Anteros

Hello. I haven't quite fallen off the face of the internet, though I may have been temporarily seduced by an anime fandom on tumblr. Ahem. Moving swiftly on. Anyway, look at this! I so want to see this film. Beautiful boats and beautiful animation. What more could I ask for?!

Doesn't it look gorgeous? :)

I have a new friend. He appeared in the park beside my house a few weeks ago and daughter immediately christened him Albert, which seems like a fine name for an elephant. Albert is a life sized sculpture of an Indian elephant commissioned as part of the cultural legacy of last year's Commonwealth Games. He stands just outside The House for an Art Lover looking towards the river. He's an impressive beastie and was looking particularly magnificent gazing stoically into the mist the other morning :)


Thankfully work is starting to calm down a little here. I'm no longer working at weekends, though most evenings are still taken up with commuting back from Edinburgh or ferrying daughter to and from swimming training. Watching rugby is also taking up rather a lot of time these days :} Hope you guys are all well, and look forward to catching up with you all again.

This beautiful thing was posted on twitter yesterday by Amber Butchart, author of the forthcoming Nautical Chic which I mentioned here recently. Apparently it's a nagajuban, an under robe for a kimono, dating from 1905 and decorated with anchors and cherry blossoms. It made me think of the lovely pictures katriona_s posted of her grandmother's kimonos and I thought she would like to see it :)

I came across this rather fabulous item in a recent auction catalogue from Charles Miller Maritime Auctioneers. The catalogue entry reads as follows:

An exceptionally fine and large Narwhal (Monodon Monoceros) Tusk presented to Cornelius Fudge, 1881

of typical barley-twist form, polished overall and of mellow butterscotch hue -- 98¾in. (251cm.) high, mounted on a later recessed slate base through felt-lined lignum vitæ spool bearing Government marks and with silvered plaque engraved PRESENTED TO CONRELIUS FUDGE, MASTER AT ARMS / BY HIS MESSMATES, AS A MARK OF RESPECT & ESTEEM / ON HIS LEAVING H.M.S. "LONDON" AT ZANZIBAR / TO RETIRE FROM THE SERVICE. SEPTEMBER, 1881, overall height including base 101¾in. (258.5cm.)

This Officer joined the Marines in 1873 and served mainly aboard the Duke of Wellington with shorter stretches aboard Sultan and Thunderer. He joined the London on 1st September 1880 and left almost exactly a year later on 7th September 1881 to serve one last year aboard the Duke of Wellington before retiring on 13th January 1882. In modern times his name has become more famously associated with the Harry Potter stories in which the Minister for Magic has the same name - although probably a coincidence, it is pleasing to note that in former times narwhal tusks were believed to retain magical powers associated with unicorns.

Fudge's narwhal tusk had an estimated value of £15,000 - £20,000, but it sold for £36,000! No doubt the Minister for Magic would have been delighted!

One last beautiful picture of the Greenwich Regatta...



Woolwich sunset by Mike King
You can see more or Mike King's beautiful pictures of the Regatta here.

Last week, over on following_sea, I mentioned a reproduction set of cards I've acquired recently illustrated by Edward Hawke Locker in 1799. Locker was a talented watercolourist and Royal Naval administrator who served as Edward Pellew's personal secretary while he was Commander in Chief of the East India station. (Anyone who has read Landsman Hay, Robert Hay's account of his naval service in India, might remember the author's lifelong affection and admiration for Locker.)

Locker's deck of cards is ingenious as it features "cards in cards" - the suit of the card is hidden in the illustration. Many of the cards feature caricatures of popular figures of the day and unsurprisingly sailors feature prominently. There's a fascinating little booklet that accompanies the pack which notes that "A popular verse expresses feminine preference for sailors and contempt for soldiers. Locker does not go so fas as this, but there is a warmth and liveliness about his portrayal of naval figures which is absent from his military models." So here are the nautical highlights of Locker's cards in cards, with descriptions from the booklet.

On the 4 of Hearts we see a blind sailor with his dog begging in the street bearing a notice addressed "To the Human".	Another sailor this time with a wooden leg, on the Ace of Hearts, holds a notice on a pole inscribed "Naumachia - Silver Street, St Dunstan's" and offers leaflets to passers by. One can reasonably deduce that the figure is advertising an entertainment, possibly a revival of the Roman sport of Naumachia or mock sea battles, the word originally coming form the Greek. St Dunstan's is close to Fleet Street in London.
The King of Diamonds shows and alltogether more cheerful and able-bodied seaman. He appears to be just hoem form sea carrying a sack or kitbag inscribed "El Thetis". Many ships, particularly in the Mediterranean where the navy had been so active in that year, must have been named after this marine divinity, so it seems likely that the saior is celebrating his acquisition of some loot.	The 8 of Clubs illustrates a fortune-tellers in a somewhat unusual costume offering to cut a pack of cards for a pigtailed sailor.
It is difficult to understand why Locker is not better known as his keen sardonic caricaturists eye seems at least as mordant as his of his more celebrated contemporaries. Happily he almost certainly includes in the pack a wry portrait of himself on the Queen of Clubs. A sketch of his father in the Victoria and Albert Museum shows a marked similarity of feature. One feels from his approach to his subjects that he pretends to identify himself more with that, obviously impoverished, artist than with the gentlemanly painter appearing in a pastiche of Gainsborough's work on the 7 of Clubs.

This is very short notice, but just in case anyone is kicking their heels in London this weekend, The Queens House at the Royal Museums Greenwich has a series of events running today and tomorrow "exploring the extraordinary story of Lady Emma Hamilton; actress, dancer, celebrity, trend-setter and muse." It's good to see Hamilton getting some serious attention as a performance artist, rather than just as an appendage to Nelson!



The Private Emma
Join curator Amy Miller as she looks at Lady Emma Hamilton, the woman behind a scandal; and at the personal documents surrounding her as Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's notorious mistress.

Emma Hamilton's Attitudes Renewed
Performance artists Akleriah have been Inspired by Lady Emma Hamilton’s performances of ‘attitudes’ — a form of classical mime that she popularised in 18th-century Naples. Collaborating with film-maker Jason Wen, theatre director and drama lecturer Jillian Wallis, and University of Greenwich students, the extraordinary ‘rags to riches’ life story of Emma Hamilton, Lord Nelson’s mistress will be resurrected, and the relevance of the ‘attitudes’ art form today explored.

Emma as Performer: Items from the Caird Library Collection
A chance to see manuscript items from the Caird Library collection that demonstrate the power of Emma Hamilton as a performer.

A History of Actresses in the 18th Century
Join theatre historian Julian Day, as he tells gives a short account of the rise of the actress during the period of Lady Emma Hamilton’s life.

All events are free and run at various times over the course of the weekend, further infromation here.

Today was #MuseumSelfie day (who knew that was a thing?!) and there have been some highly entertaining pictures posted on twitter from museums and galleries all over the world. The Guardian also posted a selection of some of the best here, but this is the one that really amused me...

@JmsSplln First there was the boy band @NMMGreenwich, now there's...



I have no idea who tweeted this or whether the people in the picture are curators, attendants or visitors to the NMM, however the idea of Ned Pellew and Sidney Smith being in a boy band together is just too funny XD (That's Ned second from the right and Sir Sidney far left btw.)

These rather delightful walruses are from the archive of the Scott Polar Research Institute, digitised as part of the Freeze Frame project.


This image and the ones below the cut are from the British Arctic Expedition 1875-1876 led by Sir George Strong Nares. Although Nares brought both his ships home, like many previous expeditions, this one foundered due to the harsh conditions, poor equipment and clothing, and the debilitating effects of scurvy. Nares and his men were supplied with lime juice but the preparation and preservation process had destroyed much of the vitamin C so it had little effect in keeping the dreaded scurvy at bay. Nares arguably had more success keeping boredom in check during the long arctic winter...

An ice-skating rink was made, firework displays were held, boxing matches put on, evening classes were run, and a newspaper was organised. Nares also restarted ‘The Royal Arctic Theatre’ in which the officers dressed up to entertain the crew.

( Auroras, ice and theatricals )

I was working in Edinburgh yesterday and when I returned to Glasgow late in the afternoon I discovered that the city had been rocked by a civic crisis of unparalleled dimensions*. Glasgow City Council had announced it would take measures to prevent vandalism of an A-listed statue of the Duke of Wellington which stands outside the Modern Art Gallery in the city centre. The "vandalism" in question refers to the traffic cone which traditionally adorns old Welly's head, and which has been placed there with great care and no small measure of Dutch courage by inebriated students since time immemorial.

A poe faced GCC press release stated:

"For more than 30 years the Wellington monument has been defaced by traffic cones which regularly appear on the head of the horse or rider (and sometimes both) after the revelries of the weekend. This depressing image of Glasgow has sadly featured in posters and postcards depicting the city."

The council went on to claim that removing Wellington's iconic headgear costs the city in the region of £10,000 a year. In order to stamp out this "depressing" vandalism GCC proposed to spent £65,000 raising the statue's plinth to a height of three metres in order to deter "all but the most determined vandals."

It's worth pointing out at this stage that Glaswegian "vandals" are nothing if not determined and are likely to view a raised plinth as more of a challenge than a deterrent.

Needless to say the good citizens of Glasgow were in uproar and expressed their displeasure as vociferously as only Glaswegians can, with great good humour and a good deal of sarcasm. The good denizens of the city took to social media in droves to gather petition signatures and alert the world to the injustice of the #Conegate scandal. And for once sense appear to have prevailed among our city fathers, with the BBC reporting this morning that the GCC have dropped their plans after a "massive backlash."

I like to think that somewhere to Duke himself is laughing his socks off at the whole kerfuffle, and I hope you'll agree that he looks rather stylish in his municipal headgear.

Disclaimer
I have never personally placed a cone on the Dukes head because a) I am too small to reach the top of the plinth, b) I am a scaredy cat and c) I have never been quite drunk enough to attempt it. However I may have helped give friends a leg up while I was a student, though tbh, the details are a bit vague ;)

*Can you have unparalleled dimensions? Sounds like the kind of thing that would play havoc with the space time continuum.