Mastery of Design: The Townshend Orange Sapphire

Ring with Orange Sapphire and Diamonds, 1850
From the Townshend Collection
The Victoria & Albert Museum

From the collection of the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, we see this exceptional orange sapphire.  Rubies and sapphires are varieties of corundum (aluminum oxide) which in its purest form is colorless. However, during formation of these crystals, local impurities in the earth create a range of different colors.  Rubies are colored by chromium and are always red, and while, sapphires typically are colored blue by iron and titanium, other colors of sapphire result from different combinations and proportions of impurities. When this occurs, the name sapphire is always prefixed with the color.

This ring is set with a stunning orange sapphire with a border of brilliant-cut diamonds, in a gold setting of about 1850.  It was made solely to showcase the stone.  

Painting of the Day: “Miss Elizabeth Ingram,” Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1757

Miss Elizabeth Ingram
Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1757
The Walker Art Gallery
Liverpool

At first glance, this appears to be a typical Mid-Eighteenth Century painting. We have the sitter posed in a vaguely Classical background—as was the style of the day. Her intellectual and social status is made clear to us by the Greek-inspired column. Attired in her finest gown, she gazes out at the viewer in a gentle, yet resolute, manner.


However, on further inspection, we see what made Joshua Reynolds one of the most celebrated portrait painters of the era. Notice the details in her gown—the folds and sheen of the silk, the pinched rigidity of her stomacher. These are the qualities which set Reynolds’ work apart from his contemporaries.

Modern viewers—especially younger people who seem to enjoy being tan (or orange, in some cases), Miss Ingram will probably seem quite pale. While it’s true that a lady would not have had the leathery glow of our current “ideal beauty,” she wouldn’t have wanted to have quite such a pallid countenance either. Usually, Eighteenth Century ladies were painted with very rosy cheeks and skin. Thus was the case of Miss Ingram whose face and hands originally had a lovely pink-ish quality. Reynolds and his fellow artists of the Eighteenth Century often used pink pigments which proved to be unstable over time. Many portraits from this era feature pale subjects who were once quite healthy looking—having lost their natural blush to the fading of time. 

Unusual Artifacts: Johnny the Dunce, an Automaton, 1860

Automaton
French, 1860The Victoria & Albert Museum

Poor Johnny. He’s a dunce. This somewhat creepy, but entirely intriguing figure of wax is more than just an awkward depiction of a humiliated boy. It’s also an automaton by an unknown French maker.

Here, we see the figure of a young boy sitting on (not at) his desk. He’s trying to learn to read, but his attempts are unsuccessful as his book is upside down. I worked with people like this once. Despite his earnest efforts, he has not been rewarded for his sad studies. He has been made to wear an artificial suede cap marked DUNCE which has been fashioned to resemble two ass’ ears. Still, the cap goes nicely with his red and white sweater, yellow silk shirt and waistcoat with a red silk front and brown silk back. Clearly he comes from a well-off family. His breeches are of striped silk and velvet in dark green, pale green and orange which somewhat clash with his knitted yellow and green striped socks which stick out below his black lace up boots.

Johnny’s head and body are crafted of composition while his lower arms made of bisque. His wax head is adorned with hair of black mohair and eyes of brown glass.

He looks rather pathetic when sitting still. However, when the clockwork mechanism is activated and a slow, mournful tune begins to play, he looks all the more pathetic. The ears on his dunce’s cap move back and forth as his head moves to the left. It’s quite a complicated animation as his right arm also moves up and down and his left leg swings.

Such automata were not made for children. These were the stuff of aristocratic adults and were often trotted out for the amusement of guests. 

The Art of Play: A Mechanical Popeye, 1929

"I'm Popeye."
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Ah, Popeye! Of course he would have a place of honor in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Here's a look at our sailor friend as he was in 1929.

This clockwork toy figure of Popeye the Sailor Man is made of metal and celluloid, painted pink. He wears a white cap and a black and red shirt with white buttons, blue trousers, black shoes, orange hair, and, certainly, anchor tattoos on arms.

When he is wound, his head moves up and down and side to side on his conspicuously long neck. His arms dangle down from a rod stuck through his body and no longer function, but once went up and down.

Print of the Day: Southend, Seaside Excursions, 1925

Southend:  Seaside Excursions
Herrick, 1925
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Frederick Charles Herrick (1887-1970) designed this poster in 1925 for the Underground Electric Railways Co. of London, Ltd. Printed by Baynard Press, the chromolithograph depicts a woman in a blue bathing costume and orange swim cap as she readies herself for a day at the seaside with her friends who seem to like to wave. The dark background serves to set off the type: “Southend: Seaside Excursions.” Meant to entice post-Great War tourists, the poster was designed to advertise inexpensive train fare to seaside destinations—still considered a suitable spot for a one-day holiday.

History’s Runway: The Baba Beaton Wedding Dress, 1934

Wedding Dress
Charles James, 1934
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This wedding gown was worn by Miss Baba Beaton in November of 1934 when she married Mr. Alec Hambro. The gown, designed by Charles James, shows the development of the designer’s famous complex cut and simple lines.

James said of his work, “all my seams have meaning - they emphasise something about the body.”

The gown is constructed of cream, ivory, and satin. It’s cut with a high neckline and long, tight sleeves. James’ famous seaming and darting serves to sculpt the satin to fit the body. The finishing touch is a spray of wax orange blossoms at the neck. 

Object of the Day: The Birds and Ferns Potpourri Vase, 1820

The Victoria & Albert Museum

Made purely for the sake of satisfying the senses, this cylindrical vase of square form, features a tapering neck, spreading foot and gilded handles in the form of grotesque animal heads. The central section of the vase is painted with a tree on which sits an exotic bird and a parrot above an abundance of roses and other flowers in blue, yellow, brown, orange, pink and black enamels. The background, in its entirety, undulates with an abstracted painted fern pattern in mauve.

The base is pierced with three circular holes and the lid—which is surmounted by the figure of a gilt, seated greyhound--is pierced with eight circular holes. These openings allowed scent to escape from the potpourri with which this vessel was filled.

These beautiful container was made in Longport, England, c. 1820 by Davenport & Co. who specialized in bone china which was gilt and painted in brilliant enamel colors. It is marked “DAVENPORT, LONGPORT.”