Antiques Roadshow 2024 - Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery 1

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Antiques Roadshow 2024 - Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery 1
Transcript
00:00Today, we're in the London Borough of Ealing, at Pitsanga Manor and Gallery,…
00:09…designed by Sir John Soane, whose creative flair shook up the world of architecture.
00:14And the house has been extensively renovated in the last 10 years or so.
00:19And a number of mysterious items were found beneath the floorboards, like…
00:23…this cannonball,…
00:25…and this shoe.
00:27Why? What were they doing there, I hear you asking?
00:30And here, to unravel further mysteries behind our visitors' treasures,…
00:34…our team of experts.
00:38Well, it's actually papier-mâché!
00:40Is it? What a pair of dummies!
00:43– What do you like about them? – Well, I don't, really!
00:47This, bless her, is the James Bond of the pigeon world!
00:51– And what if I like that? – No!
00:54And as for my mystery items,…
00:56…the shoe was placed under the floorboards to kick out any evil spirits,…
01:01…and this cannonball was dropped through the chimneys to clear out the fireplaces!
01:06Talk about starting the show with a bang!
01:08Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow!
01:26Oh, my God!
01:30This is one of those amazing objects that, from a distance,…
01:35…it just looks like a bit of bronze.
01:38But you get up close, and you suddenly realize that there's this wonderful silhouette,…
01:43…and the features of a man,…
01:44…and then you realize he's sort of got this helmet around him.
01:48So, he's a soldier.
01:50And then, on the side, you see that it's signed Frink.
01:54And that's Elizabeth Frink,…
01:55…who, in the post–Second World War period,…
01:58…was the…
01:59…female sculptor to emerge.
02:02It's quite a special thing to have, and I'm wondering…
02:04…how you came to have it?
02:06So, we inherited it from my husband's uncles,…
02:08…John Bowen and David Cook.
02:10And they were writers in their own right, for different things.
02:14When David died in 2015, he left John behind, who was 90,…
02:20…and he wanted to die at home, so…
02:22…me and my husband moved in, and looked after him for 4 years.
02:25And then we inherited the head when he passed away.
02:28Did he ever speak about the sculpture?
02:31He did. He actually bought it…
02:32…kind of as being proud of himself, actually.
02:34His first play was performed in the West End.
02:37It was called, I Love You, Mrs. Patterson, in 1964.
02:40He wanted to kind of buy something special, with the money…
02:43…that he'd gained from the play, and so he bought the head.
02:47It's really interesting that he picked out this sculpture, a soldier's head,…
02:52…er,… because it was quite personal, actually, I think, to Frink's own background.
02:57She grew up in the countryside, in Suffolk.
02:59But during the Second World War, I mean,…
03:00…there was an airbase that was quite close to where she lived, so she very much witnessed…
03:05…planes coming back from France,…
03:07…often in flames.
03:10So, after the war, she became a sculptor,…
03:13…and 1964, she did this piece.
03:16And it's very thoughtful, I think.
03:18When you see his silhouette, he does feel…
03:21…he feels very vulnerable.
03:23What do you think about it?
03:24I've always think, just picking up from what you said, that it…
03:26…it's a soldier that looks strong, but he also looks in pain.
03:29To me, he looks fallen…
03:30…by his face.
03:31The way she made it is also really interesting to look at, because you can see it in this.
03:36Now, you get these wonderfully fluid strokes,…
03:39…and that's because she modeled it in wet plaster,…
03:42…which is very easy to move.
03:44And so that's why it feels quite spontaneous,…
03:47…even though it's then been cast in bronze,…
03:49…which is obviously one of the most durable materials.
03:51It's really interesting, you've got the original bill of sale, and you can see that…
03:54…the main price is 120 pounds,…
03:57…but John got a discount of 12 pounds.
03:59So, you should always ask for a discount from a gallery!
04:02Now, today, because Frink is…
04:05…much more well-known than she was then,…
04:07…if this was to come to auction,…
04:09…I'd put an estimate in the region of 12,000 to 18,000 pounds.
04:12Oh, gee!
04:14Clever!
04:15A big jump, then! Oh, my goodness!
04:17Wow!
04:19That's phenomenal!
04:23You came today…
04:25…with this collection of jewelry, and something tells me…
04:28…that you love jewelry!
04:30Yes!
04:30Tell me about this necklace here!
04:32I was working in Italy as a holiday rep in Sorrento,…
04:35…and…
04:36…saved up enough money, and bought it…
04:39…at the end of the season,…
04:40…as my reminder of my season in Sorrento.
04:43Was it a happy memory?
04:44Yes, you can't be unhappy in Sorrento!
04:47So, yes, it was very happy!
04:49Well, the bracelet was bought for me in the early 60s.
04:53– This one here? – Mm-hmm!
04:54By the…
04:55…partner of the time,…
04:56…who was Italian,…
04:58…and he went back to Italy on holiday to see his mother,…
05:02…and came back with the bracelet for me as a present!
05:05Very nice!
05:06Which, I know, it cost him 60 pounds, which, at that time,…
05:09…was quite a lot of money!
05:11The other one, it's a Pisces pendant, because I'm a Piscean,…
05:14…and it was made for me by a friend who is a jeweler, and then I bought the chain,…
05:19…and the ring,…
05:21…I had the diamonds from a flat I'd sold, near Rimini,…
05:24…and a friend of mine made them into a ring for me.
05:27My goodness, me!
05:28– You've had some very generous people in your life! – I've had some lucky ones, yes!
05:31But you've also been given, or bought, very well,…
05:35…in terms of the quality of the pieces, because…
05:38…they've got such a lovely weight to them!
05:41And they're all 18 carat gold,…
05:43…and, you know, today, gold…
05:46…has just gone through the roof.
05:48And the diamond, in the center here, that's all…
05:51…beautifully set, and that's just about…
05:54…nearly a 2 carat stone.
05:57Very nice!
05:58Does any one of them stand out?
06:01Do you know, I think they all stand out,…
06:03…to me, because they're very different, they're all beautifully made,…
06:06…and…
06:07…I would wear any one of those.
06:10So, I'm going to do a global valuation here,…
06:13…and, at auction,…
06:15…they would go for around…
06:17…14,000 pounds.
06:20– Wow! – Oohh!
06:24I'm known as Chashian!
06:25– Ha, ha, ha, ha! – Ha, ha, ha, ha!
06:27Um, maybe this time, I'm… I'm a little bit…
06:30…dumbfounded!
06:31I didn't think they would be quite as valuable.
06:37Discussing the memories, which I haven't done for a long time, of…
06:42…the provenance of where I got them from,…
06:44…was lovely. It made me realize how special they are.
06:47They're not just pieces of jewelry.
06:49They're part of me.
06:58Can I see what you've got there?
06:59Talcum powder!
07:00Oh, my goodness, it's got its contents!
07:02Beatles' talc tin, by Margo of Mayfair.
07:05The Beatles, when, you know, they were massively successful,…
07:08…they then started producing all sorts of products to advertise them.
07:11You know, so, we've got talcum powder, all sorts of things.
07:15Do you know what's really good about this?
07:17No.
07:18I'd be really curious. I've had it for a while.
07:21– It's not rusty on the top. – Oh, that's good to know!
07:23And the reason they're often rusty is because they were kept in bathroom cabinets.
07:27– Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. – So they would be in a damp atmosphere.
07:29It's not chipped, or…
07:31…normally they're very scratched.
07:33The price on that is probably 100–150 pounds.
07:36– Oohh! – That's good!
07:37We really had no idea, but I've been keeping it, and keeping it,…
07:41– …and I thought, well, I'll just come and find out! – Yeah!
07:46When it comes to royal collectibles on the Roadshow,…
07:49…one monarch's name seems to crop up more than most.
07:53– This is Queen Victoria's chocolate box! – Ha, ha, ha!
07:58VR on the front.
07:59Perhaps no prizes for guessing who that is.
08:03We've seen all manner of Queen Victoria's personal effects,…
08:06…even…
08:07…her private throne!
08:09Why have you brought the toilet seat?
08:10Well, I brought the toilet seat, because it is Queen Victoria's toilet seat!
08:15– The Royal Posterior Graceless Seat! – The Royal Posterior Graceless Seat!
08:20And today, at Pitzanger Manor, we've got a mystery item,…
08:23…with a link to one of Queen Victoria's favourite pastimes.
08:28We're looking at a table full of really interesting objects.
08:31We've got two lovely artworks,…
08:33…a canister, and some letters. So,…
08:36…where does this all fit in?
08:37So, these were paintings done by my great–great–great–grandfather,…
08:42…and his great–great–grandfather, called, uh,…
08:44…William Corden, Jr.
08:46And he was a sort of commission painter for the royal family, and Queen Victoria.
08:51He used to go and just paint for Queen Victoria and Albert,…
08:54…at Windsor Castle.
08:56And they would ask him to do informal pictures,…
08:59…do copies of more famous pictures.
09:01They sent him to Germany to paint Albert's…
09:04– …relatives. – Forebears, yeah.
09:05And, obviously, they had a good, close relationship, one would imagine.
09:09One would imagine.
09:10The thing about Victoria is…
09:12…she was…
09:13…really interested in painting and sketching from an early age.
09:17I mean, she started at the age of 8.
09:18She painted at Balmoral,…
09:20…she painted on all the foreign tours, the European tours that she did.
09:25And, of course, she needed something…
09:27…in order to paint.
09:28Which is when we get…
09:30…to this rather nice Japan box.
09:32It's metal,…
09:34…and we will see…
09:35…that this…
09:37…is…
09:38…a travelling watercolour box.
09:41And it's very good, because you've got this ring underneath here,…
09:46…which you put your thumb through,…
09:49…and then these are the water canisters,…
09:51…and you would have a mixing palette here, and here.
09:54You know, usually watercolour boxes are great big things, the size of a dispatch box,…
09:58…but this is so light, and portable, and clever,…
10:03…and…
10:04…who did it belong to?
10:05It belonged to her, and then, from her, it belonged to William Corden, Jr.
10:10– So, it was Queen Victoria's paint box,… – Yes.
10:12…which she gave to your great–great–great–grandfather.
10:16Yes.
10:17That makes it a bit more interesting.
10:19Here, we've got associated letters,…
10:21…really relating to your forebear,…
10:24…but coming from members of the staff, members of the household, from Balmoral,…
10:28…and from Windsor, Buckingham Palace as well.
10:30So that, you know, that's… that's lovely, to have it in context.
10:34To think about value.
10:35– Well, it's in bad condition. – Mmm.
10:38Who'd want it?
10:40Actually, I think a lot of people would want it.
10:42It is…
10:43…so personal to Queen Victoria.
10:47I am going to say the paint box will be worth between 10,000 and 15,000 pounds.
10:52Oh!
10:53Fantastic!
10:54Yeah, that's more than I was expecting.
10:57– That's great. Thank you very much. – We like delivering good news.
11:06I love the color of this, but…
11:08…what was it?
11:09I think it's a powder puff.
11:10– I don't think it's ever been used. – No!
11:12It's so clean.
11:13– A great bit of Bakelite, isn't it? – Yes.
11:15– What's it worth? – Not a lot.
11:17– 30 pounds? – Lovely.
11:21I'm going to have to pull you out the queue to have a look at that.
11:23That is fabulous!
11:25How did you come to own such a thing?
11:28– This was my grandmother's. – Yeah.
11:30She inherited it from her uncle.
11:33And he was in China on HMS Britomart.
11:36He was a surgeon.
11:37He was there and recognised by the Chinese government…
11:39…for helping the injured on that ship.
11:41What a little journey it's taken.
11:43It's a dragon robe, isn't it?
11:44So you've got these lovely five-cord dragon on.
11:46It's a summer robe.
11:47Probably dates from the Guangxu period, so between 1875 and 1908.
11:53So I reckon easily at auction, because of the condition…
11:56…that's worth between £8,000 to £1,200.
11:58That's amazing. Brilliant.
12:00– Lovely thing. – Thank you very much.
12:08You have no idea what a déjà vu moment this was…
12:11…when you opened your bag and I saw these in there.
12:13I would recognise these sculptures and the name of the sculptor…
12:18…Brian Wilshire, from a mile away.
12:21Really?
12:22And it really does take me back to the roots of when I had a shop…
12:25…and I sold these things and I would display them…
12:27…and they always looked lovely with pottery.
12:29So tell me, where do they come from?
12:32I bought them off a co-worker…
12:34…who brought them in on behalf of Brian Wilshire.
12:36– Oh, really? – So…
12:38…at that time, they suit the house.
12:40And where did you have them in the house?
12:42In the lounge.
12:43But we don't live like that anymore, so it's a question of…
12:46…do I throw them away or do they have a value or what?
12:49You definitely don't throw them away.
12:51I know Brian Wilshire…
12:54…made these in his garden shed in Catford.
12:58He made these on a bandsaw.
13:00And I think he encountered this formulaic process…
13:03…of making repeated motions with the bandsaw…
13:08…and almost treated it like a pencil…
13:10…cutting through the timber…
13:12…and just repeated the shapes he was making…
13:15…and they were like exploded forms.
13:18He originally started making bowls and lamps…
13:20…and here you have a lamp.
13:21So that must be from the early period.
13:23The first box I got were more or less pieces this size…
13:26…maybe ten pieces like this.
13:29But since then, the prices have risen and the popularity has grown.
13:33And obviously the big sculptural pieces that make an impact in a room…
13:37…are the most popular.
13:39But I love these smaller pieces.
13:41They look like early ones…
13:43…because you can see the bandsaw has jiggered a bit.
13:46– Yeah. – And you can see the marks of the saw…
13:49…which in the slightly later ones you don't see so much.
13:52And he's kept those marks…
13:54…as part of the texture of the sculpture.
13:57They all work back and front…
13:59…up, down.
14:01You know, if this wasn't a lamp, it is a sculpture…
14:05…but it works backwards, on its side.
14:07– Yeah. – The back of it's just as nice as the front.
14:10So I'm going to do a collective valuation.
14:13I think the whole lot would be something like ÂŁ1,000 to ÂŁ1,200.
14:18Alarmblows!
14:19I'm surprised they survived! They nearly went on the fire!
14:22Oh, thank God they didn't!
14:29From the outside, Pitsanga Manor looks like…
14:32…a typical grand manor house of the Georgian and Regency period.
14:37But then you notice the caryatids,…
14:39…female figures used in place of columns in ancient Greece,…
14:43…which here stand as statues above the entrance to the house.
14:48Now, they are clues pointing to the previous owner,…
14:50…the architect Sir John Soane,…
14:52…famous for the innovative Dulwich Picture Gallery,…
14:56…remodelling parts of Westminster, Whitehall,…
14:59…and the Bank of England,…
15:01…complete with identical caryatids.
15:07The son of a bricklayer, Soane was born in Oxfordshire, in 1753.
15:12As a teenager, he became a pupil of one of the eminent architects of the time,…
15:18…George Dance the Younger.
15:20While working with Dance, he helped to create an extension here, at Pitsanga Manor.
15:26In 1777, Soane was given a grant from the Royal Academy…
15:30…to undertake a grand tour of Europe.
15:34It was quite an achievement for a man of such humble beginnings.
15:39But he never forgot Pitsanga Manor,…
15:42…and in 1800, by then a well-to-do architect, he bought it.
15:47He left the extension he'd worked on untouched,…
15:50…but demolished the rest of the house, building a new one in its place.
15:55This grand hallway is typical of Soane's classical influences.
15:59Look at these roundels, with these plasterwork figures, painted to look like bronze.
16:04And this whole area illustrates his mastery of light.
16:09These coloured glass panels, all set just below the ceiling here.
16:15Soane wanted to banish the gloomy London daylight,…
16:18…and bring in something much sunnier and Mediterranean, what he called…
16:22…the lumière mystérieuse,…
16:24…the light that gives character to a building.
16:30At Pitsanga Manor, Soane experimented with light and colour,…
16:34…using a punchy, red-painted backdrop, to show off works by contemporaries like William Hogarth.
16:41But the house was not just a place to test his designs,…
16:45…it was also a home for lavish entertaining.
16:49Soane and his wife, Eliza, would frequently hold dinner parties here at Pitsanga,…
16:53…and this tablecloth evokes…
16:55…just some of the great and the good of the time he'd be invited,…
16:58…from Sir Francis Bourgeois, art collector,…
17:01…and court painter to King George III, to…
17:04…Nancy Storis, opera singer, contemporary and friend of Mozart's,…
17:09…and over there, Turner, one of Britain's greatest ever artists.
17:14Just imagine the conversations that would have taken place around this dining table!
17:18At such an exciting time, for the arts, and for science!
17:23I'd love to have been there!
17:34Now, this isn't something you want to drop on your toe, is it?
17:37– This is a 7 kilogram bronze plaque,… – Very much not!
17:41…and I must admit, as you hoiked it out of the back, onto my table,…
17:44…I was completely enamored of it straight away.
17:47– It's a beautiful looking piece of design. – Bless you!
17:49I went closer, I looked at the signature, and I saw Gabrielle,…
17:53…and that's for the Irish artist and sculptor, Gabrielle Hayes.
17:57That's right.
17:58I want to know how you acquired it.
18:00I was trawling through an antique shop in Dublin, many, many years ago,…
18:05…and it was sitting on the floor,…
18:07…and the proprietor told me that the old guy he'd got it from had had it sitting in a fireplace,…
18:12– …and I just thought, what a wonderful place! – Right!
18:14Because it does look like a fire when it's…
18:17…it's in position.
18:18– I just fell in love with the depiction of sport. – Yes!
18:21– And the movement to it, which is a real skill to depict in a static piece. – Yes!
18:26Now, she was born in Dublin in 1909, and she's best known to most people, I think, probably,…
18:30…for her designs on the first set of copper decimal coinage in Ireland.
18:34And, basically, that was the ha'penny, the penny, and the two pence piece.
18:38And those are those beautiful Celtic interlaced designs, aren't they?
18:42That means almost everybody in Ireland owned a piece of her art.
18:44Yes!
18:45It's testament, really, to the appreciation of her art as well,…
18:48…that she was really, in a way, asked to do such an important commission.
18:52But she did a lot of what I would call municipal commissions.
18:55– She made several different designs of plaques as well. – Yeah.
18:58So, this is not the only plaque of this type that she designed.
19:01Can you remember what you paid for it, all those years ago?
19:03Around a hundred pounds.
19:05Right, okay!
19:05Let's put a value on it now. I think not only did you pay a good price for this,…
19:09…but you acquired a really good and significant piece of her art.
19:12And I think if this came up for auction now,…
19:15– …it would make 2,000 to 3,000 pounds. – Wow!
19:18I'm very pleasantly surprised, and I love it as a piece.
19:21I just think, to me, it's… it's unique.
19:24We've come here this afternoon to be able to get some advice and information…
19:28…about our late father's medals from the war.
19:31Because, like so many, they were just in a tin in a drawer,…
19:35…and we didn't really know much about them.
19:42It's one of my favorite things,…
19:44– …a logbook. – Really?
19:45Really, because…
19:47…it's a great way to get to know your father, and to get to know his legacy.
19:52Really, because…
19:54…when they wrote these things, they had to do it in a specific way.
19:57But it's usually…
19:58…the comments that they wrote in the… in the next bit, which are the best.
20:03So, in very simple terms, it says, 3rd of April, 1944,…
20:07…dive bombing of German battleship Tirpitz.
20:11He's now going to go and dive bomb…
20:14…one of the largest battleships in the world.
20:16And they're going to fight back.
20:18And he writes over here, a highly successful attack.
20:21And then there's that line here, at the bottom, that says…
20:25…Ricky and Andy were shot down.
20:28– Yeah. – And they're gone.
20:30It's quite poignant, that.
20:31– It's one line, isn't it? – Yeah.
20:33Unless he's two friends gone.
20:34Not two, that's six people, because there's three in each aircraft.
20:38Who was this man?
20:39He's our father, my sister and myself, Stanley Alfred Errett.
20:44He was in the fleet air arm during the Second World War.
20:4723 years old, he was, when he was on this mission.
20:51And on HMS Victorious, for a 23-year-old…
20:55…to go into battle like that,…
20:57…knowing that you may not return,…
20:59…I think is… is brilliant.
21:01Well, the Tirpitz was… was a… a German battleship.
21:04It was a huge…
21:05…danger…
21:07…to our convoys.
21:08And one of the biggest problems we had was, if this…
21:11…battleship got out of the Norwegian fjord, where it was,…
21:15…it could get out, A, into the Atlantic,…
21:17…but also into the part of the battle up there, for the Russian convoys,…
21:22…which were supplying Russia.
21:24So, this was an enormous problem for us, and we had to stop it.
21:28Which one is he, in this photo?
21:30Second, from the left.
21:31– And he's actually written in himself, myself,… – Myself.
21:34…and then all these… all these flying mates.
21:35That… that is just such a fantastic photo, all in their flying kit,…
21:39…either just come back, or just ready to go.
21:41He got the… the plane there,…
21:43…by… because he was a navigator, and such.
21:45– Yeah. – So,…
21:46…he'd got there, so to keep himself occupied, he thought, I'll take some pictures.
21:49And what photograph did he take? Look at it!
21:51– Yeah. – He's actually taken a photograph…
21:53…of the bombs exploding…
21:55…on the Tirpitz itself.
21:57Yeah, and he said to me, he said it was the biggest ship he'd ever, ever, ever seen.
22:01That's the bit we don't get to see. We see the medals.
22:04That's the reality of what those medals are for.
22:07– We start here, 3945. – Yeah.
22:09Atlantic.
22:11Arctic.
22:12Africa, Burma, Italy.
22:143945 defence, 3945 war.
22:18So, this one,…
22:19…we usually see a distinguished flying cross, or a distinguished flying medal for airmen.
22:23But here, because Royal Naval Air Service, so…
22:26…an airman, but in the Royal Navy,…
22:27…we have a distinguished service cross.
22:29– Two away from a VC. – Yeah.
22:31And this was awarded for that raid on the Tirpitz.
22:34Have you ever thought what these are worth?
22:36Yes, it would be nice just to know what they're worth.
22:38You need to think about them as, um,…
22:40– …8,000 pounds. – Wow!
22:42Wow!
22:46Yeah.
22:47That's a shock!
22:53What a pair of dummies!
22:55And I'm not talking about us, I'm talking about these…
22:58…two dummy boards, here,…
23:00…of a young boy, and a young girl.
23:03Kind of an unusual thing to have in your home, in this day and age.
23:07Do they live in your home?
23:08So, they do live in our home, yes.
23:10– So, we inherited them from my wife's grandparents. – Okay.
23:13We don't know how long they've been in the family since then,…
23:16…but, obviously, my wife can remember them as a child.
23:19So, you know, we're now looking at, you know, what do we do next for them?
23:22– So, what we're looking at are two dummy boards. – Yeah.
23:26So, these, um,… sort of became popular in the Netherlands in the 17th century.
23:31And they had sort of a series of uses, really. I mean, obviously, they're incredibly decorative.
23:35They're also sometimes known by the slightly more, um,…
23:38…polite, let's say, phrase, of silent companions.
23:42– Okay. – So, there was an instance whereby…
23:45…you might have had one of these placed next to a fireplace,…
23:48…or placed next to a chair in the corner of a room,…
23:50…to relieve your sense of loneliness.
23:53You know, my memory of them, actually, when I first met my wife's grandparents, is they were,…
23:57…you know, to your point, beside a fireplace.
23:59Again, the stories go that that one was potentially…
24:03…rebacked because of some sort of fire or water damage.
24:06I think that's very possible, to be quite honest.
24:09So, looking at the back here, we've got one backed in a really nice piece of mahogany,…
24:14…and then another one here, which looks to me like oak, with that date on the back of 1725.
24:19– I don't think that's when they date from. – Okay.
24:21– I think that was added later. – Okay.
24:23So, for me, these probably date from maybe the late 19th century.
24:29So, they're hand-painted, as you probably noticed.
24:31Sometimes they're hand-painted onto canvas, and then mounted at board.
24:34It's difficult to say where they came from. They're probably British, I would have thought.
24:38And what's really nice about these is that there's no considerable damage.
24:42I mean, there's a little bit of wear. There's some sort of crocodiling on the finish there.
24:46The rise of decorative antiques, things that just look good, that are quirky, that are unique, that are one-offs,…
24:52…they're really popular right now.
24:54And I think, if you saw these for sale at auction,…
24:58…you'd probably be looking at somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds.
25:03Very interesting! Okay, wow!
25:11– What have you brought along? – A pocket calculator.
25:13– This is a calculator? It looks… Is it? – Open it.
25:16– What, here? – Yeah.
25:17– So, how does that work? – No idea.
25:19No idea!
25:21Neither have I!
25:22Right,… King's Patent. Okay.
25:25It's King George VI, you reckon?
25:27– Oh! – Wow!
25:30– It's had many surprises! – Yes, it has! Thank you!
25:42So, I must admit, I've never seen one of these before.
25:44Tell me where you got it.
25:46My grandmother gave it to me.
25:48She was downsizing.
25:50Did she say anything?
25:52Not really, no! No, it's a bit of a mystery.
25:55I absolutely love it!
25:57Funnily enough, it reminds me a bit of Beryl Cook, the painter,…
26:00…these figures.
26:01But this is Maggie Wareham.
26:03She's known for making the Royal Charger,…
26:05…a little wooden souvenir to mark Charles and Diana's wedding in 1981.
26:11This is lovely, because it's painted wood,…
26:14…and these little figures underneath are absolutely hilarious.
26:17It's meant to be a hot air balloon.
26:19And I would put a date on it, of 2010.
26:23I can see two people, at auction, going up to 500 pounds for it.
26:29Wow!
26:30Wow! I didn't think that much at all!
26:36Well, this very much comes from a period before the kitchen diner.
26:40It was in the center of the table, as you may gather,…
26:44…and it would have been filled with fruit, or something colorful.
26:48Is it used at home?
26:50It's not. I inherited it from my paternal grandparents,…
26:54…passed to my father,…
26:56…and it's been in store. So, no, we don't have it out on display at all.
26:59These bowls are rare to survive.
27:03They're very fragile.
27:05This one is absolutely the original one.
27:07You can tell by these little heart-shaped cut pieces,…
27:10…which fit exactly into the mount here.
27:13So, we know for certain that that's the bowl that it started out life with,…
27:17…when it was made.
27:19It's made by the famous and esteemed firm of Elkington & Co.
27:23It's electroplated, which is a process whereby the pure silver…
27:28…gets transferred through electrolysis onto the nickel,…
27:32…which has been plated with copper first, and that attracts the silver,…
27:35…and you get this coating of silver all over it,…
27:38…which is still largely survived.
27:41The base here is actually made a couple of years later.
27:44Elkington & Co., being a very prestigious firm,…
27:48…are one of the only, if not the only, firm of electroplate makers,…
27:51…who have a system of date letters.
27:54And the date letter on here…
27:56…tells us that this base was made in 1857.
28:01– Okay. – Er, the…
28:02– …bottom of here is marked for 1855. – Yes.
28:05The initials on there look like IH, so somebody would have bought it, and then had it engraved.
28:10– Is it something you like? – Yes, I do like it. It's beautiful. I love the way that…
28:14…he's leaning into her, and the detail, and the little panels around the base.
28:18I think it's exquisite.
28:20You're not alone in liking this.
28:21They are commercially desirable objects, because they're so decorative.
28:24If you had to go and buy that, it would cost you comfortably somewhere between 4 and 5 thousand pounds.
28:30– Wow! – Wow!
28:31It's a lovely thing.
28:32I hope it stays in your family for as long again as it's been so far.
28:35I hope so, too.
28:39My grandfather died when I was 6 months old, so I never met him.
28:43So, this was something that is very special, because I have a link with him.
28:47I feel as though I have a link with him.
28:49I have photographs of my grandfather playing the piano, with the Elkington on the top of it.
28:53So, it's been a great delight to find something else about it today that puts a context for me.
29:00So, it's a beautiful sunny day here at Pitsanger Manor,
29:03but you have brought me a picture of a much colder place.
29:07Can you tell me a little bit about this picture, and how it came to be yours?
29:10Well, it's a picture that was painted by Edward Wilson on the first expedition of Scots to the Antarctic,
29:19on the first expedition of the Scots to the Antarctic.
29:24on the first expedition of Scots to the Antarctic, on the Discovery.
29:30It's of Hutt Point at McMurdo Sound.
29:35It came to me because my grandfather was on Scots' first expedition.
29:40Who is he?
29:41He's Reginald Skelton, and he was given it by Edward Wilson on their return.
29:49So yes, Reginald Skelton was an engineer and a photographer.
29:54He was one of the officers on Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition to Antarctica between 1901 and 1904.
30:02You have also brought for me to see two soup bowls from the expedition, which are just so much fun.
30:09I love these.
30:10Now, the soup bowls are made by Royal Dalton,
30:14and they have on them the Discovery Antarctic Expedition 1901 crest with the little penguin in the middle.
30:21And this is the actual China that the officers would have eaten their soup out of on the ship.
30:27Yes, absolutely.
30:28I just find it extraordinary that they took China on a voyage like that, and that so much of it actually survived.
30:35So let's take a look at this painting.
30:37This is by Edward Wilson.
30:38He was on the expedition.
30:40He was the official artist for the expedition.
30:43And I just think the colours are amazing.
30:46Yes, we've just been to the Antarctic back in November,
30:49and I could not believe the tones of blue and the variety of whites and the pinks where penguin colonies are.
30:57Right, yes, fantastic.
30:59Well, lucky you getting to go to Antarctica.
31:01That's a pretty special place to visit.
31:04Wonderful, absolutely wonderful.
31:06I suppose we'd better talk about the value.
31:08When it comes to provenance, you couldn't ask for better provenance for these items, these soup bowls.
31:16I'm going to give them a value of ÂŁ3,500 each.
31:22Right.
31:23And this painting, which is so lovely and has a really nice inscription on the back from Wilson to your grandfather,
31:33I'm going to give that a value of ÂŁ7,000.
31:37Phew.
31:38So that makes a total value of ÂŁ14,000.
31:41How do you feel about that?
31:42I'm a bit astonished, quite honestly.
31:44I've never really sort of thought about value.
31:47And certainly, I mean, we would never sell them.
31:49So they just go down through the family.
31:51Well, it's a wonderful part of your family history, and I'm so glad that you have them on display and that you enjoy them.
31:56We do, yes, very much.
31:57Thank you very much for bringing them in.
31:59This has been a real treat for me.
32:00So this really is the height of Victoriana.
32:09What can you tell me about it?
32:10It belonged to my grandmother.
32:11She was born in 1884.
32:14I know she travelled.
32:15Whether she used it when she travelled, I don't know.
32:18It was given to my aunt, and I think my grandmother and my aunt used it as a sewing box for many years.
32:24But I know nothing about it, and I'd love to know anything you can tell me.
32:27You might have thought that perhaps it was Japanese.
32:30Yeah.
32:30But actually, it's English Victorian, mid-Victorian, dates from about 1850.
32:35So do you have any idea what it's made from?
32:38No, I have no idea.
32:39All I know is it's very heavy, and I wondered if it was made of some sort of wood, and if so, what?
32:44Well, it's actually papier-mâché.
32:46Is it?
32:47So it's papier-mâché, which is basically pulped paper, which is then binded with various things like oils and resins and glue.
32:54And then it's actually pressed into a mould, which is when we get this really fancy shapes.
33:00But if we open it, we can just see what the original decoration was like on it.
33:05You can just see how vibrant the inside is.
33:09And this is what the whole of the outside would have looked like originally.
33:12They are often stamped to the underside.
33:14This one isn't stamped, but I think it's probably undoubtedly by Jennings and Betridge.
33:19And they were the preeminent makers of this type of papier-mâché in the 19th century.
33:25They patented a design for use in these mother-of-pearl inserts, and I think they painted that in the 1820s.
33:33But this one dates from about 1850.
33:35So there was a time when a lot of this very high Victorian furniture and boxes wasn't terribly popular.
33:41There has been a renaissance of it, and they are now selling quite well at auction.
33:44And I would expect this to make somewhere in the region of ÂŁ300 to ÂŁ500.
33:48Really?
33:50Goodness, I wasn't expecting that.
33:52I was thinking about ÂŁ25 or ÂŁ50.
33:54Well, I hope you're pleased.
33:55So that was a surprise.
33:57But thank you for bringing it in.
33:58Well, thank you very much.
33:59Pleasure.
34:00And that's been really helpful.
34:04Just a stone's throw from Pitsanga Manor stands Ealing Studios, a giant of the British film industry,
34:11which started production here in 1902.
34:15But it was between 1938 and 1955, under the leadership of producer Michael Balkan,
34:21that the studios witnessed a golden age with a series of iconic films known as the Ealing Comedies.
34:31Broadcaster Matthew Sweet is here to tell us more about the appeal of these much-loved classics.
34:38Matthew, we're surrounded by posters of some of the great films from Ealing Studios.
34:42Just remind us of some of the other titles we might have seen.
34:44Well, films like Passport to Pimlico, Whiskey Galore, Kind Hearts and Coronets.
34:48There have been films being made here, just over there actually, in Ealing Studios since 1902.
34:53But I think when people say Ealing film, or perhaps more specifically Ealing comedy,
34:58they are thinking of quite a small group of films that were made here just after the war.
35:03Films that express something about Britain in that period.
35:07And what was it that gave those films such an enduring place in our hearts in British comedy?
35:13The head of the studio, Michael Balkan, said that at Ealing they made films that were about projecting Britain and the British character.
35:20That's one of the things that they worked to do.
35:23Well, let's talk about some of these films. You mentioned Passport to Pimlico.
35:26And that's a very striking design of that poster.
35:28Yeah, absolutely. This one was designed by the head of the publicity department at Ealing,
35:33who was a man called Sidney John Woods.
35:36And he did something rather radical.
35:37Most film companies would use in-house illustrators.
35:41But he decided he was going to look out into the world and commission proper, quite fancy artists and illustrators to make the images for these movies.
35:50These do not look like film posters made by any other sort of studio.
35:53They're more like book illustrations.
35:55So this cartoon in the middle here is by Nicholas Bentley, who illustrated T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
36:04But it's Woods who does this amazing graphic design here with the characters in these kind of balloon-like shapes.
36:10And, of course, the actors. I mean, we've got Margaret Rutherford there.
36:13And then we've got Dirk Bogard in the blue.
36:16I mean, these were some of the great British actors, weren't they?
36:18They're full of all of these rather recognisable characters played by character actors who everybody got to know.
36:24Dirk Bogard just coming through here. He's the figure here represented in this painting by James Boswell.
36:30And then what have we got here? Nicholas Nickleby.
36:32And, of course, the great Dickens' classic.
36:35Yes, it's quite rare that for Ealing to do a literary adaptation.
36:38This is by Edward Ardizzone, the illustration here.
36:42And if you know Ardizzone's work, he illustrated books like Stig of the Dump and Land of Green Ginger.
36:48Of course, that's where I recognise it from, Stig of the Dump.
36:50It's very distinctive, isn't it? Yeah.
36:52These all came from the Kent Museum of the Moving Image.
36:55But if anyone watching has any of these at home or posters from that period, they should consider themselves very lucky, shouldn't they?
37:00They should look after them too. I mean, they come up at auction sometimes.
37:03Well, it's wonderful to see them, and particularly here in Ealing.
37:05Thank you so much.
37:08MUSIC
37:19I love these clubs that you've brought to my table.
37:22But tell me, how have you come to have them?
37:25Well, my partner, he's from Bermuda, and unfortunately, he lost his parents in the last couple of years.
37:31We flew out there, and I've been going through all of his family belongings.
37:34And then we were going through a wardrobe, and we found these wrapped in some cloth.
37:38And I immediately thought, wow, these are obviously, you know, very old.
37:43But all I can find online is that they could be African, used in war, and that is literally all we know.
37:50I'm fascinated by how they got to Bermuda.
37:55But they didn't get to Bermuda from Africa.
37:58They got to Bermuda from Fiji.
38:01Wow.
38:03OK.
38:04In the Pacific, they are Polynesian.
38:06They're called ulas, and they're throwing clubs.
38:09They're used in warfare, and they throw the clubs and then collect the clubs once they've felled a man.
38:16And they have a brace of them in their sashes, in their belts.
38:20And these are just wonderful examples.
38:23I love this lobed type here.
38:26And as you can see, you've got this decoration around there.
38:30And then smaller lobes within the bigger lobes.
38:33This is the sort of rudimentary type with just simple, basic lobes.
38:39You can see that's more simple than that, and that's sophisticated.
38:42And they've all got this chip carving on the handle.
38:46But this one is made from the root of a tree where the wood's very dense and almost cankered there.
38:53I have never seen one with a loop for a thong.
38:57That is very, very unusual.
38:59These look old enough to be 18th century.
39:03I mean, these are so old.
39:04I mean, I've rarely seen the chip carving worn almost to a point where you can't see it.
39:12And they have a value, as I'm sure you've probably guessed.
39:16And I would value these gorgeous throwing clubs at ÂŁ2,000 to ÂŁ3,000.
39:22I'm glad we didn't throw them in a skiff.
39:25Exactly.
39:26They're fabulous.
39:28And I'm so glad you didn't use them as firewood when you found them in the cupboard.
39:37Well, I've got to say, this beautiful sunshine that we're bathed in today really kind of brings these to life.
39:43They're made of a cloisonne, which is a type of glass enamel, if you want for a better word.
39:47They apply on this sort of a matrix and pattern in kind of wire.
39:51And then they put in glass enamels.
39:53They fire it.
39:54It comes out of the firing, or they file it down, and then they repeat the process.
39:58When I think of cloisonne, I think of two countries.
40:01I think of Japan, and I think of China.
40:03And these are Chinese and date from the 19th century.
40:07So I'm going to pass this over to you, and you can tell me their story to you.
40:11Well, I don't really remember them.
40:14They belonged to my family, and my mother and father were downsizing.
40:19And she said she was putting them out, and I thought, oh, you can't do that.
40:24And so they've basically been sat in my flat for the last 30 years doing nothing.
40:29But my cousin Jane does remember them from my family home.
40:34Yes.
40:35I remember them when they lived in Stirlingshire outside Glasgow,
40:39and in the small sitting room with a Charles Rennie Macintosh bookcase,
40:45and I remember them standing there.
40:47I say that's very good company they kept, didn't they?
40:50And they're just fabulous. There's so much going on.
40:53You've got these lovely flowers and these kind of gnarly trees.
40:57You've got the butterflies here.
40:59And then actually if I turn this one around, we've got these lovely birds,
41:02which is mirrored on both.
41:04And they're all kind of reserved against this lovely kind of matrix,
41:07sort of dark, black or noir ground.
41:10I mean, I think they're wonderful things. What do you like about them?
41:12Well, I don't really.
41:15They're very dark. They're not really my taste.
41:18There's a massive amount of work in them, and I like the birds on them,
41:22but they're not something that I would really enjoy giving house room to.
41:26Right. So we said they're 19th century, you've said they're Chinese.
41:29You don't like them. Do you like them?
41:31I do quite. You're not having them, Jane. I'm sorry.
41:35I think they're easily worth ÂŁ1,000 to ÂŁ1,500.
41:38They're really amazing.
41:41Well, we learned a lot today.
41:43So I think there's a possibility I'll keep them now.
41:46I appreciate them far more.
41:48You could learn to love them. Possibly. Possibly even.
41:58You've brought this fantastically unusual and elegant chair in to show us today.
42:04Tell me what you know about it first.
42:07I've had it about 15 years, I think, roughly that.
42:10My father gave it to me when he was in his mid to late 80s.
42:14What I know about it is that it was designed by someone called Richard Riemerschmidt.
42:19Richard Riemerschmidt was a polymath designer.
42:22He was instrumental in setting up the Vereinigte Werkstätten in Munich,
42:27which was a sort of union of workers, much like the Guild of Handicrafts in England.
42:34He particularly was into his furniture design.
42:37And he was influenced by the English arts and crafts movement,
42:41but also the German Art Nouveau, the Junkenstil.
42:45And you have that fantastically illustrated in this chair.
42:49Do you know anything else about the family history?
42:52I think my grandfather bought it in liberties, pre-First World War.
42:58I'm not absolutely certain.
43:00So it's a late 1890s design.
43:03And it's walnut and obviously brass studded leather,
43:07which is typical of this sort of chair that he designed.
43:11This is an early model of one which was then used in the Liberty Tea Rooms
43:16and actually sold through Liberty as well.
43:19So traditionally they're called music room chairs.
43:22Is that what it's been used for through your family?
43:24No. My father was an artist.
43:28And this was the chair that he used for his models to sit in.
43:33I remember it as a child in his studio the whole time when we were growing up.
43:38And I actually sat in it to have my portrait painted by him when I was about 18,
43:44very grumpily, because it's quite comfortable.
43:47But if you're sitting in it for two hours...
43:49Well, this old chair is thought to be quite a moment in design history.
43:54And one of them is held in the Victorian Albert Museum in London.
43:58Another example is held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
44:02It's a pretty special thing.
44:04It's in wonderful condition as well.
44:06Has it always been in this shape?
44:09Well, when I inherited it from my father,
44:12which was a lovely gift, which I wasn't expecting,
44:15it was covered in paint splatters.
44:18And the seat, which I think he had reupholstered the seat,
44:23the leather seat, was very, very tatty.
44:26So I'm very interested in chairs.
44:29So I cleaned it up and redid the wood,
44:35just oiled it and restored it a bit.
44:37And I redid the seat as well.
44:39You've done a really lovely job on it.
44:41It doesn't look overly restored.
44:43It doesn't look too clean.
44:45I think that a realistic auction estimate for this
44:48would be in the region of ÂŁ2,000 to ÂŁ3,000.
44:52Oh, would it?
44:54I had in my head about ÂŁ600.
44:56I always feel things like this aren't actually worth what they're worth,
45:00if you know what I mean.
45:02But, no, that's amazing. Very interesting.
45:08Sometimes on the Roadshow,
45:10we're lucky enough to meet trailblazers in their field.
45:14In the late 1960s, actor Cleo Silvestre became the first black woman
45:18to play a leading role at the National Theatre in London.
45:24But before she took up acting,
45:26Cleo was part of the new British music scene,
45:30recording the single, To Know Him Is To Love Him,
45:33with the Rolling Stones.
45:35Mark Allen was thrilled to meet her
45:37and take a look at some cherished items from her early career.
45:42Here is the actual record. Yeah.
45:44Can you kind of explain what that experience was like?
45:47It was fantastic, because it was in the early 60s
45:50I discovered blues music, round about 17.
45:53And I used to go down to the Marquee Club
45:56and Ealing Blues Club as well. Right.
45:59And I really got into blues and met lots of musicians and everything.
46:04Right. One of the persons that I met was Mick Jagger.
46:08Here is a picture of you with the Rolling Stones... Yeah.
46:12..on the front of Pop magazine.
46:14That is just absolutely amazing.
46:16Look at you, you look absolutely fabulous there.
46:19So they were forming a band and could I find some backing singers?
46:24And at the time, people like the Ronettes and everything were in fashion.
46:30Yes. And so they wanted some black singers. Right.
46:33But in those days, the demographic in London
46:35was very different from it is now. Right.
46:37I managed to find a couple of people,
46:40but one of them was tone deaf, so that didn't work.
46:44LAUGHTER
46:45And we started rehearsing, and then one day Mick phoned me up and said,
46:50oh, we're in the studio and Andrew, who was by then their manager,
46:55Andrew Lou Golden, wants you to come along and make a record.
47:00And I think that was the first time I'd ever bunked off school.
47:03The first time you'd ever bunked off school!
47:05So I bunked off school and I made this record.
47:08I think we did two takes and that was it.
47:11You obviously met some very interesting people as well,
47:14because there's a card here which really, really fascinated me.
47:18And I opened it up and inside it says, and this is hand-drawn, in fact,
47:22hand-painted, it says, to Cleo,
47:24happy Christmas and a happy new year, yeah, yeah, with love, Jimmy.
47:28Which Jimmy is that?
47:30Jimmy Page.
47:31Jimmy Page! From Led Zeppelin.
47:34Yeah, my mum used to cook for all the groups and everything,
47:38so Brian and Mick would come up and also Jimmy would often, you know,
47:43come to my mum's council flat in Euston.
47:46So he sent that card for Christmas.
47:49I love that, and he's painted that specially for you.
47:52That is just a cracking thing.
47:54So it is the Antiques Row Show, after all,
47:56and, you know, I know this is a very personal thing,
47:59but I am going to talk about value,
48:01because even though I know you're not going to sell it,
48:03this incredible personal little object that was drawn
48:07and sent to you by Jimmy Page,
48:09I think is worth ÂŁ300 to ÂŁ400 at auction.
48:12Really? Oh, my God. Absolutely.
48:14Absolutely. I know lots of Led Zeppelin fans
48:17that would give their eye teeth to own a little object like this.
48:20Yeah.
48:21But it's such a personal and wonderful little object.
48:24Yeah, yeah.
48:25It's been fascinating talking to you today.
48:28Thank you for coming. I really appreciate it.
48:30Oh, thank you for putting up with me.
48:32No, you've been wonderful. Thank you.
48:34Thank you all.
48:48I'd love to say that he is the most beautiful thing I've seen all day,
48:52but do you know what?
48:53Really, he's quite a wild beast, isn't he?
48:57He's a bulldog, and he is a performer, isn't he?
49:00And this is what he does.
49:06Wonderful!
49:08I'd like to know where he came from.
49:10He spent 65 years in Fulham. Right.
49:13In my grandmother's flat and then my great-grandmother's flat.
49:16It's made from papier-mâché,
49:18and then he's got wheels underneath his feet.
49:22He's a great plaything.
49:24He's going to be almost certainly made in France.
49:27He's going to be dating from around 1880, 1890.
49:31I've seen them go for between ÂŁ800 and ÂŁ1,500.
49:35Look, he's not in great condition,
49:38but I think his charm is absolutely overwhelming.
49:41Irresistible. Irresistible. Are you irresistible?
49:47Thank you for bringing him in. Thank you so much.
49:55Modern art on a plate.
49:59When I see this, I kind of think of Picasso, Modigliani,
50:04all of the greats of early 20th-century art.
50:07But when I see it on ceramics like this, I think of Tybalt Reich,
50:11who was better known as a textile designer.
50:15World famous, pretty much.
50:17He had the name, but what connection is he to you?
50:22He was my father. Good heavens!
50:25I grew up in the house that he designed in Stratford-upon-Avon.
50:28So this is the house?
50:30That's the house that I was born in, in 1952,
50:34and that is the little garden shed where the pottery started.
50:38Fascinating. So he moved to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1946, I believe.
50:43He started his textile business then,
50:46and what he wanted was to find some pottery
50:49that would accentuate the designs, to mould him with the designs there.
50:53So he couldn't find anything that he really liked,
50:56so he decided just to do his own thing.
50:58And it did pretty well? It did.
51:01I mean, the pottery really took off,
51:03to the point that the potter who was in this little shed here
51:06couldn't keep up with the demand.
51:08So he talked to Denby Pottery, and Denby took on the manufacturing.
51:13This piece is marked Denby, because I've seen this pattern before. Yes.
51:17But this piece is much earlier, right?
51:19Yes. That will be something that was actually created
51:22in the little potting shed.
51:24So it was 1953 that he caught the attention of Denby, or approached them,
51:27and they put the range into production.
51:29So what do we have here? We have a couple, sort of one leaning into the other.
51:34And I love the stylisation here.
51:36I mean, we're sort of inspired by, as I mentioned before,
51:38Picasso, the sort of school of Paris of the early 20th century.
51:41And it was also very influenced by his Hungarian upbringing.
51:45Because Hungarian folk art was a big sort of area of inspiration for him.
51:50Yeah. So what I like about these as well is when you look at a lot of
51:53Tigo wearers, it became known, at Denby, it's graffito.
51:57He used a number of techniques, but a lot of it,
51:59you're scratching into the surface,
52:01whereas this appears to be a transfer pattern printed on top.
52:05Yep. Do you like them? Yes!
52:09That's what we wanted. That's a reaction.
52:12That's what I wanted.
52:13And Tigo wearer and the designs of Tybalt Reich are still sought after today.
52:16I'm going to say ÂŁ500 to ÂŁ700 and ÂŁ200 to ÂŁ300,
52:20based on the fact that everybody here on this gloriously sunny day cheered.
52:25Great. Thank you. Thank you very much.
52:35Our military experts see hundreds of medals awarded to troops
52:40and, very occasionally, to the animals that assisted them in war.
52:44During World War I, more than 16 million animals were put into service,
52:49from horses to dogs.
52:51But it wasn't until the Second World War
52:53that their service would be properly recognised.
52:57When, in 1943, the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals
53:01inaugurated a medal to honour animal bravery.
53:06So, when you came to my table this morning,
53:08you opened the bag and you told me what was inside,
53:11and I said, no, stop.
53:12Now we're just going to try and film this one,
53:14because this is so fantastic.
53:16And here we are.
53:17The Dickey Medal from the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals.
53:22This one was awarded to a pigeon called...
53:25Mary. Mary.
53:27Now, what was Mary's job?
53:29Well, originally she was a racing pigeon,
53:32but then she was, along with her other pigeons from Grandad's loft,
53:37she was put into the pigeon service
53:40and she was airlifted and dropped behind enemy lines in France.
53:45These pigeons were dropped into France for the French Resistance
53:50to send back messages to the UK
53:53about secret things that they'd found out to stop the Germans.
53:57That's right, yeah.
53:58That, therefore, means that this, bless her,
54:01is the James Bond of the pigeon world.
54:04I hadn't thought of her like that.
54:06And they went with these little things here,
54:09strapped on their legs. Yeah.
54:12Bigger ones with larger messages in, strapped to the back of them.
54:16And told me what that was.
54:17A little first aid kit that often went with them.
54:20A first aid kit on the pigeon? On the pigeon, yeah.
54:23How many times did Mary go?
54:25Oh, she went lots of times,
54:26but the three main times that she got the medal for...
54:30First time in 1942, she came back and she'd been hawked,
54:33because the Germans sent up hawks to kill the pigeons
54:36so that they couldn't get back.
54:39She got back that time and needed umpteen stitches,
54:42which Grandad, being a bootmaker, was able to do himself.
54:45And then she went out again.
54:48Another time she came back and she'd been shot under her wing.
54:51More stitches, off she went again.
54:54Her last trip, she was sent off and she was ten days overdue
54:59and they didn't know where she was.
55:01And she was found by a farmer in his field
55:04and got her back to Grandad.
55:07She was very seriously injured, touch and go whether she'd survive.
55:11Grandad made a little leather collar to keep her neck up.
55:16And she survived, but she was retired from war service after that.
55:21And she was given the medal.
55:24The Dickey Medal.
55:26It genuinely is the Victoria Cross for animals.
55:29It's the highest award for bravery that an animal can be given.
55:33On this it says, for gallantry we also serve.
55:38Magnificent.
55:40She was one brave pigeon, wasn't she?
55:42Oh, yeah. Yes, she was.
55:44That really takes some doing, because the messages that are coming back
55:49are genuinely life and death messages.
55:51And they've only got one chance at this
55:53and they placed all of their trust in Mary the pigeon.
55:57So have you ever thought what this thing is worth?
55:59No. We've wondered, but we've never had it valued.
56:02ÂŁ30,000.
56:06She's worth every penny.
56:08I totally agree.
56:10I think this has been one of the best things I've ever filmed
56:13because that little pigeon, so brave.
56:15Thank you so much.
56:20Brilliant.
56:28When I heard the valuation I was very surprised.
56:31It's incredible.
56:33These little things that Grandad had kept
56:35and talked to his grandchildren about.
56:38We're immensely proud of this heritage that we've got in the family
56:42and it's going to stay in the family.
56:44It will stay in the family, that's for sure.
56:49We've had a wonderful day here in the glorious sunshine of West London
56:53and what better way to top it off than with an exotic refreshment?
56:59Like many of those who enjoyed the finer things in life of the 19th century,
57:03the architect Sir John Soane, who lived here at Pitsanger Manor,
57:06loved the rare novelty of a pineapple.
57:11It was a prized fruit, shipped in from tropical climes, a status symbol.
57:16And he used the motif of a pineapple on the entrance here to Pitsanger,
57:20even on his family tomb.
57:23And it's said that his favourite dessert was pineapple ice.
57:33I can see why.
57:35From the Antiques Roadshow at Pitsanger Manor,
57:37until next time, bye-bye.
57:40.
58:10.