Antiques Roadshow from Westonbirt

[Music] this week we're in Gloucestershire and the experts of the Antiques Roadshow are going back to school this is Weston birth school near tech Bree a hundred years ago it was a private house the home of Roberts Dana Halford who inherited the estate with hundreds of acres of gardens and parkland from his father and this magnificent Arboretum at Western Burt was once part of those gardens it contains within its the finest collection of trees and plants in Europe including 40 specimens that are now unique Robert hillford who planted this my long drive down to the house in common with many other Victorian landowners was a passionate gardener and he cast his net around the world to bring back some of its natural spenders to rural Gloucestershire there'd been Whole Foods here at Western Burt since the 17th century their first house was an Elizabethan Manor when Robert Halford inherited the estate in 1829 he made major changes the most dramatic of which was to move the entire village of Western Bert in order to improve the appearance of the estate the Holford line died out in the 1920s and the estate was sold part of it becoming a private girls school a role in which is flourished since 1928 the school is known for the excellence of its education and the broad range of interests that it develops even here the shadow of Robert Holford isn't far away the music teaching takes place in one of his old conservatories [Music] when the house was sold the contents were auctioned separately and this is the catalog of that sale in October 1927 the result of 300 years of collecting it's not inconceivable that some of the things that were sold here more than 70 years ago could turn up again at Weston Burt today one thing is certain however the day will be full of surprises as we join our experts with the people of this part of Gloucestershire it's a first thing we look at when presented with something that purports to be from the beginning of the 18th century which this does with its wonderful veneers is to see whether it can be original whether it's made up for whether it's all of one piece and a genuine thing you look inside the drawers and nice outlining which you see here and the rules are that that should always be made of pine with a little slip of oak at the top this was common practice and how most things of this type were made most cabinet furniture now when you see it oak at the back it's either a nice oak one which has been veneered at a later date or it is a Dutch or continental piece okay so we need to investigate further so we look at the front and here you've got burr elm and burr walnuts and then you've got laburnum which is we now call Easter wood and we want to make sure that if these handles are original then there will be lots of marks inside and if they show on the outside that will be quite fun because that means they've simply been changed if you don't see any scars on the outside here but you do on the inside then obviously it's been veneered at a later date all right you know the nice thing is that if we look down here you can see the scar of an old handle and a little pinhole from another one and here there's a little hole and that's where the Victorians put a rather large wood knob so it's had three or four sets of handles so to make really sure and to prove my point we take the drawer up and there you can see there's the knob the hole for the large Victorian one and there are the other two holes where the split pins went that's what I mean now if the outside had not shown those or evidence of those you've known that it would have been Riva neared or veneered at a later date all that being replaced so there's your authenticity this was made around about 1710 yeah I know baby yes now all is wonderful until we get to these legs those legs were not yet designed when this was made now those were probably put on 50 years or 60 years after it was made now another nice thing you got here is because of this veneer missing there you've got those wonderful English dovetail right at the bottom of the carcass okay and also one final guide to authenticity when this veneer was cut it was hand cut with a multi bladed saw and you cut it no less than 1/16 of an inch thick it wasn't possible he wasn't humanly possible to cut down a branch or cross a branch accurately and maintain anything less than 1/16 it was too unstable so this is hand cut and it is thick as could be wonderful so there you are perfectly genuine now tell me the family history well as I said it's just been around at my grandparents house or my parents house Rose the I inherited right but it's had a bit of a rough ride that bit of veneer came off when it was moved in a state car and the lid was flapping and the wind got underneath something and blew it and the top [Laughter] despite falling out of a car the condition is extremely good you have to think of a value what it was worth before it fell out of the car it's not very different to now actually I don't think it did it any serious commercial damage it is such a good-looking piece that it ought to be insured for six and a half thousand their sibling very nice what do you think India you're right it's Indian it's actually showing quite a lot of mogul influence with the way these have been engraved you find this sort of pattern inlaid into Jade's into mogul Jade's in gold and jewels and I think this is probably from North India he's obviously a dignitary of some sort of Maharaja or a nice am one of that ilk nicely carved foliage around here and he dates from around probably mid 19th century can I be brutal do you like this no it reminds me of that new singer cut member her name she's got hair like this bo 0 up I'm pop music to be brutally honest it's absolutely awful object it's really bad quality and you would think that being bad quality it was going to be 19th or even 20th century and date the extraordinary thing about these is that these date back to the 18th century the coloring is very crude very badly applied they must have been the very cheapest of powerful blank white ones over almost all the imports that came across with the East India Company to Europe he's I think one of the twin spirits of mirth and harmony so he should have a companion but he's gone adrift where did all these come from there are cast these curious these actually from that same household yep the Japanese whatever these are right and these were these were given to me by somebody who is new in the house new lady of the house and she disliked them intensely and told me to put them in the Skip and I said I can't do that they're so lovely and I had a sweet this color I said can I take them home sure do what you like with them really said but where's the hair did she said we how I should look for it ship if you can't find it there share them but they do change color it seems in in different lights these circles become either green or right they're quite quite nice actually when they're in different light well it's very interesting these are these are porcelain they're decorated in underglaze blue which is this blue that's on here and on the VARs is and then they've been enameled and then gilded on top of that what's interesting about them is they're actually quite early ones they date from about 1760 to 1770 they are quite an uncommon pair of figures you could have a new hand put on here you can have a head cast to do that you could do that it would be expensive but it would be worth doing don't see quite a rare pair of things I think really better than skipping material I think values the art Indian figure around two to three hundred pounds this one 250 to 350 pounds but this pair they're going to be worth around a thousand to 1500 pounds so you did well much better than skip oh yes no they're too pretty good way to put it in this kit thank you very much thank you [Music] [Applause] I'll get round here occasionally use the ball and some extras as well so is this all string players or yes but it's a lovely collection and it goes through really a whole period of the middle of the 19th century yes and over here you've got perhaps the the earliest one do you know where this came from yes it belonged originally to my husband's music professor I mean I would think it's about 1830 something like that so perhaps a little bit later for Jane Austen but you know sort of simple at the top rosewood with a very characteristic stand to it which is really what helps to date it I said yes yes and then there's a little bit of a junk more to the to the middle years of the century the 1850s perhaps yes and this is a lovely one I think twiddles around like that well my young son plays the cello and he decided to use his grandmother's money to buy that from an auction really yes yeah so you really want what's lovely about these is that when you haven't got music on them you can really enjoy great this of course has got the musical symbol will stay indeed that the sort of fur the lyre shape I think which is lovely classical shape it's perhaps simpler again rosewood very characteristic in them in the middle of the century and this I think is absolutely charming it's so fluid and free really with this is such a lovely collection it's going to be worth about six to eight thousand pounds over I'm currently the mayor of Malmesbury nice Navas fantastically imposing colors did can we just take it off and and try to understand how it's made we go back to 880 but there's this chain as you can see 1896 when it was presented to the Town Council my goodness me what I wanted to think and these are the dates of the previous mares yes it's discontinued now because as you appreciate to buy one of these now I mean the chain would have been even on me addendum on my ankle is nearly goodness B well it of course anything made at this period is made astonishingly well and there's a lavish detention list and with enamel and with tasting and casting and it's in principle a fantastically valuable object I mean to dance the bar and choice at all yes we have it insured currently for about thirty thousand pounds I think thirty thousand is got to be right quite simply because of the man ours it would take to make this object from scratch any obviously it's in its its intrinsic value is a small proportion of that albeit us massive gold gold necklace it might god forbid that it should ever be melted it probably would melt for five to eight thousand pounds something of that nature in eighteen karat gold but the extra value of it is is the astonishing craftsmanship which is hard to replicate today I wouldn't like to know where the barrel could go to get this done to be perfectly honest and whether it would be done as well is very questionable the expertise of the twentieth century is gone gone somewhere else gone into technical and prowess what a wonderful thing it must be a huge pleasure and honor to wear let's do you enjoy it is it an interesting enough that actually comes off yes more casual wear really put a ribbon through there and yes and you pop yes a military version of it and still got a seal which of course is the important part yes well it's a marvelous thing thank you very much for bringing it's great honor I must have erred on having you here thanks very much I've enjoyed it very much thank you nice little collection märklin sort of thing that I see fairly commonly and and you probably won't be surprised to know that sitting in front of me there is the best part of a thousand pounds worth but what really interests me about all the things we've got here not that there are the most valuable things is this collection of mascots that you've got now these to me are extremely interesting and this one here because of the the Plexiglas horns which light up and and the blue eyes which again light up they're the sort of American 50-60 equivalent of buying a Lally car mascot rising mind antique Mart's and junk shot so you actually did buy them in America all three of them were in the same place but to me these have a kitchen peel and I really I really do like these you don't tend to see this kind of thing inning we've not seen and that's why they particularly fascinate me what did you pay for them can you remember I think you'll be very pleased to know that the three of them collectively are probably worth about three hundred pounds or so thank you well now tell me when you first saw this he decided to buy it what was it that appeal to you but it's just so elegance and I just loved it I still do not a lot of people don't love it but there were originally three bits was washed and and a bedside cupboard went with it and I bought this for two pounds you bought this merit four to five how long ago is that must ask that 1935 my goodness well even then there was no money at all do you regret selling the other bits that I regret selling the cupboard yes the bedside covered but not the washed and it was a big marble thing and it had a hole from the basement of a slop pail and I could never oh how's this but I would like to have the bedside cupboard yes well goodness knows where it might be now yes you never know the person that bought it might be watching might might see this ah that's what that's the dressing table I wanted during the 1850s and 60s following the development really of the great exhibitions at the time and the catalogues various companies and manufacturers produced publications showing the most fanciful designs that could be done and during that period there was great competition between the teenage which was coming on and proving that he could carve better than than we could by hand and at the same time various groups were setting up carving companies of individuals carving to prove they could do better than machinery and so you got the most exuberant and elaborate carving ever know in the 1850s and 60s in fact the furniture produced at that time was some of the best in our history and I know there'll be lots of questions about that but it was to the minut Asst degree perfect and you've got an example here this is of a standard we call exhibition furniture this is the sort that you really only ever saw in catalogues and I've only ever seen in catalogues I've seen modest varieties of it or modest variations what happened was you went to the company and you said now look I've seen your catalog I want it down with this and this pattern combined with that and we'll also have this chap and if you look at this this is what somebody has done they've said right well we want a satire mask at the top flanked by two well one sort of devil and a satire and then we'll have some foliat designs and we'll make it that shape so you've got number 42 and number 43 it all mixed up and then so let's have some big scroll e brackets and then look at these faces here yeah I mean they're really quite nice and cross it's always a good sign as he cross faces in carving much better than usual Victorian ones are smiling yes are very angry and then instead of keeping that theme up we'll we'll put some foliage around here and then we'll continue it round at the bottom and we'll put a rather nice little delicate sort of ribbon and then another rise across a table you know and then some bunches of grapes what else should we have darling Oh what has all those different numbers from the catalogue of course sir that should be done absolutely this is hand which is terribly unusual for this period most of this stuff was done by it by Machine you can tell because it's not quite so perfect so I was saying earlier that the perfect carving came with the use of machines yes absolutely immaculate and precise both sides here you've got at this poor little chap one is bigger than the other one and it's probably why he's looking cross and it's not perfectly symmetrical you've got slight balances here and that was that was counter the machine production date 1865 1865 1870 at the latest there's no seems to be no no nails at all no no well there shouldn't be the odd screw in here perhaps even the brass Mauser one now gosh 1935 I've walked it to 1935 two pounds that day in a sale could make four thousand pounds today absolutely quite a bargain then wasn't it it wasn't thank you very much now one of the most interesting aspects to me of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain in the late 19th century William Morris and all that was decorative metalwork there were various centers in Britain where this metalwork was produced one thinks of newland in Cornwall Kazik in Cumberland and of course Birmingham was another great Center we've got a wonderful group of pieces here what are they to do with you they were made by my father made by your father yes so he was a metal craft here yes and he had his own business he was trained at the Birmingham School of Art after being at school at the technical school in Birmingham when are we talking about the beginning of the century and he was often talking of William Morris it was drilled into me that anything in in the home must be are they useful or decorative room preferably both as William Morris say yes and of course these pieces in a way fulfill that so he was part of a culture to produce handmade decorative objects for home he had a factory and employed 14 men at one time he would have done these for his own home and own pleasure I think but presumably some were made commercially as well oh yes pieces like the door plates margins are made commercially I mean these seemed a plate finger face I'm sorry finger plates feel quite right here we've got a peacock reaching the peak matching mirror we got this one which has got inset yes now of course this habit of using these was very common in that period now do you know where he got these the temptation is to say the Ruskin pottery because they certainly made these sort of roundels as did other companies and many of their things are inserted into the decorative metal work at the time do you remember what the factory was like do you remember the skills of people huh oh yes yes it was very close to the centre of Birmingham and I always particularly remember the smell of the the lacquered things were were put in an oven you see they were baked yes and that pervaded the whole place of course I mean we have that Illustrated very much by this bowl don't we yeah because here is a very often of those shape again with possibly Ruskin enamel pottery enamel set onto it and with this very curious sort of hand-beaten bronze of course beaten up through a flat piece he's not from a flat sheet and deliberately left with the hammer marks upon him that was the style of the time and of course that takes us to the mirror which is of course the triumph of the pieces really isn't it the peacock is a great art university the fluidity of the design all these linear organic sort of semi plant-like forms are there a bow like this though we'll deal with first I think would be purely commercially 150 200 pounds something a little bit the finger plates will be considerably less unit they are essentially pressure line pieces they're very decorative the mirror there is a different story I would say five six seven hundred pounds would be a fair price for a piece like that though I wouldn't have been surprised at all really whoops I'll say a bit more but I think the real thing the value is you've told us who made them and you've taken me directly into a period of history which I'm fascinated by thank you very much very pleased to be here thank you you know this is so exciting to be in this wonderful place next to the Western bird Arboretum and to have plates from one of the most famous in fact I would say the most famous bird book of all time this is the this is the Audubon's birds of America the most famous book of all time in fact I don't think anything has ever bettered plates of this remarkable quality now he came over to England actually having done these drawings and he felt that there was better quality of engravers here better quality of people who could actually watercolor these drawings I mean they are absolutely not only are they engraved fantastically but they are colored immaculately by watercolour artist yes and there were only what 200 done of every single every single page and how many colourists with that me well I didn't know I 25 35 all producing the same high standard absolutely amazing tell me about it where did you get it well we don't know we can't discover any other branch of the family who had any my father just talked about them at a time when I thought they were very boring as a child why did you think they were boring I mean they're but as a child these are so big I mean these are it was a sort of Sunday occupation shall we get the edibles out there and a great big huge folder came out from behind the chest a bit down yeah oh my goodness damn we looked at the edibles which is the age of 8 or 10 didn't mean a lot to me that oh but I have to say they're in remarkable condition you know Victorian ladies were embroidering these engravings or yes they were actually doing everything with these they are they are absolutely it's the largest undertaking anybody could possibly have have taken the other thing I have to say here is that which you don't often see and it really is a joy not a particularly valuable item but the prospectus and his particulars of the plan of work will be found detailed below the engraving in every instance is to be the exact dimension of the drawings which without any exception represent the bird of their natural size so these are the natural size of the birds the plates will be colored in the most careful manner from the original drawings and the size of the work will be double elephant folio and printed on the finest drawing room paper so how many plates have we got here forty-two if we start off and say that the boring ones would only be worth five hundred pounds and go up and say that the ones with lovely flowers would be worth more money we're talking about an awful lot of money aren't we I have multiplied with someone in the region of about 20,000 pounds yes thank you as we all know it's by John Frederick herring jr. yeah there is quite a lot of confusion between herring senior and herring Junior and herring senior is I think without doubt the better painter but the story goes that the the two herring members of the family had a terrible Rao and refused to speak to each other but nonetheless herring jr. made quite a lot of money by copying his father's work yeah and I think here we have a typical example of herring Junior's work a farmyard scene you obviously love this picture and you've had it for some time yes between 30 and 40 years and and you inherited it or bought it it more or less from a junk dealer that was clearing out old lady's bungalow and it was all black smokey took it home and started cleaning the glass and see what was underneath found this signature down on the bottom what did you pay for it could I ask it was this inten poem the glass was all black where oh she got it from they have wood fires and stain right and I took it a piece isn't cleaned it up and that's what it turned out to be but you had an inkling that it might be something good I we didn't just mayor did perfect where you had a very good eye you know there are many many copies and many fakes for Harry but this is absolutely genuine and I think it's a wonderful example he's quite a prolific artist I mean there's a quite a few of his works around and towards the end of his life he got more and more rheumatic I suppose I think his talents went off a bit and he wasn't quite as good but I think this is very very nice and it's superb example and I like the sort of the quiet idyllic scene which is so typical of Victorian artists yeah have you ever had it insured no I am if it appeared at auction we could say something the region of eight to twelve thousand pounds in ten right now it's working I see a brilliant between the two perhaps you could have my job now well now for our 21st anniversary look at the archive of the Antiques Roadshow and this week we are remembering a actor of whom we have the fondest memories [Music] now what's this well this is very interesting because that's a door huh that's a door handle and this is a brass verse for little posing what do you mean it's always been like that I must say we've I know what this is because I've had a look because to all intents and purposes just a deal box and not a much of that it's a cabinet makers tall chest correct but this one dates from about in the middle of the 17th century about 1650 and one determines that because of the turning of all these legs and it's what we call lively and if I lift up this thing you'll see now what I mean by lively all in mahogany or bandy with satin wood everywhere little satin wood bands and then even a bit more with a black and white stringing with broken corners everyone made the same and I might say we've almost stripped the base of this and got some tools at the back here who's the slow guy defensive walking yeah shake night and if any of you have got one of these and have lost the instructions I know all I'm there automatic flytrap directions music in there John if it wasn't for Arthur I often think we wouldn't be here not in the professionals no absolutely not total master and also his charm just natural in front of the camera but he was the chapel above all made antiques a popular subject on television yes because he brought home to everybody that what they'd got whether it was a wonderful thing or a brass doorknob in a fuzz was interesting and amusing and fun I first met him viewing sales because I as a dealer I look around all around the country and particularly around this area and Arthur was the head Porter for a well-known local auctioneer housed to have to give him ten shillings let me view a sale oh if I arrive late this you weren't allowed in oh he was a man of science plus I'm totally interested mr. Nagus that's a side of his life that we know nothing about I remember him telling me once that the way he started that he his father died when he was young I think when he was only 15 and he said I was left with a widowed mother and a checkbook and I went out with that checkbook and I bought a table because I wanted to make a profit than the table that's right and I still had that table eight years later Anthony's and my father were contemporaries and Arthur's father a working came to make it in beckons field left him with this workshop we knew them fairly well but when the recession came in the 20s my father went into fur selling modern furniture and Arthur went into the auctioneering sighs he says to say Frank you should be an option here now said my father been dealer and in fact when the first Roadshow came up he rang my father said Frank come down to Bristol I'm doing a television produce Oh what I can't go all the way to Bristol I'm too busy for that said well I shall see you soon and that was that and some years later then of course I met him when we've done the lecturing circuit is and largely due to him I joined the program remember he told a story of buying once when he was a dealer he bought a couple of stone lions from the gates of a country house and he turned up with a horse and cart to remove these stone lands and the men the gang of men took the stone line off the gate and put it on the cart on the horse [Laughter] looking at it sideways it is remarkably flat there's a little bit of rippling but it's misshapen only very slightly and that's very unusual for an English porcelain plaque the great plant makers were the Germans and especially the Vienna factory also an Austrian made wonderful porcelain plaques beautifully flat which are great for painting on subjects English porcelain was very unsuitable that normally distorted and warped in the kiln and to make a plaque as big as this in England was really quite an achievement in about 1820 or thereabouts what can you know about it was given to us by an aunt and uncle we've had it for about 20 years and they had it for quite a few years before that what part of the country do they come from or where do they get it from came from London I hope there might have been a South Wales connection they're looking at the painting I can see in that the style of the artists work it's very much resemble some of the painting found on Swansea Forest and then particularly some ports been painted by an artist Thomas Pardo he's probably the most famous flower painter of his type in South Wales working quite a long career he left the Swansea Factory when it closed and during 1820s had his own China painting business his work where it was very colourful babe lights and here one can really see a great deal of detail but it's I think a naive detail he look trying to recognize many of these flowers really very real but others this huge had a few problems with this one sadly isn't signed and therefore ones it was a little bit difficult because the poster isn't made at Wales Swansea Factory just simply couldn't make a plaque this size it would have completely warped they their body was very unstable so here perhaps the porcelain would have come from coal port who were the best of the English plant makers but even so a little bit wonky but that's what makes it so exciting I mean it's really quite a valuable block because it does look so good the colors are so fresh it's very decorative and although English blacks and that's never in the high league of the Continental ones which can fetch tens of thousands of pounds here I suppose we're probably looking at five or six thousand goodness goodness me I don't know anything about it I went to an auction and I bought two cats one was a Staffordshire cat and this one right cat you went through the stepford escape this was just used it as a doorstop but I thought it was quite an interesting cat he's lovely um country-wise this is Japanese and it's it's a type of pottery which is commonly called Satsuma pottery but quite a lot of this pottery although it's called that is actually made in a area north of that it called Kyoto so he possibly made in Satsuma possibly prior to date wise he's round about a hundred years old also quite often they're highly elaborate and decorated all over with gilding and so on and then they really are very valuable but on his own just like this undecorated perhaps 300 pounds now do you know I've waited years and years and years one of these turn up in the antiques poacher tell me what you know about it and what do you think Posey means I don't know well it's it's an archaic word for poetry and it's caught it's a poetry ring if you like because it's a wedding ring engraved with a an amorous message and they varied enormous Lee and they're engraved on the inside of the shank and let's look and see what this one says it says heart's content cannot repent and hearts is spelt rather archaically to har TS and thes traces of black enamel in there which would have been used to heighten the ornament in in in the lettering and so it's a secret covert message for a bride to wear throughout her life heart's content cannot repent now we know even a tiny bit more about it than that because there's a lot in shape mark within a makers mark with a w which is the initial of the maker of the ring so we know quite a lot about it we even know from the shape of the calligraphy that this is a 17th century yes say we're really and quite early seventeenth-century I'm hoping about 1640 and it's made of remarkably pure gold as heavy intensely heavy silver anode heavy and it's bright yellow so it's probably 22 karat and tell me what what do you know about where did where did it come from a friend with a medical well it's absolutely consistent with that because it's in absolutely pristine condition my guess is that it was the wrong size for the bride when she was given it and probably only weeks after she received it it fell into the ground when she was working in the fields no so it's a fantastically emotional and exciting object to find I think what's also equally fascinating about doors is its pristine but the plow has LOD bashed it in the earth and it only has one one cut into this very pure gold here and that's a Plowman going blindly over the skull I think it's the most romantic thing it's worth 800 pounds of anybody's money surprised did you make it yourself no I didn't unfortunately but he did a family thing on my wife's side it's three generations father grandfather and great man so it was it was made and added to through those to those generations we have separate people who have made it through it through its life to a certain extent you can sort of see the the styles of different workmanship in here but it all forms a very cohesive little workshop if we look at some of the tools in here they all operate and if you look at this here you know all the parts of moving yeah I know it's been closed up for a long time so some of these perhaps haven't been operated for an awful long time but they still seem to work with absolutely no problem you see that lovely little lave here with a little treadle on the base in this monster of a lathe at the back here which is very spectacular and again treadle operated and as we work our way right round to this side here again sort of interesting sort of presses and even a miniature smithy with operating bellows do you know who actually made any of the individual the individual makers no what I can tell you is that all three of them at one time in their lives worked in the Army and Navy stored workshop oh really so that you think these were probably made in their spare time do using the machinery in the workshop now I suppose you're probably interested in a value well I am very much my feeling is that it's probably worth in the region of two thousand pounds or so certainly in in an engineering sort of related saying I think that they would probably be no problem whatsoever so what I would really like it to finish up is somewhere where it can be on permanent display perhaps you should entertain getting it put in a local museum this is such a good Beatrix Potter letter that I feel I have to read it all the way through here it is to Boulton Gardens well Belton Gardens now is a children's playground which i think is a rather nice thing it starts my dear Marjorie miss Woodward sent me such a nice little letter which you had written for me and I was so much pleased to hear about your little white bunnies and my bunnies are always brown but I had once had a clear white rat with pink eyes and I don't know if he wrote letters but I think if he did he would look like this and there's this wonderful little picture of the little rat and she's actually putting a little pink eye I think he's tremendous and then he goes on he was always very fond of quill pens and once he stole a stick of sealing-wax and two matches in another time he put his nose into the ink bottle by mistake so I think he must have wanted to write to you he was very fat and lazy and spent most of his time in bed and here's his his wonderful pink rat again in bed when he was wake he was never out of mischief but he was so very good tempered I really could not scold him not even when he ate two fingers off a new pair of gloves his name was Sammy he used to come running after me when I called him just like a little dog I was very sorry when he died I've got a rabbit and a squirrel now I bought two squirrels but the one I called Nutkin and here is a picture of nut kid who was much too handsome this was so very savage I was obliged to take him back to the shop so I only have one now called twinkleberry he's getting quite tame I made a little sleeping box for him my little bunny is sitting on the table licking my hand all the time there's the sleeping box for this squirrel I'm writing so that I could hardly hold the pen so goodnight and you and Keith shall have another book next Christmas from yours affectionately Beatrix Potter and there's kissy is being sent by the rabbit and the little squirrel the squirrel twinkleberry well that's lovely now tell me about it who was it written to it's written to my mother how did you know Beatrix Potter my grandmother was an artist and she had met Beatrix Potter through miss Woodward who was an illustrator of children's books right well this is written in 1903 and Beatrix Potter had really only just started on her fame I suppose 1902 was the date of Peter Rabbit 1903 was squirrel Nutkin I think so really this is quite early on and she was very generous with her time in fact all through her life I think she was very generous with her time in writing to people so this is an absolute corker of a letter I can't say cogs say better the very really is an absolutely amazing letter I have not seen one so good for a very long time even with its envelope which although not valuable is rather nice to have with it she has become very desirable and very valuable these days do you have a sort of an idea to clear a ballpark where she where she is well 10 or 15 years ago I'd have said that a letter like this delightfully Illustrated will be worth somewhere in the region of two or three hundred pounds but nowadays I'm afraid so much is the taste for Beatrix Potter that a letter like this would fetch somewhere between twenty and twenty-five thousand to check I'm glad you're surprised and the reason that letter is so valuable is that anything to do with Beatrix Potter is extremely popular in America and particularly in Japan I remember that two or three years ago we had a first edition of Peter Rabbit that received a similar valuation so our thanks to everyone at westenberg we've had a wonderful day here today and I hope you'll join us for another Antiques Roadshow next week until then goodbye BBC 2 explores the jewel of India in the moment the real story after

Channel: Graham Cooke

Views: 129,256

Rating: 4.7172413 out of 5

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Id: cSYDMS_1oEk

Length: 43min 14sec (2594 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020