Historic Weapons & Artefacts Worth Thousands That Stunned Experts and Owners | Antiques Roadshow UK

0:01 You're joking!

0:04 I'm astonished.

0:05 That's fantastic.

0:06 Great.

0:07 Lovely.

0:07 Thank you very much.

0:09 You know, I'm most amazed to see an American knife here today like this.

0:14 This particular knife is very, very sought after by American collectors.

0:20 How long have you had it?

0:22 50 years.

0:23 About 50 years in the family?

0:24 Mm-hmm.

0:25 Right.

0:25 Well, here we have the American eagle.

0:29 And on the other side, the motto,

0:31 which you often see on American coins, "E pluribus unum".

0:37 It's a Bowie knife, of course.

0:40 And there's the typical shaped Bowie,

0:43 named after James Bowie, who carried a very similar knife.

0:46 And so all these knives with clipped-back blades are known as Bowie knives.

0:51 But the Americans do like their own knives,

0:53 and this is very much an American knife.

0:56 Many Bowie knives were made in Sheffield,

0:59 and they were shipped through the Hudson's

1:02 Bay Company for trappers and hunters in America.

1:06 But this is an American-made one.

1:08 And of course, very, very desirable in the American knife market.

1:13 And I think you might be surprised to know it has a value of about £3,000.

1:22 You're joking!

1:23 No, and possibly more.

1:25 This is interesting.

1:26 This is a pass for Lieutenant LH Massey of the Inter-Services Research Bureau.

1:33 It's interesting because the Inter-Services Research Bureau didn't exist.

1:38 Indeed it didn't.

1:39 When my father was told to report to the headquarters

1:42 of the Inter-Services Research Bureau in Baker Street in London,

1:45 he was given that pass and told he'd joined the organisation,

1:49 but not what it was or what it did.

1:52 He was then taken into another room where there

1:54 were some senior officers who told him that, in fact,

1:56 Inter-Services Research Bureau,

1:58 which he'd never heard of, was the cover name for SOE,

2:02 Special Operations Executive, which he'd also never heard of.

2:05 But that that was really the organisation he was

2:07 going to be working for, in the Polish section.

2:11 Churchill was instrumental in forming the SOE.

2:14 It was formed in about 1940.

2:17 Now, presumably as an officer, he then had to buy all his own kit.

2:22 I'm assuming he bought this Fairbairn-Sykes fighting dagger,

2:26 for which he went to Wilkinson Sword and paid 16 shillings for it.

2:32 My father knew Lieutenant Sykes and worked with him in SOE.

2:37 Almost the first thing my father had to do on joining

2:40 the organisation was to go and do the commando training course at Arisaig,

2:44 in the western Highlands of Scotland.

2:46 His own job was going to be to train Polish volunteers who

2:50 were going back into Poland to join their version of the Resistance,

2:54 the AK, the Home Army.

2:56 But before he could do that, he had to do the course himself.

2:59 I'm going to be technical for a bit here.

3:01 This is a first pattern, third type.

3:06 First ones had a three-inch wavy crossguard.

3:09 They got rid of that, it snagged on everything.

3:12 Second type had a square ricasso here.

3:18 And this is a third type.

3:19 The blade goes straight in.

3:22 Now, if you look at another one of these, you'd

3:25 be quite lucky because they didn't make very many of them.

3:28 A few thousand, at the absolute outside.

3:31 They're all slightly different.

3:34 Because each one of those was handmade by the people at Wilkinson,

3:39 and they would hand-grind the blades on a great big stone.

3:44 It was handled by Sykes out of Fairbairn and Sykes.

3:51 With that, I would put £5,000 on that.

3:56 I'm astonished.

3:57 It's the most amazing thing.

4:00 Handled by the guy who invented it.

4:03 That has absolutely, totally made my day.

4:06 That is just a wonderful, wonderful thing.

4:09 This is one of the earliest firearms that we've ever had on the Roadshow.

4:13 It's a blunderbuss and it dates from about 1680.

4:16 And I wonder if you know what it was used for?

4:19 I've been told it's a turnpike gun.

4:21 So if people don't pay their tolls, that's what they'd get.

4:24 It's a sort of 17th century equivalent of the congestion charge then?

4:28 And if they heard the shot, they're still alive.

4:30 Yes.

4:31 Yeah.

4:31 Well, it could well be used on a turnpike,

4:35 but my view is that it's so big that it's actually for the defence of a ship.

4:40 OK.

4:40 And it's the sort of thing that would have been rushed out of the arms

4:42 chest to deal with boarders trying to get over the sides of the gunwales.

4:46 Or also, when two ships came together in an action

4:49 and boarders were trying to go from both sides,

4:51 then somebody could stay on one side and cover

4:53 his colleagues with this by shooting into them.

4:55 You could also put somebody up in one of the fighting tops,

4:57 actually shooting down with it.

5:00 So it's a blunderbuss and that's a firearm which fires a large charge of shot.

5:07 This would take something like about four or five ounces.

5:10 So there's a lot of pellets in there.

5:13 And they weren't loaded, as is popularly believed,

5:16 with bits of broken metal and anything that you could find.

5:19 But they were carefully cast little bullets, about the size of peas,

5:22 which were known as swan drops because they were for shooting wildfowl.

5:25 Yeah.

5:27 Now we can tell it's a very early gun because of the form of the lock.

5:31 And the whole of the lock is very,

5:34 very flat because it's been cut from solid sheets rather than forged.

5:38 But the thing which is the real giveaway is this little catch on the back.

5:43 Dog lock.

5:44 A dog lock as you rightly say, yes.

5:46 It's a sort of early form of safety catch.

5:48 And that held the cock in that position until you were ready to fire it,

5:52 so that you could keep it loaded and ready for any alarms or excursions.

5:57 OK.

5:58 Now, do you know who made it?

5:59 I've been told Godfrey Taylor.

6:01 That's absolutely right.

6:02 I don't know much about him.

6:04 Taylor spanned the last half, really, of the 17th century.

6:09 He was apprenticed in 1658 to a chap called John Silke.

6:13 And then in 1666, when he'd done his seven years,

6:17 he was free of the Gunmakers' Company,

6:18 which meant that he was allowed to work as a journeyman, a workman,

6:21 and go and earn his own wages, and work for who he pleased.

6:24 1682, he's elected an assistant of the Gunmakers' Company.

6:28 And in 1690 and 1699, he was the master of it.

6:32 So he was the leader of this very important livery company

6:36 in the City of London at a time of great interest in our history.

6:41 Constitutional monarchy was starting to come in, Pepys has died.

6:44 An absolutely wonderful period,

6:46 and it's amazing to think that this firearm was around at that time.

6:51 Now, this is a very,

6:52 very early firearm from the sort of real beginnings of the British gun trade.

6:55 And have you given any thought to what you think it might be worth?

6:59 Well, my friend bought it about 15 years

7:02 ago off an antiques dealer for £750, so...

7:06 I think he had a bargain.

7:06 Let's put a nought on it and say £7,500.

7:10 On a really good day, it would probably do better than that.

7:12 Because it's from this absolutely wonderful period of our history

7:16 and it's also at the beginning of the gun trade.

7:18 And frankly, you don't get them as big as this.

7:21 If I was given the choice of taking the money or opening the box,

7:26 faced with a lovely box like this, I would always open this.

7:29 Because I think this is going to contain something very special.

7:34 It's a box of the very highest quality, made from ebony with brass inlay.

7:39 There are two border lines, escutcheon.

7:42 And to protect it whenever the butler drops it, there's brass-bound corners.

7:48 So let's open it up.

7:50 And my choice would have been absolutely correct.

7:52 There is a wonderful pair of pistols in here.

7:56 Have you had any thoughts what these were originally made for?

7:59 Well, I thought perhaps they were for duelling,

8:02 or perhaps they were for target shooting.

8:05 I think they're a bit small for duelling,

8:07 on the basis that the barrels are only 7mm in diameter.

8:13 If you look at duelling pistols, they tend to be half inch and larger.

8:17 You're absolutely right, they are for target shooting,

8:19 but they're for indoor target shooting.

8:21 Really?

8:22 And they're called saloon pistols because that's

8:23 where they use them, in the saloon.

8:25 Well, when I saw them,

8:26 I thought how extraordinary was the method of hitting the cartridge.

8:31 Instead of a pin, it was a line across the cartridge at the back.

8:35 Yes, that's done for a special reason.

8:37 If I take one out and cock it...

8:41 ..you can see the striker runs the whole way across there.

8:44 Now that is so that it hits the little

8:47 7mm cartridge in two places along its rim.

8:50 And if you hit it twice, there's a pretty good chance it's going to go off.

8:54 The rimfire cartridge was invented in 1845 by Nicolas Flobert.

8:59 Right.

9:00 And that is an original cartridge for it.

9:04 Oh, right.

9:05 So you can see it's very, very tiny.

9:07 Have you any idea how old they might be and where they were made?

9:10 Well, I don't think they were made in this country,

9:12 but they look continental to me.

9:14 But I'm not quite sure.

9:15 I think you're absolutely right.

9:16 They are continental.

9:18 They are Belgian.

9:19 They were made in Liège.

9:20 Oh, right.

9:21 And they are about 1875, that sort of era.

9:25 These pistols are of really the highest quality.

9:30 They've got ebony stocks, the barrels are blued,

9:33 and there's a little tiny bit of silver and gold inlaid foliage on the breech.

9:37 And they are just wonderful, beautiful-quality things.

9:40 They can be owned by anybody, without a licence.

9:43 And I think if these appeared at auction, they would do £5,000 very easily.

9:50 And on a really good day, they might do £10,000.

9:52 Wow.

9:53 That's fantastic.

9:54 I think they're fantastic.

9:55 Well, thank you very much indeed.

9:57 It's been my pleasure to see them.

9:58 So firstly, thank you for bringing me back to the city of my birth.

10:02 And secondly, thank you for bringing me

10:04 these daggers and arms and armour from ancient India.

10:07 The religious aspect to a sword is quite

10:10 important for many of the martial races of India,

10:14 and the Sikhs being one of them.

10:15 We worship weaponry and so do many of the Hindu groups.

10:19 The Rajputs, for example, worship the sword.

10:23 Can you tell me how they came into your possession?

10:26 They belonged to my dad from his collection.

10:28 He started to collect when he was in his 20s and has been collecting ever since.

10:34 There is around about 500 pieces in his collection.

10:37 When did he buy these objects?

10:39 Probably bought them around the 1980s, 1990s.

10:42 It was really the golden age of collecting.

10:45 But I know your father, and I've dealt with him over the last few years,

10:50 but I know these objects were bought probably when I was at school,

10:54 and they're wonderful.

10:56 This one, in particular, is one of my favourites.

10:58 It's a South Indian bichwa.

11:01 OK.

11:01 Bichwa translates as "scorpion sting" because of the shape of the blade.

11:07 And this bronze grip tells a story of Sati.

11:11 Sati was married to Shiva, the Hindu god Shiva.

11:14 But the father-in-law, Daksha, held a fire ceremony,

11:18 religious ceremony, and he didn't invite Shiva.

11:21 And Sati was devastated.

11:23 So she attended and threw herself on the fire in protest.

11:28 When Shiva heard, he plucked one of his dreadlocks,

11:32 threw it on the floor and up sprung Virabhadra,

11:36 who is a protagonist of the story and is pictured right here.

11:40 Virabhadra attended the ceremony and he

11:44 replaced Daksha's head with a goat's head.

11:47 Oh!

11:47 And we can see Daksha pictured very meekly with a ram's head,

11:53 and then Shiva and Sati riding at the top on Nandi, the holy bull.

11:58 But a great object.

12:00 And up here, we have a katar or a "kay-tar",

12:03 and it's a classical Indian weapon, a punch dagger.

12:07 This example is 17th century, possibly late 16th century…- OK.

12:12 Wow.

12:12 ..and it's wonderfully decorated,

12:14 with this shell guard and these two small yalis,

12:18 which are mythological creatures.

12:21 We'll move on to this piece at the bottom.

12:23 It's not a piece to be used in anger.

12:26 OK.

12:27 It's a status object or a gift.

12:28 It's 18th century, made in Carnatic in the south of India.

12:33 This being the quality it is,

12:34 must have been made as a special commission for a ruler, a maharajah.

12:41 Oh, OK.

12:41 Somebody very important.

12:42 Really a wonderful group.

12:45 And you are unlikely to be able to find anything on the market nowadays.

12:50 So your father was really collecting at the right time.

12:53 Do you know how much he paid for all the objects?

12:56 I think, in total, around £10,000.

12:59 He bought very well.

13:01 In fact, he got his investment back

13:04 right with this piece here– £8,000 to £10,000.

13:07 Wow!

13:08 The punch dagger, the katar at the top here,

13:11 a similar one was sold in a German auction a few years ago,

13:14 Approximately £30,000, £35,000…- Golly!

13:18 ..if memory serves me.

13:20 The one at the front, it's unique.

13:22 A conservative figure would be £30,000 to £40,000.

13:29 Oh!

13:30 Right!

13:31 Total value, we're looking at £70,000 to £80,000…- Wow!

13:38 ..and that's being conservative.

13:39 Great.

13:39 Lovely.

13:39 Thank you very much.

13:41 Is that what you expected?

13:43 A lot more than what I expected.

13:45 Thank you so much for bringing them along.

13:47 Thank you.