Unbelievable Items From The 1700s | Antiques Roadshow

Very unusual, very sensitive message. Gosh, thank you. Thank you for bringing it up. Thank you. I've just regarded them as curiosities, really, certainly not as anything of the moment. What is it? As far as I know, it's a silver salver. Right. My grandfather bought it in 1944 for £30. Right. Most people, when you find a salver like this, will tell you straight away, oh, it's a visiting card tray. Right. Which it isn't. When this was made in the 18th century, what would have sat on top of it would have been almost certainly a teapot or a coffee pot. Oh, yes. The salver itself, though, you can see from the marks here, were actually made in Ireland. We've got the figure of Hibernia and we've got the crowned harp. Now, those are both for Ireland. Maker's mark, a chap called Goodwin, working in Dublin. If they put a maker's mark on, they generally left off the date letter. Right. If they put on the date letter, they left off the maker's mark. There's got to be an explanation for that somewhere, but it is far better to have what we've got here, which is the maker's mark and no date letter. Because all is not lost, you can actually work out when the salver was made, to within two or three years very often, sometimes to an actual year, because of the variations in those two marks. Now, look down the columns here. There we are. In fact, I've checked on that and it's 1743 to 45. There's a very distinctive feature there where the harp is broken at the top and that appears in the harp there. So we can know, even without a date letter, that it was made at that time, which is super. Lovely little salver. Super coat of arms, quite original Rococo cartouche. £30 in 1944. Had you thought about today? No, not at all. I would think that you would have to insure that as an Irish one. Irish ones are always worth more than the equivalent English example. As an Irish one, I would say you would need to insure it for £4,000. Really? It's a smashing little salver. Thank you. Thank you for bringing it in. No idea what this is or where it came from. Who wrote that? I think that's probably written by my grandfather because he was a professor of biology at Cambridge University and he was, I think, the original owner of it. So I'm not entirely sure whether he actually used it at all, but it was from him that it came. There's a signature here, which is J. Clark Feckett Edinburgh. Now, you've done enough Latin to know that Feckett means made. Oh, yeah. So John Clark made this and he's an Edinburgh maker and he started off life as a gold and a silversmith. Oh, right. Is it solid silver, then? It's actually a silver microscope. But what you have at the bottom here is the mirror to give you the necessary light. At the back, you've got this wonderful knurled knob which adjusts the thread for focusing. But if you look very closely, at the top here, can you see in this little window, it says number one? Oh, OK. Is that the aperture? Exactly. If we flick it to number two, there are different strengths of lens all round this little wheel. And on the back here, to make the focusing easier, you can see it says one, two, three, four, five down there. Oh, yeah. So you would actually move this pointer with the knurled screw down to the number which corresponded to the number of the lens. And then all you had to do was a little bit of fine-tuning and you'd be fine. Now, John Clark, as I said, started out as a goldsmith and a silversmith in Edinburgh and he first sold this particular microscope, the earlier version of this, by subscription. This proved to be so successful that he then gave up his day job and became a microscope maker. And this particular one is probably dating from between 1774 and 1776. Great rarity. There are examples in the museum in Scotland, but they are highly desirable to collectors. Oh, really? We're talking about between 10,000 and 15,000 pounds. Wow. I had no idea it was worth that much. Great. Well, it belongs to my husband's family. My husband's lived in the farmhouse for as long as we can remember and my husband found it when he was a little boy up in the attic. From what we can gather, it actually belonged to a family member back then. Now, the interesting part of this helmet... We're in Boston and here around the title is Holland Cavalry. Now, this area is known as Holland, Boston, is it not? That's right. I mean, so we've got a helmet of the locality. This is... Really, it gets better because beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, they had what they called a Tarleton helmet, which the officers wore, and the troopers, of course. Some of those Tarleton helmets exist for the officers, but you very rarely get other ranks' helmets. Now, it wouldn't surprise me if this is prior Tarleton. Now, we're talking about 1795 now. France declared war on us in 1793 and then it went on more or less without a break till 1815, nearly 22 years of war. But these early helmets, they just do not exist. I can't... I can't emphasise enough. They are that rare. And I think any collector of this period would be willing to pay something in the region of 4,000 to 5,000 for a helmet like this. Yes, really. Goodness. My first one was this one, which I got in an antique shop in Swansea. It's beautiful, isn't it? The history of the Firemark really started, I suppose, in the 17th century, I think, and the reason for the Firemark was really to identify a property that was insured. Interesting point is that there were very few actual house names and proper addresses at that time. That is correct, yes. And so it was difficult to identify an actual building, and so if the Firemark was attached to the house, it was easy to actually identify whether that house was covered under the insurance policy. The first Firemarks were lead, generally, and after that, in the late 18th century, they started to use copper, and then after that they started to use tin. You've got some wonderful lead ones. This one here is actually quite early by the look of it. That's the earliest one I've got. That's 1769. That's very early, isn't it? I got in touch with the Sun Insurance Office and they kindly sent me a typewritten copy of the insurance details in their records. They still had it? Yes. That's incredible. But that covered a house in Surrey belonging to a glassblower, and it was insured for £200. Really? And the premium was £2.14, I think it was. How astonishing. The interesting thing about Firemarks is that you actually had to buy your Firemark. You had the policy, but you had to buy the Firemark, and the normal position was above the front door of the house... That's correct. ..but normally between the front windows. Now, there are various apocryphal tales of fire engines turning up... I know what you're going to say. ..to houses, and finding that they were from the Sun Company, for example, and that perhaps the union insurance plaque on the wall, and they would just stand and watch, or they'd go away. But that's... I'm going to blow a myth here, because that's a totally apocryphal story. That never happened. That's quite right. And what actually quite often happened was that in the big cities, Bristol, London, for example, which had quite a number of the different society fire brigades, that more than one would turn up. Three or four sometimes would turn up, and that occasionally they'd be competing with each other to see who could put the fire out. Well, according to some stories, there might have been occasions when the members of one brigade, where they may turn the water hoses on the other lot to send them away. I'd love to have seen that. Because they want to get a reward from the insurance company for putting the fire out. Of course. That might have been a popular misconception, but that is how it's generally understood to be. Why do you collect them? Oh, I don't know. I worked for an insurance company, so I had an interest, and it went on from there. Well, it's a wonderful collection. Have you ever had it valued? No, not as such. I would have said, for what I see here, you've probably got a collection worth certainly between £2,000 and £3,000. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Picture banks. When did you collect this? From about 20 years ago. I stopped, I think, about ten years ago, because, frankly, I just never saw anything as good as this. Well, I have to go along with that, actually. I mean, it's very rarely that one sees such good examples. In this case, what have we got? We've got the harem. We're looking at a date there around the 1750 mark. So was I. And harems are rare. It is thought, actually, to have been one of the Jacobite spoons. Who knew that? Because, of course, to declare that you were a Jacobite in England in the mid-18th century was a hazardous thing. So they had all sorts of secret Jacobite societies, and they had various symbols by which they were known. But the teapot. I mean, I can't remember when I last saw a teapot. That is one of the great rarities. A little bit later in date, we've gone on to the Old English after 1760. When did I last see a masonic? I mean, that is just so rare. Just seeing one of those, I would be quite excited about. So, I mean, today, those, I would be thinking, certainly well in excess of £1,000 for the set. The harems, at least £600 to £800. The teapots, those have got to be £200 or £300 each. Rather sad I haven't got six in, isn't it? Now, how come you've ended up with a little Puritan spoon in the middle of a collection of...? Well, I just bought it because I thought it was old. It was incredibly dirty. And I thought, well, I have seen that shape before somewhere, but I just couldn't remember where. Right. And I've been trying to find out who made it, but the library hasn't been... Ah, right. Yes, we've got a maker's mark, A-G. Now, that actually is one that we haven't tracked down to actual location yet. We're about 1650 with this spoon. This particular form, it's the transition between the early English and the more modern spoon. Lovely condition. What did you pay for it? It was next to nothing, £30, £40, probably. Yeah, I would say that spoon today, you're looking in excess of £700, £800. It's been such a pleasure looking at them. What's in the other original box, which is much smaller and much older, and all very exciting, because I like to look at a box and know what's inside, and there is no question about what could be in a box this size and this shape, which is a lovely pocket globe. It's got one or two little dints on it, but in general terms, it's in very good condition. Here we have the maker's name, Lane's Improved Globe, London. Now, Lane's is almost certain to be Nicholas Lane, who worked in Southwark, not a million miles from here, between about 1775 and 1786. And in fact, if you have a look at some of the detailed names down here, let's go down to Australia, always a good place to start. The whole of Australia is sketched in, whereas on some of the early 18th-century globes, part of Australia is missing. But it's called New Holland, and there's Van Damen's Land and so on. So this is a globe absolutely of its period, when people were still discovering, investigating and charting unknown territories. The case itself is covered in fish skin, which has then been painted black, which gives a very hard, resilient surface. And inside, we have the map of the heavens, with the various stars and signs of the zodiac charted. In this condition, which is very good, even though there's a little crack just running through the top of the box, we'd be talking about between £2,000 and £3,000. That's an auction price, so insurance would be quite a little bit higher than that. They're nice quality reproductions, but because they're copies, they're nothing like as valuable as an original. These should be insured for probably £1,700 each. That's quite impressive. But this item is much more interesting. Can you tell me anything about its history? It came to me from my great-grandfather, who was General Sir Percy Fielding, and it was given to his elder brother, who was later the 8th Earl, by Queen Adelaide, I presume, as probably a 21st present, or perhaps as a souvenir of services and equity. Do you know whether it's actually ever been used at all? Because I notice it's a bit bashed and bruised around. I'm rather ashamed of the state of it. I think it did, yes, because my great-grandfather fought throughout the Crimean War. Ah, well, that's quite possibly a very good clue to why it's in its present rather bruised state, because this doughnut-looking thing actually should screw together, but for some reason or other, the screw which is meant to come through into the middle doesn't reach. No. But if we take it apart, it is actually, as I'm sure you know, a travelling chamber stick. Now, these are quite rare things, but the nice thing about this is that nearly all of them are 19th century. This one is 18th century. And if we turned it over, we've got some very worn hallmarks just here, and they're just... Ah, we've got a date letter, Q, here, and that means they were actually made in 1771. Now, they should have other marks on the... Ah, that's the only mark surviving that can tell you who the maker is, and the maker's mark is EC for Ebenezer Coker. Coker was a well-known candlestick maker from the 1760s and early 1770s, and these were absolutely typical of the sort of item that was taken around Europe on the Grand Tour. Now, I notice also, judging by what you were saying, it says here, given to the Honourable William Fielding by Queen Adelaide, Christmas 1846, and with that royal inscription, that sets them off on a slightly different level. Have you ever had a figure put on them by any professional? No, no, never, never. I've just regarded them as curiosities, really, certainly not as anything of the moment. Well, I think your insurers ought to know about them, because I would put a figure of £5,000 on these alone. Would you? Would you? Did you know it was 18th century? No. Do you know how to tell whether it's 18th century or 19th century? No. Well, there are an awful lot of copies around, and you have to be very careful. One way to tell, take a pen and a piece of paper. Smaller on the top than the base. The fakes are almost invariably the other way round. Right. They never make the base big enough. Pretty surefire way of telling. Mm-hm. This one dates from about 1755 with this lovely cotton twist stem. Do you know how they made the cotton twist? No. Absolutely amazing. You get an iron collar and you put a pattern of white glass rods and clear glass rods in the pattern you want. You heat the collar up until the glass has melted and you put an iron rod on one end and an iron rod on the other end and two men walk the length of this hall. And what started out that big ends up that big. And they just break it up into sections and make it into a glass stem. They then put the foot on it and they put the ball on it. Now, the nice thing about this one is that we've got an inscription on here in diamond point. This was actually engraved with possibly a diamond ring, but more likely a diamond fixed in bitumen on the end of a pencil. And they've engraved it with this message. I can't see it, I'm not glasses. What does it say? A keepsake from Sarah Smith to Sarah Louise Ford. Sarah Louise Ford would have been my great-grandmother. I think it goes back further than that. There might have been another one. Do you know the other person? No, Ford was my grandmother's maiden name. They were from Bristol. Well, it might be a later engraving, but I would have put that engraving to the beginning of the 19th century. And that would take it back way beyond your great-grandmother. Very unusual, very sensitive message for this date. A woman to a woman. Very uncommon. And clearly done not in a professional engraving, but possibly even by Sarah herself. Lovely thing. Chip on the bottom. It will affect the price, but it's boosted by the fact that you've got this unusual message on it. You can easily see it making four to six hundred pounds. Nice thing. Thank you very much. Thank you.