Original subtitles

On Salvage Hunters,

sparks fly...Wow!

...and the earth shakes for Drew and Al.

You feel the whole ground moving.

But every relationship has its ups and downs...

The things I do for you, Pritchard. You're making a bit of a meal of it.

Could you actually get a hand in at all or?No cartridge?

...which can lead to unexpected rewards.

Remarkable. I cannot believe my eyes.

Drew Pritchard is one of Britain's leading

antique and decorative salvage dealers.

It's a great looking thing, isn't it? Fab thing.

Joined on the road by Queen of the haggle and quick flip, Viki Knott...

Two seventy-five the lot. Yeah.I'll take them.

...and lover of all things weathered and wonderful, Alister Dryburgh...

Just needs a load of cleaning. You clean it, I'll sell it.

Can we do it the other way round?

Drew is sharing the knowledge.

What are those over there, Drew? They're great little mill carts.

...and expertise... Three-step anglepoise. Rare as hell.

God, it's an education already.

...he's gained over the past three decades.

It'd have to be a really buy me now price, but I don't think it will be.

Five fifty, Drew.

We're going to Sherborne. Not been there before.

I have. It's lovely. Full of dealers. Okay.Really good.

There's a couple I want you to go and see. Spencer Robertson.Okay.

Antique restorer extraordinaire and dealer.

He's got a shop right in the centre of Sherborne.Nice.

Really, really beautiful shop.

And the antique centre Sherborne Antiques Centre.

We've got to pay that a visit, haven't we?Always.Yeah.Always.

You can't, antique centres, you just don't know what you're gonna find.

Today, Drew and Alister are taking a 275-mile drive

southwards into Dorset,

where the unusually high concentration of dealers

means better odds of a lucky strike.

Okay, so just a walk through in Sherborne.

Yeah. It's go see Spencer, then, we're gonna nip down the road

and go to Sherborne Antique Centre as well.Brilliant.

Sherben?Sherborne.Sherborne.

With its famous abbey, founded in the eighth century,

Sherborne's importance in the Dorset landscape

dates back to antiquity.

Prosperity, which began with mediaeval clothmakers, continues today

with both tourists and affluent local homes

catered for by concentration of fine antique shops,

including an elite collection gathered over 35 years in the trade

by dealer Spencer Robertson.

So, I specialise in really high quality,

country house-type furniture.

I'm quite eclectic in my tastes,

from early walnut Chippendale through to Linnell, Regency.

I like a bit of arts and crafts.

And it's quality. Quality always sells.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Drew and Al come round,

maybe buy a few things. He's got great taste. He likes a bit of country house.

So, we'll wait and see. Who knows?

Spencer.Oh, hi, Drew. How're you doing?

Nice to meet you. Al? Morning, Spencer.

It's very you, this, isn't it? Yeah. No. It's lovely.

As I walked through the door, it looks as good on the inside

as it does through those beautiful mullioned windows.

What we have here is absolute classic

pure English country house furnishings all over it.

Lovely. I adore this stuff.

Yeah, there's benches and there's benches, and that one's lovely.

That's in the manner of Tatham and Marsh.

Can I get that out? Yeah, sure.Do you want a hand?

Yeah, if you could take it off as well.

I would pick that, wouldn't I?

I've just seen the price.

Five thousand eight hundred quid.

At least I'm picking right things.

Something I really love and you very rarely see,

which is one of the best forms

of hall bench you're ever gonna buy.

It is achingly beautiful.

I really want it. I really, really want it.

But I can't pay five eight for it.

How much can it be?

I can do it for four and a half, and that's the death.

That's it?That's it.

I'll think about it. Yeah, it's fine.

Shall we wander around?

I love the condition of that hall chair.I was looking at it.

That one, it's lovely.Yeah.

What are you asking for that? Nine eighty.

It's this wonderful shield back mahogany hall chair.

There's hall chairs and that's a good one.

Hmm. You've got two things in here I really love, but I can't,

I can't get near on the money-wise.

Well, the hall chair, six eighty?

It's just, there's no juice left in it. What about four and a half

for the bench and the chair?

Four eight.No.

Four and a half.

Mmm,

I'll think about it.

Okay, that's a no.

Throw him out of price, 4,500 for the two pieces.

I feel very comfortable with paying that for those

but don't feel comfortable with paying even £200 more.

So, we have nowhere left to go. That's that.

Can we've a look at the back? Yeah.Is there more stuff there?

Yeah, there's a few bits in there.

Bank of drawers you might wanna have a look at.

Yeah, yeah, please.Good. Come have a look.Ah, here we go.

Oh, they're nice. They're lovely.

I like the old writing on the drawers.

I love that. I love that.

Yeah, grease nipples. Grease nipples, huh.

So, originally, these would've come from a shop, from a retail outlet.

And, then, they've had another life within a workshop.

Hence all the industrial names, grease nipples, bolts, nuts.

The paint is knackered, but brilliant.

And they're definitely, definitely saleable.

What've you got on that one? Three eighty.

Three hundred and eighty? Hmm.

I don't think I'm gonna knock you on that.

If you don't buy it, I will. I'm gonna buy it.

Thank you.Get on with it before he shakes your hand.

Thank you very much. It's lovely, that. Yeah, it's very me.

Spencer says, well, you know, 380 quid.

I'm thinking, "Al, if you don't buy them, I will."

Because that's a bit of a gift.

We're gonna tour around the town. We'll come back. Can we pick that up later?

Yes.Bank of drawers for him. Brilliant.Thank you.Pleasure.

Right. See you again. Bye-bye. Cheers. Thank you. Thank you very much.

From the edge of town, it's a short walk to the centre

and Sherborne Antiques Market,

a vast emporium stocked by around 40 dealers

with diverse interests and expertise

from fine furniture to artwork and curiosities.

If I'm driving past an antique centre, I'll stop.

My kids, it used to drive them around the bend.

We go on holiday, I'd stop at every antique shop and every antique centre.

You've got to stop because there's thousands of items

and there's dozens and dozens of people out there every day,

refilling the place. So you just can never tell.

You've got to keep looking.

Phil.Hello.How you doing?Hello. Very good. Thank you.

How you doing? Alister. Hello, Alister.Okay, right. Great.

I love an antique centre. This is your place?

It is, yes.So can we have the grand tour, please?

Yes.Where do we begin? Yes. Come down this way.

What a place. So, how many dealers do you have here?

Um, we've got just under 40 at the moment.

It's a vibrant feeling in here. Yeah.

You can go to some places and they feel a bit, a bit dead.

Yeah, well, stock genuinely changes every day, you know.

Good, keeps it fresh. A busy old store.

Matching pair of console tables with decorative marble inlay tops.

As we're wandering up there, we get to the end here, round the corner,

and I cannot believe my eyes.

Who's this? This is our new dealer, Tony.

Right.Um, unfortunately for you, he's on a cruise

in the middle of nowhere at the moment.All right.

And he's told me strictly 10% on all of his stocks. So that's all.

I looked at them and I went, "Nah, it can't be."

And I looked at them again, and I saw at the back of the marble

there's sort of a fan like shape at the back.

And I thought, "Wow, they're dead right."

Can we take some bits off? Definitely. Actually, lift off

the tops and have a proper look, cos then you can see what's what.

We don't know who made them,

but they're sort of nicknamed Bossi work,

which is that infill.

Now, Pietro Bossi was an Italian who, as far as I can remember,

moved to, moved to Ireland

and he would do this wonderful inlaid or pietra dura stone work,

um, most famously in chimney pieces which are worth

tens of thousands of pounds now, if you can find one.

They're beautiful, beautiful things.

This pair of console tables were likely made

by an unknown late nineteenth or early twentieth century artisan.

Highly skilled and seeking to replicate the work

of the eighteenth century master craftsman, Pietro Bossi,

created by mixing plaster of Paris

with pigments to simulate marble inlay,

are typical of Bossi's designs.

Because his work is so prized,

a pair of such high quality replicas is an extraordinary find.

Drew thinks they could be worth up to £3,500.

Eight hundred and fifty the pair.

Can we tip this one upside down, have a look at it.

I know what they are anyway, but, uh...

Yeah?

Never knowing where they might unearth a lost treasure,

Drew and Al have only just walked into a Dorset antiques emporium,

and Drew is finding it hard to believe his eyes.

Matching pair of console tables with decorative marble inlay tops.

Extraordinary simulations of the work

of Italian master Pietro Bossi,

these tables could be worth thousands.

Eight hundred and fifty, the pair.

Can we tip this one upside down, have a look at it.

I know what they are anyway, but, uh...

Yeah?Yeah.

You know week, month made.

It's these finds that I cannot tell you how exciting

when this happens, when you find things like this.

Er, sold.Yeah.Thank you very much. Much appreciated.

Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable.

A pair, a pair, roaming free.

Where have they been? Where have they been?

These once great things were lost. Certainly aren't now.

These will get the due deference that these deserve, now.

I was looking at that paperweight.Yeah.

That's quite interesting.Yeah.

This is a rather beautiful little thing, 150. What will they do?

We'll give him a shout. See if he can do anything. Lovely. Thank you.

There's a large tri stone cameo-type paperweight.

Grand tour, early 19th century. And the quality of it was good.

I was looking at the stone and thinking, that's nice.

Not been over polished. Not been repaired.

And, then, the sort of cameo at the top. Very good.

A hundred and twenty is his best.

Sold. Thank you very much. Fabulous.

It's 120 quid. Well, I think it's worth 240.

So, yeah, we're having that all day long. It's a lovely thing.

Okay, this is good. I think we've seen everything now.

Yeah. Okay, well, we do have a store upstairs.

Um, it's where things go to be restored or abandoned

if you fancy having a look. So, can we see?

Yeah. It's very cold, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

That's all right, I'll manage.

Blimey. Right. Okay. That's quite a lot of storage.

Yeah, there's lots in here.

What are those over there, Drew? You see those glass signs, ladies?

Oh, God, they're good, aren't they? Yeah.

Reverse painted and gilt

and brilliant cut and bevelled. They've got the lot.

The condition is really good. There's hardly a mark on them.

We had to look at them close to see if they were right. They're dead right.

They could be 140.For the pair? For the pair.

Yeah, they're lovely. They're lovely.

Yeah. I was wondering which hand I should shake.

There from the 1920s.

You try finding another pair. Because they're made of glass,

most of them have broken, but these are intact.

It's great. I love it in here.

I don't know, there's something really magical

about rooms like this, you know.

That's nice.What is it? Back of a cart.Is it?

That's fab. What a piece of wall art.Yeah.

There's just this long, dark wooden panel.

It's quite intricate. It's got mouldings.

It's got old wood,

it's got old iron nuts and bolts,

and it's just got that look.

How much is it?

Um... 150.

One thirty?Yeah.Yeah?Yeah. Cool. Thank you. I like that.

What a fantastic thing.

You know, it's a bit macabre, it's a bit gothic-y, it's a bit dark.

Put it in a pub, put it in a restaurant, put it in your own home.

It's gonna look brilliant.

I think we're done. Can we start packing everything away

sort out some paperwork, money, etc.?Yep, absolutely fine.

Obviously, finding the pair of console tables

has made the day, the month, and in some ways, the year.

Sooner or later, if you keep doing something, you'll drop lucky.

Today we did. I mean, what an extraordinary find.

They're the ones you, sort of, dream of.

When you get into this business, you dream of finding extraordinary things

that lost treasure, you know, lost things.

We did it. We did it today. Amazing.

Fantastic day here in Sherborne Antiques Market.

We bought really well.

Definitely worth paying this place a visit.

It's good. Brilliant day.

How was that then?I loved it, mate.

I like Spencer. Nice bloke.Very nice man.

Nice bloke.Yeah. That antique centre was good.

That made up for not getting the hall bench, didn't it?

If I'd got the hall bench and pair of consoles

within an hour of each other, my word, I mean,

people say to me, "Oh, you're so lucky you find amazing things."

But how many shops do we go into before you find...

How many miles? ...something like that?

And then to find those. How many hours?

They've been in there weeks.

That's mad. That is. That is insane.

It's not the first time in recent months

that Drew's discovered lost treasure in an antique centre.

This overmantel mirror, I found in the Newark Antique Centre,

and it was covered in, sort of, gold car paint all over it.

I'd Ruth restore it for me, and she did a beautiful job.

What she managed to find was 95% of the original gilding was underneath,

and that is still the original plate.

Things like that you might find once every few years

if you are very, very lucky and you recognise it.

And at first, I have to be honest, I walked past it twice,

it was only the third time I walked past it and thought,

let's have a proper look at this, I had a split second look

at the back and thought, oh, my word, it's real.

Finding something like this, when you find it, right,

it's nothing to do with money. It's not. It's the joy

in just seeing something that nobody's found before.

Like you found this thing, "look, everybody, look at

"this wonderful thing I've found." And it's that. It never gets boring.

With forgotten gems still out there waiting to be found,

miles need to be covered.

This time, Drew and Al are heading east into Yorkshire,

to visit a site which is itself

a treasure of Britain's industrial past.

We're in Sheffield. We're off to Footprint Tools,

which I believe are the last

drop forge tool makers in the country.

In the country?In the country.

By drop forge does that mean a big hammer or something?

Great big hammer.Really.

So it's gonna be noisy. GBH, yeah. Great big hammer.

Yeah, it's gonna be noisy, but, um, they have been

trading in Sheffield for a long time.

Proper British manufacturing, handmade.Good.

And still...Still going. Still going.

Centuries of the city's great metalworking prowess

are celebrated by the statue of Vulcan, the God of the furnace,

which stands with hammer, anvil and arrows

on top of Sheffield's town hall.

And for almost a hundred years,

a single local family has kept the torch burning at Footprint Tools,

a hand tool manufacturer with an international reputation

now in the hands of fourth generation toolmaker Richard Jewitt.

My great grandfather bought a business in the 1920s,

and then after the Second World War,

him and my grandfather bought Footprint

and we've been running it ever since as a family.

Our site is the last site in the UK

that is dedicated to drop forging hand tools.

We're very proud of that fact.

So the main products that we make are brick bolsters,

which are for cutting bricks.

We also make the Footprint wrench,

which was the product that the company

was founded on in the 1870s.

And then we also make some tools

for decorators and woodworkers as well.

We've invited Drew and Alister along today

to have a look to see if there's any items that they'd like.

We've got lots of old furniture that we don't use any more,

old industrial furniture,

hopefully, they'll find a good home for it.

Hello.Hello.How're you doing? Morning, Drew. Good to see you.

Hi, Richard. Nice to meet you. You all right?

Yeah.Welcome to Footprint. Thank you very much.

You wanna look around?Love to. If you don't mind wearing

some hearing protection, please.

I can hear something going on in the background.

Oh, it will get noisy as we walk around.

Wow!

This is our drop forging hammer.

This is how we make the tools.

Basically, we heat bars of carbon steel up to about 1,200 degrees.

Yeah.The stamper takes it out,

places it over an impression of the tool

that we're making in the die.

The top die travels down and spreads the steel

into the shape of the tool.

You feel the whole ground moving.

Yep, the whole ground moves. And it's sitting on springs as well.

And underneath the springs there's 6 ft of solid,

reinforced concrete as well.

So you need good, strong foundations.

I can't believe how much it's vibrating, the whole thing.

It's a bit like Jurassic Park.

There's a puddle of water where there's dinosaurs walking,

you see all the ripples in the floor.

It feels like it's a hell of a thing.

There was the most like a shudder.

Like a shudder all around you.

It's this incredible drop hammer.

Huge, hot, you know, piece of steel going in,

bang, stamping things out. And it's, it's primal.

You know, it's a very, very basic thing. Fire noise, bang.

So, this is our tool room.

Got a few things, might be of interest to you.

Okay. Brilliant.Some old furniture and what have you.

I've never seen one of those before.

Not that type. Counterweighted.

What's that? A weight there? Counterbalanced, yeah.

Look at that. Beautiful. Cool, isn't it?That's super cool.

It was made in Sheffield as well. That's super.

Soon as we walked through the door, start looking

within a split second, I'm like, "Look at that" and it's a magnifying

desk lamp or a magnifying, to call it correctly,

it's a magnifying task lamp. You'd use this to work under.

That's a great thing. Love it.

It's a great looking thing isn't it? Fab thing, fab thing.

What makes this unusual is lots of different things.

The lens on the top is really nice, big, thick, chunky magnifying lens.

It then has these two very directional lamps going to the side,

so you concentrate the light directly where you're working.

They're in their own little individual canopies,

and bolted to the side, which is charming.

Made by another Sheffield company,

specialised optical instrument maker, Kayfro,

this magnifying task lamp has been engineered for close work.

Similar Kayfro lamps were supplied

to police forensics teams to examine fingerprints.

But this one was probably used

for the precision hand carving of dies to make tools.

Dating from the mid-20th century,

once restored, Drew thinks it could be worth around £550.

I'll give you 150 quid for it.

A tiny bit more?

Um...

In Sheffield, Drew and Al have a hot ticket

to the last of its kind toolmaking forge.

I feel the whole ground moving.

And sparks are flying because Drew's discovered

forgotten in a back room an extraordinary magnifying task lamp

with an unusual level of engineering.

I'll give you 150 quid for it. A tiny bit more?Um...

Have you seen one before? Not that one.No.I really want it.

I'm going to pay over the odds for it, 200 quid.

I'll take it. Done. Thank you.

I'll put it down now.All right. It weighs a ton.

It's a great buy. That's why it pays to come to the factories.

It's totally fresh to the market.

It's exciting, it's interesting, you're gonna want that when it's finished.

I want that for myself when it's finished. It's that good.

Yeah. See, that's a nice colour, isn't it?

Yeah.Isn't it?Yeah, that's great.

Green's always popular.

It's the old traditional factory colour, that green.

Well, it's originally from a company called Stanley, which we bought.

Stanley?Stanley Tools, yeah. When they used to make--

As in the Stanley...Stanley Knives. Stanley Knives.

Big tool brand. So that was retailed?

No, it was originally one of their benches in their factory.Really.

When they closed their Sheffield factory,

um, we bought some kit off them and this came with it.

Thank you very much. That's a great bit of information.

It's nice to know the history, isn't it?Yeah.

That adds a lot. That adds a lot. People will want to say that

came out of Stanley knife factory. Makes it very cool, doesn't it?

But it's also a saleable in its own right.

Great colour. The paint that's on it. It looks good.

So, I think we both want this. Do you wanna go halves on it?

Yeah. Okay.

Just need to do a load of cleaning. You clean it. I'll sell it.

Can we do it the other way round?

Pritchard, Mr Pritchard, his eyes light up.

I didn't think he was interested in that table

but as soon as the name Stanley was mentioned.

"Oh, let's go halves on it, Alister," he said. I thought, "Oh, great."

This steel and chipboard workbench

has earned its perfectly distressed finish the hard way

from a life in the factory of the Stanley Works of New Britain,

which founded in the USA in 1843,

made Sheffield its UK base in 1936.

There its celebrated range of Stanley tools was developed,

including the famous retractable blade knife.

With a backstory that gives it an edge,

the boys think this workbench could be worth around £700.

Do you want to bid him?Yeah. I'll let you make me the offer.

Yeah, £200.Two hundred pounds.

That's not each.I thought that was each.No.Come on.

Yeah, I'm happy with 200.Is that all right?I can do that. Yeah.

Cool.Fine with me. Deal.Thank you. All right.Thank you very much.

Because it's got that good history,

it's gonna do nothing but add value to it.

And that's why we bought it. That's why Mr Pritchard wanted

to go halves on it, which I'm fine with.

Totally fine with as long as he

keeps his side of the story and cleans it.

Antique dealers will very often go in on something together.

Generally, no matter how much work one or the other puts in,

we'd split it down the middle anything left at the end.

We need to get it bought. We just buy it together. It makes perfect sense.

A couple of trolleys behind there? Yeah, there is.

There's some trolleys there we can have a look at.Okay.

Yeah. They're great little mill carts. They're fab.

Yeah. There's three trolleys there. Three mill trolleys.

Drew's bought loads of these over the years.

Loads and loads and loads. I've had a few. They always sell.

Seventy quid each.

Make it 80 and we've got a deal, 80 quid each.

Yeah?Yeah, sure. Thank you. Yeah. Cool.

They're fresh. They haven't been anywhere.

No other dealer's had their hands on them.

And I can buy them at the right price,

and I can make a good turn in these,

just with a little clean.

Today at Footprint Tools in Sheffield has been great.

Two really good buys today

the Stanley factory bench with Al,

and we'll get that sorted between the two of us.

And then that light, that magnifying task light.

Really interesting, Never seen another.

It's just a great thing. And I got to hang around

in a great big, noisy,

you know, fire breathing factory as well. It's been a wonderful day.

Happy?Yeah. Good. I think we did all right there.

Love that lamp.Yeah.

I really, really love that lamp.

You did well, you were on that straight away.

Yeah. But still 200 quid.

By the time it's finished, 300 quid.

Hmm.Well, you know,

but I'm still happy with it.

Yeah.It's lovely.Yeah. Um, and the table with the connection?

Yeah. We need to, um, clean that up. It'll look sharp.

You do need to clean that. That was part of the deal. You're right.

I'm not doing it.

We're busy. I'm busy. I've sold the warehouse.

Not got anywhere to put it. Going to yours.

You can come and clean it down there.

It's turning into a week of outstanding finds, and it's not over yet.

The boys are heading 140 miles southwards

into Gloucestershire, where Drew's heard of

an extraordinary barn stash ripe for picking.

Right. So we're in the Cotswolds? Yes. Fairford.Fairford Barns.

Yes. Fairford Barns. Gunter and Maggie, is it?Yeah.

Restorer. Stroke dealer,

so he's got unrestored stock which is always, to be honest with you,

better for me. I'd rather, whenever possible,

buy stuff that needs doing so we can do it,

you know, the way we wanna do it. Um, but you never know.

He's got four barns full, has he? Apparently so.

Named after an ancient ford across the River Colne,

which by the 12th century was replaced by a bridge,

Fairford has long been one of the Cotswolds

prosperous market towns, an important coaching stop

on the London to Gloucester route.

Today, it's the site of an extraordinary hoard

of antique furniture reaching the rafters of a giant barn,

amassed during a lifetime's dealing by Gunter Dove

with help in later years from wife and fellow enthusiast Maggie.

Well, I collected coins when I was about eight years old,

and I bought my first piece of furniture at the age of 13.

And that's basically when it started,

you know, it took over my life. It's just been a passion.

And, now, it's almost a curse. But I still love it.

There are about four rooms that are actually full of antique furniture.

Some of it is in excellent condition that we've now got for sale,

and some of it is waiting to be restored.

At my age, I haven't got time to do it up, let's put it like that.

So, I need to get rid of most of it, unfortunately, but that is life.

Morning.Morning. Good morning.

Pleased to meet you. Drew.Drew.

Hello. Alister.Pleasure to meet you.Hello. Hiya.

Thanks for having us. So, where are we looking?

We'll start here, I think.Okay.

Right.Okay.I'm afraid it's... Plenty of stock.

Plenty of stock. Yeah. Too much unfortunately.

Gunter is a dealer and restorer.

Everything through from Georgian furniture

all the way through to the Edwardian period.

Probably best we show you, then, you've a look yourself.

Yeah.Yeah. You go and have a sit down.

And if we see something, we'll shout.

It's getting to everything is the trouble.We'll get to it.

God, he's got a load of gear in here.

There's hundreds of pieces in it.

Hundreds of pieces of unrestored furniture.

Got to go through it all. This is the job.

I'm not gonna lie to you. I enjoy it.

What about that country chair? That's nice. That one there.

Do you want to turn it around?

Great looking chair. One chair struck me straight away.

I thought, hello, I'm fairly sure it's Scottish and it's a belter.

There's this thing here.Yes.

Anything you can tell about it? Also, a price.

You tell me what you wanna pay.

Would you sell it for...

...100 quid?

Deep inside a densely packed barn in the Cotswolds,

Drew's unearthed a country chair

with well-crafted walnut arms and tapered square legs.

Would you sell it for...

...100 quid?

Yeah.You would. Fine. I think that's more than fair.

That chair has become worthless in the past, been thrown around.

Now it's quite a desirable thing.

Hundred quid. Thank you very much. We'll have that.

There's that one there. See that one hanging on the back?

That big beast there with the Chippendale back splat.

I believe that's a set of four. Oh. Is it?

And they're all in...Bad nick.

..Bad nick. They're Chippendale style, I think of that period. They are, yeah.

These chairs, unless you set fire to these,

they are in the worst condition you could possibly be in.

But they're worth saving. This is like finding

a really good old, um,

really good old Jaguar in a barn.

Like, if you found, like, a nice old XK150 in a barn

in terrible condition, you'd save it, wouldn't you?

What would it cost?

I'd probably let it go for 300. It's worth having a look at then.

You want me to climb up here, do you?

Well, you're younger than me.

Just hold me then.

Yeah, hold me.Go on.

You don't have to hold me that tight. Or there.

If I had to describe that chair, It's had its day.

You got it?Nope. Yes.

Me? I think I probably would have left it up there,

because if that's the best one

and the other ones are worse, then there's not much hope.

But we've got to keep looking because if they are

as good as Drew says, then, we've definitely gotta find them.

Did you say you'd seen another one, Gunter?

I think I can see three more. Right. We need to get in there now.

This one hasn't even got a back.No?

And it's tangled around. They're bad, aren't they?

Really bad, mate. They're really bad.

They're worse as you go in. All tangled in each other It's a nightmare.

Al. Al?Yes, mate. Al. Hurry up!

Shut up!

Things I do for you, Pritchard.

You've climbed over two tables and a chair.

It's not much. You're making a bit of a meal of it.

Could you actually get a hand in here at all or...?

No, can't reach.

Right.Yeah, happy? Watch that lamp. Oh.

And then we start to get them out, and at first I think we've got four.

Then all of a sudden, bang, there's two more tucked under to the left.

We've got a set of six.

Brilliant. Now we're talking.

One, two,

three, four, five. There's five. Six. There's six.

Is that, is that... It's a reading stand.

Yeah. Is it any good? No. That actually could be for you.

Do you know this piece here, that's tangled up.

Yeah, that's that, isn't it? That'd be that.

It's early 20th century, but still a good thing,

thing you'll get rid of easily. Let's have a look.

I spotted this adjustable bedside draftsman's table,

whatever you want to call them

while we were finding a chair for Drew. It was getting in the way.

It's quite a nice looking thing.

It's got a metal structure painted in black.

The black is all worn, and it's got gold detail on it.

And casters. Two brass casters.

Can you get in here, Drew? Yeah, I'll have to move this lot.

Put your torch on. Yeah, yeah. Ah, look.What?

Oh, that's all the bits.

The bits for that chair we pulled out. Well done.

That's a stroke of luck. Total fluke.

There's a bin liner with all the bits in.

The two back splats and one of the top rails

that are missing are in this bag right in front of me. Brilliant.

A really country tavern table here

with some real nasty old repairs on it.

It's got a nice top, isn't it? I can't see the top. Is it any good?

Let's have a look. Oh, yeah, lovely.

Take it out, have a look. I would.The tavern table,

I've sold a lot of these kind of tables

back into the brewery trade, and it's nice to see them.

It's nice to go back into these pubs

and see them looking like they did years ago.

So, I'd like to have a look at that tavern table.

I think that's great. That writing table?Yeah.

You got your chairs? Yeah. The one upstairs as well.

Should we get out now? Yeah.Right. Okay.

I feel like the great train robber coming out with two bags.

How many have we got? That's the sixth one.

And the bits? Is that the six you remember?

I thought four. So I'd like an adjustment on the price for six.

If that's all right.You want more? Hm-mm. I want more, please.

Really?Yes.I was going to go less because the condition's even worse.

Took an hour to get them out and got them laid out in front of them.

He goes, "I think they're worth a bit more now." I'm thinking, blimey.

Thomas Chippendale was the undisputed greatest

of English cabinetmakers.

Even though in need of major restoration,

these mahogany chairs have graceful carved back splats

which were in the style of the eighteenth century master.

A rare and special find.

As a set of six, once fully restored,

Drew thinks they could be worth around £6,500.

They're really good.They're really good.And they're really, really bad.

I'd like five. I think that'd be fair.

To fix those properly... I know that costs a lot.

Five thousand.Yeah.

All right. Will you do four?Four?

Yeah, they are beautiful.

Yeah. Come on. Yeah.Thank you very much.

We agree on £400. I just have to buy them as cheap as I can.

Because these will cost you, me, five grand to restore.

They will. And I'm talking horsehair squabs with period linen.

Perfect patination, colour matching throughout,

height matching, all the way through,

invisible repairs, oil wax finish.

All of that needs doing on every single chair.

You ain't gonna do it for few hundred.

What about these Gunter? The table?

It's quite crude that, isn't it? It is quite crude.

What do you wanna pay for it?

Fifty quid.Sixty?Go on then.

That's fine. It's a nice, honest early table.

For £60, there's a profit in that.

There's, you know, there is.

Feel like I'm working in an auction. Yeah.

Showing now, sir.You're working for me.Showing here. Sir.

And now it's your turn.

My turn?Yep.Eighty.Eighty?

Seventy.Seventy-five.

Seventy-five. I know what I paid for it. I'm not making much on it.

Yeah. Cool, £75 for the table. That's okay.

There's £100 left in that, there's not a lot of work to do to that.

Just a wipe down and a wax, and it's good to go.

And then I've bought the other one upstairs as well.

Yeah. Brilliant. Bought a load of chairs, got nowhere to sit.

Yeah. Thank you, Gunter.

You can always come down here. You're always welcome.

Yeah. No, thank you for that.

Fairford Barns today. Great fun.

Cold. Dirty. Fun.

I still get a kick out of it.

I bought those chairs and they were a great find.

When they're all finished and beautifully done

and photographed and looking a million dollars,

they hold a promise.

The promise of what they can be, and any barn find always has that magic.

It's been good to have Drew and Al. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

The best thing I thought Drew bought were the chairs.

The six chairs, done up, they'll be lovely.

It's good to get in those barns, isn't it?It's great. It's great.

It's always tricky when you spend money and you don't get

to spin it straight away.

Yeah.You know, but if somebody says to me,

have you got some particularly good 18th century chairs?

I go, yes, I have.

In Dorset, specialist lighting restorer, Jez Speed

has examined the extraordinary task lamp

which Drew unearthed at Footprint Tools in Sheffield.

This particular lamp would've been a really

quite an expensive thing when it was new.

So as far as I'm concerned, quite rare, quite an unusual thing,

made in Sheffield, England, makes me go warm and gooey

when I see that on the outside.

I'm going to cut the old wiring, remove that, discard that,

and then I'm going to strip the entire light

down to every last nut and bolt.

And I can start now to begin to remove the head section,

which is the lens itself.

Yeah. There we go.

So this is the actual magnifying.

You can see this is like at the end of an old telescope,

so this, this will unscrew.

It's just gradually been loved less and less and less over the years.

And it's fabulous. I love it and it needs to live again.

I just need to remove the beautiful

Arrow, made in England, Bakelite switch,

which I'm in love with and I'm desperate to save if I can.

Here we go.

So now begins the laborious task of cleaning everything.

So I've got my grandfather's old copper pot

with an inch of paraffin in the bottom,

just trying to loosen the accumulated grime really.

Liquid paraffin, a component of petroleum

is a powerful solvent for old grease.

But after decades of neglect, further treatment will be needed.

I'm gonna clean it now with a homemade mixture.

So this is a well known car paint work

very gentle, abrasive polish, WD40

and a good slug of ammonia, household ammonia.

I've used it for years and it's a very effective cleaning.

It puts a very nice sheen on the top of all of the parts,

and by the time I've waxed it again afterwards, they'll sparkle.

This kind of finish that I'm going to leave this in

is not to everybody's taste, actually.

It needs to show its, show its battle scars and its age.

Apply a layer of the wax to it, leave it for the solvent to evaporate,

then we'll polish it. And that's it. That will be its finished finish.

After the painstaking cleanup, the next step is to rewire the lamp

to meet modern safety standards

without affecting its sleek 1950s design.

It's not the first time I've spent five hours doing a two-hour job.

I managed to save Drew a really nice old MK white Bakelite plug

perfectly in period in keeping with this lamp

and the last thing to do now is I've got some two watt LED pygmies,

some tiny little LED bulbs for it,

and we are good to go.

We have our illuminated desk light. I really like it.

I like the way it's made. I like its movement.

Yeah. It's cleaned up really nicely, actually.

I think Drew will be very happy. I hope so.

It's a bright ending to what's been an outstanding week of buying.

An interesting and varied week

with a couple of really spectacular finds.

Those extraordinary chairs at Fairford,

which we have shelved for a while

until we've got room with the restorers to get them done properly,

but still a very, very fine set of 18th century chairs once finished.

And, then, that extraordinary find in Sherborne.

The two little demi-luna console tables. Love those.

The lamp I bought at Footprints. Gave it to Jez,

and he has done the most beautiful job on it.

So that lamp is now on my desk because I'm not selling it.

It's far too good. To find things like that now

as I say out in the wild is hard.

It doesn't happen very often,

and it really gives you a little boost

that you'll hang on to for a while.