A celebration of Parliamentary Reform

In this time of general election excitement it seems apt to reflect on the past and those who campaigned for our right to vote.

This hanging from our collection is believed to celebrate the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832. The act was passed after many years of petitioning and popular agitation about the abuses and corruptions within the system for electing MPs. New boroughs were created, in the emerging industrial cities in the north, by taking away seats from the ‘rotten boroughs’, where hardly anyone lived. The act also widen the electorate giving more men the vote (No women quite yet!).

Although the origins of this hanging are unclear it is the imagery found on the hanging and also the history of these types of textiles that bring us to believe it is making a political statement supporting parliamentary reform. The central panel of the hanging appears to depict the heads of Lord John Russell and Earl Grey who pushed the act through Parliament. The hanging is made using a technique known as inlaid patchwork, whereby woollen cloth is inlaid and sewn together to make up the design. The technique was usually worked by tailors recycling the off-cuts of their trade. Tailors, in 1832, would had been one section of society that probably benefited from the Great Reform Act.

This hanging is currently in Bautzen, Germany as part of a touring exhibition of Inlaid Patchwork. But it will be returning to Leeds, as the exhibition is coming to the Art Gallery at the end of August.

John Smeaton's model for the foundation of the Eddystone lighthouse

John Smeaton was a great 18th century engineer, from Austhorpe, Leeds. He coined the term "civil engineer" and the symbol used by the Institute of Civil Engineers is an image of one of Smeaton's most famous creations, the Eddystone lighthouse, built on the Eddystone Rocks fourteen miles from Plymouth, in the English Channel . The Eddystone Rocks are a major shipping hazard and are marked by a lighthouse beacon as a warning to shipping. The first lighthouse lasted only five years and was destroyed, and its keeper killed, in a truly fearsome storm, of hurricane proportions, in 1703. Smeaton's lighthouse, the third to be built on the Eddystone Rocks, lasted much longer, from 1759 until 1877. The structure itself was sound, but it was the rocks underneath that were being undermined by wave action that led to the decision to replace Smeaton's lighthouse. At the end of its serviceable life the citizens of Plymouth had it dismantled and re-built in Plymouth, so proud were they of this extraordinary pioneering structure. The Leeds collections have the model that Smeaton made for the foundation of the lighthouse. It underwent conservation a while ago, to glue back together some of the wooden components. It is made of oak, and it was in effect the instructions to the masons on how to make the flat platform on which to build the lighthouse. It is comprised of interlocked stones, dovetailed together and let into dovetailed recesses cut into the Eddystone Rock, to key it all together. The story of the lighthouse's innovative and pioneering design and construction is a fascinating vignette of someone who could engage the brain and solve a significant problem.

Institute of Civil Engineers:

http://www.ice.org.uk/bookshop/bookshop_main.asp?ISBN=9780727700889

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smeaton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddystone_Lighthouse#Smeaton.27s_lighthouse

A great little primary school in Austhorpe, Leeds, also uses the the Eddystone lighthouse as the signature symbol of the school. This beacon of learning is rightly proud of Austhorpe's greatest son:

http://www.austhorpe.leeds.sch.uk/homepage/index.php

During the spring and summer of 2011 Temple Newsam House had a John Smeaton exhibition. Smeaton undertook several projects at Temple Newsam House and estate for the Irwins. The exhibition gave an overview of Smeaton's career and significance, as well as details of his most important accomplishments, especially his famous lighthouse. In addition to items from Leeds collections, we were privileged to borrow objects from the Royal Society, of whom Smeaton was not only a Fellow, but a Copley Medallist as well.

An old West Country folk song about the Eddystone lighthouse is good fun!
Eddystone Lighthouse folksong

Bed (time) Stories

26 Years after its purchase in 1981, work is finally starting on the restoration of the Hinton House State Bed of 1710, now situated in the Crimson bedroom in Temple Newsam House. (The picture on the right is how it looked when it was first purchased). It was commissioned by the 1st Earl of Poulett for a visit by Queen Anne to Hinton House. It remained in situ until 1910 when it was purchased by Lord Anglesey for his home,Beaudesert in Staffordshire. Before it came to Leeds it passed through the hands of 6 antique dealers and one museum. The placing of such a large object in so many different situations has meant that the bed has been rebuilt, re-hung and remade many times. Much of the original silk, velvet and gold that formed the drapery of the bed has been lost or degraded. On some of the original valences the silk has turned to dust which clings to my face and neck and brings me out in a rash. The current configuration of the bed includes four awkwardly sized posts. As it stands now the posts threaten to ruin the canopy. It is clear that desperate work is needed to save the bed but with such a chequered past working out what is best for it has been hard. It has also stalled restoration. In effect the Hinton House Bed has been many beds, so which one do we restore it to? Following convincing structural evidence and a quarter of a century of research by historians on state beds the decision has now finally been made to restore the bed to its first form as a so called, “Angel” or “Flying tester” bed. This means that instead of being supported by posts, the canopy is suspended and hung by a chain from the ceiling. What is striking is how many people it will take to complete this project. Conservators, curators, technicians, upholsterers, master carvers and weavers will all be working on the bed. Then, if you take into account the timber men, silk worm farmers and a whole host of others I can’t even begin to imagine how many will have contributed to this project. In 1710 it was no different. A state bed was probably the most expensive item you could purchase for a house, precisely because of all the people it would have taken to make it. The further exploration that will occur as the bed is restored and conserved means that we will uncover not only more of the stories of the bed, but also some of the stories of those who made and remade it.

Zeolites from the Icelandic volcanoes

Volcanoes in Iceland have been a hot topic lately. If Katla joins in with Eyjafjallajokull (as it usually does within a year or so), then it could become rather hotter.

While it is hard to see the miles of black lava as a beautiful result, the extreme volcanic activity of Iceland does produce some exquisite surprises.
Zeolites are a group of complex silicate minerals that are famous for growing inside frozen air bubbles in lava. On Iceland, the endless movements of molten magma underground result in a lot of hot water being pumped through cracks in the rock. It is this water that holds the dissolved minerals from which the zeolites grow, and Iceland is probably the best place for them on the planet. This example from our collections is natrolite (Na2Al2Si3O10.2H2O) – a stunning specimen that was almost certainly collected in Iceland during the 19th century.

Zeolites are an important resource for a range of technological applications nowadays, mostly in chemistry. They have also been suggested as being vital to the origin of life. Volcanoes may cause some problems when they go off on your doorstep, but from a geological perspective that have all sorts of fascinating side-effects!

John Sell Cotman; Howden Church, Yorkshire

John Sell Cotman, East End of Howden Church, Yorkshire, c.1811, Etching, Leeds City Art Gallery, Bequeathed by Sydney Decimus Kitson, 1949.

Perhaps a loose connection, but John Sell Cotman's 'Howden Church Yorkshire' is neither monstrous, nor an image of the nineteenth century's production of man traps...however, what it does give us is one of the finest etchings of Yorkshire's architecture by artist John Sell Cotman held at Leeds Art Gallery. And technically, all three figures in the etching would have been suitably manlike to experience a rather lethal injury in a man trap in the late nineteenth century when these were made for use. Tenuous, i am aware.

Perhaps instead we should acknowledge the quality of the work of a truly underrecognised artist who spent may many years producing works in and around Yorkshire. He was one of the very finest watercolourists that worked after the illustrious William Turner of 1775 - 1851.

This is a personal approach for me, as I live next door to this beautiful and still ruined (not by a minster trap) building. As the current intern working intimately with the Cotman Collection right now, I certainly hadn't expected to find my neighbouring building amongst the artist's etchings and even my rather miniature historic town of Howden repeatedly mentioned in his handwritten notes! An exhibition on the artist as soon as..? I think I shall take that on and no doubt we shall be seeing more of this talented artist at Leeds Art Gallery later in September of this year ...

And still… more monstrous behaviour

Bat Fowling; unknown to me until I caught sight of this coloured print dated October 30th 1813.

Despite the name Bat Fowling is an old fashioned method of catching birds. In the dark of the night the bird seeker would light his torch near a roost which would wake the creatures from their slumber. Dazzled and confused the birds would fly toward the flames where they were easily caught in nets, or even beaten down.

This print was published by John Wheble (active late 18th Century) of Warwick Square London, it is an etching on wove paper.