Glorious Georgian - Part 2 Flog It: Trade Secrets

Over the years on Flog It!

you've brought us thousands of items and we've valued and helped you sell

around £1 million worth of antiques and collectables,

so it comes as no surprise that we can give you the inside track

on buying and selling antiques.

Welcome to Trade Secrets.

On today's programme, we'll be showing you how to spot

the best of glorious Georgian.

Georgian design has stood the test of time to become classic.

There were four King Georges on the throne,

reigning from 1714 to 1830,

and each king has brought along subtle changes of style.

Coming up, our experts show you

what antiques offer the best Georgian buyability.

You can furnish your home with Georgian furniture cheaper

than you can by buying it retail and screwing it together yourself.

And we teach you how to spot a neoclassical treasure.

This is an extremely elegant figure.

When you look at the detail, the hair, wonderful.

You've got this distinctive sort of Greek key pattern.

It's part and parcel of the neoclassical movement.

And our experts find rare items that get their hearts racing...

These are fabulous.

..and make some amazing prices.

We're looking at all kinds of Georgian items.

So, what other tips can our experts give us

about buying the best of Georgian?

By definition, I think,

anything that has survived from the Georgian period

is going to be collectable, because there is less of it about.

You can buy a pair of beautiful bright cut sugar tongs.

You can buy a lovely individual potted Worcester tea bowl.

It just is the most wonderful time in antique history.

The 18th century witnessed the first Industrial Revolution,

when modern manufacturing got under way.

It was a time of innovation and experimentation,

and that's very much reflected in the items

that were made during that period.

Here are some of the most interesting pieces

our experts have found.

In 2008, Charlie was lucky enough

to find some intriguing magic lantern slides

which brought the era into sharp relief.

These are fabulous.

They're magic lantern slides, but they're early 19th-century.

Most of the ones we see are 1880, 1890,

and I think you can put these back another 50 years,

nearer 1800 than 1900.

To find any slide that is hand-painted

as opposed to transfer printed

adds to its value hugely.

I've pulled out three examples.

-One of which is mechanical - and I'm sure you've seen this.

-Yes.

Wind the handle and it gives the most wonderful patterns.

And here, we've got a boxing fight.

Quite...

THEY LAUGH

Anything that moves, and even a kaleidoscopic one that forms

different colours and shapes, adds to the value hugely,

because they're rarer.

The trouble is the arms are fixed at an angle to the body,

so it's actually quite difficult to land a blow.

Uh...

Whether, of course,

it looks better when you've got a light shining through,

if it's projected onto the wall and they become life-size,

then I should think it becomes a lot more fun.

-Yeah.

-And another one we've pulled out here are some caricatures.

Now, the thing about these early magic lantern slides,

these are hand-painted, and you can feel,

if you run your hand along the back, the texture of the paint

on the back of the glass, and then smooth the other side.

As I've said, unfortunately, we've got some bad-condition ones there.

And that, of course, happens more with the hand-painted ones

than the transfer-printed ones.

Condition is very important, and certainly,

if you have a hand-painted slide and the paintwork is chipping off,

the image will be spoilt.

Condition, condition, condition - hugely important.

I think if you collectively put the whole lot together,

you're looking at £100 to £200's worth,

which is not bad for pulling it out of the loft,

if you're happy with that - would that be satisfactory?

Yeah, yeah.

I think, like anything,

if you can see something the like of which you have never seen before,

it's going to be more valuable.

If somebody's looking at something, saying,

"I've got one of those, he's got one of those"...

If you find something truly quirky

and you haven't seen it before, how do you put a value on it?

So what value did the buyers put on the rare Georgian slides,

being sold in a lot

along with a microscope?

170. 180. 190. 200.

And 20. 240...

-What? Ooh!

-We must have missed something, Charlie.

£340 here.

Quite sure? At 340.

-£340.

-Proper job.

-Proper job! That's what they say.

-That's a fantastic result, isn't it?

-It is.

You'd have settled for the 100 quid, really, wouldn't you?

-Well, yes.

-80 quid discretion.

-I wouldn't have minded 80!

£340 for those beautiful slides - fantastic!

To look for that early hand paintwork,

run your hand gently along the slide to feel for ridges,

and don't forget, you really want to find them

with little damage to get the best value.

Although somebody obviously fell in love

with these slightly damaged slides.

The Georgians really loved their playthings, and in 2009,

Adam came across an item that may be described as an early desk toy.

The Georgian brass cannon -

it's a boys' toy for the desk, really.

And of course, in Georgian times,

we've got Nelson and all the great battles, haven't we?

So, a cannon was a real good object for a gentleman to have on his desk.

-I got this one from a charity shop.

-Did you? How long ago?

-About 18 months.

-18 months.

-How expensive was it?

-£1.90.

-£1.90?

-Yes.

Yeah - and now you're selling it.

It appears to be a Georgian cannon.

It's a very nice piece of brassware, isn't it?

A good piece of workmanship

and as you say, you've got the George III cipher there.

There was a lot of brassware made, from coal buckets to fire irons

to ornaments, so brassware was quite prolifically seen in Georgian times.

-Any idea what it's worth?

-Not really.

Well, I'd estimate that at £30 to £50 at auction,

and I think it'll probably make that, perhaps a little more.

It's a miniature example.

The big ones on the big cast iron stands can make hundreds of pounds,

even sometimes thousands of pounds.

There's quite a cross-over of collectors

that may be bidding on that cannon,

but I think the main ones would be the military gents

and things like that that would probably want

to own a desktop cannon.

I can't see many ladies bidding on it -

and I'm not sexist in any way - but I think most of the viewers

watching will think, "That's going to be a blokey item, really."

Well, Adam, there were some men - or women - out there at the auction,

willing to pay for their very own Georgian cannon.

At 35, 40 upstairs.

Five, 50, five, 60, five.

70, five...

At £70 in the gallery. Your bid, sir, at £70.

For the lot...now 75.

80, five, 90, five.

At £90, still in the gallery, at £90 - are we all done at £90?

Yes! £90.

That's fantastic. Quality always sells.

Not bad, for something that cost £1.90p.

The brass cannon, 200 years old or so, only estimated at £30 to £50,

seems great value.

On the day, it made £90, which was a pretty strong price,

but have a think - where else can you find something charming,

handmade like that for just under 100 quid?

Small Georgian playthings may appear modest,

but can have a really avid following, so keep your eyes peeled.

You could turn a huge profit, like David.

The Georgians were great craftsmen, especially when it came to silver,

and some names have really stood the test of time,

as Michael demonstrated with these wine labels.

-"B" for brandy, "G" for gin and "R" for rum.

-Yeah.

These are fully marked for Birmingham,

and with Birmingham wine labels at this period,

you always get a full set of assay marks.

Birmingham has had a long association with silver,

and even today, the Birmingham Assay Office is, I think,

the one assay office in the country

that marks the most silver.

-In this case, the "JW" is for Joseph Willmore...

-Yeah.

..who made all sorts of small work.

He made boxes, caddy spoons,

all manner of things will bear his mark.

He was quite a large firm, and we've got the date letter for 1707-1708.

Yeah.

You'll find a lot of wine labels by him,

a lot of boxes - snuff boxes, vinaigrettes, card cases -

and bizarre things - toothbrushes and tongue scrapers -

if you look hard enough.

They're a pair.

Then we get this one, and you said you had trouble identifying this.

Because there's no town mark, I couldn't work out the date letter.

Small articles at this time don't necessarily bear the town mark,

and you get stub marking. The maker is "JS".

There are a couple of makers - it's probably Josiah Snatt,

who was also a caddy spoon maker.

-And that's for London, 1812.

-Oh, right.

So...yeah, that really confirms what I thought,

that maybe that one had been made up to go with the other two.

Well, this is it, you see,

because even though these were made in Birmingham

and this was made 100 miles away in London,

it's still got exactly the same script.

-Yes.

-So someone has obviously bought these

and, four or five years later, commissioned that.

Sometimes, people like Snatt made pieces for other goldsmiths

that required them and they over-stamped their mark on theirs.

So if you see something and you think, "Oh, that's by Snatt",

and it's another silversmith's mark, if you look very hard, you might

just be able to see the original silversmith's mark underneath that.

-I think we should put them into auction for £70 to £100.

-Yes, yes.

We'll pop them in for auction.

-Thank you so much for bringing them in.

-Excellent.

Did anyone want to take home some fine silversmithing

by one of the era's most valued makers?

80, 90, 100.

Bid's still with me. At £90. Give me 100.

-Oh, come on...

-Make no mistake, all done at £90.

-£90.

-£30 each.

-That's not bad, is it?

There is an argument that sometimes,

if you've got a very domestic form of an object,

at the lower end in a collectable area that is quite rare or niche,

like wine labels, don't necessarily put them into a wine-label sale,

because they'll be the worst lot there.

Take them out and put them into a general auction

and then they're the only wine labels in that sale

and they might attract a little more interest.

So it's a delicate balance to judge right.

If you think you've got a Josiah Snatt piece,

but it's got another silversmith's mark on it,

take a closer look - if you can see the "JS" mark has been over-stamped,

you might well be sitting on a sought-after Josiah Snatt.

Every now and then, something comes along

which really conjures up the Georgians.

Claire Rawle came across a stunning spectacle collection

rarely seen on Flog It!

Spectacles, as we know them, as we recognise them today,

really came to the forefront

in the Georgian era.

So we've got different types here.

The earliest ones are these wig spectacles. They date...

Well, they will go back to the Georgian times, early 19th century.

I mean, obviously,

only very wealthy people could afford to have glasses and lenses.

So these were really made in the days when people wore wigs.

Georgian spectacles are of the very traditional, round-framed sort.

But they also had a very pronounced "C" that went over the nose.

They had straight arms,

which literally went straight through the wig,

not round the back of the ear, because they couldn't get at that.

So, those tend to be the more traditional Georgian style.

You have a little ribbon going through the loop.

That would sort of hang round your neck

and then you sort of put it up and put it on -

very attractive, isn't it?

Then we come on to different types here.

These are known are lorgnettes and they're rather fun.

George Adams designed the lorgnette,

which is the spectacle you hold up to your eyes on a bar,

which we probably associate more with the Victorian era,

but it was a Georgian innovation.

I always have this image of grand ladies,

who would sort of pick it up and sort of peer at you

in a rather imperious way.

These tended to be quite decorative -

there's a little pair at the top here, in gilt metal.

Really pretty, but obviously not for you.

No - so, it's time to move them on. They are quite saleable.

My feeling is probably about £80 to £120.

And the bulk of the value is going to be in the decorative lorgnette

and the earlier spectacles.

So if we work on a sale estimate of £80 to £120,

and I'd suggest a reserve of £70.

What did the buyers think of this unique collection

that captured a little touch of the era?

We can open at...£130.

-Oh!

-Straight in. Look at that!

Ooh!

140, 150, 160.

150 on a commission. 160 anywhere else?

At £150 for all the spectacles, £150 it shall be.

160 anywhere else?

At £150, then...

£150. That's good, that's a great result.

-Straight in, good top-end result, £150.

-Yeah, pleased with that.

Items that show social history, if you like - how people lived,

what they did with their lives - I think will always sell well.

Not necessarily for a fortune,

but there will always be an interest in how people have lived

their lives previously and something that's intrinsically shows that.

So, keep your eyes peeled for the telltale C-shape to identify a pair

of Georgian specs, and you could be looking into the past yourself.

So what have we learnt about collecting

from the glorious Georgian era?

Georgian items which encapsulate the times are highly prized

and could fetch you a good profit,

so look out for the curious and the unusual.

And if you're lucky enough to come across magic lantern slides,

remember - the ones that move are the rarer

and therefore more valuable.

Georgians love their silver, so you have a huge range of items

to look out for, from terrines to tankards.

Examine the hallmarks,

which will tell you whether you have a Georgian piece

and if you have silver by one of the good makers.

But if you want something fun and affordable,

look for the small objects made of brass -

there are plenty of those about and they won't hurt your pocket.

If you had to choose one precious thing

from among all your possessions, what would that be?

I put that question to Flog It! expert, Caroline Hawley.

My Georgian bureau, complete with its wonderful mahogany veneers,

its string inlay, its coloured boxwoods,

its Prince of Wales feathers, its splayed French bracket feet,

it's gorgeous.

I absolutely love it.

It's classically Georgian quality and I adore it.

You can furnish your home with Georgian furniture

cheaper than you can by buying it retail

and screwing it together yourself.

And if you've got a brain, that's what you'll be doing.

One of the words our experts like to bandy about on Flog It!

when talking about Georgian objects is neoclassicism.

The late David Barby was no exception.

I love the period, which is the late Georgian period.

All this is very much of the style prevalent in that period,

which was neoclassicism.

But what does it really mean? And how can we identify it?

From the 1750s in Europe,

archaeologists were starting to make some major discoveries

about the ancient world.

Quickly, young men of means from Britain

embarked on what became known as the Grand Tour,

in which they visited Greek and Roman ruins,

observing first-hand the skills of the ancient designers.

They brought these ideas back here

and they were soon incorporated into new architectural designs,

known as neoclassicism,

although the term wasn't coined for another 100 years.

They great homes of Britain were festooned

with ancient Greek and Roman-style columns,

symmetrical fronts and cornices.

But it didn't end there.

Names we know today, like Chippendale and Wedgwood,

also took on these new designs,

making furniture and ceramics which were light and elegant.

For any of you interested in collecting items

with a neoclassic twist, like that teapot,

the main characteristics are easy to spot,

like on this Grecian-shaped vase,

the ultimate symbol of the classical world.

Look out for swags and festoons, beading and strange creatures

and classical figures, like this Meissen piece.

This is an extremely elegant figure.

When you look at the detail, the hair...wonderful.

You've got this distinctive sort of Greek key pattern.

It's part and parcel of the neoclassical movement.

A neoclassic piece by one of the masters like Royal Worcester

recently sold at auction for a record £12,000.

But also look out for the Georgian-inspired classics

by Wedgwood and Royal Derby.

So good luck recognising a neoclassical item

and holding it in your hands -

a small Georgian piece inspired by the ancient classical world.

On the show, we've looked at the items Georgian people

used in high society to indulge their passions.

But I've always wanted to know what life was really like

for these upper classes.

There's one Georgian figure whose story gives us a fascinating glimpse

into the past, and I was lucky enough

to visit her home of Chatsworth House.

She, of course, was Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire.

The south sketch gallery of the house was full of artefacts

that Georgiana bought or collected herself -

in fact, it's dedicated to her.

She was a celebrated beauty, a socialite,

and famous for her wonderful sense of style

and political campaigning, but perhaps, more infamously,

for her love of gambling and her rather unusual marital arrangements.

In 1774, on her 17th birthday,

Georgiana married William Cavendish, who was the fifth Duke of Devonshire

and one of the richest men in the country.

The marriage was an unhappy one.

For many years, Georgiana was unable to produce a male heir,

and after introducing William to her best friend, Lady Elizabeth Foster,

she spent the rest of her life as part of an infamous menage a trois.

And here are the paintings of the two women and the Duke.

This is Georgiana, and she's absolutely stunning.

It was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the 18th century.

This is her best friend Elizabeth - also known as Bess -

again, painted by Reynolds.

And here's the Duke, in the middle, looking rather proud and smug

and pleased with himself - so he should, really, shouldn't he?

They all lived here in the house, and both gave birth to his children.

In fact, the Duke also had a child by a maid who worked at the house.

But finally, Georgiana gave birth to the long-awaited Cavendish heir.

And this three-sided relationship continued,

right up to Georgiana's death,

and then the Duke married her best friend, Bess.

Georgiana's personal situation became even more complicated

during her unhappy marriage when she fell in love

with the second Earl Grey and became pregnant.

We've been given special access to a fascinating letter from this time.

The Duke found out and he exiled her to France, hoping, maybe,

that not many people would find out.

Now, childbirth was risky at this particular time,

for mother and for child.

The survival rate was quite low.

So Georgiana wrote this letter so her son could read this

when he was old enough.

This letter was written in her own blood,

and this explains why she did this.

I know it sounds dramatic, but this was Georgiana. Just listen to this.

"My dear little boy,

"as soon as you are old enough to understand this letter,

"it will be given to you.

"It contains the only present I can make you -

"my blessing, written with my blood."

Incredible.

"God bless you, my child.

"Your poor mother, G. Devonshire."

It's so sad, isn't it?

And as you can see, look...the blood is fading.

The more she's writing, the more it's fading.

It is very melodramatic, but that's Georgiana.

Because she loved gambling -

in fact, she was really addicted to it -

she was in debt all her life.

Here's a summary of some of the gambling debts.

The gambling debts amount to around £61,859.

Now, that's a lot of money back then.

Today, that's equivalent to earnings of, say, £40 million.

Now, they do say you can win some, you can lose some.

But I think she was losing all the time.

Wasn't very good at cards.

She was living on a knife edge, wasn't she?

And obviously here, look - there's a list of all the people working

on the estate, tradesmen and people like that, that haven't been paid.

There's £183, which was a great deal of money.

It took her family decades to pay these debts off after her death.

Georgiana was definitely melodramatic

and terrible with money.

But let's not forget she was a political campaigner,

arbiter of fashion and taste,

and one of the most influential women of the day.

When Georgiana walked into a room, everyone stopped and stared.

She had the most wonderful, alluring presence,

and as we've just seen from her letters, she was a loving mother.

But the time she lived in saw her bound by convention.

But what a fascinating story. I'd love to have met her.

Another thing that tells us a lot about the people,

like the Duke and Duchess,

were the vinaigrettes and the perfume bottles they had made.

We see lots of them on Flog It!

They soaked these beautiful vinaigrettes with perfume

and inhaled to erase the nasty aromas of the Georgian streets.

Chris, this little gem that you've brought along...

Chris brought Michael an exquisite perfume bottle

inlaid with tortoiseshell.

Tortoiseshell, to the Georgians, was our plastic.

It was the one material they had

that, when it was subjected to heat, they could mould and form.

The joy of this thing is really the outside of the case.

If we have a look here, it's tortoiseshell,

which is actually turtle shell.

Tortoiseshell is extremely sought-after,

because it is a beautiful natural material

with a tremendous lustre,

especially when it's mounted with silver.

So they'd pierce all of this out,

and then you'd inlay all this silver work,

and then it's been bright cut afterwards.

So you've got swags and festoons, but there's a surprise

when we open it,

because I have seen many, many of these little cases,

and they don't have their bottles in.

If they do, they don't have their stoppers or they're cracked.

Now, as far as I can see, that's all original.

99 times out of 100, the interior glass bottle is gone,

and you're just left with the case.

So to find the bottle is good.

To find the bottle with its stopper in perfect condition is...

As I say, one in a hundred will have it.

So it's great.

That's a little 18th-century cut-glass scent bottle

that has survived in its original case.

If you pop it back in here, it's not the tightest fit in the world.

-These were made for travelling.

-Yes.

As you're going in coaches or along the street,

it's protected in this little box.

So again, this usually takes a few knocks and damages.

I've given the game away, really, with the date of it.

It is a little 18th-century piece

-and it could date anywhere from 1785, 1790...

-Gosh, that old?

-..up to about 1810.

-Really?

They made a lot of these in Birmingham -

workers produced these in quite large numbers.

-Any ideas what it's worth, then?

-Haven't a clue.

-Yeah.

-Not a cue.

I think, with its original bottle,

and because it's in relatively nice condition,

-we should put it into auction with maybe £100 to £150 on it.

-Really?

Fixed reserve for £100, and I could see two or three people fighting

for that, cos it's a good old proper antique, which I love to see.

Buying or selling any tortoiseshell object which was worked after 1947

is illegal, so check your piece was created before that date.

Quite rightly, nobody trades in modern tortoiseshell,

the turtles are protected and you wouldn't want to do that.

At the time, there were an abundance of turtles,

so it was a natural resource which, sadly, into the 19th century

was over-exploited and now it's protected.

Interest here. A number of commissioned bids.

180, 190, 200, 210 is bid.

Commission bid of 210 - 220, will you?

It's with me - 220. 230. 240.

The book is out with you, sir, at £240.

50, will you?

Book's out, it's in the room, and we're selling at £240.

I wish they could all be as easy as that!

-It was marvellous, wasn't it?

-Phew!

And if you find an item made of tortoiseshell,

make sure you know how to take care of it.

Don't put it in direct sunlight,

don't put it in a very dry atmosphere,

and every so often,

get a little neutral oil, something like almond oil,

just pop it on your hands so your hands are greasy and just rub

the object over, and that will absorb as much oil as it needs.

Leave it for about five minutes and then clean it off.

That will keep it lustrous.

Most importantly, it won't allow it to dry out and split.

Beautiful items like these are why I love the Georgian period so much.

So if you are thinking of collecting Georgian in any of its many guises,

spare a thought for the passionate and even

tempestuous lifestyle of the people who would have been using them.

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.