RAF Museum, London 16 Flog It!

Take a look at this seat.

It's not any ordinary seat - it does this.

The technology to eject pilots was developed in the 1940s,

and here, at the RAF Museum in London,

we're going to be looking at plenty more examples

of amazing design and innovation.

Welcome to "Flog It!"

Our valuation day is at the RAF Museum

at Hendon, in north London.

Here there's one of the largest collections

of military aircraft in the UK.

You can see how planes have developed through the ages,

from flimsy canvas and wooden contraptions

to the latest state-of-the-art jets flown by the RAF.

So, it's time to get our show on the road,

and the crowd is pouring in laden with bags and boxes.

We need to see their antiques,

but more importantly, what happens to them at auction,

so let's get the engines roaring!

And we've brought out our top guns for our valuations.

Expert Anita Manning is keeping spirits up...

You're going to get a wee tot of whisky when you sit down.

-Oh, right!

-Do you believe me?

-No.

-Oh!

..and her partner in crime,

a dab hand at navigating his way through the real gems,

Michael Baggott.

-I'll give you a sticker...

-All right.

..which means you're marked for life now.

We better get ourselves strapped in

because there's no holding back this lot.

Literally hundreds and hundreds of people have turned up,

and they're in a great mood, aren't you?

Now, before we get on with the valuations,

here's a quick look at what we've got in our sights on today's show.

Anita's up for battle...

Can we have a look at it attacking?

ROBOT WHIRS

..and Michael uncovers an unloved ornament.

-Did it go on pride of place or...?

-No!

-We thought how ugly it was.

HE CHUCKLES

And I'll be looking at some of the famous faces

that have made the Royal College of Art

the premier home of design and innovation

as well as catching up with an artistic hero of mine.

So, it's time to get our valuations under way,

and fingers crossed we do not have a bumpy ride.

We're going to ask our experts to steer us through any turbulence,

and it looks like Anita has liftoff.

Edward, "Flog It!" can be great fun,

especially when wonderful things like this are brought along.

Now, tell me, how did you come by it?

Well, it was a present to my son via my brother-in-law,

and the boy is now 43.

He's not playing with it any more?

He's got a better one to play with.

-THEY CHUCKLE

-A human one.

-What about grandchildren? Are they not interested in it?

-No.

The youngest one actually got scared of it once

-because of the firing action that it does...

-Ah, right.

..and didn't want to know.

Now he's eight, we haven't tried again,

-so I said, "Oh, well, that's it."

-Just leave it. OK.

Let's have a look at it, because it's a great thing.

This was made in Japan in the 1960s.

Now, Japan has always made wonderful tin plate toys.

They made them prewar and then post-war,

and they always had a certain quality.

These toys in Japan were made for

-the European and the American market.

-Ah!

-So they were influenced by what was happening...

-OK.

..in Europe and in America at that time.

So we see great interest in robots and science fiction and so on

in the European market.

-And this one was actually called The Attacking Martian.

-Really?

-Can we have a look at it attacking?

-Well, if you like, yes.

-I'll just switch it on.

-Switch it on, baby.

ROBOTS WHIRS

I can see why these grandchildren

-might have been frightened by it.

-SHE CHUCKLES

It's in perfect working order.

Tell me, did you ever have a box for it?

-No, unfortunately not.

-OK.

-Your son's grown up...

-Yes.

-..and his mind's on other things,

-your grandchildren are scared of it...

-Mm-hm.

..so you want to pass it on.

Good condition, but no box.

In auction, I would say we would probably be looking at,

say, £50 to £80,

and the fact that it is working

and that it is a super piece,

I'm sure that it will draw a lot of interest.

But we'll put a reserve on it, if you're happy with that,

-and we would put the reserve, then, at £50.

-Mm-hm.

Shall we let him attack the auction?

Now, there's something very odd on Michael's table.

Alison, Nancy, thank you for carrying this...

Oh! ..hefty fellow in today.

It's late 19th-century stoneware body that's been high-fired

in these lovely...well, lovely glazes to me,

and you've go this wonderful representation of an elephant.

We've got the long ears, we've got the tusks.

What is the object he's holding?

-He's holding a whisk.

-Right.

You're not beating the elephant with it -

you're whisking away the flies.

Whether it was one or part of a pair...

Because it's very much facing this way,

I'd expect there might be a counter figure going the other way.

Oh, OK.

Where did it come from?

About 40 years ago,

we had a elderly lady living at the bottom of our garden.

She was downsizing - she was going into a home -

and she actually passed this to my father over the garden fence.

Oh, so she was at the house at the bottom of the...

-At the bottom of...

-She wasn't just sort of...

-No.

-..in the shed or something?

-She wasn't a fairy.

A fairy or anything like that. What was her name?

Gladys Saxby, and she was a Welsh opera singer.

-A Welsh opera singer?

-Mm.

-At the bottom of the garden?

That's amazing.

So, was it something when it came, Nancy,

that you thought that's a wonderful thing?

Did it go on pride of place or...?

-No!

-We thought how ugly it was.

Oh, so it was a...

It wasn't a "Thank you very much!" over the fence,

it was a "Er...thank you very much."

Yes.

But it is very ugly.

-I will give you that you either love it or hate it...

-Yes, yes.

..and it is a particular Eastern aesthetic

because this is where it comes from.

It's a class of stoneware

that's not greatly appreciated in this country.

It's just starting to be sought after and collected

-if you like that sort of thing...

-Yes.

-..which you don't.

-No.

So it comes to a question of price.

-I think we'd be sensible putting a reserve of about £90 on this.

-Right.

-But let's put an estimate that's a bit more upbeat of 120 to 180.

-OK.

-It's fascinating how these things travel.

-Yes.

And it's obviously come from Japan,

-given to her, maybe when she's been singing, as a gift...

-Yes, yes.

..and then it goes over the garden fence

-and eventually comes to the RAF Museum with "Flog It!"

-Yes.

We've all become a little bit of

the part of the story of this elephant,

and we're just going to wave him goodbye at the auction

when we get there.

Hopefully the elephant will soon be out of their hands.

Now, I've come to central London

to the home of a venerable institution

that spawned some great artists and designers.

The Royal College of Art has long been

a hothouse of talent and innovation.

Sculptors, artists and innovators

like James Dyson and designers including Zandra Rhodes

have all been former pupils.

Even the silver screen's Ridley Scott,

who directed the blockbuster Gladiator,

was an ex-student.

The RCA began life as

the Government School for Design in 1837,

set up with a very practical mission,

and that was to train designers

to help out with the country's growing industrial output.

And after the Great Exhibition in 1851,

art was introduced as a subject,

the building was rechristened the National Art Training School,

before finally becoming the Royal College of Art in 1896.

In the early days, teaching was traditional and strict.

Even in the 1930s, male and female students were separated.

A key turning point in the RCA's history came in 1948.

The austerity period of the post-war meant that design institutions

had to be more in tune with British commerce and industry,

so new faculties were set up in fashion and graphic design

under the principle of Robin Darwin.

Robin Darwin's dream was to create

the most important art and design school in the world.

To achieve this, he had to make the curriculum more relevant

to the needs of a developing society.

But it meant design products still had to be aesthetic, effective

and be items people wanted to spend their money on.

Studying here during that great era of change

is somebody I've met on the show before.

Back in 2008, I was lucky enough to be shown around

an exhibition of work by the artist Sir Peter Blake.

Peter Blake was the pioneer of pop art,

drawing inspiration from the fast-changing era

with his famous artwork of The Beatles and Elvis.

He was the forerunner to the likes of David Hockney,

who popularised the pop art movement.

-Well, it's great to see you again, Peter.

-And you.

I think it was about eight years ago

-we met at the Pallant Gallery...

-That's right.

-..at your exhibition.

Now, I'm going to take you back even further in time

to your student days here.

Well, I came here 62 years ago,

-which is a bit scary, isn't it?

-Yeah.

So, I came here at the age of 21.

Gosh. So, what was it like back then?

We were grateful to be here.

I mean, we were a generation who before the war

probably wouldn't have gone to art school.

The Labour government had given grants to go to colleges.

It just was wonderful to be in London,

wonderful to be at the Royal College.

Now, I want you to tell me what this is,

because, to me, it looks like a cobbler's workbench,

but I know it's one of the easels, isn't it, really?

Yeah, they were called donkeys.

-I mean, they're vaguely like a donkey.

-Yeah.

And you would have had a life model in the middle

and probably 30 of those around the model,

and you sat on the seat.

That's quite handy, that, isn't it?

It's handy, but I don't see how we did it.

-I mean, I suppose you fitted your drawing board...

-Up here?

-..onto that nodge.

-Up there?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-But it looks incredibly uncomfortable.

-It does, doesn't it?

I mean, you sat astride that for about three or four hours.

And now I sit with the board on my lap very close

so I don't know how I would've actually done it, but...

Was it very traditional and disciplined?

It was very ordered, yeah.

I mean, we had to be there by 9.30.

There was a kind of warder waiting with the signing-in book,

and you signed in,

and the book went at 9.30 and then you were late or absent,

so...so there was a certain discipline.

And the thing was I'd just done two years' National Service,

so you'd had two pretty hard years, so you were in heaven,

and...and very pretty girls.

It was fun.

Students like Sir Peter were at the forefront of a cultural revolution

that would take place across the country.

Young people began to enjoy a freedom they'd not known.

How old are you here?

Well, I was 21 when I came to the college,

-so I was probably 22.

-Gosh.

That shed's in Dartford - it was my dad's studio.

It's a proper old shed, isn't it?

-Proper pot shed.

-PAUL LAUGHS

-All dads only painted half a shed, didn't they?

-Yeah.

They ran out of paint.

-Gosh, this is where it all started for you, really, isn't it?

-Yeah.

You were so ahead of your time.

There were other painters here at the college

like the Kitchen Sink artists.

In a way, I was the end of that and the beginning of pop art,

because the group that Hockney was part of came six years later.

An amazing kind of group

who also were a next generation of pop artists,

-so I did kind of anticipate that.

-Yeah, yeah, you certainly did.

There's always been a strong link with industry in the RCA.

More than 20,000 students have passed through the door here,

and many of the things they've created are in our homes,

whether it's enhanced our wardrobe

or their pictures and items that are on our walls.

One thing is for sure -

the next generation of graduates that leaves here

will continue to inspire and shape the way we live our lives.

We don't have to fly too far today -

10 miles south of Hendon to Chiswick Auctions in West London,

and it looks like there are some keen bidders.

Commission here is 15% plus VAT.

And, on the rostrum, we have both Matt Caddick

and William Rouse wielding the gavel.

And first under the hammer is Edward's Japanese robot.

Do you know, if I was selling the robot right now,

I'd have him on the rostrum with me, wouldn't you? You would.

-You definitely would.

-Yeah.

-Yes, you would.

-He'd be up there with you.

-I'd let him distract me.

You'd let him put his fist down going, crash! Sold.

That's the way to do it. That's the way to do it, yeah?

-The wonderful thing about this is it's...it's still working.

-Yeah.

It's still there, and it's still quite fun.

It looks great, it's sculptural.

This is going to find a new home and it's time for you to say goodbye.

-Let's hope they're going to enjoy it.

-Yeah.

-Oh, they will. A collector will snap this up.

-He or she.

Hey, it's your lot now. This is it. Good luck.

It's going under the hammer.

-Let's find out what the robot's worth.

-Oh, excellent.

The 1960s Japanese battery-operated tin plate robot.

Come on, come on. I want to see this do really well.

Yeah, me too.

With me at 40. 45. 50 here.

Staying already at £50 on the book with me.

And 5, I'll take, please.

55. Commission bid is now beaten. It's on the web at £55.

60, we need.

For £55, then.

Are we finished, all done at 55? I think we are.

55.

-Gone!

-He's gone. Hey, did he have a name?

-Did you ever give him the name?

-No.

-Aw.

-I didn't. I didn't.

Maybe his next owner will give him a name.

And do you know?

I hope the next owner has him on a desk

-in the office.

-More than likely.

I hope he's on the desk near the phone.

So, Edward's a happy man, and his robot has a proud new owner.

Now, let's see how the pottery fares with the bidders.

Nancy and Alison, good luck, and it's great to see you again.

While Michael and I sit back and relax, like you at home,

we can all enjoy this sitting down.

-This is good, this, isn't it?

-This is good, yes. It's lovely.

We've got the ceramic elephant going under the hammer.

A little bit of Orient comes to west London.

Good luck, OK?

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

A pottery seated man on an elephant.

There we go. What's it worth? £50 for it.

50 is bid. 55. 60. 65.

£65 for the pottery elephant. At 65.

I'll take 70 in the room.

75.

80. 85.

-90 in the far end.

-Great!

At £90, we're bid.

Anybody else, then?

At £90. I can sell it at 90.

-Sold. Hammer's gone down. Are you happy with that?

-Absolutely.

-Brilliant.

-It's gone from my house.

It's gone. Job done.

Well, that's it, it's all over,

and what a brilliant day we've had here in the auction rooms.

I hope you've enjoyed the show.

Join us again for many more surprises,

but until then, it's goodbye from Chiswick.