Art Forger Tries To Remake Four Masterpieces With Waldemar | Handmade In Bolton | Perspective

foreign [Music] Greenhouse was once a prolific forger from ancient carvings to modern paintings there was nothing he couldn't make behind putting in an old window but a spell in prison convinced him to renounce his past so he's teamed up with Oxford historian Dr Yanina Ramirez oh my gosh to ReDiscover the secrets of the ancients and to try to match their skills [Music] for me I'm valdemarian and my job is to keep tips on the ashmolean museum in Oxford has one of the world's great collections of ancient art it's a museum full of treasures and Janina has brought Sean here to see some of them lettering pieces in here but really beautiful caught my eye here these gold and garnets Birds they're absolutely Exquisite aren't they spectacular aren't they yeah there are some wonderful pieces here bird or Eagle brooches were the most spectacular jewelry of the Dark Ages most spectacular attacker of all were made by the Visigoths one cabinet you can see how popular this imagery of the hook beak bird is you've got a pear there and another pair right next yes very popular yeah and they must have been fashionable this was a sort of similar I think it's kind of combination the old idea of the Roma needle and the Raven on the battlefield in the Dark Ages yeah so popular fashionable and such Exquisite artistic skill absolutely and they're really really fine with me it's incredible to think these things were made with no artificial light no running water supposedly no magnification right I it's going to be a challenge for you isn't it well it is yes it's probably one of the hardest things I've made I've only made one before and very difficult time consuming but so you're anxious about this one a little bit yes I'll get it done though oh gosh this is the one I'm most excited about seeing this is the most work too excellent right looking forward to it okay the next morning in Oxford the union ass sets off to delve deeper into the Visigoths their stories full of twists and turns so there's a lot to keep up with they are a group of people that that's who moved all the way across Western Europe largely during this period known as the migration period as the Empire of Rome was starting to crumble it meant that there were territories where these what the Romans refer to as Barbarian tribes were able to claim land claim power and establish themselves and the Heartland really for the Goths is the Germanic territories but with the decline of the Roman Empire they took advantage of the power vacuum and began to move southwards and then eventually spread down into Spain and that's where they make their real Homeland back in his own homeland of Lancashire Sean Greenhouse has come to the owl and bird of prey sanctuary in turbury woods he's met by John the ranger hi Sean nice to meet you yeah who introduces him to the residence um yeah let me show you around thank you here we have our snowy owl his name's Bruce hello he's been with us for quite some time he's one of the oldest birds that we've gone before right he looks an old guy doesn't he yeah this is uh Edgar our uh Raven for the Edgar Allan Poe poem right right the battle Hawk yeah beautiful yes but the bird Sean really wants to see is Stella the step eagle she's the kind of bird the Visigoths would have hunted with so Sean is Keen to take a good look at her okay Sean so this is Stella yeah hello how old is she now um she's about eight years old and uh these step eagles and their range is from obviously all the stands took many Stan Kazakhstan Afghanistan right to China you can see why the Dark Age people were impressed with them currently yeah because of the Majesty of them the king of birds a physical Eagle the golden guy that wants in the fifth and sixth century and I think these will inspire the the the guys to wear them the Kings yeah the manufacturers of them especially there you go Stella new master or not a master of servants that's more doesn't it we're the servants the birds of the Masters what a magnificent creature wow there's something aren't you oh Estella I'm going to make an eagle brooch after you name it after you as well yeah Stella the eagle brooch yeah this Workshop is in a converted Mill in Bolton and the next morning he gets there bright and early to draw up his plans for his Eagle broach uh that's what I'm hoping to make it's a physical the Eagle Road 6th Century silver Guild with garnets amethysts blue and green glass as the physic office used so the first thing is to make the casting for the actual metal roach the eagle with the pin on the back you can get feelings and casting there then we have to make the actual structure within the cell structure within that has to be soldered together now you can get a failing and soldering if you get the temperature too high parts of it all collapse because it's very very thin it's only half a millimeter thickness the sheets the silver soil that could be a problem and then the last one that can be the greatest problem is the cutting of the stones you'd have to be sliced very thinly and then they have to be cut to exact shape because there's no adhesive used in this it's all just held in by tension one stone prison on another with a design done the next task is to get the stones for it starting with the garnets I used to go to a place called Manchester minerals when I was alive I could buy them online at Stockport but no it's all online I need cabbage on garnets obviously the physical ones have gone online to buy theirs but that's all I've ordered these ten by eights two over 32 if you buy more than two I'm definitely more than two right now we're looking for amethysts amethyst stereo click on that [Music] for the silver Sean's going to do what the Visigoths did and use melted coins [Music] celebrity Chinese the Visigoths preferred row row silver but Sean's gone for American oh he will Yankee dollars 24 pounds it's not a bad price actually foreign ER comes up to Bolton to see how Sean's doing lovely to be at your home the garnets have arrived and she's Keen to see the design my favorite thing bird symbols wow I love this oh is he much bigger than it's actually going to be absolutely yes probably about the size of the tail if that oh the actual thing but I've exploded it so we can see it clearly that's gorgeous what have you got in terms of the different gems then well the garnets have come and see them there they have to be sliced and cut to size so you're going to be working with these tiny little pieces they'll be tiny when we're finished yes then we have to cut them to fit the actual cells this will be silver guilt the board the yellow Apartment Silver guilty these are amethysts used by the visitors they used a lot of amethyst in this in the world and these parts a glass green glass and blue glass probably reuse Roman glass of course that's what they were diffused yes so you're going to get hold of some yes maybe not Roman glass but glass glass in his Workshop the next day Sean starts shaping the precious stones flattening and polishing the garnets and the amethysts sometimes they polish really well but other times you can just get an awkward storm that just doesn't want to play the polished garnets are looking darker than he wanted little impurity in it but they're the only ones he can get foreign I've grown them down to Flats so now I have to polish them on the serum oxide with a leather mop the first thing to do is put this on because with the water splashing is okay but with the cerium oxide it makes a real mess so we'll put this on as a collar to catch the sprays it was an oats this is a serum oxide mixed with water well serum oxide is a mineral used in lapidaries it goes down to about one or two microns so it's very very fine polish standard in the jewelry tray to use it I'm going to spoon some of that on and this is going to fly we'll spread it out a little bit so we don't all get it a bit of it and flick it on now get up to speed this does grab a little bit so it might pull that out I'll give it our best shot [Music] all right and then we have a satin finish let's take off the glue the best way to take off with your teeth you don't scratch the uh surface of the Stone there we have it the finished Stone downstairs at the Mill there's been another delivery the silver dollars have arrived so we'll have a look at those phones using American dollars we because the silver in them is 99 pure and now that the dollars are in he's ready to start his Eagle broach task is to make a bird-shaped body for The Broach in silver but he starts by making a wax model out of humble beeswax find a local beefy that'll always let you have a few pound of bees once [Music] shape done Sean needs to work out how to get the silver into the mold so he constructs an elaborate system of wax pipes Runners for the silver to go in risers for the hot air to go out visigos would have used beeswax just in the same manner variation technique or the Lost wax process with the wax model done Sean builds himself a case for the mold out of strips of Steel from his local hardware shop s when that's done he fills the case with plaster and inserts his wax model [Music] Hill the plaster will bake hard the wax will melt out and he'll have a mold for his visigoth broach well I'm going to melt the silver now according to the furnace and then get them all out and pour the Lost wax casting shouldn't be one at a time [Music] right ready to go oh I think the whole thing's broken up broken to pieces damn it just put the lid down the Steel's gone too what kind of Steel are they using now what am I going to grab that out with just give me a minute it's not it's not completely so the the Steel's all turn to Chromebook can you believe it it's about I need something large to grip it with now oh I'm gonna try to grab it between two of these but that's very risky that's very I can't I can't use that that's very risk of this let's just try it we just wants to get it down onto here try to grab the mold no no it's breaking up oh this is something in the freaking mold though anyway we'll give it a try I'm gonna pour the silver now pull it down I think I think he might have filled them all you know steel that's not a steel this was purchased as half millimeter Steel it's been in a burnout furnace for 12 hours and it's gone way tissue paper steel I used to use just 20 years ago you could reuse the flask 20 times before it was in a bad state so you can see the quality of metal is deteriorated I don't know why this is storming at I won't say but it's not British steel that's for sure despite the shoddy steel Sean has managed to cast something the question is what we'll just have to see anyway there might be a chance that it's actually filled them all [Music] the mold was totally disintegrated actual casting at the moment of truth you can see what we have I think we might have it but I can't see for sure well Sean in Bolton has been sweating over his casting Oxford has been delving even deeper into the busy goths what's interesting about the Visigoths is that they were the only people that managed to build great cities between the collapse of Rome around the 400s and the carolingian empire in the 800s they also absorbed Christianity and as a result of this they start producing beautiful works of art with different types of materials uh pearls sapphires rubies that have a Christian message and they are a very unique development in the history of Art but when we see objects like the eagle broaches they're coming probably from that earlier phase of the busy goth that travels across Europe they're not overtly Christian they seem to be connecting back to a world view where nature and man can slide between one another where a man can turn into an eagle and turn into a God so that is what we're looking at with these Eagle brooches foreign God of Bolton has some good news his silver cast may have left the Kiln looking like a clump of seaweed but with a bit of sprucing up it's come out rather well still needs quite a bit of work polishing on that well have you but it's that's workable I can I can get that finished I've taken all the runners and Rises off we've got the PIN to go in here I'm just putting the herringbone pattern into the back of the uh the brooch now typical of physical thick stuff probably representing feather pattern having cut in the herringbone feathers Sean burnishes the back of the brooch the traditional way by rubbing it with a spoon Standard Process I didn't have sandpaper so they use something hard shiny metal or possibly an agate stone [Music] to look like a busy goth broach Sean needs something to keep it in so he pops upstairs to his pal upender who runs a Bolton clothing store hi open yeah yeah I've got a bit of a job for you yeah this is something I'm making this is actual size but that's enlarged as you can see the details no it's pretty cool set with James no I want kind of a poach for either velvet or what would you recommend that's brilliant that like it leather be nice wouldn't it leather I think we'll sit on yeah yeah okay about that sort of size yeah just a fit it snuggly so sweet yeah so much is up you've had 20 quid that's great yeah two weeks that's great yeah that's fine thank you very much yeah that'd be ideal all right thank you see you later bye back in the workshop it's time to begin the most complicated part of the brooch making and fitting the silver compartments for the garnets and the amethysts I've started with a piece of silver I've beaten it down some already and repeat the process over and over again maybe eight or ten times until we get down to the thin stuff that we can use for the cells when the silver is thin enough Sean cuts and fits the individual cells it's a delicate task that requires maximum precision trying to position the eye you know just all crucial to give the thing the look of life and when all the bits are cut and shaped all right so I'm gonna have to put my magnifiers on for this one Sean breaks open his soldering kit and starts putting the jigsaw together the physical has used a handheld blow alarm to get the flame but it takes constant practice to do well so we just use this and after a lot of fiddling the various bits are all made the other wing I'll get the head in though job done [Music] back upstairs the pouch that Sean ordered should also be ready higher are the poachers ready at all yeah they are actually yeah oh oh great that was great then it's looking good snug fits my first snug fit yeah yeah yeah it won't start to move about that exactly yeah yeah oh that's great Jeremy sales pitch Dania yeah that's great so what where are you yeah sure yeah yeah right then thank you very much right anytime okay thank you thank you see ya bye [Music] now he's got the pouch Sean Can Begin work on the blingy bits of The visigoth Broach right I'm getting on with the gilding now this is electoral gilding rather than the Mercury gilding but it's so toxic I just can't afford my health to do such things anymore so I've used it a couple of times it's very damaging to the health so that's over to the question now so we'll carry on with this let's dip into the solution form a full electrical circuit and the gilding starts to go on gently it's like a magical broad it's like seeing a picture developing and developing tray as it comes up from silver to gold visigos use guilt-self and guilt bronze mostly but they did use silver as well and occasionally for the top piece is solid gold but cost wise we're using silver basic electrol plating caused a great stir when it first came out it is a magical kind of process similar to photography and it's magical quality it just turns base metals into gold to looking and see all the gold obviously normal to the eye it feels the eye just as photography does so get the edge of business where they get worn the most sold an extra thick layer on any sharp edges saw the elastic they don't get worn through all right I've actually done in there now but I've a little bit spilled so we'll use every last struggle I think that's just about done it now we've used everything with The Broach Gil did the next task is to line it with gold foil this is to reflect the light behind the stone you see in all medieval and Dark Age garnet jewelry but getting the gold leaf into the cells is a tricky business with every cell individually fitted right we've done the foils know the actual stone has to be fitted leave my goggles on for this but it's very fine work [Music] you can see that's not quite right I have to get my grinder nose Diamond Bar and take a very fraction off that edge fractions of a millimeter we're talking about I'll get on with that now with the Diamond Bar I said there's no adhesive shoes they're just held in by very close fit [Music] continue it my banana [Music] right that's the guard it fixed so many more to do I'll have to get on with the next one the amethyst next we'll start with that one stone down 49 to go for Sean Greenhouse it's going to be a long summer foreign [Music] I am particularly excited about seeing this busy Gothic Broach that Sean's been making I know there's been some issues particularly sourcing the right kind of garnets because they simply aren't available anymore I know it's going to be bigger than these ones so inevitably a lot more work can't wait to see what he's come up with and how's it been oh I've wanted some issues with it mostly the garnets try to Source the same kind of colors and that's just because there isn't a surprise and I just can't get them anymore well I can't wait I can't wait to see it let's get it out okay there we go oh oh Sean it's amazing I love it oh my goodness that is absolutely beautiful and you've got glass the glass in there the green and the blue is glass yes amethysts and garnets and have you put the foil behind here is that an amethyst in the center it is yeah I just in tough time to make it as I wanted to make it with the garlic salmon so I've had to just put that in just yes because I remember in the original design it was going to be garlic but you know this is so true to the visigothic form because you've got the glass the colored glass and then that mix between the garnets and the amethyst is actually it's a Striking Effects yes I mean I have heard a little bird told me that a big bird is the inspiration for this Stella yes legal from the reserve yes have you named it Stella Stella excellent It's A fitting name perfect name for it I want to have a look at the back as well that's looking good I love the way you've scored it here that's just the partner put a herringbourne pattern on but the interesting thing about it is that if you look at it the pin is offset to one side yeah so when it hangs on the claw the eagle leans in although thick Woolen cloak rather than flat all out that's the right hand one who's had a left-hand one as well and they put the pin on the other side so they're both kind of leaning in yeah that's incredible wonderful thing you know that you've managed to bring in that small sort of detail but that really brings it it's a small voice it looks incredible looks authentic wow and it weighs a lot it's a fur Beast it is a stellar horse wasn't she yeah well I'm so impressed by Stella she's stunning it's also pretty impressive statement of power isn't it when you imagine someone wearing a pair of these serious playing that's what they're waiting for yeah but listen there's always more to be done isn't there should we get on and do the next one okay come on let's go went to college started on to be an artist make a star [Applause] [Music] June Greenhouse was once a prolific forger from ancient carvings to modern paintings there was nothing he couldn't make putting in an old window but a spell in prison convinced him to renounce his past so he's teamed up with Oxford historian Dr Yanina Ramirez oh my gosh to ReDiscover the secrets of the ancients and to try to match their skills for me I'm Val de Mariano's and my job is to keep tabs on it's a sunny morning in London and Dr Yanina Ramirez has brought Sean Greenhouse to the Victoria and Albert Museum it was a milk chimney carved in marble your Nina's specialty is early medieval art and that's something they've got a lot of here aren't they beautiful absolutely yes some of my favorite things are in there some of mine too and this is what I've got what I put you here to see all right the Nottingham alabastas because they're Alabaster and they're from Nottingham absolutely yes but it's rather a surprise isn't it to see such fabulous works of art coming out of England in the late medieval period because they don't really think of it as a cultural hotbed do it going all over Europe and all over the world was there yeah and they are usually depicting very religious scenes yes Church art basically Church art yes yeah Effigies and little figures of Saints have you ever worked with Alabaster before Sean uh yes mainly Coles height Alabaster the stuff used in Egypt and the Middle East how's Alabaster to work with oh it's very easy to work with especially the North Mall of us because it's a gypsum Alabaster was the cold site that the Egyptians used was harder than this but this is uh it can be a problem with the mile in it it can crumble away and you can lose parts of it so that's the only downside of it but it is easy to work just as it's like working water actually oh really similar hardness yeah and the more the the red clay that gives it this sort of veiny appearance yeah it gives its distinctive look and of course these for the gene then maybe you'd have had some gesso on there some some gildings yes yes yes they're quite gaudy they would be paints them in bright colors and gilding and reds and greens and all kinds of colors of the rainbow on them now you could see a range of different scenes here I'm taken with these panels they are sort of the traditional size for an alabaster panel aren't they yes do you think you would be able to make something like that sure well if I can get orders of gyps alabaster I'll give it my best shot and yes I think so pain stopping gilded it so they wouldn't look quite like these a bit brighter colors but would see them as it was originally made okay well I am excited that is your challenge right I want to see this completed right it will do the best shot brilliant let's get on in Oxford Yanina has been investigating the origins of Nottingham Alabaster Nottingham Alabaster becomes one of the defining elements of English medieval Arts really it's at its high points in the 14th and 15th century and there's a good geological reason for it because running in a band up here all the way across the country is a layer of clay known as red Mile and that clay allows for deposits of gypsum underneath which is a form of plaster and alabaster so you see red veins where the clay has gone into the alabaster that made it perfect for depicting figures gives almost like a skin tone quality to it and Nottingham Alabaster was very important in showing us that during this period of Catholic medieval England they were making Fine Arts England was Catholic for a thousand years and yet in the 14th 15th century that's where it really gathers momentum and we can see it in these pieces that are very Catholic in their subject matter they often show scenes from The Life of Christ or Mary or images of saints these were all the sorts of things that were targeted by Henry VIII under the Protestant Reformation these were precisely the things he wanted destroyed which means that very few of these Nottingham alabastas survive here in England that is not the case on the continent however English Alabaster appears in Iceland in Poland in Croatia but most popular it seems in France this shows that just for this glimmer for this century and a half or so England was at the center of an extremely important artistic Revolution thank you 14th century England may have been packed with Nottingham Alabaster but these days it's hard to find so Sean has come to the fold mine in Staffordshire where Jim the manager is taking him deep underground do you ever have any collapses it's a common occurrence no no this this roadway is Thoroughly inspected really interesting this you see anything like it down here is the only place in Britain where Sean can get the right Alabaster but you have to go very deep over here right yep December fantastic so Sean this is the travel route into the mine it takes you to the modern workings right which is some seven or eight kilometers further in but this is the area where gypsum was mined for plaster manufacture and also where we were mine in the blocks of alabaster and how old would these workings be this will be late 19th century they just followed the scenes of gypsum just followed the best way until they worked out yeah they were looking for the best quality and they would abandon it and just move on to try and find the next that's absolutely right terrific there's a simple test for Alabaster alabaster's got these unique Optical properties and it becomes translucent in the light so if you just turn your light off oh yes fantastic here it starts to glow and it's obviously the different shapes and crystals within the rock that made it so attractive the mall that's above and below the seam actually infuses into the seam and that's what gives it these unique sort of pink yeah it's very distinctive Nottingham if you see anywhere in the world you can see that it's the can instantly be picked out it's a beautiful stone so Sean you're looking for a piece I am yet to do a project we've got the technology to cut a piece as we as we did down there we might be able to find a piece from the side of the roadway yeah a rough piece will do it I can cut it to shape here let's have a look here right these are promising not not my light also you can that's the best way you said isn't it yeah just turn your light off Sean oh yes and then if you look at that so if that's big enough that would be ideal genuine Nottingham Alabaster didn't think to get a piece of it but that would be great once it's scrubbed up oh yes I also find piece of alabaster okay this piece is suitable then Sean yeah this is rather too large Jim that'll be ideal thank you very much that'd be great all right we'll take this with us then thank you very much that's a great piece the next day Yanina arrives in Bolton to see the big lump of alabaster that Sean has lugged home hi Sean lovely to be in your home love the weather yeah thanks for having me so it's great yeah got something to show you you take a seat oh my goodness wow that is one Hefty lump of rock what are we looking at this is a piece of the gypsum Alabaster from the mine I was yesterday oh my gosh it's a huge slab it is very very heavy too and it's good to know they've still got sections like this um large enough to make a panel so will demonstrate the translucency possibly yeah yeah even on a like that section in particular yeah that's a finest part of it that's insane yeah that's the mall in it you can see the red on the end they that's what's distinctive about Nottingham alabasters I've cut the end off because I have to cut it into a slab it's a remarkable piece of rock what are you gonna do with it well I've come up with a drawn design to scale something of that nature wonderful so what are we looking at well an enunciation panel you know it's a moment the angel Gabriel comes down to her to tell Mary she's going to give birth to Jesus we have the lilies here Potter's symbolizing periods which was a standard thing then Hail Mary full of grace on the banner and she's raising her hand to acknowledge that she's heard him say what he's telling her while she's reading a book not the bean upper the Bible but most likely she's got yeah she's got serious virtuous reading to do absolutely and so you're going to do this with color with gilding yes it would originally have looked dark colored green background with a daisy pattern red and white oh you see them knowing the museums that's not how they were at all was it yeah so you're going to make it as it was yes as it was new new brilliant gilded could be you look at me trying to get gold into everything I mean this design looks absolutely fantastic and it's gonna look even better when it's colored I can't wait to see it you need to get busy I do you've got work to do I'm going absolutely [Music] with the rock cut into shape Sean staggers to his Workshop in a converted meal in Bolton ready to start carving [Music] ask is to is to transfer his Annunciation drawing onto the stone it's something he pulls off with some cheap and cheerful tracing paper the all-time introduce prick components are like have an assistant to prick all the lines with dots and then a little bag of charcoal in muslin to post it on and leave an image with little dots of charcoal this is just for modern conveniences that have used it I should imagine but that was in all right we're going to the figures now it's a quick quick look right it's all done by actual star of the show [Music] with the drawing transferred Sean grabs his saw and starts cutting the block this is just an ordinary wood sword because the alabaster is probably as hard as a middling hardwood not particularly hard at all and with that done he drill and attacks The Rock just like the most labor intensive path to change really going the reason for changing like this is to weaken the structure and to remove as much of the material as quickly as we possibly can we have two old fill the first one but enough it's only dust I will carry on down to here to drill the holes down and can knock the actual pieces out in between it's like a honeycomb so that makes it so much easier I'm using an electric drill obviously but the old timers would use a ball drill just like a bent piece of all the string in the actual drill bit within the bolts As you move it like a violin I suppose must have taken an age compared to the speed that I can use this all right I've drilled all the holes with the chain Drilling it's just to get rid of the material no well this gives us a chance just to start to remove the honeycomb we'll start to knock the honeycomb out so it just crumbles and if I hit it on a solid area you'd probably go a millimeter in with one blow but with this see we're getting half a centimeter with every blow what's it how many shots of it you can see well we did own an inch so that's halfway down to the uh Baseline that we want to go the next stage will be to carry on with this chain drilling all through the I'll hatch the area all to all this just all to come out so I'll have to get on with the changeling and when you come back it should be on its way to get his eye in with a Nottingham alabaster's Sean has come on a day trip to Haddon Hall in Derbyshire he's arranged to meet Brian the guide who's going to show him round hello Sean hi bro nice to see you yeah nice to be here thank you so welcome to Hatton Hall Sean thank you Brian it's a wonderful place it is this is the picture that everyone wants when they come here no wonder and this building was built in 1370. it's all decide wow Chapel thank you very much oh what a wonderful space we're brought back to Britain by the owners of Haddon Hall the superb alabastas here we're preserved miraculously in a church in Iceland they were purchased by the nightsuke in about 1933 when he got them they were all boxed up we think their original 15th century Nottingham Alabaster which I think is a gypsum okay so it's what you're the period that you're looking at we've got nine scenes in front of us here and we believe that one stays there possibly 11. right right although we don't know where those are the two of them and it's The Passion of Christ the crucifixion Etc they're in fantastic condition compared to enormously these when they were purchased were actually framed in boxes and these ended up in Iceland we think after the Reformation they were squirreled away there for their own protection excellent yeah it's all rare survival apart from the odd nose which is yeah right but it's nothing compared to most most haven't survived at all just in fragments over there you rarely see them in the colors yeah I've noticed the gilding on the brain well do you know we rarely come this close and it's it's amazing I mean if I put my torch on it we can really pick up that yeah you can see it really shiny we really get to see it this Coast peppered through each panel isn't it just pick up the highlights and it is this here this looks like genuine original 15-14 Century Gildan because the blisters within it that's what you get with the uh old gilding okay when they apply it is much thicker than the modern gilding and over the time it starts to blister and come off and it I'm sure enough repeat it again on all than this one has got in the framework around the side stunning when they're absolutely brand new we're absolutely Sparkles yeah with the candlelight great stuff history hit is a streaming platform that is just for history fans with fantastic documentaries covering fascinating figures and moments in history from all over the world we aim to bring you only the most dramatic and fascinating stories of the past through our award-winning documentaries find out about the rise of leaders such as Cleopatra and Napoleon in our latest offering of exclusive documentaries sign up now for a free trial and perspective fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code perspective at checkout foreign [Music] by Haddon Hall Sean has speeded up work on his annunciation since you lost here I've got on with it a little bit you can see the cancellations I've done there and this is as far as I've managed to get about two days work you can see the lilies starting to be formed and then you can see this figure is blocked out I put his wing in there with no feather detail in it at the moment I'll have to take all this out that I've cross hatched by now and then start to carve the figures I've only ever made one other piece in Gypsum Alabaster and that was a Nottingham Alabaster I found the Block in a dry stone wall in Derbyshire because you couldn't just get it from any quarries then we've been very lucky to get this piece from fold Quarry but the other things I worked in is something called calcite Alabaster which is a slightly harder more translucent and it doesn't have all these miles in it so it's like it is a very beautiful storm Egyptians used it it's used in the Middle East today as well the Fine Things [Music] I've taken out most of the background now there's just a small amount left here so we'll have to take that out then I can get the Angel's head and start carving that in their own body [Music] oh damn it these are these are things that happen see it's very very mildly that's what it's gone through you see the Brown Line given way but that's a happy accident because it's come away so as I said that's the ice point the elbow so I would have to take that down anyway so that would have been removed so it's kind of saved me a job slows everything down when you hit them all I've got x-ray vision so you just have to go around the tune you see it's flaking with them all in the worst possible place this damn it I'll check that out so I've got to just a suggestion of the arm and the elbow the face will have to take or very much time with a mile in it so it's a long process in the soil process we don't have to take my time with it that's as far as I've got for now [Music] a week later there's some Grim news from Bolton the mall which made Nottingham Alabaster so special had impacted dramatically on Sean's plans well this is the alabaster panel we'll have a massive disaster with it so let me show you what's left of it just the architectural framework I've had to take all the figures away [Music] the faces just crumbled away it's like carving in brown sugar absolutely impossible and the balance right through which shouldn't have been there's good Alabaster here here here right where the Figures were completely disaster the only thing I can think of I have another piece of alabaster I'll have to have a good look at it and cut some good pieces over to it if I can manage it and the only solution to that is to carve the figure separately put them in on doubles wooden dowels the old timers did that especially with heads when they replaced different figures put new heads on one of his own it's the only solution because I can't get another block of alabaster [Music] as they dance [Music] I've lost [Music] oh he's so full of fractures it's impossible to work with it's absolute shite [Music] so there's a fracture there that could go any moment that's that's what I'm dealing with it's absolutely just tumbling away [Music] it's usually pretty tough stuff you know the I'm gonna do with this I really don't know what to do here's the thing of a solution but I'm I'm just lost for words I don't know what to say after three weeks of deep despair Sean finally works out how to complete his Nottingham Alabaster he's been busy in the studio and is ready to confront us with a big surprise right since the disaster of last time I've had to redesign it and recut the figures in Spanish Alabaster calcite Alabaster other than gypsum is the background is a cold site is easy to carve than gypsum Alabaster it's slightly harder but it costs better it's much finer grain so you can get the finer detail into it so this is the figures as they are on the background now I've recut the Virgin inside profile I think it suited it better I've changed the designer I always change designs in when they never end up looking like the drawing so the angel is almost the same the inscription here but the reason I had to cut the figures is you can see now that they don't the finest of detail in the face is it just couldn't be cutting this it just crumbled away with the nose the mouth very fine facial details so I've recovered those so the last thing to do now is to paint it so we'll get on with that all right I'm going to paint it traditional manner with egg tempera first of all we need an egg obviously these are hen eggs the traditionally used duck eggs crack it hopefully without breaking the yolk I'm not a cup so you'll have to bear with me if I break one or two Yorks let the white run away no try and bust the yolk and run it in there now the political that's going next it has to be left to dissolve over a period about three days so it'll just go frothy so we'll do that we may need more but I just want to check the intensity we'll stir that in I said it's very grainy but it will dissolve over period people forget when they see these things and the paint's almost completely worn away they think that they actually just the storm but they're painted really Godly something like a Fairground attraction I've decided on the color scheme the angel is going to be in yellow and obviously the virgin in blue and a bit of gilding splashed around here and there and the green background with a little Daisy pattern right starts with a dark green first of all you can't hang about with Timber it's got to kind of was it on it so it dries quickly well this is what the traditional use so we're gonna have to to use it it will look shockingly garish when it's painted this green is quite subtle but the rest of the color will be very very bright I suppose the dullness of the everyday lives and they wanted something very bright all right I'll get the daisy pattern and it's always a red dot in the center surrounded by five white dots you see it on all medieval Arts especially on nothing of alabastas the backgrounds are always green with this Daisy pattern on them I don't know why I don't know what the tradition is behind it but that's the way it is so another couple of days painting get on with the figures we'll have it finished last stage a little bit of gilding give it a bit of bling and we're done true to his word a couple of days later Sean arranges to meet Yanina in the medieval Galleries at the VNA she's heard all about his problems but not a word about his Solutions well I do not know what to expect over the past month poor Sean has had so many troubles with this Alabaster all I can do is wait and see sure this is the moment I have been looking forward to this how has it been I've had a few problems with it I heard I think the book of alabaster been shocked so it was fractured and as I was cutting the figures it kind of crumbled away I've got the architectural detail in it uh-huh what the figures of artery cutting Spanish Alabaster you can't tell no it's all been paid this just looks as warm so so I'm excited because it's painted this is going to be yeah very difficult yeah see here oh my goodness I can't wait to read it okay oh my goodness oh my gosh I can't get over it very blingy isn't it not much like incredible Sean it's amazing I can't believe it right the colors the color I mean this is just blown apart my preconceptions of ancient art really because I mean I'm just so impressed by how bright it is but it's almost garish isn't it yeah fairground but the detail good grief look at the detailing here I love how you've carved in the side of the throne when we look at them like this they've lost all the detail they've lost the storytelling absolutely yeah they've lost it yeah yeah because now I mean look at the drama on the Angel's face I've tried to get the shotgun or in the virgin's face yeah because you can imagine being told you're having a child before you had a mum who would be shocking wouldn't it yeah I mean it's pretty dramatic right yeah I'm absolutely overwhelmed and again I think the thing that I always took for granted was that when I see an alabaster it's got that kind of veiny clear um almost sort of translucent flesh yeah none of it would have been seen none of it would have been seen no completely covered over it's just the sort of the basis for for the art that sits on top really it has blown my expectations of medieval art good wide apart yeah thank you well listen you have done it this one's done so on to the next one absolutely let's go [Music] on Greenhouse was once a prolific forger from ancient carvings to modern paintings there was nothing he couldn't make putting in an old window but a spell in prison convinced him to renounce his past so he's teamed up with Oxford historian Dr Yanina Ramirez oh my gosh to ReDiscover the secrets of the Ancients and to try to match their skills for me I'm valdemar Jane and my job is to keep tabs on them has brought Sean to the Wallace collection in London it's a museum filled with famous paintings but that's not what she wants to show him Sean great to be in the Wallace collection fantastic Place well known for its 18th century painting but look at all these glorious Curiosities Ivory Ceramics Ceramics and I mean look at that that's incredible as a piece of ceramic isn't that fantastic isn't it so it's policy French 16th century possibly wait but late yeah if it's not by him it's by someone following after him because he was hugely influential yeah he was he's had a lot of followers yes and a lot of copiers Bernard palisi was a maker of French Renaissance pottery his plates covered in realistic animals vegetation and snakes are some of the most extraordinary ever made it's definitely a life mold a life mold so how would that happen then you have to kill the poor Beast first of all and sit in a clay base and then take a plaster mold of it make some plaster of Paris pour it over it and then take the dead snake out and replace the snake with Clay slip the gruesome isn't it yeah same with the fish I think the fish is alive custom the lizard really and that's why they look so realistic yes but it's like a little study in nature isn't it it leaves individual leaves and I'm taken with that frog up there no yeah wasn't it raising its head up yeah absolute kind of little miniature world isn't it yes how long do you think something like that would take to make uh probably about a week maybe a week so that makes a pretty quick to me yeah once you've got the moles the moles would probably take a week and then the making of the object about a week zone two fight rings in it you could do this in a week yes easily right okay a challenge I want to see one of these in a week right you're wrong okay better get busy yeah [Music] going to make a palisi in a week Sean needs to get cracking so the next day in Bolton he's up at dawn sketching out his first ideas I've been thinking about a design for it and I've come up with this so initially it's a stream running around an island basically and then a broad brim around the edge with the animals and creatures upon it it'll be a grass snake Center Stage a main snake a small grass snake here a few small common frogs dotted about and two European green lizards I'll just draw them in fate with us so I get the proportions right so I don't have to use the rubber on them [Music] dogs when people always get their legs the wrong way around on on reptiles we're at the table now long curving sale I'm going to put a frog in there and be eaten by the snake so I'll put him and put them in here just a small frog lunch for the uh the grass snake possibly foreign [Music] first here so we get a bit of movement around the place that we've got with the lizards and the frogs [Music] I think that's about it [Music] having planned his plate Sean sets off to find out what polices beasties really looked like he's come to a local nature reserve the Rixton clay pits in the hope of spotting some reptiles hi Mike how are you doing okay so I believe you want to see some lizards and newts yes please lead on okay follow me do you have any grass snakes here no actually no we don't it's quite surprising the habitat's perfect when we were kids or loads of them wasn't a lot who seemed to have died away yeah yeah fingers on the reason I'm making a copy of a Bernard policy plate the French guy from the 16th century under the age time was the first and so I want to look at some reptiles grass snakes and stuff because he featured all these kind of things on them he actually killed the actual creatures took plaster molds of the bodies and then cast him and put them on these Ceramics so that's why I'm here to have a look at stuff I believe you've got a lot of newts here haven't you yeah we do good place for news yeah Richard Clay Pizza is one of the top sites in the country for the uh the protected great Crest in you excellent looking forward to seeing them hopefully we can find some for you yeah well you never know what nature do you can't no you don't choreograph it yeah so it's the name of a game now he's just being patient yes there's something swims by we'll walk further up see if we can see anything okay should weigh that support policy didn't have this trouble in his time no I expected yeah the French Countryside would be teaming with it well it would have been full of them yeah back in the 1500s shame you're not doing damselflies yes today yeah they're knocking about aren't they [Music] back in Oxford Dr Yanina Ramirez has been in the library investigating the man who made the animal pots don't know policy was probably born around 1510 and he spent most of his life in and around France particularly around Paris and The Story Goes that when he was a boy he saw a piece of porcelain and this porcelain just fascinated him policy was so obsessed with creating beautiful porcelain that he actually drove his family into poverty there's a story that he broke up the furniture pulled up the floorboards in his house so that he could fire his Kiln and continue his experiments eventually he was recognized for what he'd developed which was a different form of pottery known as palisiware and usually the ones that survive are platters and on the surface are creatures that are made from Life casts it seems well death casts creatures like snakes lizards that he has molded from them and and he was also fascinated by The Sciences he was one of the first people to have realized that fossils were in fact dead creatures from the past he thought they were the result of the biblical flood what's also fascinating is that he was a Huguenot a Protestant in Catholic France and his religious beliefs I think had a profound effect on the artworks that he's left behind because on the one hand as a Protestant he's not creating the sorts of religious iconography that would usually see at this time so he's not making images of the Madonna and the Saints instead he's creating beautiful visualizations of God's creation but there's also something dark and prophetic about the works because there's a sense in which if you imagine these platters Laden with fruit with food as you work your way through all the Glorious delicious flavors at the bottom will be this reminder of the Earthly nature of of our existence and actually it's the darker creatures the snakes the lizards the spiders all those creatures that in arts are traditionally associated with the negative and indeed even the the hellish the devil they remind you that there is another aspect to existence almost like a Memento Mori watch your behavior watch your soul with the countryside in Lancashire supplying so little in the way of real Wildlife Sean has come to the Bolton Museum in the hope of sourcing some Alternatives well this is the place Orton Museum I haven't been here for a while trepidation bit of fear the nerves are jungling a bit so here we go I think he's anxious because an Egyptian statue from his forgery days was acquired by the museum and is now on show as a fake but with those days behind him he pops into the Natural History Section and then into the museum shop where he cleans them out of rubber snakes [Music] the next day Yanina arrives in Bolton to check on Sean's progress the policy in a week how's he doing [Music] yeah yeah nice to see you again yeah back in oh my goodness the Wallace collection this is kind of what I've come up with design ah you've done so well this looks amazing and it's very similar to the one we saw in the Wallace isn't it where yes the snake was on a sort of a rock in the center yeah the island with the water going around there a couple of fish a little Pike yeah because we saw a pike didn't we it was that yeah and you've got the frogs in so seashells is it gonna be this size approximately yes it may not turn exactly like that but something like that okay and it's going to have that same motion as well I love that the idea they're swimming around yeah if you've got the genuine palaces they always have everything going around so it kind of it gives a sense of movement I suppose yeah yeah yeah well this is going to be beautiful very hard to do but beautiful I can't wait to see it what I have to do now is go and find the clay oh okay guys I'm going to demonstrate how policea would have dug his own play because it wasn't commercially available this is just on a tiny scale so you can actually imagine these buckets as brick ponds I'll pick some raw clay for starters I think it's all plant debris and Pebbles and stone so we'll dump that in there I think that's actually enough to be going on with for starters you see just in the bucket I'll get some water without slipping in that's that's the trick of it it's full of plant debris stuff that's falling in over centuries and even millions of years stormed and grit that would just block in the kiln if we use it directly so I'll just get a plate I have to chop up the clay in the bottom of the and turn it into a slurring effect rather than a large lump in water soup clay soup if you like to get my hands in I'm afraid and you can see all the debris and all the bits of detritis the plants you feel all the grit in the stones you squeeze it through your hand there's thousands and thousands on them so you would never be able to separate it without using the water right now virtually turn it all into a fine slurry there's a few pieces in the bottom that they'll be drained away the trick is to agitate it bring all the device from the top and then leave it and let it settle for five minutes the top part will be skimmed with a net a fine mesh net you can see all the plant debris on the surface so that would be taken off more professional than I'm doing at the moment and all the storms in the grip will go to the bottom and then what we want is the stuff in the middle the actual place sorry so and gently we pour the soil off the top making sure we leave all the detracts and the heavy stuff on the bottom of the grits and the stones this will be running through US loose in a brick Palm if you imagine it on a big scale [Music] or the rough stuff in the bottom all the grits in the stone you feel it's full of grit and Stones you can hear it on the bottom of the tin I'll get rid of this I've just been a clean Pond the next Pond I'll only got about five pounds in torque is settling ponzie called them now you leave that for a while to settle so the finer debris will be going to the Bottom now and after this saying oh we're settling you would open the salutes into the next Pond which is like the next bucket gently so we don't disturb the tracks off the bottom we do that five times so if you start it with five tons of clay you'd end up with one ton of good clay at the end of it roughly do five processes right that's a demonstration don't know I have to get on with making enough clay to make the policy plate so it's back to work the next morning back in the workshop Sean is ready to start his plate okay I've got the rubber animals and now we're going to make the molds so we'll start with this one the first process is kind of back to school to make a an engine just to contain the plaster around the actual snakes or we can take them all for it so just bear with me while I get this sorted make sure you press the hold on so we don't get any any leaks at the last minute running around panicking right that's more all I said it's ready for the plaster now okay so I have to mix the plaster it's always a messy process or it's best to use it and you can kind of feel the consistency right we'll have to pour it now because it goes off rather rapidly passed up Paris I've got all the lumps out of it just give it a tap together most of you see the bubbles come to the surface now just getting the air out you see I'll fill the mold now that's a pretty good guess right we'll leave these to set for a while now and flash off and get on with other jobs right see the mold is dry now so we'll strip it first of all take the Clay Away and get at it there's a snake embedded in the plaster we'll have to go and give give that a bit of a Bash foreign the first thing to do is to roll up the clay now we've got to get press it in to get all the scale patterns and the detail so just plunk it into the front end here start to press that's more or less I think with more or less got what we want there right now I've got some cat guts here I'm going to trim this as a trimming wire so I'll put it down onto the plaster hold it as tightly as we can ah now we'll take this off I'm going to see the exact pattern of a snake right no got to get the snake out now watching the body snapping it's all a bit fiddly which flexible enough but stiff enough and the head is always a difficult part usually but we'll see how it goes uh got in there and the flip it over rather there we have him some work to do Under the jawline here there's a little work to do on his head it's not to undercut it here and especially on this side it's a bit deep because his head's going to be propped up until he dries so it looks like he's on the hunt something like that [Music] having made the snake Sean fast forwards through all the other animals on the plate and by the end of the afternoon he's ready to put his palisi together right this is the actual plates for the policy the blankers would call it pre-made this and I've made all the bits of snakes the lizards and what have you gone it's itself [Music] and the rushing stream that surrounds it I've made all kinds of instruments more Opus and Russian dust furniture from the Russian constructivists out of the early 20th century right back to Chinese stuff with the island and the stream finished it's time to bring in the hungry snake and then the unfortunate fish [Music] underneath he's cut out the clay in the shape of the snake a palisi trick that helps with the firing the lizards go on the rim [Music] finally a little gang of frogs is scattered about the riverbank and the pretend palisi is ready for its first firing I just hope it doesn't explode in the Kiln that's all I can do with it now and just just hope close the Kiln lead [Music] turn the safe handling no it's firing [Music] Sean's been at it for a couple of weeks now and with the firing done Yanina comes up to Bolton to check the results hey Sean hi Elena oh my gosh okay well this is it look at this oh you are clever this is beautiful I can't get over the detail look at the snake's face it looks so lifelike you've added another snake in as well just eating a frog as well got a little bit of amusement on it it's oh it's better than I could have imagined it's ready for glazing though so I'll just paint the glazes on back in the Kiln yeah and that'll be it so the glaze will seal them all in as well I think these are the test firings I did ah what I am pleased with is that the large snake scale and the gray white patches on the back of his head and then the resting gray darkens the tail white to the oh yeah that's gonna come up beautifully all the scales look nicer doesn't it well that's it isn't it you can see each individual scale it's absolutely amazing the translucent glazes and the turquoise again it's got depth in it it looks like water the way that the glazes run into The Ridges yes it's got water like quality that's yeah that's quite policy-like as well and it's very roughly hewn as well you see thumb prints and [Music] very rustic yeah that's in his style so I've tried to imitate the style you can listen it's not cracked Rings like a bell fantastic no fractures anywhere within it so it's come out well I'm pleased with it actually I just can't wait to see it [Music] with just the glazing to do Sean is now ready for his final push all right I've put the uh cooling oxides on just a policy Ward I know I've got to seal it with a top coat of clear glaze [Music] it all looks rather slap Dash and rough at the moment but once the Glazer colored and the color develops in the glazes you'll see that as it's meant to be that's what's Difficult about Pottery when you're painting with Pottery you've got a good a better imagination you have with painting because the colors that you see being put onto the actual object and nothing like what they come out as they're absolutely completely transformed or it does take a bigger imagination to be a good Potter than the vehicle painter I think the glaze I'm putting on basically grown glass with other other additives to stop them shrinking and cracking the glaze so this is an alkaline glaze actually policy would have used heavily leaded glazes but they're so toxic that I'm not prepared to use that I have used them in the past with Fakes now because it's very important with the fact that it is what it is that's to be the materials but with this being a demonstration I'm using alkaline glazes which aren't toxic at all they're slightly less glassy and slightly less rich but you can hardly tell the difference [Music] that's the finished plate so we're going to put it into the Kiln but it's glazed on the back so it doesn't stick to the Shelf I've got a prop it on these little stilts this is made out of the same claim fired and just stand on and then they'll be broken off when we get out of the kilnate it's all standard practice so we'll get it into the kilna take the stilts first and put them in place go up policy once I've had a kiln like this he'd have killed for a plate like this I should imagine good kill yeah to work with what he had crucial it is important they're just in the right spot so I'll have to fiddle about a little bit to get these this place I've made is a little bit roamed within policies policies were mainly along oval but I've made this to fit the Kiln and get the biggest size up to the Kiln I can possibly get so it's a little bit rounder than others as well it's all made in the same manner quite secure we don't want it moving in the actual firing it's ready now it's well balanced so it's ready for putting on now should the kiln fire it the next time we see a little bit transformed hopefully we'll get a good firing there we have it a few days later down in London in the Wallis collection the anina is waiting to see what's come out of Sean's Kiln once the fire ring has worked it's magic she knows it'll be different but how different really looking forward to seeing Sean's version of a policy plate now he seemed to think he could do it in a week which I thought was being a little bit ambitious it's a complicated thing to make but just want to see how he's executed those animals how he's come up with the glazes really can't wait you've brought me a policy plate yeah how has this one been to make oh the modeling was God but the glazing had a bit of trouble with it yeah the glazing was always going to be tricky wasn't it to try and get those combinations the modeling is fairly good I'm intrigued about how long it ended up taking you because there was talk of it being knocked up in a week well that would be possible if I'm just making the one item but it took me about three weeks in the end three weeks yeah it's still very good yeah it's the only thing I'm not pleased with is the animals because the fake animals so they're not quite as realistic but we didn't want to kill anything for just for playing no no animals harmed in the making of this okay that's a good slogan yeah here we go can't wait to see it oh wow that is magnificent oh my goodness just things I love the way you've done the water yeah that's more typical of policy than you can see here 's glaze and and how herbs so what sort of processes did you have to do together it's an alkaline glaze was Alice used lead but they're very toxic you can't really use them today yeah I can't get over the realism of the creatures that's snake just eating a frog as you see back next oh yeah I want to see the back as well oh yes so that was to help it with the firing yes it would have been too thick every solid some would have probably cracks along that line anyway so I have to cut that away yeah you see a little firing March oh yes there's no thought Wing so you've got a problem put your hand on them a bit sharp ah but that's what we were looking for in The Originals as well isn't it evidence because they used asbestos probes you just leave a local Dusty surface sorry but in terms of the colors I think you've got I mean that's a great collection and I love this turquoise for the water that's more typical of policy rather than that Copper Blue so yeah yeah it's like a brighter palette all around isn't it absolutely yeah they do vary in the oldest albums very light ones well I think it's it's absolutely gorgeous and it's it's just so lovely to touch the textures are amazing Sean it is absolutely gorgeous I love it but the trouble with this art business there's always more to do absolutely let's get on and do some more back to work [Music] [Music] started hard [Music] Sean Greenhouse was once a prolific forger from ancient carvings to modern paintings there was nothing he couldn't make without putting in an old window but a spell in prison convinced him to renounce his past so he's teamed up with Oxford historian Dr Yanina Ramirez oh my gosh to ReDiscover the secrets of the ancients and to try to match their skills as for me I'm Val de Maria nostruck and my job is to keep the keeps on Janina and Sean have come to London to one of the world's great collections of decorative Arts the Victoria and Albert Museum there's lots to see here and there's David but Yanina has brought Sean to the VNA for a particular reason little space here we're in the Islamic galleries she wants to show him something that will take his breath away I want to show you these Sean oh yeah exactly Fatimid rock crystals so this is about a thousand years old and yet it's intact it is made of rock crystal now just the most difficult medium to work with as I understand if you worked with rock crystal before I have I've worked with it it's not too bad to shake the polishing of the finishing of it is really difficult oh really yes so to bring it to a glass shine is a very little boy's process and what about getting hold of a lump of Crystal well you'd be hard pushed to get a piece that size anywhere in the world today that would be very difficult Crystal's common material but it's always full of fractures almost always and these rare pieces that the Fatima is used they're what they call water Clues which you can see they're water clear absolutely fractured in them at all they look like they're made of glass they do they do a modern glass as well with the clarity of it exactly something that we take for granted now yes absolutely material like that must have been a Wonder to them absolutely so we've got one of the finest pieces here in the you are but how long do you think that would take to make two years maybe with a team of people making and you'll get a lot of failures as well really getting to the finer parts of handling places so you couldn't do that no that that would be I couldn't Source the quartz let alone make it in the time no what about this little one here well that's close to what we could do maybe even a little bit smaller than that one is actually there because I said to get the water clear up Crystal today it's very difficult what would you do once you've got a good Obelisk of of the crystal what's your first thing that you'd have to do is to cut it into shape put on the decoration and then polish it which is forever really polishing to get the glass clear that you see on it there it's labor intensive it's just time and time and time with actual shaping is relatively simple this looks like a really tricky thing this will be a big challenge to make one of these well I don't want to put you to all this polishing but I want to see if you can do the challenge of making me something like that rock crystal Islamic right I'll give it my best shot that's all I can say I'm looking forward to seeing it so am I be able to have a rest when I finished it yeah polishing yeah back in Oxford Dr Yanina Ramirez has been finding out all she can about the fatimids ultimates we're an Islamic Dynasty that ruled for about two centuries from the 10th Century to the 12th century and governed a huge area of the world from over here in Persia through Arabia and Egypt and Northern Africa and in the 10th Century they made Cairo their capital what's interesting about the fatimids is they claim descent from the prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima yet because of the expense of their empire they were very religiously tolerant they encountered people of all different religions across the six bands and instead of just suppressing them or killing them they Incorporated some of their ideas in their art an old Cairo in particular becomes a hub of creativity there are all sorts of workshops for pottery textiles metal working but really the big thing that they're known for is their use of rock crystal now what Crystal has very distinctive properties today we tend to think of clear glass being able to look through a medium like this that's something that we just take for granted but back in the 10th Century rock crystal was pretty much the only mineral that would give you complete translucency and there's a religious aspect to rock crystal too because the Quran states that in Paradise they can drink from rock crystal vessels and it's also a sign of the Purity that you can expect in Paradise after death [Music] for Sean Greenhouse Paradise is the converted Mill in Bolton where he has his Workshop he's been losing sleep on the rock crystal challenge but he's finally decided what to do a Fatimid rock crystal bottle that saw at the V and A so I'm just putting a design in for it now I can't really do anything works like the U.S it would just take too long to do that so these are the kind of things it would have probably perfume in a simple little thing playing geometric decoration and a scroll pattern a Vine scroll pattern around the center I've used rock crystal before I've used it for various things reliques in the main like not the Fatima I've only made one fatty mid small bottle like this I had about three goals at it finally made it and turned into a medieval Relic group or some ragging in a bit of Spoils of the blood of Christ which was Cinnabon Center buying water I had a heck of a time to get the shine onto it I'm hoping that things will go better this time but we'll see putting a bit of a wash in the background just to bring the drawing out from the background going off it's not really necessary but it just get it in your mind's eye of what you actually have to achieve and then that'll be done [Music] with the design done Sean's next task is to find himself some rock crystal after I've scrolled through see what they've got ta mids got theirs in Madagascar sean gets his online oh that looks possible have a look at it how large I don't know I love that a couple of days later the postman delivers his parcel look at this Crystal huh love to see what we have there we are beautiful beautiful crystals almost Flawless most of that will cut out actually I'm really pleased with it [Music] all he has to do now is to come up with a contraption that can Hollow the crystal you can't buy these so you have to design them yourself and make them yourself so I'll start with this one first we actually drill the car out to get the actual Hollow in the vessel [Music] to build his homemade crystal drill Sean's going to need some plywood so he pops upstairs to see his friend Jed the carpenter yeah okay yeah come in okay hello dog how are you doing what I'm looking for is a piece of plywood yep but half an enjoy just some bit less than that what sort of size this size yeah about 8 15 by 10 something like 12 sometimes [Music] what about how about that do you oh yeah that's great that looks ideal all right thank you nothing all right oh cheers man thank you very much yeah it's very generous of you thank you knocking up the drilling Gizmo doesn't take long a bit of sawing a bit of drilling and the plywood Crystal shaper is ready for action there we have it I've made this little jig now and finished it this will hold the crystal in place for core drilling that's like to put a hollowing the crystal told whatever scented oils or perfumes it was used for now I'm using an electric drill and a Diamond core bit now the Ancients the fatimids would have used something familiar down the ages a bold film just made out of a piece of Willow the string we'll take this for the drill bits we'll load the drill bit there we go now we've got we've got it in there you have to start a hole hold it steady it's difficult to get going in the beginning but persevere and we'll get there the problem with someone else pressing down on the actual drill bit to get pressure so as you can see I'm not going to use one of those for drill it so we'll leave that aside and get on with the real thing now this is a Diamond core drill for drilling hard Stone you can see it's Hollow through it's a diamond centered around there the reason it's a hollow for drilling stone is you want to take out as little material as you can so as least resistance so a cylinder will go down much more quickly than a solid drill you're taking less out so you're using less into position very slowly at the first just to make a score mark well Sean in Bolton begins drilling his fragile rock crystal Yanina has come to Sunny Yorkshire to the only crystal mine in Britain hi hi welcome to Roger Lee Lovely she wants to see how crystal is found in its natural form and VTEC the mine manager is happy to show her go to the right of the wagon there yeah yeah so this was the original Flatline yeah yes yes it was just here yeah but it's really sludgy on the foot oh this is Explorer territory I love this so these tracks presumably are to cart out what you're digging at the ends yeah and have you been finding the um the crystals all the way down most of the way down yeah you can see even now as we walk past the wanza sparkling but not all of it rock crystal is it oh it's totally random product though so sometimes you you hit nothing and then you have to keep turning the ground over to find more crystals wow so you're like a little mole yeah you get into the tunnel you get there as fast as possible hit the targets but I suppose the idea that human eyes haven't seen me oh never you're the first one ever to see this God that's amazing is that all crystal then a lot of it is yeah gosh gosh glimmers in the light I mean they're just just beautiful to me they're like natural works of art I absolutely love to see them coming out the ground yeah and it's actually a skillful job to extract these crystals so we employ um Michael Wood who's a professional collector to collect for us oh can Mike get some out for us now yeah Mike can you come in and just pull out a piece for us oh how exciting huh hi Mike you're gonna do which one are you gonna go for oh that one up there oh yes please all right go on I'm looking forward to seeing this um well done Mike you've got a big chunk there but that's fantastic gosh look for me this is Nature's art yes and for you for me it's about turning the money over and continuing with the project all of that money yes [Music] in Yorkshire may be happy but in Bolton Sean isn't I was working on the crystal started to cordial it and I saw a fracture in the side of the storm start to run getting worse and worse I thought it would get away with it but just came away about one quarter done and I've had a few accidents in the past I've not worked a great deal with it but it's very very unpredictable you probably get one out of ten I should think the fatimers will get roughly the same so I'm going to have to get a new Crystal start all over again and have another go on hopefully this time we'll get it out with the crystalline pieces Sean has to start searching again so he opens up his contacts book but a couple of days later the postman brings a new one this Crystal has a bit more color in it than the old one but it should be quite suitable it's it's more look a bit broader so we can get a better core out of it probably without it fracturing so we'll have a go at that one now [Music] has to be dead centered I'm gonna have to put the water in a little Reservoir first of all because The Cordial Burns dry it'll burn the diamonds off of it so I'd also be done underwater all of the time [Music] here we go [Applause] while Sean drills away perilously on the new Crystal denina arrives in Bolton for a Swift visit [Music] [Applause] S I was excited to be in here with you yes yes we're getting on with the crystal now wow oh gosh cordial you're not a string so I can show you oh it's looking two thirds of the way down oh it's a beautiful bit of Crystal isn't it I love being clear pretty flawless one or two Claudia areas but I think we'll cut those out as we'll work on it so wow the bad news is all I brought the first Crystal so this is the second one wow I'll go and get it before I show you oh dear but somewhat inevitable these things are very fragile these things happen yeah yeah I mean I'm sure that the fatimans had their own problems as as we have with it absolutely when did this happen then just when you were starting you can see there's a core no no we're thankfully we haven't got too far so we've not wasted too much time if you look at the depth we have in this one now yeah you're already deeper aren't you much deeper yes it was just a floor in the stone it happened you can see oh I see vertical warm though that's that's a flood and that's a natural floor in this day he's just clothes but these that is definitely a floor you see it's tightly different because it's more gray than white oh my God this would probably have gone anyway so but just goes to show doesn't it that the sourcing of the material is so important yes yes there must have been damages I would imagine one in ten they would get home oh Sean I hope this works okay we need this one to get to the end absolutely yes well I'm gonna let you get on okay okay [Applause] with the drilling taking several eternities at once Sean needs to think ahead so he pops upstairs to see Jed the carpenter hi Jed hi if you're I've got this thing I'm making you'll could help me out this Islamic bottle nice rock crystal right this is the actual dimensions right so I'm looking for a little box would that be possible certainly yeah well sort of like a something like that yeah well that's actual size it's going to be cut off at about here so remember it was seven and a half centimeters all right okay by about three and a half centimeter diameters yeah I've got some uh different veneers you could do like a veneered box really yeah I've got some different materials if you want to have a look through them yeah some that's Bird's Eye Maple that's the bird popular yeah that's a bit of you that's really nice that one we've not got much of it unfortunately I think this popular is beautiful wall isn't it right okay yeah yeah the possible traffic veneer than that yeah sure yeah good enough yeah well I could probably do it for you for next week next week if that's uh oh wow brilliant right I'll bug her off and leave you in peace okay okay so yeah see you later a week later a concerned Yanina is back in Bolton checking up on Sean's progress so Sean how are you getting on with the rock crystal well I've core drilled it you know yeah it's like taking the middle over it I know we've got a profile we've got a shape on the outside in effect to get it first of all into a cylinder just the basic shape of the bottle before we can start decorating so that's what we're working on now so good that you've got the core out it's Hollow now that's where it got a bit scary last time but we were all last time yeah so so I know we've mounted it horizontally so we can spin it against the rotating blade to form a cylinder you can see it's cut to a cylinder there no grief and that's going to happen right the way across yeah what's going on with this blade is it a special type Diamond Diamond Center please it's just a type for cutting tiles in bathroom tiles we modify it I mean this is the thing coming up with this sort of engineering sure you're not just having to think about the art object How It's Made putting all this that's the part I really like about making these things coming up with all the heath Robinson inventions to get them made you're Mr Leonardo and are you confident that this one's going to hold together yes I think so there's a small floor in it you can see that oh yes I can see it a little floor running out of the storm rather than Into the Storm oh yes yes so if it runs it'll run to the surface it'll be cut away fingers crossed yeah fingers crossed absolutely my goodness this is the one that makes me really anxious I have to say me too it's a difficult thing to me okay well I'm scared because I know this is going to be noisy messy and potentially disastrous but I think better carry on we'll get we'll get on with it then it splashes a bit though fire it up oh yeah absolutely no it's just a mist of Wharf so we can get on with that now right you can see the spray but I've got to keep it cool because the blade has to be kept cold so otherwise we're going to fraction the stone and where the diamond off the blade so it's very important to have that water running [Music] after another eternity of Relentless slicing Sean still hasn't finished but he's got somewhere at last carefully right that's the bottle shaped it's been really hard work three full weeks solid all full of anxiety if we're going to get another break in the crystal luckily it's turned out okay so we'll now have to put the scroll pattern in on the band here and the pattern around the Broadband here the rest of it will be polished clear plane so that's just about all I can do on it now the decoration will probably say three weeks probably and another Fortnight to polish to get it to water clear so that's five weeks from now to finish such a tiny thing so I'll have to be getting on with it [Music] all right so we're going to cut the Chevrons first we'll now have to draw the design onto here the vine leaf short [Music] finish the drawing now so we need to go on with the cutting I need the magnifier and the glasses [Music] foreign [Music] hopefully that gives you a bit more yeah absolutely yeah we've got it inside yeah oh that's brilliant right so big question that's a bargain that's great we've got our liquid all spending thank you okay all right okay thank you anyway [Music] job left on the rock crystal bottle but it's the one Shawn dreads with rock crystal everything's difficult but polishing it is the hardest task of all right we've finished the cutting of the design right now I'm getting on with the polishing that is the most difficult part as a lot of sculptures too like Michelangelo's marbles the actual cutting of them was the hard Harbor but the long laborious part was the polishing it just takes forever and that's why these Islamic things are so valuable because of the actual amount of Labor that goes into them that's why they saw uh saw us make a start and stop talking gently push it on and be very careful we'll see if we've got it centered now and also no it's now it's centered [Music] yeah these public people would do this more or less in the exact same way that obviously wouldn't have electricity and sand feeder what the grit seal would use would be quite simple to get the same effects you could probably just use it in a slurry probably with a piece of gold too as a battery you're gonna use it that way so this was a familiar to them if you saw this they would understand what was going on it's probably ending my electric drill off my ambitions started absolutely water clear the few years looking through that window there it will be when it's time there's only the seven thousand do it so that's what we're really for we'll get there eventually speak in a month's time okay but just remember if you ever try this at home wear some goggles a month later back at the VNA Sean has arranged to meet Yanina in the Islamic rooms hey Sean hello in that little box yep is what we're here for I am so excited to see this how much work have you put into this a lot and it hasn't come out quite as we thought oh my goodness it's fantastic I mean just to know that that's made out of a single piece of rock crystal but you've had some questions yeah poor quality but it's nothing I can do about it it's a shame really because this is the thinnest part it would have been the most blingest about the floors in it but it's difficult to get the stuff I don't know where they got this from probably a high altitude Tibet they reckon what really you just can't get it today isn't that incredible so you know the the sourcing of the materials is absolutely essential to how these these artifacts were made absolutely I mean we can't Source them now with the internet how do they get because there wasn't time to polish it so I decided to take it off yeah and do integral and Guild which is known in Fatimid Arts yeah yeah so I've given the actual inscription it's it's alarm yeah in four directions north of these and West oh aren't you clever and a blank panel for contemplation wow which is Islamic isn't it absolutely I I didn't keep a record of hours so many of them just kept going I didn't want to know yeah I just kept going yeah yeah and you had to obviously work with a higher grade and then come down to yeah yeah start with 180 grits 180 240. okay 400 600 800 000 1200 2000 2500. three thousand four thousand five and seven thousand and each one will take probably three days good you're just kind of removing one set of structures with another and another 500 fine and fine I I can't believe what you've achieved in the time I think it's absolutely stunning and I mean this is the one that I thought was gonna crack gonna break gonna go well it did it did it did at the first attempt and that was a better piece of Crystal actually yeah it's the way it goes well the problem with this business is there's always another problem around the corner isn't there absolutely we better get on an address the next one [Music] seemed to notice me [Music] hey [Music]

Channel: Perspective

Views: 91,317

Keywords: Dr Janina Ramirez, Perspective Arts, Shaun Greenhalgh, Waldemar Januszczak, art authenticity, art collaboration, art conservation, art copying, art copying techniques, art forgers' techniques, art replicas, art replication process, art underworld, art world, artistic collaborations, expert art replicas, historical forgeries, masterpieces restoration, original artwork copies, reproduction of art

Id: _SWghJWZz0g

Length: 116min 52sec (7012 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023