BBC Antiques Roadshow’s Ronnie Archer-Morgan makes urgent demand to guest over neglectful treatment of item
Ronnie Archer-Morgan and his fellow antiques experts head to Cardiff in Sunday’s classic episode of Antiques Roadshow on the BBC to evaluate a wide range of artefacts brought in by their guests.
Accompanied by host Fiona Bruce, the episode – which first aired in 2023 – details how one item of clothing particularly piques the interest of Archer-Morgan.
“I have scoured vintage clothes shops most of my adult life to find myself a wonderful buckskin beaded jacket like this,” the antiques specialist admitted to the owner.
“It’s Ojibwe, isn’t it?” he asked as he spotted its tribal ties to the Canadian group, which the owner confirmed.
Archer-Morgan then couldn’t resist a joke as he quipped the guest must’ve brought it onto the show “just to make me jealous”, prompting the guest to explain: “That and as well as to celebrate my dad’s legacy… it was made for my father.”
Archer-Morgan and the guest then looked at a snap of the owner’s father in which he was wearing the jacket.
“Every chance he got, he wore it,” the owner explained. “He was a Welshman and he just had a sense of adventure after serving in the Second World War so he took himself off to Canada.”
“He lived with the Ojibwe in the 1950s and he lived there ostensibly to teach them English. He didn’t succeed very well but they taught him Ojibwe.”
Archer-Morgan began to examine the jacket further, saying: “They made this for him, did he commission it?”
After learning the jacket was made “out of love”, Archer-Morgan beamed as he then looked at the accompanying bespoke buckskin gauntlets that had been beaded for the owner’s father.
“It’s a great story,” Archer-Morgan reflected before the guest revealed his father was no longer with them to enjoy the valuation.
“He was 92 and he’d lived such a full life,” the guest explained, prompting Archer-Morgan to reply: “He sounds like quite a guy.”
Archer-Morgan continued to fondle the jacket, pointing out the numerous features that piqued his interest.
However, there was one feature that “wasn’t quite right” as Archer-Morgan explained the zip was part of an alteration. “This should’ve had toggles?” Archer-Morgan queried.
The owner shared: “That’s right. Well, Dad didn’t treat this as a museum piece, he just wanted to wear it and obviously in Canada, it’s very, very cold and he thought the zip might keep him warmer than the toggles.
“He did say to me he regretted it after,” the owner continued but it didn’t deter Archer-Morgan from admitting he’d still be interested in buying it.
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However, the antiques expert had a more stern reaction when he discovered the original owner’s son didn’t ever wear it.
“I’d be scared to (wear it) in case I fell over in it or something, or spilled something,” the guest explained but Archer-Morgan wasn’t persuaded.
Instead, the Antiques Roadshow star demanded: “It’s buckskin! It’s tough stuff. These guys lived in these jackets, they went hunting in these jackets… wear it.”
The guest appeared convinced and before long, Archer Morgan rounded off the conversation by delivering a monetary value on the collection of Ojibwe artefacts, putting a £1,000 price tag on the items.