A few years ago the chemical works BP Baglan Bay called me and said they were clearing out the offices as the site was closing and would I like to see if the museum wanted any objects for our Modern Industry collection?

I couldn’t wait to go and have a look, and as there was quite a lot to go through I took our museum van in the hope of a few accessions.

There were lots of photographs, some in frames, some big aerial photos too. There were overalls, hats and jackets with logos on them – just the sort of things that tell a great story when exhibited for displays.

There were tools specific to the industry and other bits and pieces like signs and gauges.

I loaded a few things in the van to take back to the museum so I could go through them to decide what we would like to keep and what should be returned.

But as I was about to leave they called me back and asked if I wanted the paintings? I hadn’t noticed these as they were covered in bubble wrap and stood against a wall.

One of the paintings was quite big, about 4’6”x 6’ (1.5 x 2.1m) and I couldn’t see the subject for the wrapping. The other was much smaller about 2’ x 2’6” (0.6 x 0.76m). I was told the bigger one was an oil painting of Baglan Bay at Night and the smaller one a watercolour of a power station. I put them in the van, got the paperwork signed and left for our stores in Nantgarw where I could spread things out and examine them properly.

About a week went by and I still hadn’t looked at the paintings as I had been going through all the other objects first.

When I did take the bubble wrap off I was really surprised by the quality of both paintings. The oil painting was really striking and the BP staff had told me that it had hung in the office since the 1960s.

I looked for a painter’s signature and then the real surprise hit me! In the bottom corner was ‘Vicari’.

Bells rang deep in my head, where did I know that name from? A quick internet search answered that. The richest living artist in the world. The official Gulf War artist. Artist to the Saudi Royal family. And born in Port Talbot. This fitted my collecting policy perfectly, being an industrial scene in Wales painted by a Welsh artist. The only snag from my point of view was that it could be quite valuable and BP might want to keep it.

I contacted them straight away and told them about the artist and its possible value. One of their directors, David, called me and told me that they were happy it would be going to the National Museum of Wales and he couldn’t think of a better place for it.  This generosity meant that we could save a national treasure for future generations.

So far we had treated the painting as if it were a genuine ‘Vicari’, but was it really?

I contacted the ‘Vicari’ website and sent them an image of our painting asking them if they could confirm if Andrew had painted it.

I checked my email every day. No replies. How else could we confirm this if they didn’t get back to us?

One sunny morning about three weeks later my phone rang. I could tell from the number it was someone in France calling. This was not unusual as we have many visits from French schools and as my schoolboy French is just about good enough to get by, my number was very often given to schools as a contact.

After answering with who I was, a deep, rich voice said:

‘Ah, Andrew here, I hear you’ve found the lost Vicari’

I couldn’t believe it! Andrew Vicari calling me from his home in France! To say I was flabbergasted is an understatement!

Andrew told me he had painted Baglan in the early 1960s and was really glad of the commission at the time (when he wasn’t so well known). We spoke for about half an hour about all sorts of things and he went on to tell me an incredible  story from 1966.

Andrew had painted a picture that was to be auctioned for the Aberfan Disaster Appeal and went along to the auction in Cardiff. Before it got underway, two burly men approached Andrew and said someone needed to talk to him in private. He was shown to a room and waiting there were two more men in sharp suits, looking a bit ‘dodgy’ (his words). These two told him they wanted to buy the painting, and asked how much did he want for it? He told them that it wasn’t his to sell as he’d given to the appeal and it was out of his hands. They kept on that they wanted it and he needed to get it for them. They were getting more and more insistent. After repeating that he couldn’t a number of times, they finally left, to Andrew’s relief.

It turned out that they were the Kray twins! He laughed ‘I’m one of the few people to have said ‘no’ to the Kray twins and lived to tell the tale!’

He told me that he was very happy his painting was going to be in the National collection and that he would do anything for Wales!

We never had the chance to speak again; sadly Andrew died in Swansea, in 2016 aged 84. It’s lovely that we have such incredible paintings to remember him by.

This story happened in 2009 and the painting has been in our stores in Nantgarw where is has been conserved and a new glazed frame made. We’ve been waiting for a chance to exhibit it and finally it will happen.

You can see the painting as part of an Andrew Vicari exhibition from 13^th July to 3^rd November 2019 at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.

Into June and we have selected silicon as our element of the month. This element might not be instantly recognisable as of significance to Wales, but it does have an interesting history.

Silicon (chemical symbol – Si), atomic number 14, is a hard but brittle crystalline solid, with a blue-grey metallic lustre. Silicon is the second most abundant element (about 28% by mass) in the Earth’s crust after oxygen with which it has a strong affinity. Consequently, it took until 1823 for a scientist - Jöns Jakob Berzelius – to prepare it in pure form.

In Wales, silicon is present virtually everywhere in one form or another: from quartz (silicon dioxide, SiO₂) in sedimentary siltstones, sandstones and conglomerates; complex silicates in igneous and metamorphic rocks; to sediments in soils.

Silica (silicon dioxide, or quartz) was mined extensively in the Pontneddfechan area, in South Wales, from the late 18^th century until 1964 for the manufacturing of firebricks for kilns and furnaces. It occurs as a very pure material highly concentrated in quartzite within a geological unit known as the Basal Grit. Weathering and erosion of the quartzite has produced deposits of silica sand and this was extensively quarried for the production of refractory fire bricks for the smelting industries.

In North Wales, a little-known trade in rock crystal – a colourless, glassy variety of quartz crystal – took place in Snowdonia during the 18^th and 19^th centuries centred upon the village of Beddgelert. T. H. Parry-Williams refers to this in one of his writings. Miners and mountain guides searched for veins of quartz in the mountains and collected crystals to sell to tourists as curios and some were possibly used to make crystal chandeliers. Later, crystals were occasionally discovered in the vast slate quarries, or during the large-scale construction of forestry tracks during the 1960s.

Silicon, as silica (another name for silicon dioxide) is also important to certain organisms. In particular diatoms and sponges.

Diatoms are single-celled microscopic algae with a complex cell wall made of silica. They are abundant in all waters, produce oxygen and are food for other aquatic organisms. Diatoms are also frequently used to monitor water quality.

Sponges build their skeletons from a framework of tiny elements called spicules, which are made of silica in most sponge groups.  One of the most beautiful examples is the Venus’ Flower Basket glass sponge, which lives anchored to the deep ocean floor near the Philippines.  A pair of shrimps lives inside this sponge, breeding inside it and spending their whole lives protected within its delicate glass walls.  Thanks to this unusual symbiotic relationship, the dead skeletons of Venus’ Flower Baskets are a popular wedding gift in Japan.

Sponges are the most primitive kind of animal on Earth, and their resistant spicules are found as fossils from as far back as 580 million years ago. Silica is also important in the preservation of other types of fossil.  When dead animals or plants are buried, silica from groundwater can fill in the pores and other empty spaces in wood, bone or shells, and/or it can replace the original remains as they decay or dissolve.  This is most common in areas where the groundwater has high silica levels, due to volcanic activity or erosion of silica-rich rocks.  The organic remains act as a focal point for silica formation, and often the rock surrounding the fossils is made of different minerals.  For example, shells that were originally made of calcium carbonate can dissolve and be replaced by silica, whilst being fossilised within limestone (calcium carbonate).  Extracting the fossils is a simple process of putting the rock in some acid and waiting for it to dissolve, leaving behind the silicified fossils.  The Museum’s fossil collections include many silicified shells of brachiopods, ammonites, bryozoans and other sea creatures.

One of the most spectacular types of fossil preserved in silica is ‘petrified wood’.  Silica replaced the original cells of the wood as it decayed and also filled in any gaps, literally ‘turning it to stone’.  In some places, including Patagonia and the USA, whole tree trunks replaced by silica are found in so called ‘petrified forests’.  Other plant fossils, such as cones, can also be fossilised in this way.

Chert is a rock made of very small crystals of silica.  Many major chert deposits formed at the bottom of ancient oceans from ‘siliceous ooze’, which is made of the skeletal remains of millions of tiny organisms including diatoms and radiolarians (single-celled plankton).  Chert nodules can also form within other rocks through chemical processes. 

Chert found within chalk is known as flint, and was a very important material for making tools throughout Prehistory. Tools are made by knapping, that is striking a prepared flint edge, or striking platform, with a harder stone to detach pieces called flakes or blades. These flakes, blades, and indeed the core from which they are struck can then be modified with secondary working into fine tool forms. Amongst the most skilful are fine arrowheads, including these from a Bronze Age grave at Breach Farm, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Flint was generally the material of choice for making sharp cutting tools as it is so fine-grained and fractures conchoidally and cleanly it gives a really sharp cutting edge. Indeed, so much so, that anecdotally eye-surgeons are reported to occasionally use a freshly struck flint blade in the operating theatre!

Because it is very fine-grained and hard, chert can preserve fossils of very small things from far back in our planet’s history.  The oldest potential fossils on Earth are found in cherts, and include the possible remains of bacteria from over 3 billion years ago.  Younger fossils, from the Rhynie Chert of northern Scotland, provide a glimpse of one of the earliest land communities, 400 million years ago.  Simple plants, and animals including primitive spider-like creatures and scorpions, were preserved in fine detail thanks to silica-rich water from volcanic hot springs.

Opal is a hydrated form of silica, meaning that it contains between 3 and 21% water.  Unlike standard silica, it does not have a set crystal form, but some of its forms diffract light, creating a beautiful iridescent effect in a variety of different colours.  For this reason, opal has been prized for centuries as a gemstone for making pendants, rings and other jewellery.  Australia produces a lot of the world’s opal, and is also a source of rare and spectacular opalised fossils.  The shells of invertebrates such as belemnites (prehistoric squid-like creatures), and even dinosaur bones, have been replaced by opal, creating very colourful specimens in a world where fossils are usually grey or brown.

Riley, a pupil at Stanford in the Vale Primary, has taken part in the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation for the past three years. He has shown exceptional commitment to the project, and has endeared himself to the project coordinators through his descriptive and friendly feedback. I have to say that I have enjoyed receiving regular weekly updates from Riley over the last three years.

Here are some of Riley’s best comments:

2017:

• The weather has turned really cold today. Been training people to do this experiment during the week. From Riley xxx
•  Hello. This week it has not been icy and it has been nice all except today. Hope you have had a nice week. Bye Bye (Riley)
•  Hello, this week it has been cold and hot and it has been a really good week because we have had a delivery of two new trolleys and we even invested in a wormery which is a big hit with our foundation friends. (Riley)

 2018:

• Hi this is Stanford in the vale primary school, we done this amazing project last year .I am Riley one of the gardening club members. I was the one that recorded and submitted this data last year. I loved doing this project last year, I hope I will this year too. I will be also teaching some of my friends how to do this project this year too. Bye Bye Riley (Riley)
•  Cannot believe this is the last weather reading for this year! We have observed some strange weather patterns this year! Snow - sunshine! (Riley)

 2019:

• Happy to restart the project and I am teaching the younger children in the club how to record. Have a good weekend and we will be back next week. Regards Riley (Riley)
• HI THERE, this week it has been a mixed week and there has been a lot of rain this week and there has been a bit of sun. Today in class we were talking about global warming which is a serious issue which needs to be sorted out. Speak to you next week!

To celebrate Riley’s contribution to the investigation, we asked if he’d be happy to answer some questions and give us an insight into his experience of participating in the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation.

An interview with Riley:

Q. How long have you been involved with the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation?

A. I have been involved in this investigation for three years now.

Q. What have you enjoyed most about the project?

A. I’ve mostly enjoyed recording the weather and the rain. I like seeing the difference between the temperatures of different days.

Q. What do you feel you have gained from the project, have you developed new skills?

A. Yes, I do think I have gained on this project. I have developed how to record the rain using a gauge and it has helped me using a thermometer more accurately.

Q. What are your thoughts on Science and Maths?

A. I am quite interested in both of these subjects, so this has helped me produce a lot more in these subjects.

Q. What were you feelings towards these subjects before the project, have they changed?

A. I was feeling quite confident before I started and now I am feeling much more confident about it.

Q. Were you aware that you were doing math and numeracy during the project?

A. I was sort of aware that I was using maths and numeracy during the project. I was mostly aware as I was measuring in millimetres and degrees.

Q. Were you confident taking scientific measurements before the project?

A. I was a little confident but I wasn’t that sure on it but now I am really happy about it.

Q. Do you feel these skills have developed through your time on the project?

A. Yes definitely, before I wasn’t that sure mostly on how to measure the rain and this project has developed my skills on that and developed my skills also in science.

Q. What advice would you give us to improve or develop the project?

A. I think it would be good fun if you could give the children some more fun activities or competitions because at the moment you don’t have many.

Q. You took a leading role, teaching other pupils about the project. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience?

A. I think it is really fun / exciting teaching other children about this experiment because it makes me feel like it is helping other children develop their science / maths and it makes me think that they could take over the job and become future scientists! 

We’ve taken Riley’s advice on board, and will be looking at new activities and competitions we can introduce over the coming years.

Riley is the first to be nominated as a Spring Bulb Champion. In future, we will invite teachers to nominate pupils who have shown outstanding commitment or who they feel have developed as a direct result of the project, to be recognised as Spring Bulb Champions.

Thank you Riley, and everyone who participated in this year’s project.

Professor Plant

Here at the National Museum Cardiff, we have several display trolleys of many different kinds. However in this blog, I wish to talk about the flashcard card game featured on our art trolley named Guess the Artist. In this particular game visitors to the museum can sit down with family members and friends inside in the gallery. The idea behind the game is that many artists are enclosed on cards within the box, along with pictures and captions written on each side of the card giving information about the artist and other relevant facts. 

For example, one of the display cards has pictures of works by Vincent Van Gogh. On one side of the card are pictures which you can use to guess the artist’s identity, and on the other side are written captions along with the artist’s name. Families can play the game for several minutes guessing the various different artists on the cards. 

This is particular game is excellent for our many visitors because after finishing the game, they can go in search of the various artworks from the cards, some of which are on display in the museum’s many galleries. This is fantastic for families and a brilliant educational process for all involved.