Posted on 01/10/2009 10:32:43 AM PST by BGHater
This evening's Antiques Roadshow (from Belfast) had some interesting fortean-tinged items. Unsurprisingly, there were various pieces of Titanic memorabilia but the final segment had the daughter and granddaughter of Frances Griffiths showing the famous Cottingley fairy photographs and a camera given to Griffiths by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Roadshow expert, Paul Atterbury. You can watch the episode in full on the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days.
A few things worth noting from the programme:
Frances only admitted that the photographs (bar one) were fakes after she had discovered her cousin Elsie had spoken out about them (Elsie had come clean to her son about the photographs1).
Frances Griffiths
Frances' daughter said that while her mother never spoke to her family about the episode, the fairy photographs came about after Elsie had been told off - more than once - by her father for "falling in the beck". They took the camera to prove that they had been looking for fairies and that they were never intended to be shown outside of the family or, in her words, "public consumption".
According to the daughter, the last photograph (above) to be taken by Frances is the one that she was adamant had not been faked. This was taken with the camera given to her by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Frances and Elsie had gone out to take more photographs but had moved up to a meadow further away from where the original fakes had been taken. While sitting in the long grass, Frances apparently noticed shapes appearing in the grass - about 3ft away from her - and took a photo while the camera was (fortunately) perched on her knee!
1 In a 1983 interview with the BBC, Elsie Wright explained that the 'fairies' were actually paper cut outs held in place by hat pins - link
Fred Sanford on steroids.
In before the San Francisco jokes!
Wow, that’s a hot one for the ARS. But anyway, I’ve often been mystified that anyone ever fell for this obvious fake.
Madoff, Obama. Different forms of a fake, people still fall for things.
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