The Emotional Stories Behind Australia’s Most Treasured Antiques | Antiques Roadshow

There's no sum of money that would cause our family to part with it. Memories and... Memories and gifts. Here we are at Norman Lindsay House and we have in front of us a picture by Norman Lindsay. Can you tell us something about how you come to have this? This is a painting that was done for my grandmother, Betty Rogowski, and it was done in 1926 for her sixth birthday. And it was probably painted right here at this house. Isn't that incredible? We see a figure so associated with Norman Lindsay through that wonderful book, The Magic Pudding, the figure of the koala, who's holding down a little eucalyptus leaf to the bear standing below, who's saying up, I'm Betty Rogowski's bear. Whose bear are you? Isn't that absolutely charming? Yeah. Tell us something more about the story of what this means in your family. So Betty's father, David, who's my great-grandfather, was friends with Norman. They lived close by on the Great Western Highway in Springwood. And his daughters, Jane and Honey, were friends with Betty and her sister, Olga. And Jane and Honey apparently asked Norman to paint this for her for her birthday. And that's her bear, her actual bear. What we love about Norman Lindsay as a draftsman, remembering that he started working for the Bulletin as an illustrator doing cartoons. And the graphic work, so that's the work in line that he's used here to capture the figure of the bear, the figure of the koala, just with those few deft strokes. You can see some underdrawing if you look really closely, but he's worked up the main lines in pen with very confident strokes. I also like the addition of colour here. So you just have very subtle use of what is perhaps a watercolour to get the brown of the bear. And then just another tone through with the koala and the gum leaves. Now, I think that we could put a value on this work of around $2,500 to $4,500 on this. Oh, wow, that's great. Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece. It's an important part of your family history, but it's also an important part of all of our history. We're here at Norman Lindsay house, and here is a work that references some of his best loved characters. It's actually amazing to be here at Norman Lindsay's house talking about a painting that he painted for my grandmother in 1926. So that's nearly 100 years ago. There's no sum of money that would cause our family to part with it, but still it's a reasonable amount of money. And there it is. Now, this is a gorgeous Victorian horseshoe brooch. What year was this purchased, and what year would you say? 71. 71? Yes. I think it's actually much older. I would probably date this piece to around maybe 1880 to the turn of the century. It's very characteristic of the period. Was this something that you inherited? No, it was a gift, actually, from a fellow I met at Bondi Beach, of all places. Oh, wow. He was an American, and I assumed he was an R&R guy because he was right in the middle of the time. And he said he was, but not from Vietnam. He was from New York. On holiday in Australia by himself for a week. So I thought, oh, I adopted him. You adopted him, and so you had a week of fun and romance together. It was just fabulous, you know? And at the end, we were just having a farewell drink at the Wentworth, and he presented me with this little brooch as a memento for a happy week. Oh, that is beautiful. Oh, it sounds like a very memorable week. And I had this amazing hot pant suit. That was a Carla Zampatti hot pant suit. And I'm sure he was married, you know? That never came up. Was he wearing a wedding ring? No. No, he wasn't married. No, no, no. You can't take those things off. Not for the week. Well, what a beautiful story. And clearly, it's a week that left an incredible impression on you, and it brings a lot of joy. And a lovely memento. Exactly right. Look, it's a very pretty piece. Unfortunately, it's not hallmarked, so we don't know the exact age. We don't know where it was manufactured. We don't know who the jeweller who crafted it was. But I would say it's likely, given the period, made in nine carat or 15 carat gold. You can see the horseshoes are set with these lovely seed pearls, which is very typical of the style and very typical of the period. And of course, the horseshoe itself represents good luck, and it means protection to the wearer, which I think is a lovely meaning, given your story and the time that you had together. I would estimate if you were to go to a retail store and try to replace an object like this, I think you'd be looking in the vicinity of $3,000 to $4,000. Wow. Yeah. So, a very beautiful gift, and what a lovely treasure and memento from your time together. Yes, it was. Memories and... Memories and gifts. Thank you for sharing your story and your beautiful piece with us. We have this incredible silk painting, this great journey we wind our way through, don't we? Yes. This road all the way through. It's a landscape of the mind. What can you tell me about this picture? Well, this painting came to our family in the late 1970s. Normally, these paintings have a brocade border. As the story goes, during the Cultural Revolution, in order to hide away from the Red Guards, because they sought to destroy anything that was traditional and cultural, my grandfather, he cut away, rolled it up and hid it somewhere. So much to say about this picture. The literati style goes all the way back to around 900 BCE. But the artist actually that is mentioned here, Wang Meng, is one of the four great masters of the Yuan Dynasty painting. And so the artist is painting at the end of the Qing Dynasty, so right at the end of the 19th century. The artist is painting in a much earlier style. So this is a tricky one, because as you say, we do have some damage here because it has been cut down. But what we do know is this artist is actually highly collected. There's an example of his painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Wow. So he is a known artist. He's somebody working in late Imperial China. So we value this piece at between $8,000 to $12,000. Wow. How does that make you feel? That's lovely. A little more than you'd expect, eh? Yes, indeed, yeah. Well, what I love about this picture, it really tells such a wonderful story of your history back to China, but bringing us to Australia. That's what we love about Australia. We're a multicultural place, and we each have these family stories that connect us all over the world. And this, for me, is a really wonderful Australian story. Thank you. The painting means a great deal to me and my family and my link to Southern China. I had thought it would be in the range of $4,000 or $5,000. $8,000 to $10,000, or even maybe more, was incredible. But it's part of my family, so it will remain with the family.