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00:00Hello and welcome to Royal Artifacts Restoring.
00:04I think that sounds a bit weird.
00:07Hello and welcome to the Royal Antiques Repairers.
00:11Is that slightly derivative?
00:14This is restoration.
00:17Two grand.
00:18A royal cut and paste.
00:20Strictly Great British Artifacts.
00:23A right royal relic.
00:25Getting a relicking.
00:27Stately gnomes.
00:28I think we've got confused.
00:30Royally, royally, royally.
00:34Welcome to It's a Royal Knock Off.
00:37Hello and welcome to Royal Antiques Revived.
00:41Oh, let's just go with that.
00:51What does a piano tell us about a legendary royal gambler?
00:54How does a desk lead us to a flamboyant French monarch?
01:00And why would a queen scratch the life out of an old Humber?
01:07Objects with a royal history are not just wonderful relics, but also time capsules.
01:12They're not just wonderful.
01:14Which is why they enchant people.
01:16Thankfully, with over 5,000 conservators and restorers in the UK,
01:22these evocative antiques can be lovingly rejuvenated and kept in tip-top condition.
01:28Coming up.
01:32Okay, so that one's not very good.
01:34An avid collector hopes to replace the royal spark in a car.
01:38I want to get it back to its former glory.
01:40A glittering golden masterpiece is moved for the masses.
01:45I took it apart, so I'm hoping I get it back together again.
01:47Otherwise, I have to find a new job, I guess.
01:51And two restorers tackle George IV's broken-down piano without a leg to stand on.
01:57Some rather bad repairs have been done over the life of this instrument.
02:10The passion that collectors have for royal objects is vast,
02:14and so is the money people are prepared to spend on them.
02:17This Range Rover, a favourite of the queens that was found in a barn,
02:22was thought to have been used by the royals at Windsor.
02:24After two years of restoration at a cost of £60,000,
02:30it later sold for £100,000.
02:33So when anything with a royal link is released for auction,
02:37people queue up to buy it.
02:42Meet retired property developer and avid collector Anthony Barney.
02:47So what have you bought?
02:48I bought the Queen Mother's car, which is a genuine classic,
02:52and I knew about it about ten years ago,
02:55but I didn't think they were going to sell it.
03:03Does it drive by itself?
03:07It doesn't have imminent.
03:08The story goes that in the 1950s,
03:13the car was used by the Queen Mother to drive to church
03:16when she stayed at her Scottish home, the Castle of May.
03:20When it came up at auction, Anthony bought it for £18,000.
03:24The Queen Mother was special to my family.
03:30We all liked the Queen Mother.
03:32Did you ever see her in real life?
03:34Yes. She was coming out of the Inn on the Park in London here.
03:39I remember that I wanted to put my arms around her and give her a little kiss,
03:42but I couldn't because there was cameras there and they just asked me to get down a bit
03:50because she's only a very small lady.
03:52Well, and also you'd have been rugby tackled to the ground immediately by a bodyguard.
03:55Possibly, yes.
03:57She'd been in there, I think, having a meal.
03:59It's a pity I couldn't have joined her.
04:01So, in terms of knowing it was the Queen Mother's car,
04:07what did you get from the auctioneers?
04:09Loads of memorabilia, magazines, photographs, loads.
04:17In fact, the car seems festooned with history and heritage.
04:20Queen Mother's nail marks are in the back seat where you'll hang on to the bar in the back.
04:27My mother does that in cars.
04:29Well, she did it when I had driving lessons, really clawed, nervously.
04:32That's it. That's right.
04:33Perhaps you gave the Queen driving lessons in it.
04:36Shall we go and have a look at it?
04:37Yes.
04:41The Humber Super Snipe Mark III started out with black bodywork and black tyres,
04:47much more in keeping with other Humbers known to have transported royalty.
04:51But in the 90s, it was re-sprayed and hired out for weddings.
04:55And how do you think she would have traveled?
04:59Would she have had a sort of blanket over her knees, a bit of a sort of hip flask of Dubonnet there?
05:04Gin and tonic, I think she used to like.
05:06Gin and tonic. Sandwiches? Do you think she'd have had sandwiches in the car?
05:09I think so.
05:10She would have done, wouldn't she?
05:11Even for the trip to church, you've got to, you know...
05:13Yes. The Queen Mother's nail marks are in these handles.
05:19Oh, wow, yes. Someone's really clawed at those handles.
05:23They've certainly been used quite a bit, haven't they?
05:28It's not quite as luxurious as I'd imagined it would be.
05:32But for Anthony, it's everything.
05:35Is it that you want to own the Queen's car?
05:38That you want to sort of do it up like a property to sell on?
05:41I mean, what's the...
05:42Well, when you're interested in classic cars,
05:46having the Queen Mother's car with the history it's got with it is the ultimate.
05:51It's nice to own it.
05:53It's a good investment as far as I'm concerned.
05:55It's better than money in the bank.
05:58What will it mean to you to drive it?
06:00I feel great in it. I can't explain it.
06:06It's something that no-one would get to do in their lifetime unless they had that car.
06:14I want to get it back to its former glory.
06:16You know, keep it genuine, keep it real, keep it all the history that's with it.
06:22To make Anthony's dreams a reality, the whole engine needs to be overhauled.
06:27The grey paintwork stays, but the tyres go back to the original black,
06:31and the shabby interior will be revived and revitalised.
06:41What royal superfan Anthony needs is a Humber superfan.
06:47Meet Alex Scott, an engineer who's worked on everything from aircrafts to bridges.
06:52A Humber nut, he owns eight himself and uses a 1940s Mark I snipe as his everyday runaround.
07:01Ten years ago, he decided to turn his passion into his job,
07:04and now devotes himself to restoring classic cars like this.
07:08We've had Anthony's car for a couple of days now.
07:15There's quite a lot to do.
07:18The horns work.
07:22We're going to have to spend quite a bit of time going through it, loving it, hugging it,
07:26making it feel like a motor car again, and waking it up.
07:30Like people, they just don't like being ignored.
07:32It looks like this engine's been ignored. The car was last driven almost a decade ago.
07:41Luckily, the Humber was a car built to last.
07:44The Humber is just good quality, really.
07:48They weren't a car with lots of frills. It wasn't a style statement exactly.
07:53They were just extremely good quality, which is why people offstanding used them,
07:59in a world where it was considered vulgar to be too brash.
08:02Something one would never accuse the Queen Mother of being.
08:08Ooh, he is interesting.
08:11Now, what's he spotted?
08:13So, I want to know what this head is made of.
08:15So, I'm going to scrape a bit of paint off.
08:17Makes sense.
08:18So, that is a cast iron head.
08:23So, this is a head off a lorry, and they need long-reach plugs.
08:26We get a lot of Humbers in that have had heads changed for iron heads.
08:31The plugs I've taken out are short-reached, so you can see the difference.
08:36And it will put the spark right above the valves, right where we need it,
08:39so it will give us much more power and a much smoother burn and a much smoother running engine.
08:45Next up, valves and pistons.
08:48Right, so that one's pretty good.
09:01OK, so that one's not very good.
09:03It'll run, but it won't be developing full power on number five.
09:08With new spark plugs and fresh fuel, it's the moment of truth for Alex.
09:18Not firing at the moment. Maybe we've got some more work to do.
09:33Not going isn't the only problem Alex thinks he's spotted with the car.
09:42It's got a centre armrest in the front.
09:48You wouldn't give a chauffeur a centre armrest.
09:50You'd use that space in the middle of the seat for a drinks cabinet and for other things.
09:55The dashboard, it's not Burr Walnut. It's the ordinary finish.
10:00It would have been a higher trim level. It would have been a higher grade car.
10:04And it probably would have had pull-down blinds for these windows and the quarter windows as well.
10:10It's a very, very, very nice car, but I don't really think it's a royal car.
10:16Hmm. It sounds like we'll need to investigate the car's royal pedigree.
10:21Coming up, a piano once fit for a king gets the royal treatment.
10:30If you started to worry about its value or its provenance,
10:34you wouldn't be in the right frame of mind to work on it because you'd be too frightened to touch it.
10:38And an expensive knock-off that everyone wants to put their name to.
10:43I wouldn't write my name in there, but...
10:46I'm happy to write mine, if that would be...
10:48Please not, please not.
10:51When money is no object, you can indulge in whatever you like.
11:03The Queen likes horses.
11:06Henry VIII liked wives.
11:09And George IV liked everything.
11:12Well, except his wife.
11:15He drank, took drugs, partied hard and ran up gambling debts,
11:20equivalent today to over 50 million pounds.
11:24But he also loved art and music.
11:27He even had his own ensemble with 46 members.
11:32Whatever George had, he wanted it to be the best.
11:35So when piano dealer Nigel Scaife heard that a broken-down piano which had belonged to George was up for sale,
11:45he knew he had to have it.
11:46Do you have any other pianos?
11:49I have lots of other pianos.
11:51I'm joking.
11:51I've never seen so many pianos in one place.
11:53Clearly you're a fan of pianos.
11:54Was the appeal of this one something special about the piano or the association with royalty?
12:00I think it was more the association with royalty,
12:02actually, because it's such a rare opportunity to be able to buy a planner that has provenance.
12:06And in the world of royal antiquities, provenance is everything.
12:13Nigel's got copies of the piano makers' John Broadwood and Sons' 200-year-old Porter's Logs,
12:19showing when the instrument was delivered and when it came back for repairs.
12:24And you've got some pages from some of those books there.
12:26Yeah, here's one, for example, L-6-O-G-P-R-W, which you have to sort of decipher, which means
12:34an elegant six-octave, grand piano, rosewood case, and we know that it was delivered to George IV in December 1821.
12:44And the royal connection doesn't end there.
12:48The logs show it was also owned by Queen Victoria and stayed in the royal household until 1939.
12:56It was eventually put up for auction, which is when Nigel bought it.
13:02George IV, I understand, was quite a musical person.
13:05Did he see the piano in a shop like this one and buy it?
13:10I doubt it. I think he would have commissioned Broadwood to make him a piano.
13:15Broadwood had given Beethoven a piano just a couple of years earlier, sort of 1817, 1818.
13:21So he would have known that these are very special items.
13:24You know, if Beethoven had one, he would have wanted one too, I reckon.
13:29In this first stage of restoration, Nigel wants to strengthen and restore the chipped and warped
13:35piano casing, replace an ugly metal plate that was part of a previous restoration,
13:41build a part for the pedals known as a lyre, and get it standing back on its original four legs.
13:47I'm very pleased to see this piano. I'm sort of a fan of George IV, this curious,
13:54louche, degenerate who was terrible in many ways and sort of gambled and drank and was awful to his wife,
14:00but left this amazing legacy in architecture and art.
14:05And some of the most beautiful places in Britain are thanks to his architectural taste.
14:10But that's different somehow from a physical object that he will have actually touched.
14:16You know, he will have sat at this piano and played it.
14:18And there's something a bit magical about that.
14:26In Rye, fifth generation furniture restorer Bruce Luckhurst is already at work on the piano's damaged
14:33rosewood veneers. And he's not entirely happy with the restorers who've gone before him.
14:38The problem I've got here is that some rather bad repairs have been done over the life of this instrument.
14:47Bruce's first job is to sort them out.
14:52I'm just going to take out some of this old work.
14:55The person that did the polish repairs had no woodworking skill.
15:00And you see it's crumbling. It seems to be some sort of combination of wax and shellac.
15:11Bruce learnt his trade from a past generation of craftsmen who taught him the traditional ways of doing things.
15:17The biggest value I found talking to these men was I picked up the social history.
15:23So it gives me a much better understanding of how furniture was made, the conditions it was made under,
15:30why it looks as it does. And understanding that history, for me, I think gives me more strength as a restorer.
15:40So once this old work is out, we can start thinking about sharpening up these edges
15:47so that we can get a really nice sharp fit with the patches that are going in.
15:55Bruce cuts individual pieces of veneer to match up with the original and fixes them in place.
16:04As the glue dries on Bruce Luckhurst's work,
16:08I've come to one of London's celebrated art collections to discover our next regal antique.
16:17Louis XV lived at the Palace of Versailles surrounded by priceless paintings and exquisite furniture
16:23dripping with gold. But something was still missing. So in 1760, he commissioned what was to become
16:30the most famous piece of furniture in the world. A fabulous roll-top desk for his private study
16:36made by the celebrated cabinet maker Jean-Henri Reasoner. It was so intricate, complex and beautiful
16:42that nobody had ever seen the like. And about 90 years later, an English aristocrat was given
16:48permission to copy it. The fourth Marquess of Hertford was one of the richest men in Europe,
16:54and he thought nothing of paying the equivalent of over 200,000 pounds for his own version
16:59of the legendary Royal Desk. A collector of fine furniture, much of his trove is now in the
17:06Wallace Collection, and his desk is about to be moved to the Great Gallery, under the watchful eye
17:11of Dr. Helen Jacobson. Now, why is it you would keep that in a museum like this? Because I'm assuming
17:16it's something like, you know, somebody wears a sort of priceless dress at the Oscars. I quickly get
17:20it online for seven pounds. I wouldn't expect it to be in a museum.
17:23Yeah, it's true, isn't it? We have a very different idea of copies now from in the past. The complexity
17:30of this piece of furniture is mind-blowing. And in a way, it was proving that 19th century makers
17:38were just as able as the 18th century to make something as magnificent as the King's Desk.
17:44Reasoner's desks were incredibly complex, made up of over 2,000 individually crafted pieces of wood,
17:51secret drawers and an unbreakable locking system. The unenviable task of taking the desk to pieces
17:58so it can be moved falls to senior furniture conservator Jürgen Huber.
18:04Had you done that before, or is it the first time you've had the chance to look at the sort of
18:08workings of it in this way? It's the first time we actually had a chance of looking at it and
18:12disassemble it as much as this far. Um, yeah, it's complex, so yeah. We know it has been taken apart
18:20here at the Wallace Collection in 1938 because underneath this inner cabinet is one part of
18:26it. Someone actually wrote his name and dated it underneath. When you find the signature of the
18:33restorer from 1938, do you sort of smile at a kindred spirit or do you think that's a vandal? I think
18:38it's a fantastic way of keeping record. I wouldn't do this today, obviously, I wouldn't write my name in
18:43there, but... I'm happy to write mine. If that would be... Please not, please not.
18:48Dismantling and rebuilding this desk is a huge challenge. How can you be confident you'll know
18:55how to put it back together? Well, um, I took it apart so I'm hoping I get it back together again,
19:01otherwise I have to find a new job, I guess. After moving the desk to its new position,
19:09Jürgen must put the two halves back together, reassemble the interior drawers and reattach the
19:14candelabras. To demonstrate the intricacy of the piece, Jürgen shows me another desk made by Reasoner
19:23himself. So tell me how this desk works. The main part of it is that this key actually unlocks everything
19:31on this desk. Now we're going to open it up. Only when this is open completely, I can actually access
19:45these drawers here. And they're incredibly long. So you've got a whole scroll in there. Exactly.
19:54And I pull that. You open this here.
20:00What I love about all the little drawers and hidden compartments, there's something very childish about
20:05it. I think, yeah, absolutely. I mean, the mechanical aspect is something which
20:10Reasoner made his name with. And that's what they try to replicate.
20:16What I found very affecting about that was that Jürgen Huber, who's clearly a very skilled craftsman,
20:22is showing as much respect for a piece which is effectively a 19th century knockoff, beautiful,
20:28intricate, expensive, but that is essentially what it is, as he is for something from a hundred
20:34odd years before, made by Reasoner. All the pieces of work exist in a sort of continuum,
20:40with the signature of the restorer from 1938, and Jürgen himself today.
20:47Anyway, I hope he has scratched his name somewhere in there, Jürgen. I bet he wouldn't tell me if he had.
20:54From rehousing to reviving.
20:57The good news is that Alex Scott has got Anthony's Humber super snipe going.
21:15That's pretty smooth. I like that.
21:17The bad news is he's still not convinced it was owned by the Queen Mother.
21:24It doesn't have any of the things on it that I would expect to find on a royal car.
21:29So was it.
21:35Well, there are several photographs of the car, but none with members of the royal family.
21:39The V5, which today would list previous owners, didn't exist in the 50s when the car was meant
21:45to be Her Majesty's. But there are two letters written to the man who owned the car in the 1980s.
21:51This letter, this is from Roddy Sutherland, and he says,
21:58When the Queen Mother bought the Castle of May,
22:01she commissioned Mackay's garage, Castletown, to provide her with transport.
22:06The latter bought EGS 21 for that purpose, which is the number plate on the Humber.
22:12And to my knowledge, it was only used for that purpose, taking herself, presumably the Queen Mother,
22:18from the airport to May. But there's another letter from a chap called, I suppose it could be a woman,
22:25but Finlayson is the surname anyway, and he tells this story.
22:29While in business in Castleton, I had the honour of being accorded the Royal Warrant
22:34for services to Her Majesty the Queen Mother, which no doubt partly resulted from the glamorous EGS 21
22:40appearing at the Castle of May. Well, after the name is written,
22:45Finlayson Service Motor Proprietor 1948-68. So this might have been somebody that had the car
22:54before Sutherland.
22:58It's hard to make sense of all this, because what it is, is a lot of different owners going back
23:02through time, all believing their car had once belonged to the Queen Mother,
23:07but only believing it because the previous owner had told them so.
23:10And perhaps the buck stops with this Finlayson. This is the first person to write down,
23:16yes, I was aware of the Queen Mother having that car, I had the Royal Warrant,
23:21the car was at the Castle of May. So he says that. So either we accept that is the proof,
23:26or perhaps Finlayson wrote it for his own reasons, we don't quite know.
23:29But it's interesting to me that all of these people paid over the odds for this Royal car,
23:36and never asked for anything more than the seller's word for it.
23:41Clearly there's a lot more digging to do if we're going to get to the bottom of this,
23:45and find out if Anthony's car has the heritage he believes it has.
23:49We're fascinated by royalty. Whatever our actual opinions, it's almost impossible to resist its
24:08strange, twinkling allure. And for some people, this allure is so great that its power rubs off
24:15on the houses the Royals have lived in, the clothes they've worn, the objects they've touched.
24:20We crowd round the objects, hoping that the magic will somehow rub off.
24:28Thousands of Royal antiques have found their way into ordinary homes.
24:32From avid collectors to fifth generation restorers,
24:36a world of passionate experts are dedicated to restoring, reviving and rehousing their wondrous Royal objects.
24:45But when restorations go wrong, they really go wrong.
24:54Take this fresco of Jesus in a Spanish church.
25:01Or the newly paved over section of the 2,300 year old Great Wall of China.
25:07And the 13th century Italian fertility tree, now missing some of its penises,
25:12which were covered over for decency's sake.
25:17Let's hope Jürgen knows what he's doing. Because at the Wallace Collection,
25:21it's D-Day, or Desk Day, when they move the priceless piece into the Great Gallery.
25:26Now comes a fine adjustment, Helen. Can we move it a little bit towards Steve, please?
25:43Thanks.
25:44Now comes the very delicate job of putting it back together.
25:48You now have six people, please. So if you lift up about this high, yeah?
25:54The complete desk weighs over 300 kilos.
25:57Three, two, one, up.
25:59So once it's off the skates, it can't be moved safely.
26:06With the base in place, it's time for the top to go back on.
26:13The wooden blocks are attached to the plywood, so we just have to lift it off the trolley
26:18and literally put it down there again. Nothing more. Three, two, one, up.
26:26And now move the trolley away. And down.
26:33Don't hold on that motion. So, okay.
26:38It's a nail-biting moment for Jürgen and the team.
26:41I'm going to move this side over the holes.
26:54The top has four oak pegs that have to locate exactly into the base.
26:59That's it.
27:03A millimetre out could spell disaster in this high-stakes game of Jenga.
27:07Two of you just on the side. And Sean, if you're just in the middle here, just in case.
27:15Well, if you could take these blocks out and make sure that these basically in position.
27:21They again got cork at the top and bottom. Okay. Three, two, one, up.
27:27Exactly. That's the spirit. Perfect.
27:36Perfect. That was it.
27:38The same now on this side.
27:42The foam blocks won't take that for long because it's just too heavy.
27:45It's going to eat into the foam blocks in no time whatsoever.
27:49Three, two, one, up.
27:54Okay. You're in.
27:56That's it. We want up.
28:01The upper section balanced two inches above the base.
28:04Jürgen needs to get the inner drawers in.
28:07We have to go a bit out.
28:17Just take the top drawer out. We can lift it.
28:22We lift and...
28:23Right. Now you have to be careful with your fingers.
28:33Up.
28:37Yep.
28:37So if you put the bottom screw in.
28:52That's it, all done.
28:57Thank you very much everyone.
28:59With the candelabras reattached, there's one last thing to check.
29:04Does it still work?
29:09That's a spring.
29:11Phew.
29:12Happy, very happy.
29:15Craftsmanship at its very, very best.
29:18While the golden desk gleams in its new home, George IV's piano is still looking rather sorry for itself.
29:29Nigel and Bruce are trying to tackle the metal plate put in by a previous restorer.
29:34Oh, dear me.
29:38Doesn't really want to budge.
29:40No, that is not going anywhere, I don't think.
29:43Nigel wants it out because it's not in keeping with the original piano.
29:47It can't just be glue, can it?
29:49It's either routed into a groove, or it's attached somehow.
29:55Could be.
29:56Why don't we try and clamp this up?
29:59If the plate is fully embedded, Nigel will have to disrupt the entire inner workings of the piano.
30:07It's going to be a tough call.
30:09Any progress?
30:10If it moved even a millimetre, it would be encouraging.
30:17And there's another problem.
30:20Nigel isn't happy with the lyre, the part of the piano that holds the foot pedals,
30:24which he's discovered is not original.
30:27Although it looks beautiful, it doesn't really match the piano,
30:30so this decoration here isn't very well matching.
30:33But unlike the metal plate, there's an easy fix.
30:37While Bruce creates the frame, Nigel upcycles some rosewood from an old piano.
30:42For the intricate brass decoration, it's over to a fourth-generation marquetry expert called Cheryl Dunn.
30:52I've got to copy front and back of the lyre, and then I will cut each bit out.
30:58What I'm doing now is exactly how my great-grandfather would have done it.
31:02Cheryl's great-grandfather set up the business in 1895, working on many a prestigious royal project.
31:11Cheryl uses his same tools and techniques, but with one addition.
31:17Once I've photocopied it, I cut out each piece to stick onto the brass.
31:24Another of her great-grandfather's tools, called a donkey, is used to cut the brass.
31:32This isn't the first important job it's done.
31:34This machine has made marquetry for the Titanic, the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mary,
31:41the Orient Express, all the Pullman carriages. This very machine has cut them all.
31:48It's a painstaking process, but Cheryl makes it look easy.
31:52It's very intricate and you can't force it.
31:58Concentration is the key, I think.
32:08And that's one done.
32:1323 to go.
32:16From lots of little tiny pieces of metal to one great big one.
32:22Now that the Humber is up and running, it's been sent to a specialist classic car
32:27cleaning service in London, where they'll give it the royal treatment.
32:30We're going to go through a full paint correction and detailing process.
32:35Steve Ammon and David Peters have turned cleaning cars into a science.
32:40We're going to decontaminate the car, get everything off that sits on top of the paintwork and
32:43everything that's fallen out of the atmosphere.
32:45The chemical solution will get rid of any dirt and tiny iron particles that are dulling the paintwork.
32:54We spray it on the car, it reacts and this is what this sort of dark red winey colour reaction is.
33:00Next, David wants to measure the paint thickness all over the bodywork.
33:07When it sounds like an air raid, it's basically saying that the readings are very, very thick, very deep.
33:14Now he knows how many layers of paint there are, he knows how vigorously he can polish it.
33:19Right, time for some noise.
33:21With buffing pads, Steve removes any scratches to give the car a mirror-like shine.
33:38Next, the worn leather upholstery is given a degrease, then a clean and finally a feed to make it soft and supple.
33:45A gentle steam revives the 70-year-old carpets.
33:52Nothing escapes Steve's attention.
33:56The only thing missing is the tip of the beak from the snipe mascot.
34:02Royal or not, the Humber is now ready to resume its duties.
34:05But unfortunately, there's been another revelation.
34:08Well, Humbergate rumbles on, there's more paperwork.
34:15I'm pleased to see.
34:16This is a document from Roots Archive Centre.
34:19They are the Humber experts.
34:20Unfortunately, there is no evidence that that car was ever commissioned officially for royal use.
34:27It says it was first registered with that number plate in 1989 and the records are presumed destroyed.
34:34But the first owner was a Captain J.R. Redman, and that's not someone from the royal household.
34:40I think we have to assume that if the Queen Mother had owned a car, she would have it from new.
34:45She wasn't doing a lot of going round the second-hand car lots.
34:48So I think this is bad news for Anthony Barney.
34:54Back at the Wallace Collection.
34:56And my first chance to see what was a desk of two halves put back together.
35:04Well, you're still here, Jürgen, so clearly it went well.
35:06It was quite a bit of a nerve-wracking exercise, but it's an amazing transformation, this piece in particular.
35:13You can see the mounds, you can appreciate the marquetry, all the detailed work.
35:17It's not just some thing sitting there, it's just amazing.
35:21Finally, the gorgeous copy is in its new home in the Great Gallery, sitting next to an original desk made by Reasoner the Master.
35:29Seeing the two desks together now, I'm able to appreciate the ways in which they're similar yet different.
35:39I mean, this is a much grander piece, because this piece, the original, was made for the King of France.
35:45And did you take the opportunity to just scratch your name somewhere?
35:47Er, no, no, no.
35:51Would you tell me if you had?
35:52No. It's, it's, it's, you don't do this these days. What we do, we have paper records and digital records of exactly what we've done.
36:01And that is like, sort of, you know, it's all written down, all signed off, so everyone knows exactly what I've done and what I haven't done.
36:10I can see this is the end of a very long journey for you, and it must be a big thing for you to see them both here.
36:14I mean, absolutely. I mean, as I said, they've been talking about restoration. Yes, I am restoring.
36:19But here in the museum, in our environment, it's really about preservation, conservation.
36:24Well, they look wonderful. Congratulations.
36:25Coming up, Anthony's royal car returns home.
36:36That certainly looks fit for a queen.
36:47In Rye, piano restorer Nigel and woodwork expert Bruce are putting the finishing touches to George IV's piano.
36:54OK, make sure the leg lines up.
36:57After a hundred hours of painstaking detailed work on the rickety rosewood case,
37:02it's now time to see if it's strong enough to be put back on its feet.
37:06There it is, back on its legs.
37:10The stubborn metal plate, however, is still lurking.
37:14You see there, you've got, you've got, you've got a screw there.
37:17Yeah, screw there.
37:19That's the second screw.
37:20Yeah, two there.
37:21Major job.
37:22It's going to keep us busy for a while.
37:24Or you live with this plate.
37:25Or you live with the plate.
37:26It's disappointing that we can't get it out, so I'm going to have to think about that.
37:31Thankfully, the new lyre is looking far more promising.
37:35I think it looks beautiful.
37:36It just looks like the original, doesn't it?
37:42Job done.
37:42Before he's finished, Bruce uses a homemade wax to paint over the whole piano case to blend the repairs in seamlessly.
37:54You have to put your finger into the rag.
37:58Really give it a hard burnish.
38:01That's perfect.
38:02That's ready to go back into the instrument now.
38:04Okay, sir.
38:07Okay.
38:07Okay.
38:08Yeah.
38:10Nigel is planning a rather grand unveiling once all the final touches have been done.
38:16It certainly looks like a piano now.
38:19Well, I hope so.
38:20Yeah.
38:20It's beginning to look like a piano.
38:22Yeah.
38:26In London, the transformed Humber Super Snipe Mark III is on royal ground at the Mall,
38:33with gleaming paintwork and a new set of black wall tyres adding to its demure dignity.
38:38The interiors have been softened, while the burnished chrome whispers elegance and class.
38:48Hello.
38:49The car's looking magnificent.
38:51Yes.
38:51As are you.
38:52Absolutely.
38:55They've done a nice job.
38:56Yeah.
38:57Um, brilliant.
38:59Um, the car has come up almost original.
39:02Yeah.
39:03And changed the, um, tyres from white wall tyres to the original tyres.
39:08Right.
39:09And the leather has all been done.
39:11And it starts on the button now, which is good.
39:14Yeah.
39:15That certainly looks fit for a queen.
39:17And what are your plans for it now?
39:19I've got the queen's car.
39:21I'd like to be a nice princess now and take her up to Scotland to Castlemaine next, next summer.
39:27Oh, sadly, I'm taken.
39:31There is one tiny spare part that the car should have.
39:35I have brought you a present that I think might make the car even prettier.
39:39That's very nice.
39:40Hold on.
39:42There you go.
39:42Shall I open it for you?
39:43Yes.
39:45It's a beak.
39:46Oh, brilliant.
39:48And it goes in to the mascot.
39:51Yes, it does.
39:51And that's the last missing piece.
39:52Why don't you take the beak and put it on?
39:54Yes.
39:54So be careful you don't lose it.
40:01Brilliant.
40:04Victoria, I'm surprised that you got hold of that.
40:06I wouldn't have known where to got it.
40:08And it's fantastic because it finishes the car off completely.
40:13Very good.
40:14Looks lovely.
40:15Yes.
40:15But we do need to have a bit of a chat about the provenance.
40:19Yes.
40:20Come and sit down.
40:27So, the issue of the ownership is not brilliant news.
40:33We've had terrible difficulty establishing if it was the Queen Mother's car.
40:37It was never registered to her or anyone in her household.
40:43And Roots, the Humber people, say it was not commissioned as an official royal car.
40:50I'm very sorry about that.
40:52I'm surprised.
40:53We have got some letters that date back to the time the Queen Mother was in Scotland.
40:58Now, these are letters from garages at the time saying that this particular car was used by the Queen Mother.
41:10So, while we can't quite say that it was the Queen Mother's car, it is absolutely within the realm of possibility that she borrowed that car while she was in Scotland,
41:19that she did sit in it, that she might have gone to church in it, so there is that association.
41:24Is that okay?
41:30Obviously, it affects the value.
41:32And it was sold to me as the Queen Mother's car.
41:36So, I've got to look into a few things, haven't I?
41:39Perhaps it was referred to as the Queen Mother's car.
41:41Yeah.
41:42And that's how everyone's always thought of it.
41:44Well, I believe she went to church quite often in that car.
41:49It is all about the imagination, isn't it?
41:52That's the point of all this.
41:53All of these royal cars and royal relics.
41:57It's about imagining ourselves into that world where they were.
42:01The cars they sat in, the clothes they wore, the things they had.
42:05And the very fact that everyone around that car, the garage owners, the people of Scotland,
42:11believed it to be the Queen Mother's car just because she'd sat in it, brings a sort of magic.
42:18Yes.
42:19And it's been restored beautifully.
42:21Certainly so, yeah.
42:21And the restoration process helps us to bring that imagination alive.
42:28I really feel for Anthony.
42:30And I worry that if we'd never come along to look into it,
42:33he might never have known this wasn't an official royal car.
42:37Would that have been better?
42:39I don't know.
42:40But I hope it can retain for him at least some trace of the royal mystique.
42:46Shall we go for a drive?
42:47Yes.
42:51Yes, in a reenactment worthy of a scene from The Crown,
42:54Anthony and I can appear to glide together like royals down the Mall.
42:58Sounding majestic.
43:03Go on, Anthony, give me a royal wave.
43:11Perfect.
43:11Brighton Pavilion was George IV's greatest stage to show off his magnificent collections.
43:26Pride of Place was the elaborate and imposing music room.
43:29It's fitting, then, that Nigel is going to reveal his pride and joy
43:36in the very place where George IV played that same piano.
43:42Here we've got the lyre, which has just been finished,
43:44and we haven't actually seen it on the piano yet.
43:46So this is the last piece of the jigsaw.
43:48Huge thanks to Cheryl and to Bruce, of course.
43:51It's taken a lot of work to get to this point, but I'm just so pleased with this.
43:55It just looks original. It just matches the piano perfectly.
44:00It's just going to be the icing on the cake when we put it back on the piano.
44:08So that's it. Lyre is now attached.
44:14A month ago, the piano was a shadow of its former royal self.
44:19Balanced on trestles, its case was battered and broken.
44:22The veneer was cracked.
44:26But now it's back on its feet, and every millimetre has been lovingly polished and buffed.
44:33I think now is the time to see how the whole ensemble looks.
44:37The grand finale for Nigel is literally lifting the lid.
44:40Open this up.
44:42On a piano fit for a king once again.
44:48I think the piano looks absolutely fantastic in this room.
44:51It's just such a beautiful piece of furniture.
44:57I can't imagine as a piano restore ever having a piano as magnificent as this to restore.
45:02I mean, it's just unbelievable.
45:03It just doesn't come better than this, really.
45:05It looks stunning.
45:21But hang on a minute.
45:22What about the metal plate?
45:24I haven't given up on the metal plate.
45:26I'd like to explore it a little bit further.
45:28There may be a possibility that we could take out the plate without actually taking out the entire
45:32soundboard.
45:33But I think that needs a bit more thought.
45:35And I'm partly coming to terms with the fact that it might be part of its history.
45:43I think if George IV saw this piano here now, he'd be amazed that it's still here after 200 years.
45:49It's just fantastic.
45:55These wonderful antiques have a magic and intrigue all of their own.
46:00In restoration projects, polishing up the royal jumble and putting it back to former glory,
46:05restorers and collectors alike are able to enter a royal world, share in its history,
46:11and preserve it for many more years to come.
46:19Tomorrow night at 8 o'clock, Steph McGovern investigates one of the best-known names in
46:25British retail's attempt to weather the COVID storm.
46:29But next tonight, a quick surf in some icy waters, followed by mulled cider.
46:34Not a bad way to spend the day in Devon and Cornwall at Christmas.
46:49We'll see you in the next two days.
46:50So, if you're reading your book, the key, please start moving into your book.
46:51I'm going to read another book to see you next time.
46:54Let me get started.
47:00I'm going to read the book.
47:05This is a free book.
47:08I'm going to read the book.
47:09I'm going to read the book in and what you're reading.
47:12So, that's when I read the book.
47:16I went to read the book.
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