The Repair Shop

S08:E06 - Great Grandmother's Portrait, Ottoman Brazier, Bitossi Horse

Jay Blades and the Repair Shop team bring three beloved heirlooms back to life.As the team prepares for the day ahead, there's a new expert eagerly awaiting her first assignment. Paper and paintings conservator Angelina Bakalarou is tasked with reviving a family portrait believed to be over 100 years old. Known as a crayon portrait, the technique involves painting over an enlarged print, thus avoiding hours of posing for the sitter. The portrait belongs to barn visitor David and features his great grandmother who by all accounts was a formidable woman. Mary Fletcher was the mother of eight children and profoundly deaf, something that David's adult son William relates to. William is deaf and like his great great grandmother has never let his deafness restrict him, which is part of the reason it is so important for the family to have the flaking, fragile portrait preserved, talked about and displayed.Evin is next to visit the workshop to meet silversmith Brenton West. She's brought an old-fashioned, large brass heating device, called a brazier. It belonged to Evin's great grandparents who, as Turks, had to flee Greece for Turkey after the First World War with very few possessions. Evin believes this brazier must have been one of their first purchases when they were setting up a new life in Istanbul. It is from the Ottoman period, with a decorative lid and would have been very shiny and eye-catching in its prime. Evin inherited the now very dull and dented brazier several years ago and is very attached to it, as it reminds her of her family's bravery and resilience. Brenton is in his element bashing out the many imperfections, polishing up a storm and totally transforming it for a delighted Evin.And finally, Kirsten Ramsay has a hurdle to jump to fix a distinctive blue ceramic horse that's seen better days. Believed to be a Bitossi horse of Italian origin, it was won in an English village fair tombola by John and his sister Wendy in the 1970s. The siblings remember days out with their much-missed mum and the winning of this horse is wrapped up in memories of older sister Wendy being made to carry it for miles on the way home. Despite John's love for the blue ornament, it's seen better days and is currently decapitated! Kirsten needs to reunite the pieces and colour match a multitude of shades of blue to get the horse back in the saddle again.