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00:00every year we travel the country giving you the chance to show our experts your cherished items
00:10but our summer roadshows have proved so popular we haven't been able to pack in all the pieces
00:16you brought along so tonight we'll be showing some unseen moments from some of our most memorable
00:21venues coming up when I opened that I thought wow this is something I have never seen before
00:30well do you know what I wish I did know Ada because I bet Ada had a really cracking sense of humor it's
00:37not about birthday present not a bad birthday present so do you think your husband might like
00:42them more if I put a net more punchy value no he's taught me not to bring them back go I'll also be
00:50paying a visit to Trenton Gardens on the outskirts of stoke-on-trent a city that's celebrating its
00:56centenary in 2025 and as I'll be finding out the history of the potteries is closely entwined with
01:03the story of these splendid gardens they were designed in the 18th century by capability Brown
01:09no less for the Duke of Sutherland and at the time they were considered the most impressive in the land
01:14we love a good garden on the Antiques Roadshow and we've seen some very memorable ones this year
01:21welcome to the Antiques Roadshow
01:23we visited some stunning historical buildings in 2025 and back on a sunny day in May we set up at
01:49Shuttleworth house in Bedfordshire where ceramics expert Catherine Wright found a piece that recalled
01:55the glory days of one of Stoke's finest potters well my spirits really lifted today when I saw you
02:02produce this beautiful pair of vases from your bag what can you tell me about them I've had them seven
02:09years since my mother passed I really don't know an awful lot about them all I know is that they're
02:13Moorcroft mum had had them for many many years I don't even know what style pattern they are so yeah
02:19and was your mom a keen Moorcroft collector no no she was an antique collector so she collected
02:25everything everything yes yes lots and lots of things so these are vases in the Hazeldean pattern
02:31designed by William Moorcroft and what's particularly nice about these vases is that if we have a look
02:36underneath we see William Moorcroft signature painted in green W Moorcroft design so the Hazeldean pattern
02:45it was a pattern that was specifically designed for the luxury retail shop Liberty & Co what age are they?
02:51they're dated 1913 and that is when Moorcroft founded his own pottery so these are lovely early examples
02:58of his work this pattern you can see it's very much influenced by the Art Nouveau what we have is this
03:05lovely pattern of elongated trees in a landscape setting and this was a time in which Moorcroft was
03:12sort of expanding beyond floral designs and going into landscape designs in his pottery the technique
03:20here that he uses is the signature of Moorcroft and it's this tube lining technique where he's picked
03:25out all of the organic details of the branches and the trunks in liquefied slip lovely colours this
03:33bluish green glaze with celadon tones in the landscape here and yellows coming through do you live with them
03:41now and do you have them displayed in your own home they are on a shelf and I don't really particularly
03:48like them oh my goodness oh yeah sorry mom well I absolutely love these vases and because they're
03:55large yeah you've got a pair and the pattern is desirable yes I think these would comfortably
04:01be worth in the region of four to six thousand pounds at auction what oh well I'm glad that's such
04:11good news for you when I found out that the actual pattern is hazeldean it was quite nice because my
04:24mum's name is hazel so I can imagine that's the reason why she got them in the first place so yeah
04:30it was lovely really nice this is a wonderfully imposing image of a gentleman isn't it and I know
04:44this gentleman as William Frederick Cody but known to most people of course by the legendary title of
04:51Buffalo Bill I'm very interested in the history of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show he was born in 1846 and
05:00he had a tough upbringing by the age of 11 he was working at 14 he was a pony express rider Wow so
05:08I know there's a family story going on here to do with Buffalo Bill we have this photograph can you
05:13tell me about this gentleman in the photograph yes it's a great-uncle and he was my great-grandmother's
05:20brother I can see he's in military uniform here can you tell me something about that yes he was in
05:25the first lifeguards what was his association with Buffalo Bill from what I was told Buffalo Bill came
05:31over to recruit horse riders and I suppose because he was in the horse guards and a good horseman that's
05:38a pretty incredible story in fact it's not a story that I've heard before the Wild West show was a
05:43kind of fairy tale image really or fairy tale representation of what the Wild West was like but of course we
05:50know that to be a very very different scenario so the period we're talking about basically is the
05:56kind of 1880s and Cody toured Britain and Europe on several occasions even Queen Victoria came to see
06:03the Wild West show one thing that kind of ties him in as well are things like this so this is an
06:09official route Buffalo Bill's Wild West and it's an official date route of all the places that they were
06:16visiting it's an incredible itinerary I cannot tell you how many shows that they were enacting and in
06:24fact I do believe that on some of these your relatives name is actually written on the back on one of them so
06:30that ties him in absolutely perfectly he was there he was doing this this in itself is a lithographed
06:38advertising sign oh so in fact this is actually on tin so if I tap it you can hear that this signature
06:47in the bottom says sincerely yours Buffalo Bill it's not a real signature oh value it would be worth a lot
06:57more if this was a real signature but I think as it stands at auction this would currently be worth
07:02around about four to six hundred pounds yeah but delightful thank you it's a lovely story isn't it
07:08it is yes thank you I'm kind of speechless because I have never seen such a bizarre collection of
07:20Christmas cards where's the joviality the jolliness of Christmas none there no it's all kind of bizarre
07:29from devils and sort of a man drunk in the street yes yes if you didn't mention Christmas wouldn't
07:33know no Christmas cards no how and why are you a collector of Christmas cards no no I just came
07:39across the collection in my elderly cousin's house when after she died I mean they're signed from most
07:44of them by somebody called Ada and I don't really know an Ada in the family but well do you know what
07:49I wish I did know Ada because I bet Ada had a really cracking sense of humour you've got sort of
07:55slightly naughty they're almost like the sort of saucy seaside postcards aren't they there's this
08:00man about town there with his cane a true boulevardier and you open it up and like a true boulevardier
08:06he's having a load of fun and then here you've got this ta-da hee-haw of a donkey in a barn
08:14a lot of these are printed really really well and I think best wishes for the new century
08:19is obviously a pun on century century so I'm guessing that's what 1899 yeah so we're looking at sort of
08:25late Victorian turn of the 20th century cards people do collect Christmas cards Valentine's
08:30is the big one but Christmas card collectors are out there and they're very ardent and avid let's
08:35just say we've got 20 pounds on average 20 40 60 80 100 and 20 40 you've probably got over 200
08:42pounds worth and maybe considerably more yes I really didn't think there was any value to them
08:47just curiosity and amazement good old Ada right yes
08:53well the style and the design of this gorgeous polar bear just scream art deco but before we reveal a
09:13a little bit of his story tell me how do you come to own him he was a wedding present to my parents
09:19they were married in 1944 I've done it all my life obviously and they gave it to me when I got married
09:26and you always remember it in their home oh always absolutely in fact I used to play with it you used
09:32to play with it yeah wow so he's he survived he did and my children played with it actually well he's just the
09:40most gorgeous thing he's the most beautifully designed item and when we look at it you know it's all about
09:46this economy of line this simplicity that just pairs this wonderful polar bear down to you know the absolute
09:52bare minimum here he is sat on this sort of stepped ice block looking down into this wonderful three ripple pool
09:59pool and actually if we turn him over there's a lot of little gifts there for us because underneath we
10:06have the words polar bear modeled by Doris Linda and then next to it the Royal Worcester Marks dated 1937
10:16well Doris Linda was actually a very talented artist she was born at the end of 19th century 1896 in
10:24South Wales but went on to study art first training at St Martin's School looking at sculpture she then
10:31went on to the British Academy in Rome and then came back to London to the Calderon's Animal School
10:36where she learned to observe animals and just pair them down in that beautiful stylistic form in 1920
10:44she actually exhibited a number of her works at heels of London and of course it was there that she was
10:51picked up and spotted by the management of Royal Worcester and in 1931 they launched a range which
10:57included works by her and of course over the period she created all kinds of studies of dogs horses but
11:04also she did her zoo babies and I think this is probably where he came from I've never had the pleasure
11:11of handling this model and I love him and I think if he were to come up for sale at auction today I think
11:19you'd comfortably be looking at somewhere in the region of five to 800 pounds for him I won't tell
11:24the kids this is by one of my favorite artists he became president of the Royal Academy we are not
11:37worthy Sir Frank Dixie by the time he died in 1928 he was essentially in the modern world but he's a
11:43Victorian painter and this is the sort of picture that he made his name with mythological Grande
11:48mise-en-scene what an amazing burst of color that is I think it's a study for a much larger picture yeah
11:54I'm pretty sure so Frank Dixie what is he to you he's my great great uncle on my mother's side of the
12:02family so these are direct from his studio effectively or his house pretty much yeah these would all have
12:07been in the in the family in one person's hand they've come down to me now it's oil on card and
12:14it's just beautifully and freely done he's just done it as a color sketch he hasn't bothered with the
12:20details of the faces because it's not about drawing it's about tying in all the shapes and the composition
12:26getting the colors in order this is the kind of picture that he made his name with imagine this
12:32really huge on the wall of the Royal Academy with a frame perhaps even larger than the picture itself
12:37what he also did was this kind of domestic scene underneath it I mean that's very Victorian isn't
12:44it it's not very romantic isn't it this wonderful little oil painting of a girl reading a love letter
12:50by candlelight it is one of my favorites it's very intimate isn't it and the glow of light in a halo
12:56casting a shadow across her brown ringlets on the back of the chair so I suppose that's a bit earlier
13:02than this mythological scene of maybe about 1870 the clothes make me think so but Frank Dixie was of a
13:09large family of very good painters and none of these pictures are signed thinking about it this could
13:16well be by Frank's father Thomas Francis Dixie yes and then this delightful little sketch which
13:23shows how free he could be when he wasn't trying too hard for the Royal Academy who's that little
13:28girl well yeah the family story is that it is based on my grandmother she's so alert and the light on her
13:35face is so delightful and a hair completely uncoiffed and natural totally innocent with this lovely white
13:40light behind her I mean he's really caught her inquiring inquisitive inspiration hasn't he you know I love
13:47the speed at which it's done just a few strokes I can imagine he's good enough to do that in like 20 minutes I
13:52just wish if only we could all do that yeah again it's possible that this is actually by another
13:59member of the Dixie family that's Frank's sister Margaret who was also really good okay what are
14:06they all worth put them back looking at that I'd say four to six thousand pounds wow it's wonderful
14:13what about that I mean it's delightful I think that's six to eight thousand pounds of anyone's money
14:19and then lastly this delightful thing not so valuable and yet I'm going to put two to three
14:25thousand pounds on that that will add up to something like over fifteen thousand pounds um it's quite a lot
14:33uh when you finish up yeah surprising well they're brilliant things really lovely things thank you
14:39Stoke-on-Trent is celebrating a hundred years as a city and at nearby Trenton Gardens we're making a
15:00welcome return visit a decade since the Roadshow was here in 2015 back then it was being restored to
15:09its former glory having lay neglected for years and how look we've got the blossoms you can smell the
15:16perfume but I tell you back in the day you would not have wanted to take any deep breaths around here
15:22when capability Brown designed the garden in the 18th century with the lake as its ornamental showpiece
15:30part of the river Trent was damned to allow it to supply the water big mistake as the potteries grew
15:37and became more industrialized the towns expanded and the Trent just by Trenton became more and more
15:44polluted the river was described at the time as a foul slimy sewer brimful of the impurities of every
15:52dirty crowded town that hugs its banks for the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland the owners of Trenton hall
15:59well the place just stank so they decided to put the place up for sale but the stench was so bad they
16:07couldn't get a sniff from a buyer six years later abandoned and unloved the hall was pulled down and
16:14its sculptures windows and doors were sold off to raise funds it was no longer a grand house so it was
16:23the gardens that had further incarnations in the 30s and 40s they became the playground of the potteries
16:29with an outdoor swimming pool a bandstand miniature railway and then in the 60s a ballroom was built which
16:36hosted the big bands of the day the Beatles Led Zeppelin but from the 1970s to the early 2000s the
16:43gardens were forgotten once more before a restoration project in 2004 brought them back to life look at
16:51it today visitors can come here and enjoy the gardens restored to their former glory and the lake looking
16:57just beautiful onto the islands beavers have been reintroduced and then when I sniff the air clean and fresh
17:06the transformation is complete
17:09back on a baking hot day in June the roadshow visited Lister Park in Bradford then celebrating its
17:29status as 2025 city of culture and among the crowds eagle-eyed miscellaneous expert Ronnie Archer Morgan spied a
17:38miniature treasure I know it's tiny but it's perfectly formed and perfectly charming this little celluloid tape
17:49measure where did you get it and I bought it in jumble sale when I was very young about six seven I loved
17:57it and I always go buying little things and jumble sales went to a lot of them when I was a child can
18:01you remember what you paid it would have been a penny or something so I only ever had a few pennies with me
18:05it used to get loads and jumble sales at that time when I first started collecting well I collected
18:10Piero's oh so that drew me to it right but I love the dog singing to his music yes the dogs they're all
18:20molded into the celluloid and singing to his tune and Piero's are very romantic and it's probably French
18:28oh great I would say this is early 1920s I think it still functions yes it still pulls out it still pulls
18:38out I don't I don't want to pull it all the way out because you know something you have to ease it
18:43these them back in when I first saw I you know I said to you that it's made of celluloid and
18:48celluloid is an early plastic yeah and people collect things made of early plastics you know
18:52a collector would pay I think I'm gonna stick my neck out certainly a hundred pounds possibly up to 150
19:00pounds for that and the fact you bought it when you were six or seven yeah it's heaven that's lovely thank
19:06you so much
19:11I was surprised I didn't realize it would be worth anything to be really fair but isn't about the money
19:17anyway I was more curious about what it what it was made from and you know where it might have come
19:22from really we get loads of Bibles on the Antiques Roadshow as you can imagine and many of them don't
19:37have a date on them so you find yourself looking for clues there's a bit of a clue on the spine here
19:421561 there's a bit of a clue on the title page here in Roman numerals 1560 what do you know about the
19:50date of this Bible we purely just assumed it was 1561 because that was what was on the spine of the
19:56book well don't always judge a book by its cover because I've had to go away and do a little bit
20:02of research because I couldn't quite join up the dots I think it's actually published by this John
20:06Cawood in 1569 right and it's really quite rare oh the first English Bible complete was published by
20:16Miles Coverdale in 1535 so this is within about 30 years of the first complete English Bible it's not in
20:24the best condition but it is really really quite rare and at auction I could see it making somewhere
20:30north of three thousand pounds that's excellent fantastic thank you so much for bringing thank you
20:36pleasure where do you hang these horns at home well they don't hang on the wall they sit on top of
20:45the wardrobe they've sat on the wardrobe three different wardrobes for about 49 years is that
20:51because you don't like them no that's because my husband will probably divorce me if I attempted to
20:56put them on the wall he's not a fan let's put it that way where are they from give us some history
21:02well I inherited these from my great-grandmother her father my great-great-great-grandfather had
21:10these hanging on the pub which he ran it wouldn't just be by any chance this gentleman here it is
21:17indeed yeah that's Morton Handley and he was a publican he owns two or three different pubs well
21:24believe it or not I would have thought these probably are 1860s wow they look like the work
21:31of a very famous scrimshaw engraver called Gustav Fontemsky he was a Prussian yes and he was an
21:40adventurer artist ended up in New Zealand as a soldier wow these are very similar to the sort of
21:48things he engraved the decoration was literally scratched out and you then once you'd scratched
21:57your design you would rub a soot-based pigment into those lines that you'd engraved into a you know
22:04the soft cow horn and hey polish it up and look what you've got now what are they worth so do you think
22:14your husband might like them more if I put a more punchy value no absolutely not he's told me not to
22:19bring them back go well they're in very beautiful condition I haven't ever seen better at auction
22:27probably around a thousand pounds and possibly a little more possibly a little less they're not
22:34everybody's thing but very unusual a fabulous signed souvenir program the Rolling Stones in the Queens
22:47Hall in Leeds from July 1964 obviously not yours far too young I'd like to know where they came from it
22:55was a birthday present for my 15th birthday from one of our neighbors who knew that I was in a band and
23:01liked my music how fantastic and did she get them signed herself she did yeah her husband I believe
23:06went to the gig either to review it for a local newspaper or a local magazine oh right well here
23:13we go it's the 12th of July 1964 well it's all over now was number one and the stones had just come
23:19back from their first North American tour so they were cresting a wave I mean they were really at the start
23:25of their major career you just wonder what the atmosphere was like in the Queen's Hall it must
23:31have been unbelievable and then we've got another stones concert here it looks as if it's from their
23:361965 tour but it doesn't actually give the venue on it and then we have the four aces program from the
23:42Beatles again it doesn't say where it is I believe they're both from the Bradford gig okay yeah because
23:48we've got tickets for them oh yeah okay so oh heavens look at this so this is the Beatles in 1964
23:58October the ninth the Beatles had just come back from their second North American it was all kicking
24:03off then I think it was really kicking off um hard days night the album was number one and look at this
24:09this is a three in the store she must be right exactly do you think she heard anything of the
24:16screaming probably not so let's talk about the unsigned pieces first so the Beatles four aces with
24:24the two tickets here for the performance we're probably talking about 300 pounds ish maybe 400
24:31so that's very nice the 1965 Rolling Stones again with its tickets an unsigned piece doesn't have a
24:42the same sort of cachet so we're talking about 80 to 100 pounds yes but of course this is the prize
24:49this is the treasure from such an important part at the start of their career I would see this fetching
24:57between 1,500 and 1,800 pounds at auction it's not about birthday present not a bad birthday we've
25:22traveled far and wide this year and when we visited the hill of Tarvit in Fife on Scotland's
25:27east coast I couldn't resist a quick round of golf on the estates course the only one in the UK to
25:33still use hickory clubs nice swing with this from the shoulders keep your head still rude not to really
25:40in the home of golf that is not too bad it's not bad at all actually back at the mansion pictures
25:49specialist Charlotte Riordan came across an intriguing pair of portraits so we're standing here next to a
25:57beautiful young couple painted in the Edwardian period can you tell me a little bit about the
26:01romantic backstory here yes well this is Norman 17 year old this was commissioned by his mother and
26:08father before he actually went to war and this is Jeanette she was walking down the high street in Perth
26:14and the artist seen her and said I'd like to paint you but she actually said hmm that can't happen I'll
26:20have to ask me mother and the mother said yes okay I can paint you but these are actually by the same
26:26artist Charles Seller and actually these were painted we've actually before they met each other so they're
26:32married later on in life and the daughter actually of these couple left them to me when she passed away so
26:38lovely as you say they're both painted by the same artist this is Charles Seller now portraiture in the
26:43Edwardian period which is where these works pale from was a lucrative way for an artist to make a
26:48living he's a sort of sensitive study of character I think you know this is really beautifully observed
26:54and in watercolor with sort of chalk elements she's obviously an extreme beauty beautiful elegant neck and
27:00and just a lovely sort of distant look in her eyes there and this I think is especially poignant he was
27:05just about to go off to war this might have been something his parents made to remember him by the
27:10worst were to happen as it did to so many young men it just captures that sort of on the cusp of
27:15manhood I think got the the little sort of shadow of a mustache his hat looks a wee bit big on his head
27:20really lovely little snapshot in time it's a piece of social history as well in that sense and luckily
27:25Norman actually got through the war and he came back yeah and they got together it's just unusual that two
27:32paintings by the same artist end up together before they even mess so they've obviously had a bit of
27:37TLC some lovely new frames here keeping them in good condition do you have them hanging at home yes
27:42they're hanging in the hall so every time we come downstairs in the morning say good morning Norman
27:46good morning Jeanette it's just nice pictures to look at value wise I think at auction and you know sold
27:53individually although obviously you never want to separate them but sold individually you'd probably be
27:58looking at around sort of three to five hundred each at auction they belong together yeah they do
28:03yeah they go together thank you
28:12beautiful heart pendant which is the epitome of love and sentiment it's got an inscription around the
28:18edge what does that say it says henry barnard de la poor beresford pierce he's my adopted grandfather and how
28:27do you think he got hold of the pendant i think it was probably given to him on his christening because
28:34it was the year he was born in 1875 and i see that somebody is wearing the pendant in this rather special
28:41photograph here that is me on my wedding day in 1971 well it is absolutely stunning the heart is cabochon
28:51rock crystal which of course is just the epitome of love and sentiment and then of course we have the
28:56diamond set bow on the top and when you fall in love and the relationship is wonderful you can tie
29:02the bow and then of course sometimes relationships go wrong and it's recognized by you pull the ribbon
29:09and the bow comes undone but then you find true love again and you tie it again so it's all all will be
29:14fine at the end of the day date wise it's probably just a little bit earlier than when your grandfather was
29:21born and this style of jewelry was very popular for a very long time through that victorian time which
29:29was all about love and sentiment there aren't any hallmarks on it there aren't any makers marks on it
29:34either which is typical of the period but it's quite clear that it's of a good hand and is more than likely
29:42british made possibly by a good top london jeweler i'm sure you're intrigued to know about value
29:48i would like to know yes yeah well we are looking at a piece of jewelry that at auction would fetch
29:55somewhere between two and three thousand pounds it's absolutely lovely thank you very much for
30:03bringing it not at all thank you very much so this is a very striking vase that you've brought along
30:17what can you tell me about this piece only unfortunately that it belonged to my grandparents
30:23a grandmother did a short spell of service down in london we don't know whether it was a wedding gift or
30:29whether when she was down in service it was gifted to her down there but it's been in my house i'm the
30:35third generation in the house um and it's been in in my house um all these years it's a vase designed
30:41by a lady called charlotte reed yep and she was working in the potteries in the 1930s the vases of
30:47this ovoid ribbed form with a sort of speckled mottled glaze and then this band of bold aztec pattern
30:55decoration at the top and you can see here that it's clearly marked c reed with her signature on
31:02the base charlotte reed's work is probably the least celebrated of some of the very iconic female
31:08designers who were working in the potteries in the 1930s so the value at auction would be much
31:14more modest okay and it's probably in the region of 80 to 120 pounds lovely thank you
31:32i've got to say look these really come to life and glisten in this like late afternoon sunshine
31:37that we're basking in today um they're almost sort of jewel-like aren't they what do you know about them
31:42they came from my mother's family her great grandfather was involved with a china trade based
31:48in boston in the united states and i believe they went into japan in the early days when the westerners
31:55were first being allowed in because there are lovely japanese things like this scattered around the
32:01family so what they are well they're japanese and they are sort of knife hilts or kazuka as they are
32:10called in japan and the material that they're made from it's a mix of metals uh-huh and they date from
32:17the 19th century well the first one we've got here is we've got this little priest's attendant i suppose
32:24and he looks like he's having a really fun time at a festival or something like that and if i turn that
32:30back that's signed by an artist here called kiosugu who was producing incredible fine work and i mean
32:38that's you know you can't argue with that so this one on the front uh shiroboshi so this is a type of
32:44japanese dancer or entertainer and that's the figure that is depicted there and again exceptional
32:50quality now this one is a little torn but it does say kozai so that is pronounced kozai on the back so
32:58that little bit of paper that somebody translated absolutely right and then this fellow on the front here
33:04is jorajin so he's a god and again look signed on the back here and they were absolutely right
33:11tomoyoshi and that is the signature on that one and does the turtle mean anything it's a minigami
33:17so yes so this minigami is a sort of a mythical figure uh in japan and it has a long tail which
33:24is in fact sort of seaweed so it's often sort of depicted so it's seaweed on the minigami so yeah
33:28you like them i do what do you like about them the skill the craft that went into making them and
33:35they tell you something about japan at that time yeah which is fascinating and presumably they were
33:41prestigious items i mean clearly because so much effort was put into them they are a really nice
33:47group they're a really nice set and i think if they came up at auction they'd probably make
33:52somewhere between eight to twelve hundred pounds something like that goodness me yeah
33:56the detail is quite amazing we have learned about them and the fact that they were individual
34:04artists doing them is fascinating and they are really special and i love the story about the turtle
34:10on the back as well
34:11well i've seen many snuff boxes on the antiques roadshow over the years but i have to say the
34:26snuff box that you've brought in is one of the best i have ever seen it's 18 karat gold it's scottish
34:34and it's got this fabulous faceted citrine on top tell us how it's come into your family well it was
34:40passed down to the family on my husband's side and he inherited it from his grandmother okay
34:48so we'll just have a look at the base because that's got all the information i think that we need
34:53it says nicely engraved from andrew tennant to his friend alexander blackie and his heirs forever
35:03yeah 1815 it's a splendid inscription isn't it that's a specialist engraver who's done that part
35:10of the box but there's many other specialists who've been involved in the making of it the border
35:15is cast in 18 karat gold the sides are incurved and we have a special flush hinge on the back so it's a
35:23specialist hinge maker who's done that the stone itself will have been done by an edinburgh lapidary
35:28specialist who've cut the stones the color of that stone sometimes you'll see that catalogued as
35:34smoky quartz it's got that golden almost honey whiskey color to a deep deep color it's a fantastic
35:42stone in its own right i would need to do a bit more research to find out the exact maker yeah the
35:47maker's mark is clearly here ig edinburgh 1815 the nice thing though i don't know if you've noticed
35:54between the date and the hallmark it has the actual maker of the box deary d-e-a-r-i-e didn't know that
36:02no it's quite faint but it's there so again we would need to do a bit further research just to find out
36:08what he fits in but that must have been one real special friend to have given a box like that yes
36:15we don't know why or or what the relationship was between uh his friend and alexander blackie who was
36:22the ancestor yeah but it would be very interesting to find out if that turned up on the market you
36:28would be looking at an estimate of 10 to 15 000 pounds oh wow that's very nice to hear gosh
36:39thanks so much for bringing it today it's made my day well it's made my day unexpectedly yes
36:43wonderful thank you thank you from high summer in fife we return to early autumn sunshine in trentham
36:55gardens near stoke-on-trent where expert will farmer is challenging me to an appropriately pottery based
37:01game we're in the land of the potteries we're going to be talking about ceramics who better than will
37:08and we have to rank these in order of value with basic better best correct and they all look
37:12absolutely stunning this is really about luxurious lustres what i wanted to do is bring along three
37:19pieces that really epitomize that late 19th early 20th century surge and renaissance in the work of
37:26lustreware because lustreware is just this incredible medium in the world of ceramics you're looking at
37:32wares here that all use silver gold platinum reduction firings to remove oxygen to create these
37:39beautiful finishes so let's start nearest you this is a piece by the great william d morgan a beautiful
37:46double ruby lustre circa late 1880s pulling in all those hispanomoresque sort of ideas the florid motifs
37:54the dragons everything you'd want to see move on nearest me we've got a piece it's a little bit later 1912
38:011915 this is richard joyce for pilkington's lancastrian who were really the masters i mean and this is
38:09incredible it's got the goddess of the sea being pulled by hippocampia i mean this is a show-stopping
38:14piece and then in the middle the latest of all three this is circa 1920 25 and this is daisy mccay jones
38:24at wedgwood with her fairyland lustre a large malfrey pot in a pattern called candle mass now the game
38:32is which and i hate to say it myself because they're all incredible yes which one is a basic let's let
38:39that feels a bit harsh which one is better and which one is best what are the values we're talking
38:44about so in terms of the values we're looking at one of these pieces is worth between four and six
38:50thousand one of these pieces is worth eight to nine thousand and one of these pieces is worth twelve
38:58to fifteen thousand pounds right oh my goodness i'm hoping you've all got some ideas which do you think
39:09is the best the one in the middle one oh the red one yes and why do you choose that one i just like the
39:16color and the shape of the the handles on the pot and also it's it's older than the others isn't it
39:24yes yeah okay so you're going for that one i'm going for that one all right what about you i'm a
39:29particular fan of the one in the middle it's the most extraordinarily ornate one especially with the
39:35sun out and the colors that are reflecting off it whether that adds any value to it i don't know
39:39but it's definitely pleasing to the eye i don't know i'm erring towards the red one i just i like
39:46it more i mean i love the red one the best i have to anyone going for the blue one i'd go with the
39:51daisy the wedgewood you give the one in the middle as well yes so would you like some little clues of
39:58course in terms of de morgan double ruby lustre this is a thing he perfected he set the benchmark
40:06pilkington's quite a high volume turnout their productions are out there also when we look at
40:13something like fairyland lustre you've got to think about scale size and complexity and the amount of
40:19hours and work that have gone in to create something so these three show the story of how the industry
40:27has perfected the techniques and processes of lustreware right now what we have to bear in mind ladies and
40:33gents is that will is also probably trying to throw us off a bit with that oh as i've learnt with you
40:40i'm actually trying to help you here yeah i am i promise you i promise you he always says that as
40:43well well the thing is look this is the obvious sock you in the chops showstopper rockstar pot so you're
40:52locking that in no because because you always tell me go with what you like yeah and i would have
40:59thought this would be more to today's taste either this one or that one there's two out of three went
41:08for this yeah and that's good enough for me because it's my favorite okay if you turn around tell me
41:12it's that i'm gonna be very cross but i'm gonna say basic they're obviously not very basic at all
41:18which is the pilkington yeah better yeah best locked in oh boy you're gonna be cross oh oh you
41:28should have gone with the hit you're out of the chop showstopper oh no this is our basic although
41:35i hate to use that word because it is so beautiful but is the pilkington's lancastrian by richard joyce
41:41at four to six thousand the ruby lustre the double ruby lustre by de morgan at sort of eight
41:47to nine thousand pounds is our better that that is the absolute glory piece of daisy mckay jones
41:55for wedgwood fairyland lustre 12 to 15 000 pounds oh gosh well done you thanks very much you're welcome
42:11one of our busiest locations this year was stevens house in north london it was once home to henry
42:26stevens who made his fortune from indelible ink he then spent it creating a beautiful self-sufficient
42:32garden and in one of its tranquil corners francis christie found a striking sculpture by a forgotten
42:40artist so this is a wonderfully elegant bronze sculpture of what looks like a woman swimming
42:53and it's by an artist who back at the height of his career in the sort of 1970s and 80s he was one of
42:59the most popular artists at the royal academy now his name was sydney harpley and i'm wondering how
43:07this beautiful sculpture came to be yours well um my parents uh in 1985 went to the summer exhibition
43:15at the royal academy as they always did and they went into the sculpture room and the first thing
43:21my mum saw was this sculpture and she just completely fell in love with it but unfortunately it had the
43:27sold sticker on oh no so my dad without my mum knowing he contacted sculptor to find out that the
43:33nine hidden cast of them had all been sold roll on a couple of months later on my parents wedding
43:39anniversary there was a knock on the front door of the house and there was sydney harpley with his
43:44own copy to present to my mum wow from my father and that's how we've got it and about 10 years ago
43:53she decided it would be the right thing to do to pass it on to james oh lucky you james
43:57and did your parents ever say what sydney harpley was like he was apparently a very charming man but
44:04i don't know anything else about it at all what's so interesting about seeing this sculpture is
44:11he was really interested by the female form and the female form in all different poses really became his
44:17sort of signature subject i think the movement that he achieves is amazingly elegant actually although
44:26bronze is such a hard material he's managed to capture this very free-flowing movement you kind
44:34of feel that she's just about to carve into the water with the elegance of her hand movements it's also
44:40technically incredible he's managed to cantilever the weight of bronze coming down to this single point
44:48on her knee he would have modeled this potentially in terracotta or in wax beforehand and he would have really
44:55worked with the foundry the bronze foundry to make sure that you know he had the weight and the
45:01distribution properly and she's literally floating in space he was formally trained um after second
45:09world war i mean he went to the hammers school of art he went to the royal college of art but actually a
45:13fact about him that i think is really important which is not so well known is that after second world war
45:21he actually worked in an artificial limb factory which meant that he spent his days modeling and
45:29casting artificial limbs and i think when you know that and therefore he must have had a really intricate
45:37knowledge of anatomy it's why his sculptures yeah are so good yeah because he knew exactly what a limb
45:46should look like so now that this sculpture is yours what do you like about it i love the way
45:52she sort of flows it's for a sculpture it's incredibly sort of lifelike and realistic and
46:00i just think it's just such an elegant piece to just sit and look at so harpley's someone who's not
46:05as well known now i think as he was back when your parents bought it but he's increasingly people
46:10are looking at his work again which is great and i think were this to come to auction today we'd
46:15probably put an estimate in the region of three thousand to five thousand pounds oh wow i have no
46:21idea fantastic thank you
46:30a mystical mysterious looking bowl what can you tell me about him been in the family now for four
46:36generations belonged i understand originally to my great-grandmother when she died it came to me
46:42i'm very happy to have it and what do you know about it other than the fact it's lelique and it's
46:48old lelique very little other than it always used to sit in the middle of my grandmother's dining table
46:54occasionally with some fruit in it but that's where it always was i know more lelique in the family
46:59is it a collecting area yeah my sister has um one with shells on uh four shells on it uh which she
47:08got as a wedding present which is why when my grandmother died i was offered this one how wonderful
47:14well let's take a deep dive into this this shape is called coupe au vert so open cup we have six ladies
47:23or nymphs dancing in the water all around the edge and if you have looked carefully each one of these
47:29ladies is different in a different position different expression this pattern is called ondine
47:36and it was created by renee lelique in 1921 if we turn it over to the base we can see that it's
47:45impressed r lelique which means that this was created within his lifetime later on the r was removed
47:52it was just lelique and it also has here an etched signature lelique so if we sit it back down
47:59and take a look at the ladies they have this kind of vaseline look about them an opalescence which
48:05you can see really well on this dark background of the table that was achieved by adding colbert oxide
48:11to the glass whilst it was still hot now the thicker the glass was the slower the glass would cool down
48:19and that meant the deeper the opalescence why does that matter collectors of lelique want that opalescence to be
48:27really strong and the deeper the opalescence the more value they would ascribe to the piece
48:33so this shape was made in different designs and if you were starting to collect lelique you'd probably
48:38start with the pattern called coquille which sounds like what your sister has shells going around the
48:44outside that's right that's kind of the the starting points then next we have the poisson which has
48:51curling fish going around the outside bit like the ladies here but the ladies the ondine is the next
48:58best one so your sister's bowl if it's about this size it's around 250 pounds poisson around 500 pounds
49:07but ondine wonderful opalescence lovely design it's what the collectors want if this were to come up at
49:16auction i'd expect it to fetch in the region of a thousand pounds that's very nice i did better than
49:22my sister you did thank you thank you what a lovely little card mascot which i assume is sort of
49:37stylized hair so how did you acquire it was my dad's i understand he got it from a neighbor about 30 years ago
49:45my dad's not with us anymore and he loved the antiques photo and so i thought i'd bring it along
49:51and see what you had to say about it i don't know if you notice on the back here there's a mark
49:56right yeah and it's um it's copyright ael which is lejeune which although it sounds french i think
50:02it's english and it's 1920s oh it's right okay and i have a particular interest for it because um
50:08um i'm pretty keen on on hairs myself right okay uh the reason is um it's a little bit inside my jacket
50:15true it's everywhere anyway value he's lovely condition it's plated i would think at auction
50:23you're talking about between three and four hundred pounds okay yeah not bad at all yeah that's nice nice to
50:28i don't know thank you
50:42well florence nightingale is the reason why we're here having this conversation florence
50:46nightingale obviously the really the founder of nursing modern nursing in britain and you've got
50:51two books related to her one is notes on nursing which is by florence nightingale the other is a
50:57book with a inscription in it which is in her hand and this is a book that she obviously owned at some
51:01point and she's written florence nightingale in it how did these two books come to you well for
51:08more years than i care to think of i had a dental practice and on the outside of the building there's
51:14an inscription that says florence nightingale left her hospital on this site to go to the crimea
51:21in october whatever it was yes and i had a walk-in cupboard in the basement where i kept my stock
51:29and after about 15 years and cleared the rubbish at the back of the cupboard and i found these two
51:36books that's a very nice find isn't it yeah in a way this is the main event this is this is notes
51:41on nursing by florence nightingale published in 1860 and this is actually a first edition of it which
51:46is a rare book it doesn't have a date on the title page the printer's name is harrison
51:50of pall mall and this is really one of the key books in medical history this is a distillation
51:57of everything florence nightingale had learnt about nursing both in the crimean war which as you say she
52:02left to go to from your your premises in harley street but also back at home and she really puts
52:09on its feet the idea of nursing as a profession and particularly a profession for women there's a very
52:16i think very moving introduction to it in her preface every woman or at least almost every
52:24woman in england has at one time or another of her life charge of the personal health of somebody
52:31whether child or invalid in other words every woman is a nurse i think that's something that resonates
52:39with at least half of the population yeah and it's a very slim book very concise and it certainly
52:45changed the face of medical history in britain so that's an important book first edition of 1860
52:51i'm not quite sure the background of this one this is a book that she obviously owned well um there was
52:56a letter in there right which says uh from her brother right thanking them for helping organize
53:05florence's funeral right and they might like this book which was in her library it was one of her
53:12books as a memento so florence nightingale i think she died in 1910 obviously there were major public
53:18memorials for her there was one in st paul's cathedral and it sounds as though that was the
53:21occasion on which this was yes i think that's a gift they're two very nice things to have together
53:26i don't think they've always been together but it's a nice very nice provenance for this book right
53:31but of course it has some value not in fantastic condition you know it's seen some life perhaps
53:35in practical circumstances but the first edition of this in this condition i'd say 800 to a thousand
53:41pounds oh wow oh that yeah like everybody i'm saying that surprises me and then it's just nice to
53:49have florence nightingale's signature here albeit in pencil but i think we prefer a signature in pen but
53:55there's a reason why she wrote it in pencil so it is as it is i think that adds another few hundred pounds
54:00to the table here so i think everything here we're looking at maybe 1200 to 1500 pounds
54:05i'll treasure it thank you my pleasure thank you very much thank you for your time
54:15i see an awful lot of jewelry and when i opened that i thought wow this is something i have never
54:22seen before the carving of the moonstone in their setting i just thought oh my gosh this is great
54:29craftsmanship what do you feel when you look at it well it was my mum's and my dad bought it for her
54:36it was always referred to as the moonstone she wore it i mean she was the kind of woman who thought wearing
54:42this was okay it's not for me so it reminds me of her the whole piece is about 1880 it's english and this
54:51is sort of got a a romantic vision of a renaissance princess but what is so wonderful is you always
54:58look at the nose with hardstone cameos that's the easiest thing to get knocked off right and so if it
55:06gets worn a lot yes it can it can easily go so we always look at the nose or anything that's protruding
55:11and she certainly has her nose and she's got on these lovely natural pearls around the outside
55:18and sort of just highlighted with these rubies so of course you've got pearls which is for love you
55:24got rubies for passion but where does the moonstone come from well it's part of the feldspar
55:30group you find it in brazil you can find it all over the world actually yeah but also what's lovely
55:36is that it's in its original fitted case and underneath there's the brooch fitting as well so
55:43it's here as a pendant yeah if i take off the back and there it is which is lovely so often that gets
55:50lost yes so what do you think your father was thinking when he bought this well i think he bought it
55:58for his good-looking lady who he adored and that's why he bought this for her oh that's absolutely
56:04lovely i would say in the right auction that could be as much as five thousand pounds okay
56:12i don't know what to say i know that it's quite usual to say well it's not going anywhere but i don't
56:17wear it because i don't know what's happening to it maybe you should try to wear it yeah maybe i should
56:25i'd like it a lot more now that you've told me a lot more about it thank you very much
56:29it's wonderful to look back on a summer packed with so many treasures but before we go there's
56:37just time to return to trentum gardens in staffordshire to try out a local treat
56:44at the end of the day on the antics road show i'm usually getting a bit peckish and what better than
56:48the local delicacy staffordshire oat cakes now these are a kind of heavy duty oat pancake and they were
56:54a staple of miners and potters in the 19th century made by local women i've got a slightly gourmet version
57:01cheese and bacon i've never had one before have you all eaten these before right come on
57:11delicious all right we're gonna scoff these from all of us here at trentum gardens from the antics road
57:18to the end of the day so bye-bye
57:29so
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