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00:00the crowds have arrived and the sunshine for now at least at our venue for the day the National
00:11Waterfront Museum on the south coast of Wales Swansea is known for its maritime and industrial
00:19heritage but you might not know about its association with porcelain and pottery this
00:24sweet little cup comes from the Swansea Museum collection and it was made by the Cambrian
00:29Pottery founded in 1764 and as you drink your tea this little horror this little frog emerges
00:38at the bottom I think if I saw that I'd drop my cup coming up this really is the sort of stuff
00:46of nightmares isn't it there is one of my friends kissed it see that's what I love about this job to
00:57hold a piece of history like that if you don't mind I'm definitely coming shopping with you next time
01:04welcome to the Antiques Roadshow
01:34this is an extraordinarily colorful brooch what intrigued you about it well it belonged to my
01:39grandmother and I always remember her wearing it as I'm sure you know it's enamel yes onto onto a
01:46surface which we call guilloche which is a French word for engine turning and it gives this this sort
01:52of silk effect to the background yeah I think probably it was made in Switzerland in about 1820 it may have
01:59said previous life as a box lid or something of that I can't be sure of that but what I am absolutely
02:06sure of is the message what it is actually is an Arcadian altar of love it is literally an altar and burning
02:14at the top are twinned hearts in flames really yes I haven't noticed those before no and it's hot stuff more
02:22hot than you can ever imagine because on either side are hymen's lamps the lamps of love and if that
02:29wasn't enough beneath them the doves the billing doves of Venus and they signal her presence visually
02:36and paintings and sculpture but on it goes because it the Arcadian altar of love is surrounded by roses
02:45they're also full-blown roses that's important too they are another one of Venus's attributes they're
02:52emblematic of the pleasure and pain of love well you might have imagined that there wasn't room for
02:59another rebus another metaphor but actually we both be wrong because hanging here laurels
03:04wreaths of laurels and they are emblematic of the triumph of love omnia vincita amor it comes from Virgil
03:13it's called a hem stitch it's a very abbreviated little poem and it's the triumph of love over
03:19all goodness it's gushing all over the place you think can you take any more I'm not sure why my
03:25grandmother wore it's really I've never seen such a full example of this in jewelry I think there are
03:36lots of collectors who would absolutely love it I think it's probably worth seven or eight hundred pounds
03:42oh my word I was thinking I might wear it and I'm not sure but anyway maybe maybe I will
03:51I hope you do yeah I think it's a beautiful thing it's been lovely to meet you over such romantic
03:57circumstances I've been working on this program for four decades believe it or not I've got to say
04:15this is the very first cat to the best of my knowledge that I've ever talked about wow so is it
04:22is it a family cat or something you bought it originally comes from through my nan my mum's mum
04:29someone died on her street when she was young and they were quite a poor working-class family and in
04:37that time everyone on the street would sort of divvy up people's possessions it's quite an old lady who
04:42died who'd had it yeah obviously in the ceramic world the first thing you want to know is who made it
04:48so you've got to turn it over um and there's a lovely mark it says Jill Ashworth Hanley uh in that
04:57lovely oval sort of cartouche Jill Ashworth good name uh but they made mainly tableware date wise
05:07uh the mark tells me this was made in around about 1870 so Alice in Wonderland the Cheshire Cat came out in 1865
05:17the thing is I've never seen one before no I can't find anything at all about him if we're into the Ashworth
05:26collection um I haven't heard back it should be out there there should be another one of these but I'm
05:32struggling it is a form of of earthenware a very white earthenware and it's been covered in this
05:42lovely sort of cobalt blue glaze and it's accentuated by this yellow band and and and tie I'll be very
05:52happy to say it's at least two to three hundred pounds people love their cats and that smile yes it
06:01is a smile it's not a grin it's a smile it's what you call a winning smile absolutely thank you
06:18thank you very much for bringing this in it's absolutely delightful and it's beautifully signed
06:23lower right Margaret W Tarrant how do you come to own it well my father bought it from the Medici gallery in
06:30Liverpool in the late 1950s early 60s maybe I was just a child now Margaret Tarrant is best known for
06:39her watercolors of fairies she was born in the 1880s and died in the late 1950s and she was really at her
06:46zenith during the 1920s and 30s which was a time of it was considered the golden age of children's
06:52illustrated books and she worked a lot with the Medici society and with them they printed a lot
07:00of her her watercolors now this has got a very intriguing label on the back do you want to turn
07:05it over sorry okay now when you're looking at something like this the first thing you think of
07:14is is it an original watercolor or is it one of the reproductions and it says here the Medici society
07:22limited now the Medici society was founded early 1900s and its premise really was to produce really
07:29high quality reproductions for the market from old masters all the way up to modern and Margaret
07:36Tarrant worked very very closely with the Medici society what we have got underneath this is absolutely
07:43glorious label which says original painting by Margaret Tarrant roseberries so from that we will have
07:51to assume that that this is the original watercolor what do you like about it it's not my personal
07:58style more of a modernist myself but I do love it very much and it's just beautifully drawn it's
08:05beautifully colored and of course it's reminiscent of my childhood it's reminiscent of so many people's
08:10child as mine as well now this is from a series of 16 from a book that was made called Joan in
08:17Flowerland and Joan in Flowerland was written by Margaret Tarrant and Lewis Dutton and she did the
08:25illustrations for it it's about Joan who believes in fairies and Joan asked the gardener where she can
08:31find fairies and the gardener says you'll find fairies amongst the wild flowers so Joan goes to the
08:38wild flowers and she meets an elf and they have lots of jolly japes and that's really the story do you
08:45hang it at home we do I mean it's it's a bit light sensitive so it's been up and it's been down and
08:50it's been put away and out again assuming it is the original watercolor I think it's probably worth
08:57about four to six thousand pounds oh really that's a little bit more than I thought it was good I'm
09:02delighted well thank you very much for bringing it in my pleasure
09:05well what a collection this is I mean I think these are one of the most recognized dolls around the
09:27world the Barbie dolls yeah how did you get all this collection well I've had them since I was a
09:32very little girl and probably the late 60s they were bought in Hamleys in London by my parents I
09:40really don't remember actually buying here because I was quite young and a couple of years later we
09:48purchased her which I do remember so that's how I arrived at the Barbies did you play with them for
09:55years I played with them all the time particularly this one because this older one her hair was set so
10:04she was very difficult to brush her hair but this one the newer one had beautiful hair which was very
10:09easy to brush and that's what I like doing most and changing all the outfits over and over again what I
10:16can't understand is that these come from the 1960s and they're such good condition yeah well I didn't
10:23have any siblings that spoiled them so I took great care of them yeah you certainly have because I also
10:31know this is only a part of the clothing collection isn't it there are literally hundreds about fits
10:38unbelievable the amount of outfits that you've got you must have played with it for hours yes I mean you
10:44know Barbie's one of the most famous dolls in the world and of course it was created in 1959 by Mattel
10:52and of course these are early ones so these yes you know these came out in the 60s so these are very
10:57early ones like when I first saw them I thought they might be replicas because they're in such good
11:02condition as far as their value with all the costumes you've got and you've got hundreds I have got a lot
11:09you have got a lot yes I think I would be very conservative and say 1,500 to 2,000 pounds wow
11:17and that's without the boxes because you've got so much of the clothing yes and the dolls that you do
11:23have yes are in great condition and I don't think you're ever going to sell these I can tell look at
11:28your face you're looking at them and you're smiling well I bought my daughter today and no doubt they're
11:34going to be hers one day no doubt she will sell them I'm sure as soon as my back's turned thank
11:40you for bringing them in it's been a nice my pleasure real pleasure absolute pleasure thank you
11:44our military experts often hear stories of heroic feats carried out during world war ii by allied prisoners of war
12:04war later immortalized in film such as the famous great escape from stalla glove 3 in 1944 but five
12:12months earlier in the same camp came an equally audacious attempt to tunnel out using a wooden
12:18bolting horse as a cover mark smith is thrilled to see an item that played a pivotal role in that escape
12:25a caterpillar and a violin i know what the caterpillar is the violin i'm not so sure about but we'll come
12:37on to that so the caterpillar is the badge for those men whose lives were saved by a parachute correct and
12:44we also have a thing here called a personal card which is the german prisoner of war card with his photo
12:50on so now i'm i'm fairly sure that what i've got here is a prisoner of war who is this man it's my
12:56father tom wilson who was shot down in may 43 on special operations tracking german night fighter radar
13:03and a german night fighter got him ah okay what happened to him when he landed he was found by dutch
13:10farmers who were hiding people who were avoiding being sent to forced labor and dad thought well if the
13:16germans come looking for me they might find them and these people will be in trouble so he told
13:21them to hand him over and he ended up in stalla glove 3. so mostly we know that for one film which
13:28is the great escape but actually we know it for another film as well don't we which is the wooden horse
13:36was he part of that escape yes he was one of the vaulters over the wooden horse but also when they
13:42were hiding the sand and it's shown in the film as well they had a chap playing the violin and if
13:47he stopped playing that meant one of the german guards was coming close and they had to behave
13:51as if nothing was happening and he's the violin player he's the violin player there's this little
13:56book here i know that he wrote this didn't he and here it says every evening as i was tuning my violin
14:02i would see the wooden horse carried out with one digger hanging inside and i practiced while the
14:06vaulting was in progress outside the window at the end of the vaulting session 14 members would stagger
14:12back with their load meanwhile i was playing from memory my eyes fixed on sid the number one disbusting
14:18stooge if he was wearing his raf officer's cap i would give a nod to the vaulters and they would
14:24carefully tip the horse on end so that bill williams could emerge but immediately sid removed his cap i
14:30will give a warning and the horse will be stood in its accustomed place yeah wow and that's the
14:36violin that's the violin see that's that's what i love about this job to hold a piece of history like
14:40that what happened to him towards the end of the war in january 45 they were evacuated and force
14:47marched across germany in some vain hope of holding them hostage and he was carried the violin with him
14:54but the the case started to get soaked had another night march ahead of him and he thought i need to
15:00leave it somewhere and found a german family he actually saw them giving coffee to one of the
15:04guards and thought these are nice people asked if he could leave it with them and they looked after
15:09it for him how long did it stay with them for till 48 dad having found a love of german and russian
15:16went back on the first student exchange with germans in summer of 48 and went to retrieve the violin
15:23he retrieved something else as well he did he met my mother that is an incredibly good story
15:28that is just fantastic i know you've got his logbook um you've got these medals
15:37and the luff off a fork um he's only he's only tall i suppose kept it on the long march because that
15:45was all he had to eat with it's a very hard thing to put a price on the medals the logbook and the
15:53attachment to to the the wooden horse story i think you're probably looking somewhere between
16:00one thousand and two thousand pounds for for the medals that i i would know about but to add the violin
16:05i don't know i really don't know i think if you put it into auction with that story four or five
16:12thousand pounds i think that's about right but i'm not really interested in the monetary value i'm always
16:18interested in the people these ordinary people who stood up and did such extraordinary things
16:23and to stand there and play that while someone is digging a tunnel what a great story you genuinely
16:29you made my day today so thank you so much for bringing that one in thank you
16:37to me it just means so much because it's not just his role in world war ii but also
16:41this is the story of how he met my grandmother it just means so much to me and without it we wouldn't
16:46be here
16:59what have you got in the suitcase some old scouting memorabilia what's your connection with scouting
17:05well i've been the scouts all my life um and i've been trying to get my children interested but
17:10looks like my granddaughter is going to be interested now this is a large number of trips
17:16and excursions isn't it and not all mine some of these badges date back to the 1930s and 40s
17:23i do like the title of that the scouts book of gadgets and dodges what do you like the look of in
17:29here yeah oh these well that's got 60 indoor games for scouts how about that amazing collection thank you
17:52today we're being joined by a local hero sir gareth edwards
17:57a true legend of welsh rugby and one of the greatest players the game has ever seen
18:06so gareth has brought along a few of his cherished items
18:10not just from his illustrious sporting career but a more personal keepsake too
18:17gareth edwards what a joy to have you on the program as they say around here now you started out
18:23in sport obviously we know you for rugby of course in fact you played for swansea fc for the football
18:28club did you know for the youth team down here yes i used to come down on a bus from the village
18:33get dropped off just around the corner and go to the vetch field absolutely so what changed you from
18:39football to rugby in fact i went away to midfield school i think and the opportunity was there to play
18:44some some rugby uh and of a very high standard high quality and you realized that was for you well yes
18:52and of course i got picked for the uh for the welsh school boys and you've brought along some items for
18:58us to have a look at tell me about the rose bowl well in 1978 i became the most capped welsh international
19:07player of that time and england were also celebrating their uh centenary and had bought a number of these
19:16magnificent bowls to present to the different unions and because i'd reached 50 caps for wales
19:25they wanted to make a presentation on the evening which really i've cherished ever since
19:30and what about this cap the significance of this cap in particular ah very significant in so much that
19:39i was the first uh welsh person to have 50 caps uh for wales and they wanted to give me something
19:46special but this is a very special cap because it went on the space shuttle columbia in 1998 all the
19:53way up to the moon and around many times and then back how did that happen um well there
20:00was a there was a gentleman from penarth who worked for nasa and uh he he had asked the the next the
20:09next person that was going to pilot the columbia was um was a welshman and so he wanted to take some
20:17some welsh mementos to uh up to space yeah up to space i couldn't believe it i thought there was
20:25somebody was pulling my leg i can well remember when i watched the news that evening
20:30the pilot had my cap out in space with a tassel sticking straight out because of the um because
20:36there was no gravity now this is something that takes us right back to your childhood but in fact
20:42you've only just found it again i have yes it was in the garage believe it or not and it's been there
20:47for a while my mother bought me that when i was about five years of age because i sort of catch
20:52trout about that big and catch eels as well and then you'd wrap them in an handkerchief or anything
20:59in a plastic bag or what have you she wasn't satisfied with that so she thought i'll buy him a
21:04proper fishing basket brings back fond memories not just of my family but of catching small trout at the
21:12tower up in the upper valley in in ponta doorway and these are your parents here my parents there
21:19very proud parents no doubt and then this
21:23this is a 45 pound pike that you caught which must be the biggest fish you ever caught surely
21:31you know with fishing it's being in the right place at the right time i cast out and lo and behold
21:37that fish took it they ended up a british record at the time 45 pounds six ounces so how big would that
21:44be i mean how long i don't have to lie
21:50can you help me massive it was a big fish yes well gareth thank you so much for sharing some of your
22:00past with us your illustrious past humble beginnings with a fishing basket and then
22:06your cap ending up in space who knew so lovely to meet you thank you so much coming on the program
22:11thank you
22:26it's lovely to see a picture with a piece of jewelry that's been brought along being worn as it is here
22:32on this beautiful lace front address which is probably slightly later in date to the actual
22:38amethyst and gold brooch that we're looking at how did this come into your family this lady is my
22:43great-grandmother helena from uh gilwurn in uh mombershire when she was 16 she went with her parents to
22:50australia on a ship and met her husband eventually thomas williams i suspect then that thomas williams
22:56gave the brooch to helena at some stage in australia well the fact that she went out in 1879 the the
23:05brooch is dated from around that period as well so whether it was one that went out with them or it
23:11was bought in australia it's quite possible it's definitely of european make probably british made as
23:17well and it has all the characteristics of the classical etruscan revival style of jewelry with
23:23very detailed work around the edge of the mount here lovely bead work and then of course dainty
23:30seed pearls around the edge as well and right in the center this absolutely gorgeous amethyst i mean
23:35it is such a beautiful strong color it really is fabulous and in the picture we can see how these
23:41brooches were worn it is definitely by a good maker but during this period people didn't need to
23:47hallmark the jewelry or even put a gold mark on it so it's going to be at least 15 carat if not 18 carat
23:54and made by a good good jewelers perhaps not one of the top ones but it certainly has been inspired
24:00by some really good designers and more than likely the amethyst at this period would have come from
24:05brazil does anybody in the family wear the brooch now i don't think they do um my wife has had it
24:12out of the box quite often yes i've never seen her wearing i think she might well do now knowing more
24:16about it she probably will do well as i say i love jewelry being worn and it's such a shame that it is
24:21put away but it that's nice that it is brought out to be looked at because they are works of art in
24:25their own right as well as jewels to be worn this style of jewelry is actually becoming more popular
24:32at the moment there's there's something about jewelry which not only represents a revival style
24:38but has got bold color to it and color is everything as far as collectors and fashion is concerned
24:45if it came up for auction we'd be looking at an estimate of between six to eight hundred pounds
24:52because of the beautiful amethyst it's just such sumptuous color lovely thank you thank you for
24:57bringing it in it's a pleasure thank you
25:12i've got some pictures here three pictures involving competitive motorcycle riding and i've got a trophy
25:19so what's it all about the picture nearest to you is my grandfather john dillwyn daniels and he
25:27rode motorcycles in the 40s and he was uh known as the flying welshman he went to the isle of man in 1948
25:38and won the clubman's tt trophy and then he went to the welsh tt races in munith eppent yes and won two
25:46silver dragons there unfortunately he was killed in gower on a swansea motorcycle race and what date was
25:55that that was in october october 48 yeah and when he died you were six and what happened there was a
26:05knock on the door and we lived in the flat in naplins my mother went down the policeman was there
26:12and she came up sobbing and crying and i said what's the mother mum your father's been killed and i don't
26:19know how i reacted i didn't cry i held the balance and i said dad i'll win the race that you wanted
26:26which was the senior manx grand prix and it took me 21 years 48 accents are over 50 man
26:34an hour and not breaking a bone i think somebody was looking after me your dad was looking after you
26:39yes this photograph shows me finishing the manx grand prix and my mechanic who was a mathematician
26:47was there and as i was pushing the bike in i said who won he said you did by seven seconds
26:54and my knees collapsed and i went down on the floor and uh he caught the bike when i stood there with the
27:00roster and i looked up and i said dad now can i live a normal life did you lead a normal life no
27:09i went sailing and uh ended up racing yachts in the caribbean so what we've got here in this photograph
27:18am i right in thinking that's you that is me 56 years ago and that's your dad that's dad and that's
27:25your brother brother chris and my mother and of course the center of it is the trophy yeah which
27:31you see here and of course in those days the winner took the trophy home for a year and i think was this
27:38the last year they did that that last year no they can't even ensure that's solid silver yes but
27:44also what you did get to keep is a miniature isn't it yes every winner got a miniature so here we have
27:52it so this is the tangible evidence of what you achieved we've gone through an extraordinary adventure
27:58sharing your adventure and fulfilling that childhood dream childhood promise but of course in value terms
28:05the item that is valuable is the replica i know you'll never sell it it's a key piece of
28:10family history but one of those would sell for about a thousand pounds it's been wonderful for me to
28:17share this extraordinary adventure thank you very much thank you thank you
28:33so we've got an iron gray sky brilliantly lit at the moment and she's got it as well i say she
28:40because it's valerie gans and she's caught it with this wonderful fluffy white paint over what is a very
28:47gritty gritty grimy colliery scene it's 1978 it's a pit head where abitalary six bells colliery
28:57on the sort of eastern side of south wales and was she a local girl valerie gans swansea girl yeah
29:03brought up here went to the college of art in swansea and graduated from there and stayed on as a teacher
29:11how did you get the picture um this has been in the family for about 40 years actually
29:20she's caught this scene extremely well i find it slightly odd that there are no people in it but
29:25then again by 1978 maybe the pit was even closed i'm not sure about that but certainly they were in
29:32decline and she's done rather well to catch the sort of rain slicked roofs and the uh and these these
29:39rusty gantries and there was a sense of stillness about it as if you know it's all gone it's all
29:44going it's all gloomy doesn't it not moody but gloomy and but the light is really good and it's quickly
29:51quickly done and i often think that uh with a with a picture that has no obvious drawing can only have
29:57been painted by somebody who knew how to draw well the value there's been a resurgence of interest in
30:05valerie gans's work and i think it's now worth two to three thousand pounds lovely lovely thank you
30:17so here we have a signed photograph by those four lads who shook the world
30:21an autograph book and a call sheet for the film help how did you come about them well
30:29well i'm philippa and the story is that way back in 1965 um the beatles were filming help
30:40and at that time my grandmother um was doing some work for an actor called john bluthill who
30:48was actually filming with the beatles out in nassau in the bahamas filming help she
30:55asked john bluthill if he would get me the beatles autographs and did you know this no she did it as a
31:03big big surprise well there's a smudge here there is one of my friends kissed it yes well you can
31:11imagine i just wanted to show all the girls and huge excitement and what i didn't realize until
31:21it actually all arrived but that she'd actually sent my own little autograph oh she'd sent that to
31:29the bahamas with john bluthill all right and he'd taken it and he'd actually got the beatles autographs
31:37in my own autograph let's see them to philippa love from george harrison john lennon paul mccartney
31:47and ringo star with the extra love from paul mccartney he was like that yeah what also arrived
31:54was a call sheet call sheet number nine that's right and here's all the stars john lennon john
31:59john's playing john paul's playing paul yeah victor spinetti playing force i love that name but what
32:05makes me laugh is we get round to the extra talent and it says 14 policemen 20 thug army
32:11four cali priests one visiting bishop and one channel swimmer this photograph in itself i think
32:21with your story would be something like in the region of four to four and a half thousand pounds oh my
32:28word but then you've got a double up tied up in your autograph book with this story and i think we're looking at
32:39about the same sort of price with that right so i think you might be looking up around eight and
32:45nine thousand pounds my grandmother did me proud
32:53so there is a saying which is beauty is in the eye of the beholder um and this really is the sort
33:06of stuff of nightmares isn't it tell me where you got it what happened it was my great great grandfather
33:15father who was a sea captain um and i believe he brought it back on his travels from overseas
33:24and it's just been in the family on top of a old bookcase ever since so it's been passed down
33:31and i'm the lucky beholder in terms of kind of character just amazement it's what it's it's it's one
33:39of the best things i've seen today i mean it really is it's it's just it's the sort of thing i would
33:43love to own it's just so quirky do you like it it's so unusual and it it spooks everybody out when
33:51they come for dinner we've been discussing it as a family since we brought it here this afternoon
33:57and we sort of thought that the guy here is in judgment um the devil is sitting on his shoulder and
34:05this poor guy is the victim of the judgment we thought and possibly we also thought that his hand
34:13is missing there so whether that could have some significance we don't know let's see if i can try
34:20and get the eyes to move so it's it's lacquer on on wood the closest i can get for you is uh in japan
34:33there were toys made kobe toys okay and uh they were made in the port of uh kobe for uh you know
34:40merchants uh you know sailors and such like coming over to the port and they would bring these things
34:45back as as gifts and souvenirs i wonder if that was a kobe toy shop display oh okay and that sat in
34:53the window to entice people in to come and look at these toys that people took back as as as gifts
34:59because of all the things we've just discussed with this you know it's so fantastic i can see
35:06that easily at auction bringing five to eight hundred pounds and actually you know i say this
35:12often i just wouldn't be surprised if it made a little bit more i really wouldn't i just think
35:16people will see that and see everything we've seen in it and everything we've discussed and you
35:19just get carried away and if you paid a little bit more would you be worried of course you wouldn't
35:23because nobody else can have one are they absolutely our venue today on swansea's waterfront
35:34lies only a couple of miles away from the birthplace of dylan thomas one of the most important and best
35:41loved poets of the 20th century i'm getting a rare peek at some of his personal items in the company of
35:48swansea council's literature officer joe ferber joe let's start with dylan thomas the poet wales's
35:57most famous poet and he was so prolific so young wasn't he he was he was born in swansea in 1914 in a
36:04semi-detached house in the suburb of uplands he began writing as a child and was published in the
36:08school magazine he wrote his first collection that came out when he was just 20 years old and he wrote
36:14a significant output by the age of 23. and one of his most famous poems told at funerals and memorials
36:21the nation over do not go gentle into that good night i mean that's one of my favorites i have to
36:26say could you read us a few lines of course yeah it's an incredibly powerful piece isn't it
36:32do not go gentle into that good night old age should burn and rave at close of day rage rage against the
36:42dying of the night i mean they are such powerful words we've got a whole lot of items here associated
36:49with him so tell me about this album because i mean i think of dylan thomas predominantly in wales in
36:54the united kingdom but this is part of his story in the united states isn't it yes absolutely he was
36:58very famous in the uk for his recording work and during the second world war he worked for the ministry
37:03of information writing film scripts and then he went to america he undertook four lecture tours of north
37:08america in the 1950s and this lp is a wonderful marker of that time signed here with his name and
37:17he was very popular in the states wasn't he he was he was almost like a rock and roll star signing lps
37:21signing books it's incredible the amount of work that he produced in such a such a young life really
37:28but what about these drawings tell me about these he did enjoy sketching and doodling throughout his
37:32life which is not something i knew until i saw these pictures he really enjoyed working with other other
37:37writers artists and musicians and here his fellow poet edith sitwell this has to be edith sitwell with
37:42this unmistakable profile you brought along a tweed jacket why well interestingly this isn't actually
37:53dylan thomas's jacket he was someone who was notorious for running out of clean clothes and just generally
37:58not being able to look after himself very well and on one of his reading tours of the us he was staying
38:03in the chelsea hotel that mecca for creative people and also staying there was a friend of his
38:09an artist called george fick dylan had characteristically run out of clean clothes he had a reading
38:14engagement and so george kindly lent him this jacket to wear for his reading and after dylan gave it back
38:20to george he wore it for the rest of his life and he carried on painting in it so there are even little
38:24bits of paint from george fix brush and following his death his family kindly donated it to us so it's
38:30it's on display at the dylan thomas center and dylan thomas died tragically young he was just 39.
38:36yes yeah it was two weeks after his 39th birthday he was on his fourth north american tour
38:41and he fell ill but he left an incredible body of work
38:46well he's a bit of a hero of mine so thank you so much for telling me about it i've really enjoyed
38:51hearing about it oh thank you so when i saw you at the table earlier and you plonked this in front of
39:06me yes john i thought please let the contents be there because the amount of times i'll open a box
39:12like this there was one missing there one missing or two missing but thankfully you got the full set
39:19when you think of anywhere like edward the 7th 1902 coronations they would produce a set of coins and
39:26this is the full set of coins from that year right produced by the royal mint and
39:33and what's lovely about this is one the conditions very good and two you've got the full set because
39:41the gold and these are all nearly pure gold coins one all of them either been sold at some point or
39:49it's unusual to see a set like this so tell me how you came by them well i came across them from my late
39:56dad and he had this black box and i asked him a few times what's in it that what's in it whenever you
40:03mind whenever you mind and i suddenly passed away so found the key open up the contents of the box
40:15there was his war medals and this case of coins wow and did he collect coins then no he didn't he was
40:23never a collector do you like them i do actually yeah yeah i do actually i i i've just come along
40:30today just for curiosity i'm going to keep them because they part of my dad and uh i'll pass them
40:35on to my niece you know when my days are gone value wise it's one of those areas which i think is
40:42still a good investment gold has proven just insanely good over the last few years and silver so people
40:49are still collecting these one because they're beautiful objects yeah and they're only in my view
40:53you're going to go up as long as they're in this condition you've got everything right which you
40:57have right so five to five and a half thousand good that's me wow i didn't think that much
41:07but no i'm keeping i'm keeping this is like i say it's a family hand up it was handed down to him
41:12so i'll do the same but that i couldn't agree with you more because i would not be selling this
41:18lovely to see and thank you for being with thank you john
41:26our location today on the swansea waterfront is home to several museums full of objects that bring
41:31the past to life and lisa lloyd has spotted a ravishing georgian dress that would grace any collection
41:38so it's this beautiful peach duchess satin who did it belong to it belonged to my three greats
41:48grandmother we believe francis mary master fielding who was married to joseph fielding
41:55who was a captain with the royal lancashire militia between 1814 and 1816. we believe that he may well
42:02have served in waterloo well his regiment didn't serve in waterloo however captains were allowed to
42:09enlist in the army that was sort of fighting napoleon in france at that time in the duke of
42:13wellington's army now there was a very famous ball yes that took place on the 15th of june 1815
42:21in brussels held by the duchess of richmond and her husband the duke of richmond he was in charge of all
42:27the british troops in um in france and belgium basically trying to hold off napoleon and she
42:33had a very famous ball on this evening which became known as the ball of the century and that so you
42:39say you would always known this is yes we've always known it as the waterloo dress so you believe she
42:43was actually at that yes we do so this could well have been at a ball attended by the duke of wellington
42:50in 1815. now this would have been made by a dressmaker specifically for your three times removed
42:57great-grandmother because this is pre days of sewing machines which weren't really invented until about
43:01the 1850s so it's been totally handmade and it would be would have been made for her um by probably a
43:07local dressmaker and these trims these would have been sort of purchased separately which would have
43:12been enormously expensive so we've got this in this sort of metal silver colored metal uh almost like
43:18bullion we have these little fan shapes here going all the way down and around the terrain at the
43:23back these are before the days of sequins and these are called spangles and they're little tiny metal
43:28discs and i love these little sort of puff puff sleeves with the cutouts with a different color
43:33satin and if we look at this this is very modern at the time 18 sort of 15 if we only look sort of 20
43:41years prior to that everybody's wearing massive hoop skirts loads and loads of fabric that this was
43:47really slim line very elegant you know there was the fashion to be sort of very tall and very slim
43:52and these dresses often had trains on them i have a photograph of of my grandmother wearing this
43:59francis mary champneys um but obviously she was a vicar's daughter and it was very unseemly to
44:06show your bust so therefore a modesty vest was inserted in that i can see it's got a panel at the front
44:11which is obviously when this has been cut away it's not in immaculate condition however it is 200
44:18years old so i think we can probably forgive it that um but as a regency dress of that period it's
44:23probably has a value of something like one to one and a half thousand pounds right however you know if
44:30we had some documentary evidence to say that it was definitely at that ball then you know what what's
44:35the price of history you know we could easily double that and possibly more uh but um you know
44:39i was absolutely delighted to see it today so thank you for bringing it in very welcome
44:56this is a beautifully made little silver cabinet i suppose we call it but when i open the doors at
45:02the front it is an absolute gem of a jewel box how did you come by it so it's my granddad's and yeah
45:11he's just had it in his collection which has been i assume in dusty boxes in his house for years so he
45:19moved in with us last year with my mum and dad and we found it and it was all tarnished so we gave
45:25it a little polish and turned out like that and here's what you've got yeah were you excited when you
45:30got it out and opened the door yeah once we opened it we were pretty shocked it's really cute inside
45:35it's so was i i gotta tell you it's nice it's absolutely beautiful it's inlaid with gold all
45:41over gold on steel right this was made in the late 19th century right possibly by the kome works which is
45:51a workshop in japan yeah that employed artisans that used to make samurai swords or used to decorate
45:58samurai swords but after the end of the samurai they were unemployed yeah but they had these
46:04incredible skills and they made things like this and all these little drawers open yeah and reveal
46:12i suppose it's a jewel box uh yeah that's what we're assuming yeah yeah i mean that's it you could
46:17put anything you like in it but it's for something quite special yeah definitely these handles on the
46:23drawers are formed as chrysanthemums yeah which is the badge of the emperor of japan wow okay so it
46:29has a sort of connection to imperial japan the imperial works that used to make objects like this
46:34it's of astonishing quality even on the outside of the case it's been inlaid with for example here
46:41on these leaves have been inlaid with gold and all around the box there are mixed metal inlays which are
46:48difficult to do and unnecessary really but that's very much in the japanese tradition of striving
46:55towards perfection so the quality of the thing in the round is fantastic too
47:03i hope that this will stay in your family for many many many years to come because i couldn't let it
47:10go if it were mine i just want to stare at it all the time quite right it's too pretty
47:15but i've got to tell you that if it came up for sale it would make somewhere around the two to
47:21two and a half thousand pounds really well that's we didn't think it was worth anything to be fair we
47:27just thought it was really pretty so it is and it's also rather valuable yeah but we wouldn't obviously
47:32wouldn't be selling it it's going to be staying with us in the family yeah sit on the sideboard and be
47:37stared at yeah that's what that's what it's for yeah oh that's so nice
47:51now i'm looking at a wonderful thing called a rolling penguin that's right now why have you got
47:55this somebody gave it to me for my children a long time ago they used to have an antiques road show
48:01just for children a little boy asked at the end of that show what would be worth collecting or keeping
48:08from now to be valuable in the future he had one of these there and he said oh something like this
48:15well i knew i had one upstairs so i run upstairs and i put on top of the wardrobe so let's see what it does
48:24oh look it's great isn't it he's in brilliant condition
48:27i think this is one of the last things i'd have picked to see and pick in the picture personally
48:36what's it worth i'm not expecting more than like 10 15 pound really well on a good day you might get
48:43that it could be a bit less you've put a battery in it make the most of the battery
48:50pound with the battery was there anything in particular that got you into uh looking for
49:08and buying antique ceramics uh yes so um me and my granddad used to spend a lot of time uh watching
49:17antiques roadshow yeah and he sadly passed away uh last year and i've just been kind of rummaging
49:26through charity shops i just find it quite therapeutic to just go treasure hunting and trying to find
49:31little yeah just weird and wonderful things and this is something i picked up there yeah i think it's
49:38beautifully modeled i mean we've got a lady sat on a chair seemingly looking after her her young child
49:46and it's a very compassionate piece very finely modeled but in a very kind of almost naive way
49:53and it was modeled by a dutch sculptor called henry de scheer de matos and he operated in the late 19th
50:01century into the early 20th century he modeled this somewhere between 1904 and 1907
50:08he died in 1908 so this could have been one of his very last pieces to be modeled and this was made at
50:17the haha pottery factory in pomeran which is just north of amsterdam now these subjects are very rare
50:26actually in dutch pottery it's beautifully glazed in these myolica enamels so these very soft tones on
50:34the creases and shades of yellows what i love about this is that henry has also signed it on the side
50:42here i think these are very rare the last one that came up was a good four or five years ago charity shop
50:52buy yep what sort of price was this i think it was about 60 which is obviously higher end for
50:59a charity shop but i thought just given the size of it as well the kind of it was quite an impressive
51:06piece good news if this were to come up at auction today this would easily fetch in the region of
51:181500 to 2000 pounds so yeah a pretty good return yes yeah definitely on your 60 pounds and if you
51:29don't mind i'm definitely coming shopping with you next time thank you so much for bringing this
51:35along today it's really made my day so thank you well i mean here we are in swansea in wales
51:52and you brought this amazing shirt this is one of the earliest welsh rugby shirts isn't it tell me
51:58about it it is indeed um it's a welsh international rugby jersey from 1893 wow that is early and who
52:07did it belong to this belonged to david die samuel who was a swansea player and he had two caps in
52:131891 and 1893 and he wore this jersey both times and what position did he play he was a forward which
52:20is surprising isn't it well it is surprising because the shirt is so small it does well he was a tall guy he
52:26was he was five foot nine and he was 12 and a half stone and worked in the kumbula tin plate works so
52:32he was certainly a very fit and healthy guy but you can see the shoulders are really quite narrow and
52:36this is a boy age 14 mannequin and you can see we still got to pad it with acid-free paper to get
52:42to fit comfortably so yeah quite narrow shoulders but a very fit man and how did you come by it well we're
52:49the saint helen's archive just down the road at saint helen's rugby and cricket ground and i'm head
52:54archivist there and so it got brought to us by the by the samuel family in fact um it's on it's on loan
53:01to us as long as we display it and and let people enjoy it which we love to do well it's very generous
53:07to the family because these are you know very very special things i i see that the three feathers
53:13they've changed as well over the years yes i mean if you think that the origin is is actually ostrich
53:19feathers and here they're trying to make them look like ostrich feathers it becomes more and more
53:23stylized as the decades go by this is a very very early version of and it's quite striking from 1893
53:30to now i mean there's a few stains on it but this is in remarkable condition and what about these caps
53:38well the caps here the one on your left here is his swansea cap he played from 1889 to 1893
53:45along with his brother jack and they won back-to-back welsh championships it was a golden period for
53:50swansea on the other side here is his glamorgan cap again its own story um the morgan county as an
53:58entity had just started up they played away in yorkshire the first game they played in wales
54:03the two brothers jack and die were capped together and so this is a glamorgan county cap
54:07so it's the very earliest performance of the county in wales and of course at the front we
54:13have his wales cap his first cap 91. you know my job is to put a price on this yeah i mean this shirt
54:23i hate to say it's almost priceless in wales but it it virtually is it being the only surviving triple
54:29crown and from the date and the story and everything i mean with the caps you know i would definitely
54:36be valuing this at somewhere between 20 to 25 000 pounds really so it's amazing to hear but so the
54:45value to us is really what we can do and what we can teach uh the local community about it that's the
54:50real genuine value of it for us and to be here to be here in swansea and to have this lovely local
54:56history i can't thank you enough for bringing it in thank you so much fantastic
55:07the most valuable thing about the jersey is what it does for the community
55:11we want people to see it to enjoy it and that that's that's for us where the real value is
55:15but it's certainly pleasing and a little intimidating to hear how much it was worth
55:27it's the end of a busy day here in swansea and after all the sunshine and showers
55:32it's not surprising that some of us could do with a nice sit down
55:37hello ladies i know waiting in the queue sometimes at the road show can get a bit tiring people don't
55:41off and bring along their own chairs ah yes but these aren't any any chairs they're actually uh
55:46bardic eisteddfod chairs that were won by our great-grandfather william leishon griffiths
55:51in eisteddfods uh here in wales so of course the hugely important cultural festival here in wales
55:58and he was he was a a celebrated welsh poet from astragunlis in the swansea valley
56:04i'm the youngest of the great-grandchildren and inherited this chair from 1899
56:09and i'm the eldest great-granddaughter and i inherited this one let's have a look oh yeah
56:14let's have a quick look at it because each chair is a work of art in itself yes yes
56:18and what does this mean here well it says a drag gorg a very gachwen which means which
56:24means the red dragon will show the way what a treat to see these we thought we'd like to share
56:31a few words of his his poetry with you if we may it's about a blacksmith and uh how although he was
56:37he was bent over and and and short in stature he still had fire in his eye and steel in his arms
56:44it sounds wonderful absolutely i think i think it sounds more beautiful in the welsh language
57:09well it's the end of our day here in wales so i'm wondering if you could say on behalf of all of us
57:16we very much enjoyed our day in swansea goodbye from the antiques roadshow
57:20hoyle vowed or antiques roadshow couldn't put it better myself very good bye
57:37so
57:47so
57:48you
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