Episode 1 The Quizeum

A lifetime's accumulation of beautiful artefacts

from all over the world and from every era made by one man.

This is the Burrell Collection.

And today it's host to The Quizeum.

You join us here in the magnificent courtyard

of the Burrell Collection in Glasgow.

Sir William Burrell started collecting in his teens

and it's been calculated that, on average,

he acquired two new objects every week.

That means 9,000 objects, and I'll be asking questions about them

over the next four rounds. And it's time to meet our teams.

On my right, a regular and very welcome visitor to the Quizeum,

historian Professor Kate Williams.

Making up a formidable team is another regular on the series,

art historian Dr Janina Ramirez.

Leading out the opposition is another Quizeum regular -

master of all things Chinese, the great Dane, Lars Tharp.

Joining him, a newcomer to us, but I'm sure not to anyone else,

novelist, producer, presenter,

chair of the governors at the Glasgow School of Art

and a Scottish national treasure herself, Muriel Gray.

Muriel, this museum is practically a spare room for you, isn't it?

Oh, yeah, we're never out of here, really - I mean, we camp.

But it's an astonishing collection.

I can't give any points for this,

but how much of this collection is on display here?

There's lots still not on display.

Only a quarter is on display and the rest is in storage.

But they've created cabinets that can be reused for other artefacts.

Well, we must get on with the quiz and have a look at what we have.

In round one, we start with a question open to both teams.

If you can answer it, it gets you a crack

at a specialist question just for you.

And if you can't answer it, it goes across to the other side.

Let's enter the collection and see what we have here.

First, have a look at this. Fingers on the buzzers.

BUZZER

It's behind us. Yes, OK.

I'm fascinated by this because I haven't delivered any question

of any kind whatsoever, but you have an answer. We have a buzzer.

What is the answer?

You're only allowed to give me one answer. Oh, no!

Is it Hornby Castle? No.

OK, so you get the full question.

And we've given them some information.

What country does this portico come from?

Are we going France or England? I'd go for France.

OK. France, I'm afraid not. It's English.

So, OK, can you tell me, fingers on the buzzers again,

which county it comes from?

Yorkshire. Correct.

This is the portico to Hornby Castle which is near Wensleydale.

So, Nina and Kate, you get one point for that,

and also first crack at this specialist question -

and it's another of these magnificent doors.

And for another two points, can you tell me

a connection between these doors and Citizen Kane.

Oh, is it Hearst? Ah, yes. Hearst, yes.

Burrell bought an awful lot of stuff from William Hearst,

the great American massive collector.

And this was one of the things he bought.

I believe he was going to put it into his house or garden,

and then our lovely Burrell bought it. You're halfway there.

What about Citizen Kane, Nina? Citizen Kane was based on Hearst.

Citizen Kane, the film, was based on William Randolph Hearst.

Yeah, two points for that.

Burrell bought these doors in crates from the estate

of William Randolph Hearst, the American newspaper magnate,

who was the model for the Orson Welles character.

But it's possible that neither Hearst nor Burrell

actually ever saw these door cases.

Hearst kept them in crates in a warehouse in Wales

and presumably nobody unpacked them

until this museum was built 30 years after Burrell's death.

A sort of tycoons' pass the parcel.

"What have I got here? Oh, we've got a whole castle door. How fantastic!"

Burrell knew what he was getting. He knew they were doors

and he planned them for this museum.

But Burrell did live with many of his other purchases.

In fact, there are reconstructions of his private rooms here at the museum.

So, fingers on the buzzers. Have a look at this.

It's called a suzani.

Burrell used this square as a bedspread,

but what should it have been used for?

Covering a dining table.

No. Dammit!

So, what should it be?

Burrell used them as bedspreads. What should they be used for?

A bed canopy? Not a bed canopy.

In fact, they were used as wall hangings.

And now we're getting to another question on this object.

Let's have a go. So, how are these things made?

BUZZER

Is it like carpets with knots across a weft and warp?

Not with knots, no.

Embroidered? Embroidered. One point for that.

They are embroideries, massive embroideries,

and they are made with chain stitch or couch stitch

and they take forever to make because each part of it is embroidered.

That first example was from Bukhara in Uzbekistan,

this one is from Nurata.

So, for your specialist follow-up question, worth two points,

why would a maiden be on the road for this?

Marriage, I would think. It sounds like a marriage. A dowry?

that's specially constructed for the bride?

Maybe for the sedan chair, perhaps.

Actually, you were very close to it there, Muriel,

you use a word which is very important.

A dowry? They were made as dowries,

and from the very earliest ages,

young girls were set to work to sew these as part of their dowry.

But what is the road we are talking about?

Silk Road. The Silk Road, well done, yes.

Don't be so patronising! It's really great.

So we are talking about... No, it's really important, because the suzani

was a product of major towns along the Silk Road.

This one is really fascinating

because this one is indeed part of a bed sheet.

And what's missing from the one that Burrell collected

is the central part, which was left as cambric

and was part of a bed sheet for an actual bridal evening,

and then would be brought out the following day

to illustrate that what was wanted had happened.

Yeah. He's so coy!

Anyway, these here, in this museum, are some of the finest examples

of these early 18th century embroideries in the world.

And I'm sure that when he took them off the bed,

Burrell remembered to do them on a cold wash.

Now, fingers on buzzers again.

For our next starter object,

where on a building would you expect to find this pottery figure?

BUZZER

On the roof. Yes.

It's a Chinese Ming Dynasty roof tile.

You get one point for that. Kate and Nina, your specialist question.

Look at this.

A diamond is forever, but why could jade be for ever after?

Ah, right, yes.

So, Jade is particularly prized in China

because of the fact that it was seen to be able to defy time.

So there's that sense of immortality that comes with it.

And what's very important is that if you died,

they would use jade to plug your orifices, as it were,

and sometimes even put a jade insect on your tongue

to make sure you never decompose.

So jade makes you live for ever.

So, is that something like a tongue plug?

Excellent. Well done, everybody,

because the cicada was indeed made for the mouth.

Burrell had no personal connections with China,

but from 1911 to 1957, he bought Chinese ceramics every single year.

I can see Lars is salivating over there at the very idea.

Almost a quarter of this entire collection is Chinese art.

But he also bought, and sometimes commissioned, paintings,

like this one.

Now, why is this woman

one of the boys?

BUZZER

This woman is, I believe, Burrell's favourite sister,

and she is painted by John Lavery,

who was one of the Glasgow Boys

who Burrell was particularly fond of collecting.

He loved the Glasgow Boys, who were a set of Glasgow artists

who were particularly fond of naturalism.

They weren't all from Glasgow, but they were absolutely amazing.

In fact, Lavery was very famous in his latter years

for painting massive portraits of millions of people.

But he nearly didn't become a painter

because his family didn't want him to do it at all.

But as you can see, we're very glad he did.

And he was born, in fact, in Belfast.

Kate and Nina, you've earned a specialist question.

Here is the Empress Eugenie

on the beach in Trouville.

OK, how did the painter of this

make an impression for Impressionism?

This is Boudin, I believe.

And what's very striking about this picture

is that he says it's the Empress Eugenie,

but it's impossible to tell who is the Empress

out of this collection of women, it could be any woman.

So he's really the forerunner of the Impressionists

because it's not about who's there,

but about the whole look of the painting.

I can give you one point, but there's an extra point to be gained

and I'll hand it over. What is that?

He was a great advocate of painting en plein air.

Yes. And that led to the Impressionists who followed him,

following his example. But the Glasgow boys, of course,

were also famous for painting en plein air.

En plein air - or painted in the open air.

One point.

So, you'll also find here French masters from the 18th century,

but also works by Memling and Cranach,

because Burrell seemed to love the sombre world

of what we might call "northern soul".

Late Gothic and early north European Renaissance.

Have a look at this.

First to answer correctly will get a two-pointer question.

Which of the Ten Commandments

is illustrated in this stained-glass window?

Oh, gee! Thou shalt not kill.

No, not "thou shalt not kill".

So the question goes over to the girls, I'm afraid.

Bear false witness? Ah, well done!

You picked it up again. Yes, it is, thou shalt not bear false witness.

I like the smirk on the face of the liar.

There are more than 600 panels of stained glass here.

Here's another one to look at.

This is Princess Cecily, daughter of Edward IV of England.

Kate and Nina, for your specialist question,

why does silver become gold?

Well, up until this point, up until about the 14th century,

you could only have sections of glass

that were joined together in different colours.

So, bits of gold, bits of red, bits of blue.

But with silverpoint,

you managed to create this effect, a silver stain, if you like,

on the glass, which comes out gold and then you can paint onto that.

So it allows for greater detail. Indeed.

Silver chloride or sulphide is added to the glass to get a yellow colour.

Well, there we are. We've come to the end of that round, our opening round.

It's time to look at the scores.

Well, Lars and Muriel, you've done very well with four points.

But not quite as well as Kate and Nina

who have gone surging ahead with ten points. No! No!

All right, wait a minute, very early days yet.

Calm down, because we've got other rounds to go.

Everything could change as we move on to our next round -

a question of attribution.

Each team has been given a rather curious object

from the Burrell Collection.

Both members are going to offer an explanation of what it is,

but only one is actually true.

And there are three points in it.

So, Lars, let's start with you.

And can we have the object in front of the team on the right here?

OK.

So there it is, mysterious, rather beautiful.

Lars, will you start by telling us what it is?

It's Chinese.

The Chinese refer to it as an ear cup,

because it's got ears, as you can see.

It's for drinking wine,

and the Chinese enjoyed their wine -

so much so that they had a little game

at the end of a dinner party

when they might take a cup,

fill it with wine and stick it onto a little river

and whoever picked the cup up had to compose a poem.

So a Chinese ear cup, and it may have been found in a grave.

OK, all right.

Muriel, you have a different account of what it is.

I do, it is not Chinese, it's Roman.

It was used in ceremonies,

religious ceremonies, when the Romans visited oracles,

when they went to the temples of say, for instance,

Apollo, Juno, whatever,

because they believed that the gods

could speak to them better if this was cupped behind the ear.

They thought it amplified the Oracle's words

and it was a very sacred object, so it's an astonishing thing to have,

but it's Roman and not Chinese.

OK, so there we are.

A Roman ear cup or a Chinese ear cup.

A gauntlet that has been thrown down, it's obviously related to anatomy.

We don't know which part or which one - which era.

It's earthenware, it's clay,

cos you can sort of see it through there. The glaze.

And my concern is that the Romans didn't glaze with this

iridescent affect, I didn't think.

The Chinese are supposed to have put forward the idea of...

The Chinese were the glazers, yeah.

Oh, the iridescence happens when the thing is in the ground,

it wasn't a glaze proper.

OK, I think it's time to ask you, if I may, to professor and doctor,

if you would just make up your mind and give us an opinion.

All right, we're going to dive in there.

Yeah, we think we're going to say that Lars is telling the truth.

You think it's a Chinese ear cup.

Lars, are you telling the truth?

It's a Chinese pottery ear cup, based on a lacquer original

dating to the Han Dynasty, between 200 BC and 200 AD,

found in a grave.

It is a floating cup that was released on a river in ancient China.

You put a drink in it and passed it down the river,

as it were, to a friend. What a nice idea, I like that.

And people actually still do a very similar thing

on the banks of the River Clyde today,

with Irn-Bru and vodka.

Oh, Griff!

Now, let's have a look at Kate and Nina's object

coming in now from the vaults.

So, Kate, would you like to give us your explanation for these objects?

Well, these are part of a horse bridle, these are the cheek pieces

and they're obviously of cast bronze, very beautifully decorated.

And they are Chinese - they go back to, we think, the eighth century BC

and they are from the Eastern Zhou period

and are obviously very beautiful.

They were just whispering amongst themselves. We are just whispering!

Can I just say, I have no idea whether they were whispering

about your delivery or style of delivery, with Lars giving Muriel

a few hints saying, "She's got a tell! When she fiddles with her hair,

"she's telling a lie," or whatever. I don't know.

Anyway, like a game of poker, this.

Nina, you've got a different explanation for what these are.

I have, yes. I really like these, because they're coming out

of the Romanesque period, they're 11th century,

made in northern Europe, probably around Germany.

And they are the fittings for a cauldron.

So you can see that there are these lovely hook areas,

but the thing that's really interesting is the bird decoration.

The Romanesque artists were fascinating

because they didn't really do figural, they liked abstract,

particularly animal imagery,

and so that beautiful bird there I just think is lovely.

And that's an adornment for the front of the cauldron.

OK, thank you very much.

So they are the adornments to a cauldron or possibly

they are part of the bridle of a horse. Muriel?

Well, I think... Where are you coming from?

I have looked underneath it and, of course,

if it was part of a cauldron, you wouldn't have these very intricate

little hooks and eyes underneath, so why would they have been there

if they were attaching to a cauldron? So I'm going for the...

because there's very complicated under-pieces here,

where straps would have gone through. Yeah. Very beautiful.

It's not a cauldron.

Stylistically, these are far more Asian than Germanic,

so I'm going for the horses one, like you are.

Yeah, I'm going for the horse.

OK, so, Nina, was it a horse bridle?

I'm afraid I was the NEIGH and she was the yea. It was a horse bridle.

OK, well, it's a horse bridle.

So, after unpicking those tangled webs of deception,

our scores look like this.

Muriel and Lars. Yes.

Yes. You've got seven points. Kate and Nina, you have 13.

Still staying well ahead, but we've got a new round to look at now.

We're off to look at some exhibits in close up and to do that,

I'm going to take each team on a guided tour.

Lars and Muriel, you're up first.

OK, let's make our way here

to what is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces

here in the collection, and I'm asking you

to make a connection with this a photograph here.

Now, the photograph was taken in 1898 for a trial.

I've got five clues I can give you.

But for every clue I give you, obviously I diminish the number

of points you might eventually be able to make.

So who's going to start? It's obviously a Cezanne, but...

OK, wait a minute, that's one point there.

So first of all, it may seem obvious, but...

We've got a point!

Phil, Muriel, tell me a bit more what you mean.

"It's obviously a Cezanne." Go on!

This is where it falls down!

This is... Let's think about this. Now, who...

I need my specs for this.

Well, this is just after he was arrested, isn't it? It's a mug shot.

It does look like a mug shot.

So who was it who was arrested?

The only crime involving art I can think of

at the end of the 19th century was the theft of the Mona Lisa.

It's not an art crime, no.

No, OK, us a clue. OK. Well...

That means we will lose a point. One point down. Come on.

This is Emile Zola. Oh! Ah. OK.

The famous trail he was involved with,

which actually led to him writing a book, was J'accuse,

which was Monsieur Dreyfus,

who was actually stripped publicly of his rank

before being sent to Devil's Island,

and then Zola, realising that he was absolutely innocent,

set about a public campaign.

It split France absolutely down the middle.

Very familiar in Scotland right now.

Yes! But does it sound plausible to you, Muriel, this story?

Or is he making it up? I'm loving it. Just let him be.

OK, all right, good.

That's about as far as my A Level history,

which is now stretching back 40 years...

But your A Level history is doing you very well,

because that in fact is indeed what we are looking at here.

In 1898, Zola published an article in a newspaper, J'accuse,

in the newspaper L'Aurore, and this was...

..an assault on the French establishment,

particularly the Army, and he was promptly arrested for defamation.

So now we've got the end of the story, if you like. Yes.

What do you suppose was the connection between Cezanne and Zola?

As little boys... No!

..they had grown up together in Aix. Shut up!

It's an astonishing story. So they were great friends.

Cezanne painted this picture of Zola's house.

Oh, it... Oh! Do you know anything about...

There is an ultimate irony in this. Oh, the ultimate irony...

Right, let's go over the facts you just gave us.

Irony perhaps is too strong a word for it,

but there's an ultimate development that links the whole story together.

You won't guess that if you don't know.

That Chateau is now the museum of the Affaire Dreyfus. Oh, right!

Do we get an extra point for saying that it was - J'accuse was the book?

I'm going to give you, in total, three out of your five points.

Four for a good accent? FRENCH ACCENT: J'accuse.

He could have just said ja-cuze, but he said J'accuse. Non?

Non. Non, I think three is very fair!

And now it's Nina and Kate's turn.

Come this way.

Position yourselves, if you would, ladies.

We're going to look at what is a magnificent wooden exhibit. Yes.

We want you to connect it to this photograph.

I have five points to give you.

In order to get those five points,

you have to do that without getting clues from me. No clues.

So we don't want clues. We can do it without them.

First of all, you can tell me what it is.

Well, this is brilliant,

this is the bedhead made for Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves.

Tell me how we know it is the bedhead?

Well, I think what we've got here, we have the crown above

and then the intertwined initials H and A,

which I think is standing for Henry and Anne of Cleves.

How do you know it's Anne of Cleves and not Anne Boleyn?

Because this refers to Henry

in the position that he was when he married Anne of Cleves,

so this is him as...

It's referring to him as the Protector of the Church of England.

And it's dated.

OK. Where is the date? Here.

So 1539?

And of course he executed Anne Boleyn in 1536,

so it can't be hers.

What indicators do we have of what this actually...

was - I'm not going to say "was used for" -

but what WAS it used for?

We can see here we've got a gentleman here who we might presume

is Henry, you've got a lady here you might presume is Anne,

and these are their children, so the idea of this bedhead

is it's supposed to create good luck,

and for Henry, and all royals, that means fertility.

So here were the children that using this bed

is supposed to create. Unfortunately, it didn't,

as Henry didn't really want to do anything exciting with Anne at all.

Yes, I don't think... Why not?

He didn't find her attractive once she arrived.

Apparently she didn't smell too good either.

So he said he wanted to annul the marriage,

but what was great about Anne was that she didn't fight.

And I think, of all of the wives, she came off best. She did.

She managed to, er...

Well, I think that probably links us onto what we're looking at.

I'm going to ask you, Nina,

come over to me here and tell us now, how is that connected?

Now, I don't know exactly which building this is... No.

..but I know that Anne of Cleves,

I know that she was left a number of properties

as part of her divorce settlement from Henry VIII.

Oh, you're quite right there,

so you've got your fourth point there,

because this indeed was a castle which was given to her

as part of the annulment.

But which castle was it, and why is there an irony in this?

There's two in particular that she was given, which are very exciting.

One was Oatlands and one was Hever... Hever!

..and my suggestion is this one is possibly Hever

and what's ironic about that

is it was Anne Boleyn's childhood heritage property,

so it's this awful irony that Anne Boleyn lost her head

and Anne of Cleves got her house.

That's spectacular, that's five complete points.

We seem to have covered everything.

I think we should go back and rejoin the others.

Well, here we are, back again, and we just need to recap,

because, in that expedition, Lars and Muriel, you scored three points,

well done.

But...

Kate and Nina...

got all five of their points. Oh, for pity's sake!

Sorry. Honestly!

So, as we enter our final round... You swots!

..Kate and Nina are in the lead with 18

and Muriel and Lars have a little bit to make up at ten -

but that could happen, because fingers on the buzzers,

because this is the quickfire round -

one point for a correct answer and if nobody gets it, we move on.

Have a look at this.

This is an English alabaster object.

Where was it made? BUZZER

Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire, well done, Lars. Have a look at this.

It's a Dutch painting and a Japanese print.

What do they have in common? BUZZER

They're both self-portraits. They are both self-portraits.

Rembrandt and the Japanese artist Hokusai.

Fingers on the buzzers again.

There are two royal characters from the Old Testament here. Who are they?

BUZZER

Is that Solomon and the Queen of Sheba?

It's Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Correct.

What injury has the cherub here just suffered?

BUZZER Bee stings.

A bee sting, correct. Here is a couple of accoutrements.

In which sport would they be used? BUZZER

Hawking. Falconry. Sorry!

Yes. Correct.

Have a look at this. Who's learning to walk here?

BUZZER

This is Mary with Joachim and Anne. Kate, you're quite right, it's Mary.

Look at these.

What accomplishment were these... BUZZER

Archers.

Archers or archery, yes. Here is a pot.

What drink would you pour out of it?

BUZZER Hot chocolate.

Hot chocolate, well done.

This is a Bellini, where did he live and work?

BUZZER Venice?

Venice, correct.

Burrell collected quite a few of these rather charming wooden objects.

What is the... BUZZER

Looks like a wassail cup. No, that's not the answer.

I'm going to come over to you

to say what is the collective name for this work?

BOTH: Treen. Treen, correct.

This is Toft Ware,

but what is the bird doing here? BUZZER

It's a pelican and it's breaking its breast and feeding

its young with blood. So it represents Jesus.

Blood, yes, indeed, well done.

What is the event supposed to be represented here?

BUZZER Oh, I know this!

It's about Hercules, is it the coronation...

No, the Olympians. Yeah, the opening of the Olympics.

But it's actually the family of the Duke of Burgundy,

Philip the Good, that's represented.

Yes, of course it is, it's the opening of the original...

Can we have some difficult ones?(!)

It's the opening of the original Olympics

as perceived in Burgundy in 1450.

Of course! What sort of person wore this and when?

BUZZER

That is a coif, a kind of nightcap hat that you would wear,

a gentleman would normally wear... Indeed,

a gentleman would wear it in the evening.

And finally, which artist painted this?

BUZZER

Honore Daumier. Correct.

END OF ROUND BELL

Well done, we have to stop.

Now, the final scores stand... as follows.

Muriel and Lars, you did quite well, you got to 14.

But Kate and Nina, you romped over this particular game with 28!

Congratulations. Oh, that was brilliant! Well done.

It's just Lars letting me down, frankly.

Disappointment. As you can see!

We do have to say goodbye from this extraordinary collection.

We've barely scratched the surface here - though, to be honest,

I'm not sure that is the right term to use amongst such precious items.

In 1927, Burrell was knighted for his services to art.

Lars is still waiting. Bye-bye.

We live in a world ablaze with colour.

# Say my name

# And every colour illuminates... #