michael baggott
@baggottsilver
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Antiques pedant, much to the annoyance of others. Also “Spoon Club” (a society not a weapon)
outside the tent
Joined June 2013
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
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As a boy I grew up on the roughest, poorest council estate in Birmingham,
I sat the 11+,
I went to a Grammar School.
It changed the path of my life.
If you criticise Grammar Schools "for being for the rich and not the poor"
I'm sorry,
but you're talking b*****ks.
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There was never such a loyal and loving companion in all the world.
I held him till he slipped away, what little was left of my heart shattering by the second.
Rest in peace forever my ever faithful friend with all my love.
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If the pain of the loss is a great as the love you've been given,
then my pain today is infinite.
Goodbye Mum.
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So 3 years since the BBC axed Flog It. They wanted to make more “ambitious” TV,
like putting celebs in a large centrifuge (Wheel)
or dog grooming (Pooch Perfect)
& in the meantime? Nearly every day they show high rating repeats of...
Flog It.
You couldn’t make it up🙈
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How no one else spotted this at auction I’ll never know, I’m just very glad they didn’t.
#Jade
#NewZealandSilver
#Antiques
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If you’re watching the Downing Street broadcast right now I know what you’re thinking,
I’m thinking it too,
What a fantastic full Armorial Chinese Export porcelain plate, c.1730-50
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A friend just sent me this so I can't take any credit, but it's spot on!
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Yesterday we laid Mum to rest in a beautiful peaceful woodland in the verdant heart of the countryside whilst the Sun shone down.
It was not a hard day.
The hard days will be all the empty ones to follow.
#LoveAndMissYouMum
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Now in its 150th year, we forget that the very first
#AntiquesRoadshow
(circa 1856) was a far less formal affair
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If you want to know how they pair up the dancers on
#Strictly
Small with Small
Tall with Tall
Young with Young
Old with Anton
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Spotted last week described as “Continental c.1880”
I bid furiously and bought it, though I’ve had to wait until this morning to get in my hand to confirm my hopes.
Just about the best Charles II silver patch box you could wish to find, c.1660-80
#Antiques
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Christmas,
it isn’t made by food, presents, tv, drink or parties,
It’s made by sharing all of that with the people you love,
When you’ve lost them, you lose Christmas, I’m afraid you never get it back.
If you still have someone, please don’t waste a single second.
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U.K. govt advise today that you must self isolate if you haven’t got any sense of taste,
so if you own one of these jewel encrusted Rolex’s with a leopard print strap please stay indoors...
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I’ve muted a fair few accounts in the last few weeks over this.
Let’s hope everyone now leaves the Princess of Wales & the family in peace and just wish her a speedy recovery.
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Sadly trawling through old family photos for Mum’s Funeral and then I come across one of me and my sister I can’t ever recall seeing (or being taken).
It’s now a firm favourite.
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REALLY want to do something to help the poorest eat well? Govt buys up all the food industry misshapen fresh U.K. fruit & veg and distributes weekly with free Veg Boxes to the poorest families (FREE!)
And Add in some very simple food card recipes.
Help them don’t tax them
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When you're so deeply in student debt that your loan shark won't let you out of his sight...
not even when you're on
#UniversityChallenge
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A week ago I bought a job lot of old s**t as I thought I could see one rare mark.
Just arrived and indeed most of the lot is heartbreakingly bad, but shining amidst the dross, what I had hoped for, a rare pair of York cast silver sugar tongs c.1776-1784 by Hampston & Prince! 🙂
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#vegetable
shortages? 🤔
Don’t panic! Just substitute locally grown alternatives.
Light salad for lunch?
For the lettuce I substituted bacon
For the tomatoes, fried slices of Black Pudding
For the cucumber, sausages
& for the avocado a fried egg.
Best salad ever👍
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Also if you are poor as hell, living in a shit council flat doing a mindless, thankless job (or can’t even get one) you don’t have a Jamie Oliver’s “store cupboard basics” that cost £200 and you want to treat the kids to a burger, treat the kids to a burger. Life’s hard enough.
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Gloriana, Gloriana, Gloriana.
Thank you from us all and RIP
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Overwhelmed by the kind and supportive messages I've woken up to today (not that I've slept)
There isn't a thankyou big enough for all of you for the kind thoughts and words. 🙏🏻
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Watching
#Strictly
now and I can't shake the feeling that Rupert the Bear may be lying unconscious in a ditch somewhere...
without his trousers
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It’s here!!!!
Absolutely f-ing fantastic
❤️Antiques
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4yrs since the worst day. Despite what anyone else says grief doesn’t “heal” or “lessen” over time,nor is it a “process” (except if having a limb chopped off & then learning to use the stump is a “process”) There’s nothing wrong with you if it never gets better because it doesn’t
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Waking up to soooo many kind words & messages
If anyone ever doubts the value or good of Twitter show them this.
I appreciate today how many good friends I've got & how spectacularly kind they are
You've given me a boost believe me, you've made a difference
Thankyou!❤️👍
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People who tell you grief lessens over time are, I’m sad to say, absolutely wrong.
#MothersDay
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You have a week of bitter auction disappointments (which is sadly not unusual),
then you get a photo from the restorer of that dark grubby eighteenth century walnut lowboy that no one but you wanted to bid for a while ago
and suddenly everything is alright!😀
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An hour or two (you can’t rush these things).
First cleaning off the tarnish, then cleaning off every bit of the old hardened polish, then washing it all off, then rinsing it all off, then drying (thoroughly) and finally lightly going over with a soft dry cloth.
#antiques
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I know Twitter has the odd nutter but just blocked one who said my silver jam spoon, bread fork & butter knife were both “culturally offensive” & “trafficked” out of NZ!!! A JAM SPOON!!!
It’s a flipping tourist souvenir you absolute numpty!!! Of course it was exported!!! 😂🙈
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Just before I die I think I’d like my very last bite to be pure cold butter, very thickly spread, on a fresh flaky Cornish wafer.
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A gentle reminder to all visitors
as wonderfully liberal as the British and their laws are
putting a glass down on an ANTIQUE mahogany table WITHOUT using a coaster is still a Capital Offence
#TrumpVisitUK
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Expert: "Where did you get the ring from?"
Owner: "I bought it in a charity shop for £1"
Every Antiques Dealer watching at home: "Fuuuuuccckkkk Offff!"
#AntiquesRoadshow
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Has anyone got any digital gold scales that you could put something the size of a toilet on?
(Asking for a friend)
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We are living in odd times.
When Antiques, 100's of years old, lovingly handmade by the most skilled craftsmen over days or weeks of their life are valued and desired less than poor quality machine made objects produced on an industrial scale within living memory.
🤔
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Untouched for 100 years or more? (itself a good deal older than that).
Dull, dry and dusty. The whole afternoon will now be spent cleaning, waxing and buffing, then waxing and buffing again, feeding the “biscuit dry” wood until we can get the lustre back.
#Antiques
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To the "activists" last night,
if you are stupid enough to think driving in front of my house yesterday evening with blacked out number plates, smashing my car windows & cowardly speeding off will do anything to discourage me in speaking out to protect Antique Ivory, think again
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If you’re having muesli, fruit & yoghurt or toast for a delicious healthy Sunday breakfast look away now...
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I’ve seen queues of cars waiting to buy Antiques.
I’ve heard rumours of Antiques deliveries not getting through because of a lack of lorry drivers.
The BBC & Papers should repeatedly report that “there is no shortage of Antiques” and “not to panic buy Antiques”
then I can retire
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was touch and go which would go first (me or it)
but made it all the way to the end!
#FlogIt
I shall miss you
& all the WONDERFUL people I've met through you (experts, directors, camera & sound folk)
whatever the BBC puts on instead,
will,
I'm sure,
be utter sh*t
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Before anyone suggests introducing TAXES ON FOOD they have to live on a council estate for a year, on basic benefits, with their screaming hungry kids, only shopping at the corner shop, Lidl & Iceland, carrying it all home on the bus or walking.
Then they’d shut the fuck up.
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Afraid I’ve bad news for everyone.
Just back from the hospital and I have the blood pressure and resting heart rate of a 20 year old athlete.
I’m not giving them back either.
#Invincible
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President Trump calls a press conference to announce that it is indeed fun to stay at the YMCA...
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There’ll come a time when you wished you’d not walked past that pricey bunch of flowers, or not cooked them their favourite meal, bought a present, or just given up the very last chocolate in the box,
there will come a time when you’ll wish you could, but can’t
so do it now
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On Radio 4 now it’s suggested you shouldn’t parboil potatoes prior to roasting them🤔
I was lazy & did exactly that, but just once. They turned out an abomination not worthy of the title “Roast Potato”
ALWAYS parboil them to the point of collapse & ALWAYS roast in Fat NEVER Oil
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Because I really wanted a slice (and you just can’t but it round here) I had to make the whole cake.
(I’ll manage somehow)
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In what I consider a very astute business move I shall be exclusively selling:
torches (burning)
& pitchforks (sharpened)
all day on July 12th
*10% "angry mob" discount*
#trumpvisit
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If you’re having oven chips for tea, I’m sorry,
look away…
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In these increasingly austere times, leftover potatoes, gently fried in a little saved dripping (and then liberally salted), can prove a very agreeable supper
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Homemade fish and chips for tea for two quid?
That’ll do nicely.
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The purchase of a deeper (muffin) tray, rolling the pastry paper thin and generous amounts of custard filling have done the trick.
It’s as close as I’m going to get without all the faff, paying a fortune or travelling to Portugal!
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“Miss Bennet I can see that’s clearly a late Victorian (c.1870) electroplate coffee pot on the table, are you by any chance from the future or did the prop buyer not give a toss?”
#PrideandPrejudice
#AntiquesPedant
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@RevRichardColes
A little ahead of you, I only think about them 99.9% of the day now
For a moment you worry about wether the dogs got enough food
For a moment you laugh and then reprimand yourself for it
Life begins slowly to push its way back in, but the loss never lessens
Sincerest Condolences
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My photo doesn't really do it justice, but it's come up a treat!
(Rosewood, c.1680-1720)
#Antiques
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IT'S ARRIVED!!
"Foreign Metalwares" a Catalogue description that lifts the heart.
Couldn't see the marks but took a leap of faith. The result, a superb Louis XV silver cup with original Ducal Armorial, by Lazare-Antoine Clerin, Paris, 1761, from a job lot! 🙂
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To one and all a Merry Christmas* from Joseph, cross eyed Mary (well you would be), baby Jesus and two quite sinister cows
🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️
*(with the possible exception of any of the bastards who bid against me at Auction this year).
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Vegetarians look away now
An old fashioned (and overlooked) cut of meat from the butcher which needs hours and hours of slow cooking, but is worth it.
Breast of Lamb for dinner, served with the childhood memories it evokes.
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General Election results:
Sad? Cheer yourself up by buying some lovely Antiques
Happy? Celebrate by buying some lovely Antiques
(Politicians will let you down, Antiques never will)
#Antiques
❤️
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If you want to bullshit about antique buckles on TV only do it after I’m dead.
Whilst I draw breath you ain’t going to get away with it.
Not marcasite (“white” pyrite) but industrial cut steel
Not English but French
Not Georgian but very late 19th century
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everyone’s touching, heartfelt & lovingly tearful tweets about the repair shop simply confirms what I’ve always thought.
That I’m a 100% stone hearted piss taking bastard of the absolute worst sort.
If it means so much to you why didn’t you PAY someone to restore it years ago?
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Sunday next, BBCFour are showing episodes from the first series of the Antiques Roadshow! Arthur Negus and all proper antiques, joy unbounded!!
Plus a History of English Furniture,🙂
Now all they have to do is dig out “Arthur Negus Enjoys” & we’ll have the full set.
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I'd quite like to kill off the notion of "Brown Furniture" forever,
so i'm instituting on Twitter the first
#AntiqueFurnitureFriday
This Yew wood (yes, honestly it's Yew) beauty c.1790 just to set the ball rolling.
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5 Reasons for immediate disqualification on
#MasterChefUK
:
🔹ANY Sous Vide cooking
🔹Trimming the tasty fat off a lamb chop
🔹Putting vinegar in the water you poach your egg in
🔹Not using enough butter
🔹Not using Birds custard powder for making a trifle
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Arrived this morning, a Britannia standard silver caddy spoon “The Countryside Fox” made for me by the silversmith Katie Watson.
Predict she’ll be regarded as one of the “greats” in British silversmithing sooner rather than later. The figurative decoration is a delight.
🦊 🌳 🥄
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Rice pudding, proper homemade rice pudding for Tea. I wonder how many people still make it these days? I confess haven’t cooked one for ages yet Mum & Nan would make one at least once a week, at least.
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"I'm afraid we have some very bad news...
your painting IS by one of the most famous Australian Artists...
Rolf Harris"
#fakeorfortune
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Extremely rare Paisley silver buckles (c.1795-1800).
The large shoe buckles found 7/8 years ago
The small knee/breeches buckles found this week
Unbelievably each bears the SAME owner's initials, a 220 year old set reunited.
A chance in a million!
An Antiques miracle!
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Mentioned to a friend I happened to be boiling whole beetroot, letting it cool, then finely slicing prior to pickling in salt, white pepper and malt vinegar. He was appalled, yet I’ve had this all my life (with salad)
Surely widely known? Or did I fall prey to a beetroot cult?
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P.S even though it wasn’t mentioned (rarely ever is these days) the maker of the spoon is Elizabeth Jackson.
Female Goldsmiths maker’s marks were always within a lozenge shaped punch at this period, just as a female bearing of arms would be.
#AntiquesRoadshow
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Every time I lose a follower I like to think it’s because they were so engrossed in reading one of my tweets that they didn’t see the bus coming.
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For
#InternationalWomenDay
#IWD2019
Prepare to have your breath taken by the work of one of the greatest British silversmiths (of all time) Jane Short
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When you spot something in a job lot, keep shtum & just bid without any other info (so it might slip through), hoping it’s right🤔
It was!
Just about the rarest pair of sugar tongs you’ll ever see
I’ll tell you why later, unless some clever clogs already knows😉
#Antiques
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Antiques Tip: If it’s got a handle for holding & a lip for pouring it’s not a vase, it’s a fucking jug.
(There’s low standards & there’s no standards)
But how? HOW, did this even happen?! Dumbfounded.
#AntiquesPedant
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@RevRichardColes
There’s nothing new under the Sun.
The first “egg boilers” in silver were made in silver at the end of the 18th century. The Victorian example below made by Walker & Hall in electroplate c.1890 (in the collections of the V&A).
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Expert “How can you tell it’s not by Chippendale? Well he used only the finest exotic timbers whilst this is made from discarded banana boxes. Also his pieces have fine dovetail joints whereas this was put together by a chimp with a lump hammer & a bag of nails”
#AntiquesRoadshow
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The job lot has arrived! Thankfully that one small shoe buckle was all I hoped it might be.
George II but not set with clear paste but much rarer faceted Topaz (which probably points to Spanish/Portuguese manufacture), c.1740-50
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I'm assuming two things,
a member of the family was:
A. WEALTHY
B. BLIND
#AntiquesRoadshow
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“For the love of God Fiona, go back to the 80’s in it and bring these two back to the future…”
#AntiquesRoadshow
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One of the best things I ever found at auction (a million years ago).
Drove for HOURS to pick it up, but worth every single mile.
Not (as catalogued) made of brass…😉
#StGeorgesDay
#StGeorge
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Expert: "people today forget quite how cumbersome some of the very early smartphone SIM cards were..."
#AntiquesRoadshow
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Not just stamped “15” for the gold carat BUT flanked by the initials WD for the Australian silversmith William Drummond of Melbourne, Victoria.🙈
Not a loose Opal mounted in Belfast but a MUCH RARER, entirely Australian made jewel.
#AntiquesRoadshow
#AntiquesPedant
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