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Antiques Roadshow 2025 - Hill of Tarvit 3
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00:00This week we're between St Andrews and Glenrothes in the Kingdom of Fife and our home for the day
00:09is the Hill of Tarvit Mansion and Garden. This beautiful Edwardian manor house was home to the
00:14Sharp family from 1904 to 1948. One of the architectural features added during this time
00:21was this beautiful sundial featuring the goddess Sirius. If you look at it the latitude is correct
00:28but the longitude is two degrees off and that's because Frederick Sharp didn't want to be bound
00:33by anything as commonplace as Greenwich Mean Time. No he opted instead for Gregory's Meridian
00:39which was a kind of romantic notion that Scotland had an alternative time to England and the Latin
00:45motto beneath reads something like I count only the sunny hours and today I think we're in luck
00:52and it's time for our experts to see what antiques have been brought in by our visitors.
00:58This diary is incredible. We know that it's Chinese because it actually tells us on the back it's a
01:03souvenir from China. That's a bold claim these are the first Christmas cards ever produced. Sorry so I
01:08believe. She gave you a gift which is quite valuable. Tell me. So was it in this condition when your
01:15father gave it to you? No I believe he power washed it. He did what? Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow.
01:23So what we have here with us is three paintings signed Hogan. As I know you're very well aware but some of
01:50our viewers at home might not be aware of is that this is actually the christened name of the artist
01:55who later became Jack Vettriano. But I wanted to ask why you purchased them? What is it about the
02:00subjects that appeal to you? We bought them just because we lived beside the sea and our kids used
02:07to dress it in Victorian things. So this was the Victorian festival that they celebrate in Joppa?
02:12Yeah Victoria Day. And this presumably reminded you of your kids on the beach? Exactly. Yeah this is very different to what his
02:19mature style became known for. Jack Hogan left school at 15. He's from Methyl and Fife. Went into mining engineering but it was when he was gifted a set of
02:26paints at the age of 21 that he taught himself to be an artist. He submitted a couple of paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy under the pseudonym
02:33Vettriano. They sold straight away and that's when he realised I can make it as an artist.
02:38At this point in his career he was looking at Victorian painters and later of course he went on to develop
02:44that more kind of 1940s cinematic style. Can I ask whether you have a favourite of the three?
02:49Yes my favourite is that one there with all the children on the beach. It just reminded me of the time that we were there.
02:57Yeah they're beautiful. They're not as common on the market as Vettriano's. He went on to be quite prolific artists.
03:03Hogan's are a bit scarcer when they come up but nonetheless still popular. So could I ask what you originally paid for these paintings?
03:11We bought them from Cancer Research Art Exhibition and over a few years. The one in the middle we bought first and that was amazing price of £125 and this one was £150 and that one was £180.
03:25If they were to go through an auction house at the moment I would suggest that the central work could make something in the region of £5,000 now.
03:34Wow. Wow. And you'd probably be looking at around £2,000 to £3,000 each on the smaller pieces. They're really charming images.
03:41Didn't we do well? You did very well. And I think they would attract the kind of competitive bidding that you always want to see in a sale.
03:48Oh, wow. Thank you.
03:49You know, with the glut of TV programmes like this and the internet and books and research and all the stuff that's gone on for ages, it's kind of hard to find new ground.
04:06But for me, mid-century modern sculpture, an example of which we're looking at, is all about new ground and I'm presuming that's why you bought it?
04:14Yeah. My flat's very mid-century, so it goes with all my furniture and brightly coloured walls.
04:21So where does it live at home?
04:22It lives on my sideboard and sort of very prominent in its place. Yeah, I love it. My mum absolutely despises it.
04:30Hang on, what? Your mum despises it?
04:32She really can't stand it. Yeah, both me and my dad really, really like it.
04:35So I notice it's signed on the back here with a monogram, CES 73.
04:41Do you know who this artist is?
04:42So we think so. We think it's Charles Sansbury.
04:46I completely agree with you. I think this looks like Charles Sansbury's work.
04:50That matches and even the date of 1973 matches.
04:53So he was born in 1916 and he died in 1989.
04:56So this is towards the end of his career.
04:58Now, I find Sansbury quite an interesting guy.
05:01So he started off with painting and then he started to teach and actually most of his career was spent teaching.
05:08When I look at this, I think of skyscraper. I think of space rockets.
05:11But I also think of sort of modern sculptors of the day.
05:16So these sort of remind me of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, something along those lines.
05:20So he's really pulling together a lot of the sort of zeitgeist of that feeling, man landing on the moon.
05:25And then, of course, using this metal material.
05:29Now, he actually taught himself how to make sculptures in metal.
05:34So he studied and worked at a welding factory in Morpeth.
05:37So he was very much about truth to material.
05:40His work is known, but it's not enormously widely known.
05:44So was it in this condition when your father gave it to you?
05:47No, I believe he power washed it.
05:49He did?
05:50What?
05:51He power washed?
05:53I believe so.
05:54I think it was quite dirty.
05:56It's not the easiest thing to clean.
05:58I don't suggest next time it gets dusty you get the power washer out again.
06:01A soft cloth will be perfectly fine.
06:03But it does seem to have a good original finish.
06:06It's an interesting piece and putting a value on it is not easy.
06:10I think these figures really make it.
06:12And I think that whole architectural skyscraper space rocket thing really works.
06:15And I think that's going to resonate well with buyers.
06:19I'm going to say I think it would fetch £700 to £1,000.
06:22Wow.
06:23Yeah, I'm pleased with that.
06:25But it doesn't change my opinion on it and I'll definitely be keeping it.
06:28Carry on enjoying it.
06:29It's great to meet somebody who just reacts to the object.
06:37So, I mean, a charming little medallion you brought us in to take a look at.
06:43What's the sort of connection to you?
06:45Well, it was given to my husband by the Premier of China in June 1985
06:51because he drove black limos.
06:54And when there was anybody coming into Edinburgh that needed that type of car,
06:58he would drive them around.
07:00So he drove them around for quite a few days.
07:02And at the end of the stint to give my husband this as a gift.
07:07So it's 1985, his sort of grand tour.
07:09And he was Zhao Zizang and he was the third Premier of China, I think, between 1980 and 1987.
07:16And actually, we know that it's Chinese because it actually tells us on the back,
07:19it says souvenir from China.
07:20Oh, is that what it is?
07:22And it comes, I think, in a little presentation box.
07:25Yes, yes, a wee soapbox.
07:26Yeah.
07:27You mustn't lose that history.
07:29Because he was so excited when he got it.
07:31I wrote it down at the time because I thought, I'll forget all this.
07:34Yeah, yeah.
07:34And I just put it in the box.
07:35So it's a type of cinnabar lacquer.
07:39Cinnabar lacquer, this type of sort of red lacquer, has been around since the sort of 6th century.
07:44And it was during the sort of Ming and Qing dynasties.
07:46It became really, really popular in China.
07:49The main ingredient is cinnabar ore, which is sort of mercury-based ore.
07:53I think it's probably, I think it's possibly one of the deadliest ores known to man.
07:56And then this one's got this lovely little brass or bronze around the side.
08:01It's not an old one, so it would have been 1985.
08:03It would have been new.
08:04Without that provenance, I think you put this in an auction house in the UK, it probably makes £50.
08:10Right.
08:10But with that story, I think you could find that that could make £500.
08:19Goodness.
08:20That's amazing.
08:21It's a lovely thing.
08:23Keep it, hand it down through the family.
08:24It's great, but don't lose the story.
08:26Okay, that's lovely.
08:28Shall I give it back to you now?
08:28Thank you very much.
08:37What have you got here?
08:38So this is a very old shawl of my grandmother's.
08:43So you've known it all your life?
08:45Yes.
08:45And you were christened in it?
08:47I was christened in it.
08:47Wow.
08:48My daughter's been christened in it, my son.
08:50It's got a real family history.
08:52Yes.
08:52Elaine, have a look at this.
08:54It's amazing.
08:57Oh, it's printed.
08:58It's block printed.
08:59And it's got these stripes in it, which I think are silk.
09:02So the stripes are silk.
09:05Yeah.
09:05The rest of it must be some kind of very refined wool.
09:07Should we open that?
09:08Oh, it's beautiful.
09:09Oh, this design here is a boating, what we call a paisley, which is sort of originates from Kashmiri embroidered shawl.
09:18So it looks late 19th century, but there's something quite sort of, could almost be coming into the 20th century.
09:27So taking the condition into account.
09:30Three, four hundred.
09:31Yeah.
09:31Thank you so much.
09:32Thank you so much.
09:33That's made my day.
09:34I love it, don't you?
09:35I think it's really lovely.
09:36My mum, she'll be just thrilled to know a bit more about it.
09:40Tell me about your little clock.
09:56It was given to me by an old lady who I used to look after about 25 years ago, I think.
10:03I don't know where she got it from.
10:04Well, it's actually French, and there's a bit of a clue, because just down the bottom there, it says A La Lique, and right under there, it actually says France.
10:13Oh.
10:14And a number.
10:15So this is René La Lique, who started as a jewellery designer in the early part of the 20th century, and then started moving into glass.
10:24So this is moulded glass, but he sculpted these in wax originally, and then they made them all.
10:30Oh.
10:30So you get lots of very beautiful details.
10:32It's got this lovely sort of opal effect to it, so opalescent glass.
10:36So for all it is, it is pressed glass.
10:40It's very fine quality pressed glass, and they often did decoration on top, so all of this has all been cut around.
10:46And it's a really classic piece.
10:49What sort of birds do you think they are?
10:51Well, I always thought they were parrots.
10:52Well, this is one of these where it tests what sort of person you are, because you said parrot, I said birdie.
11:00But in the context of when this was made in the late 20s, early 30s, they would have been called lovebirds.
11:06And of course, you see, there's two on each branch.
11:07Yes, yes.
11:08Loving each other.
11:09Yeah.
11:09So do you love it?
11:11I love it, yes.
11:12I do.
11:12Well, the friend who you cared for obviously loved you, because she gave you a gift, which is quite valuable.
11:20Tell me.
11:22She gave you £2,000 to £3,000 worth.
11:24Really?
11:25Yes.
11:25Oh, my goodness.
11:27Oh, well done, her.
11:28Well.
11:28No, I just love it.
11:29Keep it treasured on the mantelpiece and well away from Freddie.
11:32Yes, I will.
11:33Thank you very much.
11:34It's a pleasure.
12:07It's not.
12:08It's actually a stone that the Victorians love to put in jewellery.
12:13It's a garnet.
12:14Right.
12:14And it's a cabochon garnet and this beautiful drop.
12:17And with all this multicoloured enamelling set in 18 karat gold and in the original box.
12:24How fantastic.
12:25So it was gifted to my great-grandmother by my great-great-grandfather, Robert Williamson, on the occasion of our wedding in 1874.
12:34Yep.
12:34And it was then inherited by my grandmother.
12:38But a funny story is, in the early 70s, when I was about three or four, my grandparents' house had a burglar in it.
12:47And my grandfather actually caught the gentleman in the act.
12:50And it was in the hall, ready to be stolen.
12:53So luckily we've still got it now.
12:55Oh, my goodness.
12:56So it's still within the family.
12:57Thank goodness.
12:58Well, you've said 1817.
13:00That's pretty much the date of this piece, between 1870 and 1880.
13:04And the style of it is very much Tudor revival, or it's sometimes known as Holbein-esque, after the Tudor court painter Holbein,
13:14who painted these amazing portraits of women wearing jewellery very similar to this.
13:21It doesn't have a maker's mark, either on the piece or on the box,
13:24but it's very much the type of thing that would have been made by Hunt and Roskill,
13:30who were goldsmiths and silversmiths working in this period.
13:33Have you worn it?
13:34No, I'm scared to wear it.
13:36I'd be upset if I lost it.
13:38So my mother wore it.
13:39This Tudor revival jewellery is really, really popular.
13:43It sells very well at auction at the moment.
13:46It's easily going to make between £4,000 and £6,000.
13:49Wow.
13:51Thanks very much.
13:54I thought it was costume jewellery, maybe £50 to £100.
13:58So I'm a bit shocked, actually, to be honest.
14:00I think I might wear it as a special occasion,
14:03but I'll have to really keep an eye on it, the value.
14:06But it's not going anywhere, it's staying in family.
14:16I love samplers and antique textiles,
14:18so I am thrilled to be looking at this beautiful collection,
14:21which, Fiona, you have brought along,
14:22from the Weems School of Needlework,
14:24which is just, what, a couple of miles down the road from here?
14:26Yeah, not much further.
14:27So tell me about the school.
14:30Set up 1877 in a room in Weems Castle.
14:34It was set up by Dora.
14:35Dora Weems, Lady Weems.
14:37Who was my husband's great-aunt.
14:39It's going to say you are Fiona Weems.
14:41I'm Fiona Weems.
14:42She was extraordinary.
14:43She was philanthropic.
14:45She set up an orphanage.
14:46She set up the needlework school.
14:48She was the reason that Weemswear was called Weemswear,
14:51because she supported the pottery
14:52and gave them samples to take moulds from.
14:56In those days,
14:57women and children had been stopped going down the mines in the 1840s,
15:01so there was very, very little employment for women.
15:03And so this was a way of giving women a skill
15:07from which to earn their living.
15:08And they'd be used to stitch the household linen, that kind of thing.
15:11Household linen and white embroidery on white,
15:13so it was linen, handkerchiefs,
15:16little dresses for children with embroidery on them,
15:19that sort of thing.
15:20And so the way it worked, I mean, looking at this here,
15:23is the design would be drawn on tracing paper
15:25and then pricked onto the material.
15:27The client would choose a design
15:29from maybe something that size for, you know, a huge bed quilt.
15:33It'd be blown up, drawn onto paper,
15:35pricked and pounced onto the material
15:38and either given to the client to work in their own time
15:41or done as a commission.
15:43And this one, it's quite a nice small design
15:46for a quilted hot water bottle cover.
15:49And when does this photo date from?
15:50We've been able to date it from one of the registers, 1903,
15:53which was the one time that all those girls were there.
15:56Tell me about these two pieces here.
15:58Well, this, we don't know the date as much.
15:59It's quite early, we think 17th or 18th century,
16:02and stitched with vegetable dyes.
16:05This was made in the school
16:06and it's made with aniline dyes
16:10that were in use in those days in the 1930s.
16:13And you can see how the stitching has worn away
16:16and the threads have rotted in various places on it.
16:20So, in fact, this, which is several hundred years earlier than that,
16:24is in a better condition.
16:27And what about these magnificent boxes here?
16:29I believe they're marriage boxes where a young girl
16:32would store up things for her marriage.
16:35And this was bought by Lady Victoria, my grandmother-in-law, in France,
16:39which was obviously original.
16:41And then this one was made in the school in the 1930s.
16:44And if you open it, inside, you've got all the paper designs
16:50that were then pricked onto the new cloth to put on the new box.
16:54And we think that the box itself was probably made by the estate joiner.
16:57Isn't that wonderful?
16:59And the Weems family connection to the school of needlework
17:02is very strong, isn't it?
17:03There's always been, as I call them, a Weems woman,
17:06really sort of overseeing the place.
17:09And I took over from my grandmother-in-law, who is in this picture,
17:13who ran it from when she married in 1918
17:16to when she died, aged 104.
17:18Well, I have loved seeing these.
17:20I mean, this is a fashion of mine, so it's a real treat.
17:22Thank you so much.
17:23Well, thank you very much for having us.
17:30So, tell me all about this piece of greenstone
17:33with a hole in the middle.
17:35Well, I was in an antique shop in the south of France,
17:39and it caught my eye.
17:40And when was this?
17:4120-plus years ago.
17:43Yeah.
17:43It was on sale, I think, for a princely sum of 40 euros.
17:46But I've always been curious about what it is.
17:49When I first saw it, I thought it might be Chinese.
17:52And then I wanted to establish whether it was jade
17:55or a softer material like bonite, which is a kind of serpentine,
17:59which they make things out of and looks like jade.
18:02So, I'd like to give it the hardness test
18:05and see if it's hard enough to be jade.
18:07Yeah, I think it is spinach jade.
18:11And you have no idea of its function?
18:13None at all.
18:14It's got a funny sort of lip on one side of it.
18:16But this...
18:16And there is an inset around the hole in the middle.
18:19But this?
18:20Yeah, the whole thing is not massively well-finished.
18:24It's got a slight rusticity to it.
18:26Yeah, it's slightly unrefined.
18:28I'm looking at this,
18:29and these are Mughal designs that I've seen on many other things.
18:33And you've got it on the outside there and on the inner circle.
18:37These little...
18:38They're almost three-sided elements,
18:41like Gothic treffles, but not quite.
18:44And then this, I'm sure, is a stylised lotus,
18:47which really draws me to India
18:49when the Mughals were the dynasty ruling India.
18:53And then I pondered on what I thought its function was.
18:57What did you think its function could be?
18:59I thought possibly as some kind of belt hanging,
19:01because it has a lip on it.
19:03It could be that.
19:04But I think it's a hair ornament.
19:07Hmm.
19:08I think the hair goes through there,
19:11makes a lump,
19:12and then you put a jade pin through there.
19:15Ah.
19:15And I think it's about 200 years old.
19:20Oh.
19:20You know, with a little bit of research,
19:22it turns out to be a Mughal hair ornament,
19:24or a Mughal anything.
19:26It would command a price of between £500 to £800.
19:32Oh, that's a proper fit.
19:34I would say.
19:35Thank you very much.
19:36There are certain objects on the roadshow
19:46that I'm just instantly drawn to,
19:48and this is definitely one of them.
19:51Yeah.
19:52What can you tell me about it?
19:53The coach was made by a local man, Bill Watson.
19:56He was a shepherd,
19:58and he bred and judged sheep.
20:01One of the employees he was working with
20:03introduced him to the craft of corn dolly making,
20:06and he went on to make a considerable amount of corn dollies.
20:10One of these are craft skills...
20:12Yes.
20:12..of Great Britain,
20:14very much of the rural craft.
20:16So you say corn dolly making,
20:17it has roots that go all the way back centuries,
20:20and this would have been made for the coronation?
20:23It was made as a commemorative piece,
20:25we think, either for the coronation
20:27or for the Golden Jubilee.
20:28We're just not sure, unfortunately.
20:30It really is so intricate.
20:32We've got the four horses here with two riders,
20:35and then the carriage,
20:37this wonderful carriage...
20:38Yes.
20:38..with the Queen and Prince Philip, presumably, in there.
20:42I'm going to go fairly conservative on this.
20:45I'd say I'd value that at between £100 and £200.
20:48Right.
20:48But who knows what would happen,
20:49because if two people really wanted it,
20:51you'll never find another.
20:53Exactly.
20:54Yes, that is it.
20:55Thank you very much for bringing you to it.
21:09I'm looking at a table full of memorabilia
21:12relating to this, the Ceres Games.
21:16Tell me about the Games and how it was founded.
21:20So, in 1314, it was the Battle of Bannockburn.
21:23Nineteen men from the village went to fight at the battle,
21:26and all 19 men came back.
21:28So, Robert the Bruce himself, allegedly,
21:31guaranteed us a licensed party,
21:34which became an event where people would show strength,
21:37agility, speed,
21:39and has transformed into the Games that we know today.
21:42I mean, we've got some history here
21:44which talks about the programme.
21:46Further than that, we don't have much knowledge.
21:49And you're actually involved with the running of it in some way?
21:54Yeah, we're both on the committee.
21:56I organise the street market that also takes place at the Games.
21:59Right.
21:59And I help coordinate all the volunteers to make sure,
22:03because it takes quite a bit of effort to organise a Games.
22:05I can imagine.
22:05For those who've, sadly, never been to a Highland Games,
22:09can you just unfold it for us and tell us what happens?
22:11So, our Highland Games takes place in the middle of the village
22:14on the village green.
22:15It's for everybody in the village and visitors come as well.
22:18So, an audience of what?
22:19Between 3,000 and 5,000 normally.
22:21My goodness.
22:22OK, so I can picture the scene now.
22:24So, we have wrestling, dancing, piping, the heavies.
22:28We have juniors, ladies, and men's heavies.
22:31So, that includes tossing the K-bar for accuracy and distance.
22:35So, there's all that.
22:36And then, I was just looking at this cup earlier,
22:39and that's for cycling.
22:41We have cycling,
22:42and sometimes the cyclists end up in the burn,
22:44because it's such a tight space.
22:46When does it happen?
22:47On the last Saturday in June, every year.
22:50So, let's just go through what we've got here.
22:53So, there's a photograph up at your end.
22:56Yeah.
22:56Who is that, and where is it?
22:58So, that's the Games Committee back in the 1930s.
23:01So, that would have been a photograph of everyone
23:03that was involved in trying to organise the game.
23:06So, the box itself, with Ceres Games Fund on it,
23:11it's got a slot in the lid, presumably, for coin collecting.
23:13This box used to be carried house to house
23:16to gather collections from the villagers,
23:19and it was all to support the functioning of the games going forwards.
23:22I mean, a collection like this, it should never be split up.
23:26It is part of not only your village heritage,
23:29but it's actually part of Scottish heritage.
23:30So, I'm going to say that it's priceless.
23:34And I hope you're happy with that.
23:35Definitely, it's priceless to us.
23:37Great.
23:38And I ought to ask, has anybody ever been to the Ceres Games?
23:42Yes!
23:44Everybody.
23:45Amazing.
23:46Thank you very much indeed for bringing it in.
23:55Our visitors often come with medals and mementos of battle.
24:00The Crimean War saw an alliance of British, French and other forces fighting Russia
24:06over the balance of power in the Balkans and Middle East.
24:10And Mark Smith has discovered some items from key events in that conflict.
24:15The Crimean War, 1854 to 55.
24:20An ancestor of yours?
24:22Who was he?
24:22Yes, this is William Gibson, who was my great-grandfather.
24:26So, we know from his medals that he was in the Dragoons.
24:31He was.
24:32He was in what we would also know as the Scots Greys.
24:35There are probably only maybe two things that people know about the Crimean War.
24:40One is Florence Nightingale and the other one is the charge of the Light Brigade.
24:43Indeed.
24:44But actually, there are three really important quintessential points of the Crimean War.
24:53One is the charge of the Light Brigade.
24:54One is the charge of the Heavy Brigade.
24:57And the other one is the Thin Red Line, the 93rd Highlanders.
25:02Not only was he there, but he actually saw those three amazing bits of the Crimean War actually happen.
25:10So, we are at the Battle of Balaclava.
25:14The Russians are attacking us and we send out cavalry.
25:19We all know that the Light Brigade charge and are cut to bits as they go.
25:24They go later in the day because, first of all, the Russians attack
25:29and they attack the 93rd Highlanders who don't form square.
25:34You always form square to take cavalry.
25:36But they didn't.
25:37They stood in a line.
25:38And the reporter, William Russell, wrote, they stood in line.
25:44And he called it like a thin red streak.
25:47But that becomes the Thin Red Line.
25:49And not only that, but they drive them away.
25:51And he saw it.
25:52Yes.
25:53Then, the Heavy Cavalry see Russian cavalry on a hill and they charge.
25:59They actually charge quite slowly because it's uphill.
26:02And they beat them.
26:04And he was in the charge.
26:06He was.
26:06And then later in the day, he wheels past the Light Brigade just before they charge down the valley in the so well-known charge of the 600.
26:17Yeah.
26:18This is his diary.
26:20And this diary, whilst incredibly difficult to read, I'll give you that, it does have some incredible little lines in it.
26:26Here, sometime the Cossacks galloped across the plain and charged the 93rd Highlanders to our right front.
26:32And this diary is incredible because not only does it place him in the charge, but it's an eyewitness account of two of the most amazing bits of the Crimean War.
26:44Have you ever read this?
26:45I have.
26:46I transcribed it a few years ago.
26:49There's a reference to the appalling way they were treated as soldiers and indeed the horses as well.
26:56And the hunger that they faced because they were just given biscuits to eat in the main.
27:03The medals are lovely.
27:04The Crimean War medal with Balaclava, Inkeman, Sevastopol.
27:08The Turkish Crimea, which always goes with the British one.
27:11And then his long-service and good conduct medal in the middle.
27:15A fantastic group of medals.
27:17Have you ever thought what these are worth?
27:19I've got no idea.
27:20OK.
27:21Well, with the little diary, they're worth somewhere between £6,000 and £7,000.
27:26Goodness me.
27:29Gosh.
27:30Well done.
27:31More money than he ever saw in his lifetime.
27:33Absolutely.
27:34He was on a pension of three shillings and a halfenay, I think, a day.
27:3715.5p a week.
27:38Yeah.
27:39Fantastic.
27:39That is a real treat to see that.
27:42Thank you for bringing it in.
27:47A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.
28:00Completely out of place on a glorious summer's day like this.
28:03Yes.
28:03But nonetheless, this is what you've brought me.
28:04You've brought me a little pile of sheets of paper,
28:07most of which seem to be a kind of Christmas card.
28:10They look to be Victorian.
28:12Tell me a little bit about them, where they came from.
28:14So, yes, these are the very first Christmas and New Year cards ever produced.
28:20And they belong to my great-grandfather.
28:24Okay.
28:25Well, that's a bold claim.
28:26These are the first Christmas cards ever produced.
28:28Sorry.
28:28So I was told.
28:29So I believe.
28:31No.
28:31When I think of Christmas cards, I definitely think of the Victorian era.
28:35And it's usually thought that the first Christmas cards came about in London in 1843.
28:41They came about a man called Henry Cole, who was an inventor, very, very bright man,
28:46had a lot to do with the early postal system.
28:49And it seems as though he created the first Christmas cards, so we're told.
28:53And Queen Victoria sent the first official Christmas card in 1843.
28:56So I'm really keen and interested to know, firstly, where these came from and what date
29:02you think they were printed.
29:03I believe they were printed in 1841.
29:07Two years before.
29:08Yes.
29:09So my great-grandfather was a doctor and surgeon to a bookseller, Charles Drummond.
29:16He was also a printer.
29:17And he produced these, yeah, in 1841, put them in his shop window.
29:22They're so ephemeral, you can see them fluttering slightly in the summer breeze here.
29:26We've got weights on, keep them from blowing away.
29:28But they've survived in really brilliant condition.
29:31Yes.
29:31We should say these are unused, aren't they?
29:33They are Christmas cards in that they open up.
29:35I think the idea is, obviously, you'd write a bit more than we would write on our modern-day
29:40Christmas cards.
29:41Yes, I believe that was the idea, so that the sender could write their own greeting.
29:45And these designs are fantastic.
29:47They're cheeky, they're funny, there's nothing terribly serious.
29:51These are not religious Christmas cards, are they?
29:53No, no.
29:53This chap with his missing front tooth, grinning, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to
29:57you.
29:58This is a bit more serious with the time ticking away, but that's more of a New Year's card.
30:02Yeah.
30:02And that's a much older tradition.
30:04That existed long before the Victorian era, especially in Scotland.
30:07New Year's traditions, of course.
30:08Yes, that's right.
30:09I think I'm more or less convinced that if we can surely date these to 1841, which I
30:14think with the provenance you've given me, with the documentation that you've brought
30:17with you around your great-grandfather, I'm convinced that certainly the earliest of
30:21these are 1841.
30:23So that's very significant.
30:24Yes.
30:24So there's probably some commercial value here.
30:26I think you've got eight, which I would consider to be genuinely Christmas cards.
30:30The others are more general greetings, notepaper.
30:32So I think we're looking at definitely £1,500 to £2,000 on this table.
30:37Wow.
30:39Wow.
30:41Yes, I wasn't expecting that.
30:44I'm delighted you brought them to show us.
30:46Thank you so much.
30:47It's been a pleasure.
30:48Thank you very much indeed.
30:52I was really surprised by the valuation.
30:54I had absolutely no idea at all how much they were worth.
31:02So I'd say beautiful, sort of colourful flowers.
31:10We've got beautiful flowers on the house, beautiful colours and flowers behind me.
31:14I mean, just the perfect backdrop for them.
31:16Tell me everything you know.
31:17They were in the house as a child when I grew up.
31:20They were my mother's and all she told me that they were in the house when she grew up
31:26as a child as well.
31:27She was born in 1920 and I'm taking a guess that they're somewhere of that vintage.
31:33But other than that, I know nothing about them.
31:35OK.
31:36We've always just liked them.
31:37And do you know where they're from?
31:39No.
31:39Mother always referred to them as the Chinese vases.
31:42Chinese vases.
31:42So, look, they're not Chinese.
31:44They're actually Japanese.
31:45And they're by a particular factory called Fukugawa.
31:49In fact, Fukugawa lit their first kiln back in 1650.
31:52But these are much later and I think your idea of them being about 1920 is probably pretty
31:57accurate, somewhere between 19 and 1920.
31:59But before I really go any further, I just want to talk about the quality of them.
32:04You know, and there's so much going on here.
32:07You know, the quality of these lovely gnarly branches here.
32:10You've got this underglazed blue and then picked out with these lovely sort of coloured
32:13enamels.
32:14And actually, it doesn't just end there, does it?
32:16So, you know, you turn this around and the decoration just continues.
32:19And actually, you've just got this lovely sort of profusion of colourful foliage and these
32:25lovely bright flowers on the back there.
32:27There's just a lot going on.
32:29And the other thing that strikes me about these is the fact that they're in perfect condition.
32:33And these were made for export.
32:35So, these were made for the Western market.
32:38Yes.
32:39Fukugawa, in fact, around this time, they won the grand prize at the Paris Exposition
32:44in 1900, I think, for, you know, an exceptional work.
32:48And actually, to my eye, these wouldn't have looked out of place in Paris in 1900.
32:53They are that good.
32:54If these came up for auction, I think these could make easily between £1,500 and £2,500.
33:02Comfortably.
33:02They're not for sale.
33:03No.
33:04Good.
33:05We love them as they are.
33:06Scotland is known as the birthplace of golf.
33:14It was also in Scotland that the women's game first emerged in the mid-18th century.
33:20And just down the road from our venue is the historic royal and ancient golf club, St. Andrews,
33:25and a museum brimming with antiques from the early days of women's golf.
33:31And, Hannah Fleming, you've come along from the R&A World Golf Museum with some wonderful pieces of memorabilia,
33:36which are all connected to women in golf.
33:39Indeed, yes.
33:40So, tell me about the boots.
33:42So, women have been playing golf with the first written reference to women playing golf in 1738.
33:49But by the 1890s, women were playing the full course, but they didn't have the clothing that we have available now.
33:56These are a pair of boots that were worn by Mabel Stringer, who was part of the Ladies' Golf Union.
34:01And they date from about 1894.
34:04And these were a kind of DIY item because they're studded with nails in the sole
34:10so that they could have greater grip on the grass when they're playing golf.
34:15We've got this wonderful pair of boots.
34:16What about the kind of outfits that women were wearing?
34:19I mean, obviously, they weren't allowed to wear plus fours.
34:20So, Mabel had a full long skirt as well as her red jacket.
34:25And this piece here is part of her costume.
34:27A piece of elastic with a button on it.
34:29And how would that be used?
34:31When she got to her ball, she would put the piece of elastic around her knees to stop the skirt from flying up.
34:38So, what, she'd put it round the outside of the material?
34:40Yes.
34:40So that it couldn't go like that?
34:41Yes.
34:42And then what about this golf ball here?
34:44What's the significance of that?
34:45It might just look like an ordinary golf ball, but it holds such a fascinating story.
34:50So, in 1910, a female golfer called Cecil Leach played against a man for the first time, Harold Hilton,
34:58who was a twice amateur champion.
35:00And she actually beat him.
35:01Oh.
35:02They played over multiple matches.
35:04And this is the ball that she used to defeat Harold Hilton.
35:08And Cecil would go on to win four women's amateur titles.
35:11What about this little bag here?
35:13So, this is a small prize that was given out as part of the putting club's matches.
35:20And so, it became tradition that the captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews gave a prize to St Andrews Ladies Putting Club.
35:28It's the oldest club in the world.
35:30And their membership was made up of daughters of the R&A members.
35:34So, there was quite a close relationship between the two clubs.
35:37So, this was a little prize that was presented to Miss Longmuir in 1911.
35:43Hmm.
35:43Well, I'm fascinated to see these, but I know someone who will be absolutely desperate to have a look.
35:49Gordon, come in.
35:50Gordon Foster.
35:51Here we are talking about women's golf.
35:53Yeah.
35:54Is there a value in this kind of thing?
35:56Oh, yeah.
35:56There's definitely a growing interest in women's golf.
35:59I think with the coverage it's getting on TV and the prize money is now more.
36:04And so, there's more people viewing it.
36:06And we're seeing some really dramatic finishes in some of the golf tournaments that are televised.
36:11And so, therefore, I think the interest is growing in collectors wanting to own pieces by more famous players.
36:18Just recently, we had the Solheim Cup at Glen Eagles a few years ago.
36:23Dramatic finish.
36:24Susan Pedersen holding the winning putt.
36:26You know, so if you can get something from a player like that, you know, a piece of memorabilia attached to a player like that,
36:34then it's becoming a growing collector's field.
36:37But looking at these pieces, these are fabulous, yeah.
36:39That's got the great story.
36:41Wow, look, it's so interesting to hear about these items.
36:44I pity the women trying to do the whole thing with their skirts.
36:47But good on them for being so determined and wanting to play and for not letting it be just a man's game.
36:53Lovely to see you, Gordon.
36:53And, Hannah, thank you very much.
36:55Thank you, Fiona.
37:01Well, here in front of me is a wonderful and quite disparate collection of beautiful glass items that united by one common factor.
37:09And that's the designer, Ronald Stennett Wilson, who I'm very honoured to say, in my opinion, was an amazing designer, but also a friend.
37:18Who was Ronnie to you?
37:19Well, he was my uncle, Ronnie.
37:21He was self-contained.
37:22He inherited me and my sister and my two cousins when he married my aunt when I was about eight.
37:29He wasn't precious.
37:30We could do whatever we wanted, go wherever we wanted.
37:34He was just a very tolerant uncle.
37:37I think he was delighted to have inherited the family.
37:39I mean, he was a genius.
37:42Oh, yes.
37:42He started working for Jay Weedart & Co., importing design from Scandinavia.
37:47He then went over to Scandinavia and started to create his own pieces.
37:51That bowl, to me, is pure Scandinavian design, the influences, and the way he allowed it to get into his mindset.
38:02Now, you see, we look at these fish.
38:04Now, these are very much from the King's Limb period, you know, when, in 1967, he decides he's going to do it himself.
38:10A couple of years later, gets sort of bought up by the monolith that is Wedgwood, but creating these wonderful fish.
38:16I love the curve.
38:17Oh, the curve's fabulous.
38:18And, of course, you could buy these as individuals.
38:20Yes, which I am adding to my collection.
38:22But then also these.
38:23These are experimental pieces.
38:25This is him playing, which he loved doing.
38:28He would have this collaborative ballet, you know, with a glassmaker.
38:32That's right.
38:33See whether an idea worked.
38:34Yeah.
38:34But also pieces like this bowl, which, again, form part of the range, which are all sort of named after places around his home.
38:42Yeah.
38:42In terms of prices, I mean, these are £30, £40 a piece.
38:46You know, this here, again, under £100, under £100.
38:49This, I think, to a collector of Ronnie's work, will know that that is a prototype.
38:54Okay.
38:54Something that was probably inherited.
38:56You know, something that will have been in his home.
38:58Yes, my sister said, I must take that.
39:00This has never gone into production.
39:02But, you know, the provenance is cast iron.
39:05But this is the thing about Ronnie.
39:07You know, this whole table here, there's, you know, it's a few hundred pounds.
39:10But that, to me, is not what it's about.
39:12To me, it's priceless.
39:13It's about finding out who Ronald Stennett Wilson was.
39:17Yeah.
39:17And he was the most generous man to me in the end.
39:20A really, really lovely, lovely man who...
39:24A lovely uncle as well.
39:25Well, we have our shared memories.
39:27I mean, my abiding memory of him was...
39:31You're going to make me cry.
39:32No, I don't.
39:33He called me to see him two weeks before he died.
39:37And it was to say goodbye.
39:39Yeah.
39:40And I remember as I left, he went, we won't see each other again.
39:44But God bless and be good.
39:45They were just lovely aunt and uncle.
39:48He was a joyous man.
39:50Yeah.
39:51And I feel incredibly privileged to have met him.
39:54Yeah.
39:54And I feel incredibly privileged to have had him as my uncle.
39:57Thank you so much.
39:58Pleasure.
39:58You brought back some amazing memories.
40:01Pleasure.
40:03I'm very proud of my uncle.
40:06I knew how he was one of the most preeminent glass designers of the 20th century.
40:11But coming here today has made me realise even more so.
40:14And to know that he was my uncle.
40:16And a lovely uncle.
40:17And a very tolerant, kind uncle.
40:19It's just...
40:20It means a lot to me.
40:30So, on this piping hot day,
40:32you've brought in quite a collection.
40:34Tell me about it.
40:35I've been collecting them for 45 years and really just buy what I like.
40:40And animals have become, I suppose, a favourite topic of the range that I've got.
40:45How many do you have in total?
40:47About 100, I should think.
40:49Let's start at the beginning.
40:50These are Meerschaum pipes.
40:51Yes.
40:52Meerschaum is the German word for sea foam.
40:55Okay.
40:55It's like chalk.
40:56And it lends itself perfectly to the production of smoking pipes.
41:00It's porous.
41:01And so, as the hot tobacco fumes are being sucked up the pipe and inhaled, because it's porous,
41:08it cools them before you take it into the mouth and the lungs.
41:11Right.
41:12And it also allows the substance, the Meerschaum, to take on this lovely amber colour from the tobacco.
41:18Okay, yes, because the new ones are all white, I think, aren't they, that they make?
41:20Exactly.
41:21The excellent B-side to that is that it also colours the carved bowl with those amber and brown hues.
41:29And the subject matter was often picked as something that would benefit from the slow colouring over time and the gaining of patina.
41:36So, we have lion's faces which are going the colour of lion's faces.
41:40These were made largely in Austria and in France.
41:43Which is your favourite?
41:44I think this bulldog is rather spectacular and not necessarily the most artistic.
41:49They're extremely fine and they have to be seen as individual works of art.
41:54Yeah.
41:54And it's not just the quality of the carving, it's the conception in the first place.
41:58The idea that the bird has turned its head backwards towards the stem with its beak resting across the stem.
42:04That is a work of art.
42:06That's not just a smoking pipe.
42:08Right.
42:09And look at the silver work, the stem on this one.
42:12Wonderful late 19th century silver work there.
42:15They come and go with fashions.
42:17Smoking pipes itself has declined in a big way.
42:21Of course.
42:22I think to treat the collection as a whole, I've seen about 40 of them today.
42:27Mm-hmm.
42:27And you say you've got another sort of 50 or 60 at home.
42:29Yes, yes.
42:31I would imagine that a realistic auction estimate for the complete collection would be something like £3,000 to £5,000.
42:39Okay.
42:40Excellent.
42:40Well, thank you very much.
42:42Pleasure.
42:42Absolute pleasure.
42:43Wonderful collection.
42:44Glad you like it.
42:45Well, they look interesting.
42:57We've got some beads, some African jewellery.
43:01African trade beads and what looks like a shanty gold.
43:05Certainly 22 and possibly 24 carat.
43:08What's the story?
43:09I was lucky enough in 1995 to go to Ghana and work in Kumasi, helping to transform an old royal palace into a museum of local culture.
43:26Who gave you, I'm only asking?
43:28Well, it was the king of Ashanti.
43:30Oh, only the king.
43:31Only the king.
43:32Only the king.
43:33Or Tungfo.
43:34They're not ancient Ashanti, I'm sure you know.
43:37No, no, no.
43:37I mean, they're probably made, I don't know, between 1970 and when you got them.
43:43Did anybody take a photograph of you being presented with this?
43:46Oh, do you have a photograph?
43:47I've got pictures, yeah.
43:48I would value that with those photographs and the story at £2,000 to £2,500.
43:57That is very good news.
43:59You know?
44:00In case of emergency, that's really good news.
44:02Emergency fund.
44:03Yeah, but I don't really want to part with them.
44:06No.
44:10What a collection.
44:12What can you tell me about them?
44:14Well, they were given to me by a friend.
44:17Sadly, they've been kept in the box for a long time because I've had nowhere to display them.
44:23So, have you heard of the name Fornacetti before?
44:25I hadn't, no.
44:26Piero Fornacetti started his company in 1940 in Milan, known as the designer of dreams,
44:31and you can see why he can take the most boring object, be it a magazine rack or a cup and sauce,
44:37and just take it to a different level.
44:39Who would have thought these are just humble coasters?
44:41Transfer printed.
44:43Soleilun.
44:44Sun and Moon.
44:46Wonderful.
44:46Absolutely wonderful.
44:481950s.
44:48Turn them over.
44:501957.
44:51Beautifully marked.
44:52You've got seven here.
44:53There probably would have been eight originally, so I think one's got lost along the way.
44:57Do you like them?
44:58I do like them.
44:59They're just a bit curious.
45:01And would it surprise you to know that they're actually very collectible?
45:04No, I had no idea.
45:06I think at auction they would fetch £400 to £600.
45:11Oh, really?
45:12Right.
45:12I do.
45:13Gosh.
45:13I do.
45:14That is a big surprise.
45:15They are lovely.
45:16Well, thank you for telling me about them.
45:18My pleasure.
45:19I like this because there's a nice plaque which tells us a lot about it.
45:33It's a U-boat clock and it's from U-17 and Surrendered British Fleet, Never 27, 1918.
45:42So, obviously, you worried about it in 1918.
45:45Who was?
45:47It was my great uncle.
45:49He was also my godfather.
45:51Right.
45:52It belonged to him.
45:53He was a commander in the Royal Navy.
45:55I don't actually know how the clock came into his possession, but, yes, he was in submarines
46:00at the time, so possibly he was involved when the U-boat surrendered.
46:06UC is a mine-laying sub and UC-17 was an extremely successful U-boat.
46:14I think it sank 96 Allied ships and damaged 29 more, being with mines or torpedoes.
46:21It's a bulkhead clock.
46:22So, Franz Hap, the maker from Kiel, clock serial number, and here is the Imperial German
46:32crown with the M for marine, so Kriegsmarine.
46:36Key for locking and, obviously, winding because only two people allowed access to this.
46:41OK.
46:42Very, very accurate because time accuracy in ships is vital.
46:49Brass construction, very heavy, and it's probably a fairly hefty piece of glass, and
46:55if you look there, it's a beveled edge.
46:58Imagine your relative was a submariner?
47:01Yes, he was a submariner.
47:03Right, so the U-boat fleet was surrendered.
47:06The majority of them came into Harwich.
47:08This was broken up in Preston, I think, in 1919.
47:13Yeah.
47:13So that would have been in there, and I would have thought, if you're going to look at that
47:16thing, actually, fair enough, I mean, a screwdriver, and you've got yourself a very, very, very
47:21nice clock.
47:22Do you use it as a clock at home?
47:24Yes, I mean, it was in my parents' house from when I was a young child all the way through
47:29until I inherited it from my parents when they sadly passed away, so...
47:33Yeah, U-boat clocks are very collectible.
47:36I would think that's £2,000 worth.
47:40Well...
47:42So, very nice thing.
47:43Thanks very much.
47:49Now, I'm looking at a display on a table which includes a slightly blurry but very exciting
47:54photograph of a...
47:56I think she's a lady footballer, so who is she?
47:58The lady in the photograph is a girl called Annie Hastie, and she played for a famous football
48:03team in the early 20s called Dick Comer Kerr Ladies Football Team.
48:10So what's the connection to you?
48:12My grandfather, he originally came from Cowcadden's in Glasgow, where Dick Kerr originally came from,
48:19as an industrialist, and they made trams, and they won a contract to provide trams for
48:25Carlyle.
48:25So they opened up a factory.
48:28But what's the connection between him and her?
48:31Well, I think they had a wee brief relationship.
48:33Ah.
48:34But then, eventually, I think he was a wee bit broken-hearted, and he had to come back up
48:39the road for family reasons.
48:42When he left, she gave him this medal.
48:45So we've got two medals here, gold medals.
48:47Now, the first one is D.H. and 1914.
48:52So the chances are that's somebody else, isn't it?
48:54Well, I think it's a relation of hers, because it's the same surname.
48:59I think it's the same surname, yeah.
49:00But it's not her.
49:01No.
49:01So we'll move on from that.
49:02Yeah.
49:03And then we come to the other one, and this is, to me, the key thing, because this is the,
49:08it says, the Dick Kerr Ladies Association Football Club, and they were playing in a ladies
49:15league.
49:15Yeah.
49:16In the early days of football, and into the 1920s, there were ladies leagues.
49:20They ran parallel to male footballers.
49:24We've got to remember here, Paul, very quickly, that the backdrop here was the First World War.
49:28Yes.
49:29The women were actually working in the munitions.
49:31Oh, they'd taken over the men's job.
49:33They transferred the trams to munitions, and all the ladies worked there, which was quite
49:38a physical job.
49:39Oh, yes.
49:40But they were looking for fun.
49:41They were looking for a wee bit of camaraderie, collectivity, and they then enjoyed their
49:47football and their breaks.
49:48Yeah.
49:48But they were not alone.
49:49I mean, there was a huge, massive support for ladies football at that time, which dropped
49:54in the 1920s, owing to different attitudes to women's football.
49:58Yeah.
49:58And there was a long gap before it came back.
50:00Coming back to this medal, the key thing which I'm going to read is it's got the most
50:04staggering information on the back.
50:06It does.
50:06It says, played 59 matches, won 58, drawn one.
50:14That's a good start, isn't it?
50:16Remember, she's the goalkeeper, and it says, scored 393 goals, let in 16.
50:26Now, I can't imagine a team in the world that wouldn't want to have that record.
50:31But I love this sort of blend of social history, industrial history.
50:36Yeah.
50:36And sports history.
50:38Aye.
50:38OK, so what have we got?
50:39The story is, not in financial terms, but in historical terms, hugely interesting and
50:44valuable.
50:46And so I think we're only really valuing the medals, because that's all there is.
50:50I'm going to put between, I think, 1,000 and 2,000 on them.
50:54Right.
50:54So a quarter of that is the gold.
50:57The rest is history.
50:58That's fine.
50:59I'm happy with that.
51:00I've enjoyed this.
51:01My sort of, a way into ladies football.
51:03Great.
51:04Thank you very much.
51:05Okay.
51:05I love it when we get a surprise, and when we open this jewellery box, there certainly
51:17is a wonderful surprise inside.
51:19A citrine and gold perure.
51:22How have you ended up with this?
51:23Well, I've inherited it, actually, from my mother.
51:25My great-grandfather, who was a jeweller, Edward Ewan, in the south-west of Scotland, and
51:31I understand that he had bought it as an investment.
51:34Right.
51:34I'm not sure whether anybody has worn it.
51:37And then, so it was handed down to my grandmother, and she kept it in a safe.
51:42Oh, right.
51:42And we looked at it as children, and then it was handed down to my mother, and sadly, my
51:49mum passed away in December last year, and so now my sister and I have inherited this
51:54beautiful piece of jewellery.
51:56It's amazing, isn't it?
51:58It's absolutely wonderful.
51:59It's stunning.
51:59It's absolutely wonderful.
51:59I can't believe it's been shut away in a safe for so long.
52:02Yeah.
52:02I mentioned that it was a perure.
52:04Well, a perure is a set of jewellery, and you can have a number of pieces in a set.
52:09We've got a bracelet, we've got a necklace, we've got a pendant, which converts to a brooch
52:14or a bodice ornament.
52:16We've got a full corsage bodice ornament here as well, and then we have a pair of earrings.
52:23Sometimes, you would also get a tiara as well, but unfortunately, we don't have a tiara
52:27today, but I think we can be quite happy with what we do have.
52:31There's a little bit of work that's been done to the perure to make it more wearable,
52:36and that's with regard to the earrings.
52:39I don't know if you've noticed, but the earrings have post and butterfly fittings, which for
52:45the period that it was made, which is round about 1840, they normally would have had what
52:51we call shepherd's hooks fittings.
52:53So what I think has happened is to make it more wearable, somebody's converted them into
52:58a pair of little brooches, which look as though they were done towards the end of the 19th
53:02century.
53:03It's set in gold, gorgeous workmanship around the edge of the stones, which gives that
53:09beautiful lemony yellow colour more richness to it as well.
53:13Yeah.
53:13And the other thing about it is that it's in a box by the great jewellers Hunt and Roskill,
53:20who were one of the most important jewellers in the Victorian period.
53:25Citrine is a slightly tricky stone for a lot of people.
53:30Yellow is quite hard to sell.
53:31But if we were looking at it from its richness of colour, then that also translates into what
53:39people associate the citrine meaning, which is basically wealth and prosperity.
53:46So if you were going to wear a piece today, which bit would you wear?
53:49Would you put it all on or would you just wear a little bit?
53:51I think putting it all on would be a bit over the top.
53:55I do really love the bracelet.
53:58I do love it all.
53:59But I think the most wearable bit for me would be the bracelet, I think.
54:03Yeah, I can understand that because it's sort of big and bold, which is fashionable at the
54:07moment.
54:08But at the same time, it's got a sense of special quality, doesn't it?
54:13Yes, it really does.
54:15Should it come up for auction, I would expect it to have an auction estimate of between £8,000
54:19and £12,000.
54:21Wow.
54:22Oh, goodness.
54:24It's been a joy to see.
54:25Thank you so much for bringing it in.
54:27Well, thank you very much.
54:29Wow.
54:36It's just fantastic.
54:38I couldn't really put a value on it because sentimentally, it probably means more than
54:42actually the monique value, but I'm absolutely delighted.
54:46Growing up as a child, our mum would bring it out and we would wear the pieces and just
54:51think it's wonderful.
54:52But now we've actually got it.
54:54My sister and I were thinking, wow, what do we do with it?
54:57Don't you know?
55:09We've almost finished for the day here in the ancient kingdom of Fife.
55:12But just time before we go for a little chat about one of the oldest languages in the
55:16country, Gaelic.
55:18And Peter, you are the fifth national poet.
55:20You're a lecturer at St Andrews, not far from here.
55:22But also you are the first national poet who is a Gaelic speaker.
55:25Yes.
55:25So I'm the Scottish macker.
55:27And though the previous mackers all had Scots and English and made up languages, I'm the
55:31first to write and speak Gaelic.
55:33Now, macker, tell me about that.
55:35What does it mean and what is your role?
55:36Well, I prefer macker to laureate because a macker is just somebody who makes.
55:40It's a very active role.
55:41And the mackers were attached to the Scottish court in medieval times.
55:45So they were Scots language poets usually writing for royalty.
55:49How many people speak Gaelic now?
55:50There are 89,000 people who speak Gaelic and about 130,000 who have some comprehension.
55:56And that's a slight uptick from 10 years ago.
55:58But it's also weirdly in a moment of crisis.
56:00So we're worried about it dying out as a community language, even as more speakers there are all
56:06over the country.
56:07Now, you brought a book along here which demonstrates the history of the Gaelic language here.
56:11Yes.
56:11So this is the Typographia Scotta Gaelica.
56:14And it's a list of all the books published between 1567 and 1914.
56:20And there are lovely wee snippets in it.
56:22Like this is the first poetry book.
56:24And as a poet, I'm really interested in this.
56:26Published in Gaelic in 1751.
56:28This is Asheri and the Shown Khan in Albanoch.
56:31The Resurrection of the Old Scottish Tongue.
56:34A book that this tells us is now very rare.
56:37There's a copy of it that tells us that in 1751 it was burnt by the common hangman in Edinburgh.
56:44And why was it burnt?
56:45It was burnt because it was very Jacobite in the sympathies.
56:49But it was also a very rude book.
56:51Well, I'm sorry we're not seeing more of it.
56:53Now, it's the end of our day.
56:54How do we say goodbye in Gaelic?
56:56Well, I'd say cheery and drast.
56:59Can I just say cheery?
57:01From the Antiques Roadshow and Peter.
57:04Cheery.
57:04That was terrible.
57:06That was like the cheery.
57:07They were fine.
57:08With a name like mine, it should be much better.
57:10It sounds like cheery.
57:12Enthusiastic.
57:13Fantastic.
57:13Ha, ha.
57:14Ha, ha.
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