Members of the public bring along their antiques for examination. In Stroud, Gloucestershire, the experts find a 17th-century cushion mirror and an early marine chronometer.
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"Living down there was like living in a bean pod.
"Our horizon of woods was the limit of our world.
"The trees moved in the wind with a dry roaring that seemed a natural utterance of the landscape."
Lines from Cider With Rosie - Laurie Lee's account of childhood in a small Cotswold village in the 1920s.
"working for the squire, or on the farms, or down in the cloth mills at Stroud."
for 400 years, Stroud was a leading player in the woollen trade.
and it's said the water of the Frome changed colour according to the cloth being dyed.
the mills produced the Stroudwater scarlet, worn by our soldiers in the American War of Independence.
Napoleon met the Redcoats at Waterloo.
The colour is echoed in the uniforms of the guardsmen outside Buckingham Palace.
shows the bright red cloth drying in the sun, on tenterhooks.
So THAT'S where that phrase came from!
The atmosphere in Stanley Mill is quite suspenseful.
It's five storeys high and back in 1840, it echoed to the clatter of 100 hand looms.
It's still working, but stopped producing cloth in the late 1980s.
These days, the machines burst into life only on special occasions.
This is a carding machine, that was used to remove the nap from cloth.
to invent what became the joy and the bane of the lives of homeowners - the lawn mower.
Stroud was also part of the Cotswolds Arts and Crafts Movement.
were one of the first commissions for William Morris and Company in 1862.
The aim was to create a band of colour around the church.
There are windows here by Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Morris himself.
as people wend their way to the Stratford Park Leisure Centre.
There are a few reasons why I'm interested in this bureau.
It's of a type we see all the time.
-it dates from the 1790s as a piece of furniture.
-And the decoration dates from the 1860s to 1870s, that sort of thing.
of heavily carved furniture of the Carolean and Jacobean periods.
-where there were pieces of early furniture which you could take home and make into something else.
They knocked together Elizabethan beds and made cabinets out of them, and things like that.
to bring it up into fashion.
We call it, probably rather dismissively, "the vicar's carving class" type furniture.
Just as there were needlework classes, there were carving and painting and music classes.
This is an object which was subjected to the vicar's carving class.
"Daddy, what can I practise on?" "Use the old bureau up in the attic."
some young person carved this out of sheer love. "Look what I've done!" They'd have been thrilled with it.
And there inside is the original interior.
And around here, nice black line... which is fairly typical of the period 1790 to 1810.
-These are the original handles. They're lovely.
And so nice to see.
-Ironic they did that to the outside of it!
It's got the original feet and of its type, it's a cracking good example.
I mean, it's wonderful! There is a market value to it.
-It would be £1,500 to £2,000.
What a lovely family of game birds! I suppose they're quails.
They're in the cornfield - hence the sheaf of corn.
It's the mother and father quail and the tiny babies.
Some are hiding under the mother and one's got on top of her back.
-They're gorgeous little things. Have you had them a long time?
-They were left to my wife over 15 years ago.
They're marked underneath the base with the Meissen crossed-swords mark.
of the birds, and the crossed-swords mark, puts it in date about mid-19C.
They're not terribly early in Meissen terms, but they're absolutely, staggeringly beautiful.
They're some of the nicest Meissen groups that I've seen.
Wonderful! We must be looking at something worth around about £4,000.
-Well, I've seen people shocked on the Roadshow before - I know what it feels like now!
Now, Samuel Lysons was a local man.
His father was vicar of Rodmarton and Cherington, which is not so far from here.
This is An Account Of The Roman Antiquities Discovered At Woodchester In The County Of Gloucester.
why it's in this terrible state.
And the bowl leaked into the chest and she didn't realise.
That's absolutely terrible, because it is the most magnificent book.
He was introduced to George III.
He actually dedicates this to "George III, King of Britain".
This really is a magnificent work.
working outside Woodchester Church and the site of the famous mosaics.
And the scale of this book - there are 40 plates in it - is just amazing.
This plate here, which is not an aquatint... It is, in fact, a soft-ground etching.
This goes on right the way through. Another magnificent plate here.
seems to concentrate exactly where your eye is supposed to be.
but that's where it's supposed to be. It is the most magnificent thing.
were actually found the year before.
and then engraved himself. So all this work is absolutely everything to do with him. Quite extraordinary.
And this is probably the most famous plate in the book.
It is the picture of the Orpheus pavement here, completely restored.
because I don't think it's quite like that.
It's in need of tender loving care.
and so can be washed, but it'd cost an awful lot of money to put right.
-um...a fine copy would make £1,000 to £1,500.
you'd take out those wonderful plates and clean them and hang them on somebody's wall.
What a fascinating Arts and Crafts beaker! Tell me about it.
Janet got up, took that down, gave it to her and said, "Take great care of it - it's yours."
putting Morris's ideas into effect in the metalwork.
-Silver, copper work and so on.
-that things had to be made using traditional craft methods.
in the surface. The decoration inside is fascinating.
I'm led to believe the decoration is showing the ash and the bee.
-Ashbee did a lot of the designs.
-Which were then made by the craftsmen in the guild.
-This idea of the small group working together!
I think is magical. It's a very difficult thing to put a value on.
Um...I could see it going well above that.
My feeling is this could be by John Pearson, who's very popular just now.
and moved to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds in 1902.
-What's very nice is the detail in the scales.
It has been cleaned, but not over-cleaned.
-And I would have thought, price-wise, probably around about the £800 mark.
-Thank you. I shall keep it.
It says, "Made in Hungary". I think that probably says it all.
It's likely to be 1930 or between the wars with that mark on it.
It's in a bit of a state, I'm afraid.
I think I wore my first copy out, had to buy another, and now I've even got it on CD.
So it's one of those albums that stays with you.
-But in this case, I think it's a fiver.
It's my grandad's. He was flying a Lancaster in the Second World War.
-Yes, that's him there with the hat on.
when he got shot and he had to bail out because it was going to crash.
"port outer feathered, bailed out."
-Landed in France... So, then what happened to him?
-where he met up with his friends.
-He was lucky, wasn't he?
that we might even be able to double that if it was ever on the market.
There are two institutions in Britain that look after war memorials.
-One is The National Inventory of War Memorials.
-Fine. So it is listed in their database.
-The other is The Friends of War Memorials.
-They're very much involved in the re-siting and the re-dedication of panels that have become detached.
-So contact them. They have a conservation service who will advise you what to do about display.
and one has to treat it with reverence.
Things like this are completely uncollectable. They have a meaning far beyond collection.
They are very important objects to those involved and one must say these have no commercial value.
set with different gemstones - rubies, diamonds and sapphires.
And there are one or two other rubies there... And these are probably tourmalines and citrines.
Very prettily made, and each of these is a letter - a signal flag letter.
They're engraved on the back. It spells "remembrance", doesn't it?
to his wife or lady love.
it's absolutely full of floral and foliate and field detail, isn't it?
-Is that how you think of it?
with my parents. When they passed away, it came to me. So, we lived in the country.
It's full of the most beautiful little things. I used to gaze in it.
echoed in the carved detail underneath, which is so delightful.
Even in the legs, you get the sense of the organic, of stems, of growth.
with the magical name of Galle.
He loved the country and liked to turn his furniture into organic objects.
you can see he continued the theme all the way round - delightful.
Galle is one of THE names of French Art Nouveau.
He was working at the end of the 19C. In fact, he died in 1904, so he just went into the 20C.
-it doesn't have a great deal of detail in it.
so there's a mixture between the high quality exhibition pieces and this.
-might well be around £3,000.
or if it is by the master's hand.
he employed a studio assistant in the 1860s.
This was the pattern of his career. And the way it would work was that Burne-Jones drew all the time.
His nervous tic, if you like, was drawing.
but maybe a finished drawing for the picture, and the studio assistant would take a canvas and block it in.
and then a touch of green in the bodies, etc.
This is not the canvas that was originally worked on - the canvas was much larger.
-..to cut off the Gorgon's head.
-And she's lost her head, as we say.
What is this strange animal on this stand worth? It's a slight anomaly.
-Here you're buying a little piece of Burne-Jones.
Arguably the best artist in Britain in the second half of the 19C.
-A very good Burne-Jones is worth over a million.
-A good studio piece is worth under £100,000.
-perhaps around £10,000 - that sort of value. £10,000 or £15,000.
-It's unlikely to make any more.
-You've got more at home?
It's a bit of a disease when you get to that!
-When the money runs out, isn't it?
What will I do with them at the end?
Well, let's start with this little one.
and she would be dating from... the first half of the 19th century.
-She's really old. She's the oldest one you've got here.
which is exciting enough as it is - into a fortune-telling doll.
-and thought, "I haven't got a doll with a paper skirt - I'll have that one".
-she would have been in the £400 bracket.
-Because she has that, it'll be double or even triple, so something between about £800 and £1,200 for her.
couldn't be more different - from a completely different era.
You've got this curved limb body, which means he can sit up nicely.
-than on idealised representations of children.
and by a slightly unusual maker.
-I'd put him in the sort of £400 area.
-We call it that - it's not tortoiseshell, of course.
And it's cut when it's malleable.
You remember those old 78 gramophone records you used to have, those black discs - I think they're vinyl?
Turtle shell reacts the same way to heat, and so is flattened and then can be cut in thin slivers of veneer.
accordingly the colour changes, as it's translucent.
If you put red, yellow, it will show through varying shades of density. This is a plain cream background.
This is its natural colour.
There is actually the perfect colour.
Only one little cover. The other's disappeared.
for insurance purposes - that's how much you'd have to pay to replace it.
-The prices of these have gone up and up.
which is delightful. This is ivory with tortoiseshell.
A silver escutcheon on the front and its original key.
And...well, those are replacements, actually.
I thought it was too good to be true that there were two of them!
Yes, the original ones have gone. Not to worry - that matters not at all.
It's still a delightful little caddy. Today, between £2,500 and £3,000.
-Delightful. That's about 1780, 1790, that sort of date, yes.
So you've got early 19th century, late 18th century.
which is absolutely wonderful, is the earliest of all three.
This was made in India.
Those particular designs went out of fashion by the 1770s.
and a piece of ivory cut to fit in.
This is individually placed little pieces of ivory.
-Oh, it's amazing work, amazing work.
And then further etched on the surface to give it even more life and realism.
Then blacked in with ink to show the engraved lines.
You see that, curiously, it's a stationery box.
At one time there were two divisions, across from there to there.
The timber is, I'm quite certain, either rosewood or coromandel.
..it would cost you certainly in excess of £10,000.
This is a very interesting sword.
-Uh-huh. And it's a Borneo headhunter's sword.
-Has it been used in anger?
-Well, this on the end here is human hair.
-So the signs are it possibly could have been.
-What a horrible thought. How old is it?
I would think about mid-19th century.
-Is this ALL human hair?
-They weren't hunting blondes, were they?
Well, I suppose it's a grey-haired man, that.
Wow! And what's it worth?
Around £250, as near as I can say.
I have to say I have never seen a chatelaine like this before.
Until I saw this one, I didn't know that such a chatelaine existed.
in sort of age of the family, and, of course, these huge Victorian families that they had.
the pencil... What's this one?
Oh, pincushion - so, with the velvet, you push your pins down into that.
so not only has she got the pencil, but she's got a little aide-memoire there with those ivory tablets.
Now, there should be... Let's see.
-She was definitely well-equipped with this little chatelaine!
I would have thought we're talking about at least £1,500, if not £2,000.
And if it went way beyond that, you know, it just would not surprise me.
Since I took early retirement, I've taken to going to local auctions and I just fell in love with that pot.
I loved the shape, I loved the decoration and the colours.
-It's a jolly nice Wedgwood teapot.
-meant to look like ancient Etruscan pottery.
-The red and the black colours.
Almost looking like Greek or Etruscan ceramics.
so it's 200 years plus.
-It's probably got a little bit dirtied or stained.
-Have you had a wash of it?
-I washed it very gently.
-It has a whiteness on the surface.
-There's a white bloom on it.
But the pot itself is in splendid condition. I like it very much.
-Yes, just over - about £220.
-Do you want to know what the value is now?
-I would be pleased to know.
This watercolour transports us off to the Middle East, to the desert here.
with Bedouin, I suppose they are.
It's by JA Benwell, 1862.
Now, that's Joseph Austin Benwell.
and he travelled in India in the 1860s.
-This actually was a wedding present to us in 1938.
Prices for these pictures are very strong.
-is about £6,000 to £8,000.
A lot of the Roadshow is about what might have been. I've got a little story I can weave on that level.
Um...this, I think, is a device for keeping your cloak round your neck.
On it, in Arabic, there is an inscription. How good's your Arabic?
It looks like "John Lewis"!
-What it says is "Bernard Shaw".
-Why should there be a cloak clip with "Bernard Shaw" in Arabic?
"I can make this for tuppence."
There was apparently a close friendship between Bernard Shaw and TE Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia.
"Bernard, I've got you a present - here is your name in Arabic on a stud."
-A wonderful idea if it could be proven.
We'd be talking thousands of pounds, because it's such an item to tie the two together.
-Is that what attracted you to it?
-I think so. Anything that's got stitch on is my hobby. I just adore embroidery.
Yes, I am, and I teach embroidery too, so it's a joint hobby of mine.
Right, well what we're looking at here is a Chinese robe.
as far as the various emblems and what they mean.
One of the five bats, perhaps, known as wu fu.
which would mean when you wore it, you'd be shrouded with good luck and so on. And look at the front here.
and, at some point, they've been added on.
I would put it at around 1900.
-Perhaps five years either way. I wouldn't put it back much further than that.
although they're old additions. I would have put it around £800 to perhaps £1,000.
-But THIS is a completely different category.
-for a wedding kimono in Japan.
one that is put on after the obi is put on, which goes round the waist.
And it looks so fantastic when it's worn.
I'd put this at perhaps 1920, 1930.
£1,500, £2,000, that sort of figure.
-Do you have these pieces on display?
-No, they're in a box.
So you haven't seen them before?
It's the first time I remember seeing them.
not a transfer print. Do you know where they were made or what period?
Not really. I'm not a china person, but I imagine they may be English.
But when? I have no idea, really.
Yes, they are English. They were made at the Worcester factory.
-Worcester. Worcester factory in Worcestershire.
-They were made about 1765.
-virtually pristine condition - absolutely jewel-like enamel painting.
They could have been made yesterday.
-One could forgive anyone for thinking they were modern.
-But they're absolutely beautifully made.
Look at the delicate way this twig handle has been made, and the leaves.
-is this beautiful green. A very Georgian colour, pea green.
It's made in a most interesting way.
he uses a knife to cut out all these shapes, all by hand.
They must have lost many pieces and never got them into the kiln, so it's quite an expensive process.
Have you thought about values at all?
but a guess would be a couple of hundred quid for each item.
-I've got another stand and basket.
-A pair of stands and a pair of baskets.
-Are they both in this condition?
a cushion mirror on this programme? It's called that simply because it looks like a cushion.
It was, I know, in my grandfather's home and he died in 1927 and it passed to an aunt.
She was a spinster schoolmistress and most of her things came to me.
She always referred to it as the Jacobean mirror, but it wouldn't go that far, would it?
"Jacobean" was used 50 years ago as almost a generic term for anything of the 17C. So Carolean or Jacobean.
Jacobean describes the first half of the century, before the Civil War, and Carolean afterwards.
-We didn't have this type of mirror in the first half of the 17C.
It would come from 1685 to 1700.
with these lovely oyster-patterned pieces of laburnum.
-It makes ovals - "oysters" - then it's applied in geometric form all the way round.
And then this cross-banded moulding is applied.
And that's what looks a bit fragile. But, really, that will never move.
-and it's been like that for ever.
is on the back here.
which flank that central little hook.
And that little hook is made and fixed on a piece of iron - fixed on with old, hand-made clout nails.
-Yes. Those nails have been on there since the 1690s.
and it had a cresting rail on the top, which would have probably been finely carved and pierced.
-I've only seen two or three with the original cresting rails.
They always got lost in moves.
-Um...I don't know - did you do that?
It's a pity they didn't keep the old one, because that would have added a bit to the value, but there it is.
-A lovely example of a very rare type of mirror.
It belonged to my grandfather-in-law.
He was an academic chemist.
He was a professor at Aberystwyth University. We believe he acquired it in the 1930s.
You probably heard at the time of the millennium about John Harrison, the discoverer of longitude.
I'll try and explain briefly what happened after Harrison.
Harrison won first prize, and it took him a lot of time to get the money.
set about trying to win that prize, and he made a timekeeper - Mudge's No 1.
At the same time, the Board of Longitude changed the rules a bit.
They said, "We don't want one instrument - we want two." So he set about making a pair of instruments.
He got a little money from the Board, but he never got the second prize.
He died in 1794, and he had a son called Thomas Mudge.
and formed a small factory to make timekeepers on the principles of his father.
is the remains of an instrument that was never completed, in the style of Thomas Mudge's invention.
So let me run through with you what is Mudge and what is Barraud.
are actually not Roman and Arabic - Roman for the hours and Arabic for the minutes - but Arabic and Arabic.
That was a peculiarity of Barraud's work. He seemed to like Arabic numerals, which were NOT the fashion.
And we can date this instrument from its number to approximately 1801 to 1803. OK?
very, very high number of pinions.
which he's got here with a ratchet set-up click and a fusee chain there.
-So all those bits were from the original Mudge copies made by the son.
half-completed cases, dials, unfinished plates, movements with other escapements, all sorts.
Which has, by the way, the most fantastic detail.
-You've got the original key.
I was musing on this key, wondering what it's for.
It's called a crank key. It's got an ivory handle.
-and you're actually locking that so it won't open.
but the hands must never be touched, so they were locked in the boxes.
So this would have gone in the box.
It's got a nice slot to locate it... Locked in the box.
you had access through both cases to wind it.
So only the captain would have that key AND the key to the outer box.
I'd say £30,000 to £50,000.
because it's been as interesting and as busy a Roadshow as any expert can wish for. So, many thanks all round.
Michael Aspel and a team of experts invite members of the public to bring along their antiques for examination. In Stroud, Gloucestershire, they find a strange 17th-century cushion mirror and an early marine chronometer that might be worth fifty thousand pounds. Meanwhile, Michael finds a Borneo headhunter's sword.