The Family Flog It: Trade Secrets

We've got over ten years of "Flog It!" behind us,

that's hundreds of programmes and thousands

of your antiques and collectables valued and sold.

So, you've come to the right place to hear our Trade Secrets.

Today we're going to be looking at the family album.

A lot of you that turn up at our "Flog It!" valuation days

bring along something that's been passed down through the generations

and many of those heirlooms are of particular interest to your family.

And I particularly love it when these items reveal not

so much the skeletons in your closet,

as some intriguing personal stories.

Coming up, our experts are fascinated by your family legends.

My father used to make model boats,

-and he used to use her hair as the rigging.

-Really!?

An enchanting tale from a far-flung land.

Screaming and shouting...

-It's quite scary.

-It is quite scary.

And one sale exceeds everyone's expectations.

It just went up...

3,500.

..and up.

Fantastic, isn't it?

We see hundreds of your inherited family heirlooms

turning up at our valuation days and

lots of those items you bring us have wonderful stories attached,

which can sometimes surprise even our most-seasoned experts.

-Hi, Maria. How are you?

-I'm fine, thank you.

Who is this? You aren't selling your granny, are you?

No, I'm not selling Granny, I'm selling Granny's frame.

Let's have a look.

That is absolutely lovely, isn't it?

I think it's beautiful, yes.

So, tell me about this lady.

-It's my paternal grandmother.

-Yeah.

She lived to be about 98.

And my father, her son, he used to make model boats,

-and used to use her hair as rigging for it.

-Really?

So this is a silver and tortoiseshell photograph frame

and if we look at the side, here,

we have got the hallmarks for 1920.

I think it's an absolutely glorious thing.

Tortoiseshell, which is turtle shell, really,

falls under the DEFRA rules and if you buy it,

it's got to have been worked prior to 1947.

And these things fall in and out of fashion

but it is an expensive material, an expensive commodity,

so would only have been used on really, really good things

and that is always a good pointer.

Why do you want to sell it?

I'm getting older and all my bits and pieces need to go somewhere.

They will only fight over it so I might as well sell it.

Another real quick point about tortoiseshell.

Have a good look at it because sometimes,

tortoiseshell can be coloured plastic.

The plastic imitation can be a lot softer,

it's more malleable, you can see

light through it and very often, it cracks a lot easier.

I think we can put an estimate on this at auction of £300-£500.

And I think it will do really, really well.

-Are you happy with that?

-Yes, fine.

There is one thing we have to do first.

-We can't send Granny to the saleroom, can we?

-No, no, no.

-So I'm going to take out Granny for you.

-Never sell your grandmother.

Never sell your granny. Let's just take that out.

There's Granny for you. You hang on to Granny.

Do you know, it has lost a bit of its attraction now, hasn't it?

-Don't you think?

-Yes.

I totally agree, Philip.

Luckily, the bidders thought differently.

560. 580.

620.

640. 660.

680. 700.

And 50.

At £750. 800 now.

And 50.

-HE WHISPERS

-900.

-Yes!

And 50.

At £950 then, last chance.

-At £950 here.

-GAVEL BANGS

BASH! That's a sold sound - £950!

Quality, quality, quality all the way through.

That was really a boom time for tortoiseshell.

If anything, the market might just have dipped a little bit

but the thing oozed quality. It really did.

It reeked quality and there is an expression in this business,

if the only thing you've got to apologise for is the price, buy it.

We all know fashions change with the seasons

and what was acceptable in Granny's younger days

might not be so popular now. It's not just tortoiseshell.

Ivory, animal skin and taxidermy

were all common in Britain 100 years ago but these days,

we tend to be more sensitive. So, whatever you think about them,

the market has shrunk. As Philip said, there is also EU legislation

which governs how these items can be sold.

This means dating is crucial, so make sure you keep hold of any

provenance you can get your hands on.

Don't assume that just because you are familiar with an old

family piece that's been sitting unremarked on a sideboard

for generations, that it's not worth a lot of money.

It may be the one piece that

completes somebody else's collection,

so if you want to sell it, take it to an auctioneer to get some advice.

Michael, you've brought old Tom along to see me today.

Can you give me a bit of history?

That's the family name, over the door, there.

-Your family name?

-Yeah.

-You are Mr Charles?

-That's right.

-Amazing.

The fact that the owner of this picture, his name was above the door

of the stable where the horse was,

it was just so exciting to see that.

He had been out riding on the Cotswolds, and someone had been

doing a little bit of quarrying, quite deep for a horse to jump down.

Anyway, the horse plunged straight on and down

and it didn't unseat the rider, my ancestor.

-Was that due to the rider or the horse?

-I'm not sure.

Probably the horse, I should think.

He was so impressed by the fact he hadn't fallen off

that he commissioned the artist to paint it.

Wonderful.

Any picture that has a story attached to it must have more

charm and marketability about it, whether it be

the Battle of Trafalgar or whether it simply be this horse.

It's dated 1834 so we have got a painting here that's the best

part of 200 years old.

And it's in marvellous condition.

What I love about it is it's very, very primitive.

It had a delightful, naive quality to it.

That doesn't mean it was poor quality.

Some people will look at a painting and say,

"It's naive, it's badly painted."

This was extremely well painted in a very simplistic way.

-So why are you selling it?

-There is no-one to follow me.

I am the last of our line and I've got three daughters.

Whatever it fetches I would share out between them.

I really want to set an estimate at an achievable level.

-Perhaps 500-800. Are you happy for us to go along with that?

-Yes, I am.

Thank you so much for bringing it in. I think it's a great picture.

I think it should do very well.

I must admit, I would keep it.

I would keep it in my family for ever.

Don't start saying that! They'll withdraw it!

They won't, it's too late now.

471. Very interesting and local oil on board.

Start the bidding at 700.

750. 800. 850.

900. 950. 1,000.

-1,050.

-We are already on 1,000!

One naturally wants to be reasonably conservative,

in order for a vendor to be pleased at the end of the day.

2,100?

2,200. 2,300. At 2,300 on my right.

-At 2,300, going at 2,3...

-GAVEL BANGS

Yes! The hammer has gone down. £2,300.

-Very good.

-That's what it's all about, isn't it?

Whether an artist is alive or dead,

I think you can almost be certain

that the price will be better in the area in which he practised.

Unless, of course, you happen to

have someone like Monet or van Gogh, or whatever, at that super level.

But if you have a good Cotswold artist, as was the case here,

I think there's no doubt that the Cotswolds is the place to sell it.

Of course, local connections can be worth their weight in gold.

But nowadays we all live in a global village.

And as Caroline Hawley discovered,

our diverse ancestry can throw up some unusual pieces.

I remember my day at Normanby Hall in Lincolnshire was fantastic.

The lady in the queue, first in the queue - she'd been there

since about six o'clock - Sarah,

had some wonderful worry beads round her neck.

It's beautiful. Now tell me about it?

My mother brought it back from China when she was working out

there as one of the first expats that was sent out way back in 1948.

She brought that back with her then.

Well, I think these would date probably from a little earlier.

-Possibly, the 19...late '20s,

-'30s? Right.

And your mother obviously wore them.

I'm not sure anybody has actually worn them.

I think they might use them for, like worry beads,

for religious reasons.

Yes. And some of these fellows look pretty worried to me, don't they?!

Each single bead was carved intricately by hand

out of peach stones, immortals - or lohan, the Chinese word is -

each one with either a grimace or a smile.

Fabulous!

And have you seen, there's one I particularly like,

screaming or shouting here!

-It's quite scary.

-It is quite scary, that one.

But, as you say, it's not something you wear, so...

-No. Something that we kind of seen as children, but then put away.

-Yes!

And then when my mother passed away, it went up into the loft.

Where it's been until today.

-Chinese items are very fashionable at the moment.

-Oh!

And I think this would probably sell quite well in today's market.

Would you be happy if we put it in to auction with an estimate of...

£80-£120, perhaps, about that?

Yes. OK.

Yes, they're weird, they're quirky. Not everybody can buy them.

So that's why they're valuable.

Each bead carved with the head of an immortal.

110, 120, 130.

130, 140, 150.

-150, 160, 170.

-Yes!

-Oh, wow!

170, 180, 190.

190. No more here? 190 in the room.

At 190, bid at 190, is there 200 anywhere else now?

At £190 in the room then, going at 190!

-Yes!

-Very happy with that, £190.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

-Well done, well done.

-Fantastic.

That was worrying for you a little bit.

I don't know about worry beads, worrying Sarah here!

She got £190. She was absolutely thrilled.

And they were an heirloom that had been sitting in a drawer for years.

She'd never worn them, apart from to attract my attention.

Then it paid off.

-Christine, John.

-Hello.

-Charming little Victorian brooch you've brought in.

-It is, isn't it?

-Is it a family piece?

-It is.

I believe it was John's great-great-grandmother, was it?

-Probably just grandmother, I think.

-Grandmother.

-Do you wear it?

No, I don't. I don't.

The things that stood out about it was the design element.

It had that lovely Aesthetic period.

The two birds covered in little rose-cut diamonds

and the enamel faces.

Both birds were positioned with a pearl in the centre,

so it all spoke of romanticism.

It's a really lovely piece.

The whole thing, to me, is that sort of Japonesque sort of period -

the 1870s.

I had no idea, had you, it was as old as that?

It was probably my great-grandmother's.

I think it must have been.

-It must have been in the family from new, maybe.

-Yeah, probably.

-Have you ever thought of the value?

-No. Not at all.

It has literally just sat in a box?

-Really, it has just sat in a box, in a cupboard...

-It is a shame, isn't it?

-..for years.

Something like this needs to...

-I would suggest an auction estimate, maybe, £150-£200.

-What?

-Yes.

-There you go.

-But I think it deserves that estimate.

-That's wonderful.

-But you've had it a long time.

-I guess you're selling it because...

-Well, we're clearing out.

At our age, we don't want to keep everything.

This little Victorian brooch, there, with the 15 carat gold,

with ruby, pearl. Where do you start me on that?

Can I say £100, surely, to start me at £100 for that lot? There, at 100.

Thank you, bid at 100 now.

In the main, general Victorian brooches are not sought after,

but rare pieces with a story to tell will always find a romantic buyer.

At £400 now. And 20. 440.

-440!

-At 440, I'm bid 460. 480 now.

-500. I'll take 20.

-500!

-At 500, are you sure?

-I don't believe this.

-£500!

In front, at £500. All done elsewhere.

-Are you sure, then, at 500? Your bid.

-Thank you.

-Absolutely incredible. £500.

-£500?

-Quality.

Quality, quality, quality.

Thank you very, very much.

Selling at auction is a good way of dispersing pieces

that you might have some sort of connection to

because at least you know the buyers are going to want the pieces.

They're bidding for them because they want them,

it is not like just taking them down the tip.

This just proves again that the great British loft is

full of wonderful objects.

Go up there now, look through the boxes,

you might find something as stunning as this.

We've seen how many of your objects

have captivating family tales behind them.

But sometimes, these pieces relate to a different kind of family story.

Take Wedgwood, for example,

a family-run business for over 200 years.

These exquisite pieces often turn up at our valuation days.

It's made by Wedgwood.

Wedgwood. One of the great factories.

-It is a piece of Wedgwood.

-Wedgwood.

This is the Wedgwood fairyland bowl.

It's quintessentially English pottery, a business that

passed through generations of one family for 200 years.

It was all started by Josiah Wedgwood on May Day in 1759.

Ceramics was in his blood

and he joined the family pottery business when he was nine years old.

But it was when his path crossed with another famous family

that his own business really took off.

After impressing Queen Charlotte, wife of George III,

he was allowed to call his earthenware Queensware

and refer to himself as "potter to Her Majesty".

Josiah also invented the highly-prized black basalt ware

and the style most associated with Wedgwood, jasperware.

After Josiah's death in 1795, the business was

passed down to his son and it stayed in the family for over 200 years.

Josiah himself is now known as the father of English potters.

If you're interested in collecting Wedgwood,

one of its huge advantages is that unlike most English potters,

Josiah and his descendants marked the majority of their products.

The name Wedgwood is spelt with only one E

and should be either printed or embossed on the bottom of the piece.

Beware, there are fakes on the market

and there are also other potters who copied the Wedgwood style.

The whole thing sits very nicely but of course, it isn't Wedgwood.

It's Adams ware.

With that in mind, look out for Wedgwood jasperware in blue,

green, yellow, lilac and black.

These are the most collectables items.

And as we have seen on "Flog It!",

fairyland lustre is also very popular.

-If we are all done.

-£2,800.

A wonderful "Flog It!" moment.

It's so easy to overlook often-told family stories.

Because we've heard them so many times before,

they are just not interesting any more.

But Thomas Plant believes in cherishing these

memories before they get lost for ever.

MUSIC: The Dam Busters Theme

I am holding a photograph of a woman standing

in front of a Lancaster bomber.

Her name was Rosemary Anderson

and I suppose 70 years ago she had a pretty rotten time.

This is my grandmother in front of a Lancaster bomber.

617 Squadron, the Dam Busters.

She had lots of friends who were

part of those, that wonderful squadron.

That very, very brave squadron.

She was a member of the WAAF and she drove the bombs. Not for 617.

I did get that out of her. She never really spoke about it.

And I didn't get enough information out of her before she died.

I should have. And I regret it.

Cos I don't know what went on and I wish I did.

So my tip is speak to your grandparents.

Get their fabulous stories.

Cos so many times I sit at the table at "Flog It!"

and they can produce, people produce whatever they can,

whether it be medals, whether it be an object from the past.

You know, "My mother had this when she was in service,"

or, "My grandmother was working for this family."

Get the story before it's too late.

Like Thomas, many of you can trace your family back a few generations,

but some can claim to go back centuries,

and theirs could be called true family sagas.

In 2007, I went to Dunham Massey, to find about its long line of owners.

Originally built in the middle of the 17th century,

the house itself reflects the changing fortunes of the

Earls of Warrington and Stanford, who lived here for 500 years.

George Booth, the 2nd Earl of Warrington,

inherited the estate from his father at the age of 19.

The year? 1694 -

the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution,

which put William and Mary on the throne.

Booth's father and grandfather nearly ruined the family with

their involvement in the turbulent politics of the 17th century.

So, not only did the 2nd Earl inherit the house

and the estates, he also inherited massive debts.

Booth wrote of his sadness at seeing his father reduced to

weeping from the greatness of his father's debts

and determined to improve the family's fortunes.

I have come to meet Katie Haslam,

house steward here at Dunham Massey, to tell me more.

So, Katie, what are we talking about? How bad was the debt?

Well, he inherited about £50,000 of debt from his father,

which equates to about 4.4 million today.

Gosh! That is a lot of money, isn't it?

How did he go about paying it off?

He made quite a successful marriage to the daughter of a local merchant, Mary Oldbury.

-She was a wealthy lady?

-Well, the father was wealthy.

He sent her with a dowry of about £20,000,

about 1.7 million today.

-OK, so that was a good fund to start with.

-Yeah.

What was his marriage like? Was he really happy?

He wasn't happy at all, by all accounts.

-They lived at opposite ends of the house.

-Gosh!

-And barely spoke for about 40 years.

-Really? Did they have kids?

They had one daughter - Lady Mary.

He left the estate in trust to her,

which was quite unusual in that time.

Usually, it would have passed straight to her husband

when she married.

So, I guess by this stage, the pressure was off -

they didn't have to live frugally.

Yes, by this stage, with careful management and, obviously,

the success of the area at the time, they didn't have to live

frugally at all. They were quite wealthy by this point.

-So it is a happy ending.

-Yes, it is. Yes, it was, for Lady Mary.

Let's jump history here, about 100 years. The 19th century.

I gather the 7th Earl of Stamford was a bit of a character as well.

Yeah, he was quite wild in his day.

He went to Cambridge,

inherited the estate of Dunham Massey at 19 from his grandfather

and, while at Cambridge, fell in love with Bessie Billage,

who was the daughter of his bed maker. And married her.

Could you imagine being at university

and boasting you've got this home at the age of 19?

My word. Did he treat it as a family home?

Well, his marriage to Bessie, she wasn't very happy here

so they decamped and went down to a house in Hove.

Right. A lot smaller, obviously.

A lot smaller, where she was more comfortable. She died in 1854.

What happened then?

Then the family breathed a huge sigh of relief, thinking

they could create a more suitable arrangement for their son and then

he fell in love with a girl from the circus called Kitty Cocks, who

was a bareback horse rider or, as we like to call it, an equestrian.

What about his inheritance?

Well, the 8th Earl couldn't come back to Dunham Massey

because it was still managed by Kitty, so he lived

in South Africa, where he married a black woman called Martha Solomon.

-Really? There was no black aristocracy, was there?

-No.

Well, he was married before he inherited the title

so he inherited whilst being married.

-And did he stay out in South Africa?

-He did, yes.

He never came back to Dunham Massey.

-So, by my reckoning, we are now onto the 9th Earl.

-Yes.

-Did he actually come and live here?

-He did.

He moved in in 1906 with his family, which was his countess,

Penelope, their son Roger and their daughter Lady Jane.

What a great cast of characters this house has seen.

It's been a bit like a soap opera. The 9th Earl died in 1910.

He left the estate to his wife to run up until his son came of age.

Sadly, the 10th Earl never married and didn't have any children.

So, in 1976, upon his death, he left Dunham Massey to the National Trust.

He was the last in a very long line of rather eccentric,

endearingly unorthodox aristocrats.

I always love to see paintings coming in on the show,

so when Alison brought along a family heirloom with a wonderful

story to our valuation day in Cheltenham back in 2011, I pounced.

-You know who this is, don't you?

-Yes.

John... Alfred John Arnesby Brown.

Yes, and it's signed Arnesby Brown here.

I am Alison Leigh and this is my sister...

Jenny Pembury from Canberra in Australia.

And the painting belonged to our grandparents.

-What can you tell me about it?

-It belongs...

Half belongs to me and half belongs to my sister,

who lives in Australia.

It has been handed down through the family.

It might have come from my father's side of the family

because I have a very large portrait of my father as a four-year-old,

eating an apple, by the artist's wife.

-Your grandparents knew the artist?

-Absolutely.

They must have done, because my grandfather had

a property down at Carbis Bay.

No! Really?

We lived in Cornwall. Paul was very excited about it.

He described this painting as something quite exceptional.

This is definitely not the south-west.

-This is definitely the east side because it is so flat.

-Yes.

When you look at all the things from the Norwich School,

you see very low horizons and lots and lots of sky.

And in the sky, it had shapes that looked like tennis rackets

and bears and things like that, and as children we always used to

pick out the tennis racket and the bear and all that sort of thing.

-But otherwise it didn't really float my boat.

-No.

If this was mine...

..I'd be keeping it.

Why do you want to sell it?

-I can't hang my sister's inheritance on the wall, can I?

-No.

That's not fair.

I did feel a bit bad about sort of selling on the family heirloom.

-But...

-We've got plenty others.

-You have looked after this.

-Oh, yes.

You've really looked after it. There's some stickers on the back.

It's been exhibited at the Royal Academy and some other exhibitions.

So it has had a little bit of provenance,

it has got a little bit of life to it.

I'd like to put it into auction with a value of £4,000-£6,000,

a fixed reserve of £4,000.

I did know it was a valuable painting

but not as valuable as what it went for.

For me, this is what auctions are all about.

We've got a cracking crowd here.

Things have been going so well and they're just going to get better.

It can only get better.

Everybody was on tenterhooks.

-I mean, it really is a nerve-racking process.

-I am tingling.

-Are you tingling?

-No, I'm terrified.

Lot number 291. There you are.

The Arnesby Brown oil on canvas.

4,200. 4,500. 4,800, may I?

4,800, is it? Do they want to bid or not?

Because I will sell it, if they don't. 4,800. 5,000, may I?

5,000. 5,200, is it?

5,200. 5,800, is it?

5,800. 6,000.

6,200, may I?

6,000.

200 anywhere?

6,200. 6,500. 6,500.

6,800. 6,800.

-7,000.

-PHONE RINGS

Oh, another telephone bid. 7,000. 7,800.

-This is marvellous.

-At one point I had to say, "Ssh! Ssh!"

because I was getting so nervous about this painting.

And I expected it to go for about six or seven.

I hoped it would go for about six or 7,000. And it just went up...

8,500.

..and up...

9,200. 9,500, is it?

9,500. 9,800 now.

-..and up.

-10,500. 11,000.

11,000 anywhere?

10,500, once, twice...

..third and last time.

-You're all out and done, on my left, at 10,500.

-£10,500!

It went for £10,500 and I just couldn't believe it.

That is fantastic, isn't it?

You have got to get on the phone to Jennifer.

It's about quarter-past-one in the afternoon here.

It is going to be midnight in Australia.

Wake her up, get her out of bed and tell her.

We had already decided that we were going to split the money, of course.

And, with my half, I decided that we would go out

and see Jen in Australia for Christmas.

So we were waiting for this lovely, hot, wonderful Christmas.

It was cold.

It actually turned out to be freezing cold and wet.

But never mind, we had a fantastic time.

With my half of the money, we decided we would use it over here

so we've come over for a holiday and here we are.

So, the whole day with "Flog It!",

and then the subsequent auction was a fantastic experience.

And I would say to anybody who's got anything that they think

they want to sell, put it in the safe hands of "Flog It!" cos it works.

It really works.

£10,500!

It is always a shame to see a special item that belongs to

a family being sold, but you can't split a painting in two

and I couldn't think of a better way of spending the inheritance.

Well, sadly, we have come to the end of today's show

but I hope you can join us again soon for more Trade Secrets.