Morecambe 14 Flog It!

Today, "Flog It!" comes from the old railway station in Morecambe.

Now, trains don't stop here any more,

but later on in the programme, I'll be visiting a working station

that was the star of one of the finest love stories ever filmed.

All will be revealed later. Welcome to "Flog It!".

Our valuation day comes from a venue that was once the main station

in Morecambe, bringing huge numbers of holiday makers to the resort.

To help deal with all these visitors, in 1908,

the line was one of the earliest in the UK to be electrified,

running fast and reliable electric locomotives.

After closing in 1994, it became The Platform,

a busy venue for events like ours.

Well, I have to say, the atmosphere here is electric.

Are you having a good time? ALL: Yes!

And they haven't even got inside yet!

Hundreds of people have turned up from Morecambe and beyond,

laden with antiques and collectables for our experts to take the best

off to auction, but of course, they're here to ask

that all-important question, which is...

ALL: What's it worth?

Stay tuned and you'll find out.

Diving straight into the task of divining today's treasures is

the charming Charles Hanson...

Give us a kiss. Ooh!

SHE LAUGHS Nice to see you!

Give us a kiss.

..and the cheeky Adam Partridge.

Oh, my gosh. Isn't it terrible?

Well, I'm glad you said that, because I agree.

LAUGHTER

And inside, the rest of our team are

busy getting everyone sorted and comfortably seated.

Everything has to run like clockwork,

because there are lots of people eager to have their antiques valued.

But before we get started,

here's a quick taste of what's coming up later on in the show.

'Charles gets into a battle of tastes.'

I like it a lot.

Good! We'll take to auction. I don't. Oh, don't say that.

A love-hate relationship! I love him.

?800... 'We have a runaway success at the auction.'

1,000 on the telephone.

We weren't expecting that. No!

'And I visit the railway station that was the location

'for Brief Encounter, one of the most iconic love stories on film.'

Well, everybody's now safely seated inside, that's much better!

It's warmer, isn't it? Yes! Yes!

Well, we can now get on with our first valuation.

Who is that lucky owner going to be?

Well, I've just been told they're with Charles Hanson.

Let's take a closer look.

I see a likeness now, Brenda.

I see a likeness. Tell me about your beautiful teacup.

Well, I've had it all my life.

It was bought by my maternal grandmother when I was a baby

and there was no plastic cups then to drink out of.

She bought...thought that was small for my milk,

so that's where it came from. Small enough for your milk.

Yeah. How do you mean?

It wasn't a great big beaker... You drunk from it? Yes, I did.

You didn't? But before... No, I didn't really,

cos, before I could, I banged it on my wooden highchair

and made that. Oh, no! So you...?

So my mother took it off me, then.

So it's just been in the cupboard all these years.

Wow! My mother had it... Yeah. ..and I've got it.

See, my daughter will throw things off the highchair.

That's right. I just banged it down.

This was really quite highbrow when it was made.

It's jewel-like.

Yes. It's the best quality when it comes to European porcelain.

It was porcelain made for noble pedigree.

What's really interesting -

we can identify this lady on the portrait as a lady

who was niece of Cardinal Mazarin, who was chief minister in France

in the 17th century and this lady is a lady called Hortense Mancini.

And she, interestingly, lived in the 17th century... Mm-hm?

..and was, in fact, mistress to a king of England.

Charles II? Correct! My namesake, Charles II.

And what's wonderful is Hortense is hand painted,

so the porcelain is almost like a canvas.

There's a very small scratch on her right cheek.

It could have been you teething.

THEY LAUGH Yeah! Maybe not.

No! I hope not! Where was it made?

France. You're right. Any idea on the factory?

Sevres. You're right. Yes. Yes.

In the second half of the 18th-century,

the most important factory across Europe, across the world,

making porcelain for the most highly-powered and esteemed families

was Sevres. Yes, Sevres. S, E, V, R, E, S. Yes.

And the factory was founded in 1738 and it was Louis XV's factory.

On the back here, we've got the interlaced Ls for King Louis...

Oh? ..because he put that factory together in the mid-18th-century.

So, how old is the cup?

Well, it must be 300 years.

I wish it was.

That handle, that entwined handle, is very mid-19th century.

Is it? Yes. So I would say this is a mid-Victorian revival,

made at Sevres, but from circa 1840, 1850.

1840. And I love it. Yes, I do. I really do.

And I only wish we had five other cups...

Yeah! ..six saucers and maybe an 18 piece set.

Wow! If this was not cracked,

it would be worth probably between 150 and 250.

Right. In its condition, in the wholesale market,

I would like to propose to you a guide of between 40 and 60,

put a reserve on at 30 and celebrate the fact that you, as a young baby,

had this in your highchair and thankfully it's still here today.

It is, yeah!

Brenda may have tried to break that cup as a baby,

but I think she'd struggle to make a dent in our next item.

Ken, welcome to "Flog It!"

It's always nice to see maritime or shipping memorabilia.

Please tell me about this lovely name plaque

and how you came to own it, what you know about it.

Well, I was working in American Samoa

as head of Department of Marine Technology at the college

down in the South Pacific and I was walking past a skip

and there was three or four guys looking in the skip. Yeah?

So I looked in... ADAM LAUGHS

..and this was here and the guy opposite had got the nameplate,

so I said, "I've got this. Can I have that?" He said no.

HE LAUGHS SOFTLY So, I ended up with this.

This ship, it was a tug. Yeah.

Cocoa had been sold to the government of American Samoa in 1971

and I arrived there in '72 and the local guys were decluttering

and they were throwing everything into the skip. And where was this?

Pago, Pago, American Samoa.

Wow! Yeah. I think you get the prize for the item

that's travelled the furthest today.

But when I got it, it had a little cloth bag here,

with four bolts in it, which were obviously... The right size to...

..to secure that, yes, to the hull.

OK. Yeah. So what was this?

"Hull 352, built by the Levingston Shipbuilding Company,

"Orange, Texas, 1944."

Yeah. Um... That's just before the war finished.

Just before the war finished. So it was in service

with the American government as an oceangoing tug.

So you've got some interesting information here

about the Levingston Shipbuilding Company.

I believe Captain George Levingston

was the son of a Northern Irish immigrant...

Correct. ..who started building in Orange in 1859,

building paddle steamers for service

and converting river steamers to the gunboats for the Confederate Navy.

Later on, they became the Navy's leading builder of ocean tugs

in World War II and then continued to manufacture afterwards,

so an interesting story in its own right, really. Yeah.

So, this was obviously number 352 Hull that they'd made so they'd been

going quite a while by 1944, just at the end of the Second World War,

and this is obviously a solid piece of brass, a good, weighty thing.

Yeah. Fascinating. See, when I first saw you and I saw the ship's plaque,

I thought, "Oh, brilliant, we're in Morecambe, we've got something

"local of that time!" Yeah! Nothing to do with Morecambe, is it? No!

THEY LAUGH Not apart from that it's mine.

Apart from it's yours and that you live in Morecambe. At the moment.

I don't think the value's very high, really.

Yeah. I think it's probably between 50 and 100 quid.

Would you agree with that? Yeah, sure.

But it came for nothing and you've given us a really interesting story

and let's see what the market thinks of it at the auction.

Shall we go with no reserve and let it sell?

Yeah. Yeah. Why not?

Very good. Thank you very much for coming.

OK, thank you. See you at the auction. Yeah.

It's great to know that, even on the other side of the world,

you can still find interesting treasures in skips.

Stepping away from our venue just across the road, there's another

stunning piece of architecture that is the very reason for

the Midland Railway Company building the station here on the seafront.

Right opposite this place is the Midland Hotel,

or the North Western as it was originally known.

They wanted to cash in on the huge number of tourists arriving

in Morecambe and having a hotel right in front of the station

was the right way to go about it.

When the station was built,

the Midland was a fairly ordinary-looking Victorian hotel.

But in 1933,

it was replaced with this incredibly cutting-edge and streamlined model.

From the moment it opened,

the Midland became the place to stay and it attracted more than just

wealthy holiday-makers from the north-west of England.

Coco Chanel, Noel Coward, Sir Laurence Olivier,

plus many other top actors and musicians

who were performing at the Winter Gardens all came to stay here.

However, as the holiday trade declined in Morecambe,

so did the Midland Hotel and it shut in 1998 in a state of disrepair.

Luckily, after years of sitting closed and neglected,

it was restored and refurbished to match its former glory,

reopening its doors in 2008.

This place is just stunning.

It's a real Art Deco masterpiece and a testament

to how popular Morecambe was back in the day.

Artists Eric Gill and Eric Ravilious

were commissioned to make special pieces for the hotel,

which could be incorporated into its design.

Ravilious created a mural for the wall of what was the tea room.

Sadly, the hotel was so new and the plaster still wet

that the painting only lasted two years.

This version was done in 2013,

recreated from photos of the original.

Fortunately, Eric Gill's works have survived perfectly well.

Time to get back across the road to our valuations,

where a cheery-looking character has checked into Charles's table.

What's the history of this object?

I don't know very much about it at all.

I inherited it on the death of a good friend and it has been

in her house for a number of years since my childhood.

Well, let me tell you, this is Japanese, OK?

I knew it was oriental.

What we call an okimono, or an ornament.

I think this figure has a sort of merchant-seaman feel about it.

Oh, I thought it might've been a beggar or somebody.

Yeah. Well, let me tell you,

often, merchant navy men - who may have been serving in World War I -

and perhaps were positioned in or around Asia,

they may have brought this home as a souvenir. Yeah.

It's very possible... Yes.

..because the father of my friend was in the First World War,

but he never went further than France or Belgium.

I like it a lot. We can see we've got this delightful elder figure.

I can't quite work out the subject.

He carries this monkey on the back of his left shoulder. Yes.

He appears to be not badly dressed,

so I don't think I would quite call him a beggar.

He could be a labourer. Yes.

He would date to around 1910.

And, more often than not, I see these carvings in ivory not metal.

No. And he's interesting, because he is a silvered base metal and

underneath this silver cover is perhaps a nickel plate.

He's on an agricultural type of base.

And we can see, I think he's been extensively polished.

Not by me. Good.

Because you can see the original texture has been rubbed away.

Can you see? Yes.

And that's a shame. He is marked on the base.

We've got this seal cast mark in the base here.

I can't identify that.

But it broadly relates to the period in which he was made,

that being the Meiji period, from 1868-1912.

I quite like him. I'm afraid I don't.

Oh, dear! Don't say that! SHE LAUGHS

You don't like him at all? No.

He's superfluous.

Has he been on display at home? Yes, it has.

I think he's charming. I think he's got a very gentle face.

And the face could... But weary, tired.

A weary face with wrinkles.

Yes. He looks wise, though.

He looks as though he's experienced life.

Yes. And he will go on and, I'm sure,

will be enjoyed by collectors in a next life. Yes.

What's he worth? I don't know.

I would like to guide him between ?70 and ?100. Well, fair enough.

We'll see. And with your blessing, I propose we put a reserve at 60

and, hopefully, his eastern charm

will engage maybe an eastern or western buyer to a new life.

Some of the people here, who have looked at him, have said,

"Oh, he's lovely!" and others just say, "Oh, dear!"

And I'm an "Oh, dear!" Yeah. A love-hate relationship.

I love him. You love him. Good for you.

Put it there. Thank you very much. Thanks very much. Thank you.

Right, and now for my favourite part of the show.

This is where we up the tempo. This is where it gets exciting.

As you've just seen, our experts have found their first items

to take off to the saleroom. Don't go away, anything could happen!

Let's hope we have a big surprise. Here's a quick recap

of all the items that are going under the hammer.

We're hoping Brenda's porcelain gem will be someone's cup of tea

at the auction.

That ship's nameplate should sail away in the saleroom

with a big price tag in tow.

And hopefully that Japanese figure will give Wendy

something to smile about.

Our auction is in Clitheroe,

a pretty town sitting on the edge of the Forest of Bowland,

a scenic area that's a bit of an undiscovered gem.

And this is where it gets exciting,

because here we are at Silverwoods auction rooms.

We've travelled across Lancashire

to put our experts' valuations to the test.

Here, the commission is only 10% plus VAT.

These rates do vary from saleroom to saleroom,

but here today, it's 10%. I'm going to catch up with our owners,

because I know they're feeling very nervous.

In a moment, it's lights, camera, action.

Let's get those lots under the hammer.

Wilf Mould is the auctioneer

and, first up, it's Brenda's exquisite porcelain cup.

It's a work of art on a porcelain cup and it's late 18th century.

It's what I absolutely love. It belongs to Brenda.

And I'm surprised Brenda's selling this,

because it's been in the family for a long, long time, hasn't it?

All my life. All your life and grandma gave it to you.

And that's a long time. Aw! Have you other things, though,

from grandma? Yeah, I've got quite a few old things at home, yeah.

It's beautiful, this. It's beautiful.

Paul, it's a real work of art and when you use the word "cabinet cup",

this really is a cabinet cup. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

If only we had the saucer. Yes, exactly. And a few more cups.

A few... LAUGHTER

Then you wouldn't sell them, would you? No! No!

Anyway, we're going to find out what the bidders think,

because this really is quality. And what do we always say?

Quality sells. It does, it does. Let's "Flog It!"

This is the Sevres continental cabinet cup...

Just beautiful! ..decorated with a portrait of Hortense Mancini.

I shall start it at ?20.

?20 and two. A long way to go. At ?20 and 22 for the cup.

22 is bid. 22. 25. 28?

28 now. I'll take 28. And 30.

32? At ?30 on that...

32 on the screen.

At 35... Come on, surely. ..on this little cup.

Have you all done and thought at ?32?

35 now. Late bid online.

35. 38. Come again.

38 is bid. Little money.

All done at ?38?

GAVEL BANGS

Amazing. 38. He's sold it, hasn't he?

Yes, he sold it. Yes, sold it. Gosh, that was real art, wasn't it?

I mean, that was just quality. Yeah.

Sometimes... We just got it away.

Yeah. It needs its saucer to flourish more. Yes, that's right.

But as a work of art,

for a collector to actually inherit that object is fantastic. Yes.

'Next to go under the hammer is that wise old Japanese figure.'

Good luck, Wendy. Thank you! Fingers crossed.

This is the moment going under the hammer.

We've got this little silver figure. It's a...

It's a smiling happy little face from a wise and weary figure.

Yes, it is. I'm describing me, really, aren't I?

LAUGHTER

I bet that's how you were feeling

at the end of the day when we were at Morecambe. Keep smiling!

I like this. This is good quality.

Well, I mean, he said that all the quality had been rubbed off

by keeping it clean. Yes, it's been over-cleaned, hasn't it? Yes, yes.

And that's something a lot of our owners do.

It's a shame it's not a multi-metal, with maybe copper and gold inset.

Sure. But it's a good object. Yeah. Fingers crossed, both of you.

It's going under the hammer right now!

Lot 140.

This is an elderly traveller walking with a stick.

Meiji period, circa 1900, and it is marked to the base.

Who'll start me at ?100 for this one?

Come on. Come on. Come on, son. 100 anywhere? I'll take 80, then.

?80.

50 under sufferance, surely.

50 bid. We're in. Chap in the... At ?50 bid, in the room.

55. 60 now.

60, sir. Five again. That's better.

At ?60. Better, ha! Looking for 65. Come on. Help yourself.

Selling at ?60.

GAVEL BANGS

?60, it's gone, Charles. Good. It's a funny old game.

Good figure. It's done. It's done!

Yes! It's done and dusted and thank you for being a good sport, Wendy...

Oh, yes. ..and bringing that in. Thank you, Wendy.

'And finally, the ship's nameplate.

'Hopefully, it will make a name for itself.'

I think maritime memorabilia is big business and

it is slightly undervalued. I think it's a good area to collect in.

Don't you? Definitely, yeah. Where has it been all this time?

Under the bed, in the cellar, in the attic.

Travelled a long way. Originally from an American boat.

I gathered that. Yeah. Yeah, it's wandered around.

Do you think it might find its way back to the States?

I don't know. I think maybe the name Levingston's quite an unusual name

of Irish descent, so maybe a family member's tracked it down.

Who knows? Yeah. We'll find out. I'd love to find out. Yeah.

Lot 190 now is the bronze shipbuilder's plate.

Built by Levingston Shipbuilding Company, Orange, Texas in 1944.

Who'll start me at what for this plate? ?80 for it?

?60, quickly, while you're all thinking.

Well, I'll take 50, then.

THEY LAUGH Must be worth that for weight.

50 on the telephone. ?50, I'll take.

55. 60 now.

?60. 65. ?70. 75.

80. ?80. And five?

90. ?90. 95.

100. 100. 110.

120. 120.

And 30. 140 now.

140. 150.

160. 170.

At 160 on the telephone. That's all right. It's fine.

170 from anywhere else?

Sailing away at ?160.

GAVEL BANGS We'll take that, won't we?

?160. Very good. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah, well done. Very good. Yeah.

And thank you for bringing that in. Yeah. That's a nice result.

Not a bad price.

Well, that's it. Our first visit to the auction over with.

Three items down, three more to come later on in the show.

But before we return to The Platform in Morecambe to find more treasures,

I want to take you on a rail trip to another station,

which has a very special place in railway and film history.

I've always had a soft spot for train travel

and, as a nation that invented steam trains,

I think we have a unique fascination with the romance of it.

Travelling by train, especially steam,

is deeply ingrained in our cultural fabric.

It has a certain romance that just doesn't work

with any other form of travel.

Carnforth, just up the line from Morecambe,

is a small and pretty Victorian railway station

that occupies a very special place in railway history.

Firstly, it's the only working station that has high-speed...

TRAIN ROARS, HE SHOUTS ..intercity trains whizzing

right through it, but also has a museum as part of the platform.

And if you didn't know any better and you'd just stepped off a train,

you'd think you'd been transported back in time to the 1940s.

Inside and out, the station is littered with displays and exhibits

to evoke that most romantic period of rail history.

It's a rail enthusiast's delight.

But there's something else quite unique about Carnforth

that attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world.

This is where they shot some of the iconic scenes

for one of the most romantic films of all time - Brief Encounter.

For me, the film sums up the romance of the railway station

and, of course, a bygone era and surely it's got to be

one of the finest stories of love committed to film.

WHISTLE BLOWS

But look at this, it's a little cinema here in the station

that plays Brief Encounter continuously every day.

That's 1,440 times a year.

It's a melodrama and it's where Celia Johnson -

who I have to say is absolutely stunningly beautiful -

the bored housewife, meets Trevor Howard, the gallant doctor,

who gets a bit of grit out of her eye.

There. Oh, what a relief!

It was agonising. Looks like a bit of grit.

It was when the express went through. Thank you very much indeed.

Now, this brief encounter leads,

quite innocently, to a good friendship.

But the more they meet at the station, the more it gets intense

and they start to fall in love.

It's one of those situations that could ruin a marriage.

WHISTLE BLOWS, TRAIN ROARS PAST

Now, if you haven't seen this film, I'm not going to tell you the end,

because it will ruin it for you.

But it really is a wonderfully, wonderfully romantic story

of two tortured souls.

It epitomises the Great British character as well -

that stiff upper lip and dutifulness.

It's absolutely brilliant, it really is.

It's written by Noel Coward and directed by David Lean,

arguably the greatest British film director of all time.

Now, his CV is littered with amazing films, such as Great Expectations,

Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Bridge On The River Kwai,

and the list just goes on and on and on.

But what appeals to me about Brief Encounter,

compared to the grand epics, is that the intimacy of romance

is so beautifully captured at this railway station.

What I really like is this tearoom. It's been beautifully restored.

MUSIC: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2.

Evening, Mr Godby. Hello.

Hello, hello, hello! Quite the stranger, aren't you? I couldn't...

'I love the attention to detail.'

It's like walking onto the film set of Brief Encounter back in 1945.

Yet the scenes weren't shot in here.

They were done in a studio in London.

They just recreated a carbon copy of this tearoom and the rest room.

Although the story is set near London,

the scenes on the station exterior had to be filmed at Carnforth.

That's because in 1945, when they were making Brief Encounter,

the Second World War was still raging

and all the lights used for filming a movie at night

would've been an easy target for German bombers.

David Lean had to find an alternative location

and Carnforth in North Lancashire was remote enough to be safe.

My favourite part has to be the platform clock,

which featured prominently in Brief Encounter.

And here it is. It looks a little bit different now,

because the set designers in the movie covered it over with cardboard

to hide the hands to keep continuity.

But here it is now in all its former glory.

Now, up here, that's where the mechanism is.

Now, that operates the clock by virtue of a drive shaft,

which goes all the way across to the clock face,

but unusually, this has a wooden pendulum. It's a wooden pole!

It's very much like a grandfather clock,

but I've not seen that in a grandfather clock.

If that was in a metal, that would expand

and contract with the weather conditions and affect the time,

so, being wood, that keeps very good time

and, incidentally, you only have to wind this up twice a week.

ALEC: Forgive me for loving you.

It's not often you can say this about a working railway station,

but this place is all about love -

the love of rail travel and the celebration of a great love film.

Brief Encounter takes us back to a bygone era, the golden age of steam,

where everything seemed so innocent

and a world away from the social conventions we have today.

But luckily enough, Carnforth station allows us

to come and visit and soak up pure nostalgia for a lost time.

Back at our very own railway building,

we're still getting plenty of new arrivals eager to see

if their antiques will be chosen for the auction

and Adam looks ready to set off with his next valuation.

Thank you very much for coming.

I remember seeing you earlier and my eyes instantly homed in

upon this little snuffbox. They did indeed, yes.

My beady little eyes! Now, what can you tell me about it?

Well, it's come down my family.

My mother's father left it when he died.

And I don't think it was probably to his taste,

so I'm guessing, probably, that it came down from his father.

So not from a sort of hunting stock, your family?

Well, my great-grandfather is from farming.

It's beautifully done, although the subject is

a little bit gory, isn't it? It is extremely gory.

Not to everyone's taste. Certainly not these days. No, that's right.

Victorians liked that sort of thing, didn't they? They definitely did!

And it would've been a real desirable object of the period. Mm.

I think this will date from the end of the 19th century, 1880-1900.

As late as that, yes? It's typically more towards...

Towards the end of...? ..the end of part of the 19th century.

And the enamelling looks in very nice condition. Lovely quality.

As soon as you get any damage on enamelling, the value plummets,

but I'm running my finger, my little finger particularly,

because that's the most sensitive, just to feel for any little chips

or imperfections, because that will seriously compromise the value.

But it seems in pretty good order.

And I remember you saying. it's a tatty old thing. Well...

Well! It's got some wear and tear, I think. It has.

Well, this was all gilded round the side. Yes.

And the gilding's getting worn and you can see that also on the base.

Yeah. But it's sterling silver so, um, it's not a big problem, that.

In fact, after years of it being on a table,

you're going to expect to see... Yes.

A certain amount of wear and tear. ..wear commensurate with age.

I would've thought that's in pretty good condition.

Oh, really? OK. And there's still a market for it.

Yes. There is still a strong interest in blood sports and

hunting-related... It's a bit of a Black Forest kind of scene as well.

Do you think it might be German, then? Well, I've looked at the marks

and, um, taken advice from a colleague of mine, who's, um...

She's very good on continental silver and this is Austro-Hungarian.

Is it? Right. So, we've got marks there

and we've got a sterling mark telling us it's sterling silver.

Why have you decided to sell it? Do you have it on display?

No. I don't care for it.

Don't like it? No. No? No, my children don't want it.

Fair enough. Well, we're quite happy to put it under the hammer for you.

OK. Estimate wise, I would suggest ?300-?500.

Oh, right. And I would put a reserve of 300 on it.

OK. Because, in my view, it should make more.

OK. Er, how does that sit with your expectations?

Well, seeing my expectations were very much lower, that's fine, yes.

Good, excellent! Yeah. Mm. And thanks again for coming. Yeah.

Next up at our venue in the North West is Charles

with a flavour of the Far East.

I feel today, Sue, you've brought colour. I have. I like colour.

In more ways than one! THEY LAUGH

And in this small but quite humble box and cover,

it's got an Eastern promise. Tell me about it.

I think it's Japanese and it's just very pretty.

You're quite right. Made in Japan.

And it's been a family heirloom for many years? Oh, I wish.

Did you acquire it recently? From a car boot. Wow!

I love it, because... it's quite humble, like me...

THEY GIGGLE

..with what are wonderful chrysanthemums,

all beautifully enamelled...

Yeah. ..on the top of this lid on a very exotic gold ground.

And if I take the lid off now,

you'll see it's got this ivory ground

and it's what we know as being Satsuma. Mm-hm.

"Satsuma yaki" was actually a region in Japan,

which began making Satsuma from around 1600. Ah!

This is around 1890.

Wow. So it's 130 years old.

Ooh. If it could talk, that's my passion.

Oh! For these objects. The stories it would tell. I like it a lot.

I love how the seagulls... They're beautiful. ..or birds

perhaps hide imperfections in the glaze,

or they're just more decorative.

And what I also like is the fact that this lovely little circular,

maybe dressing table jar, little jewellery box,

is mounted on what appear to be almost cauldron feet. Yes.

This gilt-style of foot is typical of that period.

Now, the really important Satsuma is painted by artists like

Yabu Meizan, Kinkozan, Kozan - they're the really important names

and their objects can fetch many thousands of pounds.

This is towards the end of the importance of the Japanese flowering

and this is quite mass produced, made for a middle market. Aw!

On the bottom, we've got a standard mark for an artist craftsman

with this black character with the gilt mark there

and the inner concentric gilt bands.

What did you pay for it at your car boot?

About 50p. Did you really? Yes. Well, that's good.

Well, will it fly away? There is one problem.

There's a chip here. I hadn't seen that. Can you see? Yes. Just there.

That will greatly affect value.

Of course, it's a more mass-produced commodity. Yes.

Without the chip, it would've fetched 40 to 60.

But I think, in its condition now,

I would like to guide it at between 25 and 35, and, if you're happy,

I'm sure it's going to make more than your investment of 50p. 50p!

I can't believe it.

Sue and her pot have definitely

brought a splash of colour into our venue.

And finally, ready to bring some music to our ears,

it's Adam with the last item of the day.

Pam, it's always a delight to have a musical instrument come to the

programme, often referred to as a squeeze-box. A squeeze-box, yeah.

But the real name, of course, a concertina.

How did you come to own it?

Well, it was my husband's and he passed away a few years ago

and it's been sitting in our wardrobe for many years.

It used to belong to his grandfather, I believe. Right.

He didn't play it. So your husband was not a concertina player?

That's right, yes. OK. He played brass instruments.

Oh, OK. What did he play?

Euphonium mostly. Oh, very good! Brass band? Yeah.

Ah! Very good. And dance bands. Excellent!

And so concertinas these days are still quite in vogue.

That is mainly because they're still used in Irish folk music.

Yeah. And they're still popular over in America.

Mm-hm. So this is quite a desirable object.

Have you ever played it or heard it played?

I've heard it... Well, not played as such, but I've heard...

The noise? ..the notes that come out of it. Shall we have a go...?

I can't play one. The only thing I know about it is you're supposed

to press one of the keys before opening or closing it.

Before closing the bellows, yeah, and if we just have

a quick look at that... NOTES ARE PLAYED

..the bellows themselves are in a good condition, not bad at all.

One of the questions you get when you're selling these is

how's the condition of the bellows?

And how many folds to the bellows as well?

TUNEFUL PLAYING

DISCORDANT PLAYING

So, it sounds a little bit sad when you don't know how to play.

It's going to need some attention... Yeah.

..because behind these metal plates,

there should be a sort of a material as such to cover the inner workings

and to... Right. ..in a way, muffle the sound.

Concertinas were made in quite large quantities towards

the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

Invented by a chap called Wheatstone,

there were various manufacturers.

Jeffries and Lachenal were the main producers of these things

and I think this is probably a Lachenal example,

because of the oval aperture that you've got there and, at some point,

there would've been a little paper label behind there that would've

said "Lachenal and Co, London", and it'd have had a number on it

from which you could have dated exactly the year which it was made.

I see, yeah. Um, but it's late 19th century.

They did various examples and you get your basic student's model

with simple bone buttons and then, they go up and up and then,

the sort of generally perceived to be the most popular

are the ones with the metal buttons and the metal ends,

so this is a higher end concertina and there are different models

in terms of the amount of buttons and the pitch.

They'd have bass ones and tenor ones and all sorts of different variants.

My view is that I think it'll make 300 to 500...

Oh, right. ..um, which is higher than everyone else

has suggested at the back. They think I'm mad.

But I'm going to go with that.

Right. Um, I think we should put a reserve on it.

Shall we put a bit lower? 250? Yeah, 200. I think 200 would be sensible.

Yeah. Cos then it gives everyone a chance to have a bid at it. Right.

But I'm pretty sure it's going to sell very well.

There's a lot of interest on them, particularly from online bidders.

Right. So, let's hope we have a good result...

OK. ..when we come to the auction. Thanks for bringing it along.

Well, that's it. Our experts have now found

their final items to take off to auction.

We've had a brilliant time here at The Platform in Morecambe,

but sadly, it's time to say goodbye

as it's full steam ahead to the saleroom.

And here's a quick recap of all the items that are coming with us.

We're hoping some keen collectors

will sniff out that snuffbox in the saleroom.

Sue and her Satsuma pot certainly brightened up our table.

Let's hope it lights up the auction.

And will that beautiful concertina squeeze out the big bucks

from the bidders? We'll soon find out.

Back at Silverwoods saleroom, auctioneer Wilf Mould is

in full flow and he's about to start the bidding on Angela's snuffbox.

Why are you selling this?

Because we don't like the topic and none of my children want it and...

And it's just in a drawer, is it? Oh, yes. Hidden away. Yes.

We're only custodians of these things, aren't we?

Let's face it. Antiques keep going around and around. Absolutely.

It doesn't get any greener than an antique and, hopefully,

as it goes around each time, it goes up in value.

Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed.

We're going to put it to the test. Let's find out what it's worth.

Lot number 210 is this very nice silver-gilt snuffbox.

19th-century.

It is the rectangular one with the hinged lid.

Lot number 210.

And I have interest at ?220.

220. 250.

280. 300.

320 now.

At ?300 and 320.

At 320. I want it to make more.

Done. All done at ?300?

I'm glad we had a reserve on it.

Yeah, so am I. It's gone, though. Yeah, it's gone. The main thing.

It's gone and you wanted it sold. Oh, yes.

'I'm glad the buyers didn't turn their nose up to the snuffbox.

'And next, ready to catch the eyes of the bidders

'is that Japanese pot.'

Well, I think purple's the in colour, don't you, Sue?

It certainly is great to see you again.

Going under the hammer right now,

we've got that little tiny Japanese pot that Charles valued.

I like the enamel work. It caught your eye. Yeah!

It's so well enamelled, it's so almost labour-intensive.

It is, isn't it? It's got that lovely organic feel.

And I like the cauldron feet.

Yeah. It is so eastern. Look, it's not a lot of money.

I hope it flies at the top end, cos this is your first time

in a saleroom, isn't it? Yes. And what do you think?

I think it's great. It is, isn't it? We'll have to come again.

If you've not been to a saleroom, check out your local one,

because it's great fun. You can pick up a bargain.

Oh, you can. You can, can't you?

But hopefully, no-one will pick up this lot up for a bargain.

It's going under the hammer now. Let's get the top end.

Lot number 10 is the late-19th century Japanese Satsuma lidded box.

It does look fabulous up there.

Start me at ?40 for it.

30, then. 20, and let's be away.

?20, surely. Should be nothing less than 20 in this room. 20 bid.

20 bid. 22. 25. 28.

?30. 32. 35?

35. And eight. 38.

And 40, sir? ?40 and two.

I've ?40 on... Fantastic. ..straight ahead of me, in fact.

Is there anybody else at 42? Quickly, now.

42. 45. 48. Fresh legs.

At ?45, all done at ?45?

Good result, well done, Charles.

And you're happy with that, aren't you? Oh, yes! Brilliant!

You'll have to forage in your house and find some more things

to put to auction. Oh, there's lots. But remember, look, if you do,

try and invest back in the trade, because I think there's never been

a better time to buy. Not at all.

Thank you for coming in. It's a pleasure. Thank you. Well done.

'And our last item hoping to

'strike the right note with the buyers is the concertina.'

Sadly, Pamela, our owner, cannot be with us,

but we do have her concertina and we have our expert.

Adam! Now, you've sold many of these in your time.

Oh, loads. And you know all the collectors out there that buy these.

Yeah, they go from 80 quid up to about 5,000.

Yeah. But this is a sort of middling one. OK, OK. Virtues of it?

Er, the chrome ends, the buttons, it's a sort of higher end model.

Well, we're going to find out how much it makes right now. Here goes.

Number 260 is this early 20th-century English concertina.

I think we've established that

it's most likely by George Jones of London.

Oh, really? As usual with concertinas,

you always get a bit of interest. I'll start it at ?300.

There we go. 320.

320. 550.

Wow! 320 to 550!

Internet jumping along.

700, we're looking for?

700. 750.

Gosh! Oh, Pamela's missing this! This is exciting! I know!

..?800 is bid. And now 850.

I'll take 900, if you want.

At 900 now. 950.

Why not 1,000? ?1,000, if you want.

I've 950 on the screen.

I'll take ?1,000 quickly from anybody.

All done at 950? We weren't expecting that. No.

1,000 on the telephone.

Looking... I've 1,100 on the internet. 1,100.

1,200 now.

1,200 I'll take.

Will he bid 1,200?

1,200. 1,300 now.

At ?1,200 on the telephone.

Selling away at ?1,200...

?1,200! I know. Pamela, if you're watching this right now,

we're jumping up and down for you right now!

That was brilliant, wasn't it? Yeah, very good. ?1,200.

Very good. The right people saw it,

the right people bid on it and it made a great price.

Sadly, that's all the time we've got.

I wish Pamela was here, but you've enjoyed it, I know you have.

Join us again for more surprises, cos, every now and then, we learn

something, don't we? Certainly do. That's what it's all about. Yeah.

And I hope you're learning too. See you next time.

In a final, anything can happen.

An unmissable live final...

..as Drive, Five To Five and Nightfall fight for the win.

And it's all in your hands

as your votes crown the winners.