Somerset 30 Flog It!

Today, we've travelled to Yeovilton, in Somerset,

home to Europe's largest helicopter squadron.

And I'm inside the Commando Helicopter Force hangar

here at HMS Heron, the Royal Navy's largest airbase.

Welcome to Flog It!

Today, Flog It! is at HMS Heron, a naval aviation base in Somerset.

Surrounded by air traffic, it is a very humbling reminder of the risks

the men and women deployed from here are taking with their lives.

And later in the programme, I'll be catching up with

an engineer from the Commando Helicopter Force.

Well, we're certainly at the sharp end of the Royal Navy here

today at HMS Heron, and I'm right at the front of the queue,

the very sharp end.

The question is, are our experts up for duty today?

Putting up a strong, united front today, we have

Christina Trevanion and Charlie Ross, experts in their fields.

Oh, WMF. The famous old WMF.

-Do you know what WMF stands for?

-No.

-Wurttemberg...

-I think it's German.

-Metallen...

-Fabriken.

It's incredible the items people bring along to our valuation days.

Well, look at this, somebody at the front of the queue. Is it yours?

-It is, yes.

-What's your name?

-My name's Heather.

Heather, thank you very much for bringing

something in that we all recognise as an aircraft wheel.

We're going to be carrying out today's valuations

inside the Fleet Air Arm Museum that's situated here, on the base.

It houses Europe's largest naval aviation collection -

aircraft that take off from ships.

And let's hope some of today's items reach as enviable heights.

Can you antique hunters spot what will soar in the auction today?

Will it be the Edwardian silver hatpin stand and jewellery box?

An unusual floor lamp once used in an exclusive London

department store?

Or a Bergman bronze inkwell, dating back to 1900?

We've got our experts. We've even got our off-screen experts here,

working hard behind the scenes. We've got our items.

But most importantly, we've got you, our big crowd.

And also, we've got Yeovilton Military Wives' Choir

coming in later on to entertain us at lunch time.

But right now, let's get on with our first item.

So, Jackie,

we've gone from one 1960s flight of fancy to an Edwardian one.

We have.

Thank you so much for bringing these items in today.

-This belonged to your...?

-Grandmother.

Your grandmother. And did she use them?

I'm sure she did, because they were out in India and, obviously,

they led quite a lifestyle.

My grandfather was playing polo with the Prince of Wales

and things like that.

So I think they would have had the jewellery that would have

-gone into these pieces.

-Quite.

-It wouldn't have been just your average lady on the street.

-No.

I know they're Birmingham silver.

They were given to me by my mother when I was about ten.

-They've just been on my dressing table ever since.

-Right.

Obviously, they've gone from cracker rings

right up to diamond rings.

-Oh, perfect! That's the kind of evolution we like.

-Absolutely.

We've got a little jewellery box here, which is,

as you very rightly say, hallmarked for Birmingham silver.

The maker's mark here, which is Henry Williamson Limited.

The town mark, which is the anchor.

The lion passant, which is the standard of silver.

-And the date letter, which in this case is for 1910.

-Right.

-OK?

And then, if we look at the earring stand here,

we've got the hallmark just on the back here -

Clark & Sewell.

Again, the anchor. The lion.

-And the date letter H, for 1907.

-Oh, right.

-Have they been sitting in the sunshine?

-Unfortunately, yes.

-Yes.

On my dressing table.

As you very rightly just pointed out, as was

so often the case, you would have your dressing table in the window.

-Yes.

-And obviously, the sunlight has bleached

and eroded that lovely velvet top away.

-So, sadly, we have got a little bit of a condition issue there.

-Sure.

But nothing that can't be quite easily rectified, really.

So, 1907, that sort of Edwardian era.

Corsets weren't being quite so strict

and things were just relaxing slightly,

so you would have dangly earrings that you would pop onto here

and you would select your earrings for the day.

-Yes, absolutely.

-How decadent!

-And then in here.

-Yes.

-You've got the fitted ring interior here.

-We don't often see them with this fitted.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Very, very pretty. And really quite sought after.

-Really?

Yes, very much so. These types of things,

because they are pretty and because they are still very useful today...

-I mean, you would use this today.

-I do, yes.

-It still has a market.

-Fine.

-And it's got a great market.

Value wise, had you any thoughts on value?

You know, when you grow up with something and it's always there,

-you don't think about value, so I have no idea.

-OK.

Well, I was thinking, as two pretty, usable pieces of silver,

I was thinking somewhere in the region of £150 to £200.

Fantastic.

With a reserve of 150 with some slight discretion should we need it.

-Yes, that's fine.

-Is that all right?

-That's fine.

I shall miss them dreadfully, but...

Well, we'll have to use the money to buy something that will

ease that pain slightly.

-Yes, definitely.

-Diamonds are quite nice, they'll help.

There's a fantastic atmosphere here today.

Everyone seems to have had a good delve into their treasure

troves and brought along some really exciting pieces.

Go on, where did you find this magnificent figure?

Well, Charlie, I found him in an antique shop in the Emporium,

-here in Yeovil.

-Really? When?

-Last week.

-Last week?!

-Yes.

-Now, you're actually in the trade,

so you're buying and selling all the time.

I've got a little shop very close to here - upholstery, furnishings.

No pressure, then.

-Did you pay a lot of money for him?

-I did, Charlie.

-I'm getting a bit nervous now. Definitely Italian.

-Yes.

Based on an African servant. And there he is, in all his glory.

He's not that old, is he? 1960s?

-Well, he's drawing his pension, Charlie.

-He's 65, is he?

How do you know he's 65?

Well, I bought him from a dealer who had owned him for 35 years,

and he said he knew that he had a history of at least 30 years

prior to that. So he is a pensioner.

He's a pensioner. He doesn't look like a pensioner.

His body's in slightly better condition than mine.

He's a combination of all sorts of things.

I think the main body is plaster, isn't it? Looking at it.

-Yeah, plaster, resin and wood at the bottom.

-Oh, wood at the bottom.

There's a nice carved plinth at the bottom.

-And I think this is actually metal.

-Metal lamp, yes.

We've got a gilt metal candelabra.

I rather suspect that he was originally one of a pair.

-I'd heard that there were four originally made.

-Four, were there?

Yes. He's reputed to have come from a very upmarket store

in London, from their carpet department,

and he was there to adorn the Persian carpets.

Oh, really?

I can imagine that in a London store. What is his drape made from?

Is it canvas?

I think it's cloth that's been dipped in some sort of resin

-or plaster.

-Yeah.

It's very stylishly done.

Um... Who would buy it?

That's my... I mean, you did.

-I couldn't resist him.

-What were you going to do with it?

Well, he was just so bonkers, I just thought, "Why not have him

"and see where I can put him?"

But I think, in the right market, a decorator's piece,

-interior designer's piece.

-It needs cleaning.

-Yes, he's filthy.

And it needs a little bit of restoration.

His thumb is off here and there.

But I think if he were cleaned up

and this candelabra were regilded...

And it's a jolly good size. Are we going to get you a profit?

Well, I think he's worth about...

Difficult thing to value.

If you wanted it, you'd pay £1,000 for it, wouldn't you?

I think it's worth £200 to £300. What did he cost?

-He cost me £200.

-£200. Well...

So if we put a reserve of 250?

Could we push it a little bit higher?

275 maybe? Bearing in mind there are auction fees.

I don't think that's untoward.

We'll put a fixed reserve of 275.

-We'll put an estimate of 300 to 400.

-Yes.

-And I don't think that'll frighten people off.

-No.

And I think somebody will be wacky enough, as you were, to buy it.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you. Pleasure.

We are incredibly lucky today to be carrying out our valuations beneath

the wings of the first-ever British-built Concorde,

dating back to 1969.

And while we were at Yeovilton, surrounded by modern aviation,

here on the military base, I arranged to meet

Lieutenant Commander Neil Masterson,

an engineer with the Commando Helicopter Force.

Neil, what does your job involve?

Well, basically, I am the Aircraft Engineer Officer for the squadron.

So, when the commanding officer says he wants X number of aircraft...

Like ten Seaking helicopters to go to Afghanistan.

If he wants ten aircraft to go there, I need to provide him those ten

aircrafts in the right role fit, with the right weapon systems.

Our primary role is to support the Commando Royal Marines.

Yeah, and how many engineers do you have working for you here?

At any one time, I've got about 160.

And they are split across four flights, four front-line flights.

The guys stay with the aircraft, they maintain the aircraft.

The aircraft have to live in the field sometimes

and the engineers have to live out there with them.

-Yeah. And also make sure they return home safely.

-Absolutely.

That's the main aim of the operation -

get the guys back safe, with the helicopters.

Singing for us today,

we have many of the wives who are left behind here, in Somerset,

when their husbands risk their lives in front-line action.

# The world is listening

# To what we say...

# Sing it louder, sing it clearer

# Knowing everyone will hear

# Make some noise, find your voice

# Tonight

# Sing it stronger, sing together

# Make this moment last forever

# Old and young

# Shouting loud tonight

# Hear a thousand voices

# Shouting loud. #

APPLAUSE

Well, that was absolutely fabulous,

and the acoustics in here are marvellous.

Right, let's catch up with our next expert and another item.

So, Derek, we've got this spectacular

collection of aircraft below us and this rather glitzy,

wonderful collection of regalia here in front of us.

-Thank you.

-Tell me a little bit about it. Where does it come from?

-Basically, this was all to do with my grandfather.

-Right.

And it's something that was passed down to me.

-And this is Grandfather wearing...

-This piece here, actually.

-Which is the moose.

-Yes.

-Order of the Moose, here.

-We've got two quite different groups here, haven't we?

-We have indeed.

There are Buffaloes, the Royal Order of the Buffaloes,

and then we've got the Moose.

And then we've got the Trinity Lodge with a Knight Order Of Merit on it.

And I suppose the main aim really of these lodges was to,

I think primarily, especially with the Moose and the Buffalo,

-was basically to look after...

-The people, yes.

-Exactly, orphaned and widowed people, particularly.

-Yes.

Definitely.

Which is really charitable, isn't it? And a great cause to support.

So, very similar to Masonic regalia, but not Masonic.

He was secretary. That was in '39, 1940,

-'41.

-Quite early then, really.

-Yeah.

-And he's obviously been in it...

Cos you've got a 25-year pin here, which is wonderful.

I've been the keeper of it, but I believe, I think

-it could be used somewhere better than being stored in the loft.

-Quite.

It's a bit difficult when you're not involved in the lodges

-to know quite what to do with it, isn't it?

-Exactly.

-And I assume you're not involved.

-No, I'm not.

-Which is your favourite?

Cos they're all really rather beautiful, aren't they?

-Which is your favourite?

-I would say, probably this little thing here.

That one there.

That one's silver and that's obviously got my grandfather's

name on there and the date.

-Oh, yeah.

-That is '52?

-That's way before I was born.

-Funnily enough, that is

actually probably the most valuable one in this collection.

Because, as you very rightly pointed out,

we've got a nice silver hallmark on the back there.

The others, sadly, although they look really rather wonderful...

-They do.

-They're not silver gilt and definitely not gold, sadly.

So as such, really, when we're valuing collections like this,

we tend to value them on their silver weight

as well as the content as well.

And unfortunately, because you haven't got any silver weight

that's of any great note, the value is going to be reflected in that.

I think, if we were to offer it at auction,

-we would offer it as one complete lot.

-Yes.

And I think we might be looking

somewhere in the region of sort of £60 to £100.

What are your thoughts about that?

I think it'd be nice for it to go somewhere where it's appreciated.

£60 to £100, with a firm reserve at 50.

It doesn't seem very much for such a huge array of rather

beautiful things,

but unfortunately, that's just the market we're in at the moment.

-If it was gold...

-I'd be booking the holidays tomorrow.

You would, you'd be off to the Caribbean before I could say

-Jack flat.

-We would.

Will our experts be flying by the seat of their pants?

Are they on the money? Anything could happen in an auction room,

and we're going there right now.

And here's what's coming with us.

Jacqueline's Edwardian silver hatpin stand and jewellery box

are sure to be a hit

with the silver collectors.

Dawn's mid-20th century floor lamp could be the striking piece

an interior designer is searching for.

And Derek's collection of medals from the Order of the Buffalo

and Moose should draw in the specialist collectors.

Today, our auction house is in Bridgewater,

a small Somerset town brought to life every year

by the biggest illuminated carnival in Europe.

Over the decades, the floats have become bigger,

bolder and even more spectacular.

Let's hope today's auction is an all singing and dancing event, too.

Now, it may look calm and peaceful outside,

but hopefully, in there, it's going to be packed full of bidders.

There's going to be excitement and tension, so don't go away.

On the rostrum today, we have Claire Rawle.

And don't forget, if you want to sell something at auction,

there is a seller's commission to pay.

And here at Tamlyn's, it's 15% plus VAT.

And let's kick off with a little bit of glamour from the Edwardian era.

Jacqueline and Joe, I hear you're downsizing,

-everything's got to go.

-Unfortunately.

And this is just the start of it.

A silver hatpin stand and jewellery box.

-It's been on my dressing table since I was ten.

-Yeah.

Catching a bit of sunlight as well. There's a bit of sun damage.

Lots of memories, anyway. Happy memories for you

and hopefully we'll find

a new home right here, right now. Good luck.

102. The hatpin stand and the little trinket box.

Little silver items here. Lot 102. And these...

I have to start away at £65.

At 65. 70. Five.

80. Five. 90. Five.

100. 110. No, at 110 with me.

At 110. Do I see 120 anywhere?

-110?

-At 110 here with me.

At 110. You all done? Nobody on the internet?

At 110 it is, then.

At £110...

-No, didn't quite make it, I'm afraid.

-You can't declutter.

Sorry about that.

-Maybe it was the little bit of damage.

-On the top of the...

-Yeah, it could be, could be.

-Very possibly.

People are so fussy nowadays, everything has to be so right.

-Pristine.

-Yeah.

Well, clearly, the silver collectors weren't out in force today

to push the bids up,

but Jaclyn's going home with a lovely reminder of her grandmother.

Next up, will Dawn make her money back on her recent purchase?

We've got a decorator's dream.

I absolutely love these, but I love them in pairs.

Symmetry by a door, you know. It's like the wow factor.

-How much did you pay for this?

-£200.

So we've had to reserve it at 275 with commission.

Let's hope we find it a home, anyway.

It's going under the hammer right now.

Well, 202. Here we go.

-Oh, my goodness me. Well...

-Here he is.

Showing on the screen. In all its magnificence, beside us.

I'm sure you've seen the history.

One of only four believed to have been made.

Decorate an oriental carpet shop.

So, I'm going to start this one at £150.

At 150. At 150. At 150.

-160. 170.

-Oh!

-180. 190.

-Oh, yes, it's going.

-200. 220.

-It's gone.

-No, 275!

Now 250. 250 I've got on the internet.

-Oh!

-At 250.

I've got to go 260, just to be awkward.

At 260. Do you want to go 270 or 280 out there? Would be better.

At 280 on the internet.

-It's gone.

-At £280 on the internet.

At £280.

Now looking for 300. At £280, room's all out.

Internet then at 280. You all sure and done? Selling at 280...

-We did it, it's gone.

-It's gone.

-It's gone.

-Yes.

You look disappointed.

Well, at least Dawn has covered her costs and not lost any money today.

They are very niche, so the question is,

will there be a specialist buyer out there for Derek's medals?

Going under the hammer right now,

a collection of Buffalo medals belonging to Derek.

And our expert here is Christina as well.

I think we've seen these on the show before, Buffalo medals.

-I can recall that we have.

-Yeah.

-Now, how did you come across these?

Um, they were my grandfather's.

They've been stored for a long time.

And I'm going to donate the proceeds back to the Buffalo,

-the Royal Order of the Buffalo, which are still active.

-Brilliant.

-So...

-Looking out for people.

-If it's 3,000 or 4,000,

I might have to keep a couple of hundred pounds back.

Well, good luck to both of you. Good luck to both of you.

It's going under the hammer right now.

352.

Well, lots of people like these,

because I've got to start them away at...

-We've got a reserve of 50.

-£90.

-Great.

-Do I see five anywhere? Bid's with me at 90.

At £90, bid's with me at 90. 95. 100 with me.

At £100. At 100.

110 on the internet. That clears me now.

-Excellent.

-At 110 on the internet.

At £110 on the internet.

No-one in the room, then?

At £110, then, on the internet. Are you all done at 110?

That was quick, straight in at the top end and straight out.

-Wonderful.

-Great result, congratulations.

-Thank you so much for bringing those in.

-No problem. Thank you.

-Take care, thank you.

-Well done, Christina.

Those medals made the top end of your valuation,

and the money will be going back to the organisation they came from.

Well, there you are, that's

the end of our first visit to the saleroom today. So far, so good.

Before I return to Yeovilton to join up with our experts

to find some more antiques, I'm going to nip up to London

to the Royal Society to find out

more about one of Somerset's greatest thinkers.

London is one of the most exciting cities in the world.

It has always buzzed with activity

and it's the place where a lot of new ideas have surfaced first.

So it wasn't surprising that the youthful

and ambitious Thomas Young headed for the capital.

When a revolutionary way of thinking emerged during the 17th

and 18th centuries, which swept away rational thinking and superstition,

it's hardly surprising that the men leading it assembled here.

At the heart of this age of Enlightenment

was a group of natural philosophers,

or what we would now call scientists.

They met to discuss and share their advancement of knowledge,

achieved through observation and experiment of the natural world.

The organisation which they formed in 1660 and we know

as the Royal Society is still at the forefront of science today.

It was to this esteemed body that the 20-year-old Thomas Young

from Milverton, in Somerset,

submitted his papers on vision in 1793, which led

to his election as a fellow of the Royal Society the following year.

This was just one step along the way for one truly exceptional

individual, who, by the time he died at the age of 56, had left his mark,

contributing to human knowledge in fields right across the board.

He'd been a physician, a linguist, a musician, an archaeologist,

a mathematician, a philosopher, an Egyptologist and a physicist.

And on top of all of this,

it was noted that he was very good at ballroom dancing.

He could even play the bagpipes and ride astride two galloping horses.

His expertise spanned many subjects, making him a polymath,

unlike today's scientists who tend to specialise in one area.

Not a household name today but, within the scientific world,

Young has been described as the last man who knew everything.

I think it's fair enough to say this man was an absolute genius.

Young had been a child prodigy, learning to read by the age of two

and, by the time he was 13, had knowledge of a dozen languages,

including Greek and Latin.

As an adult, he studied medicine in London and Edinburgh,

physics in Germany and Cambridge.

And then, on inheriting some money,

he set himself up as a physician in London where, for a time,

he was also a professor at the Royal Institution, an organisation

that promotes science education and research which still exists today.

And there's a portrait of Thomas Young hanging on the wall

in a prominent position at the top of this staircase. And here it is.

This is Thomas Young,

who was the Foreign Secretary for the Royal Society for 25 years,

right up until his death in 1803, no doubt putting his language

skills to good use, communicating with people all over

Europe at a time before there was a Foreign Secretary for government.

It was this facility with language, along with his interest

in Egyptology, that enabled him to notch up another huge achievement.

His analysis of the three inscriptions in different

languages on the Rosetta Stone played a large

part in deciphering the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Now, if you have to pick one thing from the astonishing list of Young's

contributions to knowledge, it would have to be his wave theory of light.

This was the most important experiment of his career,

which dealt with the very nature of light.

And his findings still resonate with us today.

It was this important work which brought him into conflict

with the ideas already laid down by this chap, Sir Isaac Newton,

which, in the early part of the 19th century, was almost unthinkable.

An expert in this field, I've arranged to meet Dame Athene Donald,

professor of experimental physics at Cambridge University

and a current-day fellow of the Royal Society.

Doing experiments is exactly what the Royal Society is all about.

The motto is 'Nullius In Verba',

which means "take no man's word for it".

-Right.

-And this originated because there had been an awful lot of what

we would now call science just based on philosophy, debate,

instead of doing experiments.

And when the Royal Society was founded, it was very much key

to it that you would do experimental science to learn and to test ideas.

-And to challenge.

-And to challenge.

Thomas Young set out to question Newton's established

theory of light, working entirely in a new experiment-led way.

So the point of the experiment was to see whether Newton's

ideas about light being made of particles,

little blip-like things, was correct. Young wasn't convinced,

and he was looking to see whether light was actually

made of waves instead, so whether one should represent light as waves.

And so the point of the experiment was to test that by looking

for interference for light going from two different sources.

-So we have two slits here.

-Side-by-side.

-Side-by-side, yes.

This experiment is incredibly complicated, but let's give it a go.

So let me plug this in.

And if you look at the screen,

we can see this pattern of fringes here, alternating light

and dark, which comes from the interference of the two

beams of light that pass through the two slits.

So that's what he saw.

And if you want me to explain it,

it's probably easiest to see using this kind of analogue set-up.

-So...

-The good old overhead projector.

The good old overhead projector, yes.

This is what I use in my lectures, too.

So if you imagine that I dropped a stone into a pond,

-you'd have a pattern of ripples.

-The ripples going out.

-That's right.

These are alternate light and dark, corresponding to troughs

and crests, as we would call them.

Now, here I can introduce the idea of a second slit, so...

Another pebble dropped in, but not on the same spot.

-And you can see a pattern.

-I can see that! That's very clever.

Some places they are together, some places they knock each other out.

You see the fringes, which is what we saw on that.

And this pattern is a pattern of implying waves.

Young came along and said,

"Look, if I do this experiment, it has to be waves."

So Young, I'm afraid, originally was really trashed.

People said, "That can't be right."

Newton had been, if you like,

the Bible that people had used for about a century.

And it took a long time for the ideas to be accepted,

maybe tens of years.

But of course, slowly, during the course of the 19th century,

-it took over and became accepted.

-And what are your thoughts on Young?

His legacy...

I teach this stuff, it's absolutely fundamental to the way we think

about so much about different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.

So he's had a huge influence.

Well, what an extraordinary chap Thomas Young was.

His list of achievements seems never-ending. A true polymath.

He seemed to cram so much into his comparatively short life.

His story is fascinating.

And I think it's fair to say they don't make them like that any more.

Back in Yeovilton, people are still arriving to get their antiques

and collectibles valued.

Welcome back to the Fleet Air Arm Museum here

in Yeovilton, in Somerset.

We've had some wonderful finds so far today,

but let's see if we can top that, shall we?

Let's now catch up with our experts to find some more gems to

take off to auction.

-Chris, what brought you here today?

-Well, mainly because of the aircraft.

-Oh, right.

-I've been working on aircraft

-for the last ten years of my career.

-Oh, really?

-At Airbus.

Any chance you worked on something like this, the Concorde?

-This is a little bit before my time.

-Yeah.

I've worked on the 380 and the A400M.

-These are amazing, aren't they?

-Oh, yes, superb aircraft.

And a Rolls-Royce engine, where my father worked.

-Your father worked for Rolls-Royce, did he?

-Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, I digress. What have you got here? A clinometer?

-A clinometer, that's correct.

-Are you a military man?

-No, no, no.

-Tooling.

-Tooling.

-Tooling and engineering.

-What sort of date's that? Is that 1900-ish?

-From 1850, 1900.

-I reckon.

-Yeah.

And what is a clinometer?

It's to generally measure heights of objects -

trees, buildings.

Provided you know the distance away from it, you can

-work out the height through the angle of reading.

-Right.

-Do you think that's a military piece?

-I don't really know.

-No.

-It could be military.

-It's very sturdy, isn't it?

I mean, it's beautifully manufactured and tooled.

-How did you come across it?

-I was given that by a colleague at work.

I did a favour for him one day and he said, "What do you want for it?"

I said, "No, it's just a favour."

-And the next day, he brought that in for me.

-How lovely.

-And that was about 40 years ago.

-Have you ever used it?

-On one occasion, actually.

-Have you?

-Oh, yeah.

-Did it work?

Well, yeah, we think so.

-We measured the height of the tree.

-Yes.

Which was growing in the garden, a very tall conifer which

we were having cut down, so we decided to physically measure it.

Fantastic. So you look through it...

-Ta-da! Like that?

-No, the other end.

And then, what's with the level?

You move the level around so that the sunlight passes through

the bubble at the top, down through the aperture in there.

So you've got to have good eyesight

-and be a mathematician and a steady hand.

-That's correct.

And the sun's got to be shining.

Given all that, it works a treat, I suppose.

It's got a maker's name on it.

-I think it's Pallant.

-Pallant.

-Pallant of London.

-Pallant of London, who made scientific instruments?

-That's right.

-Probably brass and metal.

I think some of those scientific instruments are works of art

-in themselves.

-Oh, they are. Definitely, yes.

What about a value of it?

-Ooh...

-It's very much a collector's piece.

I don't know whether people would still use something like that.

I wouldn't think so.

There are more sophisticated ways of measuring the height of a tree

-or a building.

-Definitely.

-Yeah.

I think it's worth £100, £150.

-Yeah, that'd be nice.

-What do you think?

-I sort of said around 100.

Would you? Yes. I mean, it's a bit of a guess for me,

-but I would be fairly happy to put 100 to 150 on it.

-Right, yeah.

-As an estimate. And we ought to put a reserve on it.

-Yeah.

-What sort of reserve, just to cover you?

-Um... Probably about £80.

£80. Make sure we don't...

-80 with a little auctioneer's discretion, perhaps?

-Yeah.

Just if he gets close.

We'll put that on it, take it off to auction

-and we'll see you at the auction.

-Yeah.

-Looking forward to it.

An interesting scientific tool there, also known as a tiltmeter.

Right, let's see what's caught Christina's eye.

-So, Pete, I love it that you've come dressed for the occasion.

-Yeah.

When we've finished,

-are you going to go and fly off in a biplane somewhere?

-Oh, yes.

-Put your goggles on and go.

-Get in my plane and fly over the Channel.

In the meantime, you've brought these in to us today.

So, tell me, when did you acquire them? When did you get them?

I got them about a year ago in a place called Sherborne,

in a flea market.

-So quite locally, really.

-Yeah.

-About five miles down the road.

-Oh, brilliant, OK.

Yeah, I basically took them home. And my partner

and my children, they thought...

-Especially the monkey, they didn't like it.

-Oh, no!

-Yeah, I know.

I loved it. I thought he was really cute, you know.

So did you get told off for coming home with stuff again?

-Yeah, they told me to put it in the garage.

-Oh, no!

Yeah, yeah.

Cos I love it, he is so much fun. Do you mind if I...?

-No, carry on.

-He's brilliant.

-Just wind him right up.

Wind him up, and off he goes.

Oh, he's just brilliant and it just really evokes that wonderful

era of the sort of early 1900s when you had these organ grinders

wandering around the streets with wind-up organs.

And then they would often train monkeys to bang symbols,

real monkeys.

And obviously, the toy maker, in this case, I think it's Schuco.

-Oh, right.

-He's not actually marked, so it's a bit difficult to tell.

Cos there were a couple of factories that were making them.

-And it's wonderful that he's still working.

-Yeah.

-Often you find that they've been overwound by...

-Yeah.

Overexuberant children had overwound them.

-And they just got stuck.

-Yeah.

And unfortunately, there's

very little that you can do to repair that once it's happened.

-So in a way, it's great that your children didn't like him.

-Yeah.

Because it's kept him fresh. Brilliant.

And tell me about this one.

Again, I thought it was a lovely face on him, you know.

Lovely looking little tiger.

Yeah, I just thought he was...

Again, he looked very old.

We don't know a huge amount about him, sadly.

He has got this label on the back,

-saying "Made In Republic Of Ireland".

-Yeah.

But we can't really track down...

Having done a little bit of research,

we can't track down anything particular, so it might just

be that he's a regional piece, made in Ireland, nice to have that label.

-Yeah.

-Really, your value is in this wonderful mechanical monkey

over here, who just completely makes me smile.

I think he's just such a great thing.

-You've obviously bought them quite recently.

-Yeah.

-So, what did you pay for them?

-£20 each.

-Oh, that's not too bad, then.

-Yeah.

-OK, fair enough.

So £40 in total.

-I think we might be looking at a touch more than that.

-Yeah.

I would say, if we were to put them in auction,

-we'd put them in one lot.

-Yeah.

-Your main value, I think, being in this one.

-Yeah.

-And we'll put him in as a lucky bonus.

-Yeah.

And I think I would estimate them at sort of £60 to £100.

-OK, yeah.

-How would you feel about that?

-Yeah, that's OK.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-And if we put a reserve on, just to protect them?

-Yeah.

-So if we put 60, with discretion?

-Yep, that's OK.

-Are you happy with that?

-That's fine, yeah.

-Perfect.

So before you get in your plane and fly away in that wonderful

jacket, do you want to have one last...one last farewell cymbals?

-Say goodbye to Monkey.

-Yes, goodbye, Monkey.

-He's going to be waving goodbye to you, too. There you go.

-Bye!

Well, let's hope Peter's monkey generates as much

excitement in the auction house.

And now for our final valuation here, at the Fleet Air Arm Museum.

Becky, Tony, you have made my day by bringing this wonderful object.

I'm going to ask you what you know about it, then hopefully,

I'll fill in the gaps.

-Well, I don't know a lot.

-Do you know what it's made of?

-Bronze?

-Correct.

-Do you know where it was made?

-Austria?

-Correct.

What do you mean you don't know a lot?

You went straight to the top of the class here.

-Is there anything you don't know about it?

-That's it.

-I know no more.

-You don't need to know much more than that.

This is about 1900 in date,

so it's a good 100 plus years old.

-Do you know what the bird is?

-A thrush?

A mistle thrush, very good.

I wonder if there is a question I could ask you that you don't

know the answer to. Do you know what happens when you lift up the lid?

-Oh, yes.

-What happens?

-There's an inkwell there.

-There's an inkwell.

-Is it the original inkwell?

-I wouldn't have thought so.

Bergman probably is best known for much, much smaller bronze

items, of which the factory made thousands and thousands.

And the more impressive pieces become more and more valuable

because they were done on a lesser scale.

And this is, by any standards,

a large Bergman cold-painted bronze.

The paintwork is in superb condition!

And, you know, we've done a little bit of research, cos I'm not sure

what colour a mistle thrush egg should be, and that is right.

-Good.

-Absolutely right.

When I first saw it, I thought, "Someone's put a chocolate egg

"in there just to make it impressive," and I was doing

this, thinking I was going to take a chocolate egg out, but no.

That's what it was like as a child, I wanted to take the egg out.

Well, that's a good reason to sell it, really, isn't it?

-One day you'll get it out of there.

-I've grown out of that now.

-Are you allowing Dad to sell it?

-Oh, absolutely.

"Absolutely" sounded a little bit like, "I think he might give me

"some of the proceeds." I might be wrong.

You might be, Charlie.

-Would you say the egg is bronze?

-No.

I think actually it's a semi-precious stone.

And the decoration in the nest is wonderful!

See the little feathers there? There's another feather here.

And the signature must be on it somewhere.

-Under its tail, I believe.

-It's under the tail, is it? Yeah.

I will just check. There we go.

"Geschutzt", which means manufactured or made by Bergman.

And Bergman also did naughty bronzes.

Rude bronzes.

-And when he did a rude bronze, he didn't sign it Bergman.

-Ah!

He didn't.

He signed it Namgreb, which is Bergman backwards.

So people wouldn't realise what a naughty chap he had been.

But his naughty ones are very valuable, too.

Where did you get it from?

It must have been a local auction house in Yeovil.

You bought it at an auction room? Right.

-Do you remember what you paid for it?

-No.

-How long ago?

-Over 30 years.

Over 30 years ago.

-I'd be fascinated to know what you paid for it.

-So would I.

Yeah. Value, what's it worth?

Don't tell me you haven't got a clue,

cos somebody told me you knew what you wanted for it.

-I said I thought it was worth over 500.

-Did you? Yeah.

I saw a bird on its own somewhere, and that was the best part of 500.

Yes.

Well, you'd find that the nest really does detract from the value...

I'm lying.

I think it's worth at least £1,000.

-Well, that is good.

-At least £1,000.

-That's wonderful.

-Happy?

If I get half, I'll be more than happy.

We'll put a discretionary reserve of 1,000,

with an estimate of 1,000 to 1,500.

-Made my day.

-Yeah. Well, thank you so much for bringing it along.

-Thank you, Charlie.

-It's been brilliant.

It's been fascinating spending the day surrounded by such

incredible aviation history.

Before we leave, here's an airplane that made history.

This magnificent looking aircraft is the Fairey Delta 2.

It came into production in 1954.

Two years later, in March, 1956, it broke the airspeed record,

flying at over 1,000 miles an hour, piloted by Peter Twiss.

Let's hope some of today's items can break

some records in the auction room.

It's time to say goodbye to our fantastic host venue,

the Fleet Air Arm Museum,

here on the Naval aviation base at HMS Heron.

And before we go, here's a quick recap of what we're taking with us.

A beautiful instrument in its own right, the clinometer

is bound to appeal to a collector of scientific tools.

Peter's toy monkey and tiger weren't wanted at home,

but their nostalgic feel should find them a new owner at auction.

And how will Becky feel

if the Bergman bronze inkwell finally flees the nest?

The auction room is packed here in Bridgewater at today's sale.

And if you'd like to come along

to one of our Flog It! valuation days,

don't forget to check our website to see if we're in your area soon.

Right, let's catch up with the first seller.

If you want to measure the height of your house or

a tree in your garden, you're going to need this next lot.

It belongs to Chris, but you've got to be here to buy it.

A clinometer, never heard of one before.

I don't think I've ever seen one before.

You can learn so much from watching Flog It!

-It's an academics' thing, really. It is beautifully made.

-Oh, yeah.

Exciting instrument.

Let's hope we hit the roof right now. It's going under the hammer.

Good luck.

122 is this little pocket clinometer.

There we are, showing to you there in all its glory. Lot 122.

And I start away at £55. At 55.

Do I see 60 anywhere? Bid's with me at 55. 60. Five.

70. Five.

-There's a bid on the book, Chris.

-In the room now at £80.

At £80. At 80. Do I see five anywhere?

85. 90. 95.

You sure?

At 95. Right at the back there, at £95, then. At 95.

You all sure?

-Selling then at £95.

-It's gone.

-That's a good price.

-Happy?

-Not bad.

-Yeah.

It always surprises me how, in the auction room,

a home can be found for most things.

But will that be true for Peter's tiger and monkey?

Two toys going under the hammer right now,

one clockwork, belonging to Peter. Now, you got these at, what, a fair?

-A flea market.

-In Sherborne.

-Yeah.

-Down in Dorset.

-Yeah.

What attracted you to them?

-Are you a toy collector or was it the monkey?

-The cheeky monkey, yeah.

My daughters like that sort of thing. Well, I thought they did, but...

-But they changed their mind.

-Yeah.

-Right.

Anyway, let's see what we can do for you. Pete, here we go.

A clockwork monkey and a little soft toy tiger.

182.

So, I have to start this one. I've got £40 on him.

At £40. Do I see two anywhere?

Bid's at £40 for two little toys. At £40. At 40. Now two anywhere.

-At £40, now two.

-Come on!

-It's sitting in their hands.

-£40...

-Nobody wants them?

-No-one for toys today.

I'm going to have to withdraw them at that. Sorry, not sold.

-Sorry, Pete.

-Oh, dear.

Oh, no, you're going to have to take them home.

-Oh, no!

-What's the missus going to say?

She's going to say, "Put them in the garage."

Tell her... Look, tell her

there might be a specialist toy sale coming up in the area soon,

and that's where there'll go

-but, in the meantime, they need a home.

-Yeah. OK.

-Take them home and love them, please.

-I will.

-I'll love them.

-Good.

Our next item was most definitely loved by Rebecca

when she was a little girl.

I've been looking forward to this lot,

I think this is the star attraction today.

It's a Bergman bronze, cold-painted

model of a thrush on a naturalistic base.

Rebecca and Tony, it's great to see you.

There is a lot of lot here.

The paint's good on it, that's all-important, really.

And the egg is such a glorious colour, isn't it?

-And it adds an extra dimension to the figure.

-Yeah.

It's just great modelling, absolutely superb modelling.

-It really is. Happy?

-Absolutely, yeah, very.

-Right, OK.

This is where it gets exciting. It's going under the hammer right now.

This is it.

Nice little bird on its nest there, lot 142.

I have to start it away at £750.

At 750. Do I see 800 anywhere?

At 750. At 750.

Do you want to come back 800? 800 I have on the net. 850 with me.

900 on the net. It's galloping off now. 950.

At 950.

£1,000 I have on the internet.

At £1,000. At 1,000. 1,100.

Do I see two out there? 1,200.

At 1,200. At 1,200. Now 13, the other one?

At £1,200 on the internet. Room's gone very quiet.

At 1,300 now on the internet. 14.

-At 1,400.

-Great.

-At 1,400.

Do you want to go 1,500, the other one?

-At 1,400.

-All of a sudden, I feel comfortable.

Are you all done out there? At £1,400...

No bids in the room? At £1,400, then, on the internet. You all done?

Well done. Well done, Charlie, good valuation. It's gone. £1,400.

-Spot on.

-Yeah, top end of the estimate.

That's it, say goodbye. Lots of memories, though.

Don't forget, though, there is commission to pay.

You've got to pay wherever you go, in any saleroom.

-Here, it's 15% plus VAT, so factor that in, won't you?

-Yeah.

When you get the check in the post in a few weeks.

I've already spent it, it's all right.

Just as well dad Tony is so generous

and the inkwell went for the top end of Charlie's valuation.

We've had a marvellous time here in Bridgewater

and I hope to see you again very soon.

Until then, it's goodbye.