Setting off on these voyages knowing theyd be away for years possibly, knowing no idea about what was going to happen. Its fantastic stuff. I think this is a clear case where objects that superficially have no particular significance are very significant. A cigarette case like that without that inscription in that condition is £20. Yeah, thats right. Add that component and youre dealing with a vastly superior sum. Hundreds. Because, as you say, without that there would be no polar expeditions, no discovery, no scott, no nothing. The book is a different issue. Its clearly a good provenance. Were looking at thousands of pounds. Because this is such a rare association of images and material ephemera, which tells a very personal story from the person who made it all happen. And we were very very excited to get it, obviously. Thank you. Youre welcome. I bet these have pride of place in your dining room. Theyre actually in my mothers dining room on either side of the sideboard. Right. What do you know about them . Not very much at all. My grandfather bought them and he was told at the time they came from the duke of hamiltons palace. Right. Thats a grand start, isnt it . The duke of hamiltons palace. Well, it was called hamilton palace. But the contents was sold in 1882. Its a very famous auction. One of the most famous actions of the 19th century. I didnt know that. These candelabra are clearly, to me whats called rococo revival which started in popular taste in about the 1820s, 1830s. But for a big, very wealthy, noble family like the hamiltons, who were in london and buying all the best french things they would be buying french early revival things in the 1810, 1820s. I. E. , when he got married, or almost certainly in 1819, when he became the duke. Just to explain very quickly how i can date these they look like french 1730s or 40s. But theyre a little bit more clumsy, which takes me to england, possibly, or france in the 1820, 1830 revival period. But the most charming thing, have you noticed the dragon . No, i cant say i have. You havent had a good look at them, have you . Theyve just always been there. Gathering dust on mums shelf. Theres a lovely you can see the tail here, and it works all the way up into the Dragons Mouth there. Do you know what theyre made of . No. Honestly, i dont know anything about them. Are they gold . I dont think so but i dont know. Well, theyre goldplated. Theyre what we call ormolu, which is actually brass or bronze, which has then had a coat of gold paste put on with mercury then its fired. It just burns itself onto the brass underneath. Theyre fantastic things. Theyre just great. I think youre gonna have to pay at auction a minimum of £2,000 to £3,000. Really . And i think if you could ever prove the provenance, the history of them, i think you should double it. Very good. I usually talk about military items, war items, but youve brought along a few items today that are antiwar. I have indeed. Tell me something about them, and who they belong to. These refer to my grandmothers brother. His name was Bernard Douglas taylor. This is him. Thats him, yes. Was he a friend, was he a quaker . He was a quaker. The whole family had been methodist but turned quaker before the first world war. Prior to the war starting, he took part in many antiwar committees and so on. Oh, did he . Once the war had started he helped out with other Conscientious Objectors and so on. When the time came for his drafting he appeared before a panel and pleaded his case for not having to join the military. Whats this handwritten letter about . Thats his declaration to the selection panel. This is dated january 26, 1917. Hes written here, i am not, underlined a soldier, and no amount of coercion can ever cause me to become an instrument for the slaughter of my fellow man. So quite clearly he was a very intense man, and definitely not one to go against his morals. Whatever else he said to the panel they came to the unanimous agreement that, due to his statement and his eloquence and his intensity, that he should be fully exempted from military service. Interesting. Now this photograph here puzzles me somewhat, because this is, i guess, him, is it . Thats him, yes. Why is he wearing a military uniform . What happened was, he decided that the help he was giving out to dependents of conscies, he could perhaps do more so he decided to go to france to help out there. Was this while the war was in progress . It was still in progress, yes. But what happened was, when he got off the ferry, a gendarme came up asked him his business and when he explained, the gendarme said, what i suggest to you, sir, is that you go to the nearest tailors have yourself a uniform made and put it on immediately, because if the women of france see you in civilian clothes, a young, fit, hale man theyre going to tear you to pieces, because their men have been dying at the front. Yes, yes. Thats extraordinary isnt it . And youve also brought along an armband. Tell me about this. I know nothing about it. I can only presume its part of the quaker voluntary organizations motif. In fact, i do know what this is. This is the quaker star. I see. And its the badge of the quaker relief organization. And so, he wouldve worn the quaker star on his arm. As far as i know he had no other form of insignia on the uniform. Solely this. He wouldve worn this armband to show who he was to show that he was a quaker. And also, of course, to support the other quakers who were also over there because he wouldnt have been alone. He would not have been alone. But it must have been a most appalling thing actually, to be the subject of peoples ridicule because he would have been ridiculed at home in britain. I dont know that ridicule is exactly the word. I would say disliked even to the point of being hated. Hated. Hated is a strong word. Yes, but the feeling in the country against Conscientious Objectors such as he was very, very strong indeed. And in fact, if you open that, youll perhaps see what i mean. This envelope . Yes. Whats this dated, 1916, it looks like, from the postmark. Its a letter to him. Youll see. Oh, my. Oh, goodness me. Its a White Feather. Its a White Feather. As in the four feathers film. It says, noble sir, if you are too proud or frightened, underlined to fight, wear this. And this has been kept. Its been kept, yes. It was kept by my grandmother just to show the feelings that some human beings have towards others. He obviously was a man of great, deep beliefs. Absolutely. But how must he have felt when he received this. How would you feel if youd received this . I dont know. I think, from what ive read of his background, that he would have accepted it as an example of how human beings can look upon each other and feel sad and sorry perhaps, for the person who wrote it. Thats an interesting perspective, isnt it, i suppose. I have to say that ive never seen another White Feather letter, ever because i doubt whether anybody kept them. I wouldve thought. I think most people wouldve been very anxious to get rid of them completely. Very quickly. Exactly. I actually feel quite privileged to be able to see it. Its quite incredible. And i wouldnt mind betting that if this was actually sold im sure you dont want to do it but if this was sold at auction today youd get a number of people willing to pay probably £500, £600 for it. Because its most unusual. I think this is an indictment on war itself, and also an indictment on the sort of person that would have sent that letter. The whole country felt the same way at that time. Of course they did. We were very patriotic. But i find this, in todays world i find this very moving. Thank you for showing it to me. Thanks very much. This beautiful stars and stripes dress, obviously fancy dress. Tell me the story of it. Well, it was designed and made by my grandmother for my mother in 1926. Mummy was aged 18, but granny was very thrifty, and she was a superb needle woman. Both designed and made clothes. You can see how shes used this red and white and blue cotton sateen fabric cut the red into stripes and put the whole thing together. I think the headdress looks rather like something out of a lyons corner house waitress outfit. It certainly looks a bit like wonder woman, doesnt it . Doesnt it . Whats fantastic about this is that when i think when i was sent off to fancy dress parties, i always used to go as a pirate or a nurse cause it was easy. But this is something quite more delightful. I wore it to a fancy dress party in 1981. I wore it with silver lame mary quant tights, and i danced the charleston in it and it was such fun. The wonderful thing about this dress is at that period, the mid1920s women after the first world war, women were partying they were smoking, they were wearing much more makeup. Mummy wasnt allowed to smoke. Mummy wasnt smoking. And no nail vanish either. No nail varnish either. Its a wonderful example of something from the 1920s, just before the crash. People were still partying then. It got very much more somber after that. But this is fabulous and beautiful. Thank you so much for bringing it. Thank you. Valuation of these things is so difficult, because, really, its a very personal thing. It would certainly be of great interest at auction. I could see it making £150, £200. I treasure the fact its still in the family and i love having it. Thank you so much. Cats and dogs. Yes. Dont they look good like that in this group . Ive never seen them grouped like that but i think they do look good. They look absolutely spanking, dont they . Thats good, despite the little holes. Yes, well, yes the little holes down in this one especially. Have you got cats yourself . One cat. Maybe they played with it or something. Maybe. By frank paton here. You see his signature. Its done in 1893. So they belong to. . They belong to my uncles sister, and they apparently were a debt to my cousins grandfather, but theres no one left to tell the tale. I must say, i think theyre terrifically good, arent they . I think so. I think i actually prefer the dogs, although theyre perhaps not the more commercial subjects. But i like the dogs because the dogs, i think, might be portraits of actual dogs. A lot of other people have said, just feeling the skin, almost. You can feel the skin and the feet. Very lifelike. Quite lifelike. Actually, almost photographic. And this dog particularly. He looks like an aged retainer i think. Yes. He looks like a disgraced politician. And hes probably at the end of his career as a shooting dog. Hes a spaniel isnt he . And then these terriers. Obviously, the one thats lying down, he looks like a real old fighter. Rather a grizzled, scarred nose, hasnt he . These cats are rather more soppy, arent they, you might say. But they certainly are cute cats. They are cute. You might even have the same three kittens. Theyve escaped from mum and theyve come to torment this canary. Yes. The canary. They cant get at it cause the cage is wellclosed. So i take heart in that. Its not too much of a cruel subtext. But frank paton was quite an interesting fella really because he owed all his fame to printmaking. And there was an awful lot of money in prints in Victorian Britain because there were so many new houses and they all needed decorating not too expensively. People who couldnt afford the originals would have the print. And it would make him very famous. A bit like if youre a novelist having a film made of your book. Yes. Like that. Which do you think would be the most valuable of the four . Um, i thought this one or this one. The dog pictures . Yeah. Im not so sure. I think that cats reach a wider audience. Right. Yes. Internationally. And he is actually internationally known. So starting perhaps with the least popular which might be the aged retainer, the spaniel here id say hes probably worth about £5,000 or £6,000. Right. And then going up to the terrier here, i think its a really interesting picture. The dogs have real character. They do. And a collector of terriers is probably going to pay between £6,000 and £8,000 for him. And then, i suppose torturing the canary would be next. And that would be something in the region of £8,000 to £10,000. Really . Oh, yes. And then, by the time you reach the really cute one with the kittens and mum probably worth about £10,000 to £12,000. So all in all, nearly £40,000 for these pictures. Right. Thank you very much. Not at all. Our jewelry expert john benjamin, was seen coming off the plane last night at dundee airport, staggering under the weight of something very, very heavy in his suitcase. I found out today what it is because we asked him if, heaven forfend his house should go up in flames what two objects would he rush out with clutching one in each hand and john you brought along. This, i know is very heavy. Neither of the objects you brought are jewelry, which intrigues me. No, youre quite right. Lets start with this one. Why have you brought this along . All right, well, this is a bowl that is actually called the greedy squirrel. The story behind this bowl was this when i was 17, i left school. No qualifications to speak of whatsoever. I was very lucky to get a job working in a jewelry shop located in bloomsbury called cameo corner. Cameo corner was started by this man here. Ill show you a picture of him. There we are. Whats his name . Moshe oved, a mystic a sculptor, a jeweler. He started the shop up with nothing. But by the time he died, some of the customers of the shop were extraordinarily important people including queen mary who had her own armchair in the shop that no one else was allowed to sit in. For the four years that i worked at cameo corner this squirrel sat on the counter in the corner, right next to where i worked. When i left cameo corner that, of course, i left. About, i dont know, three or four years ago, the thing appeared at auction and i was told about it, and i thought, i have to have the squirrel. That squirrel had been winking at me for four years. So i bought it. It weighs a ton, doesnt it . Oh, yes, it does weigh a ton. Ive got to say, john, if you dont mind me saying so its not the most attractive thing ive ever seen. You dont like it, fiona . Im not wild about it. Obviously, it means a lot to you. It means a great deal to me because it represents my young life in the jewelry industry so there we are. And what about this object here . Well, that is a silver sugar sifter. Oh, i dont know 12, 15 years ago telephone call from one of our branches. Could i go down to visit a local client who, it turned out had a large box of jewelry . Went to visit this client. Sure enough, the jewelry was astonishing. And it turned up that the collection was owned by her father. He had made it all. He was called henry george murphy. Henry murphy was a goldsmith and silversmith who owned a shop in marylebone called the falkland studio. In 1928, up to his death in 1939, he churned out the most amazing jewelry and silverware. Well, how did i come by this . I researched the mans life. We photographed all his jewelry. The client said that up in the loft they had the entire archive of the falkland studio. It was a time bubble upstairs. What a find. And what happened was that we recognized i say we, because i collaborated with one of our own colleagues on the antiques roadshow, paul atterbury. We wrote a book about murphy. And they gave me the silver sugar casket. They gave it to you . Yes, they gave it to me. And whats it worth, do you know . Do you know something, fiona . I dont care what its worth. I have something that means a great deal to me, because that is a thread in my life. And for me, that is a very personal piece. John, thank you. Thank you, fiona. This is the kind of thing i could only have dreamt would have arrived at my table today. Here we have perhaps, how can i say . One of the legends of golfing history. And this is Old Tom Morris. Can you tell me where this came from . It was in my Fathers House after his death, and when we cleared the house out, we found it. So it wasnt hanging on the wall . No. Okay. Lets talk about Old Tom Morris because essentially, what we have here, a superb photographic image of Old Tom Morris, and hes on the course at st. Andrews. Hes in a bunker which actually to be honest with you, is probably not that usual for Old Tom Morris because Old Tom Morris was an exceptional golfer. He was regarded as absolutely invincible on the course. He actually won the open at prestwick four times, starting in 1861 i believe. And here he is at st. Andrews. Theres a slightly more poignant history to old tom, as well, because he had a son Young Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris won the open four times as well. But the sad thing is that he died at the age of 24. So we have two generations of a family, both exceptional golfers both exceptional scottish golfers and old tom here who lived to about 1904, 1905. Sadly his son died around about 1875. And its a very poignant story. But added to that, we have a man here who, to collectors is literally the god of the golfing world. And what is more we have a signed photograph. Yes. And i wonder had you ever considered a value on this photograph . No idea. Well, this picture is worth £2,000 to £3,000. Ive been offered 1,000 for it. You havent been offered enough because its an absolute classic of its type, and to be honest with you, to come to scotland and find it in scotland has kind of made my day. I thought it would. Thank you. Its great. Thank you ever so much for bringing it along. This bowl, i love it. Good. I really, really love it. Its fantastic. Its a visual feast of the best pottery folk art you can get, really. Its a gorgeous thing. Everythings going on. Yes, it is. Its lovely that its dated. 1862. Whats that . I dont know but i love the fact that the top hat was coming off. Its extraordinary. A man in a top hat on a bucking bronco. Its an assortment of random images. Weve got this wonderful steam train over here. Weve got two ships. Its a fantastic slipware bowl. Technically, about slipware its pottery which is then coated with a very very thin layer of another colored slip, which is basically liquid clay, which is then carved into. This sgraffito effect. The history of slipware goes right back into medieval times. This would be a 19thcentury piece. It become popular throughout the u. K. North devon is very, very famous for slipware. But were up in dundee. Yeah. Where did you get this from . This i found in my mothers attic when i moved my mother and father to a smaller home this year. And margaret morren was my greatgreat aunt fantastic. So this has gone down from person to person to person. Yeah. And lived in the attic. It was in the attic. I think i shall be displaying it now. Would margaret morren have made it have designed it . Its very unlikely. Its more likely it was made perhaps as a present for her birth. Oh, for her birth. Your fam