Writers and Writing Flog It: Trade Secrets

For well over ten years now,

you've arrived in your thousands at our Flog It! valuation days,

bringing all manner of items to put our experts through their paces.

-20 quid?

-Oh, no...

-I'm joking! I'm joking.

And we have helped you sell around a million pounds' worth

of antiques and collectables.

£540! The hammer's gone down.

Now in this series, I want to share some of the things

we've learnt from handling all of those items.

So stand by to hear our Flog It! Trade Secrets.

We are a nation of bookworms, with a history of great writing

which spans centuries.

Some of our most revered historic figures are literary giants.

So, what, might you be thinking, has this got to do

with antiques and collectables?

Well, I can tell you, because today's show is dedicated to

everything connected with writers and writing.

Our story today features eye-popping surprises...

The little police helmet really caught me with my trousers down.

..jaw-dropping auctions...

-You got it for nothing.

-Yeah.

-Had it for a day, made £1,000.

-£1,000, yeah.

..and an awe-inspiring book collector.

If you've got millions of pounds to spend, disposable cash,

you spend it on your passion.

Sandy's passion is women's literature.

These days, many of us do much of our writing on a keyboard

and the computer or the smartphone is our page.

But it wasn't always that way.

The paraphernalia of writing is of enduring interest to the collector,

whether it be blotting pads, pen trays, inkwells, even desks,

we see the lot at our valuation days.

So do you want to find out more?

Well, go and grab a pen and paper, because this is what you need to know.

Collect fountain pens!

Namiki cases,

which are Japanese lacquer, done for Dunhill.

I think they are amongst the most expensive pens in the world.

So if you see one of those, certainly go for it.

Always try and stand back from the crowd.

Don't buy what everybody else has got, try and buy something rare.

Things like very ornate, grand blotters.

Now if you think of the 19th century French ormolu mounted blotters

and desk sets, very decorative, very collectable,

and probably a little bit underpriced at the moment.

So have a look at those.

Good advice from our experts.

On the ground, they come across all manner of weird and wonderful things.

Including one little thriller that Philip found in Stockport.

The little police helmet really caught me with my trousers down.

-How old do you think it is?

-I've no idea.

I know it came from my grandfather.

I think that that dates... Back end of the 19th century.

And I love it, because it is pure novelty.

You just press that there, and lo and behold, there is our little inkwell.

-Yeah, right.

-And it's just such a cool thing.

Writing was an art form and they would produce this little stand

with brushes on it that you wiped your nib on. Nib wipes.

And sometimes they would be in the form of a helmet or a dog or whatever.

So the whole thing they took to an art form.

And these were designed almost to be travelling inkwells,

because once you press that down, like that, it becomes self-sealing.

-Yeah.

-So, there are people who collect inkwells.

They come in all sorts of different forms.

They come in little bags, they can come in the shapes of rugby balls,

they can come in the shape of footballs, cricket balls,

they can come as little dog's heads, they come in 101 different things.

And I guess the bottom line is, the rarer they are,

the more money they make.

I saw a little Gladstone Bag inkwell about that big,

just the same period as this, in an antique shop, priced at £150.

Now, that was mint condition. This has seen a life, hasn't it?

-It certainly has.

-But it's just a fun thing.

And I think it's quite honest for what it is.

I think at auction, I would put a 30-50 estimate on it.

If you have the joy of the internet, someone's just got

to sit at home and click that mouse

and £60 can very quickly become £130.

But think 30-50.

The bobby's hat was auctioned by Flog It's Adam Partridge.

And he was most definitely intrigued.

A few years ago, I had a collection to handle,

a house contents, where he collected inkwells,

and he had well over a thousand different types of inkwell.

I don't recall there being one like this.

-Start in the room. £30.

-30.

-30 online,

5, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 90.

How quick is that?

-At 90...

-He's on fire!

-At 90, in one place... Where is five?

Five, 100, 110, 110 I'm bid. 140, 150, I am bid.

Keep going online. 160, 170, I'm bid.

-It's lovely, isn't it?

-Fantastic!

You see, this is the beauty of an auction.

If two people want something, the sky's the limit.

-SHE GASPS

-At 230.

230, still going. Last chance.

Selling on my books here at 230, you're out online.

Absolutely lovely.

-BOTH: Yes!

-230.

Hats off to you two!

A fantastic return for mum and daughter.

The success of the inkwell shows that novelty items

can certainly prove lucrative.

If the collectors have never seen a policeman's helmet

like that before, it's going to make whatever the collectors

are prepared to pay for it.

And I guess that's what happened on that day.

MUSIC: The Laughing Policeman

It's safe to say that James had never seen anything quite like

the quirky little page-turner brought by Joy

to our valuation day at Coventry Transport Museum.

I have always been a book lover.

Not normal books, but this type of book.

What a fantastic object.

I can just imagine somebody sitting back in their study, in late

Victorian or Edwardian England, pretending to work, the wife is

saying, "Now then, George, you're not out on the whisky again, are you?"

And he'd say, "No, no, no! I don't have any whisky in here!"

-Apart from...in there.

-SHE LAUGHS

What a wonderful way of hiding a bit of tipple in your study.

I absolutely love it.

It has the novelty factor, the fun factor,

-it's useful and it's an antique that looks the part as well.

-Yes.

They are just such fun, because they appeal to that naughty element

of, "Hee-hee, I've got something here that I'm hiding!"

Is it something that you've drunk from in your years?

-LAUGHING:

-I don't think I'd fancy drinking out of it!

-Wouldn't you? Why not?

-It smells a bit musty.

Wouldn't smell musty by the time you'd had a good old malt in there!

Well, let's have a look at it.

The whole thing is bound in what would originally have been

a royal blue Morocco leather.

And it's detailed and stamped in gold here,

and the thing that I love about it is the author is James Dixon.

And James Dixon was a silversmith working in Sheffield

throughout the 19th century.

James Dixon was one of these makers who was just prolific,

a great businessman and this was something he was clearly

very proud of making, because he put his name on the spine.

If we turn there, that gives it away.

We've got James Dixon and Sons of Sheffield,

and I should think that would have been made in England

about 1910, something like that.

The fact that it says "made in England" would indicate it slightly later.

But the overall look is very much an Edwardian look.

The Victorians were really the people who loved the novelty item.

And the Edwardians followed on from that.

So, anyway, it's a great object.

I love it, and it's the sort of thing you would like to see

in a gentleman's library, say, or something like that.

Value - £100-£150, something like that.

-Is that all right for you?

-Yeah, that's fine.

-Good.

# Excuse me, baby but I'm drunk... #

James liked it,

but would the little book of booze leave anyone else intoxicated?

Why are you selling it?

Well, I decided I wanted to come to Flog It!, cos I've been

once before and thoroughly enjoyed myself and enjoyed myself this time.

-It belonged to my dad, you see. He would have so enjoyed being here.

-Oh, Bless.

-Here we go.

-The James Dixon and Sons EPNS spirit flask,

tall, in the form of a book,

and it has got "A Pleasant Surprise" on it.

There we are. The registration marks etc.

And I have got an opening bid on the book, commission bid of £85.

At 85, at 90 do I hear?

At 90, 90, 100?

100, 100. 110.

Good, we're getting the top end.

140. 135. 140.

145. 150. 150. 155.

150, in the front row at 150. Do you want 160 up there?

That's a good, good thing.

£150, gentleman's bid, are we done?

GAVEL FALLS

There you go. Well done, you. Well done, James.

So, the book turned out to be A Pleasant Surprise by name

and a pleasant surprise by nature.

It would appeal to a librarian,

somebody with a good 18th century library of books.

Somebody who might just belong to a rugby club and take it along with

the lads as a bit of fun to try to and sneak into the match here and there.

The fundamental tool of the writing trade is, of course, the pen.

And in 2007 Michael was lucky enough to have a rare example

land on his valuation table.

The ivory pen was one of the most beautiful things

I have ever seen on a Flog It!

It belonged to a dear friend of mine who died back in the last century.

-Oh, right, right.

-Which wasn't as long ago as it sounds.

And I believe it would have belonged to her father.

-Right. She was an elderly lady?

-She was an elderly lady, yes.

Well, the box is always a good place to start.

If we have a look in the cover, it says "to His Majesty the King."

So we know it is after Victoria's death.

But more importantly we've got the name Plant.

And he was the retailer of extremely fine Japanese

and Japanese-inspired works of art at the turn of the 20th century.

And this pen, far from being a fountain pen,

-is really a little miniature work of art.

-It is, isn't it?

I mean, the sleeves, the top and the base

are all carved out of ivory extremely finely.

It required a huge amount of skill to carve that case

because it was very thin ivory,

you haven't got a lot of depth to it.

It was just skill. Beautiful Japanese art at its best.

I'm pretty sure that this black infill

is layers of Japanese lacquer.

It took an age to do this.

The only trouble, of course, because it is ivory, is you've got a split

coming in it there, and there is also a split in the cover.

The cracks made a huge difference to the value

because there's very little you can do with them.

You can reglue them, but the actual material has shrunk

and moved, and maybe you'd have to fill them and file and down,

and it would never be perfect.

As far as the maker goes, the giveaway is actually on the nib.

It says Kokusai, who must have been the maker.

-It's not an English pen?

-It's not an English pen, it's an American pen.

American?

It's an American pen with a Japanese case, sold by an Englishman.

A pen like this, you would expect

to have been made for a very wealthy Westerner.

It's very much a Western object made for export.

The value of it is going to be, let's say, between £200 and £300.

Let's put a fixed reserve of £200 on it.

If you're happy to put it into auction,

we'll go ahead and do that for you, and hope it makes a fortune.

Wow!

Pauline's pen was undoubtedly beautiful,

but would its condition make it a write-off?

And our very own Nick Hall was the auctioneer in question.

The fine quality early 20th century

Kokusai black lacquer and chased ivory pen.

Wonderful thing, a rare thing, but the quality,

it was like I've never seen before in a pen.

May I say 150 to start me?

150 I am bid, thank you. At the desk at 150.

Looking for five now. 155 coming in.

160. 5. 170 I am bid.

New bid at 175. 180. 5.

-190.

-They like it.

190 I am bid. 195, thank you. 200.

£200. And five. 210.

£210 on the desk. Any new bidders?

All done? At 210 with you, sir.

215. You're out at the desk.

New bidder at 215.

-Any further bid? All done at 215.

-GAVEL FALLS

£215, just.

Japanese works of art, they are the pickiest collectors in the world.

It's perfectly legal to buy or sell ivory dated before 1947.

And the pen clearly fell into that category.

But it's the case that great age increases the possibility

of damage to anything, especially something as delicate as ivory.

The crack that was in it, the split,

it just kills it for a collector,

which I think was reflected heavily in the price we achieved.

Now, we don't often get large items into our valuation days,

but Richard from Great Yarmouth bucked the trend

when he brought along a blockbusting piece of furniture.

-Have you got a big car?

-No, I've got a Fiesta.

-A small Fiesta!

-We actually used a trailer.

-Right.

Which my wife's sister's husband drove us here.

-How long have you had it?

-Approximately 24 hours.

-24 hours?

Yeah, 24 hours. We tried it in our house and it doesn't seem to fit.

-No.

-Not our sort of style, really.

-Not your style.

-No.

-It is very ornate and flamboyant, isn't it?

-Yeah.

What we had here was a very ornate French desk

in the Directoire period, so late 19th century French.

But it is modelled on an earlier example,

-a Louis XIV style desk.

-Oh!

Tortoiseshell and brass inlay, which we call Boulle work.

You've got this cut brass inlaid there

against a tortoiseshell ground, or a turtleshell, here.

Now, it is in very poor condition, because it hasn't been cleaned,

-but I like that.

-Yes.

-And you've got these great ormolu mounts on here.

Ormolu mounts are the highest form of gilding.

They're bronze mounts, cast,

and then gilded in a gold leaf.

Sort of tapered square legs.

Can you see the way they taper down and they have still got inlay

and ormolu mounts? So sharp and so untouched.

Throughout the valuation I was sort of fiddling on, opening things,

I had the key in my hand opening the desk, and you do find labels.

And you can be a bit of a detective, an antique detective.

-HE READS:

-"A Boulle and tortoiseshell writing table in the style

"of Louis XIV, inlaid on solid ebony and mounted in fine ormolu."

Oh, lovely.

It would have been bought by an industrialist.

Somebody who had made a lot of money would've bought this desk to show off their wealth.

-We can see the cracks on the top.

-Yes.

And the inlay here has gone.

Ten years ago I could quite happily put 3,000 to 4,000 on it.

Ten years ago. The market has dropped.

In this condition, you could only put 1,000 to 1,500 on it.

-That's what it's worth at auction.

-Oh, wow.

That's quite a lot of money for something...

-For a knackered old desk!

-Yeah.

So, despite the damage, a hefty estimate from Thomas.

The auction was destined to be a cliffhanger.

Number 155 is this wonderful desk here, the tortoiseshell Boulle desk.

£1,000 start.

800, if you like.

There wasn't a sea of hands to begin with when he opened up.

600. 620, 650.

-680, 700.

-(He's getting stuck in.)

720, 750.

It's black, not red.

If it was red tortoiseshell, it would

have been selling really, really well.

Downstairs, the fresh bid is 820, 850.

The auctioneer seemed determined to push the bids to four figures.

It's £1,000 gallery bid, now. £50 wouldn't hurt.

At £1,000 now, it sells on 1,000.

-I'm happy with that, you must be thrilled.

-Yeah, definitely.

-Got it for nothing, had it for a day. Made £1,000.

-£1,000, yeah.

Well, you really can't complain about a result like that.

It just goes to show that auctions don't always go by the book.

Sometimes, despite the vagaries of fashion

and the ravages of time, quality will win out.

£1,000 is still a very good price

cos there was a bit of work to be done.

As we've seen, items related to the written word can come in all

shapes and sizes, but there are some rules of thumb that apply to

collectables, no matter what their size.

When it comes to writing paraphernalia, quirkiness sells.

The more unusual a collectable is, the more valuable it is likely to be.

Novelty items also have the added benefit of appealing to

collectors beyond those who are solely interested in items of a literary nature.

If you've got something at home that was connected with a writer or

a great world event, you could be sitting on a gold mine.

And your item needn't be directly related to writing.

The collar worn by Charles Dickens' dog

sold in 2010 for over £7,000.

And look out for the maker's mark or certificate.

If you've got one, you're more likely to make good money at auction.

In the world of antiques and collectables,

personal stories always add extra appeal.

And for Claire Rawle, reading a family memoir is like

hearing a voice from the past.

What I have here is some copy of type notes

that my grandfather, my mother's father,

typed up about his experiences on the first day

of the Battle of the Somme.

He was a great letter writer because he was basically an Edwardian,

and of course in those days they wrote.

He kept diaries, and I love that,

because by reading something you're in touch with that person.

It's a voice from that person.

So I just got I'd read a bit here.

July 1st 1916, there was this massive push.

The officers were the chaps that sort of got all the fellows

out of the trenches and stood like a decoy, really,

just waiting to be killed, and an awful lot of them were.

And he says here, "I was standing on the parapet of Bund trench

"spacing the waves out as we move to assault Pommiers trench

"when Meaker ran across to me rather breathless.

"'For gods sake, Sir', he gasped, 'don't expose yourself so much.

"'Don't you realise that I have got to carry on if you are potted?'

"It struck me as being a funny way of putting it, especially

"as by standing there he was exposing himself to the same risk."

And it's just the thought that there are these chaps standing

having this sort of altercation,

both of them in direct, you know, enemy fire.

And then it just goes on, and it's an account of how

he pushed through and cleared the trenches and ended up

him and literally a couple of others because everybody else had been wiped out.

And he just sounds so brave.

I think the written word by the ordinary person will give you

a greater grasp on what was really happening in history.

There is quite a high value on original documents,

so whilst obviously these to me are more than money, I mean,

this is very, very precious, there are things that

come on the market and they do make an awful lot of money.

OK, here's a question for you:

what connects one of Britain's most famous authors,

Jane Austen, from about 200 years ago, to the modern-day, the present

phenomena of the internet, e-mails, computers, laptops?

Well, I can tell you.

It is this place, Chawton House, once her brother's home.

Now owned by a Silicon Valley millionairess.

You probably haven't heard of her, but American computer expert

and entrepreneur Sandy Lerner bought Chawton House in Hampshire in 1992.

Although she has never lived here,

she's spent eight years and £10 million

turning this rundown shell...

..into this restored architectural delight.

Looking at the house today it is a labour of love,

and love is how it started.

The legend is that Sandy Lerner made her money by inventing a new

computer system so she could send her boyfriend romantic messages.

Now, that story was just clever PR, really,

but the work was a huge leap forward in computer development,

and it made Sandy Lerner a multimillionaire.

So, what's that got to do with Jane Austen?

Well, if you've got millions of pounds to spend in disposable cash,

you spend it on your passion.

Sandy's passion is women's literature.

Just look at this incredible collection.

Many of them are first editions or early ones,

and the condition is incredible. Such a sense of history in this room.

Sandy Lerner donated her personal collection

and built an international study centre for women's literature

from the 1600s to the 19th-century.

And now it numbers 9,000 books.

Jane Austen lived nearby in a cottage in the village,

but she often visited Chawton House because this was her brother

Edward's home, and while she was living in the village

she finished Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice,

and started Emma.

And here is a wonderful edition, printed in Philadelphia in 1833.

It just goes to show the worldwide appeal of her work,

and what an accolade for an author, even by today's standards,

to have your work published overseas around the globe,

but back then in 1833...

Emma has descriptions which reflect Chawton House,

and the landscape here is said to have inspired some of the passages.

Some of the characters may even have been

based on the owners of the house.

Now, we've all heard of Jane Austen,

but even before her there were many women making their mark

in a male-dominated world through their writing.

This beautiful portrait is of Mary Robinson.

She was actress who became the mistress to the Prince Regent in 1779.

He later went on to become George IV,

and Mary Robinson later went on to champion the cause of women's rights.

Beautiful woman.

She led somewhat of a scandalous life, yet wrote romantic poetry,

and here in the collection there's a wonderful first edition,

first printed in 1791, of her works.

Now, even earlier than that,

Aphra Behn was one of the first professional female writers,

and this one is titled Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister.

It was an incestuous story, a love story

between a brother and a sister,

so it was incredibly scandalous in its day.

Aphra Behn was born in 1640,

and like most women of her day she had no formal education.

She travelled the globe. Basically she enjoyed life to the full.

She did what she wanted to do.

Sandy Lerner still comes here regularly.

She is a chairman of the trustees. And it's thanks to her dedication

and her passion that members of the general public can come here,

look at the collection, read the books

and learn more about early women's literature.

And if I had loads of money, this would be something I would love to do as well.

It's well worth a visit, so please do check it out.

We're always pleased to see collectors on the show,

so Thomas was delighted to meet up with Sue who brought along something

rather special to a valuation day in a very appropriate setting.

# Mamma's taking us To the zoo tomorrow

# Zoo tomorrow zoo tomorrow

# Mamma's taking us To the zoo tomorrow

# We can stay all day We're going to the zoo. #

Sue, you've brought along a bear.

You didn't think there were enough animals in London zoo.

-No, not really.

-So you have brought your own with you.

-Yes.

Tell me about your bear, how did you come by him?

Well, I bought him in a charity shop about 20 years ago.

I have got another bear, a much smaller one,

which is how I knew what sort of bear it was.

It was a Royal Copenhagen bear.

Everything produced by Copenhagen in my opinion is wonderful.

-Let's see what he makes.

-Yes.

Where shall we start this? £50 to go?

£50 to start me. 50 I am bid.

60. 65.

£65 I am bid.

£70 in the corner. £70 it is, then.

-GAVEL FALLS

-There we go.

-It sold.

-And you are happy, are you?

-Yes, I'm happy.

I quite miss the bear, but it took up a lot of space on the shelf.

And shelf space is a precious commodity for Sue, because

she's an avid collector of books.

My main area is really second-hand children's books,

old children's books from about the 1920s to the 1960s and '70s.

They're mostly the ones I remembered reading as a child,

but they weren't my copies, they were library copies.

But when I discovered you could buy second-hand books,

which are a lot cheaper than new books, I haven't stopped,

and I'm always adding better copies to my collection.

This one's one of my favourite books - Mystery at Witchend.

And I only paid 10p for it. It's quite amazing.

It's a first edition and quite hard to find,

and especially with its dust wrapper.

The easiest way to start collecting books is to sort of look around

where you are, look at charity shops, jumble sales, car-boot sales.

There's more people looking for fewer books now.

And it's always the ones that they didn't print so many copies of,

they're the ones that everybody wants.

Certainly the Harry Potter ones,

the first edition of the first title, there was

quite a small print run for the first title

because the publishers weren't sure that it was going to be popular.

And a friend of mine had a first edition, but she'd read it,

and it wasn't in very good condition. I think she even read it in the bath.

And she sold it for a few thousand pounds, and then bought a paperback.

The only thing with children's books is that children read them,

so they are not always in good condition.

And if you're collecting first editions,

you want it in good condition with the dust wrapper.

And that's often the first bit that gets worn and gets discarded.

It's best to collect books that you like rather than just buy them

because you think it might be worth something.

Well, there you are, some great advice from Sue there,

somebody who definitely knows her books.

Now, if you want some more inside information on antiques

and collectables, then join us next time for more Trade Secrets.