Antiques Roadshow

The Royal William Yard 2 (38x7)

: 18, 2015

The Antiques Roadshow makes a return visit to the Royal William Yard in Plymouth where treasures include a unique book of garden designs by a renowned landscape gardener, one of the last flasks of naval rum to be produced and a ceremonial wooden spoon awarded for the worst exam results in Cambridge. Jewellery specialist John Benjamin is the bearer of surprising news for a woman who thinks a charity shop bracelet dates from the 1960s and he offers a lesson in Art Deco to a young man who hopes to inherit a diamond and emerald brooch. Maritime curiosities are much in evidence and include a ceremonial hammer and chisel used to launch a ship and one of the last flasks of naval rum to be issued before the rum ration came to an end in 1970. Fergus Gambon is entranced by a set of doll's house furniture made from bonnet wire by destitute children in a charity school in Victorian London while Clive Stewart Lockhart is amused by a giant ceremonial wooden spoon once presented to the recipient of the lowest exam mark at Cambridge University. A rare piece of Republican silver steeped in Irish history stuns Alastair Dickenson while the value of a unique book of early 19th-century garden designs by Humphry Repton reduces its owner to tears.