♪ is coming close to you an owl. i know. look at all that work out there. yeah. money's gonna gush up through the floor quigley says. fine. but what's the cost? nothing's ever simple, is it? no. we don't really have a lot to say to each other, do we? don't we? no.

the owl's quite chatty, though. what? i'm just thinking back to when i was 16. there was this priest in the parish who used to sneak up on parked cars and shine a torch through the window. looking for... oh, yeah. what do you think? what? just thinking. what? what would you do if father mac shone a light through our window? i'd tell him to mind his own business. you surprise me. do i? constantly. are you cold? yeah. no. you feel cold.

no. any problems? it was all quiet. i hope you were paying attention, father. yes, i was. i'm off home. you can go home too, peter. thanks. no. thank you. assumpta. goodnight.

i'm a priest. that's fine. be a priest. ambrose. ambrose?

oh god, why am i doing this? oh god, give me the courage to go through with it. at the very least don't let kathleen laugh at me, or sneer at me, or hit me with the floor brush. what are you doing here? i've never seen you in church at this hour before. are you all right? just getting the lungs up and running. i'd slow them down to a walk, if i were you. what?

have a flower, flowers. they're for you. what do i want flowers for? i was told to give them to you. told! no. sorry. please take them. they're sagging in the middle i've kept them so long for you. well, all right then. is this really the place? well,thank you. morning, kathleen. eamon. good morning, father. listen, young man. i had very dark thoughts about you last night, so don't push your luck. it's broad daylight and it's time to go to sleep. if you weren't so stubborn, you'd accept my offer of help.

i've come to see my grandson. what do you want? there he is. hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, wee fella. and how are we today, huh? isn't he beautiful? little hands. little handy pandies. you could eat them, so you could. now... have you given any thought to what you're going to be when you grow up? i'll tell you what you're gonna be. you're gonna be the chairman of a worldwide company, the chairman of quigley incorporated. the boss of quigley inc. liam and donal. what are you two doing here? we've just been out to the site. they tell us they've found some, what-you-may-call-its. speak english. history, mr. quigley.

ancient parties living in the wood. leaving behind them bones and arrowheads, and bits of pots, and things like that. an archaeological site, is that it? that's the yoke. i don't believe it. get out there and clear away any of that stuff immediately. such finds have to be reported to the appropriate authorities. and all work suspended immediately. just forget about it for a couple of hours! in the circumstances, sir, i am the appropriate authority. therefore, it now becomes my duty, sir, to -- don't start all that again. that got up his nose, didn't it? i haven't got long, kathleen. what is it? oh, sit down, please. eamon byrne. has he been bothering you again? the thing is, father, i think i'm frightened he's going to ask me to marry him. are you sure about this? as sure as i can be. has he spoken of it? not yet.

but that's what's on his mind. well,if it is, where's the harm in that? it would be a marriage made in heaven. you'd be great company for each other. company is one thing, father. yes. but, if we do, he might want to... indeed he might. and as his wife it would be your duty. yes, father, i accept that. you would be married so then there would be no sin attached to it. i've put all those thoughts from my mind long ago, father. not that i ever suffered from any such thoughts. of course not. marry him, kathleen. it would be the best thing for both of you. as long, of course, as i can still rely on your help around the church.

i'd never deprive you of that, father. thank you, kathleen. ambrose! you can't go on like this. like what? you've got to get some sleep. i can manage. at least take up my dad's offer. get somebody in. leave your da out of it. i run this family. if you do run this family, you're not running it well. not if you make yourself sick. will you leave me alone, please? ah, ambrose. oh, assumpta. ambrose! alert as a fox. i've come to see the baby. right. now, what was i doing? oh, yes. is he all right? he's out on his feet. he's punch drunk. he's getting hardly any sleep. it seems this little rascal has it in for him. hey, he's not a rascal.

he's beautiful, isn't he? isn't he the most beautiful baby in the world. what? don't wake him up. oh, i'm sorry. here, look, i'll put the kettle on. father mac, it's peter clifford here. yeah. when might you next be in ballykay? oh, it's nothing really it's just a chat, i suppose. tomorrow? fine. thank you. well? i want you to have these?

what do you hope to gain by this? i don't know. well, that's all right then. thanks a million. well... goodbye. are you all right? i suppose i'm in luck you're not the superintendent. i was just checking. checking what, father? just making sure you were all right. well, i'm fine. i don't need you. no. no, you're right.

hey! you! ambrose! ambrose, stop those two! ambrose? i'm sorry, i shouldn't have... look, can you call the doctor, please? just stay back... i'll miss him. why would you miss him?

what are you talking about? that's what i've come over here to tell you. i've made up my mind. what about? [ banging noise ] for god's sake, what's that? i feel so responsible. why? well, if i hadn't yelled at him... he's a policeman, father. you mustn't blame yourself. he's hurt, niamh, i'm not gonna pretend otherwise. how is he, doctor? but i've been told it's not as bad as it seemed at first. can i see him? well, he's not really conscious yet. please. i'll have a word.

don't worry. he'll be all right. he's hurt his head. well, you won't notice the difference. niamh, you can come in now. will you hold the baby, please, father? you heard what doc ryan said. anyway, your uncle peter's in control now. well... almost. how's ambrose?

pardon? oh, i haven't spoken to niamh today. last night he was as well as could be expected. good. you want to see me? yes, i need your advice. advice from me? huh, then i'd better sit down. advice about what, father? um... or would you rather i guessed? i'd quite enjoy that. no. then what do you want to talk about? about being a priest, i suppose. you surprise me. a crisis of faith. not what i'd expected. you tell me. what did you expect? it's not a question of faith, father. i've no doubt in my faith. it's just... what am i doing as a priest? what does it mean to be a priest?

to serve god. i can serve god without being a priest. serve your community. your congregation. they always need you. if they don't need me? do they? i say mass. i hear confession. i officiate at weddings, christenings and funerals. then what? good works. visiting the poor and preaching about rich men, camels with humps and needles with eyes. what have you been reading? the new testament. oh, very clever, father. but you don't fool me. shall i tell you what the problem is? sorry? assumpta fitzgerald. what? we live in a very small community, father. well, i hope you don't think that... nothing's happened. is something likely to happen? no. can you stand before that altar and tell god that nothing is likely to happen?

that is your problem, father. that is why you are dissatisfied with your vocation. i understand the temptation, the pain, the anguish. but most priests, most serious priests, use these temptations as a means to temper their mettle. and that is the test, father. have you got the mettle to be a real priest? i hope... i pray i'm a real priest. then you have a simple choice. scrub this woman from your mind for ever or leave the parish. i don't want to leave the parish. then you need help.

i suggest you go on retreat. that's the place to be. touch base again. feel your vocation again. maybe you're right. yes. yes, i will. when should i go? i think as soon as possible. thank you. well? well... is that all you have to say? i've not a lot of words in me today. i know how you feel. it's terrible about ambrose, isn't it? makes you think - life could be a lot worse. indeed. makes you think - what have we got to complain about?

there comes a time when it's better to stick to the road you know. i agree with you. you do? i do. i do indeed. i do. well, then. slain leat. goodbye. should we be doing this? nah, they've notified the council. yes! oh, please, please. come on, don't do this to me. niamh.

how's ambrose? he's fine, thanks. are you all right? yeah, sort of. go on into the kitchen. i'll make us a cup of tea. give us a shout, padraig, if i ever get another customer. yeah, sure. niamh, sit down. the house is so quiet without ambrose. i think even kieran misses him. how is ambrose? last night he was quite sick, but he's much better today. his mother's with him. anyway, he should be home in a few days. well, that's great news. he won't be able to go back to work for a while though.

no, i suppose not. dad wants us to move in with him. ambrose would never put up with that. and will you? it'd set him back a life time. i suppose it would. anyway, i'm glad things are looking a bit brighter. makes me feel a little less guilty. not you as well? what for? well, i won't feel so bad about deserting you. deserting? niamh, i've decided to leave ballykay. just for a while. you have? yep. at last. good for you. it's time you stopped dithering. oh, i know, i know. but it all depends. on what? do you think you'd be up to looking after the pub for me for a while?

if ambrose was back on his feet. well, yeah, of course. well, yes. well, that's, that's great. so, you're off to dublin, then. no, no. no, london. oh. hi. how are you? service? assumpta, customers. >> assumpta: yeah, i'll be right with you, padraig. still celebrating? the rescue of the orchid and the badger, the owl and the pussycat. come on, padraig.

putting the road around the wood is not going to make any difference to the development. that remains to be seen. whatever the outcome, it doesn't have to be personal. i heard you were having a little lunch time celebration. what do you mean? i've come to mess it up for you. you must think i'm a right eejit. you stuck those artefacts up on the site. and don't pretend you didn't. look at them. pathetic. now these bones haven't been in the ground for years. and this arrowhead. it's varnished. oh, dear. we told the council though. i don't care who you told. they'll take one look at this rubbish and laugh in your faces. so you can say goodbye to your wood. it's a wake you're having now. you can drink to the corpse. niamh. dad?

yes, anything. do me a favour, dad. put the road round the wood. niamh. come on now. if not for my sake, dad, for kieran's. that is just blackmail! please, dad. i mean, i'd hate to let them get away with it. dad! niamh... he'll do it. thanks, niamh. thanks a lot. a big hand for niamh. your father nearly knocked me down. what's happened? niamh persuaded him to put the road round the wood. oh, well, done, niamh. how's ambrose today? he's doing very well. they're going to let him home soon. oh, i'm glad. very glad.

right then, i'd better take this fella home to feed him. and change him before you throw him out. well, i'll speak to you, assumpta, about... yeah. and i hope you've stopped feeling guilty, father. assumpta! yeah. in a moment. she's taking it very well. she's a brave woman. father mac's just given me a talking to. well, that was nice for you. well, i think i deserved it. he's helped me make up my mind about a couple of things. such as? one, i've decided father mac is exactly the sort of priest i don't want to be.

two, i've decided it would do me no harm to be as good a priest as father mac. still sitting on the fence? no, i've got off the fence. father mac shoved me on to a ladder. what sort of ladder? he's ordered me to go on retreat. oh, yeah? when? next week. so that's it, is it? yes, that is it.

well, thank you for telling me. at least i know i've made the right decision. what decision? >> padraig: assumpta. customers. excuse me. i've got customers.

fiona: hold on to your bonnets, breeches and bowlers. we're about to take a ride back in time to victorian england, which may look rosy now, but life here in the copper and arsenic mines was hard, hectic, and often short. welcome to morwellham quay in devon.

ships have been trading along the taymar river to morwellham quay for almost 1,000 years. and business reached its peak in the 1850's when just up there, the devon great consolidated mining company discovered the most profitable copper mine in europe, encouraging thousands of men to come here and dig. it's a bit of a surprise to me to see a water wheel underground, but this is to pump water from the mine and prevent flooding. but the most common danger for miners down here was falling off ladders, caused by extreme tiredness

at the end of a hard day working in 90-degree heat. their average life span was just 40 years. but they took big risks because the financial rewards could be great. if the men hit a good seam of copper, they would all get a share of the riches, and earn 20 times their normal wage. it was a boon time with schools, chapels, a pub, and a blacksmith being built. everything needed to support hundreds of miners and their families. one of the major shareholders in the copper mine was a certain william morris. he gave his shares to his son, william morris, jr. he made the equivalent of £7 million a year in profits from the mine, and also, pioneered the arts and crafts movement. morwellham quay shipped over 700,000 tons of copper to be turned into guns, pots and pans, even money. the vast wealth generated by copper

made morwellham quay the busiest port in britain. by the 1870's, when the supply of copper was becoming exhausted, a rich supply of arsenic was found in the same mine which william morris continued to benefit from, not just financially. he used it in his wallpapers and paints. the whole of the area was granted world heritage status in 2006, preserving this victorian industrial enterprise at morwellham quay. what a magnificent setting for today's roadshow. let's see what our experts have in store for us. how fitting to have a picture like this. classic devon landscape river scene with thatched cottages. in fact, i can almost taste the clotted cream from here. absolutely wonderful. so where do you hang this at home, and have you got a house big enough for this? it was a problem. we moved over here ten years ago, and when we were house hunting, we had to find a house that would actually fit it,

and it was quite a problem. and that just shows how much you love this picture then. i know, we do. it's been right down the family, so it's very important. it's really classic of what the edwardian painters were doing in the early part of the 20th century, and it's signed here by alfred parsons, which is alfred william parsons. but i notice that it has a label on the back that says it was exhibited in new zealand in 1906. yes. how come? my great-grandparents bought it in wellington at the exhibition, and then took it down to south island, and it's beethere ever since. and then we moved to england and brought it with us. how wonderful for it to come back here. but what is so interesting, and i have come across this before, when you see these labels in the back, the british government would take exhibitions of english artists out to places like south africa, australia, and also new zealand, and i think people bought these pictures to remind themselves of home. yes.

but it's in such good condition. just look at the painting overall. it has got everything you want in a-- it's a horrible word to use, chockablock, but it is a chockablock picture. but it's got everything. it's very tranquil. and i just love the way the cattle are coming down to water here. you've got the rainbow. but it's in incredibly good condition. and how nice to see it in the original frame. considering it went from this country to new zealand and to the south island and has come back, and it's still in this condition, is a real tribute to your family. absolutely fantastic. alfred william parsons i know, and i've seen lots of small oil paintings by him, but not as big as this. this is actually quite an important work by him. so when this went over to new zealand to the exhibition, do you know how much they paid for it in 1906? i've got it written down in my diary that it was' £390, ten shillings. and that was quite a lot of money then. yes, it was. he was a royal academician, and he was quite well-rated. and i think that this, at auction, would make

somewhere in the region of £8,000 to 12,000. ooh. right. okay. and it's such a strong pastoral image, and it's got everything you'd want. very nice. thank you. well, here we have a fairyland luster bowl by the great wedgwood factory. i'm sure you realize that that is what it is. yes. very popular design and pattern nowadays, but all these fairyland luster bowls are kind of different in various ways. they all have different names. this particular version is named after this peculiar fairy who's up in a net. he's sort of fairy in a basket, they call it. and the outside of it has got even more incredible fairies and elves. these fairies here are playing games. they're two little baby elves on strings, galloping up. and these fairies are playing leap frog. crazy little fairies. absolutely mad crazy.

but the whole thing is crazy. daisy makieg-jones was the designer. you wonder what sort of a mind she had, because she produced extraordinary things. do you like it? yes, i do. how do you come by it? it was my mother's. and she obviously passed away, and it was left to me. but prior to that, she had it from an aunt. it was made in the 1920's, so we're going back three generations almost. yes, yes. yes, we are. and it survived virtually intact. there's the normal wedgwood mark, which is rather nice. wedgwood fairyland luster mark and number. so it's all absolutely authentic and very, very nice. would there be more than one? oh, they made lots of these. lots of different designs. one has been sold in london fairly recently, a very similar one. instead of elves number seven, which this one is,

it was elves number four, which is a slight variation, but very similar. and i don't know whether you know what it fetched, but it was a fair bid. have you wondered about the value of this? not really. i've had it in the cupboard. i forgot about it really. and not worried about what it was? no. elves number four went in london recently for £3,800. oh! so i suppose i would reckon the value of this one to be somewhere between £3,500 and 4,000. i had no idea. so no longer in the cupboard, dear. 'cause you don't know what these elves are gonna get up to in there. it's absolutely wonderful. thank you ever so much. one of the best-known 20th-century constructional toys--meccano.

you must've had an awful lot of fun as a lad playing with these big sets. these, i didn't actually get to play with. my father had a set when he was a child, and when i went round to his parents' house, i'd actually be allowed to play with that one. well, they do look as good as the day they were made in liverpool. an invention of frank hormby back in 1901. mechanics made easy. that's how they were initially presented on the market. later on, of course, the name meccano. much more easy to say, easy to remember. let's open it up and have a look. every boy's dream to open a toy like this. all the pieces are still held in by their original strings. they've not been touched. it's absolutely mint. of course, there's every type of perforated plate, strip, gear, rack, everything to make whatever you wanted. and of course, meccano gave you a bit of a help by the suggestions and wonderful graphics in the various outfit books.

let's go deeper, because this is made of wood, and has a lift-out tray. and if i just tip that there, untouched. absolutely untouched. and, of course, this is what collectors today are really looking for. i'm absolutely staggered. i have never seen three sets in such remarkable condition. i think if i was putting these into auction, i would not hold back. if i put them in as a lot, i'd put the three together with an estimate of between £1,200 and 1,800. really? very pleased to hear that. good. because you haven't played with them, you were a good boy. how do you feel now? do you feel like going out and buying a modern set? i think i'll treasure memories of what i used to do with my father's old set, but certainly, to have found these, i'm just bowled over. great. you're gonna look after them, and hopefully, they'll go on. tuck them away. fantastic.

here we are, in the heart of the valley, and you kind of sense the past. it's almost like the ghosts of the miners are still here. have you got a connection with that? yes. my granddad, he was a copper miner, and tin miner at drakeswall gunnislake. and men from the valley, when the mines closed here, they emigrated in fairly large numbers mainly to canada, the united states, and south africa. and this tantalus was presented to my grandfather who had emigrated to south africa to work in the geldenhuis gold mine. and there's a plaque on the front. a little inscription there on the front. "to mr. h. snell." so he was your grandfather. harry snell. that was my grandfather. and where is your grandfather in here? he must be pictured in this photograph. yeah. granddad is there. that's my granddad. i see. and then, the other one, he's... he's here, isn't he? yeah, he's on the end.

so what happens to him? does he come back? he did return here for a while. but there was still no work, and he had to go back, and he died there with silicolosis. miners had a lot of that problem at the time. presumably your grandfather had started at the age of 12, actually going down and into the mine, with his miner's lamp, with the risk of explosion the risk of a mine falling on top of him. so he survived all of that, and then, of course, the moment comes when the mines dry up and there is very little, certainly here at morwellham. the copper ran out, and you don't realize what happened next. so this is the next part of the story, isn't it? gunnislake station, the local station, was the scene of many a tearful farewell. men left, and they would say farewell to their loved ones. many left never to return. yeah. i think it's very interesting when we look at this detailed photograph in south africa at the gold mine, you get a sense of the volume of work force

there had to be in order to extract the gold at its height. these are people who would have lived a harsh life. and in the corner, he's actually carrying a switch. he was keeping his work force in check. and it was harsh, harsh conditions. it was hard, and the locals done most of the hard work. the english boss men, they were supervisors, but as you say, it was very harsh. i think that was quite a mark of how tough it really was for them. it was, it was. obviously, you can't wipe it out. it happened, and that was it. well, it's lovely to see the next part of the story to complete the picture of what happened when the mines closed here. and the tantalus, of course, a very nice presentation piece. it would have been a very special gift to him, honoring his tremendous work really.

probably would've had whiskey, gin and some brandy in it at some point. i note it's empty now. yep. in terms of value, it's hard to put a value on something so personal really. but the tantalus, a beautiful presentation piece in such nice condition... i think one would see that valued at about £120, something like that. but i think the whole picture of what happened in mining, that is what's important, and telling the story of this valley. you've done it so beautifully. thank you. thank you very much. these are really, really pretty. i presume you've known 'em for years. they came from grandmother. grandmother lived in london, regent's park. to my mother, to me. they've beenn the back of the china cabinet. didn't know what to do with them. don't know anything about them. and will my daughter want them? i suspect she will, because these are really nice.

they're very pretty things. made by a bohemian glass company called loetz in about 1905. using their iridescent papillon effect, papillon french for butterfly, creating this very intense butterfly wing effect, which is further embellished by silver plating it. by painting this with a substance, and depositing silver on the rim and this very, very strongly art nouveau trellis effect. you must like 'em. they are quite pretty, now i come to look at them. i think you're gonna find them even prettier when i tell you that the pair of 'em are worth about £800. so my daughter will definitely be interested. she's gonna love 'em. that's her birthday present sorted then, isn't it? the thing about something like this is that it immediately states what it is. and that is, to me, arts and crafts. that's what i thought it might be, but i wasn't too sure.

so is something that you bought because you liked it, or it's in the family or...? it's been in the family for quite some time. it was my grandparents ', and i inherited it when they died. you've lived with this. yes. it's not a pretty piece really, but i'm fond of it and it's very capacious. the drawers go right back. i've always wondered whether the top actually belongs with the bottom, because this is quite delicate compared to the sturdiness of the bottom part of it. do you use it, do you? yeah, certainly. yes. i think that term "arts and crafts" has come to mean all sorts of things, but one really needs to look back at the source. william morris, often seen as the founder of the whole idea of arts and crafts, got, initially, the money which enabled him to explore handwork and craftsmanship from the copper mines in devon, so he couldn't be in a better place. but it was really the next generation on who took up the ideas of william morris, people like ernest gimson and sidney and ernest barnsley,

who wanted to go back to honesty of construction, honesty of materials. depended largely on handwork. this piece, i think, is absolutely made by hand. there's no industrial process used in this. it's got all the features that you would expect on a piece of arts and crafts furniture. revealed construction, particularly on the sides here with dovetail joints revealed, mortise and tenon joints. this interesting support. the shelves, the trellis work at the back. i particularly like these door handles here. that's a lovely feature in the middle. and it's not screwed or nailed. it's pegged there. a real sign of good arts and crafts. 'cause the thing is, i have to tell you, that when i saw this, my heart began to flutter, because, to me, this is probably almost as close to gimson and the barnsleys

as you can get. but i think that this is possibly more probably designed by sidney barnsley, and if you could prove that it was sidney barnsley, you're looking at £8,000 to 10,000. really? good lord. i really am flabbergasted. i didn't think it was worth that much. if it's not by sidney barnsley, then a little bit less. you could perhaps halve that sum. but to be honest, i think there's so much going in terms of this design that you can go for that higher sum, because i think this is by sidney barnsley. i hope my other half will now appreciate it. when i saw these wonderful silhouettes, i really thought they were going to be the stars today, but i'm afraid the real star is this beautiful little girl who's behaving wonderfully. so shall we start quickly?

yes, good idea. so fabulous collection of silhouettes. and some cut card silhouettes, and a lot of them painted. how did you become interested? i think my husband had his silhouette cut when he was 15 at a school fete. i think maybe that just started him off. and that's this one here? that's that one. and from there, we started on this wonderful new journey. which it is. silhouettes have been around a very long time. i love the fact that it was really etienne silhouette who was the french finance minister who was known for being really mean. so really, silhouette was to be a skinflint. it was supposedly cheaper than getting your portrait painted. but of course, some of the artists that worked in silhouettes became really very proficient, and made some beautiful examples. and you have some exceptional examples here. this one, slightly later than many of the other ones,

this is into the 19th century, beautifully cut. what i think is so exceptional about silhouettes is the personality that some of these artists... you can actually feel what these people are like. and this is a marvelous example with the cut silhouettes and this wonderful painted background. but the one that immediately caught my eye was this one, which i think is absolutely exquisite. and if you look at this so closely, you can actually see all the hairs on his head. it's so beautifully done and bronzed in this way. and just the wonderful way the clothing falls. it's masterfully done, and of course, the very important thing. when you turn it round, we see that it's john miers, of course, one of the most famous silhouette artists. and what's interesting here is that we see it's 111 the strand. i think he moved to 111 the strand around 1791. so we can date this silhouette rather nicely

to that period. but the quality is fantastic. what are your favorites? i like this one. it's a shade that casts a shade. it's a double one. and in flickering candlelight, you can sometimes get slight movement. such a difficult technique. so beautifully done. and you do have the most wonderful ones that are colored. these incredible... as i say, some of them, you actually feel as if the mouth was just about to move. they're so well done. and what about this one? that's me as a little girl. i was about five or six when that one was done. my father made sure the whole family all had their own silhouettes done as well. so are we going to have a silhouette...? i have to get one done of my little daughter at some stage, yes. fantastic. well, these are just lovely, lovely examples. and value? something like this, as i say, a bit later, probably 1815, 1820.

wonderful composition. beautifully decorative thing. and i would say £800, 1,200. good gracious. wow! because it's just a wonderful thing. and this, my favorite, he would certainly sell for about the same amount. probably closer to 1,200. goodness me. the more common ones would be about 300 to 400. and this beautiful example that you mentioned, painted on glass, again, that would be the same sort of money-- £800 to 1,200. my word. that's marvelous news. thank you so much. looks like an interesting bowl. i suppose i'd call it a punch bowl. do you know anything about it? it was presented to nelson after the battle of cape st. vincent in 1797, when he captured two spanish ships. and it's come down through my husband's family

because my husband's very great-grandfather was an admiral in nelson's navy. that's fascinating. well, this kind of pattern, i've seen before. and it's a service that you call the nelson service. it's french porcelain, and it was also coalport porcelain, so a mixture of those two factories. decorated by one maker in london, and presented to nelson at a banquet in the city of london in 1802. it's well-known to collectors of commemorative pieces as the nelson service. so this was just one part of a sort of set. there are things about this bowl that confuse me, that get my brain a bit fuddled and sets me full of doubt. and first of all, it's the style of painting, which isn't the painting that i'm used to seeing on the nelson service,

and i've handled quite a few pieces of the set over the years. also, the coat of arms in the center. on this one, it's entirely hand-painted, but i know that on the nelson service, to save time and money, and this is pretty hard to believe, but they did print the outline of the arms and hand-colored in within the printed outline. yours is hand-painted. so i think, ooh. and the feeling isn't quite right. i think this bowl was made in france and decorated in france, probably in 1905, to celebrate the centenary of nelson's death at the battle of trafalgar. is there any way that this bowl could've come into the family at a later date? into a family that already knew it had nelson connections that might actually have been going out into the market and seeking other things of nelson interest? 'cause i know from personal experience that can sometimes happen in family histories, when things get confused.

all i know is it was inherited by my mother-in-law from her grandfather. i have to say, i think this is a french, probably samson commemorative piece that a member of your family, for understandable reasons, bought in the early 20th century. it's totally disappointing in a way, but it's a wonderful thing for someone descended from nelson to have in their family. it's worth probably £150, maybe 200, as opposed to the thousands of pounds if it had been really from the nelson service. so i'm sorry to give you that news. i mean, how do you feel? have i devastated you? no, i'll just have to... it's my husband's family, so i'll have to tell them. and see if they can find out any more about where it came from. that's where the interest lies. to see whether you can prove me right or prove me wrong. i'm glad you're still smiling. thank you very much. thank you.

standing here at morwellham, i was hoping to see ships and boats, and of course, there are wonderful ones moored there. what i didn't expect to see was a different type of shipping altogether. these are wonderful glass panels showing sailing and harbor scenes. it's a whole panoply of maritime life. now where do they come from? they were originally commissioned to be in the vita sun lounge for the marine spa hotel in torquay. what have we got? so this is the lounge as it was. this is the glass lounge. this is 1936. and is that one of them? yes. this is one of them. luckily this lady wore a short-brimmed hat. you're able to see it. so they were hung separately. so they're not a story. each one is a complete unit. so that is the hotel in that picture. let's have a look. it's actually a wonderful building, isn't it?

very, very typical of that rather grand seaside architecture that we've now come to love. what happened to this hotel? in 1971, my father demolished it. he was a demolition contractor. he pulled down buildings. yeah. and sold off what he could salvage, what he could rescue. but not this sort of thing. but why didn't he put his hammer through that? because i liked 'em. so you said, i want those. yeah. is that him? that's him. and what, he's showing the lady mayoress how to knock a building down. it's funny, 'cause nowadays, mayoresses unveil buildings. they don't celebrate knocking them down. but in the 1970's, it was different. we were destroying our heritage as fast as we could. think of what this place was like in the 1970's. it was nothing, a derelict site. he must've thought you were pretty odd, saying, i want these. he was a young man of 23. i think he was quite thinking ahead here. he had great vision.

you were rescuing art deco. this is what they are. what do we know about them? we know the date thanks to you, you've got the picture. we can see they're all signed hector whistler. that's a name that, initially, makes me very, very excited. whistler. you've got rex whistler, who is a great interior decorator, muralist, illustrator. you've got his brother lawrence, who is probably the 20th century's greatest glass engraver. so it's an artistic family. what i know about hector is he was a book illustrator, i know he was a general designer. he was a sort of hack artist who never had the fame, the reputation, of the others. but this is obviously quite a major work by him. you're rescued probably his chef-d'ouvre, his masterpiece. and i think because he's so little recorded, i think it's because most of his work, which would've been of this interior decorating nature, has been lost. i couldn't even find his dates. i don't think i've ever read his dates. woman: i've had the same problem.

i think the last i know of him, was in 1946, that he was operating out of a studio in oxford. he probably died in the '50s or '60s. i think he's one of those people who is living in the shadows of much greater brothers. i said that, didn't i? i started to feel sorry for poor old hector. they were a very well-known name anyway, we'll never probably know much more about him except that what we've got is what he did. and it's a very typical linear style of the 1930's. it's very much in that swim in that period. and i think he deserves to be better known. anyway, they were free to you. the point is, they work individually. you don't have to have them as a set. each one, therefore, has a value. you don't need to buy all five. i can see one framed up looking good, well presented and well displayed at about probably £500, 600, £700, 800 each. because they're very decorative and they're very period. so you did all right. you chose the right thing to save