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Edinburgh Live
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
BBC Antiques Roadshow guest gobsmacked by Faberge necklace that survived house fire
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info An Antiques Roadshow guest was stunned with an "oh my goodness" moment upon discovering the true value of a friend's necklac. The beloved BBC programme set its scene at Chatham Historic Dockyard, where expert Geoffrey Munn was taken aback by an exquisite and rare necklace. Munn began: "A beautifully made wooden presentation box, probably of Hollywood, and for me, there are no prizes for guessing what is within. "There are three pretty little enamel blue eggs. Tell me about them with you." The visitor recounted how the necklace came into her friend's possession, having been passed down from her aunt who believed it to be Russian. Munn clarified: "Well I think she probably guessed that they were Russian from the lid satin and it is written in cyrillic but it's clearly eligible to enthusiasts of this subject, that it actually says the name of an important Russian jeweller. "But I'd just like to discuss this in a back to front way and tell you about the eggs which are sky blue enamelled Easter eggs on a necklace. "And they are mounted by tiny, tiny diamond laurels and that's quite important in a way, because in the tradition of jewellery, the colour blue is for love and it's something borrowed, something blue." (Image: BBC) The expert elaborated on the symbolism behind various aspects of the necklace, noting that the petite diamond laurels symbolise the Latin adage "the triumph of love over all". He expounded: "So here are the triumphal laurels surmounting the colour blue but there's another message coming across here, because they are Easter eggs. "This is a gift from somebody at Easter in holy Russia, presenting to someone that they love and it's the triumph of love over everything. "I think it is a triumph, because it's survived in absolutely pristine condition which is wonderful for all kinds of good reasons but let's return to the lid satin once again." Munn then revealed that the piece in question was actually crafted by Faberge, leading the guest to exclaim: "Oh gracious. Oh wonderful." He noted: "And we don't need any explanation beyond that to know that this is by far the most famous goldsmiths workshop that's ever existed, so it's very, very exciting stuff." Munn continued, explaining that the blue "eggs" consisted of a silver core intricately engraved and enamelled in blue. He disclosed: "And there's a great tradition in Russia to give Easter eggs. In the countryside, you'd have painted white chicken's eggs to give and in the cities they might be wooden or perhaps ceramic eggs. "But within the insular world of the Romanov court and those in its circle, nothing but Faberge would suffice. It's an echo of pre-Revolutionary Russia. (Image: BBC) "And in 1917, catastrophe happened, because the Russian Revolution came about and Faberge's empire was destroyed utterly and completely and forever. "And so when we see these things coming through, the excitement mounts enormously and mercifully your friend has taken enormous care of it because it's in almost perfect condition and it's kept in this box which signs it like a picture frame." He went on to disclose the necklace's staggering valuation, sharing: "Your friend has an object which is undoubtedly worth £12,000." The guest's reaction was one of utter astonishment upon hearing the valuation, prompting her to divulge the necklace's deeper sentimental value. "Oh my goodness! Oh she'd be thrilled to pieces," she expressed. "Because quite recently she had a big fire at her house and there was quite a lot of things lost and this is one thing that survived. "Well that's wonderful and maybe it's some small compensation. But how exciting it is to see it here today," Munn responded empathetically. The guest remarked: "It is absolutely wonderful, she'd be thrilled to pieces." The expert then jovially added: "I'm thrilled to pieces! I'm exhausted now, I don't know about you! Wonderful." Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Daily Mirror
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Antiques Roadshow guest gobsmacked at five-figure necklace almost lost in fire
An Antiques Roadshow expert was left stunned by a stunning and unusual necklace that had been recovered from a house fire. An Antiques Roadshow guest's jaw dropped as she exclaimed "oh my goodness" after learning the staggering worth of her friend's necklace, which narrowly escaped destruction in a house blaze. The BBC programme found itself at Chatham Historic Dockyard, where expert Geoffrey Munn was visibly taken aback by the extraordinary and rare piece. A glint of excitement shone from Munn as he observed: "A beautifully made wooden presentation box, probably of Hollywood, and for me, there are no prizes for guessing what is within," before delving deeper into conversation. "There are three pretty little enamel blue eggs. Tell me about them with you." The guest shared how her friend had inherited the necklace, under the impression it was of Russian origin. Munn replied: "Well I think she probably guessed that they were Russian from the lid satin and it is written in cyrillic but it's clearly eligible to enthusiasts of this subject, that it actually says the name of an important Russian jeweller. "But I'd just like to discuss this in a back to front way and tell you about the eggs which are sky blue enamelled Easter eggs on a necklace. "And they are mounted by tiny, tiny diamond laurels and that's quite important in a way, because in the tradition of jewellery, the colour blue is for love and it's something borrowed, something blue." The expert delved into the symbolism of the necklace, explaining that the small diamond laurels symbolised the Latin phrase "the triumph of love over all". He elaborated: "So here are the triumphal laurels surmounting the colour blue but there's another message coming across here, because they are Easter eggs. "This is a gift from somebody at Easter in holy Russia, presenting to someone that they love and it's the triumph of love over everything. "I think it is a triumph, because it's survived in absolutely pristine condition which is wonderful for all kinds of good reasons but let's return to the lid satin once again." Munn then revealed that the jewellery was actually a Faberge piece, prompting the guest to exclaim: "Oh gracious. Oh wonderful." He noted: "And we don't need any explanation beyond that to know that this is by far the most famous goldsmiths workshop that's ever existed, so it's very, very exciting stuff." Munn further explained that the blue "eggs" were crafted from a silver core, engraved and filled with blue enamel. He added: "And there's a great tradition in Russia to give Easter eggs. In the country, you'd have painted white chicken's eggs to give and in the towns they'd be wooden eggs, perhaps ceramic eggs. "But in this curious, claustrophobic world of the Romanov court and its orbit, only Faberge would do. It's a whiff of pre-Revolutionary Russia. "And in 1917, catastrophe struck when the Russian Revolution decimated Faberge's empire, leaving it completely destroyed forever," recounted the antiques expert, highlighting the historical impact on the treasured objects. "And so when we see these things coming through, the excitement mounts enormously and mercifully your friend has taken enormous care of it because it's in almost perfect condition and it's kept in this box which signs it like a picture frame." The specialist then stunned the owner with the valuation: "Your friend has an object which is undoubtedly worth £12,000." Taken aback by the necklace's hefty value, the guest conveyed its sentimental worth after surviving a devastating event: "Oh my goodness! Oh she'd be thrilled to pieces. "Because quite recently she had a big fire at her house and there was quite a lot of things lost and this is one thing that survived." Munn responded with understanding, hinting at some solace: "Well that's wonderful and maybe it's some small compensation. But how exciting it is to see it here today." Overjoyed by the discovery, the woman reiterated: "It is absolutely wonderful, she'd be thrilled to pieces." The exchange concluded with the expert light-heartedly expressing his own exhilaration: "I'm thrilled to pieces! I'm exhausted now, I don't know about you! Wonderful." Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
The Herald Scotland
13-07-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
You're evil if you're not a socialist after reading legendary trilogy
By the third volume it was being accused of Stalinism, though the author never became an official Communist 'as they won't let me in'. He never lived to see the full horrors of Stalinism nor the morphing of socialism into a movement obsessed with lavatories. In his day, wrongs to be righted were clearer, more elemental. The ruling peeps, the economic elite, were transparently bad. All the brainy bods were on the Left, marrying morality to intellect, seeking to tip the balance towards equality, to equilibrium, and not – as now – past it to perpetual disharmony. Today, with a ruling elite more left-wing than the workers, no one knows what socialism means beyond something to do with minority rights and yonder environment. Among the proletariat in the schemes it's about as popular as Viz magazine's Leo Tolstoy action figures. As economic theory, i.e. more then mere cultural complaint, it prevails only among boomers, like the present writer, too embarrassed to revisit the certainties of their youth and still insistent, when drunk, that it could work if it weren't for human nature, bad people, lazy people, greedy people. Ye ken: real life. But here we're talking fiction, as set out in three beautifully lyrical volumes. We're talking about a pivotal work of 20th century Scottish literature, one whose first volume has not unnaturally been dropped as a set text in the school curriculum. Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described it as 'one of the first books that had me utterly captivated by the lyricism of language and the power of place'. Its heroine, Chris Guthrie 'spoke to, and helped me make sense of, the girl I was'. That was back in the day when she knew what a girl was. On 13 February 1901, a boy was born into a farming family at Hillhead of Seggat, Auchterless, Aberdeenshire. From the age of seven, that boy, James Leslie Mitchell – Grassic Gibbon's real name – was raised in Arbuthnott, in the former county of Kincardineshire. Educated at the parish school and at Mackie Academy in Stonehaven, he departed the latter precipitately after arguing with a teacher. h Novel approach Outside school, he upset the Mearns folk with opinions deemed inappropriate to their way of life. He'd stick his head in a book than into the soil. In 1917, aged 16, he ran away to Aberdeen, became a cub reporter on a local paper, and tried to make the city a soviet in solidarity with the Russian Revolution. Moving to Glasgow, he got a job on Farmers Weekly, where presumably he kept his doubts about agricultural work hidden, while the city's slums and Red Clydeside movement only intensified his zeal. This got him sacked – for fiddling expenses to make donations to the British Socialist Party. Attempted suicide followed, so his family took him back in, hoping rural life might steady him. It did not. In 1919, more for food and lodgings than patriotic duty, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps, serving in Iran, India and Egypt before enlisting as a clerk in the Royal Air Force in 1923, leading to more time in the Middle East. In 1925, Mitchell returned to Arbuthnott to marry local girl Rebecca (Ray or Rhea) Middleton. The couple moved to cheap lodgings in London, where the going was tough until they moved to Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, several million miles from the Mearns. Here, James began writing full time, producing 4,000-odd words a day, including journalism and travel literature. His first book, Hanno: or the Future of Exploration, was published in 1928. Drawing heavily on diffusionism – aye – it investigated the origin of cultural traits, contending that the North-East was full of Picts. READ MORE Rab McNeil: Get your Boots on, we're going shopping for unicorn hair gel Rab McNeil: No wonder the whole Scottish nation loves Nicola (no, not that one) Scottish Icons: William McGonagall - The poet who right bad verses wrote still floats some folk's vessel or boat Scottish Icons: There is a lot of tripe talked about haggis – so here's the truth Going ape In 1932, he used the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon, from his maternal grandmother's name Lilias Grassick Gibbon, for the first time, when Sunset Song was published. It was the first, and best, in A Scots Quair, which made Gibbon's name. Written in earthy dialect, Sunset Song begins the story of Chris Guthrie, described by Paul Foot in never popular magazine Socialist Review as 'more remarkable than any female character in Jane Austen, George Eliot or even the Brontes'. Her common sense, good nature and level head steer her through life's enervating tragedies, with a narrative matching her progress to the Mearns farming year. The First World War ruins everything, a way of life, the actual lives of young men, even the soil-securing trees (cut down for the war effort). On top of that, the economy had already been moving from rural agriculture to urban manufacturing, from past to future. Not that the old way of life was perfect, in a community riddled with lust, feuds and gossip. Grassic Gibbon was, to put it mildly, ambivalent about agricultural and rural life. Chris shares that ambivalence, drawn towards education and away from the drudgery and narrow horizons of a farming community. She has first to escape the clutches of her father, an ill-tempered, bullying, pious, hypocritical fellow. Men, eh? She marries one, Ewan Tavendale, but the War sees him off too: shot as a deserter. Sunset Song has a political message, but one shot through with humour: ' … Ellison said he was a Bolshevik, one of those awful creatures, coarse tinks, that made such a spleiter in Russia. They'd shot their King-creature, the Tsar they called him, and they bedded all over the place, folk said, a man would go home and find his wife commandeered any bit night and Lenin and Trotsky lying with her.' Grey outlook A Scots Quair moves from village to town to city. Often seen as Sunset Song's poorer companions, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite contrast the Christian socialism of Robert Colquhoun (Chris's second husband) with the hardline Communism of her son. Chris, a grounded quine, focuses more on the eternal verities, where only the land endures, however much subject to change. 'Change … whose right hand was Death and whose left hand Life might be stayed by none of the dreams of men …' Life's trancience ever haunts her: "Their play was done and they were gone …' Life was cruelly transient for Lewis Grassic Gibbon. On 7 February 1935, he died in Welwyn Garden City after an operation for a perforated gastric ulcer. He was 33-years-old. His ashes were buried in the Mearns.
Wall Street Journal
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
‘The First Russian Revolution': Dream of the Decembrists
On the morning of Dec. 26, 1825, a group of Russian military officers supported by 3,000 soldiers gathered in Senate Square in the heart of St. Petersburg. They had assembled to force the government to accept a list of demands, which included a constitution, civil rights, a constituent assembly and the end of serfdom. As Susanna Rabow-Edling writes in her short yet detailed and nuanced study, 'The First Russian Revolution,' the Decembrists' revolt, as it became known, marked 'the first Russian attempt to overthrow an autocratic regime by a liberal opposition movement with a structured political programme.' The Decembrists, who numbered roughly 200 by the author's count, hailed from the elite of Russian society. Some were aristocrats; all were educated and cosmopolitan, while many were friends and members of the imperial guards regiments. Not only had they studied the ideas of the Enlightenment, many had seen with their own eyes what life was like in the West during the wars against Napoleon. Some of the Decembrists had even taken part in the triumphant entrance into Paris of Russian forces behind Czar Alexander I in March 1814. Their awareness of the gulf in political and legal rights between Russia and the West made inaction impossible. Justifying the rebellion to Alexander's successor, Nicholas I, one Decembrist wrote that Russia remained a benighted state in which both people and property were 'completely deprived of protection,' where there was 'a total absence of law and justice' and the wholesale 'repression of enlightenment and freedom.' For much of his reign, Alexander I had supported attempts to reform Russia's autocratic system, but by 1820 he had become a staunch conservative, determined to squash any criticism of the existing order. Frustrated by the czar's change of heart, and unable to openly discuss politics because of increased censorship, young officers began meeting in Masonic lodges and several new secret societies, such as the Union of Salvation, to debate what needed to be done and how to turn their ideas into reality. As Ms. Rabow-Edling makes clear, the Decembrists were patriots imbued with a profound love for their homeland and a sincere desire to serve the common good. Abolishing serfdom was the first step on the road to creating a new Russia, one in which the people would be citizens, not subjects. For some secret society members, plans for a constitutional monarchy did not go far enough. Pavel Pestel, a chief ideologue of the Decembrists, argued that regicide was necessary to guarantee Russia's path to freedom.
West Australian
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Broadway musical Anastasia is touring to Crown Theatre Perth in March 2026
Broadway musical Anastasia will take audiences on a journey into the past when the Australian production tours to Crown Theatre Perth in March 2026. Presented by John Frost for Crossroads Live and Opera Australia, the lavish musical is inspired by the mysterious tale of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov's rumoured escape in the dawning days of the Russian Revolution, and the 20th Century Fox animated fairytale of the same name. Anastasia premiered on Broadway in March 2017 with Australian musical theatre legend Caroline O'Connor in the role of Countess Lily Malevsky-Malevitch, the season receiving a Tony Award nomination for best costume design in a musical. It went on to win more than 15 major international awards for productions in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. The score includes songs from the 1997 animated film, Journey to the Past and Once Upon a December. The Australian premiere will be at Melbourne's Regent Theatre in December, following brave young woman Anya as she sets out to discover the mystery of her past, travelling from the twilight years of the Imperial rule to the euphoria and exuberance of Paris in the 1920s. Throw in a dashing conman and loveable ex-aristocrat, plus an army officer in pursuit determined to silence Anya, and the musical becomes an epic adventure about finding home, love and family. 'The legend of Anastasia has intrigued the world for many years, and I've been wanting to bring this musical to Australia since it premiered on Broadway in 2017,' producer John Frost said, with casting to be announced in coming months. 'It's a story full of mystery and romance with a magnificent score that I know Australia is going to fall in love with.' Waitlist tickets are available now, with general public tickets on sale July 4. More at
