Decorated - Part 2 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.

-Oh, gosh, he's rather scary!

-He is.

During that time we've helped you sell around £1 million worth

of antiques and collectables.

Thank you.

-Bosh!

-Excellent!

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.

More often than not, when we set up home,

we set about decorating it, too.

Not just with antiques, but with ornamentation -

pictures, mirrors, chandeliers, carpets, curtains.

As William Morris once said,

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

In Trade Secrets today we're looking at decorative items

that tick both boxes - to serve a purpose and please the eye.

Coming up on the show - Philip slips on some tiles.

-They're not hugely valuable.

-140. 150. Keep going.

I meet a couple with a flair for decorating their Edwardian time-capsule home.

It's like a mini museum!

And some Victorian embellishment drives James potty.

I mean, really, it's vandalism in the extreme.

When we speak about the decorative arts,

we're normally referring

to the design and the manufacture of functional objects.

Now, most of what we see at a Flog It! valuation day

falls into this category - your unwanted household items.

So, how can you spot good decorative design?

In every case, it's always the quality that shines out.

So, if you have a piece of marquetry furniture,

where there's an exquisite design in the surface of the piece,

then that's where the value lies.

If you're looking at silver,

an emerging area I would suggest

is the wonderful 1970s designs of Stuart Devlin.

Great designer, innovative, very much of the era, of the period.

His work is always signed, because you get a set of hallmarks.

So, you get that lovely mark stamped in there.

They are rising in value rapidly.

Don't be influenced by other people.

Because somebody else thinks something is wonderful,

don't feel that you need to think it's wonderful as well.

Be individualistic with your tastes.

Functional doesn't have to be dull.

Some vases that Michael found

at a valuation day in Portsmouth in 2012

were certainly not dull.

The vases were obviously Chinese,

which is flavour of the month at the sale rooms.

I spotted you in the queue with these marvellous vases.

They have the signs that we look for in the trade

of private ownership, continuous private ownership.

-Do you know what that sign is?

-No.

-It's specks of white emulsion.

-Ah.

-All over them!

Cos people never used to cover up,

-they just used to do the painting, and you'd get splatters.

-Yes.

-They scream Chinese.

-Right.

But very, very early form of Chinese vessel.

This shape would date back possibly 2,500 to 3,000 years.

These are end of the 19th century.

-Oh, right!

-They're about 1870,

-up to about

-1900. Really?

I didn't think they'd be that old.

We've got cloisonne decoration.

'With cloisonne, you will have wires'

that you apply to a body,

although they can be cast in place when an object is more robust.

In this case, these are quite moderate quality.

You get little pop marks where the glass hasn't quite filled up,

-but they've still smoothed it off.

-I see.

Let's be cautious and say £80-120,

and let's put a fixed reserve of £70 on them.

They won't go for any less than that.

They're a good-looking pair of vases that could brighten up the home

and come in handy.

-What did your grandmother put in them?

-Those huge...

-Remember those huge feathers?

-Yeah.

-Sort, I suppose, '70s, late '70s?

-I know the ones.

-She used to have those.

-Yeah, bright colours.

-Which is a good look, really.

-It is, for an interior designer.

Here we go. Let's find out what the bidders think.

Lot 540 - the Chinese copper vases.

£50... £50, surely.

50 I have. And 5.

55. 65? 70? At £65...

Oh, we need a bit more than that.

We do, I'm afraid.

-At £65...

-Maybe they needed the feathers in them.

65, then, all done.

-Not sold, I'm afraid.

-Sorry about that.

-Never mind.

Look on the bright side, it's not a chest of drawers -

-you don't have to drag that home, do you?

-No.

I was surprised they didn't sell,

because I think they might have even scrapped out as bronze

for the low estimate, but they were the lowest quality of that type.

Objects with a use generally find a buyer,

but with highly decorated pieces, taste is a bigger consideration.

Clearly, this pair didn't hit the spot on the day.

Functional antique silverware

is a firm favourite of the "Flog It!" tables.

We see a huge quantity of cutlery, tea sets and plates,

all with a variety of decorative features to delight the eye.

Of all the things I was expecting to find in Worcester today,

it wasn't a George I solid-silver coffee pot.

Is this something you're using still today?

No, I've never used it.

I was a licensee for many years,

and one day a customer came in and it was that colour all over.

It was absolutely black.

He said, "Jim, I'm short of cash."

I said, "Oh, really. How much?" He said, "I want £100 for it."

-£100, a lot of money.

-It was a lot of money, I thought.

But there you are.

As soon as you find and you see a piece of 18th-century silver,

you think, "Wow, fantastic, let's talk about this."

It's that typical George I shape, tapered cylindrical,

domed cover, spire finial.

Look at that panelled spout.

It goes right the way down to halfway down the coffee pot,

and it's got what's called a skirted base.

That's a classic Georgian style.

But... Here's the but...

This decoration...

Imagine you're sitting in a Victorian house

and all your friends

are having these up-to-date rococo-style coffee pots.

You don't want to buy a new one,

so you emboss and decorate something you already have.

That was made in 1720 but all of this was done in 1860, 1870.

Banging it around to try and make it more fashionable...

I mean, really, it's vandalism in the extreme.

To try and put flowers and scrolls and emboss all these silly things

onto something that was just beautiful when it was made...

Urgh.

If it had been plain, undecorated,

you'd be looking at around £1,000.

But it's not. Let's put a conservative estimate on it.

If we put 300-500...

All right?

The difference between Georgian and Victorian taste

was writ large in this poor, tampered-with coffee pot.

Did the bidders mind?

Lot 355 is the 18th-century coffee pot.

200 bid for that.

210, 220, 230, 240, 250...

Gosh, it's climbing fast.

270, 280, 290, 300 bid.

At £300...

Straight up to the lower estimate.

Is there any more?

At £300, and I sell.

At £300 and done...

Thank you.

Yes, the hammer's gone down. It was a good deal, wasn't it?

Very good. One of my better deals.

-One of your better deals.

-There was a profit.

Why the Victorians couldn't just make their own things

and start with a lump of silver and make something themselves...

Why they had to continuously go back

and mess up something that was perfectly good, I really don't know.

Jim's coffee pot provides a lesson for us all.

Ornamentation can be a blessing to a piece,

but if it isn't authentic, it can also turn off purist collectors.

Just as the Victorians disliked

the Georgian taste for simple, classic lines,

today's buyers don't always appreciate

a piece of quality craftsmanship from the past.

It's in remarkably good condition. 19th century.

-1850s, 1860s, something like that.

-Oh, right.

It's what we call Bohemian glass.

Bohemian glass, because it comes from that part of the world.

I think it would have held something in it, certainly.

It's too big to be unused.

I think it certainly would have had a water, a tonic, something in it.

What happens is...

the glass is blown,

and it's a clear glass.

Then this red ruby you can see around it

is flashed over the glass.

So, the clear glass is blown

and then it's dipped in a ruby glass

and taken out immediately.

It's then shaped and left to cool.

Then, how does the decoration get made?

The wheel engraver comes off and takes away the ruby,

to leave what we see now, and it creates an effect, a 3D effect.

It is very difficult to achieve that 3D effect,

years and years of knowing... Because once you do something,

you can't rub it out.

You're taking away rather than adding.

Each side has an architectural building on it.

Austro-Hungarian, something like that. So that Middle European.

'Karlsbad in the Czech Republic'

certainly has lots of these Bohemian glasses in there,

which have these scenes on them.

They are quite collectible, and I would feel disappointed

if you didn't get between £120 and £180.

Lot 272, Bohemian ruby flashed and engraved decanter.

85, 90, 95, 100.

£100 now, selling at 100.

Got you at 100. Are we all done?

At £100 now.

-It was a struggle.

-Sold on the reserve.

-It sold on the reserve.

We see so much Bezak, Troika and Whitefriars,

and now something quality comes along, wonderfully made...

And much cheaper than Bezak and Troika.

Much cheaper and much rarer.

-But, you know, maybe not so fashionable...

-It's fashion.

Yeah, we're in the fashion business.

How collectible is it these days?

You know, I think we'd be hard pushed to make £100 on it now,

to be candid.

I think this would go really well in a bathroom.

Many decorative objects are more subject

to the vagaries of fashion than purely functional ones.

Dawn, where do you reckon the expression,

"A night on the tiles" comes from? Hey?

That said, a collectible that combines

functional and decorative appeal like no other

is the common or garden ceramic tile.

-How many of these have you got?

-About 30.

-Where are they from?

-Have you been knocking somebody's fireplace apart?

-No.

They was in my nan's house, we removed them from a fireplace,

and then when I got them home I didn't know what to do with them,

so I put them in the loft.

I think these date from around the Art Nouveau period.

And that's typified... If you think of Charles Rennie Mackintosh,

if you think of those stylised Art Nouveau flowers on vases,

they look very much like that, don't they?

See, I do like some tiles,

and I like early Delft tiles that are blue and white

and relate perhaps to, you know, I don't know, 1700, 1740,

but for me, these were just a little bit Victorian,

and I've got to admit,

the Victorian era actually sort of doesn't do it for me too much.

They're not hugely valuable.

I think they're worth between 75 and perhaps a couple of quid apiece,

which is £20 to £40.

-I don't think we need to put a reserve on, do you?

-No.

They're not going to make a great deal, are they?

What will you do if I make 20, 30 quid, is that...?

I want to send me daughter to Australia.

-To Australia?

-Yep. To meet her uncle.

I don't think she's going to get to the bus station on these.

-Every little helps.

-Absolutely.

Did these prove to be famous last words?

30 glazed ceramic tiles.

30 quid, straight in. 30. 32. 35. 38.

You in? 40. 45.

50. 55. 60.

At 60 now.

5 on the net. 70. 75. 80. At 80.

85. 90.

Keep going. 95. 100.

This is exciting.

110. 120. At 120.

I can only assume someone spotted something we missed.

150. 160. 170.

Keep going.

200 now. The net at 200. 220.

240.

At £240. Look at that picture again,

internet bidders, and bid.

260.

At £260. Back on the net at 280.

At £280 now. I sell at 280. Anybody else?

Dawn, you've got to be over the moon with that?

It's amazing.

Cos we were all going to settle for 30 to 40 quid -

no reserve, we didn't care.

Perhaps not all the way to Australia,

but a bit further than the bus stop, eh, Philip?

The £1 apiece, that was clearly silly.

Perhaps it's easy to overlook tiles

as no more than something to be walked on.

But there's clearly a market for the rarer and more collectible varieties

of this most commonplace item.

-Oh, that is wonderful.

-£550.

So what is their appeal?

These were works of art as well.

They were mass-produced like bricks for houses,

but they were tube-lined, they were engraved, they're embossed,

so many techniques of decoration in something just so functional.

I used to collect tiles myself until my mean wife made me sell them all.

If you're in the market for tiles, what should you be aware of?

Look for good-condition ones

and be prepared to pay quite healthily for proper tiles.

You can pay several hundred pounds for an individual tile

if the design is correct and the maker is important enough.

If you've got a name on a tile, anything like that,

if it's particularly decorative, arty, then it's going to sell well.

Here's a name to look out for - Minton.

11 Minton tiles are going under the hammer right now. Quality.

Great ceramics.

£280, that's 30 quid over top end.

Minton pottery began producing ceramic tiles

during the Industrial Revolution.

Both for exterior use on roofs and for inside the home

on floors, walls and furniture.

During the Victorian period, the use of decorative tiles exploded.

As all the big names in pottery

wanted a piece of this lucrative action,

ceramic tiles were produced in their millions

throughout the 19th century.

To this day, millions of homes across Britain

boast tile porches, hallways and fireplaces.

In the early 20th century,

the use of tiles in architecture reached new heights.

London's famous Michelin building,

now a swanky Chelsea restaurant,

astonished the world with its exuberance

when it opened for business in 1911.

At another London landmark, Harrods,

visitors to the food hall can still see a sumptuous display

of Royal Doulton tiles

designed in 1902 by William Neatby.

More recently, tiles have moved from being seen as functional items

to wonderful works of art, in their own right.

This probably dates back to the 1960s and 1970s

when there was a revival in interest in Victoriana and Art Nouveau.

At the turn of the century,

the Arts And Crafts movement began to champion the production of tiles.

Look for William De Morgan - he is without a shadow of a doubt

the most interesting decorator of tiles that I know of.

His work was produced in the late 19th century,

the early 20th century, wonderful deep red, lustrous decorations

of exotic birds, sea galleons,

serpents, really wonderful things.

Nick Hall is not the only fan of William De Morgan.

He was a close associate of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites,

so he was at the very centre of the art world and the craft world

at the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th century.

And he rediscovered the lost techniques

of the making lusterware of the Middle East.

Now, we can see this in this little tile of a galleon in full sail

and this was one of his very common motifs.

We see this red, a ruby lustre,

and what this gives us is depth in the colour,

an iridescent quality which is very, very beautiful.

He also made huge murals composed of many different tiles

of galleons in full sail.

And these are just a wonder to be hold.

If you're hoping to spot a William De Morgan tile,

familiarise yourself with his designs.

There's an array of different marks that you can look at,

you can learn, so a little bit of knowledge,

a little bit of research, you can get ahead of the game

and buy one that's worth twice as much as some of the others.

If you're unlucky you might unearth a gem.

In the room, the bid at 2,600.

2,650.

-All done.

-That is incredible. £2,650.

-Even I am sitting down now.

-Absolutely amazing.

Look for De Morgan, study him, find him,

build a collection, and I think you'll earn money.

One single De Morgan tile bearing this chameleon design

was sold at auction in 2013 for nearly £9,000.

If your pockets aren't deep,

there are plenty of tiles by other makers to tempt you.

Even if you can't afford enough to cover your bathroom wall,

you'll still have a lovely array of artworks.

When you think of decorating a house,

heavy industry doesn't immediately spring to mind.

I went to Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria

to see how people decked out their homes in Edwardian times.

This is Vickerstown,

built especially to house the local shipyard workers.

A house like this is typical of the type a foreman would have enjoyed

and, thanks to its current owners, who have lovingly restored it,

we can see what life was like

back in the early 1900s in Vickerstown.

-And here are the couple, Russ and Nicola.

-Hello.

-Pleased to meet you.

-Pleased to meet you too.

-What a talented couple as well.

-Thank you.

This is so impressive.

Just by first impressions, it's like a mini museum.

-It really is, but the whole house embraces you as well.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Attention to detail!

-Yeah...

-Or spots of it.

-Who's it down to?

-It's both of us.

-We both have got a good eye for things.

-Definitely.

-We both know the same things.

-We both like the same things.

-OK.

Well, obviously, this was very fashionable, this look,

in the early 1900s.

It reminds me of William Morris. You've got the whole theme going on.

How did this come about? You obviously bought the house...

-You're local anyway. You were born and bred here.

-Yeah.

It was very old and dilapidated when we got in.

-Yeah, all the fencing had collapsed.

-It was crying out...

-..to be loved, really.

-Yes.

-It was just in a desperate...

So, obviously, you had to renovate it, but were the skirting boards

and the architraves and the cornices here?

-No, I put all them in myself.

-You're a carpenter by trade.

Yes, I served my time in the yard as a carpenter.

That's really taking it back to sort of where, in the early 1900s,

you would have been working in the shipyard, living here,

maybe as a foreman carpenter,

going to work, and here you are now.

Yeah. Maybe we've lived here before, then.

-Yeah, this could be our second life.

-Ooh, spooky.

How do you take this house, though, into the millennium?

-What's the kitchen like? I mean...

-Well, come and have a look.

-OK.

Oh, wow.

-Nice.

-Very nice! I like the AGA. Obviously you cook on it.

Yeah, we do. Just about. We heat things on it.

THEY LAUGH

So how has this changed? What have you done in here?

Originally, it used to be a small kitchen, half-and-half,

and the bathroom, downstairs bathroom.

-So there was a toilet, bath and sink.

-You've moved that upstairs?

-We've taken that upstairs now.

-So, where are the white goods?

-Well, if you look into that cupboard there.

-Can I look in your cupboard?

-You certainly can.

-Oh, yeah. Look at that. A fridge-freezer.

-Well hidden away.

-Microwave...

Microwave and toaster under there. And underneath...

Everybody's got to do some washing, so there's the washer and dryer.

-They're all the boring bits.

-Great, though, isn't it?

The most recent one we've done, though, is the bedroom.

So that's probably the favourite one at the moment.

We've probably done the best job of our bedroom.

-So this is our favourite room at the moment.

-Great colours again.

-Nice, isn't it? Really rich and warm.

-Yes. Is it all original?

-Most of it is, yes.

-Windows?

-Windows are. Fireplace is original.

-There's obviously one obvious thing that's not...

-Look at that cornice!

-I know.

-We made a little mistake but we think we've got away with it.

-THEY LAUGH

-That is a bit OTT, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is.

-But, hey, it's a bedroom.

-Yeah, it looks great.

-It's nice and rich.

-Thank you so much for showing me around.

-You're welcome.

It's great. It's a trip back in time.

-Thank you very much.

-It's been a pleasure having you, showing it off.

This may not be to everyone's taste,

but if you have a passion for a particular period of decoration,

it's amazing what you can do.

Decoration can apply as much to the person as to the house.

Now, at a valuation day in Bath back in 2012,

a flash of blue caught my eye.

Oh, wow! Oh. Hey, look. Look.

You'd have to give me a lot of money for them.

This is totally out of my league.

I wouldn't have a clue what I'm talking about here,

but I can appreciate that they're beautiful. I love the enamelling.

'I bought the cuff links in the belief that they were 1919,'

that's when they were made.

Actually, they were made in 1950. Big difference.

If I go off and get it a quick...

Shall I say, off-the-cuff, valuation...

THEY LAUGH

Working away off camera are lots of Flog It! valuers,

and I've asked Sophie Hutton to take a look at Stephen's cuff links.

OK, let's just say they haven't got a lot of age.

-Let's say they're, what, 1950s, 1960s?

-Yes.

I would think, at auction, you'd be looking at...easily 400 to 600.

Well, there was a fine quality to them.

You know, 14 diamonds, blue enamel.

They looked like Faberge, almost.

They weren't, sadly.

This will go on the phone or online. Here we go.

A pair of Russian diamond-set blue enamel cuff links. 340, 360...

There's a commission bid, look. He's looking down on the book.

420, 440.

£420. Fresh bidder in on 420. Anyone else?

They're just selling, aren't they, over the reserve?

-Good bargain.

-£420.

-Yes. I think it's a bargain.

I will still look for a pair that were made and hallmarked in 1919.

If anyone can find them, Stephen can,

with 23 years of hunting under his belt,

he's amassed an astonishing collection

of over 2,000 pairs of cuff links.

My journey with cuff links began

when I'd just been appointed into a junior management role

in the mining industry

and I ended up with a French cuff

and the need for a pair of cuff links.

And then I found, "Ooh, I'm wearing a blue tie today,

"and a blue pocket square," because I liked to be dapper in those days,

many years ago, so I would go out and buy a blue pair of cuff links.

Anyhow, it just took off.

Cuff links go back to 1662 at least,

when Charles II married Catherine of Braganza

and some cuff links were made for that occasion.

I'd love to come across a pair of those.

I think it's real fun collecting cuff links,

and wearing them, of course, because I want to wear my collection.

I've got some cuff links that are absolutely solid gold, really heavy.

I bought them from the auction

when they cleared out the home of Agatha Christie, the author.

Special ones like this are, I think, 1960s.

They're gold and it's 14 sapphires with one diamond,

and what's unique about these

is they belonged to the man with short, fat, hairy legs -

Ernest Wiseman, or Ernie Wise as we knew him, out of Morecambe & Wise.

So they're quite special,

because I've got short, fat, hairy legs as well.

If you want to be finely dressed and look dapper,

then cuff links are the finishing touch. They're easy to collect.

Lots of antique fairs and shows, bric-a-brac shops,

and there's a value to some of them as well,

so it's a long-term investment.

When I want to sell some, it'll be a trip to New York.

They fetch a good price in New York, I've noticed.

Go for it. Be smart. Get smart.

It's always a joy to meet a collector,

and Stephen's clearly passionate about his subject.

Now, if you fancy trying your hand at a bit of buying and selling,

then join us again soon for more Trade Secrets.