Antiques

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Nick Johnson

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 The easy, fast & fun way to learn how to sing: 30DaySinger.com

PRESENTER: 
Welcome back to this glorious day here in the heart of Derbyshire.
Today we are in the beautiful grounds of Ripley Castle and gardens. It’s so elegant and calming, and it’s the perfect 18th-century setting for our experts to shed light on some treasures brought here by the crowd behind me. 

EXPERT: 
Well, a very good afternoon to you both, and thank you for joining us on this very sunny and pleasantly warm afternoon.   

COUPLE: 
Thank you; good afternoon.

EXPERT: 
What have you brought for me here to have a look at?

COUPLE: 
Well, in my grandfather’s loft we found these musical manuscripts by Elgar.

EXPERT: 
Well, let me have a look first at the musical score. So here we have a very beautifully presented and engraved score, ‘The Dream of Gerontius’, Edward Elgar. Arguably his masterpiece, written in 1900, performed in October of that year. This is a vocal score that was put out in their thousands for the various choral societies around Britain. They’ve lasted well. You can see this is now many, many decades old, and it’s still in good condition. So, let’s talk about your individual copy here. 

COUPLE:
Yes. Sure.

EXPERT:
Do you have any idea what these notes are?

COUPLE: 
I’ve no idea. I’m not very into music myself. 

EXPERT: 
It’s musical notation, and Elgar has written out the judgement theme from ‘The Dream of Gerontius’, the main first theme, underneath which is his signature – Edward Elgar – and he has dated it ‘Hereford 1906’.  Now, were this to be genuine, Elgar’s actual signature with that inscription would be worth a lot of money. How much did you pay for it?

COUPLE: 
Um, I think my grandfather paid between £700 and £750.

EXPERT: 
Well, in today’s prices, we’re really looking at about £1,000 to £1,500, possibly with a musical inscription £2,500 to a collector. To the untrained eye, I open up here, this potentially looks like an extremely rare copy of the work. Let me just flick through for a closer inspection to verify the dates and the copy itself, especially with this particular piece. In Elgar’s lifetime it had two copyright dates. If we look here, just there, it says copyright 1900. That was when the piece was written and copyrighted by Elgar’s publishers. Underneath, however, we have another inscription, copyright 1928 by Edward Elgar. Thus meaning this particular score cannot have been in existence before 1928, and that obviously contradicts his would-be signature here, ‘Hereford 1906’. I’m afraid I have bad news for you today on this score – excuse the pun. Unfortunately, what we have here is a very clever fake. If we flick a few pages on, musical notation is very similar to Elgar’s hand. His signature is very well copied. A few things give it away: his signature is slightly questionable, the Es were predominately larger. They don’t really fit with his ego, which he enjoyed in the Es of both his names. Also, the ink is too dark; it’s a later ink, clearly after 1928. It’s not his early Victorian ink that Elgar used. So, I’m afraid £750, if it was the real McCoy, would be an absolute bargain, but unfortunately, it is only what it is. We are only looking at possibly tops £5. 

COUPLE:
Oh no. That’s disappointing. 

PRESENTER:
But I have some good news on your gramophone….

FADE OUT

 The easy, fast & fun way to learn how to sing: 30DaySinger.com