Friday 27 April 2012

Antiques Roadshow

"Why the Antiques Roadshow?" you may ask. Well, the beads are difficult to categorise. Mostly glass, but some metal, they are not clearly anything. Beading may have been a favourite pastime among Victorian young ladies (although I'd have to check that), but these beads don't make anything....they're neither brooch nor earrings, nor set into a dress or gloves. There is no obvious way into their story.

I've hovered between different opinions. Might the soldier might have made them himself, maybe as part of post-operative therapy? Maybe they're a sampler? But then he'd need to have been exceedingly skilful, and well acquainted with traditional designs and the possibilities of pattern. Maybe he was a fine craftsman in civilian life?

Or were they treasure from home he carried in his pocket, a talisman of love from his sweetheart/wife/mother? If so, how did they survive the battle in which he was wounded and captured and ended up under Isabella's care?

I searched the internet and discovered interesting facts such as that Czechoslovakia had a thriving bead manufacturing industry, but I got no further in uncovering the mystery of Isabella's beads.

I emailed the Victoria and Albert museum, uncertain which department to try. Did they count as glass, or jewellery? Where was the authority who could enlighten me? No luck, nobody knew. A definitive blank.

So it's been at the back of my mind that the Antiques Roadshow, with its panel of experts covering every possible area, might be a way forward.


And it was a wonderful day. An hour's drive from Welsh mountains to English elegance and the immense queue at Cheltenham Town Hall. Innumerable anonymous recyclable bags hid the treasures; there was no possibility of peering at other people's precious possessions. But I've never been in such an enjoyable queue. It took nearly three hours to get to the front and find out which expert to queue for, but, thanks to my lovely friends Tash and Julie from Breaking Barriers, it didn't drag.

And what did the experts say about Isabella's beads? They liked them, thought them delightful and very fine and saw no reason to doubt the story. "But what are they," I asked. "They're a belt," Hilary Kay pronounced, "A lady's belt, and the soldier would have carried it in his pocket as a keepsake."

Tick, I'd thought of that one.

"Could he not have made it as he recuperated?"

"No, soldiers did do crafts after being wounded, but they would never have had the resources to make something like this."

So I had my answer, but then more questions were raised. Another expert kept raving about their Art Deco look, "Just right for all those flappers in the twenties," he stated. "But it was earlier than that," I contradicted him.......but doubts began to seep into my mind.

Maybe they were just a random piece of Isabella's twenties wardrobe? Maybe they never came from a soldier at all? But no, if that was the case why on earth would Isabella have placed them lovingly with her medical instruments? I'll stick with the soldier story.




But how about a few more ponderings? Who was the soldier? If the beads are fairly fine, maybe he was an officer from some wealthy family rather than someone from the ranks. And who was the woman whose memory he valued so highly. And what had Isabella done to render him so grateful that he parted with the beads?

But then again, maybe he didn't part with them during his illness and captivity, but bought them specially for Isabella and sent them over to her after the war, in which case they might be Art Deco after all?

But at least now I know the string of beads is a belt, I can go back to the V&A, and try their costume department this time. How old is this belt? Where was it made? Who would have worn it, on what occasions.......there's a date in my diary for June.

Question: Why does the answer to one question so often lead to another.






3 comments:

  1. Some questions are unanswerable, some are not. Could they have been made or owned by a person from a wealthy person. Would the beads and the thread been expensive things to acquire? Maybe they were inexpensive and bought by someone who just loved the art of making things.

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  2. Remember to ask yourself why she gave the beadwork to you: the eldest child of her daughter and her eldest biological grandchild. In my experience things of sentimental/emotional value pass down this way. She also had hopes (I think I remember) that you would go into medicine.
    My memories of Granny are slight and relate to rather odd things like how much she liked the FFyfes advert "Unzip a banana" and how particular she was about the cooking of porridge.
    Treating a German prisoner of war would not have been outside her remit in WW1 and she would have ben feisty with anyone who tried to deflect her from her own moral certainties about the right course to adopt!

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  3. Hi Sarah, you've triggered the idea for the next post, Katrina

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