Compilation 59 Flog It!

Today, we're in West Sussex at Parham Park,

a magnificent, Elizabethan stately home, and just look at this garden!

It's full of colour and flavour,

and flavour is what this show is all about today,

as we visit some stunning locations from around the country,

uncovering more antiques and treasures you haven't seen yet.

Sit back and enjoy. Welcome to Flog It!

As you know, we are constantly touring the UK

in search of treasures with a story to tell,

and we feel privileged to have been welcomed by so many towns and cities

across the country.

Many of you have shared your special stories,

and our experts have delivered numerous surprises.

Today, we travel back to Wales,

Devon, Dorset and Staffordshire

to see more of the items we discovered on our travels.

We visited the 14th century Powderham Castle in Devon,

where one owner was overwhelmed

by a valuation Mark Stacey put on her amphibian-shaped item.

-SHE COUGHS

-What...?

Oh, dear, you've got a frog in your throat!

THEY LAUGH

Over the border, in South Wales,

our valuation day was held in the picturesque Margam Country Park

near Port Talbot.

And we paid a visit to the grand 19th-century Highcliffe Castle,

overlooking the Jurassic Coast in Dorset,

where Christina Trevanion

came across an item which got everybody excited.

-Ooh, I like it! Ooh!

-GENTLE LAUGHTER

Give me some oohs and ahs, ladies. I like it. Whoo!

And finally, hundreds of you turned up for a valuation at Sandon Hall

in Staffordshire, a luxurious stately home surrounded by parkland.

Well, how about this as a restoration project?

Later on in the show, I explore how, in the 1920s,

this magnificent stately home

was brought back to its Elizabethan origins.

But before that, Philip Serrell was in his element,

talking about cars at Highcliffe Castle in Dorset.

-Tony, how are you?

-Fine, thank you.

Now, we're all boys at heart, aren't we?

-We certainly are.

-What was it somebody once said to me?

'The only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys.'

Are you a car man?

-I am.

-What's your favourite car?

-A fast one. Lamborghini...

-Lamborghini?

-If you're talking about fast cars, or an E-type Jag.

An E-type Jag? Well, that's an archetypal English sports car, isn't it?

-Both of these were yours?

-Yes.

Perhaps a Christmas present or a birthday present?

Birthday or Christmas. I can't remember, exactly.

Probably in the '50s?

Yes, that one in 1948.

Let's look at this one first, then.

Let's put that there.

-So, we've got a woody station wagon, isn't it?

-Yes.

-You say it's made in Italy cos it's got a left-hand...

-It's written underneath...

-Yes.

-It's written on the bottom. That's a help, as well, isn't it, really?

-Oh, look, made in Italy.

-Brevettata, yes.

So, the way it works is we have a clockwork winder here,

and then you've got this brake here that doesn't work at all.

No, it's got the key inside.

How does that work, then?

-It, you...

-Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

MUSIC BOX JINGLES

That's not a car, that's an ice cream van!

Then...the two jerrycans in the back.

-PHILIP LAUGHS

-It just makes me laugh, this does.

Cos that is... It's an Italian car, isn't it?

And that is just like...

I'm going to have to turn that off.

That is just like an Italian ice cream van, isn't it?

Bizarre, that is.

-So, do you remember playing with this?

-Not too much.

I mean, this is nearly 60, 70 years old?

-I tried to look after it.

-You do, indeed.

I think they're really fun things.

And this one, this is Chad Valley, which is British.

So, we've got an Italian car, which should really be in red,

and we've got a British car, which should really be in green,

that being our traditional racing colours.

You've been very good with this,

-although I can see here... This has been dropped, hasn't it?

-Yeah.

I bet there's some memories with these, are there?

Absolute wonderful memories.

So, you've got a Chad Valley toy,

which I would think is probably '50s.

And we've got this late '40s Italian toy.

I think at auction, you'd estimate the two at £40-£60

and put a reserve on them of, say £35?

So, are you happy that we put them in with a 40 to 60 estimate?

-On each?

-No, I'd put the two together, I'd sell them as one lot.

I think they're worth each between £20 and £30.

Mm. I would go a bit more.

They might make it. Whether you put that much more on as an estimate,

I don't know. I mean, it's entirely your decision.

-What would you like to put on them?

-Difficult.

You see, I think, for the two, you want to look at around 40 to 60,

perhaps £50 to £80,

but the important thing is that you're happy with what we do.

-OK.

-What would you like to do?

-Yeah, sell.

-Sell them?

-Yeah.

-Shall we put £50 to £80 on the two

and let's put a fixed reserve of £45 on the two.

-How's that grab you?

-Yeah, OK.

Right, well, you are a gentleman.

-Thank you very, very much for coming along. Thank you.

-Pleasure.

A smashing little lot

that would delight those that are boys at heart,

whereas at Powderham Castle in Devon,

Mark Stacey found an item that would appeal more to a gentleman.

-Sue, lovely to meet you.

-And you, Mark.

You've brought something which is quite hopping mad in, haven't you?

-And I love it.

-Do you?

-Do you?

-No.

-You don't like it?

-No.

-Did you inherit it or something?

-No, I didn't.

My father was a milkman in his latter years,

and people with boxes of bits and pieces,

he used to knock on the door and say, "Can I take it away?"

My mother used to go mad,

because there was all this rubbish in the shed.

And that's where it came from, I would imagine.

So he just liked shiny objects?

He was a hoarder. In our shed,

he had boxes and boxes and boxes of rubbish, really.

Well, he obviously had a good eye for some pieces.

Well, I don't know whether he knew that.

He must have obviously realised there was something about it.

He gave it to me. He said, "See what you can get for that, gal."

The Devonshire accent!

And I've had it for, well, 15 years,

in the drawer in amongst all the batteries and the pens.

Gosh, I rather wish I was a milkman,

-cos I'd have loved to have found something like that.

-Really?

-Yes.

It's charming. I'll tell you what it is. You probably know, anyway.

I think it's a cane handle.

-Yes.

-And I think it would have fitted on a cane,

-cos it fits nicely in the hand.

-Would it have been a lady's?

I think it could have been a lady or gentleman.

It's beautifully made in silver.

It's hallmarked. The marks are quite rubbed, so we can't tell the date.

But I think it probably dates to the late part of the 19th century.

So it's late Victorian, in my opinion.

-OK.

-And it's got these nice sort of realistic eyes in there as well.

-And what are they made of?

-I think they're probably glass.

-Oh!

-That are simulated to look like eyes.

I love it. It's been textured to make it look more froglike,

and also to have a firmer grip in the hand.

-It is quite comfortable.

-I would love it.

It would look lovely in my home, but I can't buy it, unfortunately,

and I think there's a lot of people

who collect walking canes and walking-cane handles.

And if you are a cane collector, of course,

you might be able to get a stick that you can mount that on to

and put it in your rack with your collection.

So how much do you think your silver frog cane handle's worth?

I would have thought £20 to £30.

-Well, I'd give you £20 or £30 for it.

-Would you?

-But that would be rather mean.

-Really?

Because I think we should put it in with an estimate of 100 to 150.

-Really?

-And maybe put the reserve with 10% discretion,

so it gives the auctioneer 10% on the day.

But I wouldn't be surprised if it makes well over 100.

-Really?

-And I think it's going to do quite well.

I think we're going to have lots of people want it.

-SHE COUGHS

-Oh, dear, you've got a frog in your throat.

-Very good.

-So you're happy to put it in the sale?

-I am, I am.

-Wonderful.

-Well, I look forward to seeing the result at the auction.

-Thank you.

-See you, then.

-Bye-bye.

That cane top was a real little gem.

Let's hope it didn't croak it at auction.

Hundreds of paintings adorn the walls here at Parham in West Sussex,

depicting famous characters from the Elizabethan era.

Up there is Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII

by his third wife, Jane Seymour.

And here is a magnificent portrait of Henry Frederick,

the Prince of Wales, in the early 1600s.

For many years, this portrait harboured a secret

and it was only discovered when it was X-rayed

prior to going to America for an exhibition.

The X-ray shows that this brick wall

and this figure had been painted out completely.

It sort of had this scene of blues and greens behind it.

You couldn't see any of the wall.

We know that Henry Frederick, the Prince of Wales,

was hailed as the hope for England in 1611

when this was painted and this optimism might be symbolised

in the picture by this winged man, Father Time,

being led by the prince.

It's possible Father Time was painted out

after the young prince's death a year later.

The artist is Robert Peake, a well-known artist of the day,

who frequently painted the Royals.

He has captured the most wonderful detail in the textiles.

Just look at all the embroidery here.

It's very meticulous.

Here, the fists grasping the anchor.

That's the hope of England -

there will be a good future for this young prince.

And the father of time, saying, "Yes, there will be longevity."

Sadly, it didn't happen.

But this portrait was full of hope and promise at the time.

At our valuation day at Highcliffe Castle in Dorset,

a promising item found its way onto Christina Trevanion's table.

So, David, have you travelled

by train, plane and automobile to get to us today?

-By foot.

-By foot?

-We live very locally.

-Right.

-Five minutes up the road.

-How convenient!

-Yes, very.

-Wonderful.

Very convenient. And we are standing in the most beautiful

quintessentially English garden and you've brought us something

which couldn't have been from further away, really.

-That's right.

-This wonderful comport. Look at it. It's fabulous.

-Where's it come from?

-Well, I believe it came from Hong Kong.

My grandfather worked out there as a deep-sea diver.

My mother was born out there in 1915

and she can remember seeing it around her house,

-and I just inherited it.

-Right. There's a lot going on in there.

So, your father...

-No, my grandfather.

-Your grandfather was a deep-sea diver.

-Working in Hong Kong harbour.

-At the turn of the century.

And I assume he didn't find this whilst he was diving?

He did not. I'm sure not, no. He probably bought it locally, I hope.

I think you're absolutely right, yes.

Personally, I would say it dates from about 1910-20.

-Would that sort of marry up with...?

-That would fit in.

-She was born in 1915 and she was out there then.

-So this is your mummy.

-Yes, that's right.

-So when did they come back to this country?

I think she came back when she was about four or five years old.

OK, all right. So they brought these items back with them

that they'd obviously loved and lived with out there,

brought them back to the UK, and were they on display?

I can vaguely remember it being in our home when she inherited it,

but the rest of the stuff, I think,

was just put in storage and eventually was sold.

-It's a shame.

-Oh, my goodness

I do love it. I just think it's so beautiful.

Just looking at it conjures up wonderful images of the Orient.

Usually you see cloisonne pieces in plates and fairly, to be honest,

boring pieces, but this is a wonderful comport,

what we call a pedestal comport or tazza,

and it would've been a really prize possession back then,

it would have been a very expensive thing to have bought,

because it's a very expensive way of producing things.

And there's this wonderful tale of this dragon

chasing what we call the flaming pearl.

Is that what it is? I didn't realise that.

Yes. This was symbolic of a pearl and you see it a lot.

It's a very, very popular motif used in Japanese and Chinese wares,

and especially in cloisonne,

because you get this wonderful sense of all these different colours here.

It's incredibly intricate.

Can you imagine laying out all these little bits of wire

into this wonderful cloudy landscape and then surrounded

by these rather beautiful little petals, flowers here?

And again, with the wirework design. I mean it is very, very intricate.

Done on a base metal, probably a brass.

And if we turn it over,

you can see that that decoration is also conforming...

-Ooh!

-Oh, I like it. Ooh! Give me some oohs and ahs, ladies.

I like it. Whoo!

It's almost more beautiful from the underside, as well.

And on this side, we've got two dragons

chasing a flaming pearl there.

Really good quality piece and I think because it's an unusual shape,

it may be slightly more desirable than your standard plate.

Having said that, at auction,

I think we might be looking at an auction estimate

somewhere in the region of sort of maybe £40 to £60.

-How would you feel about that?

-Yeah, that's fine, yes.

Perhaps with a reserve of 40 with some discretion

-should we need it.

-Yes, that's fine.

-Would that be all right?

-Yes, that's fine.

-I love it, you love it,

and let's hope that everybody else does, too.

-All right?

-Thanks very much.

-Thank you so much for bringing it in.

-Thank you, my pleasure.

David's cloisonne dish completes our first three lots

and we'll see how they performed at auction shortly.

But first, I am back at Parham House.

Now, before we go off to auction,

there's something I quickly want to show you

and it's here in the great chamber.

It's this marvellous four-poster tester bed -

the most important piece of domestic furniture in any Elizabethan house.

Now this one, elements of it are Tudor.

Look at that knuckle there.

There is a pomegranate, it's part of the symbol,

part of the crest of Catherine of Aragon, so, possibly,

this could have come from the court of King Henry VIII.

What I find amazing about this bed

is the textiles that dress it. It's the decoration.

Look at the embroidery work, it's absolutely incredible.

The backboard, the bedspread and the canopy -

that dates to around 1585.

It's French or Italian, we're not quite sure.

But, the curtains, the pelmet and the valance, that's English.

And that flame stitch was very, very popular

as an upholstery pattern throughout the 17th century.

It's a combination of wool work and silk work.

Look at it, it's perfect. It's retained all that vivid colour.

I just hope it looks like that in another 400 years' time.

Right, here's a quick recap

of all those items that went under the hammer.

At Highcliffe Castle, two toy cars motored into our valuation day

and delighted Philip Serrell.

Whilst in another part of the castle's beautiful grounds,

Christina Trevanion happened upon David's cloisonne dish.

And finally, at Powderham Castle,

a silver cane top in the shape of a frog was a hit

when it hopped onto Mark Stacey's table.

Our first stop was Cottees saleroom in Wareham in Dorset,

where auctioneer John Condie was on the rostrum.

Remember, there is always commission and VAT to pay at every auction,

whether you are buying or selling.

If you want toys with style, look no further than our next lot.

Oh, you made Philip's day, Tony.

A couple of cars for Philip to play with.

-Why are you selling them?

-Well, I've had a lot of fun with them.

-Yeah.

-And I would just like somebody else to enjoy it...

Enjoy it as well. Well, he certainly did

and I know the bidders will be and, hopefully,

one happy owner here later on.

There are ardent collectors of these things,

so let's hope we do well for you.

Hopefully, we're going into overdrive right now.

This is it. They are going under the hammer.

We've got these two interesting clockwork cars.

The nice estate car with the wood effect sides

together with the Chad Valley one. Got interest in this lot.

-Oh, good.

-I'll start at £60.

-Oh, we're off.

-£60 straight in.

At 60, 70, 80, 90...

My God, it's gone mad.

100, 120, 140, 160.

They're loving this. They're loving this, Tony.

£170 now on the internet.

-It's really good, isn't it?

-170. 180 anywhere?

Slowed down now after a lot of early bidding.

You're all out in the room.

I'm selling it...

It's gone. £170. I am so pleased.

So am I. You'll be able to hire a car to take you home now.

It's all about style, isn't it, and condition.

And it had the lot, it really did, Tony.

Thank you so much for bringing those in, you've really cheered us up.

-Thank you.

-Lovely to see you.

It doesn't get better for boys' toys.

A smashing result.

Let's hope the bidders were as keen on David's cloisonne dish.

We stayed at Cottees saleroom to sell it.

David, fingers crossed. Good luck.

-Why are you selling this?

-We had it on display at our other house,

but we moved fairly recently

and it just doesn't go with the current decor,

-so we thought somebody else might enjoy it.

-OK, OK.

It doesn't sound like it's a lot of money.

No, it's a lovely thing,

but collectors really do like signed pieces

and the really intricate pieces,

whereas this is possibly a little bit more of a utilitarian piece,

rather than a showcase piece so hopefully it will sell.

It's a nice decorative thing. Great subject. So let's see.

-OK.

-Fingers crossed. It's going under the hammer right now.

Let's find out what the bidders think.

A cloisonne tazza, we call them,

decorated with a dragon.

I'll start at £40.

-Commission bid.

-That's brilliant.

-On a commission bid, that's fantastic.

-45 now?

45. £50 I've got.

50, 55.

-60.

-Oh!

£60 I've got. 60. 65? £60.

With me at 60... Five.

65. 70. 75. 80. 85.

85 in the room. Commission out.

In the room, it is.

90 - anybody else coming in? I am going to sell at 85, then.

That's a good result. That's a good result.

Well done. Well done you, as well.

-That's great.

-Thank you very much.

-You're very welcome.

And it's travelled such a long way, as well.

-I hope somebody enjoys it.

-Do you know what, I think they will,

because it had the decorator's look and that's what it's all about -

as a centrepiece, it looks pretty good.

-Yes. Brilliant.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

Finally, we travel to Plymouth to Eldreds auctioneers

to sell Sue's silver cane top in the shape of a frog.

Wielding the gavel was Anthony Eldred.

Sue, fingers crossed and good luck.

We're just about to sell that lovely silver frog.

It's a novelty. It's a walking cane handle and I do like this a lot.

Sadly, though, our little frog has leapfrogged back in price

from £100 to £150, which you put on at the valuation day.

The auctioneer has now said it's worth £60 to £80.

-Well, we'll find out, won't we?

-I could quite easily say 80 to 120.

-Yes.

-It's going to get there, it's going to get there.

-We're going to sell it.

-I hope so. He knows his market.

He's an established auctioneer.

-I hope I'm right.

-Here we go.

The novelty silver walking cane handle in the form of a frog.

It's got its glass eyes and I've got a lot of bids on it.

I'm bid £90 for it to start.

At 90. Five.

100. And five.

-110.

-Mark, you are right.

I rest my case, Paul.

-120.

-Sorry?

-120.

-At £120, in the room now.

-130.

-There's a lot of bidding going on in the room.

There's a chap down the front, as well.

150. 160. I'm bid 180.

190. Any more in the room at 190?

All finished on the internet at £190, then.

-The hammer's going down.

-Crack!

-That's a surprise.

That was a good surprise, considering, as I said,

that little froggy leaped back in value.

So you can see, we've all got different opinions

and different values but, at the end of the day,

when two or three people in the saleroom really want something,

the price shoots up, because quality, as we always say,

-quality always...?

-Sells.

-Sells.

There we go. Well done. Thank you for bringing that in.

-Thank you so much.

-Oh, that's all right.

Fabulous! We sent Sue home very happy.

Keep watching as there are many more surprises

at the salerooms still to come.

I'm back at Parham House in West Sussex,

which is a fine example of an Elizabethan stately home.

The restoration of old houses back to their original former glory

is commonplace these days.

There's even television programmes

that take you along on the agonising journey of the owners.

Now, imagine you could go back in time to post-First World War Britain

and you happened upon a 4,000-acre estate like this one,

with a house like this on it. Would YOU take it on?

In 1922, Clive Pearson and his wife Alicia

bought Parham estate for £125,000.

They had been looking for a home that needed some tender loving care,

and this Elizabethan manor, built in 1577, certainly fitted the bill.

It was a mammoth undertaking, as it was practically derelict.

It had a leaky roof, no water mains and no electricity to boot.

What made this project so special for the Pearsons,

it wasn't just about repairing and modernising,

it was about bringing the building back to its Elizabethan origins.

They both dedicated themselves to doing the research

which would allow them to be as true to form as possible.

Working with an architect, Victorian additions were taken out,

architectural features were uncovered and rooms were rebuilt.

This was a project that would take the next 40 years to complete.

Today, I'm meeting with the Pearsons' great-granddaughter,

Lady Emma Barnard, who now lives at the house.

Paul, why don't you come into the Great Hall?

Oh, Lady Emma, this is fantastic.

It certainly is a great hall, isn't it?

It's a superb example, this building,

of Elizabethan architecture, centred around this great hall

with these lovely high stone mullioned windows.

The light comes flooding in, doesn't it?

Such a light room and this is the heart of the house.

Yes, and there's more glass than wall here.

Did your great-grandparents have a love affair

with Elizabethan architecture before they saw this place?

Always. And they could never understand

why people thought of Elizabethan houses as being dark,

because they are just not. These windows are absolutely superb.

They were very much looking for a house

that was in bad need of a lot of love and when they saw Parham,

they completely fell in love with it and my great-great-grandfather,

the first Lord Cowdray, simply couldn't understand

-why they would want to buy a wreck like Parham.

-This is history.

They said, "We want to restore Parham to its glory."

Because my great-grandfather was a trained engineer.

He knew exactly what he was doing and he worked with the architect

and I think my poor great-grandmother got a bit fed up

from time to time because work progressed very slowly,

because, of course, he insisted on knowing every detail

of everything that happened here. For instance,

they discovered those windows that you see above the paintings.

Those had been covered up for centuries.

And indeed, I think I'm right in saying

that there were at least four, possibly five fireplaces

in front of the one behind you before they found the original.

When they bought the house, it was pretty much empty,

to be honest with you, because the previous family,

for various reasons, had removed

or sold a lot of the furniture that had been here in previous centuries.

So they had enormous fun collecting.

Of course, they had spies in all the great London auction houses

and they've bought things which had once been at Parham.

-They brought them back.

-Where they rightly belong.

-Yes.

-Isn't that nice?

-And people would ring them up and say,

"There's some pictures coming up," or some furniture coming up.

And they also bought a lot of things which they thought Parham needed,

or would have been here in the first place.

-Yes.

-They bought these wonderful Tudor pictures,

because it set Parham within the history of England

and the people who had lived there

during the centuries it had been built

so they were remarkable people.

During the Second World War,

first evacuees and then Canadian soldiers stayed at the house

with the family. Then in 1948, after further restoration,

the family were encouraged, by a friend,

to open the house to the public.

Not for financial reasons,

but to share this meticulous restoration with others.

Opening to the public became a family affair,

with Lady Emma's great-grandmother, Alicia Pearson,

and her eldest daughter, Veronica, both becoming tour guides.

Up in the Long Gallery, I'm meeting up

with one of Parham's longest-serving guides, Lindy Kessell.

Lindy, how long have you been a tour guide here?

I've been here 30 years.

I came because a friend introduced me

and she brought me here for an interview

and I was given the patter, which Alicia wrote,

and we still use today.

And then I had to take a test,

which was to take a guided tour around the house,

which was nerve-racking.

-I bet it was.

-To say the least!

-It obviously went well, cos you're still here.

-I'm still here!

I understand Alicia and Veronica carried on being tour guides here.

Yes. Right until they died, in fact.

Particularly Veronica, who always guided up here.

She loved showing people her house,

because they didn't know actually she lived here.

Occasionally, she would come clean

and say who she was, but very rarely.

She used to sit and watch people coming up through the door

and she'd count them and by the time you came up in the afternoon,

she'd tell you how many visitors we'd had up here

and if anyone was wearing a hat, cos in those days,

you took your hats off when you came into the house.

She'd phone down to the entrance hall and say...

"There's a chap in a hat!"

Yes, "Can you make sure the gentleman remove their hats,"

-which was lovely.

-She sounds great fun, actually.

Yes, she was a lovely person to work for.

Can you tell me about the Long Gallery we're standing in,

because that's quite a length

and you could certainly promenade in that in its day?

I know it is full of furniture now, but tell me about it.

Well, in Elizabethan times, it would have been empty.

-Exactly.

-It would have been where they got their exercise

and they would have been able to walk up and down

when the weather was awful outside,

and, you know, it's 160 feet.

So what does that rank in the country? Third, fourth?

It is the third longest in a privately-owned house in England.

The ceiling is modern, designed by Oliver Messel.

There was nothing in the archives

when the Pearsons came for the original ceiling

and so this is what they have left to Parham

and it was finally finished in 1968.

For me, it looks very Arts and Craftsy.

It is. Well, Oliver Messel, and he used his stage designing,

because although the actual struts are wood,

the actual bits that are holding the struts together are papier mache,

-which make it lighter.

-Yes, it's the attention to detail.

When you walk around here, it really does embrace you.

And the furniture hasn't been as curiously curated.

It looks like it belongs in that place.

Which is even down to the flowers,

because Alicia started the tradition of big bowls of garden flowers

right through the house and they will match the furniture,

all the pictures.

There's a piece of furniture down there, the red lacquer cabinet,

which has got a red and yellow arrangement beside it.

And the gardeners will bring up between 25 and 30 buckets

a week of flowers. It's a very much-loved family home.

Although Parham's not purely Elizabethan,

there is no doubt that 16th-century life has been brought back into it

through the love, dedication and the passion of the Pearson family.

And better still, we can all enjoy it today.

Right, it's time to get back to our tour of valuation days

across the country and over at Highcliffe Castle in Dorset,

Adam Partridge came across a collection

that had been put together with blood, sweat and tears.

Tim, how are you doing?

-Not too bad, thank you.

-Good.

You've brought in a very mixed collection here.

We've tried to single out some of the items.

It is all autographs.

You've collected all of these with the exception of the Baden-Powell.

With the exception of the Baden-Powell ones,

which they belonged to my father.

So your father wrote to Baden-Powell, did he?

Basically, he wrote to the Scouts Association.

He said he wanted to join the Scout group

and they were going to write back to him on that.

And then he said he wanted to make a magazine up.

Oh, very good. I see, in 1929,

he was Robert Baden-Powell and, by 1930,

-he is probably getting sick of signing letters!

-Yeah.

So he just had Baden-Powell.

Yes, he certainly did. He cut it down a bit there.

They're quite interesting,

because there's an interest in scouting memorabilia.

-It is, indeed, yes.

-There's one area of interest.

Then you've got theatre.

-Yes.

-And you attended all these shows?

Basically, I attended all these shows.

And how would you get...?

-Apart from...

-What was your technique of getting an autograph?

Waiting at the end of the show in the wherever it was,

for them to come out of the stage door.

And then see them personally and say, "Could you sign my programme?"

Bosh, there you go. And you did very well, didn't you?

-Yes, I did.

-What have we got?

We've got Jimmy Tarbuck.

It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

The whole of Dad's Army, is that right?

-The whole of Dad's Army.

-Well, that's a good one, isn't it?

-Yes.

-How long did it take to get that? In one hit

-or did you have to do...?

-No, it was just in one hit.

It was actually on that same night.

And then you've got an album full of sport

and a subject I'm interested in particularly is cricket,

especially West Indies cricket,

-and that one jumped out at me straightaway.

-Yes.

The West Indies came down to Southampton.

Do you remember it? Did they do any good?

I can't actually remember much about that game at all.

-It's just the fact I saw it.

-That's a highly-prized one, isn't it?

I got Gary Sobers' autograph, straight on the front of that.

Yeah, brilliant, well done.

-And you got a few others.

-A few others inside.

What year was that, then?

-Late '60s.

-Late '60s, isn't it?

Moving on to another sport, here you've got the Liverpool team.

Back in 1970, when they played Bournemouth.

I suppose the biggest name on there, I'm not a big football aficionado,

-but Roger Hunt.

-Roger Hunt.

He was in the famous '66 World Cup team, wasn't he?

-That's right, yes.

-So, of course, some extra value there, as well.

So, when did you stop collecting autographs?

I would say it's around about 30 years ago.

Gosh, that long ago.

These go back to the '70s.

-What made you stop?

-I got fed up of waiting outside the stage door.

Why have you suddenly decided 30 years later after collecting

-to sell them all off?

-They're just sitting around doing nothing,

put away in the wardrobe.

You never look through them and think, "What a great day"?

I don't really look through them.

I expect them to cause quite an interest at the auction.

It's quite a tricky thing to value, a little bit.

The research we've done has led us to think that 300 to 500

-would be a sensible quote.

-Yes, that's a nice quote, anyway.

-Good.

-Go a long way, that will do.

It would. What are you going to do with it?

I'm going to actually spend it on a holiday for my wife.

Oh, lovely. So the final thing to discuss, really,

is the reserve price. I suggest we fix it at £300.

-Yeah, that sounds right.

-Any leeway or fix it?

If it went 280, would you be gutted?

Yeah, I would be a bit gutted on 280.

All right, let's put 300.

-I think 300-plus.

-300 fixed and then see how we get on.

-Yes.

-Thank you, Tim, a very interesting collection.

Thank you very much indeed.

Next, we travel to Margam Country Park in South Wales,

where Mark Stacey came across a local lot.

Sandra, you've brought in a couple of what look like Welsh quilts.

-Yes.

-Tell me about them.

They were donated to my shop,

which is Wales Air Ambulance shop in Bridgend.

-This is a charity shop?

-Yes.

It was donated by a customer, who said it's come down in her family,

at least 200 years old, she told me, so...

Well, they've certainly got age to them, yes.

I mean this one particularly, it's certainly 100 years old or more

and we've got to look back to a bygone era with things like this.

This was before mass manufacturing.

Often, these were made by families of limited means,

not just in this country, of course,

or regionally within the United Kingdom,

but if you look over to the States, for example,

they have their own forms of patchwork quilt making

and this was a way of turning something

that maybe we'd throw away today,

but they turned it into something they could use.

-Yeah.

-Of course, it became popular and the authentic ones

that were made by local families for their own use 200 years ago

are much more collectable than the later ones.

There was this tradition of making bed quilts as wedding gifts.

So for your bottom drawer, in effect.

Sometimes, they were itinerant workers

who travelled around the country

and, you know, the person having the quilt made

would give them strips of fabric and they would sew them together.

Other times, whole families got involved sewing these little strips

of material together and getting it worked to a big quilt.

But I love the use of the fabrics.

When this is all cleaned up

and the colours are all bright and fresh again,

it'll look amazing, won't it?

Yes, it will, definitely, yes.

You've also got another one there

which has got a slightly more classical

and Edwardian and Art Nouveau feel to it.

-Yes.

-I think the two of them together would make a nice lot.

You're very lucky to be donated them.

Yes, we are. We get some lovely things donated.

This whole collecting area fits into a sort of folk art, of days gone by.

Now, we just pop to a department store

and buy whatever we want with stuffed quilts.

-Yeah.

-But this has got a really nice handmade feel about it.

But how on earth do you value these, I don't know.

-Have you got any thoughts?

-I haven't an idea, no.

You haven't been on the internet trying to search them?

I have, but they are mostly patterns.

Would you be happy and comfortable

if we put the two of them in together, say, at £100, £150?

-Yes.

-And then just see what happens.

I mean, I might be completely wrong.

There may be collectors out there who want to pay 200 or 300,

but we'll put 100 discretionary reserve on them.

-That's fine.

-If that's OK.

-Yes, OK.

-Just to protect things.

We don't want them selling for £30 or something.

-But I think they're really interesting.

-Definitely, yes.

Wonderful. Thank you.

Hopefully, those Welsh quilts didn't stray too far from home

when they went under the hammer. We'll find out shortly.

One thing you cannot fail to notice about the portraits

here at Parham in Sussex is Elizabethan fashion.

Now, I quite like that.

That's wearable. But in some of the portraits here it's very, very extreme.

You'd feel terribly uncomfortable wearing it.

But believe it or not,

there were very strict rules of dress code back in Elizabethan England,

regardless of wealth or status, governing what you could wear,

the fabric it was made of, and even how you wore it.

Take this portrait, for instance. This is Charles I.

A young Charles I, painted in 1623, when he was the Prince of Wales.

Now, even he had to atone to the correct dress attire.

And here you can see he's wearing a garter just below the knee,

as he should be wearing, as the young Prince of Wales,

just to suggest that he is dressed correctly.

He's following etiquette, even though he's going out for a ride, look.

He's got riding boots on, he's got spurs,

so he's just about to get on the horse.

I like that. But there is something really quite bizarre about

this picture. That foot is pointing to me, OK.

It's at a slight angle that way.

But if I move here, it's actually moved and it is pointing towards me.

It really is pointing towards me. Now if I walk this way,

look, it's following. That's quite bizarre.

Normally, it's the eyes in a picture that follow you around, but that's spooky.

There must be something in the pattern of the carpet that throws it backwards and forwards.

I don't think the artist intended to do that, but I like it.

And over at our valuation day in Sandon Hall in Staffordshire,

Charles Hanson found a collection that he liked, too.

Karen, it's great to see you today and I thought you were going to give me a tip! Wow-wee.

What a tip. Tell me about these coins.

Well, they're gold sovereigns that have been in the family for many,

many years. They used to belong to my great uncle and I have memories of him, as a very small child,

of him coming to my grandmother's house and playing magic tricks, making them disappear.

-Really?

-And then my mother inherited them over 20 years ago and she's

given them to me and I thought I'd bring them today to see what they were and hear more about them.

They are gold sovereigns, of course.

It's a wonderful story and that tale of what uncle used to do with them

and play those tricks and almost make money appear from nowhere, and,

of course, if you could make gold sovereigns from water,

or whatever else in magic, he'd be a very wealthy person.

I think the value's almost twofold.

Number one, you've got great coin enthusiasts who like to buy coins of

certain dates and that's one aspect we can look at.

And the second one is of course bullion value,

and that's watching the gold price,

because these of course are 22 carat gold, so the purest of the pure, really.

And you just think it's time now to let them go?

Yeah, well, I'm frightened, really, if anything happened to me -

I don't have children - they could get thrown away, or,

I just think it would be nice perhaps to cash them in and then we can all

have a treat, my parents, as well, and enjoy them.

-And what would you do, do you think?

-Whether it be a little holiday away.

It's my parents' 60th wedding anniversary this year,

so I think it can go towards having some treat.

Well, I'm hoping I can give you a big holiday, OK. I'm hoping so!

Because they are wonderful and the history of the sovereign is embedded in society.

They first came into existence in 1489,

but the sovereign as we know today, which was worth traditionally £1,

-all began in 1817.

-All right.

So those really early sovereigns can fetch up to £1,000 each.

-Right.

-If not more.

So that aspect of rarity goes far beyond the intrinsic worth of what the bullion content might be.

What I love about these, Karen, is,

the only one here, I think, goes back to around 1898.

And they really date from that Edwardian era just into the reign of George V.

So we've got ten full sovereigns and we've also got a half sovereign,

-which is half the size of the sovereign, actually.

-Yes.

So 11 coins altogether.

These I would value, Karen, as bullion.

You know, the market is good.

-Right.

-And sovereigns in the wholesale auction market can make anything

from £160 up to maybe £185 for the more standard types.

I would like to put these into a sale as one lot with a guide price of between £1,400 and £1,800.

-Wow. Yes.

-It's a big number.

-Yes. I'm very happy.

-It might give you a big holiday.

-I'm quite shocked!

And I think a fixed reserve of 1,400 and let's let these hopefully take off in the saleroom.

-Wonderful. Thank you very much.

-Thanks, Karen, I can't wait.

Thank you.

Our trips around the country have been very fruitful and we've found some marvellous items.

Before we show you how they fared when they went under the hammer in the salerooms,

here's a quick recap of all those items, just to jog your memory.

At Highcliffe Castle,

Adam was impressed by Tim's vast autograph collection,

many of which had been gathered in the rain.

It was apt that a couple of Welsh quilts turned up at our valuation day at

Margam Country Park in South Wales.

And finally, at Sandon Hall in Staffordshire,

Charles Hanson was delighted when Karen brought in her collection of

22-carat gold sovereigns.

First, we travelled to Dorset to Cottees saleroom,

where auctioneer John Condy was on the rostrum.

Tim's vast autograph collection went up for sale.

-You've collected these since the '70s?

-I certainly have, yes.

I hope a lot of people treasure them as much as you have,

because I think it is a very good, comprehensive collection.

Yeah. We're going to find out what it's worth right now.

It's going under the hammer, this is it. Here's your autographs.

Now, we have a selection of autographs,

including footballers, cricketers.

I've got interest. I'll start at 200.

200, 220...

240, 260...

280, 300...

320, 340 now.

360 bid.

360.

Spot on, spot on.

380 anywhere? A big selection of autographs.

380, 400...

420, 440 now.

All that hard work's paying off, in the rain!

£440, we've got now.

460 anybody else? Are you all out in the room?

-It's 440.

-Very good.

-Yeah, excellent.

Selling at 440, then.

Yes. Hammer's gone down. 440.

-Well done, you.

-Thank you very much.

-Those days of standing in the rain paid off, didn't they?

-I think so, yes.

Next stop was Rogers Jones and Co saleroom in Cardiff, in Wales,

where Ben Rogers Jones was on the rostrum.

Going under the hammer right now,

we have those two lovely Welsh quilts belonging to Sandra.

All the money is going to charity?

-Yes.

-Well done. And what a good find, as well.

Mark, I totally agree with the valuation.

Let's put that to the test right now. Here we go.

The two lovely patchwork quilts,

and I have a bid on the book of £60.

At 60 now.

Five bid. 65. 70 with me.

And five, and 80.

-And five and 90.

-Come on, a bit more.

At 95. And I'm out at 95.

100 bid.

-Is there ten?

-Come on, come on.

At £100, has everybody done?

-110.

-110...

110 against you. 110...

This is more like it, Sandra.

Here we go. Lot number one, and £110.

Yes! Well done.

And hopefully they're going to stay in Wales, as well.

And finally, we head to Halls Auctioneers in Shrewsbury to see if

Karen's gold sovereigns shone in the saleroom.

Auctioneer Jeremy Lamond was in charge of the proceedings.

-Good luck, Karen.

-Thank you.

-Good luck, Charles.

-Thank you.

-I do think this is a bit of a book price

one, though, because gold prices do fluctuate.

Hopefully, we'll make them disappear one last time.

-Yes!

-No magic here, though.

-Yeah, no magic.

We've seen them on the show before, we've seen the full sovereigns,

we've seen the half sovereigns, but we haven't seen so many in one lot.

It's great. And of course, the gold value has gone up,

-so I'm hoping they'll do quite well.

-So now we have a new fixed reserve.

Instead of £1,400, it is now £1,600, so hopefully £200 more.

-Yes.

-Here we go. Going under the hammer right now.

Ten sovereigns here and a half sovereign.

There we are. I can start here at 1,350.

At 1,350...

-1,400. 1,450...

-Come on!

-1,500, 1,550...

-Come on, one more...

At £1,550 now.

1,550. It's in the room.

-1,580.

-Yes.

There's a chap down there in the front, look, buying.

1,650, 1,700... Down here at £1,700.

-Anybody else?

-Try 1720.

-£1,700...

-1,750, 1,800...

-Yes!

Yes? 50, 1,900. 50?

Good. That's a good price.

£2,000, the bid is here, and it's against you.

-One more.

-50.

-Yes!

-£2,100 against you.

-Good.

-At £2,100...

2,150... 2,200...

Gosh, this is good. They don't want to let go.

-There's two bidders fighting.

-There's a rainbow here, isn't there?

-Yeah.

-A pot of gold either side.

No? The bid is with you, sir, at £2,300.

-That's more than what I expected.

-Ditto.

At £2,300, the hammer's gone down.

-That was amazing.

-Well done!

-That's absolutely brilliant.

-There is commission to pay.

-Oh, yes, yes.

-Plus Vat on top of that.

-Everyone has to pay that.

-Yes. That's amazing.

-Thank you so much.

-Nevertheless, a little surprise for us, isn't it?

-A glint of gold.

-Yes, yes.

A fantastic result to finish on.

I was over the moon for Karen.

Well, sadly, that's it for today's show.

I've had a marvellous time exploring Parham Park House,

full of magnificent fine arts and treasures and wonderful gardens.

Do join us again soon,

when we have many more surprises, when we put your antiques under the hammer.

But until then, it's goodbye.