"i have loved england dearly and deeply since that first morning, shining and pure, the white cliffs of dover i saw rising steeply out of the sea that once made her secure." ironically it was an american poet who wrote those lines, which so perfectly sum up the special nature of dover; special because both geographically and symbolically this is the gateway to britain and that is the view that's greeted millions of visitors to our shores. hardly surprising then, that dover and the white cliffs should have provided inspiration for generations of artists working in a variety of materials. the central landmark of all these pictures is one of the best preserved castles in britain, a castle which has been in continuous military occupation for 800 years. phillip ii of spain, napoleon bonaparte, and adolf hitler all had designs on dover as an essential stepping stone in their planned conquest of britain. of course, none of them managed it. had they done so, we would all be living in a different country. but if it's possible for a single building to embody that national spirit to resist, then surely this is it. one of the reasons dover castle has remained so perfectly preserved is that adolf hitler ordered it should never be bombed or shelled. he was determined that the first meal he had on british soil would be within these walls. memories of war time are still very much alive here, for the generation who lived through those years of virtual siege. many of those people, i've no doubt, will be here with us today in the dover leisure centre. among our experts, david battie and hugo morley fletcher are here on the always busy pottery and porcelain tables, and christopher payne will be casting his eye over the best of the furniture. on pictures we have peter nahum, who has had many great finds on the antiques roadshow, and simon bull is our man on clocks and watches. let's now join our experts with the people of dover. strangely enough, this picture came not from folkestone, but from the yorkshire dales, from my wife's grandfather's home. when he heard we were moving into a large empty house with five rumbustious children, he sent us furniture to suit in a sheep lorry, and this picture was amongst it. i think there are a lot of thomas rose miles paintings in the northeast, but it's perfect that he was able to send the picture to where it was really painted. this is the goodwin sands, which is just off here. yes, the goodwin sands are 10 miles off here. they become completely uncovered at certain times of the year. one can even play cricket. they are notably ship-wrecking sands... yes. ...because the water gets turbulent over these shallow areas. you can't see them as you approach. thomas rose miles was an artist in the 1870s and '80s who just painted the sea, but his best paintings of the sea are exactly like this. this is one of the best thomas rose miles's i've seen, simply because it's so dramatic. and from a market point of view, the most sought after of his paintings are the lifeboat paintings. value, i would say... something around £4,000 to 5,000. as much as that? yes, that is amazing. this is an extraordinary collection of jade, porcelain, ivory, and glass. is it something you've put together? yes, we put it together when we were living in hong kong. many years ago. how many is "many"? 1965 to '67. a good time to be in hong kong buying. do you know what that's made out of? the hair crystal. absolutely right, so called for obvious reasons. it's a natural stone, a quartz, which has got these extraordinary black lines running through it, and often was carved for snuff bottles in china. i mean the chinese were great takers of snuff. it was introduced by the europeans. they took it up in a big way. you've got a stopper. as far as the value is concerned, whether it's got a stopper or not doesn't matter. oh, doesn't it? no, collectors are not fussed. what you have on the end of your stopper, is a tiny little spoon, to take it out and put it on the back of your wrist. that one is going to be worth somewhere around £300 to 500. this one is interior painted. i like that one. yes, it's sweet. imagine the labour of putting a brush in through the stopper, with a right handled bristles on it, to paint that minute, little scene, amazing work! you would think it was impossible. absolutely. that one, i think, is a few hundred. another glass one is this, which is overlaid glass. they would have blown the white misty coloured glass first, then cased it in this red colour. then it would have been wheel-cut back to leave the design. what have we got here? we've got a squirrel on a grapevine. did you know there was a squirrel on that? well, no, i didn't. very nice bottle. that's going to be worth somewhere around £1,500 to 2,000. you surprise me. i'm glad. and last, this one. do you know what that material is? a tiger eye. tiger eye, yes. it's crocidolite. this is a very nicely carved one. it's got this extraordinary quality of catching the light. here we've got in low relief, a dragon. this one is exceptionally good quality and might even be late 18th century. funny enough, it compares rather well with this one. i quite like this one. i think it's a super bottle. low relief, very high quality carving of a stylised dragon. i'm not sure, but i think, probably, they're both late 18th or early 19th century. this one's going to be worth somewhere around £2,000 to 3,000, and so is this one. oh! my guess is, we're looking at somewhere between £8,000 and 10,000 for the collection. i think they'll have to move from upstairs now. in october 1936, i was in the hospital for sick children, great ormond street. and at christmastime i was also there, and this was a present given to me. it says on the photograph it was given to me by her royal highness, princess royal. princess royal, that was princess alice. correct. what a fantastic present. and here is the card: "with best wishes from her royal highness, the princess royal, christmas 1936." it's been with you ever since? yes. i'm sure it's been treasured and never played with. oh, no, unfortunately. two brothers and, subsequently two sons, have used them. i should think there's about 60 percent of them still intact. well, that's not too bad, i guess. people call lead soldiers "britain's soldiers," whether they're made by w. britain or not. he was the inventor in 1893 of the hollow cast system, which was so popular and so cost effective because with a small amount of raw material, you could actually create a very good-sized, detailed soldier, with articulated arms and legs and so on. well, they're not in bad condition. look, there are some and some. here's a poor headless one. then you've got another one that has his little rifles out. that would be the 1914, 18 uniform. let's see what we've got underneath; there's another layer, isn't there? oh, the horses have suffered, haven't they? yes, they have four legs as opposed to two. more chances of breakages. that's right. it obviously gave you and your brothers an enormous amount of fun. absolutely... you're talking about before the war, when children didn't have such expensive toys. no, indeed. for insurance you ought to be talking about £500. from a sentimental, historic, and family history point of view, of course, it's priceless. yes, absolutely. "when i was young," says this nine year old, "i little thought that wit must be so dearly bought, but now experience tells me how that if i would learn, then i must bend and bow unto another's will, that i may learn both art and skill. to get my living with my hands, that so i may be free from bands and my own dame that i may be and free from all such slavery." mary waring, age 9 years, 1706. bravo. and when she began, you can tell what was wrong with the back side. but by the time she's finished, the back is as good as the front. two years, three years later. you must take it to barbara, because she is the expert in this field, and i know that she will love to see it. it's one of the most remarkable samplers i've ever seen, and such a lovely personal story too. look at those. where did you get these? an aunt gave them to me. she gave me a box full of bits and pieces, and all of this was in it. you don't know where she got them from? no, no. there's a mark on here, you can perhaps just pick it out there. clarice cliff, newport. and well, well, well... these are really quite rare and quite valuable. not thousands, but i think if these were to be put in auction, you'd get, well... between £300 and 400 each. it was a nice little box she gave you. are there any more in there? no. nothing as good as that, okay. this is, as you say, dated 1706. usually by this time, instead of being these long samplers, they'd changed to the rectangular picture, but i think this is absolutely wonderful. i would say, at an auction, this would fetch anything between £800 and 1,200. so you ought to insure it for as much as that. thank you very much. as far as i know, they came to me through my uncle, his wife, whose maiden name was poyser. i think this mr. reade was probably an uncle or cousin. i know that they had quite a lot to do with the theatre. yes, because they are, in fact, all from various artistes, two artistes... because this mr. griffith reade was obviously -- he ran the griffith reade trio, and they travelled all over the world. it looks as though he was also a booking agent for acts and so on. i think his agency was probably in derby, where the family came from originally. normally, as i say, postcards are not particularly of individual value. these, however, are quite different. if we have a look at one or two of them, for instance, this one here... "the original hula-hula girls." it's posted in honolulu on the 27th may 1905. there it is on the back with the american stamp addressed to mr. griffith reade, in care of the artist in dusseldorf, germany. it was then sent on from there back to derby. the bathing beauties here, look at those. "the six aphrodites" beautifully posed on the sea shore. actually the stamp's gone off that one, but that's sent to him in riga, up in latvia. so, i wonder what the theatre life was like in riga in 1907. if you say that many postcards that we see are only worth a pound or two. here, because you've got both postal interest, you've got historical interest and you've got the theatre interest, these cards on the market today would appeal to three different groups of collectors. i think that the value of these would be an average of £10 to 15 each, but some of them certainly could be worth £30 or 40 each, which means the whole collection is worth something like... £2,000 to 2,500. good lord! it's a fascinating collection, and a real insight into the theatre 1897 to 1905. this looks like a much used and loved piece of family furniture. yes, i use it as my dining room table. you know it's a sofa table... yes, i do. ...and made to go behind, or at either end of a sofa. yes. is it a family piece? yes, it was my grandfather's. he had it in a little office behind his shop where he did his accounts. oh, right, a little desk. as a desk. what is nice about it, it stands so well, these flaps up here, i mean the ends here, these turned balusters are wonderful. we've got lovely double baluster here with brass collars, and the same in the pole stretcher across here. it is very, very nice, but quite a late sofa table of about 1820. when i say "late," that's relatively early in the 19th century. the earlier ones would have had the same type of legs, but this pole stretcher would have been right up here, hidden away. it wouldn't have been a turned stretcher, it would be hidden away. the later they are, the more this comes down to about 1820 towards 1830, so the time of george iv. i notice you've had a repair. was that you or was that 150 years ago? it was repaired in my time. right, it just hasn't been coloured in that well. it is a slightly naive repair. it's a pity they didn't colour it in a bit better. it was covered with sort of black, thick, dark polish. the whole table? no, just the legs. it's extraordinary what people do to these pieces of furniture. i've noticed something here, actually, this bearer. it actually sticks out further than the flap. i can't understand why somebody's done that, but perhaps it broke off, perhaps the edge broke off. chewed by a dog, i've seen that happen. somebody, a long time ago, has just shaved off this edge and not very smoothly, which is a shame; it will alter the value of it a bit. it is a nice colour and it just stands so well. it's a lovely shape. it's a nicely made piece of furniture. any idea what it's worth? no, i haven't. difficult with the altered top, or a cut-down top, that makes it actually quite tricky to value. i would certainly say though £2,500. good gracious. up to £3,000. oh, my goodness. for a nice piece of family georgian furniture. thank you. thank you very much. this is a perfectly ordinary continental, not even english. probably german or french. what a handsome fellow. he's also... sawdust. he's full of sawdust, but you know what it was before that? it was long strips of wood. and because you've loved him so much, it's gone into sawdust. what else have you got here? trade cards. yeah. german. yeah, very nice. could you give me some information about the clock from your angle? well, all i know about it is that my father bought it in 1945 in london. mother gave it to me about 20 years ago. that's all the history i know, apart from the fact it's quite an old clock. yes, and i must be quite honest with you, something's quite a bit wrong with it. in fact, it's a little bit of a mixture. the small size of 10 inches, was generally for the early clocks, 1680s. by 1700 they'd generally gone up to approximately 11 inches, but you get some crossover. then you look at the case and it's sort of overfat. it's really rather broad here for the proportions of the dial. the other point is that this veneer, which is olive or laburnum wood, oyster veneer it's called. it's cut across the branch and is a very early feature and generally only found on clocks of the sort of 1680s. so what i actually think has happened is that they have got an old case... -- this was common in the early part of this century, 1920s -- ... an old case that was perhaps past its sell-by date, rather cracked and broken. then it would get a new veneering. and the mismatch here between this marquetry, which is fairly crude, i think you'll agree... it's almost sort of marquetry by numbers. you would not find that with laburnum or oyster veneers. the two don't go together. this star work, what they call star parquetry, which you've got here, is typical of 1680s. have a look inside. again, i think the hinges that you can see here, they don't really have a lot of age. there's quite a lot of dust inside, which comes off. this is the sort of dust that people would put on to disguise the fact that work had been done. if not original, certainly period... early weights, ...early pendulum, the correct sort of wheels, and this excellent quality 10-inch dial. the hood is a rising hood, which is the earliest type of hood, but again, if we took it off, you can see there's a lot of new wood and screws, a considerable lack of wear around here, except here where, again, black ink has gone in. see what i mean? yes. if it was an 11-inch dial, which would fit this case perfectly, then the proportion of the differential between the movement and the dial would mean that it would sit nicely there. i think what's happened is that it was found as a wreck. the case. oh, the case, yes. and they found a very good movement and they thought, we'll make a decorative clock out of it. it still is a decorative clock. starting with bits and pieces and building up. so i'm awfully sorry to have to say it's actually -- when i first came into the room i thought, ah, oyster veneered, 10-inch dial, 6'6" english long-case clock. it would be a very valuable proposition. as it stands now, i suppose... it's probably the sort of £3,000 mark, instead of perhaps 15- or 20,000, if it had been the real thing. is that too disappointing? it is a disappointment. i'm very pleased to know what you think about it. i've taken this apart to look at the colour underneath. i assume this blue is the original colour. it's a wonder blue. it's brilliant. i didn't realize it was blue myself until i cleaned it. it was all black like this around here. look at the quality of that beautiful mahogany nut. just fantastic. let's stand him up and look at it. but first, just tell me, where did you get ahold of it? well, i was clearing some rubbish, and i rather liked the shape of the table and the stem. although, the whole thing was black like that, no pattern whatsoever on it. so, i got some methylated spirits, which possibly may have been the wrong thing to do, and some cotton wool, cleaned it off. and all this lovely blue came through. it's extraordinary. talking about that black colour, i just can't believe that this blue is original, because it looks like you've probably cleaned off the black to a blue undercoat. but, no, it is actually blue. you have here this wonderful shape on the top here, this scalloped border. it's taken straight from the brighton pavilion, designed by john nash. the same when you look at the base here, this octagonal baluster here, very slender, and this extraordinary sort of trumpet shape underneath. both shapes are indian and this is a sort of northern india, sort of jaipur type of shape. at first i thought it might be simulated lapis lazuli, but i wonder if it's simulating indian enamels. it's called a regency penwork tripod table. it's painted with a steel-nibbed pen -- sorry, and ink, and painted onto the plain beech wood, all those flowers. then somebody comes along and paints in the blue background. the problem is going to be restoration, especially on the base down there. you've done some conservation. you haven't taken too much, we hope, off the colour. i can't think of anyone who's got a reference for this blue colour. do you have any idea what you think it's worth? not really, no. i couldn't see it in an antique shop because i wouldn't be selling it. you wouldn't. no. would you be selling it if i told you that possibly restored, if it was well restored, it could retail for as much as... £15,000. show me the shop. no, i don't believe it. well, tell me, this is your mother. yes, she was one of sickert's pupils before the first world war in about 1912-ish. she was one of several, and her sister-in-law and so on. i've always had these, and she just gave them to me before she died. she was a painter? she was a painter, yes, in oils. well, the exciting thing about this is that sickert was the most influential artist in england, from the late 1880s to well into the 20th century. it was he who brought the french modern movement to england. when he left the slade school, he got a scholarship and he got to meet whistler. whistler introduced him to degas and manet. he brought these ideas, this modern feeling for french painting, into english art, which was slightly staid and traditional. by 1910 -- it's surprising it took so long. in 1910 we had the first english impressionist exhibition. here he was pushing these ideas forward. in 1910 he formed the camden town school. she was one of those. she was one of the artists. his drawings were very french, very much influenced by degas, especially this diagonal, strong composition, this is a very beautiful drawing by him. we see his way of working, we see the underlying pencil, and then just strengthened with the sepia ink. in a way, the drawing is finished. the painting, in a way, is left in a sort of unfinished state, but perfectly happy in that state. he hasn't really resolved it for exhibition. he's left it as a sketch of a favourite pupil. this is his most i