Thoughts from the Bus Stop

Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art at the British Library

The Klencke Atlas, 1660 © 2010 The British Library Board.

A tasty Culture24 Picture Special: Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art at the British Library

Queen Victoria doll for Mum

 

Mum's really interested in Queen Victoria, so for her birthday I knitted her this doll of old Victoria in her mourning clothes. Once again I based the doll on Jean Greenhowe's Little Gift Dolls pattern, using the skirt from the Christmas Tree Fairy and the cuffs from Miss Valentine. The widow's cap I made using the veil pattern from the Summer Mouse in the Knitted Animals booklet.

I made Victoria necklaces of pearls and crystals, and pearl earrings, and a mourning brooch with Albert's cameo on it. The crown was knitted in silver crochet thread, using Jean Greenhowe's 'picot hem' pattern, and I sewed on crystal beads. Does her face look amused?
 

 

All images in this post (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

* SONG OF THE DAY:  The Divine Comedy - Victoria Falls *

 

Stuarts Granolithic

'Stuarts Granolithic' paving stone in Holland Road, Hove

Ye olde Bunn Shoppe, Brighton

I found this advertising card being used as a bookmark in a charity shop paperback years ago. It extols the virtues of 'Cowley, Fancy Bread and Biscuit Maker', at 9, Pool Valley in Brighton town centre, off the seafront near the Palace Pier. The Cowley family traded there for 150 years - not sure which of those years this card comes from! They must have closed in the mid 1940s. I love that their telegram address is 'Biscuits, Brighton'.

These days, if you find yourself in Pool Valley with a yearning for something sweet, treat yourself to tea and cake at The Mock Turtle.

 

* SONG OF THE DAY: Stephen 'Tintin' Duffy - The Icing On The Cake *

 

5 Jan 2011 - edited to add:
I've been contacted by Peter Cowley, whose family used to run the Bunn Shoppe:

"Nos. 8/9, Pool Valley housed the bakery run by my great, great grandfather, Francis Cowley, who I believe took over the business that had been started by the Streeter family, possibly Sarah Streeter. After Francis died the business was run by his daughter, Caroline, who actually obtained a Royal Warrant. If you are interested you can read more and see more photographs on my family history web site at www.cowleyfamily.org.uk/bunn_shoppe.html."

Thanks Peter!

 

Dale Maxey: Seeing London

All images in this post are from 'Seeing London' by Dale Maxey (c) Collins, 1966

I spent a few days in Kent last week seeing my old schoolfriend Sharry. The trip was mainly to do with my forthcoming bridesmaidly duties, but Sharry was lovely enough to give me my fix of charity shops, in Maidstone. The very last one we went in - and nearly didn't because at first - it seemed to be a furniture-only shop - turned up this gem of a book, Seeing London, written and illustrated by Dale Maxey, printed in 1966.

I always look at the kids' books in charity shops to see if there are any by my favourite illustrators (Janet and Allan Ahlberg, Jill Barklem's Brambly Hedge books) or that just catch my eye. This was only 50p, AND has a sort-of bus on the front cover, so I just grabbed it without much flicking through it! But when we got home, and I starting looking at it properly, I got more and more excited...

It's a children's guide to London, with wonderful illustrations, hand-drawn maps and lovely writing, describing six different excursions you could take from Trafalgar Square on a big red doubledecker bus, to museums, galleries and landmarks where you don't need to be with an adult to get in (you can tell it's 40 years old!). Maxey says that London's buses remind him of elephants, "lumbering along through the mist that often seems to shroud the city", and this theme runs through the illustrations.

 

The covers and endpapers are in full colour but most of the illustrations are in just black and white, sometimes with red accents. There are two full colour maps of London (click on them for larger versions)...

... and several monochrome ones, labelled with the various places visited in each excursion:

 

The pictures are bursting with life and good humour. Just look at this one, enticing you to take a dip in the Serpentine Lido. I love the girl holding her nose as she goes under the water - especially the way her hair and the skirt on her swimming costume are flying up!

I couldn't find a biog of Dale Maxey online, but he seems to have concentrated on children's books, including illustrations for an edition of Edward Lear's The Owl & The Pussycat.

You can find Dale Maxey images on Google. I'll carry on scanning in this book and put my images in a Dale Maxey set on Flickr, and set up a Dale Maxey group, see if anyone bites. Ateeeeeeeeeeen'shun!!!

 

 

19.03.2014 - edited to add: For more info on the work of Dale and Betty Maxey, read this lovely post on the Fishink blog: http://fishinkblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/dale-maxey-illustrator-from-the-1950s

The Mice on the Mouse Organ make do and mend

Clip from Bagpuss (c) Smallfilms. Via YouTube

The other day I saw a clip from my childhood favourite, Bagpuss, of the mice from the mouse organ singing their little song, and it struck me that they would make great poster children for the credit-crunch era - being very into 'make do and mend':

We will find it
We will bind it
We will stick it with glue glue glue
We will stickle it
Every little bit of it
We will fix it like new new new

Clip of Bagpuss (c) Smallfilms. Via YouTube.

You can buy a CD of songs and music from Bagpuss, which was written by John Faulkner and his co-writer Sandra Kerr, who also voiced Gabriel the toad and Madeleine the rag doll (did anyone else always assume that Gabriel and Madeleine were a couple?)

The Smallfilms website has info about Bagpuss and all the other wonderful series made by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, and even shows you how you can make your own Bagpuss pyjama case!

Thicker Than Water

   
Bronze Medal from the Royal Life Saving Society (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

This is my Nanna's medal from the Royal Life Saving Society, which she was awarded in 1937 when she was 16. (The Latin motto reads 'Quemcunque Miserum Videris Hominem Scias', which means, 'Whomsoever you see in distress, recognize in him a fellow man.') My lovely step-nanna found it in a drawer recently and gave it to Mum, and I framed it so she can have it on her dressing table. She says it's nice to have something her mum worked really hard for.

Mum told me that when Nanna left school aged 14, she went to work at the big Reckitts factory in Hull, and that she belonged to the staff swimming club. I went online to see if I could find out more about Reckitts in the 1930s, and found an eBay listing for a 1937 edition of Reckitts' staff magazine - a special issue commemorating the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

The listing mentioned a photo of the swimming club, who had done a display for the Queen! I bid and bid but didn't win it - and in a 'who dares, wins' moment I contacted the vendor and asked if he would email me a scan of that page of the magazine before sending it off to the buyer...

...and he did!

When I got it I thought I recognised Nanna, but I wanted Mum to pick her out too, so I knew it wasn't just wishful thinking... and she did! We compared it with how she looked in her wedding photo four years later, and there she is, in the front row, last on the right. Isn't the internet marvellous?!

  

The Royal Wedding

 

Finding this Charles and Diana commemorative plate in a charity shop reminded me of the street party we had to celebrate their wedding. The Royal Wedding - everyone was so excited! We all had to wear red, white and blue to the party. I was 6, and absolutely loved the sailor dress Mum bought me. We were all given Charles and Di notebooks and pencils (see below) and special Charles and Di coins.

I've hung the plate on the wall so that when I'm having a 'being single sucks' kind of day I can look at it and remind myself that being married isn't always all it's cracked up to be ;)

* SONG OF THE DAY: Adam and The Ants - Prince Charming *

 

All images (c) Roy and Kristen Bailey 1981 and 2009

Mrs Sew&Sew is back

Images (c) IWM.org.uk

The Imperial War Museum in London has revived thrifty 1940s housewife Mrs Sew&Sew, the face of the Ministry of Information's 'Make Do And Mend' campaign during World War Two.

She has her own website, and a Twitter account, from which she'll be passing on her top tips for making the most of limited resources during the recession, including how to patch clothes, darn socks, unpick old jumpers to reuse the yarn, and how to adapt old clothes for new uses.

You can buy a copy of the original 'Make Do And Mend' booklet from the IWM's online shop, or view some of the pages from it on Peter and Cathey's Midnight Watch website.

Girls discover secret of saving up for wedding bells

Found in a box of old postcards in a charity shop. A priceless piece of social history! 1960s, do you think? The CIS tower is one of Manchester city centre's landmarks, and my auntie Diane used to work there.

* SONG OF THE DAY: The Proclaimers - Let's Get Married *

Images (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

 

Best of English bus stop

 

On Monday night I just could not get to sleep, and at 5.45 on Tuesday morning I was up and staring out of my living room window when an Adshel van pulled up at the bus stop over the road to change the advertising poster. Yes, I take photos of strangers at night without their knowledge or consent...

I walked past today, and it's a new campaign for Bombardier beer. They're trying to make themselves the drink of St, George's Day (like Guinness is for St. Patrick's), and the poster features icons of Englishness.

 

So we have Henry VIII wearing rugby kit, holding a conker, one foot on a wheel of Stilton; and the late, sorely missed Eric Morecambe dressed as a Morris man, with a Punk-style leather jacket, making Churchill's 'V for victory' sign with one foot on a policeman's helmet. They are standing on a big Cornish pasty and above the pint of beer is a red letterbox with a miner's helmet on top of it and a robin sat on top of that. On either side are garden gnomes with fishing rods - one has a Rich Tea biscuit on the end of it, the other a Custard Cream.

I've Googled in vain to find out who's done this artwork - have emailed Bombardier so watch this space! It's the work of artist David Lawrence. who has a cracking website. He's produced three posters, here are the other two:

This one has Queen Victoria dressed as Robin Hood and Les Dawson dressed as Queen Elizabeth I, standing on the Isle of Wight (inculding the Needles lighthouse). She holds a rolled-up umbrella and has one foot on a teapot, and he holds a cup of tea and rests a foot on a pork pie. Next to him is an English bulldog with a string of bangers in its mouth.

Here's Winston Churchill dressed as one of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and holding a '99' ice-cream cone, with one foot on a rugby ball. He's standing in Stonehenge with Kenneth Williams dressed as Sherlock Holmes, holding a cricket bat, with one foot on a jar of strawberry jam and, I think, wearing sandals with socks (and I thought that was just Christians...). Above them are red squirrels eating acorns from oak branches. Behind the beer bottle a pantomime horse can be seen. Cheers!

Tudor queen in the pink

Liz Print in Pink (c) Alisha Gould 2007

This has to be one of my all-time favourite Etsy purchases - a  hand-drawn, hand-pulled silkscreen of Queen Elizabeth the First in my favourite shade of shocking pink, by Alisha Gould from Maine, USA. It has pride of place in my living room. It's fab to see someone using bold colour on a historical subject!

Alisha's Etsy shop stocks her designs as prints, notecards and T-shirts - there's even a Mary, Queen of Scots doll! Alisha's also a sculptor - check out her portfolio on her website.

* SONG OF THE DAY: Queen - Killer Queen *

Queen Bess pins

I love it when I spot something in a charity shop which combines two of my interests, and it happened today! I love vintage sewing accessories (I used to work in a haberdashery), and Elizabeth I - and here is a tin of 'Queen Bess' pins, Wedgewood blue, with a portrait of Gloriana herself.

 
Images (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

* SONG OF THE DAY: The Searchers - Needles and Pins *

Anne Boleyn doll - with detachable head!

 
Anne Boleyn doll (c) Katie Park 2008

I'll be off to watch The Tudors in a mo', but thought it fitting to warmly applaud the work of caffaknitted (aka Katie Park), who has made a fab Anne Boleyn doll complete (or incomplete?!) with a detachable head.

Katie has also made wonderful dolls of Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves... so keep your eyes peeled for Katherine Howard (the other one who lost her head) and Catherine Parr!

* SONG OF THE DAY: Frank Black - Headache * 

The Queen's Progress: Knitting Elizabeth I

Knitted Elizabeth I doll in progress, next to the 'Pelican Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1574

When my M.E. forced me to jack my job in, my beloved colleagues at 24 Hour Museum threw me a party and presented me with my very own spoof homepage, which included personalised links to (made-up, sadly) sites such as BuildABaptistBoyfriend.com and KnitYourOwnTudor.com. It's the latter which has spurred me into action!

Using Jean Greenhowe's Pedlar Doll as a base, along with the wig from her Cinderella doll, I have started to create a likeness of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I - in knitting. (It's already been done but I wanted to have a go myself.)

For inspiration, I consulted my gorgeous glossy catalogue from the Elizabeth I exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in 2003.

I'm concentrating on two portraits in particular, both from the 1570s and both depicting the Queen wearing deep red - Nicholas Hilliard's 'Pelican Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1574, which is in the collection of the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and the 'Plimpton Sieve Portrait' of 1579, by George Gower.

I'm also looking at portraits of Elizabeth I in the National Portrait Gallery's collection, concentrating on those from the 1570s, and researching fashion in hairstyles and clothing in the 1570s.

As you can see she's taking shape. Now for the fun part - beading, braiding and embroidery-a-go-go!

See also:
ElizabethI.org.uk: Elizabeth I - Appearance
Elizabethan Geek: Elizabethan Costume Review
Extreme Costuming: Two Elizabethan Hairstyles
Elizabethan-Era.org.uk: Elizabethan Hairstyles
themakeupgallery: Queen Elizabeth I
Semptress: Elizabethan Costuming
ElizabethanCostume.net: Elizabethan Hairnets, Cauls & Muffin Caps

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth I: The Golden Age

Still from The Golden Age (c) Working Title

I am SO looking forward to the release of The Golden Age - Shekhar Kapur's sequel to 1998's Elizabeth - one of my favourite films of all time, and (along with David Starkey's book and TV series) largely responsible for triggering my obsession with Elizabeth I and all things Tudor.

Cate Blanchett is my favourite Elizabeth on film, perfectly capturing the wit, intelligence, strength and vulnerability of Elizabeth I. (Anne Marie Duff coming a close second - Cate does have the advantage of already looking like the Elizabeth we know from portraits).

The Golden Age isn't out till November, so am trying to sate my cravings by watching the trailer, rewatching Elizabeth and flicking through production shots on Working Title's website.

Still and production shot from The Golden Age (c) Working Title

Young Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace

Tudor tea towel (c) www.historicroyalpalaces.com

I love my job. Especially when I get to spend hours wandering round a magnificent Tudor palace then enthuse about it on 24 Hour Museum. Read all about it: The Young Henry VIII Revealed At Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace blew me away. It gave me goosebumps to be walking through the courtyards and corridors the Tudor court would have bustled about in. AND I got this groovy teatowel - a fantastic piece of graphic design illustrating the quantity of food consumed by the Court in a year.

Museum Seeks Clubbers For Haçienda Project

Poster for the Hacienda's Hallucienda Monday night slot. © MoSI

Via 24 Hour Museum:

"The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester is hosting an event designed to capture the memories of clubbers from the Haçienda."

The Museum's exhibition Fac 51 The Haçienda runs from 3 April–30 June, on Tues and Thurs from 10.00am–4.00pm. Urbis will also be running a Haçienda exhibition from 19 July 2007.

* SONG OF THE DAY: A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray *

Gothic: Embroidery

Gothic embroidery by Gina Barrett (c) www.vam.ac.uk

Tucked away on the V&A Museum's Gothic microsite, there's this great embroidery tutorial, by designer, illustrator and expert textile worker Gina Barrett. There are also pop-up animations of couching, split stitch and satin stitch.

London: A Life in Maps

Panorama of London, William Smith, 1588. Copyright © The British Library Board

London: A Life in Maps, is on at The British Library from 24 November 2006 – 4 March 2007:

"Take a look at London as you have never seen it before. This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition brings to life London’s lost lanes and landmarks, parks and palaces, riots and railways, towers and temptations.

Maps, views, letters, and ephemera from the British Library collections, show the city’s transformation from a Roman outpost to the huge, heaving metropolis of today - and look to the Olympic and post-Olympic future.

In a series of magnificent maps and panoramas, London’s growth spreads before you through disease and fire, property booms and commercial expansion, war and comprehensive redevelopment. At the same time lesser-known images will enable you to see why and how these changes happened, and to catch a glimpse of Londoners’ lives and values, hopes and fears, preoccupations and aspirations through the ages.

Discover the ‘lost’ London’s you never knew - the great estates and the workhouses, the palaces and prisons, the grand churches and vast dockyards, the ancient villages and vanishing fields."

There's a book out too - London: A Life in Maps by Peter Whitfield. Looks tasty - have I mentioned that I love maps?

Gunpowder, Treason & Plot

As Bonfire Night approaches, thought I'd flag up Gunpowder, Treason & Plot, a new website for kids explaining the story of Guy Fawkes & co's failed plot to blow up Parliament, 400 years ago (by The Parliamentary Archives and 24 Hour Museum / Show Me). There's also a version for grown-ups.

Gloriana!

Oh joy - it's an Elizabeth-fest! Tonight it's the first part of Channel Four's Elizabeth I, starring Helen Mirren.

Then in January Anne-Marie Duff (Fiona from the genius Shameless) plays Elizabeth in the BBC series Elizabeth I: The Virgin Queen. This will cover Elizabeth's life from her teens to her death at the age of 70.

And it's possible that Cate Blanchett will reprise her role as Elizabeth in The Golden Age, a sequel to Shekhar Kapur's 1998 film Elizabeth, which is probably one of my top five films ever (and along with David Starkey's biog and TV series, responsible for getting me hooked on Bess). But I'm not holding my breath on this one.

As Empire says:

"It could be second time lucky for Cate Blanchett at the Oscars if this goes ahead. However, everything depends on Blanchett returning, and preferably the rest of the cast with her, and the script working out. We'll get excited if and when it all comes together."

The Makeup Gallery has a fantastic page of photos of actresses who have played Elizabeth on TV and in movies, linked to individual pages where their make-up jobs are gone into in detail - including some who agreed to shave their hairlines in order to get an authentic Tudor look... eeeshk!

The Postcodes Project

The Museum of London has used their vast collection of objects from all over London to produce the The Postcodes Project:

"To highlight some of their fascinating local stories we have selected a single object for each London postcode area. You can add to the richness of the site by submitting your own local stories."

Having the painters in

OK, it's getting kind of scary when my museum research gets into rhythm with me... check out this online exhibition from Sydney's Powerhouse Museum: The rags: paraphernalia of menstruation.

I particularly love this quote from Liz Giuffre in the 'Heckler' column of The Sydney Morning Herald (23 August 2004):

Despite the GST [Goods and Services Tax] classification of pads and tampons as 'luxury items', let me, on behalf of the women of Australia, let the manufacturers know that they have a captive audience. There is absolutely no need for this continued marketing push to make the products 'fun' and 'funky'.
 

24/08/2012 - edited to add: I have made an 'Adventures In Menstruating' board on Pinterest, prompted by finding a bunch of (now amusing) Tampax ads in some 1960s knitting magazines I found in a charity shop. 

Good Queen Bess

Just booked to see David Starkey speak at the Brighton Festival! I love his Tudor stuff - the books, the TV programmes. Nothing beats sticking his Elizabeth DVD on while working on something crafty (unless it's sticking the Cate Blanchett Elizabeth DVD on).

Nothing much else grabs me on an initial flick through the Festival brochure. But there's always the Fringe Festival's fantastic (free!) Streets Alive festival, usually the first Friday and Saturday of the month. I take the Friday off work and wander up and down the North Laine all afternoon with my camera. The acts change constantly and there's always something to see. I go back on Saturday and do the same thing - that way I hope I'll beat any nasty weather and get some fantastic pics.

The Renaissance Tailor

"The Quene said she had Clothes of every sort, which every day thereafter, so long as I was there, she changed..."

Am very excited to have discovered The Renaissance Tailor - a wonderful resource about reproducing 16th and 17th century clothing - or using period methods in constructing modern garments (I found it whilst looking up how to add a godet to a skirt). There's oodles of advice and instructions and I'm really inspired!

And while I think of it, props to the encyclopedic Fashion-Era site - a must for any student of women's costume. I'm constantly astounded by the depth of information here - it's addictive. Ooh, and hair history site Hairrific is great too.

Lewes Bonfire Night

A bunch of us went to the Lewes Bonfire Night, guests of the very fine Uncle & Mrs Meat. I'd never been before, and it's quite a experience. Lewes has five bonfire societies, and each tries the outdo the others with a parade, firework display and bonfire, at sites across the town. Hundreds of folk in fancy dress roam Lewes' winding streets, carrying flaming torches, throwing bangers at each other and chucking flaming tar barrels into the River Ouse, when the fancy takes them.

So, some fiery fun, friendly hospitality, a wee nip to keep out the cold and later, an hour's wait behind crash barriers outside Lewes station before we could get a train, joining hundreds of others in a Lennon & McCartney medley. And now all my clothes smell like BBQ crisps...