Theyre headed for town. The brats. Oh, if only i had a big stick. [ siren wailing ] [ horn honking ] dammit excuse me, mammy. No, stay in the car. Right. Oh, no. [ belching ] once more into the breach. Are you sure you dont want another one . No. For christmas . Thanks, siobhan. I wouldnt want to be caught drunk in charge of a nativity play. Can i have you out of the car, mr. Fahey . Mmm . Come along. Get your hands off me. Theres children watching. Its all right, children. Santas just tired. I am not. Lay off. Im arresting you under section 49 of the road traffic act. [ students chanting ] ambrose is arresting santa. It cant be helped, i suppose. They have the flu. Oh, ill have plenty of company for the dinner. Dont worry. Have you changed your mind . I think id better have a black coffee. Im in worse shape than i imagined. Yeah, you too. Byebye. Assumpta . Assumpta . Can i have a coffee . Have you got presents . Yeah. Have you got one for your dad . My dads in prison. You have to put one under the tree to show him youre thinking of him. Better hurry, the shopsll be closed tomorrow. Come on, you lot. Its christmas eve. This girl has a party to get ready. [ all continue Christmas Greetings ] weve had a lovely evening. Im delighted. Byebye. Have a good one. And have the greatest party. night, assumpta. Happy christmas. Happy christmas. Goodnight, men. [ musical interlude ] conn . I know youre there. Padraigd kill you if he knew you were here. Kevin, watch out. Mind the shaft aaahhhhh kevin kevin . Kevin . happy christmas, dad. Happy christmas. This is better than boring old klosters, isnt it . I was having a terrible dream. I was locked in a lift with imelda. Happy christmas, brian. Happy christmas, ambrose. Wheres your mother . At first mass in cilldargan. Ambrose left her earlier. I have to go and pick her up in time for the childrens mass. Shes collecting the set. Dont leave me alone with that woman. Its like being nibbled to death by ducks. Kevin conn joy to the world, you two uup Christmas Day kevin . kevin . [ knock at door ] yep . Father. Hey, padraig happy christmas. What can i do for you . Its kevin. I cant find him or conn anywhere. Dont worry, im sure theyll turn up. Could you get ready to do the narration in case they are late . With the wings . No, in civvies. Im sure you know the drill by now. Yeah, i suppose so. All right, thanks, padraig. Father, were ready. Thanks, niamh. Were all set for you, peter. Right, then. Good morning to you. Good morning, father. And a very happy christmas to you all. Same to you, father. Now, i know that a lot of you will have been given wonderful presents and toys this morning. And probably you cant wait to get out of here and go home and play. But, we have to remember why weve been given these toys, and whose special birthday it is that were here to celebrate today. And were very privileged this morning. Where have you been . Wheres kevin . What, in gods name, have you been up to . The Real Christmas message. Padraig . You stay there. Dont move, ill be back in a second. And so it came to pass at that time that Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken. So joseph took his wife, mary, who was with child to bethlehem. Any room . Any room . And because there was no room at the inn. Any room . Certainly, theres pucks of room. Come on in, and bring mary with you. [ parishioners laugh ] pucks of room, he says. Pucks of room. He wasnt supposed to say that at all. Ambrose. Ambrose. Ive got a problem here. Kevins missing. I noticed he wasnt at the mass. Theres something going on. Conn turned up then ran off, and theyre not up at the house. Well. What . Theres money missing. How much . 50 quid. Right. Im sorry, i was looking forward to Christmas Day at home. You know, that fellas more trouble than hes worth. Still, you cant leave him out there. Ill be back as soon as i can. Ill go have a look, padraig. I have to run niamh and my mother home. Ill go with you. No, you stay at home in case they show up there. Okay . Niamh . Niamh . whats happening . Conn oneill is missing. Oh, him. And kevin okelly. Trust padraig to lose the two of them. Ambrose has gone off to search for them. What, on his day off . Oh, that christmas spirit. Dont leave me alone with that woman, all right . Promise. Cooee. Hows the patient this holy morn . Niamh [ knock at door ] its the three wise men. Kevin and conn are missing. Oh. We need to organise search parties and that. We wondered if we could use here as a base . Sure. We promise we wont disturb your party. Are they in there . Dont worry about the party. What can i do . Listen, dont worry. Im sure everythings going to be fine. Thanks, siobhan. Uhoh. Are you okay . My 50 quid. I found it. Conn . Do you wanna get in . Conn, stop. Its okay. Conn let me go leave me alone let me go its okay, its okay. Slow down. Now, take it easy. Whats the story . Leave me alone its not my fault wheres kevin . Conn, wheres kevin . Is he okay . Conn, is kevin okay . I didnt mean it. I swear. I want my dad. Ambrose is here. Well . I cant get a word out of him; hes terrified. What about padraig . He definitely doesnt want to talk to padraig. He says hell only talk to you. Father . The priest isnt allowed. To tell anyone what he hears in confession . No one. Well, father i think im after. Killing kevin okelly. Its only been ten minutes. Then again, it is conn oneill. Could be here till new year. Hes up at the old copper mines. Ill get up there. Were gonna need more help. Im going with you. I told you about that old mine. If hes hurt ill kill you. Hey, padraig nobody said it was conns fault. Well head back to fitzgeralds and organise from there. Is he hurt . Its hard to make sense of what ive heard. I think wed better hurry. Michael. Ive got the rescue team. Theyre at least an hour away. What about the ambulance . Theyll be here soon. Shouldnt we be up there . Padraig and ambrose have gone ahead. Kevins down a shaft, we think. We might not be able to reach him without the mountain rescue team. I do a bit of climbing and potholing. How much . Ive never rescued anybody, but i know ropes. Well, theres bound to be some ropes up at eamon byrnes. Here, take my car. Brendan, go with him and show him where it is. Ill meet you at the mine. Hes down a really deep shaft in there its very treacherous we could hear him, poor fella can i get to him . We couldnt get near him its a sheer shaft and the walls are crumbling. Youll need the mountain rescue, or timmy if he can make it. Assumptas just called; theyve found kevin. They need blankets. Vblankets . Did they find him in bed . Hes down a shaft. Is he all right . I dont know. Theyre all up there. Dont you go. She might be back any minute. Gotta go, dad. Ooh all right, get me a brush, will you . Can you hear us . Kevin . Kevin . God help us. Ah, come on. Its all right padraig. Hes probably just fallen asleep. Exhaustion. Kevin kevin he may be unconscious. He was responding earlier. I know; thats what worries me. We dont know the extent of his injuries. He may have gone into shock. I hope these fellas get here fast. Yoohoo. Im baack. All the men are gone up to the mine shaft. It was very thrilling, watching them prepare themselves. I wanted to help but the girl in the pub said that the best way to help was by looking after sick people. Youll help best, she said, by looking after brian quigley. I wont forget her for it. Ive got some torches. Santa specials. I knew somebodyd want them. Damn [ fr. Clifford ] okay, lads, over here. Now, be careful cause the shafts just there. You, go round the other side, thats it. Yeah, over there. Right. This is a job for two. Does anybody here know anything about potholing . Good man. Can i have the rope, please . Lets get on with it, so. Take that. Right, heres what were gonna do. You and me, were gonna go down there. Right. Im not making sandwiches. Huh . Well, thats what women are supposed to do, isnt it . While the men do manly things like rescuing people and attacking neighbouring villages and shelling defenceless citizens assumpta, what are you on about . This is ballykay. I know, i know. But its the principle of the thing. Men do. Women wait. Well, i think im as much a feminist as the next but ambrose only had a bowl of cornflakes this morning. Tea and sandwiches for the men it is, then. But theyre not getting jam on it. [ knock at door ] can i come in . Brian . Any chance of a drink . Its for the pain. You can sit there and wait. Were doing something. Okay, hold on. Take it easy. Mind his head. Thats it, fellas. Its going nicely. Thats it, keep it going. Thats it. Mind his head. All right. Come on. Is he coming . Slow down. Okay, nearly there. Is he okay . Well done, timmy. Well, what dyou expect . He is my nephew. Well done. In my work as a priest, gard egan, i have occasion to hear certain things. I know it was conns fault. Its not that, ambrose. A penitent who shall be nameless, has found a stash of goods which are secreted in these workings. Where . In there beyond the hole. Youll need a torch. I gave mine to donal. This ones working. Thanks, liam. Thanks, father. Well done, lads. I think hes got a fracture of the fibula and a broken collar bone. He may have concussion as well. Youll be okay, son. Bingo thank you, conn oneill. I could make sergeant out of this. Ill kill you, liam. I hear you were brilliant. Ah, it was nothing. The shaft wasnt that deep but it was treacherous enough. Look, ive got sandwiches if youre hungry. The chicken, i left it in the oven. Ive gotta go, assumpta. Well, you can have some of mine, if you like . Ambrose i thought youd left with the others. Well done, pet. Dyou want a sandwich . No, thanks. Look what i found. Wow loads more of it inside. Wow. Hit my head though. Oh, did you . Maybe. Peter took it. No, ive got his keys. I could have sworn i left it here, you know. Uhoh. Timmy. Sweet suffering jesus. What am i gonna tell peter . Ah, brian. Forgot you were here. Is he all right . Yeah, hes fine. Youve gotta go home. No, i do not. You cant stay here. Ill be no trouble. A legd be good. Bit of stuffing. I basted the turkey. Its doing nicely. [ knock at door ] dont let imelda egan in under any circumstances. Ah, assumpta, weve burnt the turkey. [ siobhan ] to a frazzle. And we just brought these party hats and wondered if. Oh. Come in. Oh, would you look whos here. Hows the young fella . Hell be fine. Which is more than can be said for this. Well, thats good news. Listen, peter, theres something i need to tell you. Its a good job its too late for you, old friend. Dyou think assumpta would let us in . She might. Well walk. Its too close to use the car. Well. Thats what i needed to talk to you about, father. [ knock at door ] ah, would you look who it is. Its the priest and the priesttobe. Happy christmas. You all right . You look as if you just lost your best friend. Ask him. I just killed his car. The javelin . Fell over the cliff. Total writeoff. I loved that car. I think a stiff drinks allowed, eh . Niamhs bringing over her turkey as well so theres crackers and all sorts. Hold the door kevins sleeping so i thought i might. [ cheers and applause ] come in. Here, happy christmas. Happy christmas, assumpta. You kept your life as a climber fairly schtum, donal. Well, to tell you the truth, father, i didnt know what potholing was. I thought it was, like filling in holes in the road. Ah. But its like any job. Once you get started its easy enough. You know yourself. You have to keep your ear to the ground to pick up bargains like these. Now, these are dirt cheap. Fire damaged, but theyre just as good as ones 4 or 5 times the price. Here, go on, pull. Hard now. Go on. So, what happened to your party . Ah. It disappeared. A bit like your car. Oh, sorry. Ah, what the heck. Its christmas. So . See, when i found the cave it was like buried treasure. I wanted to pay you back for looking after me. And how did kevin fall . He chased me into the mine. You have to get round the hole to get to the treasure. I knew it was there. I shouted. But he couldnt see me in the dark. Im sorry now i ran away. But i was sure he was dead. Its cool. Hes not dead. [ cheers and applause ] i think what impressed me most, garda egan, is that you tracked down those goods while off duty. A good garda is never off duty, superintendent. Duly noted garda egan. Well, here we are. Oh, lord. Um. They must have been watching me putting it in the boot. [ chuckles ] what the heck. Its christmas. [ folk music playing ] ho, ho, ho, ho. Merry christmas happy christmas. Hungry . Merry christmas, assumpta. Merry christmas, mr. Quigley. Happy . Im as happy as a turkey on boxing day. Captions by midwest captioning des moines, iowa the inspiration for britains most famous seaside landmark came from the great paris exhibition of 1889 when the mayor of blackpool decided that mr. Eiffel had had really a rather good idea. So welcome to a second helping of the roadshow from blackpool tower. 2,500 tons of steel, five million bricks, and a cost in todays money of £21 million. Thats what it took to build the blackpool tower back in 1894. It was considered to be the greatest single piece of British Engineering at the time. And just in case of disaster the manchester architects of tuke and maxwell thoughtfully designed it to topple into the irish sea. It does get windy. The plan was to build towers as tourists attractions up and down the country. It failed in places like morecambe and the isle of man, making blackpool tower all the more desirable. When the public were first admitted to this victorian entertainment complex, the riffraff were kept at bay by a small but significant charge of six pence for the privilege. And what was on offer besides a trip up the tower . Tea dances to tunes from the mighty wurlitzer organ. But there were rules. Gentlemen may not dance unless with a lady. Disorderly conduct means immediate expulsion. And on sundays please remain seated. Theres no dancing allowed. Our palatial venue for the day hosted many a fine tea dance and artistes so today were hoping for a few more neat steps and performances from our specialists. Lets see what they have to offer. Have you said your prayers . Sorry . Have you said your prayers . Why . What do you mean . Because you brought a prayer machine. Oh, right. Okay. This is for saying prayers. Its an incense burner and youll find that throughout the world all religious communities at some stage burn incense and the incense goes up to heaven. And thats the idea of this thing. Really . Okay. Its called a koro which is the japanese term for an incense burner, so that clarifies where its from, but how did it get from japan to here . My nan had a friend that was who worked out in malaysia. He was a banker out there, and he gave her this piece. I think its from about the 1950s. I remember when i was growing up she was keeping hold of it just as knack. Were they buddhists . No. No, i dont think so. So its never been used . I dont think so. In your house. Not as far as i know, no. Well, what you do is you take the lid off, and its a pretty chunky old lid. Lets just move that off. My goodness, its heavy. And you put the incense inside here, and the incense is an offering. But by putting this on the incense has to escape through the vent holes here. The vent is cast with this extraordinary frieze. Now, to western eyes they look like swastikas. Well, they are swastikas. Theyre buddhistic swastikas. The swastika in oriental art means the heart of buddha. So by allowing your prayers to waft through this symbol, youre getting into the heart of buddha. And on top, hes called a karashishi and he is a guardian a buddhistic guardian dog. And you can see hes looking quite friendly, really. Hes playing with this lovely brocade ball, which spins around. But its a wonderful piece of workmanship. And it would be easy to overlook something that is really quite subtle. This bronze, smooth bronze, actually contains this beautiful design and then in the center here do you know what that is . No idea. No. Well, its a badge. We would call it a crest. Its armorial. It is actually the crest of the tokugawa clan so the ruling clan of the 19th century. This piece was made probably at about the same time as this ballroom. Japanese works of art were finding their way into europe in huge quantities at that time. There was enormous interest in european things japanese. In fact, if you look up at the ceiling youll see one japanese character. I spotted him just before. Hes come straight down from the cadre. But there was this interest in japanese works of art which brought these things to europe. I guess this was made almost certainly in kyoto where ive actually seen them. Still, even to this day they do this inlay work. By hand. By hand . Tapping in. So its a jolly nice object. So back to saying prayers. How much do you think it might fetch . Ive got no idea. No idea. Its very difficult to say, actually because this market goes up and down up and down, and with financial uncertainty, and with japan being in quite a bad state i reckon that today this is probably worth somewhere in the region, lets say, between £3,000 and 4,000. Really . Oh, my word. Ill get a holiday booked. So get the logistics. Thats fantastic. Thank you very much. I cant tell you a lot about them. They actually belong to my motherinlaw. When i first looked at them, i didnt even realize they were mosaics. So it was only because somebody had a magnifying glass that we were realized they were the mosaics that she kept referring to. And there are one or two that are quite pretty, but i have to say that this one in particular you hate it . I dont like it. I dont like it at all. You would never wear it . No. Absolutely not. No . What exactly do you dislike about this . Its so glittery. It is glittery isnt it . Very glittery and shiny and sparkly, and i dont really like sparkly. No, no. I suppose it is very sparkly. Its sparkly for a reason, actually because there are little copper filings that are imprisoned in a glass background. But theyve come an enormously long way to your motherinlaw, in the main from italy. And theyre the grandest tourist objects that you could ever think of. They are souvenirs. If you came to blackpool you might take away a little, you know paste brooch with the tower on it. If you went to rome or to florence youd come back with a micro mosaic. Because everywhere you went on the grand tour youd be shown miraculous mosaics in the ceilings of santa maria majiore in rome or perhaps in pompeii. I dont know what else. And you wanted a bit of that to bring back to smokey, smoggy old london. And as a souvenir, a very grand souvenir, mounted often in gold. Well, the miracle of these objects is that theyre not made of stone but theyre actually made of glass, and glass is an extraordinary material. When its viscous, you can stretch it and stretch it and stretch it rather like sort of toffee or Something Like that and then snap it and make tiny, tiny little tesserae, which are a reference to hard stone mosaics, but actually in this case theyre made of glass. It may have helped them to achieve this dazzling effect because they could choose the colors, and they could get the grading of the size correct to the subject matter. But they could also heat the tiny tesserae in a furnace and to a sort of viscosity, i think is the right word. Thats a good word that, isnt it . Viscosity. And then they fused together. When they cool, they sort of grip one another with an atomic bond within the glass. And so theyre pretty durable. Here are some sort of bucolic scenes, arent they . Theres a goat herd whos stopped and is perhaps sleeping out under the moon or Something Like that with his dog. And every nuance of his jacket is represented with a different color of tiny, tiny glass tesserae. Those are the doves of pliny from Hadrians Villa probably sold to somebody whod just seen them a roman mosaic in a wall in a town covered with dust from vesuvius, and then revived again. Terribly exciting stuff. Still is, actually. And some are of gold and some are very sophisticated at the back. But anyway a ballpark figure is, goodness doves of pliny maybe £200, 300, 400. Perhaps a more fully blown one £600 to 800. An enormous one of gold with granulation making a reference to ancient techniques, well, somebody once said, and thats really the essence of it, is do they want them these days . I think they do because of their miraculous quality. Perhaps not to wear them, but for their collectibility. Maybe £1,200. Without a mount maybe, again, only £400 to 600. But i love them. I think theyre a great statement of the past. Lovely. Thanks for bringing them. Fabulous. Fabulous. Do you know, im sure that initially as soon as people see this onscreen, theyre going to think oh, thats a nice looking telescope. But of course its not a telescope, is it . No. Ive always had a passing interest in cameras and of course, being a blackpool boy, im interested in anything that was made in blackpool. And a camera dealer approached me about 15 years ago and said he found a camera that was made in blackpool and was i interested. And this is that camera. I said, yeah. Its a wonderful wonderful little item. Everything we need to know about it is really essentially written on the front plate. Its made by the british ferrotype company. Now, i know that it was made between around about 1905 and up to about 1915. Weve got a number of over 2,000 on here, but im not sure exactly how many were made. I have to say, they dont turn up very, very often. What weve got is something that takes a magazine of what we call ferrotype plates. You know what a ferrotype plate is, im sure. Its a small metal disc which has a light sensitive emulsion on it. That is inserted via the back section here into a Spring Loaded magazine. We can then start to operate the camera. We can have our subject in front of here. We can essentially line them up through a very simply gun sight on top there that you just look through. And the person goes in front here and thats it. Once youve lined them up, we basically use a vacuum operated shutter, which you havent got here. A bulb shutter. We take the photograph and as soon as its taken, we basically push this. Which is jammed. Which is jammed, unfortunately. The ferrotype plate drops down into the developing reservoirs in the bottom here and within a minute, within a minute, we have a finished product. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Now, heres the finished product. This is a tiny little ferrotype plate portrait of a young boy that may even have been taken on blackpool seaside circa 1905 to 1910. Now, of course, you paid for the little ferrotype plates, and i suspect, given your little advertising case here you got to pick the style of the little frame that you can put it in. Because i see that weve got a selection there with some enameled flags some painted enamel flags, and different gilt borders. Around the time of the First World War the young man would have had his photograph taken and his wife or his girlfriend would put it in a brooch and she would wear it with pride whilst he was away at the war. What a lovely story, and in essence that is a sweetheart brooch, a form of sweetheart brooch, and very poignant as well. Now, these dont come up for sale very often. Theyre not something that turns up that frequently. So putting a value on it is a little bit difficult, but i think current auction value is going to be around about £700 to 1,000. Well, yes. I paid about 200 quid for it. Well, i think you all right 15 years ago, didnt you . Its a wonderful object, and again, it epitomizes blackpool in many ways. Now, when i first saw this i thought it looked dutch. So i was a bit surprised when on the top of the drawers here i found lancaster. Absolutely local. And then on this side it says gillows. So its a very, very locally made piece. Interesting. Yeah. So this is something that youve bought or inherited . Yes. Yeah. I bought it 40 or 50 years ago. And where did you get it from . Harringer. On teague fair in harringer. Right. And so why did you buy it . Because i liked it. Thats a good answer. What was it you liked about it . Well, it was gillows and gillows to me was one of the best northern furniture makers we have without any doubt. He and his brother. And name gillows these days will really add value to a piece of furniture. And this is a very handsome piece. Its a demilune shape. Wonderful mahogany and good color. And very smart with these boxwood stringage. And i would say this dates to around 1800. That sort of time. And i think gillows only started to stamp their furniture right at the end of the century so is this is perhaps a relatively early piece of stamped gillows furniture. Im wonderingi do have to wonder about these handles, which dont seem to be absolutely characteristic of gillows. Perhaps you can what do you think about this . Yes, i knew. I think the same. Yes. You think the same. But theres also something on the inside which im not quite sure about. Do you know what happened there . No, i dont. No. Its curious. I wonder if perhaps there was a mayhaps something spilled there. Something spilled. A little bit of repair in there. But i think its interesting to see the inside, because its two very simple shelves. The top shelf, lovely polished mahogany. The bottom shelf is really quite crude. And a small size, which is in fact, a bedside piece. And i like to think of this as the sort of ensuite bathroom of the day, so that at night when you couldnt go into the bathroom or you had to trot down the corridor in freezing cold, you had your potty in the bottom there. Its a potty cupboard, really. Its a potty cupboard. Its a lavatory. And i think a very, very handsome lavatory at that. And a gillows lavatory makes it even more worthwhile. Now, i dread to think what you paid for it 40 years ago. Well, i think about £600. So it was quite a lot of money then. Yes, it was. Yeah. I think if you were to sell it now, you would be looking at around 2,000, 2,500. So that its gone up since you bought it, but if one looked at inflation and all that kind of thing it may not have gone up hugely. But i hopedo you have this by your bedside . Yes, my bedside. Dare i ask . Do you have a no. No, i havent. both laugh i love seeing pictures by artists ive never come across before. And i see this is signed bamburn on the bottom here. Do you know who he is . Yes, i do. He is now dead but i knew him about 30 years ago. And we bought this in the mid1970s. He lived in cromarty in scotland. What i do know, i have one listing for him living in aberdeen in 1933 and exhibiting one picture. And i also know that he studied in paris, and i think thats what a lot of the artists did in the 20th century, went over to paris because the influence of the impressionists, really and all the studios where they could go and study and come back. Do you know where this was painted . Yes. I believe it was painted in about 1950 in the wardrobe of savage row theater in london because mr. Bannerman, charles bannerman, lived in islington at that time. It looks fifties and there are Little Things in here like the light and they put material over the top so it directs light down here so theyre not going to strain their eyes sewing on all the sequins. Its a wonderful scene. But what i find interesting is ive never come across his work which makes me think he was either a teacher or an illustrator or did commercial work. Do you know actually how he did make his living full time . Well, i believe he was a graphic artist, and i believe he designed the original for rice krispies. What, snap crackle, and pop . Really . Yes. So i believe. Well, thats fantastic. Well, we have to put a value on this, and i think, you know, really looking at it and, as i said hes an artist thats really never come up for sale before, but that doesnt matter. Thats what i really love about this business because you look at it. So what . The qualitys there. And i think its good enough to make somewhere in the region of £800 to 1,000. Thats interesting. Good. My scottish geography probably isnt brilliant, but kilmarnock i think is sort of southwest of glasgow. Is that right . It is indeed. Yes. Sounds like youre from that part of the world. I am. Originally, yes, i am from there. So does that mean youve known this clock a long time . I have known it all my life. I have, because it was my fathers wedding present to my mother in 1939 and i was born in 1941 and grew up with this clock. My father was very musical. He had a lovely, lovely singing voice, and he was very keen that i should learn to play the piano, and he insisted i practice half an hour every night from 6 00 till half past. And i used to practice the piano with one eye on the clock and one eye on the music practicing my piano. As soon as it was half past 6 00 the lid went down on the piano and i said thats it. This thing literally watched over you the whole time. It did. It did. And does it bring any other memories back other than those of it watching over you . Well, my mother, she had hidey holes all over the house for money, and one of her hidey holes was inside the clock. Down in here . Inside. Yes. Have a look. both laugh ill tell you something. I bet theres a good few people out there who would rather have their money in the bottom of this than in offshore banking recently. I would think so. I would think so. Yes. Yes. So lets talk briefly about the scottish clock making industry. I actually prefer the items from the east coast from aberdeen, montrose, arbroath down to edinburgh and leith. They tend to be very elegant clocks. The long slender trunk doors to make them look really very handsome. We come over to the west coast, theyre a little bit chunkier, and this is although youve got this lovely tapered case, its quite a chunky clock, isnt it . It is. Yes, it is. What sort of date . Had you thought about a date . Well, as i said, my father bought it in 1939, but i think its a little bit older than that, isnt it . Oh, it is indeed. I think we could say 1850, give or take a few years, in all honesty. Quite austere. The plain circular white painted dial in this drum head case. As i say the taperings good, but weve got very heavy moldings and a fairly heavy plinth. So very, very different from the east coast clocks. Clocks lower down the range, midrange and lower has actually not done terribly well over the last year and a bit. I hope youre not going to be too disappointed when i tell you if it went to auction, it wouldnt make any more than about £2,500. No, im very pleasantly surprised. I really didnt think it would be as much as that. The main thing is, youve got all those memories. Yes. And it still works. It does. Just keep living with it and loving it. Yes, i do. I love it. I do. Thank you very much. You know ive never come across a miniature illuminated manuscript before, and this is what this is. It is absolutely fantastic. Its late 17th early 18th century. And its red leather and its got little acorns here in the corner and these wonderful little flowers and garlands, too. It is absolutely delightful. And inside, inter folia fructus est, there is the most wonderful lords prayer illuminated with a coat of arms. Now, do you know anything about this coat of arms . Well, i found out that the motto at the bottom, foy four dedvoir is apparently the motto of the duke of somerset. And also, i believe it may be related to the seymour family. Part of the coat of arms appears to be this is jane seymour. Part of it, i believe. Yes, its lovely. And look at this wonderful its all on vellum which is a skin, of course and it looks absolutely fantastic. And if i turn the page it changes again but what this page, i think, shows better than possibly the page in gilt is heavenly father immortal god. How tiny the handwriting is. It is very, very tiny. Its absolutely amazing, isnt it . Wonderful, yes. And there are a whole 70 pages of this. It is just absolutely incredible. Now, tell me about it. Where did it come from . Well, its been in the family for a few years now. It belonged to an elderly relation of my wifes who died about eight or nine years ago. And her father was one canon macintosh, who was sometime vicar at alden, we believe in the 1920s and 1930s. And we can only assume that somehow he had it in his possession. And here he is. And it just came down through the family. Yes. I wonder where he got it from. I wish i knew. I do. Because its much older than he is, obviously. But, i mean, it really is quite incredible. Now, what about value . Yeah, well i wouldnt have a clue. And i know what youre going to say to me is how would you know how much its valued . Youve never seen one before. Thats a good point, isnt it . I can give a guess. Thats all i have for you. I wouldnt be surprised if i went to a book fair or Something Like that i wouldnt be surprised if it wasnt marked £2,500. Goodness me. Shazam. Kapow. Those are the words that you normally associate with batman and here he is. Now, i have to ask you is he yours . Its my husbands. Right. Okay. And was your husband a batman fan . I dont think he was really. I think thats why its in such decent condition. Youre absolutely right. He really cant have been a great batman fan. I mean, hes in just such superb condition. Hes made out of lithograph tinplate, as you probably know with a celluloid and plastic head. But even his cape on the back, which normally gets really very badly damaged over time, is normally worn. So no, clearly not a batman fan. No, probably not. He was made by a Company Called nomura in japan. They released him in 1966 to coincide with the fantastic tv series, which i think is possibly one of the campiest things to air on tv. I used to really love watching those repeated. Hes Battery Powered and he walks. And, as you probably know, his head lights up. Lights up. Yeah. You have the box as well, which is a really desirable feature. Box and model in mint condition like this, hes a little bit worn at the top there from probably sitting in his box. But his condition is fantastic. Prices vary widely. In 1997, one sold at auction for £300. In america they go up and down and fluctuate but theyve sold for as much as 5,000. Oh, gosh. Right. So i reallyim going to be a little more cautious than that and say i think hes worth about £1,500 to 2,000. Oh, my god. Im absolutely stunned. That was his seventh birthday present. This looks exactly the type of box that i would expect to find a nice bit of antique silver in. Now, you can imagine my surprise when i opened it and found a farmyard scene. laughs do you use this . Not recently. We have used it. And what do you use it for . Its salt, pepper, and mustard. And any particular occasion you might get it out for . Christmas. Quails eggs . Not done that yet. Thats a good idea. We might do that one. I was trying to work out what kind of birds they were. These ive seen before. The Little Chicks i think are hens, normal farmyard hens. Your mustard pot on the other hand, appears to me to be a quail or perhaps a partridge. Im no ornithologist but its certainly not a hen and it looks like it might be quite good to eat. You obviously know that thats a mustard pot. Inside there youve got a little spoon a glass liner, which holds the mustard, which i think is probably the one thats been with it all its life. That is the original. Thats the original one. And inside the whole of the body, its been gilded so that if any mustard should get stuck down the side, it wont do the silver any harm. It wont corrode the silver, because mustards ferociously evil with silver. It eats it away. This is all made by the same man. The quail is, in fact, marked on the based for london, 1897 and the makers sampson morden. He was probably the best of what we call the novelty silver makers. Making animal forms and little snuff boxes investor cases though i have to admit ive never seen this mustard pot before. Its a very scarce model. The pepper pots and salt shakers in the form of chicks are not uncommon. This is very uncommon. I suspect that this was a set that was put together with which to eat quails eggs. Now, the interesting thing about this you might want to know is that because its so unusual and because there are collectors for mustard pots who would give their right arm for this quail if we can call it a quail, i think the whole set together if you went into a retail shop and tried to buy it, would cost you somewhere in the order of £4,500. Wow. Thats a lot of money. Whoa. Oh, yes. clears throat that is astonishing. Paul, youve been busy looking at other peoples items today and giving evaluations. Very unusually, you brought along something of your own. Tell me about this. I grew up in the 1950s with watch with mother, and of course this is teddy from andy pandy. This is teddy from andy pandy . I used to watch andy pandy. So how did you come to own ted . How do i come to have teddy . My mother was a puppeteer who worked for the bbc in the 1950s for the watch with mother series. She did andy pandy she did bill and ben the flowerpot men, woodentops. That was her life. It was also, of course my early life, because it started in 1950 when i was five. And theres always been this story that i was the model for andy pandy. Youve brought some photographs here. Lets have a look. So this thats the group. I mean, thats the famous characters. Yeah, i would say andy pandy, bill and ben wheat, looby loo and of course teddy, and here he is. There was obviously more than one of each puppet. They had to for all sorts of purposes. So teddy had a couple of stunt doubles, did he . Or maybe hes the stunt double. Hes the stunt double. The point is all the others from that sequence are in museums. This is the only one that ever escaped, and it was given to my mother when the Program Ended by the producer. And this is your mother here. This is my mother here operating. Now, in fact, she always operated andy pandy. Her friend, who isnt in the picture molly gibson operated teddy. But i think it was a spare teddy or a teddy that wasnt going anywhere else and came to her. It must have been so exciting to you. You were, what, five . It was very exciting because it was television. Television was so new, and sometimes i went to Alexandra Palace with her. It was filmed live in those days, so it was actually happening in front of you. And it was just part of my life, you know the way these things are. And can you work him . Im not the worlds greatest puppeteer i have to say, but you know, he does walk. Oh, look. Hes so sweet. He had a very special way of saying goodbye at the end of the program, didnt he . Yes. You must forgive my terrible voice, but the program used to end with, andy is saying goodbye and they all sat there and waved. Bye, bear. Bye, bear. Andy is waving goodbye goodbye goodbye for me a painted portrait is not just about conveying information. A photograph can do that. But its about memorializing a time in life and i find myself deeply drawn to this. I mean i suppose we need to start with who is he . Yes, actually my uncle called Michael Snowden who sadly died six weeks ago. We think it was well, we know it was painted by a friend of his who lived in stanberry. And its signed in the bottom righthand corner. Yes. Yeah. And we think he used it as, you know the new look. So this in a sense is the remnant of a life. A life that is obviously quite close to you. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. Me and seth are cousins and michael is our uncle. And he actually when he died he was 67. We dont know how long ago this painting was painted, but we think its probably about 50 years ago. Rather like elizabethan portraiture. I always think one of the great tests of a very good image is how you can read extra dimensions in it and of course, in this instance its a gift, is it not because we have behind him all of this porcelain