All language subtitles for Antiques Uncovered S01E03 HDTV

Antiques - what do we really
know about them,

exquisitely made
and often hugely valuable?

It looks like a sort of
encrustation of brilliance

to wear on your finger.

But why were they made in the first
place and who were they made for?

Jet was this mysterious material.

It's actually a form
of fossilised wood.

Whether from a mediaeval castle
or an auction house...

In the room now at 340...

..antiques unlock
a fascinating history

of the way we lived, then and now.

I'm now a liberated, voting,
emancipated woman.

I'm historian Dr Lucy Worsley

and I'm going to uncover the stories

behind some of these
remarkable objects.

CHEERING

'I'm antiques expert Mark Hill

'and I'll be looking at why
some items have become priceless

'while others are the collectibles
of tomorrow.

'Along the way we'll meet the people
who preserved them.

'The highly-skilled craftspeople
who still make them...'

So 34% of your diamond - poof! Gone!

Yes. To get to the finished product.

'..and the passionate people
who collect them.'

The artists used to chop up hair
and mix it with the paint.

That's quite incredible.

'We're going to put antiques in their
historical and social context.

'This time we're looking at
objects associated with ceremonies,

'from private ones like weddings
and funerals,

'to the public events
of royal coronations

'and the Olympic Games.'

We've come to Hever Castle in Kent.

It dates from the 13th century

and was later the childhood home
of Anne Boleyn.

Now, castles like this aren't
just for defending yourself,

they're also for hosting
big ceremonial occasions

like jousting tournaments.

Yes, and we still hold
enormous ceremonies

to celebrate public events today.

I'm thinking of coronations or,
most notably, the Olympic Games.

I suppose this applies to our
private lives too, doesn't it?

We get these rituals of passage
at births, deaths and marriages,

and they're all marked
by ceremonies.

And the most popular ceremony
is still marriage,

although I'm not quite sure poor old
Anne Boleyn would agree.

Their marriage may not
have ended well,

but when Henry VIII
was courting Anne Boleyn,

he made frequent visits
to Hever Castle and lavished her

with gifts of jewellery.

And antique jewels, obviously,
are now highly sought after.

SJ Phillips is an antique jewellery
dealer on Bond Street in London.

Trading since 1869,

it is still run by the original
owner's great-grandsons.

BELL RINGS

Whoa! Jewels, very nice!

The rings they have on sale
tell a fascinating story

of how the jewellery associated
with love and marriage
has changed over time.

In many ways, the circle or the ring,
represents love without end.

Obviously there are no ends
in a circle and it's portable,

visible and can be personalised,

so it's really not surprising
that the ring has been

at the core of marriage
for centuries.

This one's brilliant because it has
a secret surprise hidden inside.

It's got a little poem. It says,

"Hearts content cannot repent."

It's known as a poesy ring,
poesy being a word then for poetry.

So this is a 17th century gold ring

and a gentleman would give this
to a lady

as a little token of his affections.

The tradition of wearing a wedding
ring on the fourth finger

goes back thousands of years.

There was a Roman medical idea

that there was a vein that ran
all the way from that finger

to the heart
and I'm brandishing my right hand

because that was more significant.

Then people realised it was
impractical to have your ring

on the hand that you're going to
use, so you move it to the left.

Have you seen these before? This is
a brilliant little thing, isn't it?

Quite ingenious. It's a pair of hands

which makes it a fede ring.

Mani in fede. Exactly.

Hands in trust.

Hands in trust and the two hands
clasp each other

and can be unclasped if you slide
the two parts of the ring apart.

Isn't that brilliant?

This is actually
an early 19th century one.

It's a long tradition of ring design
that the two hands clasped together.

But the modern engagement would
seem incomplete to most of us

unless accompanied by a diamond.

This is my favourite so far.
I do like this one.

It's from the 17th century,
which is my favourite century.

And it's got a sort of...

Oh, it's just so luxurious.

It's like an encrustation of
brilliance to wear on your finger,
don't you think?

I do rather, and of course

diamonds extend that entire
sort of love enduring.

They're a solid, hard,
durable rock

and one that's been associated with
royalty and nobility for centuries.

Well, the word's adamantine.
It means in Latin invincible,

indomitable, goes on forever.

So that's the symbolism of diamonds
as a gem, I suppose.

If you like that one,
what do you think of this
rather brash little number?

I like that one too.
Yes, yes, I'll have that.

1920s, 1930s,
good Art Deco period piece.

I can imagine wearing that
on a liner crossing the Atlantic,

sipping a cocktail in the bar!

So, if you're a nervous young man
coming into this shop,

what are the different prices?

Our 17th century poesy ring
is worth about £3,000.

Our early 19th century fede ring...

The secret double ring
with the hands. Absolutely.

That's worth between £3,000-£5,000.

We're ramping up the prices

with our beautiful 17th century
rose cut diamond ring,

which is worth around £70,000.

But I would have to sell
my apartment to buy this.

£180,000. You have good taste.

SHE CHUCKLES

It is amazing, that one. I love it.

Hatton Garden in London

has been the centre
of England's diamond industry
since the mediaeval period.

There are still some expert
diamond cutters

who use traditional methods that have
changed little in hundreds of years.

Come on down. I'll show you
where it all takes place.

'Gary's family have
been cutting diamonds since 1890.'

This is the centre of operations.

This is our little cubbyhole
where we hide out from the world.

And we've just got
a stone here which...

A stone? That's enormous!

It's 36 carat. Just bought that in
South Africa about three weeks ago.

That's absolutely huge. It's got
a yellow tinge to it. Well, yes.

It's unusually yellow.

It's what they call a fancy yellow
or a fancy intense yellow diamond.

'The job of the diamond cutter,

'is to get the highest yield
from the rough rock.

'To help him do this, he uses a 3D
scanner to build a digital model.'

And there it is.

'Most rocks are cut in half
to make two diamonds,

'and the vital decision
of where to place this cut

'is still down to human expertise.'

See, what I can do here now,

is I can actually place
a line on the stone

where we think we're going to saw
the stone into two.

'Once the design of the two diamonds
has been chosen,

'the computer then fits both parts
inside the rock.'

Oh, my goodness! I see.

But they're so small. It's not small.

But there's so much...
Perhaps I should rephrase that.

There's so much wastage
on the outside, by the looks of it,

because they're hiding
right inside it.

I've got to tell you, that,
actually, is a phenomenal yield
by our standards. Really?

Normally we get wastage of over 50%.

But this stone is going to give us
a yield of... 66%.

66%, which is exceptionally high.

So what happens to all this
excess material?

Is that just cut away
and used for smaller, tiny diamonds?

No, no, that is just ground away.
That goes into the air.

So 34% of your diamond - poof! Gone!
Yes. To get to the finished product.

'The rough diamond is clasped
inside the cutting machine,

'which uses a paper-thin metal disc
to slice through the rock.

'It can take days or even weeks,
to cut through a diamond,

'as too much pressure could
cause it to shatter.'

What do you use to cut it? It looks
like it's a sort of steel or iron.

That's a very, very thin
phosphor bronze disc. OK.

Why phosphor bronze?
Because it's absorbent on the end.

And what do you need to absorb
into it? Diamonds. Diamond powder.

The only thing that can cut a diamond
is a diamond. Correct.

The hardest material known to us.
Yes.

A small amount of diamond paste
mixed with a little oil,

that's placed on this
little bit of leather

and we just place it on the roller.

And then we just put this onto
the tip of the phosphor bronze disc.

And you see it just spinning round.

It's just taking the diamond powder
off there.

And that will carry on slicing
through the stone.

The most skilled part of diamond
cutting is known as polishing,

and uses a machine that was first
invented in Germany
during the 15th century.

This scaife has a spinning
abrasive turntable

which gives the diamond
its final sparkle.

And, again, we put diamond powder
inside this plate.

So basically you have
a plate of diamond,

with the diamond which we're
polishing being lowered onto it.

So this is where the diamond becomes
a diamond that we would recognise,

bought from a jewellers,
or set into a ring. Yes.

This is the final process
where we break the facets down.

So the facet is the flat plane
that's cut at an angle

all the way round the diamond?

Yes, to get the full
refraction on the diamond.

The majority are cut into a design
known as brilliant diamonds,

which have 58 facets.

The skill of polishing is to get
the angles of the different facets
perfectly aligned.

There's still an enormous amount
of experience. Of course.

We've been doing it
for over 40 years each,

so you get to see and know
an awful lot by your own...

Even just by looking, you can tell
things are wrong or right.

40 years! Yeah, over 40 years.
Gary and I started this together.

But I'm still down the bottom
and he's still at the top.

We'll meet in the middle one of
these days. Oh, I don't think so.

So you can see, this has got all
the full 58 facets on it.

It really is stunning, isn't it?

What factors do you use
to appraise a diamond?

We use the four C's - colour, cut,
clarity and carat weight,

which determine
the value of the stone.

So the carat term, which you
see in jewellers across the land,
that's actually the weight.

That's the weight, yes.

A carat was actually
taken from a carob bean.

They're fairly uniform weight,
so in the bush in Africa

when they were valuing
diamonds in the old days,

they'd be weighed
against one of those.

That's how the word carat
came about. From carob beans?
From carob beans.

70% of engagement rings sold today
now contain a diamond,

thanks partly to a highly successful
diamond marketing campaign

in the 1930s.

But the ring isn't the only part
of the marriage ceremony
that's changed over time.

The custom of having a special dress
just for your wedding

is also relatively new.

It wasn't until the 19th century

that wealthy brides started to
choose light-coloured dresses to be
worn only once, on the wedding day.

It was when Queen Victoria
wore white

for her marriage to Prince Albert
that it really took off.

Antique and vintage clothes
have become increasingly popular
in recent years,

and I've come to Dalston in east
London to meet Meg Andrews.

She's been selling antique dresses
for 25 years.

Lucy, this is my studio.

Ooh! It's Aladdin's cave!

Who are your clients, Meg?

What kind of people
are buying your dresses?

I'm selling to museums and I sell
to collectors, here and abroad.

And people who would just like
an item of Victorian
or 18th century,

just to perhaps frame
or put in a case in their rooms.

Beautiful wedding dress.

1840s, similar to Queen Victoria's,

worth around £500.

Queen Victoria really set the trend,
didn't she,

for the very simple, white wedding
dress that survives till today?

Yes. Sometimes people wore white
dresses before that,

but yes, she set the fashion.

How would she have accessorised it?
This is a Honiton lace wedding veil.

Oh, look at this.

She would have worn all Honiton
lace. She was trying to encourage...

British industry! Exactly, exactly.

Do you know an extraordinary thing
about the lace on Victoria's dress?

She actually commissioned it
before proposing to Albert.

Oh, did she? Yes! Oh, right.

Of course it's her prerogative
to propose because she's going
to be the Queen.

I guess she didn't have it in mind,
necessarily, as a wedding dress

and that indicates to me that people

weren't so hung up about wedding
dresses as a special thing
at that time

because before that they would've
just worn their very best dress.
Yes, they would.

And not necessarily white,
just a really smart dress

that you could go on wearing and
using afterwards. That's right.

And also, not with Victoria,
but people who were less well-off,

they would've worn the dress
as an evening dress

and accessorised it
slightly differently.

Do you think that it's sort of
the modern wedding industry

that's encouraged the idea that
you wear it JUST for one day?

It's quite a disposable fashion
thing to do in a sense. Yes, very.

What a waste when you've spent
thousands on the dress

and thought and thought about it
and looked and looked.

Victorian brides would have to go
to painful lengths to acquire

the fashionable figure
of the period.

What I find quite interesting
about the dress

is that it was VERY restrictive.
For instance,

this has whale bone or baleen

which was from the roof
of the mouth of the whale.

Whale bone's a remarkable material,
isn't it?

It can twist and bend.
It's very pliable, sort of elastic.

Sucking you in. Yes.

And so not only did she have
the whale bones here,

the shoulders were quite low

and the sleeves were very tight,

so you had very little movement.

When we talk about
women's liberation,

we often mean politically,
economically,

but actually physically as well!
Clothes like this restrict.

They keep you in your place,
don't they? Very much so.

Collectors aren't just interested
in Victorian dresses.

Vintage clothes from the 1920s
are incredibly popular,

especially cos you can still
wear them.

Lovely!

I am wearing my dream dress.

It looks really good.

So it's 1925 this, is it? Yes.

Now, this truly was somebody's
wedding dress!

Yes, then she would have worn it
for evenings.

She'd have got a lot of wear
out of that.

There's a real change in style
here in so many ways,

not least in ease of movement.

I'm now a liberated, voting,
emancipated woman.

But also, at THIS period, weddings
had to take place in the morning,

that was the rule, and that's why we
still call it the wedding breakfast

because it took place
in the morning.

By the 20th century they could take
place in the afternoon,

shading on into the evening,

so the style of dresses reflects
later times of day as well.

This is definitely an evening dress.
For dancing, yes.

You can do the Charleston
in this dress.

You can have a wild old time!

This wedding dress also reflects
one of the most dynamic
styles of the time -

Art Deco.

Symmetrical lines and geometric
patterns are classic features

of a style that emerged
from the age of jazz.

This modern look originated at

the Paris International Exhibition
Of Decorative Arts in 1925

and used bright colours
contrasting with chrome and silver.

This 1920s wedding ring
also demonstrates

the angular style of Art Deco.

After a wedding, the next major
ceremonial event

is traditionally the welcome given
to a newborn child.

Gifts to celebrate a birth
date back millennia...

..but the traditional silver cup
has its origins in the 1600s.

This looks nice.
Have you had this before?

It looks a little like porridge

but I don't feel that I'd be the
sort of person who'd be having this.

No, this is a special alcoholic
sort of porridge.

It's got beer, it's got grain,
it's got spices and sugar in it.

And do you know
when you eat/drink it? Mm-hmm?

Eugh!

Just after you've given birth!

Yes, this would bring you back to
life, I'm quite sure,

but that was its point, wasn't it?

It's a way of reviving a half-dead
mother after she's just had

an arduous Tudor labour without
any painkillers, basically.

Traditionally caudle was served
in one of these little caudle cups.

Later they become known as
porringers for slurping
your porridge out of.

And this is a very cute
little 17th century one, isn't it?

It is and this one, very small,
dating from 1640, is a functional one

and would've been used by a mother
to perhaps even feed her child.

It's made out of pewter
which is a metal alloy

made up primarily of tin.

This one is 60 years later,
also pewter.

It's much bigger and grander
and fancier

and it is still possible
that somebody would

slurp their porridge out of it
but it also has

more of the qualities of a
decorative, commemorative piece.

As they're associated with the birth
of a child and christenings,

they become the gift that godparents
often give to their godchildren

to mark the occasion of the birth.

Early pieces like this, particularly
connected to a very popular subject

like childbirth will naturally be
of great interest.

Something like this is worth £450,
thereabout.

And a piece like that would fetch
somewhere around £1,000-£1,200.

Pewter has been made in Britain
since the Middle Ages.

Compared to silver, pewter was
relatively cheap and was very popular

until mass-produced glassware
became available in the 19th century.

I've come to A E Williams,
a family-run pewter factory

in Birmingham which has been
handcrafting pewter since 1779.

Steve Johnson is the
great-great-great-great-grandson

of the original owner.

What you're looking at here
is the largest collection

of antique moulds
in the world today.

As you can see we've got everything
from candlestick moulds

to goblet moulds to tankard moulds.

It's amazing. When you say antique,
do you mean really antique?

Are they old moulds or new?

Well, if you have a look
at antique pewter,

these are the moulds
that actually made the pewter

so these are older
than the antiques.

So you've got 18th century,
19th century...?

Just behind you there
are some large plate moulds,

one dated 1729,
the other dated 1762. Good Lord.

So these have been in continuous use
for hundreds of years?

Even today.
So you still use those today?

Yep, yep. Do you have
any porringers? Yes, we do.

Here's an old mould here.

It's probably a couple of hundred
years old. What's it made of?

That's cast iron.

So this would've been used to make
porringers in the 18th, 19th century?

Absolutely.

Pewter is made from 90% tin

while small amounts of copper
and antimony help it to harden.

It melts at 240 degrees,
which is low for metal,

meaning it hardens very quickly.

Do you want to have a go?
I would LOVE to have a go.

I'll get a ladle of metal for you.
Thank you. Oh, it's heavy, actually!

You forget. You sort of imagine
it to be like water.

Do I just go for it? That's right.

Here we go. Straight in, Mark.

OK. There we go.

And even when it's filling up and it
comes out, keep it running in. OK.

That gets rid of all
the impurities out of it.

And that's great. That's it? Yep.

If you keep your eye down there,

you can see that that's set now.

That quick? Yep.

We want to keep it moving,
so if you grab the pillar there,

and get this mallet. When you
pull that back, if you hit...

That bit? I'm notoriously bad
at sport. Stand well back!

You have to be
relatively tough with it. Just a bit.

If you tilt that back towards you.
There it is! There you go!

Nothing happens... Oh! There you go.

I've made part of a porringer.

And that looks pretty good to me.

Excellent. Thank you very much!
There you go.

Once the porringer has cooled down,
it needs to be turned

which involves shaving
the rough edges

to create a smooth, shiny surface.

This is the most skilled part
of creating pewter

and John Morris has been turning
pewter for over 30 years.

Want to try?

I'll give it a go. Bye-bye, bowl!

Oh, there it is!

Go further down the bowl.
Oh, yes!

It's not the beautiful sort of flow
that you had.

You're getting there.
What you need is confidence. Yes.

MARK CHUCKLES

Oh.

That's quite good, that is.
Is that all right? Yes.

This is much, much harder
than it looks.

The handle is then soldered onto
the porringer before the maker's mark

is hand-stamped
onto the finished item.

Oh! Lovely.

Hey-hey! And there we go,

my finished porringer!
Very good, that.

First attempt.

In the same way that gifts are often
given to welcome a new life
into the world,

the passing of a life
is marked by its own rituals.

The average life expectancy in
Victorian Britain was the late 30s.

With death so present,
mourning was a normal part of life.

For married women, Victorian
society's expectations

were especially strict
if your husband died.

Widows were required to withdraw
from public life, wear black,

veil their heads
and cover mirrors with black drapes.

There was even special jewellery
made to suit the occasion.

I've been one year
and 11 months in black now

and I'm desperate to wear
coloured clothes again!

Only one month to go. Two years
and you'll be able to free yourself.

Then two years are up.
Actually, I won't.

Then I'll be in half-mourning
for my Victorian late husband

and that means grey or lavender
or mauve for another six months.

And thank goodness I don't
work for Queen Victoria
because if I was in her household

I would've been in half-mourning
for the rest of her life.

How many years was it?
After Albert died in 1861

she spent pretty much most of
her life in mourning.

She went into black
for the rest of her life.

This wasn't uncommon for Victorian
mothers who, if you think about it,

probably experienced quite a lot of
infant mortality.

Probably they'd lost a lot
of their children along the way.

It's almost a cliche to say it

but the Victorians had this
CULT of mourning.

They were very comfortable
talking about death and mourning

which we're not at all today.
We're uncomfortable with it.

The Victorians had
a hang-up about talking about sex.

They were very reticent about that
and the opposite today.

I sort of feel rather sorry for you.
You have to amass this enormous,
complex clothing

whereas I just don this simple band.

Well, there also seems to be a bit
of an imbalance between male
mourning and female mourning.

I'm supposed to mourn my husband
for two-and-a-half years,

but if you had a wife, you could
get away with only mourning her
for three months!

Well, I've got to go out and do
some work to earn money

to buy all of this garb and this
fantastic necklace that you have,

which is made out of perhaps
the most popular material

of the Victorian period for mourning,
which is jet.

Jet was this mysterious material,

only washed up on a particular part
of the coastline

where you find the town of Whitby.

It's actually
a form of fossilised wood,

so I suppose in a way
very similar to coal.

Very popular
from the 1860s to the 1880s.

The industry in Whitby
became so thriving and popular

that 1,000 people
were employed there.

It was said that in Whitby
even the dogs are black.

Absolutely, it was worn slightly
earlier than the 1860s.

In fact, when George IV died in 1830

there was a decree that jet
will be the ornament.

Certainly Victoria took this up
with a great passion,

as did ladies who could afford it.

It was a very expensive material
and widely imitated.

The values then and now really
depend on how well-worked they are.

The more skill that went into it
from the craftsman side of it,

that raised the value.

A piece like this today
would fetch around £600,

if you had to buy it from a dealer.

Now, there's one problem with jet.

Some people said that
it was a bit too shiny

to wear in the first year
of mourning,

but as I've now officially reached
the second year,

I think I can put this on.

I think I can help you with that,
if you will allow me.

Just plunge me a little bit further
into gloom.

Black jet was not
the only jewellery worn in mourning.

In a time before photography,
people still wanted

a tangible reminder
of their lost loved ones.

'I've come to North London
to meet Anne Louise Luthi.

'Over the past 20 years,
she has become a major collector

'of hair jewellery,

'and now owns over 250 items.'

This is probably the earliest piece
and that has platted hair.

On the back, turn it over,
and you will see that it says

"my father and my husband".

So this is the hair of two people?

That's the hair of two people,

probably at the end
of the 17th century.

The idea was to commemorate people,

and the only part of the body
you can use after death is hair.

What else could you do, in a way?

You could have a portrait or
miniature. That was more expensive.

There was no photography, either.
No, not until the middle
of the 19th century.

Absolutely.

So this was the way that people
commemorated the loved ones.

By keeping them literally close,

by taking a part of their body
to wear close to them. Yes.

This one looks much more decorative.

What we have here is
a lady cradling her child,

near an urn on a pedestal,

and it says "JC OBT",
so died "July 21st 1785,

"aged two years and seven months.

"Not lost, but gone before."
There it is.

And the idea that she would be
reunited with her child...

How sweet.
..when she herself died.

It's terribly touching, isn't it?

If you look closely here at the
bottom, that's where the hair is.

And also, the artists
who did these miniatures

used to chop up hair
and mix it with the paint.

That's quite incredible.

It's also interesting
that this is a pin,

so it would have been pinned close,
physically, to her heart.

'In the 19th century,

'hair jewellery stopped being worn
only for mourning,

'and became fashionable
in its own right.'

The most valuable of all
was white hair.

And then, you can see...

Why was that?
I suppose because it was beautiful.

You can see the butterfly there.

There you get
a beautiful hair bouquet.

Didn't people find it rather
squeamish and strange

to wear hair that wasn't connected
to you or your family?

Not really, no,
because it was a material.

It wasn't necessarily thought of
as being associated
with a particular person.

Wearing hair jewellery may seem
slightly macabre to us now,

but in the past,
the ceremonial marking of death

was much more part of everyday life.

Even executions
were once ceremonial events,

carried out in public
until the mid-19th century.

One of history's
most shocking executions

was the beheading of Anne Boleyn,
the second wife of Henry VIII,

on the 19th May, 1536.

It was the first execution
of a Queen of England.

This is what you might call
a ceremonial sword.

Certainly not for use
on the battlefield.

It's a German beheading sword
of about 1750.

And it's got a picture on it

that shows exactly how you use it.

He's lifting it up
right over the head,

and he comes down with
a great big swoosh,

and takes the head off.

This was the privilege given
to Anne Boleyn, in 1536.

Because she was the queen,

she wasn't going to be beheaded
with the axe, like everybody else.

A special French swordsman
was brought over,

to give her a nice, clean ending.

Actually, your sword
is better than mine,

because yours has a point
on the end of it.

Tell me a bit more about
your rapier.

Nice and light. Very nimble. Long.

As you say,
with this very sharp point.

This was all about
the art of swordsmanship.

With this
rather fine hand guard, here.

It was made in Britain
in the early 17th century

and is a rather fine example.

I think it would be creepy to
collect a beheading sword like this.

I think it would show that
you're slightly disturbed.

There's a certain...
Not romance, I suppose,

but there's a certain gory interest
in it, isn't there?

These are quite collectible today.

Something like this could fetch
a couple of thousand.

Similarly, my rather fine rapier.

Anything from £2,000
to £10,000 or so,

depending on the date,
the quality of it, and who made it.

Though there is considerably less
demand for swords these days,

there are still a few people making
them, using traditional methods

that have been practised
by blacksmiths for centuries.

Simon Fearnhamm specialises
in making historical swords,

as well as repairing antiques,
at his factory

in the Essex countryside.

Simon, tell us what you are doing.

At the moment,
I'm drawing the metal down,

thinning it off, tapering it,
shaping it.

So you're making the sword
longer and thinner?

Longer and thinner, and
giving it the right shape.

What metal are you using there?

This is a carbon spring steel.

What kind of sword are you making?

This is based on an original tomb
effigy carving in Westminster Abbey.

The sword of Sir Giles Daubeney.

Nice medieval sword.

Do you know how to use
a sword yourself

so that you can tell
if you've made a good one?

I've played with swords.
You've played with swords?!

I've been making swords
for 30-odd years, so yes.

I've handled a lot
of original medieval swords,

so you get a good feel
for the heft of the sword,

and how it should feel.
What does "the heft" mean?

It's the balance in the hand.

If you use it for hours on end,
you want something

that doesn't put
too much strain on your arms.

Ooh, look at that!

'Forging is the first stage
of making a sword

'and it requires
considerable skill.'

OK. Strike while the iron's hot.
Come on. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Am I making any difference there?

Ooh, look. You can see it.

You're putting a bend on it.
MARK LAUGHS

You don't want that, do you?
I'll straighten it out in a minute.

So it's curved up at the end now?
That's not right, is it?

I'll put it into the forge... Did
I do that? Oops. Just a little bit.

Once Simon has forged the sword,

the next stage is to grind it down
to a sharp edge,

something that was historically
done by hand,

but is now helped
by modern technology.

Eventually this piece of metal
will become a sword,

like this.

So that is ground?

The very, very beginnings, yeah.
It's hot!

The very beginnings
of a rough grind.

What's the next stage
to get it looking like that?

Hours more of the rough grinding,

and getting all the lines
and everything all true.

And then days on the sanding
and finishing... Days?

Days.

So this is your nearly complete,
double-handed broadsword.

A replica of Sir Giles Daubeney's,
from the 15th century? Yeah.

Can I ask how much it would cost?

With scabbard, the sword itself
is around £6,000.

£6,000 is a lot of money,

but if you were looking
for a scarce, historical sword,

from centuries ago,

it's a fraction of the cost.
Definitely.

A sword with provenance,
that sort of style,

tens, even hundreds of thousands of
pounds, depending on who owned it.

These days, swords are mainly used
for ceremonial purposes,

notably when the Queen
bestows knighthoods.

And when a new monarch is crowned,

a number of swords are carried
in the coronation procession.

So Westminster Abbey's
been used for coronations

since William the Conqueror,
in 1066,

right up to 1953, last time round
with the current Queen.

You think it's all about the moment
when the King or Queen is anointed,

becomes crowned,
starts their official job.

But really, the whole point of it
is the spectacle.

Traditionally, the coronation
was preceded by a procession
from the Tower of London,

all through the city,
lined with cheering crowds.

For over 300 years,

people have been buying mementos
of these royal events.

By the time Edward VII
was crowned in 1902,

after the death of Queen Victoria,

royal memorabilia had become
incredibly popular,

and remains an inexpensive way
to own a piece of history.

This is from the coronation
of Edward VII,

but, ha-ha-ha, it's got
the wrong date on it, hasn't it?

June 26th, 1902.

When it was supposed to be but
then the poor guy got appendicitis

and he couldn't show up, so they
had to put the whole thing back.
It went back to August 9th.

What a lot of people don't realise,

ceramics like these were produced
many months - if not a year -
in advance.

As soon as the date was announced,
the ceramics industry
swung into gear,

and started producing
vast quantities of these things.

When it was announced
that he had appendicitis,

and the coronation
would be postponed to August 9th,

quite a lot of these
were already in existence,

which means they only had
a little bit of time
to catch up with the correct date.

Consequently, the ones with
the wrong date are very common,

the ones with the correct date
are much rarer.

That's worth probably around £30.

And what about my mug here?

Probably about the same as the tea
you're going to put in it.

Aw, but it has sentimental value.

When Charles II was restored
to the throne,

after the Commonwealth in 1660,

he rode a wave of affection
for the monarchy.

The occasion saw the first pieces
of mass market royal memorabilia

being produced.

Pretty much every royal event since
has been marked with souvenirs.

I'm meeting Steven Jackson,

who's collected so many
royally-related items

that he's built a mini museum
in his back garden.

Oh, my goodness!

You like royal memorabilia,
don't you?! Yes, yes!

How did you get started
on this subject matter, then?

I was left by my grandfather
quite a little collection.

I've always been fascinated
by history

and the two go together.

How many pieces have you got now?

Oh, well.
Ceramics, around about 8,000.

8,000 ceramics. And then
you've also got textile items.

Oh, yes, there's textiles...

Biscuit tins, box of matches. Yeah.

The Royal Family usually stand
for stability and continuity,

but sometimes royal memorabilia
can reflect times of rapid change

and uncertainty.

So this is your
Edward VIII cabinet.

All the people making commemorative
goods must have been pretty pleased,

in 1936 and 1937,
because we've got two kings coming
along very quickly, haven't we?

They started to sell commemoratives
for Edward in the September.

Harrods and Selfridges
were full of them.

So this is a little plate
that was planned to be

for the coronation of Edward VIII,

which was planned to be
in May, 1937.

But, in the event, he abdicated
to get married to Mrs Simpson.

He abdicated on December 11th
and then, of course,

the manufacturers
with things left over...

"What are we going to do
with all of our unsold stock?"

They added very quickly,

"acceded the throne and abdicated,"
with the date on.

I like that. That's quick thinking.
That's waste not, want not.

I think that, as a collector,
you're quite unusual.

You're not really looking for
quality, high-end, beautiful stuff,

are you?

You're interested in things that
are quite cheap and mass-produced.

Well, if it isn't mass-produced,

invariably,
it's not a commemorative.

That's the definition? That's
the secret to the whole subject.

It had to be mass-produced,
for people at large.

I guess items like this,
although cheap and cheerful,

represented a significant investment
for normal people.

They were engaged in the life
of the nation. Yes, they were.

Why do you think
people have the urge

to get these tangible memory items?

I think it's a point of reference
in their own lives.

There's a great expression
from Macaulay, the great
Victorian historian,

who, when he was examining
a mug at the factory,

described them as,

"Reflections of men's souls.
A window into men's minds."

That is so poetic and lovely.
It was a lovely expression.

You may think it's a little piece
of junk but, actually, no.

This will mean a lot to a lot of
people who were alive in 1936.

King George VI, who succeeded
Edward after the abdication,

saw Britain through
the Second World War.

On 29th July, 1948,
he attended the opening ceremony

of the 14th Olympic Games
at Wembley Stadium.

It was only the second time

the modern Games
had been held in Britain,

and it would be the last
until 2012.

The differences between
then and now are startling.

The 2012 Games is estimated to be
costing at least £12 billion,

while in 1948,
they cost a modest £750,000.

There were great hopes for Britain
in the first post-war Games.

But in the end, we only achieved
gold medals in one event.

'The rowing.'

There we go. One, two, three.
Slow down.

One, two, three, four.

Why have you got your legs crossed?

Hm? Why have you got your legs
crossed? I always cross my legs.

SHE LAUGHS

All the time.

What, when you're rowing? Yes.

HE LAUGHS

We're recreating the 1948
coxless pairs at the Olympic Games.

Gold for Britain.

One of three medals that the rowing
team won in what they called
the make-do-and-mend Games.

Because it was after the war,
they were a bit short of money

and everybody had
to bodge things together.

They had the rowing events
down at Henley. Yes.

The winners of the coxless pairs
were called John Wilson
and William Laurie.

You've heard of Mr Laurie
because he was the dad of
Hugh Laurie, the actor.

What I can't believe
is that the athletes

had to get through their training
on 2,600 calories a day.
That's what you got in your ration.

I think the ration itself
was one piece of bacon, an egg,
and a small bit of cheese.

But once they had been selected
for the team that went up,

they got 3,400 calories a day,

which is the same as a docker got.
That was the ration for dockers,
people doing heavy work.

But today the athletes
eat 8,000 calories a day.

'Sports-related antiques
are extremely popular.

'And we have a rare
1948 Olympic medal.'

This is a bronze medal, is it?

Yes, bronze, silver and gold -
the medals that we know today -

were first awarded
in that combination in 1904.

Were they true gold, true silver?

Well, the last time true gold medals
were awarded was in 1912.

What? Since then it's been a bit of
a swizz and they haven't been gold?!

I don't necessarily think so! It's
still the event, the taking part,

that's the important part,
not the medal itself.

It has a rather lovely design
of athletes lifting each other up.

Have you noticed they're all naked?

To take part in the original
Olympic Games, you had to be naked.

The ancient Greek word
for that is "gymnos",

and that leads us
to have our term today, "gymnasium".

Stretch your arms out, put your back
into it. I'm still no good at this.

It's just as well I wasn't
in that Olympics team.

SHE LAUGHS

The Austerity Games
was the second time

Britain had hosted the Olympics.

The first time, in 1908,
we came top of the medal table,

winning 56 golds.

But female athletes
didn't get much of a look-in.

At the 1908 Olympic Games,

there were 2,000 competitors.
Only 37 of them were women.

But one won gold for Britain,
in the archery.

And, quite amazingly,
she was 53 years old.

'Her name was Queenie Newall.

'In an attempt
to step into her shoes,

'I'm having a longbow lesson
with the archer Maggie Woolf.'

Aim towards the top of the target,
and away. Go!

Woo! Nearly!

Not bad. Good for a first shot.

'We're using traditional longbows,

'but Maggie's brought along
an antique

'to point out one noticeable
difference from those used today.'

The bow that they would have used
in 1908 is pure yew.

This one is pre-First World War.

This is the outer wood of the yew,

and the soft belly wood of the yew,

so it's got a nice flex and spring.

The yew contains all the elements
one needs in a good shooting bow.

But it's a bit dangerous.
Isn't it poisonous, yew wood?

Yes. All parts of the yew
are poisonous.

A lot of bowyers
went slightly crazy.

It caused some problem in the brain.

So I don't think they had a very
long life, making these bows.

'Joining our archery lesson is the
Olympic historian Rebecca Jenkins,

'author of the book
on the 1908 Games.'

Let it go. Oh!

What did the main organiser
of the Games think about
the female athletes?

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, whose
idea it was to revive the Games,

was a Parisian aristocrat.

He thought that ladies performing
in public before strangers
was really...

He said something
along the lines of,

"Impractical, uninteresting,
anaesthetic, and incorrect."

Therefore, he really didn't
want women to be involved.

Drawing back to the eye.
Keep drawing. More, more, more.

BOTH: Yay!

Yeah, you got it.
You're getting good, you know.

The thing I really like about
Queenie is she was 53 years old.

And she was a gold medal winner
at that age.

The point about archery is
you can look like a lady
and still excel at your sport.

You don't have to be 24
and be able to jump very high.

And they all had to be wearing
proper clothes, long skirts.

ladies are supposed
to be private creatures,

so you appear properly dressed.

So there's no way they could
take part in the swimming,

because the rules said
you must wear a skirt.

Exactly. They wouldn't even dream
of having women swimmers by 1908.

They did come in in 1912,
but you're in Sweden by that point.

I think it was the Scandinavian
influence. They're more liberated
in Scandinavia!

They seemed much more egalitarian
about the idea of the healthy body.

Long reach forward.
Back to your cheek.

ALL: Oh! Look at that.

In the red! In the red!
That is absolutely fantastic.

Just outside the gold.

I can see you taking
this sport up seriously.

Antique bows and medals are just
some of the collectible items

associated with popular
sports memorabilia.

'In the Cotswolds, Manfred Schotten
sells antique golf clubs,

'tennis rackets,

'cricket bats, and other highly
sought-after sports items.

'Even this Victorian golf ball
is worth around £5,000.

'But there are cheaper ways
to own a piece of sporting history.'

If you haven't got
thousands of pounds

to splash out on an Olympic medal,

why not consider some
of the paperwork,

known as ephemera, that was
produced around the Games?

Something like this,
the London Olympic Games programme,

is a brilliant place to start.

This can fetch up to
around £70 or so,

and it's crammed with information.

Everything from events,
to athletes, to photographs.

There's really everything you need
to know about the Games,

including some rather interesting
information about restaurants.

These were known as
the Austerity Games in 1948.

I find this particularly fascinating.

We're told that, "Eating
in the West End at present

"is not a matter about which
Londoners feel particularly happy.

"Visitors from abroad are likely
to be even less content.

"But the food situation
is one that must be accepted

"as an inevitable result
of the nation's economic position."

The contents are fascinating,

but what really does it for me
is this fantastic cover.

If you can look
for colourful artwork

that really sums up
the design ethics of the day,

that really adds to the appeal and,
in many cases, the value as well.

Three years after the 1948 Olympics,

Britain was ready to put austerity
and the war behind it.

A ceremonial event for the nation

would focus people's attention
on a brighter future.

The Festival Of Britain of 1951
was intended to celebrate
British design,

and to cheer everybody up
after the war and the recovery.

The director of the festival
described it as
a tonic for the nation.

It was based here on the South Bank,

and its centrepiece
was the Royal Festival Hall.

8.5 million people attended
the exhibition on the South Bank.

Many of the designs on display
were ultra-modern in style,

including the chairs
for the terrace.

Hello. Hello.

You're sitting on one of the chairs
that they actually used

on the terrace at the festival,
aren't you?

That's it. This is a reproduction
of the antelope chair,

which was designed
for this very purpose.

It was placed outside
the Royal Festival Hall,

so you could sit and enjoy
the festival and the river.

It's such a 1950s-looking thing,
isn't it?

It is, and it sums up so much
of what the festival was about.

After the disasters
and privations of World War Two,

this was all about
our positive future,

which was meant to be delivered
with technology.

If you look at the form
and structure of it,

with these ball feet,

and these cylindrical steel rods,

it's almost like a molecular model
that you might find in a school
or a scientific laboratory.

At this time, of course,
you had interest in microscopes,

cells, molecules, and that's all
reflected in this chair.

It also launched a new
colour palette, as well,

which was so much more
vibrant and positive

than the austerity
of utility furniture.

It's a beautiful chair
that speaks so much for the period.

Do you think it's called the
antelope because it looks like

it could go boing
on its springy little legs?

It does have a certain
lightness of form, I suppose.

This whole look launched
a new look on the high street.

It really was, in its own way,
a trendsetter.

This one's a reproduction,
so it's brand new,

but vintage examples
depending on condition and date

can cost you anything
from £80 to £500.

The Festival of Britain
had been staged

exactly 100 years
after another ceremonial event.

To many, it represented the pinnacle
of Britain's power and influence

across the world.

On 1st May, 1851,

Queen Victoria attended
the opening ceremony

at the Great Exhibition of the
Industrial Nations in Hyde Park.

The brainchild of Prince Albert,

the exhibition was housed
in a massive iron glasshouse

designed by Joseph Paxton.

Amazingly, it was
a temporary structure,

and was pulled down
after only six months.

'But to this day, the Victoria
& Albert Museum in London

'remains as a permanent memorial
to the exhibition.'

So up there is a picture of
the Great Exhibition of 1851,

and there's Queen Victoria,

giving out the prizes
for best exhibit.

They had 13,000 exhibits,

the fruits of industry
from all over the world,

brought to this massive greenhouse
up there. Absolutely.

This building was built
after the exhibition closed,

to house many of the objects.

It was known then as
the South Kensington Museum,

but it's much more
familiar to us today as
the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Fair enough as it was Prince Albert
who was really behind this.

The Great Exhibition
was hugely successful.

It made over £16 million,
in today's money.

And they used it to buy land

all up and down Exhibition Road,
here in South Kensington.

So the Victoria & Albert Museum
and the Science Museum
and Imperial College

were all built on the profits
of the Great Exhibition.

This part of town became known,
in homage to Prince Albert,
as Albertopolis.

This is the book of the show, is it?

Effectively, yes. It's a special
edition of The Art Journal.

The Art Journal
Illustrated Catalogue.

This showed many of the best things
exhibited in the exhibition itself.

It's all very much in
the sort of latest tastes.

It's all very Victorian, very ornate.
Look at something like this.

Statues, other fountains...

And some shoes. These are funny.
Look.

"Mr J Sparkes Hall of London
exhibits many improvements

"in modern boots and shoes,
together with a curious series

"of well-executed facsimiles
of ancient ones."

Here we've got a display of shoes.

Look, it's a shoe
of vulcanised India rubber.

Rubber had only just appeared.

Also in the exhibition,
it was used to make

a more comfortable pair of false
teeth, in which you could yawn.

They had a new spring mechanism

that made them
a lot more comfortable.

This book is actually
quite a collectible piece,

as well as a fascinating guide
to the exhibition

and Victorian tastes of the time.

It's worth between £200 and £400,
in really nice condition.

The original catalogues
can fetch an awful lot more,

up to around £12,000 or so.

But it's the objects that
commemorated the exhibition,

the souvenirs, if you like,

that really form
the backbone of the market.

Ceramics, glass. All manner of
different pieces were produced

to satisfy the desires of those
six million people who visited

to remember
and to commemorate their visit.

Although the exhibition
was temporary,

the glasshouse was rebuilt
in an area of London

now known as Crystal Palace,

where it remained until it was
destroyed by a fire in 1936.

But it is antiques
from the original 1851 exhibition

that are some of the most
sought-after items
at this auction in Macclesfield.

Pictures, vases,

even pot lids,
that commemorate the exhibition,

are all going under the hammer.

£65, gentlemen, again.

This ornate silver
fish knife and fork set

is one of the more unusual items.

551. Fabulous pair
of cased fish servers, there.

£280. Here with me at £280.

£300. £320. £340, I'm out.

At £340 stands at the back now.

At £340. With us in the room now
at 340.

But there's one particular piece

that has really grabbed my attention.

For me, this has enormous appeal

as a souvenir
of the Great Exhibition.

For a start, it has this fantastic
painting on glass,

of the Crystal Palace itself.

Open it up, and you discover
it's a tea caddy.

So it's functional
as well as decorative.

It's also made from papier-mache,

which was a very popular material
for making all manner of items,

from small pieces of furniture,
such as tables,

to tea caddies and even perhaps
pen boxes and trays.

This would have been an ideal
souvenir for the middle class visitor

to the Great Exhibition.

A rather exceptional Victorian
papier-mache tea caddy.

Great Exhibition, 1851.
Interest, as you'd imagine.

The tea caddy is estimated
to go for £150.

£320, I'm bid. 340. 360. 380.

400. 420.

But there are several interested
bidders both in the room and online.

Still on the internet.

At £540.

At 540.

Are you sure, online?

We give you it at 540.
The best is online now.

£540 was a fantastic price for that.

And the reason?
It was in fantastic condition.

Papier-mache can be
very easily damaged.

If it's dropped,
the glass would break.

Even the insides
of the tea caddy compartments

were still lined with their tinfoil.

An absolutely fantastic buy for
whoever was lucky enough to get it.

Many of these items on sale
are not of great intrinsic value.

Like inexpensively-produced
royal ceramics, they prove

you don't need deep pockets to own
a piece of ceremonial history.

Antiques associated
with weddings and funerals

give us a fascinating insight

into how we've changed the way
we mark personal milestones.

Today, many of these objects look
like they no longer have a function,

but actually they do.

Their purpose
is to commemorate an event,

and to give us something
to remember it by.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.