A GUEST on Antiques Roadshow stubbornly refused to sell up his great-grandmother’s artwork despite its impressive price tag.
Furniture expert Elaine Binning was stunned by the “gorgeous” decoration – which had been given to the guest as a hand-me-down from a relative.
The guest had brought the family heirloom to the Antiques Roadshow at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh for valuation.
But despite expert Elaine explaining it could be worth hundreds of pounds, he made it clear he had no interest in getting rid of the embroidery.
“I’m looking at the gorgeous colours of this sampler, nd I’m imagining it’s not often out in the sunshine like this,” Elaine began.
“Do you know who made it?” she asked, to which the geust replied: “Yes, it was made by my great-grandmother when she was 12, so about 1880.”
“And it looks to be around that late nineteenth century period. And so, was it just handed down to you over the generations?” Elaine continued.
“It was given to us as a wedding present by my grandfather’s sister,” the owner of the family heirloom explained.
“So she’d kept it in her coal shed for some time, but it was well protected obviously. So it’s got family connections.”
“Well, I can’t think of a nicer wedding gift,” Elaine gushed. “It just doesn’t have the look of something that’s ever spent much time in a coal shed.
“And this is made with wool, stitched on a canvas ground, and samplers like this were made by young girls all around the country, just like your great-grandmother.
“They tended to follow the same conventions. So a fruit-filler urn, flower sprays. Most of all, perhaps, this meandering floral border.”
Elaine turned back to the guest to ask: “And is there anything that you’ve noticed about it that you particularly like?”
He pointed to a change in colour in one section of the embroidery: “She must have run out of brown wool here, sort of started back up in red for that little bit.”
“How brilliant,” Elaine said. “So it looks as though it’s got sort of a later extension because she ran out of wool.”
“The other thing is the inscription at the bottom, which doesn’t stand out very well in this light,” he continued, looking lovingly at the work.
“But at home you can read it quite clearly – and it’s in Welsh. It’s a verse from the Bible.”
He read the verse aloud in Welsh before explaining where it came from, to which Elaine continued to gush again: “How brilliant!”
“It translates into ‘be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life’,” he explained. “And then it says ‘amen, remember.'”
They also noted that the guests’ great-grandmother had signed her work, with a small signature showing her name “Janet” at the bottom.
It was then that Elaine went on to value the piece – noting that it would likely sell at auction for “around £200”.
“Well, the value isn’t important to me, it’s part of our family history,” he hit back at the valuation as he dismissed it.
Elaine thanked him for bringing the item in nonetheless as he walked away with the embroidery.
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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