Living: The zebra, operating on much
the same principal as the dazzle ship.
Painting by George Stubbs, 1763.
29.6.10
Photograph by Alan Dein
Table made in Paris, c.1936-8
at the V & A Museum
Living: Marquetry. A type of wood inlay developed
by Flemish cabinet makers during the early C16th,
the technique was soon employed at Versailles and
thence to England during Restoration. R. Aaronson
lives on also, but no longer in Spitalfields.
28.6.10
Living: Desmond Guinness, founder of the
Irish Georgian Society in 1958. Portrait by
Slim Aarons, photographs of his home,
Leixlip Castle, by Christopher Simon-Sykes.
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23.6.10
Living: Icelandic sheep. Brought there by the Vikings
about 1200 years ago, the sheep ensured the survival
of these natives. Painting by Louisa Mattíasdóttir.
22.6.10
21.6.10
Living: Bauer Pottery's grass
green butter dish, beautifully paired
with the grocer's best butter yellow.
Available at Ancient Industries.
with the grocer's best butter yellow.
Available at Ancient Industries.
18.6.10
One of a series of posters by Norman Wilkinson, 1920s
Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool
by Edward Wadsworth, 1919
The Mauretania by Duncan Hannah, 2010
Extinct: Dazzle ships, active WWI. Thought up by
Norman Wilkinson and devised in the basement of the RA,
the designs were overseen by Edward Wadsworth, a Slade
trained Vorticist. Not actually an art movement, it was used
to foil U-Boats in terms of calculating direction and speed.
17.6.10
Living: Repetto, founded in 1947. The ballet
slipper was re-imagined as a shoe at the behest
of Brigitte Bardot in 1956. Still made by hand,
still worn by dancers. From La Garconne.
Via Mary Caple.
16.6.10
Miss Hazel Dawn
Miss Billie Burke
Miss Ina Claire
Miss Julia Sanderson
Living: Anthony Patch's bathroom, 1913.
'His bathroom, in contrast to the rather portentous
character of his bedroom was gay, bright, extremely
habitable and even faintly facetious. Framed around the
walls were photographs of four celebrated thespian
beauties of the day: Julia Sanderson as "The Sunshine Girl,"
Ina Claire as "The Quaker Girl," Billie Burke as the
"Mind-the-Paint Girl," and Hazel Dawn as "The Pink Lady."
Between Billie Burke and Hazel Dawn hung a print
representing a great stretch of snow presided over by
a cold formidable sun—this, claimed Anthony,
symbolized the cold shower.'
The Beautiful and Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922
15.6.10
Overlooked: The fan. First realized c. 500 BC in
India, the punkah (vertical canvas sheet) was operated
by the punkah wallah (vertical human being) using a
series of dangling ropes. Electric fans arrived c. 1890;
vintage models still abound.
14.6.10
Photograph by Irving Penn, 1950
(this is a coal man, who wore a longer bib)
Semi-extinct:
My Old Man's a Dustman (extract)
by Lonnie Donegan
...Oh, my old man's a dustman,
he wears a dustman's hat*
He wears cor-blimey** trousers
And lives in a council flat***
*a felted cap with a long leather bib
to protect the neck + back from spills
**derivative of God blind me,
also used for corduroy
***endangered socialist idea
11.6.10
10.6.10
Living:
Invasion Exercise at the Poultry Farm
by John Betjeman (extract)
Softly croons the radiogram, loudly hoot the owls,
Judy gives the door a slam and goes to feed the fouls.
Marty rolls a Craven A around her ruby lips
And runs her yellow fingers down her corduroyded hips,
Shuts her mouth and screws her eyes and
puffs her fag alight
And hears some most peculiar cries that echo
through the night.
Ting-a-ling the telephone, to-whit to-whoo the owls,
Judy, Judy, Judy girl and have you fed the fouls?
No answer as the poultry gate is swinging there ajar.
Boom the bombers overhead, between the clouds a star,
And just outside, among the arks, in a
shadowy sheltered place
Lie Judy and a paratroop in horrible embrace...
Painting: In a Bar by Frederick Elwell, 1943
9.6.10
Living: The gun that shot Dillinger,
at the Minnesota Historical Society.
Photograph by Duncan Hannah.
8.6.10
4.6.10
carpet
blinds
wallpaper
more wallpaper
Living: A. W. N. Pugin (1812-1852).
Father of Gothic Revival and
grandfather of psychedelia.
Samples from the V&A Museum.
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