- 5/26/2025
Antiques Roadshow 2025 - Botanic Gardens Belfast 3
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Today, we're at the Botanic Gardens in Belfast,…
00:07…a green oasis in the center of Northern Ireland's capital city,…
00:12…and a treasure trove of horticultural history.
00:17This is what's known as a Wardian case, essentially a portable greenhouse,…
00:22…for amateur and professional botanists in the 19th century,…
00:25…to transport back home…
00:27…plants they discovered in exotic climes abroad.
00:31And in it is a fern, a plant that Victorians were particularly passionate about.
00:37And alongside the plants,…
00:39…our own panel of hardy perennials are hoping to dig up some prized specimens.
00:45If you're an astronomer, you've got to have a piece of the moon!
00:48It was lime, and a heap of pig manure!
00:52He's probably the greatest glassmaker in history!
00:56And there he is in a charity shop in Bellarmina!
00:59Ha, ha, ha, ha!
01:00Am I in a dream here? I don't believe it's true!
01:03We like to make dreams come true!
01:06Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow!
01:22Wow! The sapphire and diamond brooch, glinting there!
01:26Tell me, what's this history with you?
01:27Well, it was given to my mother for her 21st birthday.
01:32That was in 1945.
01:34And she's passed away now, and here we are today!
01:37Here we are today, with a real heirloom! I mean, that's what that is!
01:41Curious enough, I think it was actually made rather earlier than 1945.
01:45Yes, it was made in 1945.
01:48Curious enough, I think it was actually made rather earlier than 1945.
01:53I think it could even be 1925.
01:55Oh, right!
01:55And it's in a style that we recognise now as Art Deco.
01:59And at that period, they were interested in all kinds of decorative schemes
02:03that they were mopping up from here, there, and everywhere,
02:06from architecture and from textiles.
02:08But this one has the strongest possible Indian influence on the...
02:12Oh!
02:12Do you see at the end here, this sort of minaret pattern?
02:15Well, we call those kite-shaped sapphires.
02:17But it's superbly made, and I think it's English.
02:21Do you wear it a little bit now?
02:23I don't wear it all the time.
02:24But when my sister asked me to do the eulogy at her funeral,
02:28I wore it in honour of her.
02:31People did remark on it, because it is a very pretty brooch.
02:34So I was delighted to wear it.
02:35So I wear it on special occasions.
02:37It's very covetable and valuable.
02:41Oh!
02:41Yes!
02:42And so I think it's so much the fashion of this moment,
02:46the Art Deco things, that I have no hesitation at all
02:50in saying that this is worth £8,000 to £10,000 today.
02:54Oh!
02:54Wow!
02:56That's some rock!
02:57It is some rock!
02:58Rock of ages!
03:02I had no idea, because it's one of those things
03:04that's always been in the family,
03:05and you never knew what it's worth.
03:07So we thought I'd come along and see today.
03:10I think that mum would be really, really pleased.
03:12It was something that she loved, and she wore a lot.
03:15Yeah, very surprised.
03:26When you brought this object to my table,
03:28I thought, I can't believe what I'm looking at.
03:31How did you acquire it?
03:32A grandaunt of mine in Waterford,
03:35she had lots of little knickknacks like that in her house
03:38behind glass cabinets, which we were never allowed to touch.
03:42This is a knickknack and a half!
03:44Correct, yeah.
03:45I mean, and she had lots of things like that.
03:46So when she eventually died and a lot of the stuff was sold,
03:50we were allowed to take any souvenir we wanted,
03:52and that's what I took.
03:54You have got great taste.
03:56That's what I would have taken.
03:58This is from the Black Forest.
04:00It's known as Black Forest carving,
04:02and I've seen loads of this stuff.
04:03Benches, tables, I've seen coat stands,
04:08bears walking, sitting.
04:10This is the wittiest thing.
04:14You just can't help but love it.
04:16You've got this bear painting a scene of the alpine landscape
04:23in which this was carved.
04:24He's got little pince-nez, glasses on the end of his nose.
04:28He's got a little paint palette there.
04:31Even the quality of the painting isn't bad.
04:34I think this bear is a pupil of Monet,
04:37because this is impressionistic.
04:39He reminds me of a Winston Churchill type person.
04:43On-holiday painting.
04:45Churchill was a painter, by the way.
04:47He was quite a good painter.
04:49This is just over 100 years old.
04:52Oh, gosh.
04:53Believe it or not.
04:54I think this would have been made between 1910 and 1925,
04:58and I bet there's not many people out there
05:00that have seen another one of those.
05:03This might sound crazy,
05:04but I think someone would give as much as £500 for that.
05:08Oh, my goodness.
05:10Do you know what?
05:11We actually have a second one at home.
05:13Oh, no.
05:14You've got a bear.
05:16I love it.
05:17Brilliant.
05:24This is a really breathtaking watercolour,
05:28and your eye is immediately drawn in
05:30by this sort of explosion of wildflowers,
05:34which feels very appropriate
05:36because we're in the botanical gardens,
05:38surrounded by amazing colour.
05:40And then you suddenly notice in the background,
05:43this is very unmistakable silhouette of Carrickfergus Castle.
05:46It's by Andrew Nicol,
05:47who was probably Ireland's most famous
05:5019th century topographical artist.
05:53How did it come to be yours?
05:55My late uncle, who died in 2010,
05:58he gifted me this beautiful painting
06:01of my native Carrickfergus.
06:02Oh, great.
06:03So you live in Carrickfergus?
06:04Yes, yes.
06:05And do you remember this hanging in your uncle's house?
06:08Oh, yes, I do.
06:09Yes.
06:10What do you like about it?
06:11I love the botanical flowers,
06:12the illustration of the flower.
06:14Botanical illustration really became a thing
06:17in the kind of 18th, 19th centuries,
06:19but Nicol was really quite a radical artist,
06:22I think, for his time.
06:24I mean, when you look at it at first,
06:25it feels like quite a traditional watercolour,
06:28but to have this kind of screen
06:31of flowers in the foreground,
06:33so he's really focused in on the detail of the poppies.
06:36If you look even closer,
06:38he's scratched out the paint
06:40to create these long strokes of grass.
06:44We call that sgraffito.
06:45And then just in the background,
06:47he tucks in this incredible landscape.
06:49So he's essentially combined botanical illustration
06:54with this very detailed view
06:57of a very well-known landscape.
07:00So you can see why he became
07:03such a famous topographical artist.
07:06It's interesting because he was largely self-taught.
07:08He didn't really have any formal art education,
07:11and he was apprenticed to a printer.
07:13And I think, because printing is quite technical,
07:17I think the process of printing
07:19clearly sort of imbued him this attention to detail.
07:24Do you have any idea what your uncle paid for it?
07:27None whatsoever.
07:29Well, I think if it was to come at auction today,
07:30we'd probably put an estimate
07:31in the region of £6,000 to £8,000.
07:35Very good.
07:37It really is a very special combination.
07:50When someone tells you
07:51that they've just handed you something
07:53that's come from the moon,
07:54you go, really?
07:56But, you know, I've always been fascinated
07:58by extraterrestrial objects.
08:01And here we've got a tiny slither of rock.
08:05Tell me how you know it comes from the moon.
08:07Well, first of all, I'm an astronomer.
08:09And I think if you're an astronomer,
08:11you've got to have a piece of the moon
08:13or a meteorite or something in your office.
08:15And this actually was found
08:18as part of a much larger meteorite
08:20in northwest Africa.
08:21And I acquired it from that collector.
08:24Right, okay.
08:24So what essentially has happened
08:26is that a meteorite has hit the moon.
08:28That's pushed debris back off of the moon,
08:31which has then obviously gone into orbit
08:33and eventually ended up hitting the earth.
08:36It's come from the moon.
08:37We didn't have to send the astronauts up there
08:39to get it.
08:40This has come to us free of charge, if you like.
08:42Yeah, I do love it
08:43because it has a very, very distinctive structure.
08:47And I just think it's a fascinating little object.
08:50I think, to be frank, it's worth £300 or £400.
08:53But, you know, isn't that quite a small amount of money
08:55to own a piece of the moon?
08:57Absolutely.
08:58It's staying with me.
08:59Yeah.
09:03That conforms to the description
09:10of a beautiful piece of glass, doesn't it?
09:13So tell me about it and you.
09:16I found it in a charity shop in Balamina.
09:19Immediately fell in love with it.
09:20Just the colours of it, you know,
09:22that pale pink colour matched with the green.
09:24I mean, it just, it's really striking.
09:26I didn't know anything about it.
09:28It was a hefty price on it for a charity shop, £90.
09:31So I left it there.
09:33I started researching and knew that I needed to run back.
09:36Very, very stressed, heading back,
09:38thinking, oh, it's not going to be here.
09:40But it was.
09:40It was waiting on me and I brought it home
09:42and I just think it's stunning.
09:44I really love it.
09:45Great.
09:46Well, Émile Gallet,
09:47he's probably the greatest glassmaker in history.
09:50He was a designer, maker, chemist.
09:54He really pushed the boundaries of glassmaking
09:56in a way that really no European had ever done before.
10:01Died in 1904 and this just predates his death.
10:05It's probably 1900.
10:07OK.
10:08Probably at the peak of his fame.
10:11There's no doubt about it.
10:12His signature states the simple word, Gallet.
10:16That's all it needs to say.
10:16That's all it needs because there was only one Émile Gallet.
10:20Yeah.
10:20Go on a bit later and it was heavily reproduced.
10:24And so you have a signature Gallet, T-Y-P type.
10:28But this is not.
10:30I can assure you that it is right.
10:32But this is Nasturtium and the style is Cameo here.
10:36This is Cameo glass where you have a colourless,
10:39slightly pink core and then that core is then dipped
10:45in a green overcase.
10:47So it's got glass on glass.
10:49So it's a bit like putting a peel on an apple, if you like.
10:55You've got the white inner meat of the apple
10:59with the green skin, as it were.
11:01And then that is selectively removed to create the pattern,
11:05which is Nasturtiums.
11:07And they go up and down.
11:09But this at auction would comfortably into 500 to 700.
11:13Really?
11:14As much as that?
11:15Yes, really as much as that.
11:16Wow.
11:17Wow.
11:17Not bad, eh?
11:18Fantastic, yeah.
11:19Oh, happy day.
11:23Wow.
11:24Wow.
11:24Very pleased.
11:25Very pleased.
11:26He's probably the greatest.
11:28Well.
11:29And there he is in a charity shop in Bellarmina.
11:33Of all places.
11:38Our venue today, the Botanic Gardens,
11:40is right next to Belfast's Queen's University,
11:45which has a centre named after one of its renowned students,
11:49the poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.
11:53Born in 1939, he enjoyed a long association with the university.
11:58Firstly, as a student in the late 1950s,
12:02and later as a lecturer.
12:05And today, Justin Croft is delighted to see
12:07some early examples of Heaney's work from the Heaney archive.
12:13So we're looking at really a massive material here
12:16relating to the poet Seamus Heaney.
12:20And this is all material from the Seamus Heaney Centre
12:23here at Queen's University in Belfast,
12:26which is just beyond the trees over there, right?
12:27Just beyond the trees, indeed, yeah.
12:29So you have a collection of really his earliest materials,
12:33as the formation of him as a poet.
12:35This is the Queen's University English Society called the Gorgon.
12:38You've got six issues of that.
12:39You've got a copy of, I assume, the first edition of his first collection?
12:43That's 11 poems, which was published by Queen's University in 1965.
12:47So there are 11 poems in here,
12:4910 of which are in his first collection, which comes out in 66.
12:52So, yeah, so this is really...
12:54This tells the story across these Gorgon magazines.
12:59It's really the story of Seamus Heaney becoming the poet.
13:03It's really interesting, if you look through these,
13:06the very first issue that he publishes in, which is number three,
13:09he publishes not under Seamus Heaney,
13:11but under Incertus, the Latin for uncertain.
13:16So he really doesn't yet know who he is?
13:18No, he's not using his name.
13:20As a poet?
13:21And then in issue four, he publishes for the first time as Seamus Heaney.
13:27And this is really his first appearance in print?
13:29First appearances in print, and not just poems.
13:32There are essays, there's even a short story.
13:35Right, and these are incredibly ephemeral pieces.
13:37They are essentially duplicated typescripts, aren't they?
13:40So I'm guessing they were produced in pretty small numbers.
13:43I can't imagine that more than a handful of copies of these survived.
13:46There are certainly not a huge number of them.
13:48David Oliver, who was the editor of number four, gifted us these.
13:54He was the one, he said to Seamus,
13:56if you're going to give me a poem, I want you to use your name.
14:00I think what's wonderful about what you're doing
14:02is you're bringing all these things together.
14:04Just also amazingly, you have his form of application
14:07for admission to the Faculty of Arts.
14:09It's dated 2nd of October, 1957.
14:13This belongs to Queen's University itself.
14:16It doesn't sit in the Seamus Heaney Centre collection.
14:19I love the poems of Seamus Heaney.
14:20I value them for their kind of directness, their accessibility.
14:24I love the sense of place. I love the landscape.
14:27There is a great immediacy of language, a mastery of form as well.
14:33But I think it is something that communicates so immediately
14:37from those earliest poems.
14:39So you know and I know that the value in this
14:41doesn't necessarily lie in the commercial,
14:44but we can think about it.
14:46A collection such as the 11 poems, it regularly makes £5,000.
14:50The Gorgon is rarer and you might say to some extent more important.
14:56Six issues of which four have Seamus Heaney contributions.
14:59It's a fantastic connection to Oliver, as you talked about.
15:03I can see this at probably between £8,000 and £10,000, something like that.
15:08Student record.
15:09I mean, to have the photograph of Seamus Heaney on his original student record
15:15in the Queen's University register, I'm just not going to put a value on.
15:19To me, the cultural value of that is immeasurable.
15:22That's good. So we've got to give that back.
15:26Thank you so much.
15:26It's been a real, real pleasure and a treat.
15:44Well, an impressive vase of this scale must have quite an interesting story to tell.
15:49It has.
15:50My grandfather actually got it in a sale from Buncran Castle.
15:54A castle in the wild west of Ireland in County Donegal.
15:57Well, that seems very fitting.
15:59It's been passed from my mother to me and I know nothing about it.
16:04Well, what we have here is a wonderful salt-glazed pottery vase
16:08that reflects a fusion of two design elements.
16:11So we have this very oriental form of the moon flask,
16:15this circular central body and also these wonderfully made exotic dragon handles here.
16:21Yet the decoration of the piece is very European in character.
16:25Here on the front of the vase, we have gentlemen in 17th century style dress
16:30and playing instruments and on the back, similar figures with weaponry.
16:34And it's actually made in Germany, probably around about 1880.
16:38It's very much in the style of Westerwald pottery,
16:41which is characterised by this greyish stoneware body and the moulded decoration.
16:46In terms of value, I can comfortably see it retailing at three to four hundred pounds.
16:52That's good enough for me.
16:54And many thanks for bringing it along on this very wet day in Belfast to share with us.
17:07While the heavens open and give the people and the plants a good watering,
17:14I'm stepping inside the stunning centrepiece here at the Botanic Gardens.
17:18The Palm House was designed by renowned local architect Charles Lanyon,
17:22who was also responsible for the original building at Queen's University, Belfast.
17:26Construction began in 1839 and the cast iron bones of this curvilinear building
17:33were designed by a man called Richard Turner.
17:35Now, he went on to design a similar structure at Kew Gardens in London, of course.
17:41Originally a private garden which charged for admission,
17:45the Botanic Gardens opened to the public for free in 1895.
17:50It attracted everyone from green-fingered locals to expert collectors.
17:56And the gardens hold a collection of tools and gadgets used by those early horticulturalists.
18:03Now, this is the garden itself.
18:05These are some of the items that would have been used in a place like this.
18:08This is one of the original lead marker machines for plants.
18:13A soil testing kit.
18:15I've used a much more modern version of this myself in my garden.
18:18And then this is known as a vasculum.
18:20And this is what curious and enthusiastic botanists would have used.
18:24It's a tin container and they'd have stored their plant specimens inside on a damp cloth
18:28to keep them fresh.
18:30The first superintendent of the gardens was one Charles McKim.
18:34He oversaw the construction of this red brick building which houses the tropical ravine.
18:43This building was originally built in Victorian times to reflect their obsession with ferns.
18:48This is a dedicated fernery and that's where they would have stored their plants.
18:53And this is the first of its kind.
18:54This is a dedicated fernery and that passion for ferns is known as pteridomania.
18:59Victorians loved them so much.
19:01They used the motif of these delicate fronds on all sorts of things from bags to wallpaper.
19:08You name it, it had a fern on it.
19:14Those Victorian enthusiasts hunted some of these plants nearly to extinction in their
19:19native habitat.
19:20Today a high priority is given to conserving and protecting rare plant species.
19:26And the perfect dark and humid haven's been found for a real botanical treasure.
19:31This old toilet block.
19:34Follow me inside and look through here in one of the old cubicles
19:42is this fern known as the Killarney fern.
19:46Is this fern known as the Killarney fern.
19:50It's incredibly rare because at one point it was collected almost to extinction.
19:54So prized were its delicate fronds.
19:57And we can only look at it for a very short time because it's sensitive to light.
20:00But look, it's just so beautiful.
20:09Such a treat to see it.
20:10And I'm sure it won't be the last unique discovery we unearth today.
20:16I see so many wristwatches now on the roadshow.
20:19It's an absolute joy to see a quality pocket watch.
20:22How did you get it?
20:23My father was a watchmaker.
20:25Right, okay.
20:26And he was approached by somebody who wanted to raise money to buy a plot of land.
20:30And so my dad ended up with the watch.
20:33Great.
20:34Well, it's by Charles Frodsham, a very, very good watchmaker.
20:37Watchmaker to Queen Victoria, amongst other things.
20:40And not only is it signed Charles Frodsham, but it also says ADFMSZ.
20:46He only used that on his very good watches after about 1850.
20:51So it's one of his best quality watches.
20:54It's free sprung.
20:55Now, most watches have a lever to make them go slow or fast.
20:59You, as an individual, cannot adjust this.
21:01It has to be adjusted professionally.
21:04So this is top of the range stuff.
21:07And there's two, what we call, ciphers there.
21:10They are the various awards and medals that he has.
21:14And it'll tell you who he sold his products to.
21:17And then it's got the full signature.
21:19Charles Frodsham, by appointment to the Queen.
21:2218 carat case, the hallmark London, 1893.
21:28And the chain, I see, is 15 carat gold.
21:33Good, long, heavy chain.
21:35If you went to a jeweller's to buy it,
21:37you'd be looking in the region of sort of four and a half thousand pounds.
21:42But it's a good object, and I'm glad you love it.
21:49What have you brought today?
21:50Silver cup, which was won by my great aunt for butter making.
21:55For butter making?
21:56Oh, lovely.
22:00A challenge prize.
22:02So that's a Newton Wood Horticultural Society.
22:05Goodness me, that was a...
22:06Substantial prize.
22:08Exactly, absolutely.
22:09It certainly was, but it is actually silver as well.
22:12Made in Sheffield.
22:13I would have thought it's probably two to three hundred pounds,
22:16something like that, maybe slightly more.
22:17But it's a really nice car.
22:19Thanks very much.
22:22It's a kind of ocarina, isn't it, really?
22:24So is this the end you blew it?
22:27Yes, indeed.
22:27Shall we have a go?
22:28Yes.
22:32Very good.
22:34Marvellous, aren't they?
22:36All those years at the piano, wasn't it?
22:38What can you tell me about it?
22:39I inherited it from my aunt and uncle.
22:42It probably came from my grandfather, who died in 1920, or his father.
22:48It's German.
22:49And the interesting thing is, for all it says Meissen on there,
22:52it isn't the Meissen factory.
22:54Right.
22:55Because Meissen, of course, marked with the cross swords.
22:58Yes.
22:58So this is another factory who used the Meissen name.
23:03Was that a fake, then?
23:06No, not in the modern sense.
23:08So it's not a fake.
23:10It's a looky-likey, but it's great fun.
23:14If it was Meissen, it would be very rare, worth hundreds of pounds.
23:18Right.
23:18But as Meissenette, shall we say, it's about £50 worth.
23:24Oh, well, it's nice to have.
23:26So for this winter, you should learn to play the ocarina.
23:39I love it when I see two boxes and able to reveal inside two beautiful necklaces.
23:48And this one, which includes a pair of earrings and a brooch.
23:52How did they come into your family collection?
23:54When I was 18 years old, my maternal grandmother gave me this
23:57and she took me to the jewellers to have my ears pierced to my mother's horror.
24:02That was for this necklace and earrings.
24:04How wonderful.
24:05That's quite a present, isn't it?
24:06Yeah.
24:07Well, it was just costume jewellery.
24:08That's what she told me.
24:09OK.
24:10And what about this one?
24:11That's my mother's.
24:12I think she inherited it, possibly.
24:13I can't really remember.
24:15And do you wear them?
24:16Yes.
24:17Oh, good.
24:17It's good to know that jewellery is worn.
24:19That's superb.
24:20And which out of the two do you prefer?
24:22I do prefer that one.
24:23I think it's daintier, just beautifully made.
24:26I tend to wear that one more because those colours are in my clothes.
24:29Both of them are sumptuous colours, aren't they?
24:31And look absolutely gorgeous.
24:32So you're thinking that this is costume jewellery.
24:35Yeah.
24:35And what do you think the stones are in this one?
24:38I'm assuming it's amethysts.
24:40You're absolutely right.
24:41Amethysts are the purple stones.
24:43And then the white stones are white topaz.
24:45Topaz comes in a variety of colours.
24:48And the date for this necklace is 1880s, 1890s.
24:51Oh, OK.
24:52Probably made in Britain.
24:54Amethysts are absolutely gorgeous.
24:56Lovely, lovely saturation of colour.
24:59And obviously mounted in yellow gold.
25:01So we've got a beautiful piece of jewellery with a case,
25:04which is what everybody loves at the moment, which is superb.
25:07This one, we're going further back in history.
25:10Really?
25:10We're going back to the Georgians.
25:11I know.
25:12I thought, like, 1930s or something.
25:15It's amazing, isn't it?
25:16But this dates from circa 1800.
25:18And the Georgian period is very popular at the moment.
25:21It's one of those things that everybody wants to collect.
25:24The other good thing about this is we've got a fitted case
25:27with a brooch and a pair of earrings as well as the necklace.
25:31All of the garnets are evenly cut.
25:34Beautiful colour.
25:35And they have a closed back setting.
25:37So if we, for example, turn the brooch over,
25:40we can see that the mount is completely closed at the back.
25:44OK.
25:44Now, behind the garnets, we have foiling.
25:47And that helps to make the stones brighter in that closed back setting
25:52where light can't get behind it.
25:54So it needs a little bit of help.
25:55I thought garnet was cheap ruby.
25:57That's what she said.
25:58There used to be a thing.
25:59They used to say that garnets were poor man's rubies.
26:02But actually, garnets are beautiful gemstones in their own right
26:05and are highly prized today, as most gemstones are.
26:09So it's absolutely wonderful.
26:10I think it's just superb.
26:11And the fact that we've got the wonderful case as well.
26:14That's meant that all of the stones are in such good condition.
26:18And how often do you get sets of jewellery
26:20which are then split up between daughters and daughter-in-laws?
26:23So to have that is absolutely superb.
26:25So you still like that one the best?
26:27Or are you...?
26:28Yeah.
26:28Yeah.
26:29Just from a design point of view, I like it.
26:30Sure.
26:32Values.
26:32The amethyst and white topaz necklace.
26:35This came up for auction.
26:37An auction estimate of between £1,000 and £1,500 as an auction estimate.
26:42As for the garnet perure, a set of jewellery.
26:46Absolutely lovely.
26:48At auction, because of the popularity of Georgian jewellery at the moment,
26:53auction estimate of £3,000 to £5,000.
26:57Oh, my goodness.
26:58I didn't think I was wearing anything like that.
27:01I really didn't.
27:04Well, collectively, we've got an auction estimate of £4,000 to £6,500.
27:11Am I in a dream here?
27:13I don't believe it's true.
27:16We like to make dreams come true.
27:21I didn't even realise what costume jewellery was.
27:24I didn't think about jewellery.
27:25I wasn't into jewellery.
27:26Just in hindsight now, maybe she genuinely thought it was costume jewellery.
27:30I've no idea.
27:31I don't know.
27:37Do you know, there really is so much history and heritage in Belfast.
27:41It's all around us.
27:42Now, more so than just a few yards in that direction at the Friars Bush Cemetery.
27:47You are from there.
27:48You are a friar in your full get-up.
27:50And you brought in rather unusually, not an object,
27:52but a photo of an object that you're trying to find.
27:56Tell me more.
27:57Well, the gentleman to the right is called Andrew McKenna.
28:00He was a very prominent nationalist and newspaper editor in Victorian Belfast.
28:05This guy on the left is a guy called Stephen Gallagher.
28:08He found the head of Andrew McKenna in the mid-80s
28:11when they were clearing the Friars Bush Cemetery.
28:13However, since then, it has disappeared.
28:16Now, Andrew McKenna was a very prominent Catholic and nationalist in Belfast,
28:20but he had the misfortune to actually fall out with the then bishop,
28:24who was called Patrick Dorian,
28:25and he lost his job as the newspaper editor of the Northern Star.
28:29He was attacked coming back from County Derry in 1871,
28:34and he died eight months later.
28:35So they had this beautiful monument erected within Friars Bush,
28:39and his head adorned.
28:41The plinth.
28:41In the 1960s, a number of vandals came into the cemetery,
28:45and unfortunately, they knocked his block off.
28:48Poor Andrew McKenna.
28:49So what we're saying to viewers is,
28:51if you know the whereabouts of the head of Andrew McKenna,
28:54then do get in touch with us,
28:55and hopefully, we can reunite the head with the statue.
29:00Oh, it would be a fantastic thing to put this back
29:02where it belongs in Belfast's most historic cemetery.
29:06Well, watch this space.
29:11So I am going to coin a little phrase here,
29:13and that is, a face only a mother can love.
29:17What do you know about it?
29:18It was my grandparents' first, and they got it over 50 years ago.
29:22I know that they did quite a lot of dealing with the Chinese community
29:24as they were duck farmers.
29:26We think it's an incense burner.
29:28When I was growing up, Ireland was much more monoculture than it is today,
29:31and so this is a really exotic thing, you know?
29:34So we always loved it and loved to play with it,
29:36although, strictly speaking, we weren't meant to.
29:39It is Chinese, and it is an incense burner.
29:41That little hole at the front
29:44was actually meant to have a little hinge on it,
29:46so his head wasn't meant to come off.
29:48In fact, his head was meant to hinge forward,
29:51and then you could put it back again.
29:52But yes, it's absolutely where all that lovely smoke would have come out.
29:55I mean, it must have looked very dramatic
29:57with all those kind of oils and things burning out.
29:59Now, do you want to know who he is and what he is?
30:01Yes, please.
30:02Great, OK.
30:02So he's called a Luduan.
30:04So he's a mythical beast, and he's got the head of a lion.
30:08He's got the horn of a rhino, the body of a dragon.
30:12OK.
30:12Scaly fish on his legs there and bear paws.
30:16He's also got the tail of an ox back there as well.
30:20So age, any ideas?
30:23More than 50 years old.
30:24More than 50 years old.
30:25You are right.
30:26It is 17th century.
30:28Oh, my goodness!
30:28There you go, which makes him sort of late Ming or early Qing dynasty.
30:33He's made in bronze.
30:34I actually love him.
30:35I mean, I think it's just...
30:36Yeah, no, no, I love it too.
30:37I think it's amazing.
30:38I think he's just a marvellous, marvellous thing.
30:41Right, value.
30:42I think if that came up for auction,
30:45I think he's easily worth 1,500 to 2,500 pounds.
30:48Wow!
30:49It's a surprise.
30:50Great.
30:51I remember it all my life.
30:52I think they remember it all their lives,
30:54and hopefully if they have children, they'll remember it too.
30:56So keep it in the family.
30:57It's lovely.
30:58It's charming.
30:59Lovely thing.
31:09Well, we couldn't come to Belfast without finding something to do
31:14with the most famed ship perhaps ever built, the Titanic.
31:19Are you a collector?
31:20Yeah, I'm a postcard collector,
31:22and I ran the Northern Ireland Postcard Club for a number of years,
31:27and I've spent 40 years or more just collecting postcards,
31:31and sometimes I'm lucky to find some Titanic ones.
31:34I see amongst the postcards,
31:36we've got a brochure of the White Star Line.
31:39This is like a brochure for the first-class passengers of SS Celtic,
31:46Yeah.
31:47which is one of the big four of the White Star Line,
31:50those ships over 20,000 tonnes.
31:54Now, this particular ship sailed on the 10th of June, 1911,
32:00the year before the Titanic disaster.
32:06Where did you get this from?
32:07I've never seen one before.
32:09Well, I usually buy job lots,
32:11and I spend my life chasing postcards.
32:14I mean, I wake up in the morning thinking about them,
32:17and I go to bed at night thinking about them.
32:19You are a serious collector.
32:20I can't remember where I got that one.
32:23No.
32:25It's wonderful because it not only gives the names of all the passengers,
32:29but it's not till you get to the back page
32:32that you get a view of the Olympic,
32:35which looks just like the Titanic.
32:39Now in commission, so that was sailing.
32:42But there's an announcement of a triple screw
32:46building at Belfast, 45,000 tonnes, the Titanic.
32:51So it's quite eerie to think that
32:54this was being trumpeted as the ship to come.
32:57It's quite a sort of a potent brochure.
33:00Yeah.
33:01We have a postcard of Captain Smith and officers of the Titanic,
33:06quite a rare thing.
33:07And of course, at the back,
33:08we've got a sort of a post-disaster-produced,
33:12long postcard of the Titanic.
33:15Again, quite scarce.
33:17It's a privilege to see these,
33:19and I'm very excited about this one.
33:21So when it comes to value, that's a rare item.
33:24I'd say somewhere around £300 for that.
33:28The postcard of Captain Smith and officers of the Titanic,
33:32about £50.
33:34And then the long postcard produced after the disaster,
33:38around the £200 mark.
33:41Thank you very much.
33:43We get all sorts of medals coming into the Antiques Roadshow,
33:56sporting medals, campaign medals, of course, gallantry medals.
34:00You've brought along a silver medal today
34:02that's just a bit different, shall we say.
34:04Tell us what it's for.
34:06Well, the medal comes from my husband's great-grandfather.
34:10His name was T.W. Little,
34:12and he was a master plumber.
34:14It was presented to him on the King's visit to Kilkenny Castle in 1904
34:19because he had re-plumbed his medieval castle,
34:23and the first en-suite in Ireland was put in for the King's visit.
34:27Fantastic.
34:27So he was a regal plumber, basically, on this occasion.
34:31Indeed.
34:32Well, and obviously that's Kilkenny Castle we're looking at,
34:35right in the middle there.
34:36And we can see the royal procession, Edward VII and Queen Alexandra,
34:40arriving at the castle.
34:42What about the other ones?
34:43What have we got here?
34:45Well, that's just a picture of the actual toilet, obviously.
34:51And in 1904, it was revolutionary, I suppose, the engineering required.
34:55And this is just the window.
34:58So, obviously, His Majesty would have sat on the throne.
35:02The throne, yeah.
35:03And this is actually the view that is there today.
35:07Absolutely wonderful.
35:08What a commission to get.
35:10Yes, a large commission.
35:12No, it's astonishing.
35:13And I looked, just the hallmarks on the front, it's quite nice,
35:16because it's an Irish-made medal.
35:18It's not been bought in, you know, from a jeweller.
35:21And it's hallmarked in Dublin.
35:23And we've got a little mark here, P. Bross, for Pym Brothers.
35:28They had a big department store in Dublin.
35:30So they received commissions to make things like medals,
35:33and they did all sorts of other things.
35:34Mostly linen, actually, Irish linen.
35:36It's in its original box.
35:38It's got that lovely aged patina about it.
35:42Which, to a collector, just makes such a difference.
35:44It's an astonishing story.
35:45As I say, we see all sorts of medals.
35:47I've never seen one like that ever before.
35:49It's a very difficult thing to price,
35:50because, obviously, I've not seen one on the market.
35:52And I'm sure it is the only one.
35:56But my gut feeling is, probably in the middle hundreds,
35:59four to six hundred pounds, I would have said.
36:01Yes.
36:01You know, there are medal collectors who do collect unusual things.
36:04And because there's not been one on the market,
36:06you know, who's to say what it might be worth?
36:07It'll go to the next generation in our family.
36:11We're going to take a moment now to look at three objects,
36:21at three mystery objects.
36:23Adam, you brought these along.
36:24They're all brass.
36:25I can see that much.
36:26And you're going to give us two options for each one for their use.
36:29And our job is to try and work out what they are.
36:33Okay. Well, I love brass.
36:35It's got this lovely warmth to it.
36:37And we're starting with a dial.
36:39Now, is this something that you would use during a shooting party
36:44to record the number of partridges, hence the P?
36:49Or is it a dial that people wanting to catch a stagecoach
36:56in the sort of early 19th century would look at for the time of departure?
37:01The P standing for passengers.
37:04When you say time of departure, that's a 16 hour clock then?
37:08They didn't go all night.
37:09Oh, I see.
37:10So it just gives the hours of departure for that particular stagecoach.
37:16Who knows, who knows?
37:17Lots of wrinkled brows.
37:19Yeah.
37:20What about this little fellow?
37:21Yeah, this delightful little piece.
37:24Is it something a sailmaker would use for repairing his sailcloth?
37:30Okay.
37:31Or is it simply a knitting accessory for use while you were on the move?
37:40Oh, there's lots of yeses going on in the back.
37:42What, for the knitting accessory?
37:43Okay, so, oh, this is looking good.
37:46What about this thing here?
37:48Written on here, we've got ruffles, bands, handkerchiefs,
37:52foot-toes or I think it is, or boot-toes, tops, cuffs.
37:56And then these go round.
37:58Yes, little dials.
37:59And they, basically underneath, it's a bit hard to do it so you can see.
38:03Should be a little number.
38:04Yes, there's numbers up to 12.
38:07Is it a brass laundry tally used in a late Elizabethan,
38:13perhaps Jacobean country house laundry
38:17to record clothes that are going in for cleaning and those that are coming out?
38:23Or the other option being that it was used by clothes makers
38:28to literally record their production.
38:31So how many cuffs, how many pieces of boot-toes for payment purposes?
38:36Oh, right.
38:38Let's start with the dial.
38:40Look at you there in your poncho.
38:44Oh God, are you all right?
38:45Yeah, I'm okay.
38:47Welcome to the roadshow in the main.
38:50So the number of partridges you shot,
38:51or if you're waiting for a stagecoach and it tells you what time it's coming?
38:54I think maybe the departure one
38:56because if it was partridges, the numbers is limited.
39:00All righty.
39:01What do you think about the one in the middle?
39:03You think that's the knitting accessory?
39:04No, for yachts.
39:06Oh, you think it's for sailing?
39:08Yes, I thought it's for knitting.
39:10Oh, I thought you all looked like you knew.
39:11Looks like a crochet hook at the end of that.
39:14I've got you.
39:15Okay, now who's got a view on this one?
39:17I think the laundry tally.
39:19Laundry tally.
39:19Anyone going for the clock worker?
39:22I think clock worker, yeah.
39:24Okay, let's go for stagecoach.
39:26Crochet hook, and I've no idea.
39:30You're saying the cloth worker.
39:33I don't think it looks old enough to be Elizabethan.
39:36No, I can actually tell you it is late Elizabethan.
39:38Oh, it is late Elizabethan.
39:40Oh, okay.
39:41Hence, you know, the ruffs, the cuffs, the boot hose.
39:44And it's in amazing condition.
39:46It's a rare thing, yeah.
39:46Amazing.
39:47Let's go for cloth worker tally of how many things they were making and selling.
39:52Sure?
39:54No.
39:55But that's what we're going for.
39:57Okay, okay.
39:58Well, let's start with this.
39:59And you know, I devised the wrong answer to obviously catch you out.
40:04And you're quite right.
40:05Partridges, you could shoot 50, 60 of the poor things.
40:09This wouldn't have enough.
40:10So it is actually a 16-hour stagecoach dial.
40:14And you would fix it at your next departure.
40:16So yeah, well, well done.
40:18And it's beautiful.
40:19You know, it's got this for moving the hand.
40:22And beautifully engraved, a lovely sort of late Georgian piece.
40:26And so that would be at the stagecoach stop, if you like.
40:29Yes, probably mounted on a wall, perhaps at an inn or a tavern.
40:34And then you would know when to get up for your next departure.
40:38Yeah.
40:38Amazing.
40:39I mean, it's a beautiful thing.
40:40Yeah.
40:41Moving on to this one.
40:43Okay, there's a lot of tension back here.
40:44I saw what it could be.
40:46You know, you're absolutely right.
40:48It's a knitting accessory.
40:50Yeah.
40:50Now, if you'd noticed the little sort of dog, dragon-like finial has a tiny little hole in it.
40:57You would hook it onto your belt with that bracket.
41:01And that allowed you to put a knitting needle in there.
41:05So that if you were, say, walking to market with a herd of sheep in front of you,
41:10you'd created another hand.
41:13So you would be knitting and still have a free hand to get the dog or the sheep.
41:18We talk about multitasking.
41:20So by the time you got to market with your herd, you'd knitted a sock.
41:24How remarkable.
41:25And when was that date from?
41:26About 1820, 1830.
41:28Now, this one.
41:29This was tricky, I have to say.
41:31Yeah, that's the only one you've got wrong.
41:33It is a late Elizabethan or Jacobean laundry tally.
41:37Because clothes were so valuable.
41:38Who's right?
41:39Yeah, there you go.
41:41Yeah, your clothes were counted.
41:42Very competitive, you lot, I have to say.
41:44Clothes were counted in and counted out.
41:47And counted out because they were one of the most valuable things of the period.
41:51What a remarkable survivor.
41:53I know, it is quite a scarce piece.
41:55And as you know, this is The Roadshow.
41:57You've got to put some values on these things.
42:00So one of these is worth £250.
42:05One of them is worth £800.
42:08And the last one is worth £5,000.
42:13I'm putting £5,000 on this.
42:14I don't know about you.
42:16£800, £250.
42:19Well done, everyone.
42:20Three out of three.
42:21Oh, yeah.
42:23Well done.
42:25At least that's something.
42:27A tiny bit of pride restored.
42:30I don't know about you, I didn't know these things even existed.
42:33Fascinating to learn about.
42:34And thank you so much.
42:35Been great fun.
42:36Well done.
42:41So you brought me this tiny little notebook.
42:43It fits in the palm of my hand.
42:45It's almost like a feather sitting in my hand.
42:47It hardly weighs anything.
42:48Just paperbacks.
42:50I love this green cloth stitched by someone who can barely stitch.
42:54Exactly.
42:55Where did it come from?
42:56That came from a secondhand bookshop in London.
42:59And I got it in 2018.
43:01Right.
43:01So six years ago now.
43:02And it was in like a tray or a box full of different ephemera.
43:07And when we open it up, it's just delightful.
43:10It's an inscription, F.E.H. Jackson from M.A. Hallhead.
43:14So this is one child giving a gift to another child.
43:17Perhaps with the participation of brothers and sisters.
43:21You know, this is a recreation.
43:23And very typical of Victorian domestic life.
43:26Especially among girls, I can imagine.
43:28Yeah, I would be fairly sure that this is done by girls.
43:31We can't be absolutely certain.
43:33But these are little tiny watercolours.
43:36Not by a professional artist.
43:38Definitely amateur.
43:39And I would guess probably by a child.
43:42Yes.
43:42These look like children's watercolours from the middle of the 19th century.
43:471850s, 1840s, something like that, I would guess.
43:50This is brilliant.
43:51A real variety of scenes.
43:52This one is just lovely.
43:54It's almost like a fairy scene, isn't it?
43:56Absolutely.
43:56These two children here.
43:57One emerging with a bulrush.
43:59And there's a real sense of humour about them too, which is charming.
44:02Yeah, that's right.
44:03They're lovely.
44:04Did you pay a London price for it?
44:06I don't think I paid a London price for it.
44:08I paid £12.50, £12.50.
44:10You paid £12.50 for this comic book?
44:13I think that's tremendous.
44:15This is the kind of material which is becoming more and more sought after.
44:18I think as people get more and more interested in the way in which people learn,
44:22the experience of children, how children learn,
44:25particularly the experience of how girls learn and how children express themselves,
44:30there's so much interest in this kind of thing.
44:32And I think now, if you went into that same bookshop,
44:36you would have to be paying perhaps £150, maybe as much as £250 for this.
44:41Really?
44:42Absolutely. I think that was a tremendous buy.
44:45Congratulations.
44:46Okay, that is not what I thought you were going to say.
44:49It's a lovely thing and a real treat to see. Thank you.
44:52You're very welcome.
45:03This beautiful oil on canvas is just so full of tranquillity.
45:08The light, the colour, so pretty.
45:11And of course, I've had a look at the back,
45:12and there's a nice old label saying Estella Solomons,
45:15and it also says the Dublin Sketch Club, 1934.
45:18And she was a major female force in the Irish circle, I suppose.
45:23Tell me, where did you come across the picture?
45:26It was my late dad's and just absolutely loved this painting.
45:30She's an Irish painter and she's a lady.
45:33That was painted four years after my dad was born.
45:35It wasn't easy for female artists in a very sort of male-dominated world.
45:39Yeah.
45:40But she was quite a force, wasn't she?
45:42She really was.
45:43I think it's really a time for Irish art,
45:45particularly for female artists, to have a voice.
45:48What I like about her style is the fact that she trained under the two greats,
45:53Walter Osborne, William Orpen.
45:55But actually, from that, she decided to take on her own style, actually.
46:00So there's not a great deal of association you can see,
46:03apart from that gentle subtlety, perhaps, to Osborne.
46:05So she has her own free-flowing, fluid style.
46:09Look, you're never going to part with this picture, are you?
46:11No, never.
46:12I just love it.
46:13We both love it.
46:14I've still got to value it for you.
46:16And it's certainly worth £2,000 to £3,000 at auction in the present market.
46:21Yeah, that's lovely.
46:22Thank you so much.
46:29The most unlikely items on the Roadshow sometimes have links
46:31to the most significant historical events.
46:35And few things have caused more political debate
46:37than the issue of Irish Home Rule, or self-governance.
46:43Two Home Rule bills introduced by Prime Minister William Gladstone
46:47failed to make it through the House of Commons in the late 19th century.
46:51A third was attempted in 1912.
46:55It was a hot topic over many an Ulster friar, as Stephen Moore discovered.
47:03What's in the box?
47:04It's an egg.
47:05No!
47:06It's a controversial egg at that.
47:09Laid at Westminster, 1912.
47:12Home Rule, but won't hatch in Ulster.
47:17Ooh.
47:19And it's pepper as well.
47:21It is.
47:21If I had this on my Ulster friar this morning,
47:23I would have been making a political statement.
47:25Absolutely, yeah.
47:27My great-aunt gave it to us.
47:28My mum was collecting eggs at the time,
47:30and they just decided to hand this one over as well.
47:33And we all loved it because of the beautiful blue colour,
47:35but didn't realise how interesting it was, I suppose,
47:38until a bit later on when we looked into Home Rule.
47:40A political egg.
47:41Absolutely.
47:421912 was the third Home Rule bill,
47:45and some people were having none of it.
47:49So this innocent little pepper pot actually triggered a lot of breakfasts.
47:55And somebody smashed it as well.
47:57My mum, yeah.
47:59It was being polished, and unfortunately it just...
48:01Who polishes a pepper pot?
48:03Well, maybe dusted, maybe.
48:05And she broke it.
48:06Yes, sadly.
48:07Politics aside, it's a fascinating piece of Irish history.
48:12It's a shame...
48:15It's a shame somebody broke it,
48:17because unbroken, freshly laid, shall we say,
48:22it would be about £150.
48:25Nice, yeah.
48:26Smashed to ribbons, or shall we say cracked.
48:29Yes.
48:30It's about £50.
48:31Okay.
48:32That's not bad for an old blue egg.
48:33No, that's all right.
48:34That's all right.
48:35Polish it with care.
48:47Fabulous little toy.
48:48What can you tell me about him?
48:49I think my uncle must have picked it up when he was on national service,
48:54and we found it tucked at the back of a wardrobe.
48:56It was in a tin marked Germany 1954.
48:59So he's been in captivity for a long time.
49:02He's been let out into the light.
49:04He's by a company called Schreyer & Co, Schuko.
49:07They were based in Germany,
49:08and they were a manufacturer of all sorts of toys,
49:10clockwork toys in particular,
49:12and they were formed in 1912.
49:14And this is very typical of the sort of thing we were making in the 1930s and 40s.
49:18Obviously, he's clockwork, and he's got his tail.
49:20Now, I've seen a few of these with the tail missing,
49:23but he's so charming the way he spins,
49:25and he lifts the little baby mouse up,
49:27which, unfortunately, he's lost his legs, the baby mouse.
49:30He would originally have had little tin plate legs on him.
49:34He's highly collectible,
49:35and he would have a value of around £200 to £300.
49:38Oh, that's brilliant.
49:39Which is not bad for a little mouse that's nearly 100 years old.
49:42Shall we just wind him up again and let's see him in action?
49:54There are certain makers,
49:55certain designers that are instantly recognisable,
49:59and the work of Moorcroft is one of those.
50:02But this is quite special, if only for the size, but also the colour.
50:06But before we go further into that, explain to me, how did you come to own it?
50:09Well, I inherited it, I suppose, from my mother when she passed away.
50:12She got it as a wedding present in 1954,
50:16and it's always been in the family.
50:18She used to keep her gloves in it,
50:20and I was always told just to watch out for the Moorcroft vase.
50:23Look after it, don't let anything happen to it.
50:26And she wrote that on a little note that was kept on an envelope inside the vase,
50:31saying, look after me.
50:33So we're still looking after her.
50:34Well, it's a really fabulous piece of Moorcroft.
50:37Of course, when we look at the Moorcroft family and the dynasty that it is,
50:41of course, it starts with William Moorcroft,
50:43who was this absolute monolith in the potteries,
50:47creating some of the most spectacular work in the early part of the 20th century,
50:52up to his death in 1945.
50:55Now, in 1945, his son, Walter, was actually serving in the armed forces
51:00and got special dispensation to come back during the war
51:04to take over the running of the factory.
51:06And what we see here is a piece in Walter's time.
51:10And the one thing that I want to draw attention to is the colour,
51:15because this is a flambe Moorcroft.
51:19Now, Walter was a master at flambe,
51:21because flambe is so complicated,
51:24because you've got to get the firing right, the temperature right,
51:27because often the colours will just disappear or become opaque
51:30or go literally black.
51:32But there were endless and endless experiments
51:35to make sure that he could master this.
51:37And I think it absolutely shows here.
51:40If we just look underneath,
51:42we've got all the marks we'd want to see there.
51:44You've got the impressed mark there,
51:45Moorcroft, potters to Her Majesty the Queen.
51:48And then you've got this huge WM mark,
51:51which was Walter's way of differentiating himself from his father,
51:55who signed him full.
51:57The pattern's called Frisia,
51:58which is actually one of his father's designs,
52:00and that was commonplace.
52:02After 1945, Walter carried on a number of his father's earlier designs,
52:07but here we see it sort of very much made his own.
52:11It's fab, isn't it?
52:12Oh, yeah, I love it.
52:13You still love it today?
52:15Yeah, absolutely.
52:17So we've got to think about the value.
52:18Moorcroft had a really interesting time.
52:20You know, it was up.
52:22It was up, it dropped back a little,
52:24and it did settle.
52:25But this is a beautiful piece,
52:27and it's a really good piece of its time.
52:30And at that, I think you're looking in the region of £1,000 to £1,500.
52:36Ooh, yeah.
52:38Nice wedding present.
52:40And my son better look after it as well.
52:43Well, maybe you need to add a note on the bottom of Mum's note,
52:47saying, look after it, Dad.
52:49Yes.
52:54Hard to believe, but this creaky contraption
52:57would quicken the pulse of anyone interested in high-speed motorsports.
53:03In fact, it's the original jig, or type of template,
53:06for one of the world's most famous motorcycles,
53:10the Norton Mags.
53:12Designed by local engineer Rex McCandless in 1949,
53:17his jig also held the frame in place while the bike was constructed.
53:22Raj Bisram is thrilled to meet the jig's current owner,
53:25and she's joined by Rex's nephew.
53:29John, your uncle wasn't just an inventor of bikes,
53:31because he invented lots of other things, didn't he?
53:33He was a real bit of a genius, really, wasn't he?
53:36Rex was a genius,
53:37and it's not easy growing up in a family of geniuses.
53:43Because what was obvious to Rex
53:45was not obvious to the average man, you know?
53:48But Rex's way of dealing with the problem was,
53:51he'd work all night with a bottle of whiskey beside him,
53:54and in the morning, the bottle was empty,
53:57and the problem was solved.
53:59Well, this looks like a very unusual collection.
54:02Tell me about these trophies.
54:04So this is a collection in John's family.
54:07These are all Isle of Man replicas.
54:10It's only some of the stuff.
54:12Helmet, a photograph of John with his dad.
54:16John's obviously the small one on the motorbike.
54:18And a beautiful scarf signed by an awful lot
54:22of very famous motorcyclists,
54:24that includes the likes of Geoff Duke and Stanley Woods.
54:28I mean, his passion for motorbikes
54:31is what led him on to this.
54:33This is no ordinary piece of metal.
54:35This actually changed the face of motorcycle racing
54:39in the 1950s almost for the next 30 years.
54:43We have the jig for the Norton Manx.
54:45It was called the Featherbed
54:46because one of the trial bikers took it out on the road,
54:50and he actually said,
54:51I could fall asleep on this.
54:53And that's why it was named the Featherbed.
54:55Absolutely, and having ridden some older bikes
54:58prior to the Featherbed,
55:00I can go with that as well.
55:02Very comfortable ride.
55:04The jig provides a strong, sturdy form
55:08within which you can bend frame tubes
55:11to the shapes and the form that you want.
55:14And these plates are used to bend the tubing.
55:17These ones which have more of a slope
55:19are for the racing frame.
55:21You can see it here in the frame.
55:23The gold bits, that's bronze welding.
55:26And that allowed the flexibility
55:28for the speeds that then they were able to attain.
55:31So this was revolutionary.
55:33Norton took it to the Isle of Man in 1950
55:37and absolutely cleaned up first, second, third.
55:40It was an amazing achievement.
55:42How this came into my family's possession
55:45was Rex gave it to these brothers,
55:48mutual friends with my dad.
55:49And they lived, believe it or not, on a pig farm.
55:53And my dad visited one day,
55:56and it was lying in a heap of pig manure.
56:00And my dad said, you know, what are you doing with it?
56:03And the brothers said, take it with you.
56:06Every now and then something comes on the road show
56:08which is very, very hard to value.
56:10And without a doubt, this is.
56:13But to me, there isn't a single motorcycle museum in the world
56:18that wouldn't want to have this.
56:19And I honestly believe these items would be worth
56:22anything from 30,000 to 50,000.
56:30I don't think it's going to go anywhere.
56:32What do you say?
56:33No.
56:34I will give you another option.
56:35A museum.
56:36You could give it to them on loan
56:38and you would still have the pleasure of owning it.
56:40And if you ever wanted to bring it back, you could do so.
56:43That's an idea.
56:44That's an idea.
56:45Fantastic.
56:45Thank you so much.
56:46Thank you very much.
56:57We've had a great day here in Belfast.
56:59And if you've been watching this programme for a while,
57:01you'll know that I like to end the day
57:03with a cup of tea.
57:05And if I'm lucky, a biscuit.
57:07But not just any old biscuit,
57:08that perennial favourite, the custard cream.
57:10But here's the thing I bet you didn't know.
57:13Do you remember I was telling you about that passion
57:15that the Victorians had for ferns?
57:17Well, this design here are the fronds of a fern.
57:21So an Edwardian biscuit originating from 1908
57:25with a Victorian flourish.
57:27You see?
57:28Learn something every day.
57:30For the Antiques Roadshow,
57:31till next time,
57:32bye-bye.
58:01you
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