Compilation 10 Flog It!

Today we have a show that's not only jam-packed

with interesting collectables, we've got high valuations

and auction tension, not to mention some great British icons.

We'll be finding out more about one rather generous Royal,

four of the country's most fabulous songwriters

and one of our greatest novelists.

It's got all the ingredients of a classic,

so sit back and enjoy this special edition of "Flog It!"

We've travelled the length

and the breadth of the British Isles in search of exceptional stories

and objects to take to auction

and we met some rather special people along the way.

Today, we visit Birmingham, Southwell, Edinburgh...

and Wallasea.

But can you guess which one of our items makes over £1,000

and which one doesn't sell at all?

Will it be Caroline's find -

four rather fabulous autographs?

-I've got The Beatles' autograph, all four of them.

-Oh!

Or the gold ornate mirror

that Thomas thinks might have a royal connection?

"Dear Sir, I am commanded by the Queen

"to acknowledge your letter of the 25th."

Isn't that lovely?

Or will it be the boys' toys in pole position

when Adam spots a Matchbox collection in Edinburgh?

Well, this display takes me straight back about 35 years.

We start today's show here at Dunster Castle,

just outside of Minehead, in Somerset,

which seems a fitting place to begin really,

as like any Flog It! auction,

this place has had its fair share of jeopardy and tension.

Twice the castle's future has hung in the balance.

More recently in 1949, when it was sold to a property developer,

but the biggest threat came during the English Civil War.

For 12 days in 1650,

the castle was under attack by Oliver Cromwell's troops

as punishment for the family's support for King Charles I.

Eventually, Cromwell revoked the order and the castle was spared.

So, having been fought over

by two of the most famous names in history,

it seems like the perfect place to start

our day here at Dunster Castle.

And an object with a famous name attached to it

is the perfect valuation to start with.

'Over to Thomas Plant

'who's in Birmingham's Museum and Art Gallery.'

Catherine, you've come in with a mirror.

Tell me, how has it come into your possession?

It was given to the church in Bridgend, Nolton Church,

for the church bazaar, to get funds for the war memorial,

-and my aunt bid in an auction and she won it.

-Wonderful.

Now, the important thing is, it was given by somebody to the church.

-Yes, it was given by the Queen.

-The Queen?

-Yeah, Queen Mary.

-Queen Mary?

-Mm-hm.

-God... So what's the story behind this?

-Do you know much about it?

-No, not really.

It was passed down to my mother by my grandmother

and I don't really know much about it other than the letters.

-Can I have a look at the letters?

-Yep, you can.

-From HM the Queen.

-Yep.

Obviously to go with the mirror on display, I would think.

-For the bazaar.

-Yeah.

-There's nothing better than a church bazaar...

-I know, yeah.

..with a classy quiche... Stewed tea...

And this is the letter. "Dear Sir, I am commanded by the Queen

"to acknowledge your letter of the 25th.

"Her Majesty will be glad to send you a small gift towards your sale,

-"and Christmas..."

-Christmas tree, it says.

Christmas tree. Interesting.

-"The Queen well remembers her visit to..."

-Nolton Church.

Nolton... So she actually went there?

-"I hope that you will succeed in..."

-Raising.

"Raising the money you require

"to pay off the debt on your war memorial."

-So, the First World War memorial.

-Yeah.

-This is really interesting.

"The Queen hardly ever gives to any individual memorial

"as it makes a difficult precedent where so many are concerned.

"So, perhaps the fact of Her Majesty's gift

"is only known locally."

-Isn't that lovely?

-Except we're telling the world now!

-Yeah, but it's a long time ago, come on!

-OK, sorry.

It would have been quite a highly sought-after thing,

I would have thought. Why have you brought it today?

-For the fun of the programme, really.

-Fun of the programme.

So, have you had it valued before?

Yes, we had it valued about ten years ago

and they valued it for about £500. They didn't actually see the item.

We sent off photographs and documentation.

-And of the letters, interesting.

-Yep.

I had a similar figure in mind, maybe a bit more,

because you've got the letters, the memorial...

You've actually got the object itself,

which we've not really spoken about.

-A gilt, ormolu mirror...

-Yes.

So, such nice quality and on the back here,

West 1, St James's Street, that would be London.

-Yep.

-So it's super quality.

-A mirror on its own like this at auction is only worth £60-£100.

-OK.

You put the letters with it, the story,

-and I think that's got to be worth £600-£800.

-Yep.

-And I would fix the reserve at 600.

-OK.

-Don't give it away.

-No.

-So, I'll see you at the auction, Catherine?

-Yeah.

-Brilliant.

It may not have been royal etiquette to give gifts to charities,

but Queen Mary, grandmother to our own Queen,

was clearly eager to play her part during World War I.

She threw herself into various charitable activities.

Most notable was her involvement with many of the organisations

which supported wounded servicemen and their families,

some of which continue to this day.

Before we find out how the mirror does at auction,

Adam Partridge is in Hopetoun House near Edinburgh,

parked up beside a rather nice collection of toy cars.

Well, this display takes me straight back about 35 years.

-Well, it takes me back longer.

-Does it?

-Yeah.

-Cos obviously I'm a lot younger than you, aren't I, Chris?

-Yeah.

Just a couple of years!

-They made them right through to the '70s, didn't they?

-Yeah.

Cos I really remember these in their characteristic Matchbox boxes...

-Yeah.

-Really clever marketing idea, wasn't it?

-Mm-hm.

So, these were yours as a kid?

-Yeah.

-You must have played with them really carefully

-because there's hardly a mark on 'em.

-Ah, well...

-I mean, the digger...

-Yeah.

-..has got a couple of little chips

-on the paint, hasn't it?

-Yeah.

-That's about the only thing

I can see that's not absolutely perfect.

Now, I've got young boys and they love their toy cars

and they're crashing them into each other and into the wall,

and they're all chipped and...

I think...when your parents scrimped and scraped to get these things...

-Yeah.

-..you learned to respect them more.

Yeah, I shall have a word with them when I get home!

Did you have a favourite out of these, Chris?

Not really, but what you see here is, like,

-how vehicles have changed over the years as well.

-That's right, yeah.

I mean, some of these are classic examples, aren't they?

And then you see something like that

-and that is really a thing of the past now, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Why are you selling 'em?

-Well, I've got grandsons...

-Yeah.

-..and to be honest, nothing against them,

I don't think they appreciate them.

-Everything's more technological these days.

-All this...

-Yeah.

-Oh...

-You know, and...

-They're not out and about,

-you think you might as well move them on?

-Yeah, that's true.

-Any idea the values?

-No, I don't.

OK, well, they're going to vary a little bit.

I mean, as a general rule, they're only...maybe a few pounds each.

-Yeah.

-But you've got a lot of them and there's the odd one amongst them

that's going to be a bit more than that.

-I would suggest that we put them as one lot.

-Yeah.

A good collection of Matchbox cars, I think we guide them at £100-£150.

I think they'll probably make a bit more than that,

but I think you need to pitch the estimate at a sensible level.

-Is that all right with you?

-A chance to get the buyers in, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. A reserve price?

-80?

-80 quid, I think that's very sensible, Chris. Yeah, very good.

You know, you don't want to frighten them off.

-That's right! You've been watching the show, haven't you?

-Oh, aye!

Thanks, Chris, for coming along. The collectors are going to love it.

Good.

Those motors are certainly in good condition.

And now over to the awe-inspiring Southwell Minster, where Mark Stacey

has found a rather exotic item, but can you guess where it derives from?

Graham, you've brought a wonderful little novelty item in to show us.

-Yes.

-What can you tell me about it?

Well, all I can tell you is that I was working for the council...

-I actually found it on a rubbish tip.

-No!

-It was in a little tin

with two or three other things and I just kicked it and I thought,

"Something's in it," opened it up and that was in it

with a couple of other things.

-This was quite a long time ago.

-Well, it's 25 years ago.

Gosh! Well, I want to transport you back to 1922

and think of the Egyptian desert

when they just discovered Tutankhamun's tomb

-and all those fabulous riches, it caused a worldwide sensation...

-Yes.

And after that, firms started making little Egyptian-type items.

-Ah, right.

-Cartier made wonderful brooches and necklaces

and panther bracelets, all resembling ancient Egypt

-and the treasures that had just been discovered.

-Yeah.

It's a wonderful object and this is a delicate little thing,

which when you open it, you can see the little enamelled mummy inside...

-Yes.

-..all made of silver.

-It's probably French.

-Right.

It's marked 800, so it's a Continental mark,

and it's just such a wonderful little object of virtue.

-Yeah.

-I love it, it's very well-made.

It's all enamelled in those typical Egyptian colours

-of the turquoise blue and the dark blue.

-Yeah.

It's a complete nonsense really,

I don't know what on earth you do with it.

I'll tell you what I thought about doing, I thought about

-putting it on a necklace.

-Yes, I mean, you could do that,

-but then it might get lost or damaged and...

-That's right, yeah.

-At the moment, it's in lovely condition.

-Yeah.

Well, after all this romanticizing,

you'd think it's going to be worth...

a Tutankhamun price, wouldn't you?

-I'd love it to be!

-I'm... I've got to disappoint you, Graham.

-Have you?

-I think it's a great novelty and I think we should put it

-in as a gamble.

-Yep.

-Put it in at 40 to 60 quid...

-Yes.

-..with a reserve of 40, all right?

-Yeah, that's fine.

-And let's just see what happens.

-Yep, that's marvellous.

-And you never know, the mummy might return.

-Yeah!

-GRAHAM CHUCKLES

-And we'll get a good price. Might get £100 for it.

-Well, that'd be nice.

-Happy with that?

-I am happy, yeah.

Well done for finding it.

-Thank you very much.

-Nice to see you.

-Thank you.

It may not be a high value, but Graham still looks like

he's going to make a tidy profit from his find.

Before we go off to auction for the first time today,

there's just enough time for me to show you

the collection of family portraits here at Dunster Castle.

Now, that one-eyed gent up there caught my eye, no pun intended.

That is the family's military hero, Colonel Francis Luttrell.

Now, he fought at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815

and it's said that he played a key role in helping

the Duke of Wellington defeat Napoleon Bonaparte.

So, there you go, a real family hero.

And right now it's time for us to do some battle, in the auction rooms!

As we head off, here's a quick recap

of all the items going under the hammer.

Catherine's oval mirror may or may not have reflected

the image of Queen Mary at one time,

but will the popularity of the Royals today help attract

the bidders?

Chris's childhood collection of Matchbox cars should light up

the saleroom, considering their Formula One condition.

And Graham's curious silver mummy...

Let's hope there's a bidder out there who knows what to do with it

and that its sale price doesn't reflect its miniature stature.

'First up, Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge,

'where we're hoping to sell our royal mirror.

'Before the auction, I had a quick chat to auctioneer Nick Davies

'about the importance of provenance with an object like this.'

There's one thing I want to talk about before the sale

and that's the oval mirror. It belongs to Catherine.

Now, we've got some letters that accompany it

-and it's all about provenance...

-Absolutely.

..as you know in this game -

that's why we have a valuation of £600-£800

on what I think is an £80 mirror.

I'd agree with you, and provenance, provenance, provenance is the word.

The trouble is with the letters, the one from Buckingham Palace,

she doesn't actually mention the word "mirror".

-Right, OK.

-She's given a small gift,

but it doesn't say the word "mirror"...

So, does that automatically send alarm bells ringing

-to an auctioneer?

-It does, but also to anybody who's going to buy it.

I mean, if it said "mirror",

I wouldn't have a problem with the estimate whatsoever.

It's the right period, it's the right look,

but it's not in the letter!

-That one word.

-So, basically, YOU cannot prove anything?

-I can't categorically sell that as a gift from the Queen Mary.

-No.

No. No, no. Instantly, that devalues it for me.

And for a lot of collectors, but on the other hand,

there may be people out there who are quite happy with that scenario

and the documentation that's with it.

We can't get to the bones of it, you know, in the time we've had,

maybe someone will take it on and do a little bit more.

Look, fingers crossed, good luck.

280. 290 with me. 300, sir?

'Remember that with every auction house,

'there's varying rates of commission and VAT to pay,

'whether you're buying or selling.

'So, make sure you find out how much that is in advance.

'And now, let's see how that mirror does.'

I've been joined by Catherine

who's holding the most wonderful photograph album,

which shows the lady who gave the mirror to the family.

-Yeah, my great-aunt.

-Lizzie.

-Yep, Auntie Lizzie.

And there she is, look at that.

You see, all this is part of the provenance,

but it's getting that story told to the general public

to convince them that they can buy that,

but the letter from Buckingham Palace didn't mention any mirror.

-It's one of these stories which you're not going to make up.

-No.

-Exactly, no, I totally agree.

-You've got to go with it.

I totally agree, it's family history,

-and you know it better than anybody.

-Yeah, I do.

But it's convincing the general public through a third party.

-This is it.

-The oval wall mirror with handwritten letters reputedly

relating the gift of a mirror from Her Majesty Queen Mary,

towards the fundraising of a war memorial.

And I've got to open the mirror here at £550

and I look for 580 in the room.

550 with me, 580 anywhere?

At 550 it is. 580 anywhere else in the room for the mirror?

£550, it will stay with me then at 550. 80 anywhere else?

Are you all sure at 550? All done?

-A couple of bids away.

-Didn't sell, we had a reserve, didn't we?

-Yes, 600.

-600.

-600.

I think another day you will have a better chance.

-I think the story is correct.

-Yes.

Well, I'll give it another go.

-Take it off the market for a little while...

-Yes.

..and put it back into another saleroom

-and try that again with that same story.

-OK.

-Yeah, good luck.

-Thank you.

'A disappointing result there, which just underlines the importance

'of provenance, as well as how unpredictable auction rooms can be.

'Will Mark's valuation be nearer the mark

'at our Nottingham auction room?'

£400. Fair warning and selling...

Next up, a little silver Egyptian mummy found at a tip by Graham...

-Yes.

-..who's standing next to me right now.

So, were you sort of foraging around the tip or chucking things

from the house and you thought, "Ooh, look at that!"?

-Well... It was, yes.

-Were you?

I just kicked this, like, old cigarette tin...

-Did you realise how much it was worth and...

-I had no idea...

-And then you found out from Mark at the valuation?

-I did, yes.

-I think it's charming.

-You do?

-It's only tiny.

-Sort of 1920s, isn't it?

Yeah, well, it's after Tutankhamun, I think,

that huge Egyptian revival,

and there's a little mummy inside as well, when you open it,

and we've only put £40-£60 on it. It's silver, French, an enamel.

Which is really a "come and buy me", isn't it?

I hope so, I mean, it should. It's a charming little object.

Well, we're going to find out what the bidders think right now.

It's going under the hammer, here we go.

£20 for it? 20 I am bid.

Thank you, sir. At 20, five I'll take.

25, £30.

30, 35, five, 40.

-40, 45? £40, buying online.

-MARK:

-'Come on.

'Oh, that's the online.'

-PAUL:

-'This is good, come on.'

-At 50, a room bid. 60? 60's bid.

Chap in the room there, look. That chap.

£60, standing over there at 60.

70 for it anywhere? Selling at £60.

-£60, doof!

-Well, top of the estimate.

-It's a good estimate.

That's not bad for foraging around with all the flies on a tip, is it?

-Not bad at all!

-Let's face it!

It's a yummy mummy.

It's a yummy mummy, it certainly proved a yummy mummy, didn't it?

'Can Chris's collection of toy cars race home too when they're sold

'by expert and auctioneer Anita Manning back up in Scotland?'

Well, we can't have an auction without boys and their toys, can we?

There's a collection of Matchbox cars going under the hammer.

I like them. Adam loves them.

Chris, you're selling them, you've had enough of them,

-you've had them since you were five years old.

-Yeah.

-Foot on the pedal, let's do it. £150 plus, let's go.

-Yeah.

Matchbox series cars, trucks et cetera, all in original boxes,

ladies and gentlemen.

Looks like a shop window display up there on the screen.

..And I have...

one, two, three...

four bids on the books.

Four bids on the books,

which means we're going to have a bit of a bun fight.

-I will start the bidding at £150.

-It'll be more than that!

-Any advance on 150?

-Phone line, look, man very keen, down there.

160, 170...

180, 190, 200.

220.

240, 260.

280.

300.

-300 on the books.

-£300!

-Oh, you called it.

-It's on the books...

-Bid there, look.

..at 300.

320, fresh bidder.

-330 on the books.

-PAUL:

-'Yeah, he's got it.'

-340, the book is out.

-OK, it's 340...

Commission is out. It's on the floor at 340.

-All right with that?

-More!

-We're going to take that.

-Yeah.

-There's a phone line coming in, look.

-350.

-It's not over yet.

-360.

-370. On the phone at £370.

-Oh, I love it when she stands up.

Any advance on 370?

Any advance on 370? All done at 370? 370...

That's a great result, £370.

-Excellent.

-Lesson learnt there -

condition, condition, condition.

It's all about that.

-Absolutely right, yep.

-Yes.

-So, you're a happy man?

-Oh, aye!

-Congratulations on being such a careful and diligent child.

-Yes.

They've more than doubled their estimate,

it just goes to show even investors can be big kids at heart.

Well, we're only halfway through our day

and we still have lots more auction action to come,

including what a set of Beatle autographs might fetch.

The Fab Four were wonderful artists in their day,

but before we get to them,

I had the opportunity to find out a little bit more about another

fine and respected artist,

this time an author who grew up amongst the dirt and the soot

of the Nottingham coal mining industry,

and he used this as his inspiration.

I am, of course, talking about DH Lawrence.

When you mention the name DH Lawrence,

images immediately spring to mind

of the love scene in Lady Chatterley's Lover

or the erotic wrestling fight in Ken Russell's film, Women In Love.

But as well as the exploration of relationships and love,

Lawrence's work is steeped in place and class,

and much of it he took from the place where he grew up,

right here in the mining town of Eastwood in Nottinghamshire.

Eastwood was a typical industrial town,

part of the boom and bust coal mining industry

at the turn of the 20th century.

# Let the gauge go down

# Come on and join the local crew

# Join with us and have a few Sit down... #

This place was built to house the workers and in its heyday,

most of the inhabitants were employed in the pits.

Now imagine this street over 100 years ago.

All these buildings covered in a black dust

and hoards of people heading off down the street to work in the pits.

And then this place, number 8A Victoria Street,

into which David Herbert Lawrence, better known as DH Lawrence,

was born on 11th September in 1885.

And this is the typical miner's cottage of the day.

It's a two-up-two-down.

And in this lived Lawrence, his four siblings, his mother Lydia

and his father Arthur.

Seven of them in this tiny, little house.

This is as modest as a house would get.

Class was everything and felt keenly in the Lawrence household.

His mother had come from a middle-class family

who had fallen on hard times

and she valued education as a way to better herself.

Her husband, Lawrence's father Arthur, worked at the pits

and was working class through and through.

There were ten mines within a stone's throw of Lawrence's home

and people flooded into the area for the lucrative work.

The children would be expected to follow in their fathers' footsteps.

But this was most definitely not the destiny his mother saw

for Lawrence and his siblings.

Lawrence grew up wanting to please his mother and his sister

and he helped out in all of the household chores.

He'd have cleaned out that fire most mornings

and got down on his hands and knees and scrubbed that tiled floor.

His sympathy with women and understanding their needs

would prove central in his writing in years to come.

His mother was determined to better herself and the family,

moving them from Victoria Street to The Breach

and then to Walker Street.

And finally here, to Lincroft.

Now back in the day, this was the street to aspire to,

with its wonderful views and houses with bay windows,

they said were a cut above the rest.

But it wasn't just about bricks and mortar.

All credit to the mother, because she got all of those kids educated.

None of them ended up working down the mines.

She literally lifted the whole family up by their boot strings.

Lawrence won a scholarship to Nottingham High School,

but it was when he moved to London

as a young man in 1908 that he started to write in earnest.

He soon caught the eye of a publisher who encouraged him

to turn his attention to the area and the experiences

he'd been so eager to leave behind,

as Dr Andrew Harrison, director of the DH Lawrence Research Centre

at Nottingham University explained.

Mining community all around him,

I mean, a big part of his childhood obviously reflected in his novels.

Most definitely. Lawrence understood the rituals of this community,

the way of life, the speech of these people.

And he reproduced it, not only in his great novel Sons And Lovers,

but also in sketches and in plays as well.

In the classic novel Sons And Lovers,

he creates the characters of Mrs Morel,

a woman disappointed in marriage,

and Walter, her drunken miner husband.

But did this bear any relationship to his own parents?

I think certainly, there was a good deal of conflict

within the marriage

and Lawrence was very, very good at reproducing their arguments

in his writing. He did that particularly well.

But of course, Lawrence is an artist, so there's an element

of exaggeration in everything that he does. I think he wants to

present something that's sensational

and in later life, when he revisited that relationship,

he came to see that his father was not quite the drunken monster

that he's presented as in Sons And Lovers.

Are there also some similarities with his own mother

and the mother in Sons And Lovers? You know, unhappy women?

Oh, absolutely. I think Lawrence was very close to his mother.

His closest sibling was his youngest sister, Ada.

He's aware of women's push for the vote

and he was aware of them needing to move away from their roles

as mothers, as wives, as daughters,

in order to fully realise themselves.

Lawrence never went with the flow,

at times labelled a feminist, a socialist and even a fascist.

And in 1912, he shocked society by going abroad with a married woman

who would later become his wife.

For most of his remaining 20 years, he travelled the world,

and never returned to this area to live.

Although Eastwood was out of sight, it wasn't out of mind.

In one of his later letters,

he described the rolling landscape as, "The country of my heart."

And he returned to the theme of mining again and again

in his letters, writings and in his most famous novel,

Lady Chatterley's Lover.

He certainly mined the vein of his own past deeply, documenting a world

that would eventually disappear, but which remains vivid and alive

in the books of Lawrence that we can still read to this day.

Well, there's no doubt

we're visiting some marvellous locations on today's show.

From the birthplace of one of our greatest novelists,

to here, at Dunster Castle.

Now there's something I must show you

and it's possibly one of my favourite pieces here. It's this.

This magnificent staircase. Just look at it!

It was installed in the 1680s by Francis and Mary Luttrell

and it's possibly by Edward Pearce, one of our greatest woodcarvers.

And when you come and take a closer look at it and sit on the stairs,

you can really appreciate what a wonderful work of art it is.

I love the fact that each section of this staircase

has been carved out of one solid lump of elm tree

which would have been grown just locally,

on the estate, possibly. But look at it.

What he's managed to achieve here.

He's got scrolling acanthus leaves

which sort of scroll and wind all the way up the staircase

which just takes your eye right to the very top,

intermingled with carved hunting scenes,

which reflects the family's love for country sports.

This really is a wonderful,

wonderful example of the county's heritage.

And talking of heritage, back up at our valuation day at Wallasey,

Anita Manning found something that's very dear to her Clydeside heritage.

-John, welcome to "Flog It!"

-Thank you.

And you've brought these books along but I also know that

you have a background of the Mersey and shipbuilding,

and I feel that's very close to my heart. I'm a Glasgow girl.

-Yes, absolutely.

-And we had the Clyde

and the wonderful shipbuilding industry there.

First, give me a bit of your background.

Well, I served my time in Cammell Laird's in shipbuilding

as a plater, was the term used then,

which deals with the ship's construction. I got qualifications

and eventually became a college lecturer in Liverpool,

one of the Liverpool technical colleges

and so I was approached to start a shipbuilding course which I did

and ran for quite a number of years.

And tell me how you came by these books.

Now I have to say that what we have here... We have the Cunard Lines.

-Yes.

-But we've got the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary,

-both Clyde-built, just like me!

-Absolutely.

But we have the Mauretania. And that is Mersey-built.

-Cammell Laird-built.

-Just like you.

-Yes, exactly.

Erm, one of the older lecturers, he was in his 60s, came to me

and said, "Would these be any use to you?"

And he gave me these three books.

If we look at this one here,

we see a scene of shipbuilding

on the Mersey in the early 1900s.

Yeah, 1938 she was launched

and this shows a picture of the actual launch of the ship.

It shows the way in which the ships were built in those days.

And here's the Queen Mary who was the Clyde-built liner

and this is the old girl herself with these wonderful three funnels.

Number of things in wonderful condition here.

The Queen Elizabeth...

-And there she is. Isn't that a wonderful image?

-Gorgeous, isn't it?

Isn't she just as sleek as a lovely babe?

Absolutely fascinating. These are about shipbuilding.

Shipbuilding, which is in your blood. It's in my blood as well.

Cammell Laird's built some fantastic ships and yes,

there's a lot of pride.

A lot of skill went into them and we've lost that skill nowadays

because they don't build those sorts of ship anymore.

If they go to auction, they will be bought by enthusiasts

who will treasure and be as excited by them as you were.

Yep. I hope so anyway, yes.

But really, I'm finished with them now

so if an enthusiast can use them, that would be good.

I think...

Best maybe to estimate them conservatively.

We could estimate them £30 to £50.

Now, would you be happy to let them go at that?

-Yes. Yeah, I would. Definitely.

-We'll do that.

But I think we'll put a fixed reserve on it.

-If the lot doesn't make £30, you'll get them back.

-That's right.

And do you know something?

I don't think you'd be too unhappy if you got them back.

No, you're probably right. Absolutely.

But you never know, they might sail away.

The Mauretania was the largest ship built in England at the time.

She was only in commercial operation for a short time

before being called in to help the World War II effort,

which she did, for six years, travelling around the globe

and carrying 340,000 troops.

Undoubtedly, she is a ship worth remembering.

Back to Southwell Minster now,

where Caroline Hawley has found an object

that John, Paul, George and Ringo all got their hands on.

-Hello, David, Teresa.

-Hello, Caroline.

-You're clutching this little book here.

-Yes.

And something tells me there is

something very interesting inside it.

Would you like to tell me all about it?

-Yes. I've got The Beatles' autograph, all four of them.

-Oh!

-Which I got in 1963...

-Yeah?

..when they came to a local hotel about six or seven miles from here

called The Old England Hotel at Sutton-on-Trent

and my mum was working there then and she was in the kitchen

and there was a knock at the door and a gentleman came and he said,

-"Can you feed four hungry lads?"

-No!

She sort of looked and couldn't believe it was them,

and ran to the proprietor, Mr William Pike - Billy Pike, he was known as -

and the local paper came out,

so they got in touch with the local paper and...

-And then they went on their onward journey.

-Gosh, that's fantastic.

And to have such good provenance, because as you well know,

there are loads of reproductions, fakes of The Beatles.

But to know exactly where it's come from.

And your mum got this for you, did she?

She did, because I was at the local secondary school.

-And how old were you at the time, if that's not rude?

-13. About 13, yeah.

-So your mum came back from work with this?

-And I was so mad with her...

-Mad, why?!

-Because she hadn't fetched me from school to see then.

Oh! So why are you now considering selling this lovely collection?

I've a daughter in Australia that I like to keep going to see

-because I've got grandchildren.

-I see where this is leading, yes.

And it's becoming ever so expensive to fly.

Well, I think because of the provenance of this,

which is so rock solid, I think that in auction,

it could get anywhere from £1,000 to £1,500.

So at that sort of estimate, the reserve would have to be 1,000.

-Yeah, we'd be happy with that.

-Yeah.

Then if it doesn't sell, you take the boys home and enjoy them,

but if it does sell, you get that flight booked

and one of you will certainly be going.

-Yeah.

-First class.

-Yeah.

That has to be one of the best sets of autographs

we've seen on the show.

But now back to Birmingham's Museum and Art Gallery,

where James Lewis has spotted a name in pottery

which started life just 30 miles south of here.

Hilary, it really should be Philip Serrell sitting here

with a bit of Worcester,

but a wonderful little blush-ivory potpourri vase and cover.

Made at Worcester, one of the most recognisable pieces

of any porcelain that was ever made in England.

You look at that, and you know exactly what it is automatically.

Where did you find it?

Believe it or not, I bought it at a car boot sale about nine years ago.

There was a box under a table with 50p on and I looked into this box.

It was all odds and ends of glass and china,

and that was all wrapped up in cotton wool, brown paper, Sellotape.

I gave the man 50p and didn't unwrap it till I got home

-and what a surprise I had.

-Well, well done you.

Well, let's have a look. First of all, let's look at the cover.

It's pierced as you can see. Totally pierced cover for potpourri

so that the vase can be filled with aromatic leaves

and flower heads and the scent can still escape through the cover.

This one is marked, Royal Worcester underneath,

and then we've got lots of little dots.

First dot was put on in 1892, add up the number of dots

and we come to a year code for 1907.

And this 279 is the shape number, and H is in recognition of Hadley.

So Hadley's Worcester was another factory

that Royal Worcester took over.

We've got a bit of wear to the gilding and Royal Worcester

suffered considerably from wear to the gilding.

It was a nice, soft gild,

very different to the continental gilding.

But this Royal Worcester

was actually inspired by continental porcelain,

by the Austrian porcelain of the 1870s-1880s.

But for 50p? Blimey!

If it had been in very good mint condition,

it could have made 100 or maybe slightly more.

But the wear to the gilding lowers it,

so I would say £50 to £80 as an auction estimate.

-Is that OK for you?

-Yes, yes.

-Do you want to put a reserve on it?

-No.

-You don't want it to make a tenner though, do you?

-No.

-Shall we put 50 on it?

-Yes.

-£50 with discretion.

-Yes.

It's a pretty little vase and I'm sure it will do well.

Thank you very much.

Well, that really was a lovely item and it's great to see

the endurance of a quality brand through the centuries.

Sadly, it's time to say goodbye to Dunster Castle as we head over

to the auction rooms for the last time today,

and here's a quick recap of what's in store for us.

Teresa and David won't need much HELP

when their collection of Beatles autographs goes under the hammer.

I'm hopeful they will get their flights to Australia

covered outright.

John's collection of ship brochures are being sold in the right place,

at our Liverpool auction room,

so fingers crossed we have a successful launch.

And Hilary's Royal Worcester pot

is in good condition rather than mint,

but considering she bought it for just 50p,

it's surely bound to make her a tidy profit.

First up, we're at Fielding's Auctions,

where the Royal Worcester is up for sale.

A bit of Royal Worcester for 50p in a car boot sale?

Hilary, why don't you want to keep it?

-I wanted to come and see you in Birmingham.

-Aw!

That's sweet, isn't it? That really is. Hey, I like the story though.

-50p. How long ago was this?

-Erm, it was nine years ago.

It wasn't actually on the table, it was underneath.

It was wrapped up and I could just see the Royal Worcester mark

-peeping out.

-And I bet you got excited at that very moment.

You thought, "I won't knock it down, I'll just say, 50p? Yes.

-"Here you are."

-That's exactly what I did.

I bet you walked off and went, "Oh, look! Ooh!"

You see, it is out there. It is all out there.

You've just got to be lucky on the day.

-This is it.

-The Royal Hadley shaped potpourri jar and cover.

There we are, in the blush ivory.

£65 takes all the other bidders out. At £65. Do I see 70 in the room?

I've got you. 70 and five?

You're out? £70, the lady's bid at the back. 75 anywhere else now?

At £70, I'm selling then. Right in the distance, 75, fresh bid.

Ooh, late legs.

-90 and five.

-We might do it! We might do 100.

Says no. 95, it's the gentleman's bid now at £95. 100?

Anyone else want to take it up?

At £95 then. I'm selling at £95. All done.

-Hilary, £95!

-I didn't expect that!

-That's a good price.

-That's lovely.

That's the wonderful thing about car boots,

there is money to be made. There really is.

Yeah, just looking forward to the summer now

when we can go to a few more.

Good for you. Good for you. Thank you for bringing it in.

Anchors aweigh now as we set sail for the Wirral

and try to sell those ship brochures.

Expert and auctioneer Adam Partridge is on the rostrum.

Going under the hammer right now, we have some maritime memorabilia.

Three commemorative ship launching brochures

and they belong to John, and possibly for not much longer.

We are in the right part of the country

to sell maritime memorabilia.

And we have, in our brochures, we have the Mauretania which was built

in Liverpool and we have the two Queens that were built on the Clyde.

-Yeah.

-We got on really well, didn't we?

-We did. We did, yeah!

-A lot in common.

-A lot in common.

Well, hopefully we'll get top money as well.

And that's what it's all about right now.

They're going under the hammer.

We now have three commemorative launch brochures.

Mauretania, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. All in the 1930s.

Will you start me at £20 for the lot?

It's not a lot of money, is it?

£20 for the three. There we go. At £20, the bid. At £20.

I'll take five now. At 25 online.

30 bid. At £30 the room. At 35 online.

40 bid. At £40 the bid. Five online. At 45.

50 bid. At 50 the room. Five online.

-At 55. Another one, sir?

-Five?

-60 in the corner, five online. 70?

-There you go. £70.

-That's not bad.

-That's not bad.

At 75. At 75. Don't let them beat you, sir!

It's 75 on the internet then, and we're selling. At 75...

80, there you go. Good advice. At £80. 85 online.

They're laughing at you now. It's 85 online.

Thank you though. We appreciate the underbid.

We're selling at £85 online now. 85.

Job done, £85. Well done, well done.

And it's lovely to think that these books will bring

-as much pleasure to someone else.

-To the next owner.

-They could be on display somewhere and so on.

-Yes.

-Thank you.

-It was lovely to look at them.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

It just shows the importance of the online sale these days.

And finally, those Beatles autographs

are going under the hammer at Mellors And Kirk Auctions.

Let's hope they don't go for a song.

This business is all about provenance.

It's got to be watertight.

And we've got it right here, right now, with our Beatles autographs.

Bit of a local connection to Nottingham, to the hotel as well.

Teresa and David, it's lovely to see you. I love The Beatles.

-I know you love The Beatles.

-I do.

-I wanted to do this as a valuation.

I would have gone straight in

and said "Two grand, no problem, with that sort of provenance."

Because that is watertight, it really is. Why are you selling it?

Australia.

We've got a daughter in Australia and grandchildren and every year,

we like to go and it's getting more expensive, so I think it will do...

Do nice to put forward to a flight and treat the grandchildren.

-You'll miss the signatures, but it's a good thing to do.

-Oh, yes.

-It's a lovely thing to do with the money, isn't it?

-Yes, I think so.

-I think so.

-Might as well spend it and enjoy it.

-Yeah.

And I know, rock and pop memorabilia is big, big business,

so hopefully the whole world will know about this sale right now.

-This is it.

-Oh, really?

-Yes.

£1,200 for this lot. I am bid 1,200.

13, 14, 1,500.

16, 1,700, 1,800, 1,900.

-£1,900, I am bid.

-Come on, it's worth two grand.

-Yes.

-2,000. 21, for them.

2,200 from, I think, it's Estonia at £2,200.

2,500, I am bid from the US.

2,500. 28 for them?

At £2,500. The bid is online

and I sell. Fair warning.

-£2,500.

-Oh, wow! Yes.

-I can't believe it!

-That'll buy two seats.

-My heart's fluttering!

How much? 28?

-25. That's a good price. It's a very good price.

-We were expecting 15.

Well, look, enjoy the money. Enjoy that flight.

Give our blessings to all the grandchildren

and the kids out there. What a wonderful way to end the show.

We've really hit the high note there

and I hope you've enjoyed it as well.

Join us for many more surprises in auction rooms to come in the future,

but until then, it's goodbye from all of us here in Nottingham.