Archives

Various Objects in Focus

Feb6

Over the last year I’ve read several books from the British Museum’s Objects in Focus series. These are lovely little books that provide a bitesize history of significant objects in the Museum’s collection, often with interesting contextual information from when the object was created and when it was discovered. There’s also often information about conservation techniques and how new technologies are increasing our understanding of archaeological and historical objects. They are also the perfect length for a once a week commute. I can read a whole one in one day.

As I’ve been somewhat lax in blogging, rather than do a post for each book, I’ve collected them here.

Lindow Man

Lindow Man is the preserved remains of a man found in a bog in Cheshire. Over 2000 years old, these remains are the best preserved from Iron Age Britain. The book covers the discovery and excavation of the remains and gives insight into what has been learnt from them. The man died a violent death but it is not know if it was murder, sacrifice or execution and speculation abounds.

The Standard of Ur

Unearthed in excavations in the ancient city of Ur in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq) the ‘Standard’ is a beautifully decorated hollow box. It’s called a Standard because of it’s positioning in the tomb. This is potentially misleading as it’s function is not known, if indeed it had a function beyond being art. One of the things that these Objects in Focus books allow is photos of the detail of the art that wouldn’t be possible seeing it on display in the Museum.

The Warren Cup

This is a luxury silver cup from the Roman Empire, dating to the first century AD. It depicts scenes of male lovers and, as well as being an astonishing piece of both art and artisanship, illustrates some of the social mores of Roman civilization. However, because of the nature of the scenes it languished unstudied and unappreciated. Even in 1999, when the Museum acquired the cup, there was a stir in the media.

Model of a Summer Camp

The Model of a Summer Camp is an intricate and detailed model carved from mammoth-ivory depicting a festival of the people of Sakha (north-east Russia). The model was created in the mid-19th century for the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867 where it was bought for the Museum. Although the model itself is not that old, the festival it depicts goes back centuries.

The Discobolus

The discus thrower is probably one of the most recognisable classical statues and will be familiar to many people. The book talks about the impact of the eighteenth century vogue for restoring classical sculptures – by filling bits in, adding new pieces or by inadvertently combining parts from different statues. Apparently quite a lot of statues, including the Discobolus, have the wrong heads.

The Meroë Head of Augustus

This is a bronze portrait of the Roman Emperor Augustus. The book looks in detail at the metal casting techniques used and the skill with which such a life-like image could be produced. It also looks at how the production and distribution of these types of statue were used a means of demonstrating power amongst far-flung imperial territories.

The Portland Vase

A beautiful Roman glassware vase which was smashed by a drunken visitor to the Museum in 1845. It’s re-construction and subsequent re-reconstruction has enabled the understanding of how the vase was created using techniques in glass that had been lost for centuries.

A’a: a deity from Polynesia

A’a is a carved wooden deity with many other smaller figures attached to it. Like many ethnographic objects collected by missionaries in the British Empire, not much is known about what it really represents. However, study of the materials, artisanship and working with local people who still retain the skills and knowledge can illuminate some aspects of the society that created it.

Bronze Head from Ife

Thought to represent a King, the bronze head is from Nigeria. The book has an interesting look about the attitudes of European artists towards non-European art as primitive and how objects such as the Bronze Head challenged those regressive theories.

Lion: Pride before the Fall

Aug14

Lion: Pride before the Fall is a photography book featuring the last lion prides in Africa, profits from which go to support the conservation work of Born Free.

There are only 20,000 lions left in the wild and their range is limited to a few places in Africa, where once they could be found in Europe and Asia as well. The photographs are gorgeous, but this is a profoundly upsetting book. It is possible that lions will be extinct in the wild by 2050. They are under threat from the clash with people as settlements encroach on lion territory. Lions will kill livestock. People poison lions to protect their livelihoods. They are also at risk from poachers and trophy hunters.

There are more lions in captivity. Those in private collections, zoos, and in farms where they are bred for canned hunting. Captive lions are a tragic shadow of themselves. Without the space they need, ranges of tens of miles, and the ability to engage in their natural behaviours, they are nothing like they are in the wild.

It seems lion populations can recover fast. If their habitat is protected and a balance can be found between lion and human populations.

Addressing the horrors of the canned hunting business and the trade in lion bones is also important but lions rescued from these farms can rarely be released into the wild.

It’s a beautiful, devastating book. Well worth investing in.

Eye of the Tiger

Mar3

The Eye of the Tiger is an account of the trips of the wildlife artist and environmentalist Pollyanna Pickering and her photographer and business partner Anna-Louise Pickering to India in search of tigers. There were two trips, one in the late 1980s and the next ten years later. The first expedition was to Nagarahole National Park and Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Park to look for wild tigers and then to visit tigers rescued from a UK circus and rehomed in India. The second expedition was to visit a Project Tiger reserve and included trips to Rajasthan and the foothills of the Himalayas.

The book is based on the journals of Anna-Louise Pickering and includes sketches, photographs and paintings from both authors. There are a few recipes. The trips are described in a very natural way. Not every day is covered and there are many days when there are no tigers to be seen anywhere. But there are several moments when tigers are close and visible. The final sighting is very dramatic and vividly expressed.

Tigers are beautiful creatures. There conservation doesn’t just preserve the existence of these incredible beings; when an apex predator is flourishing it indicates that the habitat and food chain is in good health. Ensuring the survival of the tiger ensures the success of many other species. The book provides a lot of information about the work of the Born Free Foundation and Project Tiger and the challenges faced from poaching and habitat loss.

Pollyanna Pickering’s art is stunning and books are lovely in themselves. The photos and art are gorgeously presented in a well designed book that is easy to read and easy to just look at for hours.

Pandas next, I think.

The Gayer Anderson Cat

Jan21

The Gayer Anderson Cat by Neal Spencer is part of the British Museum’s Objects in Focus series. So far, I’m enjoying the series immensely. There’s something very satisfying about a short book packed full of stuff I didn’t know before.

The Gayer Anderson Cat is the familiar, well-known cat statue from Ancient Egypt. I was surprised just how much isn’t known about the statue. It was acquired by Gayer Anderson, an art and antiquities collector in the early 20th century, who purchased objects from dealers on a regular basis but no information about where it came from or what it was for came with it. Thousands of cat statues were created in Ancient Egypt: there is evidence of workshops churning these things out and the book covers the excavations of some of these workshops. How they were used and who by is more mysterious. The Gayer Anderson Cat is the finest example of the type in existence so an assumption is made that it was paid for by someone wealthy and dedicated in a temple, but that is still conjecture.

New technology can tell us a lot about how it was made from the casting technique to the effects of the chemical composition of the metal. It can also reveal more detail on the surface of the object than is visible to the naked eye. The book goes into this in some detail. X-rays have revealed that there are repairs around the head and show how they were made.

These books are delightful. I like the intense focus on one small thing and what it tells us (or what we have projected on to it) about the lives of people who lived thousands of years ago.

The Way of the Wolf

May28

The Way of the Wolf is a book of paintings by Pollyanna Pickering, with text and photography by Anna-Louise Pickering, bought for me as a Yule present by my parents. It is absolutely gorgeous and I loved it.

The book recounts two trips made by the Pickerings to photograph and draw wildlife. The first was to seek out the threatened European wolf in Transylvania and the second trip was to look for the critically endangered Ethiopian wolf. Both areas are pretty remote and along with paintings and photos of the wolves are descriptions of the effort needed to get anywhere near them. There’s some interesting observations on the way of life in these areas and a little history. In both cases the authors worked with conservation teams to get close to the animals and descriptions of that work is included.

As the wolves are both rare and shy (the Ethiopian wolf is the rarest of all wolves) there’s a lot of time spent not seeing them, and instead painting and photographing other wildlife, the people they meet and the places they pass through. In Ethiopia they describe a feeding ritual with hyenas accompanied by some intense photos.

I love wolves and I enjoyed The Way of the Wolf for the beautiful art and the loving way it is presented. The Pickerings have published a number of books of wildlife art, including tigers, pandas, polar bears and owls. They are not readily available through the usual booksellers so I’m going to include a link to their website Pollyanna Pickering Studio.