Historic Titanic-Era Treasures With Surprising Valuations | Antiques Roadshow UK

In all the years I have been collecting medals, this is the only one of these I've ever held. You've made my year. Because of that association with the Titanic, these are valuable. Seriously? I love how my colleagues on the picture department will read a painting, so they're looking at what the colours mean, what the symbolism means, and sort of telling the story because of that. But you can read ceramics as well. What do you read into these? First thing I think of is they don't match. Okay, because of the brown and the turquoise on the saucer? Yeah, that's the first thing I think about them. And then I recognise the symbol on the front of them. So where did you find them? At a, well, a carpet sale. I was doing carpet sales. I quite like making afternoon tea at home and I was looking for a cake stand and I bought a couple of different boxes just of crockery, to be honest. But your initial thought was they don't really match. Well, they do match, first of all. I mean, this is the right pattern. And these are cups and saucers from a white starship. Okay. So not the Titanic. I mean, that would be quite difficult. I mean, if they were from the Titanic, I would be standing back and saying, these are worth a lot of money. Of course. But they could have been from the Olympic or the Britannic, the sister ships, which of course were virtually the same. And all the white star lines had this white star china. These were from the first class accommodation. So if you went down for breakfast, went for afternoon tea, these are the cups you drink from. And of course, what's great about, when I said earlier about reading, the shape of them. Have you ever thought about why they're that shape? Not really. Well, you are an elegant Edwardian lady in your beautiful lace with your hat and your parasol. And you're coming down for breakfast. And of course, the ship is swaying a bit. Your tea is going to be swaying the same. And of course, with this curved bit, the tea will slosh and go back in. So it won't come over your lovely dress. But the awful thing is, they're not actually that nice to drink from because, of course, the cup is curving away. In the design, it's called lip feel. So a cup should normally sit on your lip. But of course, this curves away. So it must have been a bit weird. I mean, it feels slightly uncomfortable. Of course, it feels daft drinking when there's no tea there. But these are absolutely right. And they put a lot of thought into the designs. And because of that association with the Titanic, which was built just up the road in Belfast, these are valuable. OK. Even though you thought they didn't match. Yeah. So your four mismatched cups and saucers, £2,000. Seriously? £500 each. Oh, my goodness. That's so exciting. So well played. Well, thank you. For all these cups are £500 each, if you were to go down to the wreck of the Titanic, those cups from the Titanic itself would be tens of thousands of pounds. And that's the magic of provenance. Now, here we are in the middle of Britain, in fact, aren't we? Geographically. And yet all this stuff has got to do with the sea. How has it ended up here in Hultquiston? Well, in 1935, Smith & Walton, who owned the local paint factory, were building a new office block. And they decided the cheapest way to fit these offices out was to go to the auction of the Olympic. It's been broken up on the town in Jarrow. And they went there and they bought £800 worth of fitness. Let's just remind ourselves, this is the ship, isn't it? Yes, that was its last journey up the town. To the breakers? To the breakers, yes. In Jarrow. Now, of course, everybody knows the story of the Titanic. They can't not know it. The Olympic, much more successful ship commercially, is still perhaps not so well known. They were sisters, weren't they? Yes, there were three sisters. The Olympic, then the Titanic. And then the Britannic. Then the Britannic, yes. We should say IC at the end of a name means White Star Line. IA means Cunard. Yes. So what have we got? Well, this first off is a smoke vent from the second class smoke room. Right. Now, how many of these did they buy? There was 12 of those. 12 of those. So 12 smoke vents. Now, this is exactly the same as the Titanic one, isn't it? All the fittings for the ships, the three ships, were all bought at the same time. So they could have went into either ship. Yeah. Light fittings, they're fantastic, aren't they? You've got to imagine it the other way up, hanging in some grand saloon, twinkling through the cut glass. How many of these have you got? There was 28 of those. 28 of those, right. So thousands of lots of ship fittings. Yes. Which were absolutely everything movable off the ship, wasn't it? That's right. It was a shell when it left gyre. So these show your offices, isn't it, in effect? This is the conference room, yes. So you've got here a wonderful image of a sort of wooden surround, carved surround. That was first class, that was what was in your first class suites. All these panels, the doors, the architrave, all this is out of the ship. So they bought, in a sense, a complete room. Yes. Does that show the lights? Those are the lights, and this is all wood panelling, and that's out of the second class smoking area. Are you a ship collector? I wasn't until we bought this site, and then I've gotten involved. So you bought this premises with all this stuff in it? That's right. And that's turned you into a ship fanatic, has it? It has, yes. I believe they're called Titanoracks. So you bought an old factory, which happened to be fitted out with the Olympic. Can I ask how much? Yes, they valued the total fittings at £40,000. It sounds as me as though you did all right, really. You've got 28 of those. A light guaranteed off the Olympic, I would think is going to be £300, £400. So multiply that by 28, you're getting towards your money back. But obviously there's a limited market to people who want a complete room. It's worth quite a lot of money if you broke it up, but please don't. You know, you must keep it together as a story about regeneration on the Tyne in those dark days of the 1930s. Who is he? My father. He was born in Australia, and he came to this country, and he took his degree in Scotland as a doctor. And then he always loved the sea, so he started by being a ship's doctor. And that is when he was on the Carpathia and the Tyne. He was on the Carpathia, yes. And what was his job on the Carpathia? As a doctor. The only doctor? The only doctor, yes. Good gracious. Yeah. It says, presented to Dr McGee as a slight token of affection and esteem by these survivors of the Titanic, April 15th, 1912. Yes. They must have felt incredibly warmly towards him. I mean, he was just the man who had pulled them back from the brink of death. Yes, I think so. What do you think happened that night on the Carpathia? Well, he didn't talk about it too much because it was so awful. And he said there was, you know, all these frozen people he had to deal with, brought out of the sea. And it was quite horrific. It must have been terrifying. He said it was terrifying. And of course, there were lots of troubles which I won't go into about why it was so horrific. But he didn't want to talk about that too much, I don't know. What an amazing story this is. Because as you know, at the moment, there's a sort of fever of Titanic interest. Yes. Everybody's been to see the film. There have been huge reports in the press about the whole story of it, as to why it happened, why certain people got the lifeboats and other people didn't. Up here, we have a Humane Society award for him and all his bravery at that time. Yes. He really must have been a most extraordinary and remarkable man. Yes. This is a silver medal. Yes. Presented by the Humane Society, which went in conjunction with the Certificate of Merit. But this is something quite different. This is the most extraordinary thing. This is presented to Captain, officers and crew of RMS Carpathia from the survivors of the Titanic, April 15th, 1912. That is made out of 14 carat gold. Yes. And there were only 14 of them made. Did you know that? I didn't know that, no. It's an extraordinarily rare thing. Only the most outstanding officers received one of these awards. Yes. It's almost unheard of. You think of the whole world, there are 14 of these objects. The even more peculiar thing is that one of these was sold recently. Yes. Now, presumably, you would never consider selling any of these objects, because they're all family objects. They are perhaps things that you might consider insuring. Yes. Haven't insured them, yeah. I think it's extremely important that you do so, because in New York, in 1997, one of these medals was sold for $50,000. So that equates roughly to £30,000 now. George, heavens. I know, I can't believe it. So I think what we have here, looking at your whole collection of objects, are probably things that ought to be insured for £50,000. Yes, thank you. Yes. It's amazing. How can you measure one man's valour? Indeed. Thank you very, very, very much. It's been a very moving day for us. Well, what a fantastic crowd you've got here today, and they're expected to see something truly exciting. And, wow, you have brought something truly exciting. This all relates to the most famous ocean liner in the world, the Titanic, and its sad demise in 1912, just over 100 years ago. It all relates to, I believe, a relation of yours. Who was he? Yes, he was my great-uncle. Your great-uncle? Yes, yes. And his name was? Herbert John Pittman. He was an officer, or...? Yes, he was the third officer on the Titanic. And when he died in 1961, it was left to my father, and when he died in 1997, it was passed on to my brother and myself. Now, obviously, he was one of the survivors, but how did that come about? He was put in charge of one of the lifeboats, and they lowered it, and that's all I know about it. Fantastic. Well, a photograph. And these are the surviving officers from the Titanic. And going from left to right, it's, I think, Harold Lowe, Charles Leitola, Joseph Vauxhall, and then there's Herbert Pittman, just seated in the centre there. One of the more important things is his certificate of discharge. Now, this was... there's his name. This was hugely important to anybody who had a career on ocean liners, because it listed every single vessel you ever served on, and if you had good conduct or bad. So it's basically like a school report. And if we just open it to the relevant date, you can see that he was on the Oceanic, and then in April 1912, he joined the Titanic. Now, this is all in manuscript. Presumably, the original went down with the ship. It did, it did, yeah. So when he then rejoined the Oceanic, it then gets stamped, and he gets the various comments against him. That's right, mm-hmm. And he had a long career? Yes, he retired in 1947. He sailed straight through all that time. How amazing. It is, it is. And did you ever meet him? I did, yes. He used to come and stay and have a holiday with us. My father used to take him out. He enjoyed cricket, so he used to go and watch cricket. And did he ever talk about his experiences? No, he didn't. He didn't talk to me or my father. He didn't like to talk about it. Understandably. Which, yeah. Must have been quite traumatic. I would say. Although he didn't talk to you about it, he actually wrote it in here. I'm just going to read an extract, which I think is particularly poignant. At this stage, it's 2.20 a.m. in the morning. He's been lowered from Davits in the lifeboat, a full lifeboat, and this is his comment. At 2.20 a.m., 15th of April, 1912, by my watch in commas, all lights on board disappeared, and in a few moments, the vessel stern was in the air. The next moment, she was gone. Within the next 10 minutes or so, it was truly heartbreaking to hear the cries coming from the hundreds of drowning people, and we could do nothing about it, as my boat was full. I mean, how awful. And we couldn't do anything because it would have endangered the people on board. Very poignant. So, we have to think about values. The photograph has been published before. You'll find it in several books on Titanic. I have seen it before, and that's only because I could then identify who they were. But even so, it's contemporary, presumably done. Obviously, they're not in their uniform, but probably not long after the event, maybe in the 1920s, something like that. So, that's going to be worth maybe £1,000 to £1,500. Wow, really? The manuscript, £2,000 to £3,000. However, the discharge papers, they weren't on board, but it's the whole of his life and his career. And I would think, certainly at auction, you'd be talking between £6,000 and £10,000. But, I mean, it's family. It is, yes. We should be keeping it for a while. You should be keeping it. And how proud to have that man as part of your history. And I'm sure it'll remain in your family for a long time to come. I think so. But thank you so much. Were you excited by that? I was. Thank you so much. You came along today with a 1914 Christmas tin. And that happens quite a lot on the roadshow. And when I open up that Christmas tin, usually inside, there's a sort of a set of medals. And we opened your Christmas tin, and we found a 1914-15 star, the 1914-1920 British War Medal, the 1914-1919 Allied Victory Medal. And slightly unusually, a 1939-45 star, and an Atlantic star. So already, we're looking at someone who's had a very long service. Two wars. Then, out of the tin came a gallantry card. Now, they're rare in themselves. You don't see those because they are just made of paper. They represented a truly heroic act of something on the battlefield, which you never really get to hear about. But you have one of those. But yours was the Christmas tin that just kept on giving. Because we then pulled out a First World War military medal. Two away from the Victoria Cross. That was good. Then we pulled out a World War II Royal Navy Distinguished Service Medal. So now we have a group of medals to a man who has been decorated for gallantry over two wars, three times. But then you did it again. You then pulled out this little black book, which is called the Continuous Discharge Certificate. This is for merchant sailors. And one of the ships in here is a very well-known ship, isn't it? Because here we can see that he was on a ship called the Carpathia. Now, the Carpathia is the ship that answered the rescue call that came from the Titanic as it sank that April evening in 1912. And as we know, the people who were on the Carpathia were given a medal. And he has one of those as well, doesn't he? Because he has the Carpathia Titanic medal. In all the years I have been collecting medals, and I have been collecting medals for maybe, well, it's 45 years now. I started when I was a reasonably small lad, when I was six. This is the only one of these I've ever held. You have, you've made my year. Who was this chap? He's my grandfather, my mother's father, John Cargill. And there is the venerable gentleman, wearing his Carpathia medal on one side and a ribbon bar. You have the ribbon bar as well? I have the ribbon bar here. How did he get to be on the Carpathia? My grandfather was a fisherman, really. But probably when things were tough in the fishing industry, as they have been through history, you know, he would take himself off and just earn some money, really. What do you know about his time on the Carpathia and that fateful night when the Titanic sank? They had obviously put away lifeboats, you know, to pick up people, you know. Can't imagine. And he was in one of Carpathia's lifeboats? And a lifeboat's quite high off the water, and to physically get people from the water into a lifeboat, I was at sea myself, and I can't imagine what it was like that night. A long, long time after, he was made an honorary member of the Titanic Society in the States, and there was a lady came to see him one day, she'd been a child, she'd been rescued, and this lady came to thank him, you know. Wow. And do you remember him? Yes, I remember him very well. What was he like? Oh, he was a character, I'll tell you. Well, to win this many gallantry medals, he had to be some sort of a character, didn't he? He had a small fishing boat, and him and I used to go up in the morning and go to the sea with him before I went to school, and he'd be saying to me, we'd better get you in, you'd better go to school, and I'm thinking, don't bother, I'm quite happy where I am. Well, I am still shaking. Truly, this is an outstanding set of medals. The DSM, the military medal, and the campaign gallantry card, it's almost an unheard of combination. £1,500. With the Titanic medal, £10,000. My goodness. You have one of the most amazing groups of medals that I've ever seen. They'll be kept in their family, you know, but... Well, Grandad, definitely someone to be very, very proud of. No, well done, him. Thanks very much. No, well done, him. Thank you.