Empire & Commonwealth - Part 2 Flog It: Trade Secrets

One of the things I love about Flog It!

is meeting you, members of the general public and together,

we've taken hundreds of trips to auction houses all over the country,

putting our experts' valuations to the test.

In this series, we're pooling all of that knowledge together

to help you get some inside information. Welcome to Trade Secrets.

In today's show, we're taking a look at items

originally from other parts of the world.

By 1922, the British Empire - the largest in history -

held sway over a fifth of the world's population.

It stands to reason that many wonderful treasures

have made their way to our shores. And thankfully,

some of them have made their way to our valuation days.

Coming up, Thomas marvels at the history of one object.

That's a pint of rum at midday.

And we explore how our other vices

have spawned a whole area of collecting.

Nowadays we all have sugar in enormous quantities.

We all have too much of it.

Tobacco and snuff taking has always been a controversial subject.

And we catch up with Ann,

whose story proves we should never take things at face value.

Sold!

-The whole room... Everybody started applauding.

-Lewis!

Now, do you know what this is?

Well, if you've been watching Flog It! you probably do.

It's a little, tiny tea caddy.

This was brought back to the country when trade was opened up

throughout the 18th century and tea became rather fashionable.

And, as well as tea, other valuable and exotic commodities

came back to the mother country.

Things like spices and tobacco and sugar and coffee,

we couldn't get enough of them.

This demand is reflected in the antiques of the day.

The British really got a taste for tea in the 17th and 18th century

and by the 19th century, it was still very expensive

and only the very wealthy and privileged could afford to drink tea.

These are the sort of people that would have had caddies

and this teapoy is a version up from the tea caddy.

This is, of course, an elaborate teapoy, a tea caddy on a stand.

There we are. It's a beautiful satinwood interior.

It's in really, really lovely condition.

These lift out and they are wonderfully made.

Mahogany and then satinwood...

So it's a very high-class item to keep one's valuable tea locked away.

-I don't suppose you've got a key.

-We have no key.

-No.

It's a complicated lock but it's a sign of great quality.

-Keep the servants out!

-That's right. Lock the servants out

and keep your green and black tea separate.

The problem with it commercially, I suppose,

is that it's a bit useless in the modern home.

It's very pretty, it's very decorative but it's quite big.

I suppose you could put a plant on it or something,

but you can't then open it and have a look at that wonderful interior.

Perhaps that represents a slightly limited market for it.

You told me you wanted £1,000, really.

-It's in my head.

-Yeah.

-If we put an estimate of 800-1,200.

-Mm-hm.

It's likely when we go to the auction,

the auctioneer may say, "Oh, you're quoting us ten years ago prices."

I think we're going to sell it.

Genuine teapoys like this one we had was a beautiful example

and they don't come on the market very often.

Did its rarity guarantee the teapoy a sale?

I had a chat to the auctioneer and he said it's not a popular piece of kit.

You know, if it was a tea caddy, people would want to own it.

Because it's a teapoy, it becomes a piece of freestanding furniture.

-What do you do with it?

-Yeah. But, I mean...

-That's the downside.

At £600 for the teapoy.

At £700...

It looks like it's going home.

Sorry, unsold.

I'm quite upset that the teapoy didn't sell because I thought it was

a fabulous example of its kind and I thought we had it exactly right.

In fact, I think it should make £1,450

and I think if it was represented in another auction,

perhaps with other items of a similar nature, caddies ideally,

then it should make over £1,000.

Yeah, yeah, Adam. But seriously, he has a point.

An item is more likely to sell if it's presented with other,

similar pieces as the collectors will be circling.

For some collectors, the sky's the limit.

A George II tortoiseshell and silver tea caddy

sold at auction in 2012 for £17,000.

So what other consumables landed on our shores as a result

of the trade triangle?

Nowadays we all have sugar in enormous quantities,

we all have too much of it.

In the 18th century, the British developed a tremendous sweet tooth.

At the beginning of the 18th century it was a very expensive,

luxury commodity.

As the decades went on,

the price started to come down

but it was still precious enough that in the 1770s and 1780s

you would quite often have a silver receptacle,

either to store or serve it in.

-Mum used to keep sweets in it, actually, which I suppose is...

-That's fair enough!

It would have had originally a blue glass liner

which is why it's pierced, so the sugar wouldn't fall out.

It's typical of the period of Adam design.

You've got all this intricate classical piercing.

You got a Vitruvian scroll, erm, urns.

I spotted the urns, they're rather nice.

They're beautifully done

but we've got one place here where it's solid,

and that's so you could put the owner's crest or initials on, when you brought it to the silversmith.

Commercially it's better that there is a blank cartouche there,

especially if you are giving it as a gift to somebody else.

What I would be very cautious of

is that, because there is a premium, a slight premium

to pieces that haven't been engraved,

there's a great temptation to remove original engraving.

When you see a blank cartouche like that, you should always check

that the thickness of the silver is the same as the rest of the piece.

I noticed there is a little bit of damage around the foot.

It wouldn't normally matter that much, you'd knock it out

but you've got the same piercing on the foot

as you have on the body of it.

It's just found a weak spot and it's started to crack and split.

-Can that be rectified?

-It can be done.

It can be done by a competent silversmith, but it's not cheap.

It will affect the final sale value of it.

If the basket hadn't been damaged,

I would have been far more comfortable in putting

an estimate of £300-500 on and I would expect it to make

the top end, maybe £100 more.

What impact did that damage have an the sale price?

170? 175. 180.

Take 185. The bid's at £180 in the room.

At 180 and selling...

GAVEL BANGS

-That was a great result.

-It was in that state. Someone must think

they've a really good silversmith that can put it right.

If you're considering restoration, consider it very carefully.

If it's done badly, that's worse, especially for you,

because it won't be cheap.

So you'll have thrown money away to make the object you own worse.

If you're in any doubt, leave things alone!

Our heritage as a trading nation means that there are

collectables out there whose value lies in that history.

The bronze pint measure from Jamaica, St Andrews,

was just a piece of colonial history, which was so special.

-Marjorie.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-You've brought along something quite interesting.

-Is it?

-It is really interesting!

-I've got no idea what it is.

I want to know about it, from where you got it from.

Well, my sister found it in one of her packing cases

when she moved to America.

-You and your sister are from Jamaica.

-Yeah, originally.

You were there and you wanted to keep it.

I wanted to have a look at it.

She was getting ready to put it in the bin.

Marjorie's sister was going to throw this measure away.

And to be honest with you, it didn't surprise me

because it did look like nothing. I mean, it looked like a bronze pot.

It's probably the best thing I've seen all day, if you want my honest opinion.

It's doesn't mean it's worth a tremendous amount of money,

but I think it's rather special.

Such care had been taken in making this piece.

And it was struck, as in struck, with all the right strike marks -

William IV, the Customs and Excise mark.

And the lettering on the front was superb.

"St Andrews, Jamaica, Imperial Pint."

Everything about it just screamed quality.

-I reckon it's a pint measure for rum.

-Right.

-And it's a naval piece.

So if you're on the ship, I think the ration was a pint a day.

-A lot, isn't it?

-Well, it was quite a lot. But they did drink quite a lot.

-Yeah, probably.

-A bit of Dutch courage as well.

-If you had a pint of rum, you be able to conquer anything.

-Right.

The rum ration is a naval tradition. It stems back to our beer ration.

The beer ration was a ration of beer, a pint of beer

you'd get at midday.

Now, in the 17th century Britain had a scrap with the Portuguese

and the Spaniards and we conquered the West Indies.

The beer ration was superseded by the rum ration.

That's a pint of run at midday. Whew!

Fascinating. I think it's a really interesting object.

One of the nicest things I've seen.

-And I would suggest this would be worth £70-£100 at auction.

-OK.

I think I was extremely conservative with my £70-£100 estimate.

-170...

-They love it.

-They absolutely love it.

-It's such a rare thing.

£170.

It's going to be sold, make no mistake, you'll miss it. All done.

GAVEL BANGS

Lovely thing!

It was our heritage, so to speak. And Jamaica's heritage.

That's what was so special about it.

It just encapsulated Britain as a whole.

Rarity and a great story can increase an item's value.

I can't believe Marjorie's sister

nearly threw that rum measure away.

The lesson there is always have a closer look before you throw

anything away.

The rum ration continued as a Navy tradition right up until 1970,

so there's no need to worry about

what to do with drunken sailors today!

Another commodity that was shipped to Britain from the Empire

was tobacco.

Now, Ann, there are antiques that look amazing, they look decorative.

There are antiques that are useful

and there are antiques that just speak history.

And you just close your eyes and feel that

and you can feel 300 years of history.

It is an absolutely wonderful object.

'That circular snuffbox that Ann brought in'

is one of the things that

you look at and you don't need to be an expert.

It tells you everything.

You know that old phrase, "It does what it says on the tin."

It's got who owned it written on it.

It's got a date bang in the middle of it and it's quite obvious

that it's either a snuff or a tobacco box, really.

The history of snuff goes way back into the 16th century.

Tobacco and snuff taking has always been a controversial subject

and when we look back in history, in 1604, King James I visited

Cambridge University and they said, if anybody is caught taking snuff

in front of King James, he'll take them to the Tower.

He hated it that much.

Then 100 years later, the reign of Queen Anne,

she was herself the biggest snuff taker in England.

Really, throughout the 18th century

was the real time of growth of the taking of snuff.

And as the snuff became more readily available to the masses,

then the variety of snuffboxes again became more and more varied.

This is a wonderful thing. It's a combination snuff.

So you move each dial and each wheel to a certain position

and then that allows you to pull the moon down and open it.

Our only problem is we don't know the combination.

-No!

-So we haven't been able to get into it today.

-Do you know the combination?

-I have no idea. I have no idea.

I've got about 30 or 40 of those combination snuffboxes

in my collection, and the most frustrating thing is

when you've actually cracked it, you shut it and you forget.

And then you go, "Oh, no! What was that?" And you start all over again.

I should think it's going to make £200-£300 at auction.

Something like that. I think we ought to put a reserve on it.

A reserve of 200.

If it doesn't go for that then take it out, take it home and enjoy it.

And who cares? If it doesn't sell, who cares?

I'll have a gamble.

James has spent hours trying to open up the secret formula to unlock it,

and he couldn't and nor can I.

-Well, I cracked it.

-You cracked it?

-Do you agree with the valuation first?

-No.

We've put in an estimate of 300 to 400.

-Right, so James is a bit under there?

-Oh, yes.

Not streets away, but I think possibly the price has been

-helped by the fact that we got it open.

-Go on, explain how.

Two little hands...

And you set them at about three o'clock, or horizontal.

And then there's a smiley face there.

-You can just about see it, or at least I can.

-Yeah.

Now, hopefully, there we are,

the moon slides up and in you go to your box.

-How long did it take you to work that out?

-Well, I was there...

-a day or two, actually.

-Did you take it home?

-I did, I did, yes.

Whose estimate proved right on the day?

500 anywhere? At 500. 520.

540. 560. 580.

600. 620. 640.

660. 680. 680 anywhere?

I have £660 behind me. Anyone else?

We're finished at £660.

-I can't believe it!

-That was pure quality.

It's all about who loves it more, rather than what it's worth.

And two people just purely loved it. I loved it too.

Lots of other people love snuffboxes too, and we see them

at most of our valuation days.

Because snuff taking was originally an elite pastime,

many of them are beautifully made and decorated.

But as the masses took up the habit,

snuffboxes became more rudimentary.

So if you're looking to collect, there's something for every budget.

The record auction price for a snuffbox was set in 2011

when a magnificent Meissen

gold-mounted royal example, made for Augustus III,

Elector of Saxony and the King of Poland,

sold for a staggering £900,000!

Paul and Chris's sugar basket was a beauty, but had seen better days.

If you've got some damaged silver,

be wary about getting it restored, as you may cause more damage.

And look out for blank cartouches on silverware -

an engraving may have been removed.

Check that the thickness of the metal is the same

all the way around the piece.

And if you are in the market for some tea-related paraphernalia,

Adam has a word of advice.

Watch out for teapoy marriages,

where someone's just got a tea caddy and stuck it

on the base of an occasional table and converted it into a teapoy.

So always have a good look at those.

British colonists have deemed it their duty to bring a civilising

influence to their subject peoples.

The English language, Christianity, and railways were all exported

across the globe under the Empire.

But there's one thing in particular that's remained

associated with England, and that's cricket!

We're always pleased to see your sporting memorabilia at our valuation days.

Football, rugby, cycling - we've seen it all,

but cricket does seem to have a particular place in the hearts of the Flog It! fans.

Two of our best-loved Flog It! experts,

Adam Partridge and Charlie Ross, are devotees of the game.

So they went along to the MCC museum at Lord's to find out what

makes an iconic piece of cricket memorabilia.

MUSIC: Test Match Special Theme "Soul Limbo" by Booker T & The MGs

When did your love for cricket start?

-From a very small boy I was playing with a cricket bat.

-Yeah.

Introduced by my father, of course, like most of us were.

-Then you went on and played at school?

-At school, Ealing Cricket Club,

played for the Taverners, I have my own company team that we play.

-And you're captain?

-Of course I'm captain!

-Can I bring my team along?

-Perhaps you could.

-Challenge!

-There we are.

What about you, tell me about your cricketing history.

I'm a mad, mad enthusiast for cricket

but I'm also an extremely poor player of cricket.

-I don't believe that.

-It's true.

I was quite good when I was about 15 and I opened the bowling at school

and I remember being quite fast and I just got steadily worse, really.

-You're a member here, are you not?

-33 years I've been a member here.

As a member here you have certain privileges and you opened

a few doors for us today like the door to the museum, hopefully.

It's a general misconception that the museum is not open to everybody.

Anybody can visit the museum.

People from all around the world come to the museum to see the wonderful exhibits.

# I don't like cricket... #

As well as being the spiritual home of cricket, Lord's also boasts

a staggering collection of over 15,000 pieces of cricketing history.

This looks like a bit of old wood, doesn't it, to the average person?

To some people it will and they'll wonder why we are getting so excited about this.

There's a name on the back, what's the name?

-Dr WG Grace.

-Dr WG Grace.

-The most eminent Victorian.

He was, he was an enormous man and he was a doctor

and had a huge great beard.

-And a great celebrity of the period?

-He was.

He played for England in the first ever Test match

here in England against Australia in 1880.

-And, I don't know...

-Do you remember that game, Charlie?

CHARLIE LAUGHS

How dare you!

It's absolutely wonderful and it's dated 1901.

That's the king of cricket names.

If you're looking for things today, if you're looking at current players in the England team,

-people like Cook, people like Pietersen...

-Mmm.

If you are lucky enough to get them to sign a bat,

even if it's a bat they haven't used,

get them to sign it, tuck it away.

Do you know what, Charlie, they sign more nowadays, don't they?

Players are constantly signing, so I don't know

-if they are ever going to be as important as anything like this.

-They won't be, you're quite right.

Serious collectors in any field are always on the lookout for oddities.

The more weird and wonderful, the better.

In 1936 there was a game here

and a chap from Cambridge University, Jehangir Khan,

was apparently bowling and killed the sparrow mid-flight

on the way to the wicket.

Either that, or the batsman hit the ball into the sparrow.

I think it's a romantic story because no-one really saw this happen. They just...

-Did they not?

-..found a dead sparrow.

THEY LAUGH

It's a great example to show the eccentricity of the game.

What makes this particularly special,

-this is very well-known throughout the cricketing world.

-Yeah.

Therefore, the provenance would have given it value.

I think it's a wonderful item. I'm just glad it's not a partridge!

This is the complete collection of the world's most famous sporting book.

You've got quite a sizeable collection, haven't you, Charlie?

I've got over 100. This is the cricketers' Bible.

If you want to know anything about anybody that played Test cricket,

school cricket, minor county cricket, anywhere in the world,

you'll find them in the Wisden's Almanack.

A full collection like this would be worth well in excess of £100,000.

-This year, 2013, is the 150th edition.

-It is. It is.

Why do you say that with a grin on your face? Come on?

I've got to show you, if I may.

-You're not one of the five cricketers of the year, are you?

-I'm not quite Charlie, no.

-I am in the Cricket Around The World section.

-Wonderful!

-For Poland.

-Are you Polish?

-My mother's Polish.

-I have played cricket for Poland.

-You're an international cricketer?

-I am.

-Shake me by the hand, that's marvellous. I never, ever realised.

"In 2008, an 11 made up of players of Polish descent,

"starring auctioneer Adam Franciszek Partridge

-"from BBC antiques show Flog It!"

-That's absolutely marvellous.

A, we've got Flog It! in there and B, coupled with your name.

It shows how cricket has travelled to countries, emigration has

taken cricket to other places where they've never thought of it.

Who would've thought Poland would play cricket?

-How do you feel seeing the Ashes there?

-It's so small!

So tiny for such a famous object.

The most famous cricketing object in the world.

-Perhaps we should explain why it's called.

-When did it all start?

This came about as a result of England losing to Australia

for the first time on home soil.

-It was a matter of national disgrace, wasn't it?

-In 1882.

It certainly was. It had never happened before.

This was the end of cricket.

So a sporting newspaper did an obituary for English cricket

saying it had died that day and the body was going to be cremated

-and the Ashes were going to be sent to Australia.

-Yes, indeed.

-An England team went to Australia.

-The next time they toured.

The next time they toured

and, actually, England won when they were ahead 2-1 in the series.

The Ashes were then presented to the honourable Ivo Bligh

and so he then brought back the Ashes of English cricket.

It's only ever left here once, has it not?

I think it's only been to Australia once in its life. Otherwise, it lives here.

This is completely priceless.

I don't think anybody could put a value on that. It is a one-off.

Well, it's not every day that our Flog It! event throws up

something that's worth many thousands of pounds,

and when it does, we like to follow it up on Trade Secrets.

So here's what happened when Michael Baggott met Ann

in Lincoln back in 2012.

I went along to Flog It! at Normandy Hall in Scunthorpe to flog

what I thought was African artefacts.

Ann, you're obviously not a lady to be messed with.

No, not at all!

Not with all these lethal weapons on the table in front of me!

They don't look like the sort of things you'd have gone out

and bought intentionally.

No, a friend gave them to me.

A family member had brought them back from Africa some years ago,

so they've been handed down to him.

There were two spears and an axe and a shield and we thought they

were African origin, we thought they'd been brought back from Africa.

There were two sorts, broadly, two main sort of tribal artefacts.

The first type is items that were made for use.

The others are those that are made for the tourist market.

-Right.

-So this group, to me, has a look of functionality about it.

I've no idea of the value of the items. No idea whatsoever.

We took them along because they've been stored in

a cupboard for years and just to see, you know, what they were worth.

I think this, to me, this shield and the calabash are the nicest things.

I think as a group let's put them in at...

£200-£400.

-Really?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Gosh!

Tribal art is a very difficult thing to value,

so a nice broad estimate reflects the fact that you're saying

to the person, "Well, it's really up to you what you

-"think they're worth," and they'll make their bids accordingly.

-OK.

1,100 by the door. £1,100.

We went off to the auction

and we was having a nice day, just looking around and enjoying the day.

-At £400.

-GAVEL BANGS

When it was time for us to go on, we joined Michael and Paul...

Going under the hammer right now

we have a little group of ethnographica.

You're probably thinking, "What's he on about?

"What's ethnographica?" Well, Ann can tell us, can't you? And who have you brought along?

-This is Lewis.

-Hello, Lewis, shake my hand. How old are you?

-11.

When it came to our turn to go on, it was just amazing.

Let's get straight to this, we've got all the telephones and the net.

ALL the telephones? Nice property!

Who's going to stop me first, put me straight in at £500?

500, whose first?

It went straight in at £500, so it was a really nice feeling.

I thought, "Oh, this is really good!"

850, 900... 900, 950 bid...

And on it went. And then it started going up in the thousands...

-4,200...

-It's £4,200!

4,600. 4,600 now. 4,600.

4,800 now. 5,000 bid.

At that point I was oblivious to everything that was going on

around me, I was just amazed.

I'm looking for 10,000.

10,000 bid. 11,000, may I say now? 11,000 bid.

The bids were coming through

on the telephone and on the internet

and from Australia, France...

20,000 bid.

£20,000!

SHE LAUGHS

22,000 now. 22,000. 24,000 now. 24,000.

The excitement in the room, it was buzzing.

The whole room was buzzing and everybody was just amazed.

28,000.

-At 28,000.

-I'm shaking.

-£30,000, may I say now?

30,000. 32,000 now.

At £30,000. My original telephone bidder is in at £30,000.

Is there anyone else now?

And then when it reached the 30,000 and the hammer went down, it was

just incredible.

Lot sold! £30,000!

The whole room, everybody started applauding and...

Lewis, high-five!

Just unbelievable.

£30,000! That is absolutely incredible!

I'm shaking, look!

Wow!

-We just got £30,000!

-I can't believe it. I can't believe it.

Missed something. Missed something really big.

I'm flabbergasted. I really don't know what to say.

It turned out the winning bid came all the way from Australia,

where an eagle-eyed curator at Sydney's Primitive Art Museum

spotted the shield on the auction website

and recognised it as Aboriginal Australian.

Once I received the money,

cos it's hard to believe

until you've actually got the cheque in your hand,

I popped it in the bank and I treated the children.

I'd been refurbishing my dining room,

so that was done far quicker than I'd intended.

On the day, we had a wonderful experience at the auction

and at the valuation. It was amazing.

I'd recommend people to do it. Just take their items, cos who knows?

They might be as lucky as I've been, and you just don't know what

you've got hidden in them cupboards and in your attic.

High-five!

Well, if we've learnt anything on Flog It!,

it's "take nothing at face value."

And I hope we've inspired you to take a closer look

at some of the things you have lying around your home,

especially if they've travelled thousands of miles to get to you.

Well, that's it for today's show.

Do join me again soon for more Trade Secrets.