By Trotter
Shirrif (Moderator)

Christies Auction

24 Dec, 2023 (edited)
2023-12-24 7:43:24 PM UTC

BBC Antiques Roadshow Christmas Special 2023

The episode includes some Tolkien Material.

The end of the year can be a time for gathering families together and reflection. In this festive special, the roadshow looks back on some of the most memorable, intriguing and moving stories to have appeared in recent years to find out: ‘what happened next?’ Uppark House in West Sussex, a glorious Georgian manor, fully decorated for Christmas, provides the seasonal backdrop.

From photo slides of young boys about to be shipped to Canada at the turn of the 20th century to the story of a pioneering female pilot in World War II, the team learn what happened after the cameras stopped rolling.

Fiona Bruce welcomes book expert Fuchsia Voremberg to Uppark to share the story of explorer Violet Cressy-Marcks and to see the menu for a festive dinner held by Scott of the Antarctic before he set off on his doomed journey to the South Pole.

Asian militaria specialist Runjeet Singh shares family stories and artefacts he treasures from the Sikh midwinter festival of Lohri, celebrated throughout northern India and beyond.

The episode also includes an update on one of the most moving stories featured on the roadshow, about a woman abandoned as a baby in Hong Kong who found a new life in England. The few items she has from her childhood include a photo of the air stewardess who held her during the flight – and at Uppark, she meets the family of the stewardess for the very first time.

Finally, the show includes a host of previously unseen items with a festive theme, from toys and gifts perfect for Christmas to some previously unknown lecture notes by JRR Tolkien in the author’s distinctive handwriting. These unique notes reveal what was going through the mind of the author while he penned some of his most best-loved works of fiction, now known throughout the world.

It is available on the BBC iPlayer for viewers in the UK and the Tolkien content is at 32 minutes 30 seconds into the episode.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/ ... ues-roadshow-at-christmas

The estimate was a miserly GBP 4-5000, you could add an extra zero to get a better valuation.

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DMRoberts

25 Dec, 2023
2023-12-25 2:29:49 AM UTC

Looks very much like the vowel charts in the Art of the Manuscript catalogue. A better resolution picture would be awesome, but I'm no linguist in any case.

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Urulókë

25 Dec, 2023
2023-12-25 2:43:21 AM UTC

Here are some additional pictures from the episode.

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Aelfwine

25 Dec, 2023
2023-12-25 3:29:14 AM UTC

The two charts in these last two photos are slightly different versions of a sort of flow-chart of the development of the sound /a/ (as in "father") in various phonetic environments in the West Mercian dialect of Old English, as found (or so Tolkien thought) in the Vespasian Psalter (VPs); specifically, detailing the related phenomena of "breaking" and "retraction" (which you can read more about here).

The other chart, shown in the first photo, is a similar account of the development of /a/ in the West Saxon dialect (which was the "literary standard" dialect of the day).

(Interesting — or "interesting" depending on the reader — related fact: the Elvish language Danian, as attested in The Etymologies, exhibits breaking, and is otherwise generally of an Old English character phonologically).

Carl

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orfewspearl
Home away from home

25 Dec, 2023
2023-12-25 6:15:55 AM UTC

Thanks Carl, you have brought back fond memories of studying Verner’s law and Grimm’s law from many years ago. I am now retired but when I taught I always stressed the importance of using Anglo-Saxon words when writing. It gives one’s writing a certain strength and clarity.

I have not forgotten the vowel charts either. They were a great source of fun and enjoyment. They taught me how to play with language.

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Trotter

14 June (edited)
2024-6-14 8:52:48 PM UTC

This item is to be auctioned at Christies

Lot 104 - Live Auction

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973)
Autograph manuscript, diagrams of Old English phonology, notes for Tolkien's lectures at the University of Oxford, [1942]
4 pages. 240 x 184 mm. Ink and coloured pencil. Provenance: by descent from one of Tolkien's students.

Notes on the phonological history of Old English. These are part of Tolkien’s lectures on the Vespasian Psalter glosses – the earliest Old English translation of parts of the bible dating from the ninth century. The diagrams show the development of the vowel ‘a’ in West Mercian, Kentish, and West-Saxon. Tolkien lectured on the glosses at Oxford, 1932-1945.

Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945. He circulated these notes to his Old and Middle English tutor groups, allowing one student to keep them. Much of Tolkien’s work as an historical philologist involved detailed analysis of the elements concerned in the evolution of words, particularly the relationship between the pronunciation and spelling. Tolkien also wrote several texts of his legendarium in Old English, with Mercian signifying his fictional Rohirric language.

Estimate GBP 7,000 - 10,000
Sold for GBP 11,340

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-j ... olkien-1892-1973-6491857/

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