Decorated Flog It: Trade Secrets

You've been coming to our "Flog It!" valuation days

for well over ten years now, bringing in all manner

of wonderful things to put our experts through their paces.

Will you be there at the auction?

-Of course.

-Yes, so shall I.

-Yes, good.

And during that time, we've helped you sell

around a million pounds' worth of antiques and collectables.

GAVEL BANGS

-We'll take that. Well done.

-Thank you.

And along the way, we've all learnt a great deal

about the items that have passed through our hands.

In this series, I want to share some of that knowledge with you

so stand by to hear our trade secrets.

The world of decorative antiques and collectables

is endlessly fascinating.

There's something for every taste and fashion,

from the good...

to the bad...

and the ugly.

So, on today's Trade Secrets, we're looking at decorative items,

which to leave alone and which are worthy of closer inspection.

Coming up, James discovers a giant item with big problems.

I just thought, "Oh, no!"

Elizabeth gets to grips with the ancient art of enamelling.

-If you put it straight down...

-It's exciting, isn't this?

-Yes!

It's deja vu as Philip is put under pressure.

-Four weeks ago, I was watching "Flog It!"...

-Yeah.

..I saw that and it made £200.

And Anita hits the jackpot.

-Yes!

-£1,200!

Some of the decorative things we surround ourselves with at home

have no practical use, like ornaments for instance.

They're there just to look good.

But by their very nature, some of them are of very high quality,

and time and time again they turn up at our valuation days

so here are some tips on what to look out for.

What I like, you might like, he might not like.

You know, we've all got different tastes

as to what makes good decoration or not.

Some people like very little,

some people like it very fussy, very elaborate.

Does the shape and the decoration work together?

Because if they don't, it's going to be hard on the eye.

If they do, it's going to look a treat.

Wow! Don't just think,

"Oh, that's quite nice. I'll have another look at it."

It's got to hit you.

If you're trying to find the very best of decoration,

then look no further than Wedgwood's Fairyland Lustre ware.

These works by artist Daisy Makeig-Jones,

are riots of stunning, bold colours and fantastical shapes.

-That's hand-decorated.

-You can't imagine, can you?

We don't often see Fairyland Lustre on our valuation days

but when we do, it quickly works its magic.

-GAVEL BANGS

-Yes! Brilliant.

-Good.

-Well done.

'The legendary David Barby was a huge fan.'

Mary, I can't understand that

if anybody owned a piece as beautiful as this

they would wish to sell it.

Does it have unhappy memories for you, or what?

-I think I was frightened by the figures as a child.

-Really?

-Yeah.

One of the most distinctive things in 20th-century ceramics.

You can tell a piece of Clarice Cliff, for example,

and you can certainly tell a piece of Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre.

Beautifully decorated, very intricate,

always got fairies on it of course,

and under this beautiful lustrous glaze.

This design is called Paradise Garden and if we look at the outside

it's full of fairies in the most exotic settings.

-This is the one that you disliked, is it?

-Yes, that's right.

-The goblin on the rainbow.

-That's right, yes.

But isn't it beautiful? I love these rich lustre colours.

They used metallic pigments - gold, silver,

copper, et cetera, suspended in oil and then they'll paint it

with these metallic pigments and when it's fired,

you're left with the shiny metallic glaze on the top of it.

What I find extraordinary is the use of gilt work inside.

In the arcades, we have views of exotic buildings,

like distant Constantinople, of minarets and towers,

but we also have those black fairies with green wings.

David estimated £1,200-£1,600.

Truth or fairy story? Time for the auction.

Five phone line books, there's serious interest from the USA,

and the website has been going crazy.

The internet's been going "whirrr" all over the world for this one.

Let's find out. This is the one we want, this is the big one.

This is the Wedgwood Fairyland bowl.

I'm going to start the bidding at £1,300. Is there 1,400 in the room?

1,400, 1,500, 1,600, 1,700,

1,800, 1,900,

2,000, 2,100, 2,200.

At 2,300,

-2,400,

-SHE GASPS

2,500, 2,600...

Now I'm tingling.

-..2,700.

-God!

-They really want it.

-£2,700, 2,800.

-GAVEL BANGS

-£2,800.

As decorated pieces go, I do think that Fairyland Lustre is really

right up there with the very best.

Daisy Makeig-Jones is a big name in ceramic decoration

and it pays to remember that big names often command high prices.

John Piper was another big 20th-century designer.

He's best-known as an official war artist of World War II,

and for designing the glass

during the renovation of Coventry Cathedral.

His artwork can be expensive in the saleroom

but you can pick up a less pricey Piper for your sitting room.

In the 1950s, his work was used to decorate furniture.

It's some sort of photographic reproduction

that is laminated onto the top of that table.

It's accessible fine art, but not everyone appreciates the appeal.

-You gave it to him?

-Yeah. I rescued this from the skip.

-He was going to skip it.

-I was going to skip it.

-You know what this is?

-I do now, yeah.

-About four weeks ago I was watching "Flog It!"...

-Yeah.

..saw that and it made £200. Very similar.

It was. Well, let me tell you, about five or ten years ago,

I wouldn't have known what this is.

It's just a lovely view of London by John Piper.

And it's a real cool thing.

When I started, when dinosaurs walked the earth,

people wouldn't want John Piper tables.

They wanted traditional 18th-century oak tables,

but that's how the business has changed.

As Paul said, we'd seen the same model on "Flog It!" a year earlier.

I think this is great.

Furniture like this was bought really because it represented

everything that was up-to-date - pared-down modern materials.

That's the most important thing of all, I think.

It was sold at Philip's saleroom.

The next item, at £200 in the room.

At £200 and I sell then.

The hammer's gone down. £200, the top end of that estimate.

Why did you get rid of it?

I just needed some room. I didn't know anything about it.

He needed a table so I just said, "You can have it."

-What did the one in my saleroom make? Was it £200?

-£200, yeah.

A little bit better condition than this one but what we can do

is we can put £100-£200 as an estimate on this.

-So, that's all fine, isn't it?

-Sound.

-Right, that's sound.

Sound indeed but will it fetch more than its "Flog It!" predecessor?

1950s coffee table with the John Piper views of London.

-I bid £100. I'll take 10.

-Well done.

-At £100. Is there 10 now?

At 100. At £100.

Any advance on £100?

20 here. Anyone else? At 120.

-GAVEL BANGS

-Hammer's gone down.

I'm pleased with that. 70/50 is a fair split, isn't it?

Well, a little less than we'd hoped for

but the previous table was pristine,

which proves the importance of condition

when it comes to decorative items.

Damage is always going to affect the sale of anything really

and some things more than others.

And I think collectors would rather pay you maybe 50%-100% more

for a perfect one than for one with a bit of damage on it.

Now, on "Flog It!", we're forever making the point

that quality sells always.

With decorative items, quality is often clear from the outset.

Take this German super-sized wine rummer from the 19th century.

Chris, imagine you are a 17th-century lord

and you are hunting for the day, you're coming back to a roaring fire

and you want a great glass of wine to drink from.

This is the sort of thing that you would have had at your table.

Probably not quite as large as this in the 17th century,

but certainly this style.

'This goblet was probably made for a ceremonial purpose,'

certainly not for everyday household use.

It was made around 1870-1890, but the thing that makes me fall in love

with it is the wonderful quality enamelling on the bowl.

If you were looking at this on a canvas done in pure oil paint,

you'd think it was good,

but imagine doing it in enamels that had to be heated and fired.

It's brilliant. I really love it.

It's a pity it's broken but it was broken when we got it.

When it came out of my late mother-in-law's house, it was broken.

I just thought, "Oh, no!"

But I'd already fallen in love with the top

so by the time the foot was exposed, it was just too late.

What's it worth? If it had been perfect,

I think this would have been £400-£600, something like that.

-Yes.

-But it's not. It's still got to be 60-100, hasn't it?

I would have thought so, yes.

I think that the enamel work is amazing.

James and Chris were confident that the decorative quality

of this unusual piece would trump the damage.

But were they right?

It had a great big chunk missing out of the base.

I don't think it even quite stood straight with the chunk missing

so it's not the best start.

What about £100?

£50 for it.

£50, the goblet.

Not the sort of thing I'd recommend putting a reserve on.

This is an impressive thing. £50.

£50. Large green glass goblet.

He's a good auctioneer so he gave it his all.

-Oh, no!

-£50.

-No.

-Oh, well.

-It's not an easy thing to mend, I suppose.

Paintings, furniture, porcelain, silver

can all be repaired fairly easily but glass?

Probably the most difficult of all.

It's a shame for Chris it didn't sell, but perhaps, no surprise.

Quite apart from the serious damage,

where do you put a two-foot wine glass?

When decorating your home, simplicity pays

and what could be more straightforward

than putting up a picture?

Art lover Anita Manning was taken with a fine pair

of maritime scenes brought along to a valuation day by Angela.

-Tell me, where did you get them?

-I found them in a loft.

My husband was a third-generation butcher

and we moved in to become the third generation

and they were in the loft when we moved in.

They are by Adolphus Knell,

a British artist active in the middle to late 1800s.

Adolphus Knell came from a family of marine or maritime painters

so the painting of these subjects was in his blood

and these were well-executed pictures.

They had a luminous quality.

When I looked at the sky and the reflection of the sun on the water,

I could see wonderful quality there.

I really enjoy them.

I would probably estimate somewhere 250-350.

Are you happy to put them to auction at that price?

-Yes, quite happy.

-Yeah.

They were being sold in Bristol and his family came from Bristol,

so it was being sold in the right area.

Fingers crossed. They're going under the hammer.

A pair of oils on board, both signed "Adolphus Knell". Interest here.

250, 280, 300, 320,

350, 380, 400,

420, 450, 480, £500 on the book.

550, 600, 650.

650, 700, 750... I'll take 20, if it's easier for you.

-Listen, it's still going on!

-720, 750, 780...

My estimate was a wee bit conservative.

I can be like that sometimes, but it encourages the bidding.

800. £1,000, thank you.

£1,000 in the room. 1,100, anyone else?

That's incredible.

1,100, 1,200, 1,300?

All done now at £1,200. Selling in the room at 1,200.

-GAVEL BANGS Yes!

-£1,200!

-Brilliant.

Those beautiful paintings would make fine additions to any home,

even if you can't stretch to £1,200, why not check out

a paintings sale at your local auction house?

You might just snap up a bargain and a lovely image to boot.

Taste is paramount when collecting decorative pieces.

It's so...ugly.

You don't have to be an expert to know what you like.

Be wary of damaged decorative items.

Remember, they're made to be admired so if they're chipped or cracked,

like Chris's glass goblet, stay clear.

It doesn't get more decorative than Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre,

but it's much sought-after by collectors

with extremely deep pockets.

This set sold in the UK in 2013 for almost £30,000.

So, if a fairy grants you a wish, you know what to ask for.

During the 16th and 17th century,

bedrooms in grand country houses were of semipublic nature.

So, to get from one room to another, you literally had to totter

through someone's bedroom by opening a huge, great big door

creating a draft, so beds had to be extremely impressive.

Highly decorative, these were the most expensive pieces

of domestic furniture in any grand house.

This one dates back to the 1660s

and it was the height of fashion back then.

The bed itself is of simple construction.

You have a headboard, a framework, four posts

and a wonderful canopy, but the whole thing is beautifully disguised

in yards and yards of the finest fabric

imported from overseas. No expense spared.

It's there to show off and look at the detail in this canopy.

Look at the brocading! That must have taken somebody months to do.

The sprung bed, well, there was no such thing as the sprung bed.

What you actually slept on were ropes.

A series of holes would be drilled around this bed,

around the framework, and ropes would be passed through

and then tightened up into a knot and held there.

And this is where we get the phrase, "Goodnight, sleep tight" from.

To get a good night's sleep,

every now and then you had to tighten the rope up.

The bed boards are known as the dossers

because people slept in a semi-upright position.

Again, look at the brocanting. Highly decorative.

Gilded, as well, up to the hilt sometimes with coats of arms.

It is a highly decorative piece and as a piece of furniture,

well, it doesn't get any better, does it?

As well as decorating their homes, men and women of all cultures

have looked at ways of decorating themselves.

One example, the fearsome warriors of Ancient Britain

terrified the invading Romans by painting themselves blue.

Now, in Georgian Britain, one particular fashion of adornment

grew up, as Caroline Hawley explains.

These are both 18th-century patch boxes.

They would contain patches or beauty spots,

which were actually very important

in the late 18th, early 19th century, not just for vanity

but smallpox was rife in those days

and those that didn't die were left with fairly unsightly scars,

and this was a method of covering up the scars.

They would be made of velvet, very soft velvet,

or sometimes poorer people would have them made out of mouse skin

and they would be cut into the shapes of hearts, stars, diamonds,

and they would be placed on the scars on your face.

These were made in England. Originally, they were made in gold

and beautifully enamelled and terribly expensive,

but that was really the reserve of the very, very rich,

and other people wanted to copy the fashion.

So, consequently these lovely, little boxes

were enamelled on copper and you can see on this one,

which is very badly damaged, sadly, the enamel coming away

and the copper at the base.

They were very often given as love tokens.

Now, this one on top says, "This trifle pleads my constant love."

Sadly, I had to buy this for myself,

it wasn't given to me as a love token but anyway,

what distinguishes these from snuffboxes

is the fact that there's a mirror inside

and you would use that to strategically place your patch.

Something in this condition, which is fairly poor...

I think you could still buy this for well under £50.

Now, this one here is another patch box in much better condition.

This, because it's in better condition,

I think would have a value of 100-200, but in perfect condition,

they would get something between £200-£400 at auction.

But they're very fragile, easily knocked,

the enamel is easily broken.

Now, this one says on top, "Look without and think on me.

"Look within my love you'll see."

That is just so sweet.

I think these are gorgeous.

The word "enamel" derives from the Old German word "smelzan", to smelt.

It's made by fusing powdered glass to a base material,

such as metal or glass,

and then it's fired in a controlled environment.

In the late 18th century,

the proximity of Birmingham's metal producers

and the glassworks of Stourbridge made one Black Country town

a leader in this craft.

Bilston, on the south-east tip of Wolverhampton,

became world-famous for enamelling.

And today it holds a special place in the heart

of expert Elizabeth Talbot, as it's where her mother grew up.

The origin of what I do really stems magically

from the enamels of Bilston

because I grew up surrounded by people who collected and loved them.

As I've got older, I suddenly realise

I need to know more about these beautiful things

for my own benefit, too.

I'm here today at Bilston Craft Gallery to meet with John Grayson,

who is an enamel craftsman.

We've got a lovely selection here in front of us.

-May we have a closer look at some of them?

-Yeah.

The candlestick is particularly interesting because, in its nature,

it's got to be quite a large object, but the technology of the time

only allowed them to fire relatively small objects.

So, that's a very good tip for collectors,

that the earlier pieces would be produced in smaller sections

-because they hadn't got the capacity to make the bigger pieces.

-Yeah.

We've got some patch and snuff boxes at the front.

That's a very good example of transfer printing.

-White coat of enamel, transfer put on, fired on.

-OK.

My two favourites are the dog and the bird.

I really love the sculptural form of those and the painting,

and with my own work, I try to emulate those forms and shapes

and just bring them into the contemporary age

by putting contemporary images

intertwined with these traditional shapes and patterns.

Enamelled goods are a huge area for collectors,

and beginners will find it easy to pick up boxes for about £70.

Larger objects, and more unusual pieces can reach four figures.

If you're keen on contemporary examples,

the simple transfer-printed works are more affordable

than the labour-intensive hand-painted ones.

John has offered to show Elizabeth how it's done.

The first stage is putting some coats of enamel

-onto the metal surface.

-So, the metal is copper?

Yep, and in the Georgian times, they would have used copper, as well.

The enamel, in simple terms, it's coloured glass

-ground down in water.

-Right.

And we're just going to give it a shake.

-SHE LAUGHS

-A certain wrist action there, yes.

-Yep, and that's just to basically mix it up, OK?

-Right.

And I've got a container, and you can see it's quite thick,

a bit like double cream.

I was going to say, it looks like custard from here. Delightful.

And I'm going to pick that up, try and keep my fingers off it

so it's clean and literally just dip it in...

..and let it drain off.

I'm just going to put it on top of the kiln just to dry out

because obviously if you put it straight in the kiln,

800 degrees centigrade is just going to make the water boil instantly

and, at best, you'd have a textured surface.

-The heat from the kiln soon dries it out.

-Yeah.

It's going to go straight into the middle of the chamber.

My goodness. So, that's 800 degrees in there?

Yep, and you can see that the temperature is dropping

-on the kiln.

-Oh, yes.

So, what we're waiting for is for that to come back up

to temperature again, which will take a couple of minutes.

It depends on the size of the piece.

Drumroll.

-Oh, my goodness!

-And there you can see the colour temperature change.

Look at the colour! It is changing in front of my eyes.

-How amazing.

-The colour's going to be quite muted anyway

-because of the contamination from the copper.

-Right.

But if you look at the edges where the enamel is a bit thicker,

you can see that that's what it'll be like

-with the multiple coats all over.

-How many coats would that take?

Probably about five.

John has carefully coated one for the next stage -

applying a transfer.

-The colour is still enamel, so it's glass.

-On the transfer?

-Really?

-Yep, but it's ground much more finely

and it's put in oil, rather than water.

In the Georgian time, they used to print onto tissue paper...

-Really?

-..and then when it's fired, the paper would burn away,

-leaving the enamel pigment on the surface.

-Yes. Yes, yes.

-OK.

-So, you can see actually now it's...

-Oh, yes, a lot of slide.

-Do you want to see if you can...?

-Oh, my goodness.

See how thin that coat is?

-It feels a bit like putting on a contact lens.

-Yeah.

And that's going to go onto the surface of the enamel.

-Do you want to do that one or do I...?

-You can have a go if you want.

-If you put it straight down.

-Oh, there we go.

-Yeah, OK.

Now, you can see because the shape is irregular

and the print was flat, at first it doesn't want to go down

but this is where the stretchiness of the transfer comes in.

-So you can actually start to stretch it to shape.

-Ah, yes.

-It's coming, isn't it?

-Yep.

-It's slowly getting there.

On some Georgian enamel boxes, they just put a print on it,

but the more elaborate ones would either be painted over the top

-to give it...

-Coloured in?

-In effect, yeah.

Like a very, very posh drawing book, yeah!

Or painted directly onto that first coat.

So, having seen it completed to this level,

do you have any that you have already painted and decorated

-in lovely colours?

-Yeah. Yeah.

Well, these are two you might be interested in.

That's one unpainted, just with the transfer.

So, that's the same stage we've just reached?

-Exactly, yeah, but then just stopped at that point.

-Right.

-OK.

And then this one shows a classic example

of how I would then overpaint over the top

-so this lady again was a transfer print.

-Mm-hm.

Exactly the same, but you can see this colour has been added to it,

painted on like you would paint normally,

but it's ground down glass rather than normal paints.

So, do you use very, very fine brushes?

-Very, very, very fine.

-Because it's exquisite work.

-Yeah.

It's wonderful to meet somebody who has brought

this method of production and decoration into the 21st century,

but in very honest and traditional ways, so thank you for your time.

-Thank you very much.

-It's lovely.

I shall go away and relook at the enamels again

with far more satisfaction and understanding

than I even had before today.

The market for decorative ware is buoyant!

-SHE GASPS

-£2,800!

And with so many different fields and techniques to delight the eye,

it's easy to find a niche to suit your own tastes.

On a canvas, done in pure oil paint,

you'd think it was good, but imagine doing it in enamels.

I hope we've encouraged you to explore

the wonderful world of antiques and collectables.

And join us again soon for more Trade Secrets.