There were some very bad marks on the top,

and we've had an antique restorer sympathetically wash the top

to try and take off some of the damage.

Whoever's done it has done a good job.

But you can tell the top has been washed out,

and that is going to devalue it at auction.

There's an expression in our business -

if all you've got to apologise for is the price,

then it makes it attractive to someone.

If you say, "It's a lovely table, but the top's been washed out..."

Now, if you've got a watermark on the top of a table,

the correct thing to do is try and restore that mark

to the same colour as everything else.

The easiest thing to do is to strip the top clean, repolish it,

and there you are - done.

It's easier, but what you're then doing is renewing it,

not restoring it,

so in my eyes, a good restoration is always acceptable.

You'd like to see it the way it was, but please, please, please

don't strip things and repolish them.

Don't renew things, because they're not antiques then.

I think this in auction today will make £200 to £400.

So we'll put a reserve on it of £200 and that should mean

that it's heads, you win, tails, you don't lose.

In this business, beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder,

and a good piece of furniture

can be a really good, classical piece of mahogany

that was made for a London town house by a well-known maker,

or it can be a stunning piece of 18th century yew wood

that might have been made in the country

for the local landowner.

So I think what you've got to do is let quality speak to you.

And it always will. And then you've got to listen to what you hear.

So were the buyers listening to Philip's enthusiasm

for bagging a Georgian bargain?

£180, now.

200. 220.

240. 260.

At £260, now. Telephone's up.

At 280. 300.

At 300. 320.

340.

At 360. 380.

At 380... At 400.

420.

At £420, my written bids are £420 now.

440 is a telephone bid.

At £440 - where's 60?

It's on the telephone at £440, now, and sells...

-Neville, that's great, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Top end of Philip's estimate, 440.

Believe it or not, that table has come down even more

since the auction day.

It's probably worth no more than £200.

But isn't it great value for money?

We should all be aware of that.

We're in the ultimate green business.

Get out there and buy these things.

Use them as a small dining table in a flat or whatever,

but use them, buy them,

because they're great value for money.

You're not going to go and buy a new table for that sort of money.

Here's one of my tips for you.

If you're thinking of buying or bidding on something Georgian,

make sure you ask if the item has been damaged or restored,

because this can greatly affect the value.

And remember, if you don't ask,

the seller's not obligated to tell you.

Philip seems to be drawn to the Georgian as much as I am.

He was also presented with a piece of classic Georgian Delft

that had seen better days, but he soon realised

he had something really special in front of him.

If we just turn it over,

we see that the back's really rather typical of Delft.

When I first looked at that plate, I and one of our backstage valuers,

we thought it was probably continental.

Now, it wasn't - in reality it was English,

and English Delft is worth more than continental Delft,

as a very broad term.

This...almost pimpled body here and this creamy colour

is typical of Delft.

At some point in time,

it might have had the dreaded wire hangers on it,

because we can see a bit of a chip there.

-Oh, yeah.

-Having said that, Delft is a very soft body.

We're looking for things that are 200 and 300 years old,

and in porcelain, damage is crucial.

In Delft, in a way, because it's a much flakier glaze,

damage is almost acceptable,

but always try and buy as perfect a piece as you can.

If we turn it over,

we can see that this blue panel here is typical of Delft.

What I find unusual is this colour around the border here.

Normally with Delft, you'd expect it to be blue and white,

occasionally you get flashes of yellow or whatever.

But that manganese colour, for me, that lifted it up above the norm.

In terms of date,

I'd think it's probably about 1750 or thereabouts.

It is Delft, and it'll have an auction value

of around £200 to £300.

-Oh!

-On a good day, it might do a bit more.

Perhaps put a reserve on it at somewhere between £150 and £200.

Fine, yeah.

Richard brought Geraldine along to the auction

to see if the unusual purple-manganese hue

would cause a stir.

475, 500.

525, 550, 575, 600.

625...625 anywhere?

At six...625, 650, 675, 700.

725, 750, 775...

775, anywhere?

You're finished at £750, all done and finished. All done...

-That's fantastic!

-Yes. Very, very good.

-750 quid.

-Didn't think it'd even sell.

Not bad for a single plate.

There's an expression in this business -

"Let your eyes be your guide and your pocket your judge."

When you pick something up, your eyes...

Go by your first instincts.

They'll tell you if it's old or not and tell you about the condition.

Once you've established all of that,

all you've got to let your pocket do is tell you how much to pay.

Keep your eyes peeled for Delft in unusual colours,

and buy British - it could fetch you much more.

Michael Baggott knew exactly what he was looking at

when this next item lay in front of him,

and he was very excited about it.

Well, the minute I saw the watch...

First of all, it's solid gold. You don't make low-quality items

in solid 22-carat gold.

'Nicky, it's fair to say'

-that my eyes popped out of my head...

-I'm very pleased!

..when you opened your little box in the queue

and I saw this magnificent watch.

'It was set with pearls, the enamelling was perfect.'

It was just absolutely as good an object of that type

that you could make.

We've got this beautiful gold case,

set with half pearls all the way round the bezel on a blue enamel

and white enamel crown, which is quite fantastic.

And look at the back of this.

I know. That's what I love. I love the colour of it.

Classic Georgian design - very restrained, it's sophisticated,

it's a neoclassical piece made to the highest quality.

That's all the features you look for in good Georgian design -

style, quality and proportion.

It's an English watch, but it's a very French and Swiss technique,

that they developed in about 1750, 1765, of engine turning.

But the real joy of it should be when we get it open.

There we go, that's the cover open,

and then there should be another snib here.

'It's always important to look inside a watch,

'to make sure it's got movement.'

Sometimes good cases and bad movements

can get married together.

Look at the craftsmanship in that -

beautifully pierced, fan pierced.

Hopefully, we'll have a maker's name on it.

Right.

Well, they're not watchmakers, but it's a very good name to have.

It's Rundell and Bridge,

and they were goldsmiths to George IV,

and they actually provided most of the regalia for his coronation,

they provided all the diamonds for his crown...

Be aware that even prominent watchmakers,

within their lifetime,

had competitors who would copy their work

and sign their name to their movements.

So it's not as simple, I'm afraid, as looking at the name,

opening a book and doing it that way.

You've got to know something about the way the movement is designed

and the quality you expect to see in there.

If we close that up...

I mean, the only flaw with this is the lack of the minute hand -

not terribly useful like that!

But otherwise, it's in lovely condition.

I think it's a stunning watch,

so I think, for the purpose of the auction, we'll put...

..£600 to £800 on it, a fixed reserve of £600

and hopefully, if two people get behind it,

we could do very much more than that.

So, did the buyers come from all corners

to bid for such an exquisite Georgian piece?

950. 1,000. And 50.

(They love it.)

Already well over the estimate -

these bidders recognised Georgian splendour when they saw it.

1,900. 2,000. 2,100.

Commission bid's out, 2,100 in the room.

At £2,100, then, for the last time...

-£2,100, Nicky.

-I told you my eyes popped out of my head.

And my eyes are very rarely wrong!

Wow! They certainly weren't this time, Michael!

It's essential that you check out the inside of an old watch or clock,

because they both have mechanical moving parts.

Better still, get an expert to do it for you, because you may find out

it's worth a great deal more than you originally thought.

Here are a few more tips on what to look out for

for a good Georgian piece.

If you are buying any Georgian silver,

look for the marks of reputable silversmiths,

like Hester Bateman and Nathaniel Mills.

But beware of Georgian pretenders who copy them.

There's nothing better than looking for quality of workmanship

and doing your research.

You can expect some wear and tear on a Georgian piece,

which could be, after all, some 300 years old.

As a rule of thumb, buy the best quality you can afford.

And finally, Georgian brown furniture isn't dead,

it's just resting.

As Philip and I agree, it can often speak of quality craftsmanship.

So now's your chance to pick up a versatile piece at a decent price.

We have many things in common with our Georgian forebears.

Like us, they prized new technology, they appreciated the arts

and they loved a good party.

But there's one thing in particular

that does link us to Georgian England -

and that is our love of a cup of tea.

On valuation days, we get through around 700 cupfuls.

We see an awful lot of tea-related paraphernalia,

from tea caddies to tea services to teapots.

Christina Trevanion is an ardent collector of Georgian teapots,

so she went to meet a man

whose connection to the good old-fashioned cuppa

goes back ten generations.

We all think that the cafe culture is a very 21st-century phenomenon -

meeting up with your friends

in a local coffee house over a good cuppa.

But it's actually been going on for hundreds of years.

In the backstreets of London, around the Strand,

there was a thriving coffee house industry

at the turn of the 18th century.

I'm really excited, because I'm about to meet an ancestor

of one of the men who really shaped the whole British psyche

as we know it today - and that, believe it or not, was through tea.

-Hello. Hi, you must be Stephen.

-Indeed, welcome.

Thank you - Stephen Twinings, as of the famous Twinings dynasty.

Yes - I'm very proud to be the tenth generation of the family

to be in tea, and the gentleman behind me,

Thomas, was the one who started it all off.

And was instrumental in making us a nation of tea drinkers

by opening the world's first dry tea and coffee shop where you're standing.

-Fantastic!

-Shall we talk about it over a cup of tea?

-Why not? That sounds perfect!

-Come this way.

I would like to know why we drink tea in Britain.

The Portuguese and the Dutch had both discovered tea ahead of the British.

So in 1662, King Charles II marries a Portuguese princess,

-Catherine of Braganza.

-Yes, of course.

She is a tea devotee, an absolute tea lover.

She brings tea to London and makes it fashionable at the London court.

-Right.

-But not everyone welcomes the arrival of tea.

The brewers, who made what we drank for lunch, dinner -

and we drank beer for breakfast too - it was a threat to their business.

The clergy said it was a sinful drink

because it wasn't grown in a Christian country.

And the other people who didn't like tea were the doctors -

they immediately said, "This is bad for your health."

So those three lobby groups got together

and persuaded the government of the day to impose a massive tax

on this bad-for-business, bad-for-your-healh

and bad-for-your-soul drink.

This makes tea a status symbol drink.

Only the wealthy and the aristocracy can afford this drink.

100g of tea in those days, in today's money, allowing for inflation,

about £160.

SHE GASPS

£160?! Oh, my goodness, that's incredibly expensive.

So it was served once or twice a week,

-but at no particular time of day, and was a very special occasion.

-Wow.

So really, really high-end of society.

-Absolutely.

-Good grief!

And it's not until the tax comes down -

it was actually Thomas Twinings' grandson, Richard Twinings,

who persuaded William Pitt the Younger to reduce the tax on tea

and then we become a nation of tea-drinkers,

because everyone can then go out and afford to buy it.

Of course, yeah.

Our growing love of tea was reflected in a wealth of objects

to accompany a good cuppa, from tea caddies -

which were locked up by the mistress of the house

to keep out the hoi polloi - to teapoys.

Christina's passion is for teapots

and she couldn't resist the chance to show hers off.

I just wanted to know a little bit about what Georgian ladies

were putting into my teapots at that time.

Right. Certainly it was exclusively Chinese teas.

The Chinese tea had a monopoly until...

Well, the first Indian tea arrived in this country in 1838.

Is that why porcelain is known as "chinaware"? Absolutely.

The captains would put below the cargos of the tea,

in the area of the ship which would probably get flooded with seawater,

-this beautiful porcelain they'd discovered.

-In China.

-So this is Chinese porcelain.

-Real Chinese porcelain.

-Gosh.

That's fantastic. Ladies were introduced to drinking tea,

-but were they drinking tea from Chinese porcelain?

-Absolutely.

We had earthenware, we had pewter,

-but nothing as beautiful and delicate as this.

-No.

Because as much as we tried,

we couldn't replicate the thinness and the delicacy of this porcelain.

Not for a few years, is my understanding.

I've got some teapots here which span about 25 years,

maybe slightly more,

and I'm assuming the English got more confident with their patterns

and their shapes with porcelain

as they got more confident drinking tea in public.

-Yes.

-This is a Chinese version here,

then we get slightly more Anglicised with this floral spray.

-Then of course, we get polychrome decoration.

-Yes.

And then this, which is quintessentially English, really.

-Yes.

-And of course, think of the Georgian interiors at the time.

This sort of neoclassicism would perfectly match.

Absolutely. It's a beautiful example, isn't it?

It is, and it's the British embracing tea and embracing style.

Yes.

Can you show me exactly how my Georgian ladies would have

used my teapots to make tea? Is this exactly how we do it today?

Yes - the process hasn't changed because the principles haven't changed.

You need a clean, warmed teapot.

The old rule is one teaspoonful of tea per person and one for the pot,

but actually, it's the ratio of tea to water that determines

the intensity of the flavour.

You need water at the right temperature.

So if you're making a green tea or a white tea, it has to be slightly cooler,

so you'd let the kettle come to the boil, then leave it for a four or five minutes.

For black tea, it needs to be very close to boiling point.

Be patient with your tea - it takes time to give off its flavour.

Colour is not flavour - don't let your eyes deceive you about tea.

Allow it to brew, let the flavour come out, until three minutes...

-Three minutes?

-Three minutes.

-If I'm desperate for a cup of tea...

-You've got to wait three minutes.

-Oh, no!

-Absolutely.

-You've got to let the antioxidants out and the full flavour.

-OK.

But milk in before or after?

Historically correct to put the milk in first

if you've made the tea in the teapot.

If you're making it in a mug of tea with a bag in it,

let it brew with the heat, take it out and then add the milk.

Brilliant. I love it. Thank you so much.

-Do we really have to wait three minutes?

-We do.

-Oh, good lord!

So, my top tip for you,

if you're thinking of collecting tea ephemera,

if you're looking at a tea caddy, for example,

take a look on the inside.

Make sure that the foil on the inside shows signs of wear

that you would expect from 100 years of use.

My second tip,

if you're thinking about collecting 18th-century teapots,

if your pocket can afford it, that is,

make sure you choose examples with lids.

Unfortunately, most of mine don't have lids,

but they will retain their value

if they have all their component parts to them.

And my third, and top tip

is if you are thinking of collecting Chinese or English porcelain,

to tell the difference,

the Chinese porcelain will be an awful lot thinner.

So if you hold them up to the light,

you can almost see through the Chinese porcelain,

whereas the English example is slightly thicker-potted

and you can't see through it.

I've often noticed in auctioneers' catalogues

the term "Georgian" printed to describe certain lots.

Please, do remember, if you want to invest in this period,

the Hanoverian period, there were four King Georges on the throne,

spanning over 100 years.

George I came on the throne in 1714.

George IV took us right up to 1830.

If the auctioneer doesn't know which King George it was,

then do your own research, because the earlier the king,

the rarer, the older. It should be worth a lot more money.

Don't just settle for any George. Do your homework.

In Georgian England,

the lifestyle of the wealthy was one of elegance and refinement,

and entertaining became a way of showcasing one's wealth.

Seated here at this table, with its fine French dinner service

and its cut-glass crystal would be the country's aristocracy,

all dressed in their finest silks.

A lady's wig could not be too high or too heavy,

but she had to be careful

that she didn't catch it alight on the candelabra that lit the room.

An elaborate dinner of soups, meats, pastries and dessert

would be served on the finest china

and the meal would often take over two hours to finish.

And the Georgians loved their wine,

and hidden underneath this side server

is the grape juice that got the party started.

This is a superb example of a wine cooler,

and it's attributed to Robert Gillow,

master maker and designer.

Gillow was one of the first to recognise the strengths of mahogany.

It became fashionable and readily available from about 1720 onwards,

imported from the West Indies and Jamaica.

This wood had a wonderful, tight, straight grain,

with no knots, no saps.

It was just right for carving this wonderful, intricate detail.

And as you can see,

this cellaret is made up of component parts,

all beautifully carved.

But the wine would have been brought up from the ice house,

a stone-built building in the grounds of this estate.

Within that building would be one hole, dug into the ground,

six feet in diameter, 30 feet down, packed full of ice.

It would then be chipped off when required,

brought up to the house in sacks.

It would then be dumped into this chiller, which is lead-lined,

to keep that ice really, really chilled.

Incidentally, this holds 20 bottles of wine,

and if you count the chairs around this table, there's 20 of them.

That's what I call a great party!

As we've heard, the Georgian era has something for every pocket.

So get out there and get looking!

Well, I hope you have learned enough

to help you sniff out a few Georgian gems.

Good luck and join us again soon for more Trade Secrets.