Karen’s Cabinet of Curiosities December 2017

 

(Click on images to enlarge them.)

Curiosity: 2 miniature portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte

Created: 1824

Artist: Maestro di Pavia

Measurements: Full-length portrait: 183×118 mm

                              Head portrait: 74×62 mm

These two miniature portraits have come to the University museum’s collection through the bequest of George Powell of Nanteos. As with so many of his objects, we have unfortunately no idea how, when and where he bought them. Holland and Meyrick explain that “Powell was very taken with Romantic struggles for liberty and nationhood. Like many other collectors in the 19^th century he collected material associated with Napoleon Bonaparte.” This and the exquisite execution of the portraits might have been his reasons for acquiring them.

Karen’s Cabinet of Curiosities November 2017

Curiosity: Small boxes of different materials

(from the F. W. Rudler collection)

Chinese and Japanese lacquered boxes

Raffia boxes

Box made from a cedar tree at Mound Lebanon, 1856

Box made from a cedar tree at Mound Lebanon, 1856

(Click on images to enlarge them.)

Frederick William Rudler (8^th July 1840 – 23^rd January 1915)

Frederick William Rudler was born in London in 1840. He studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic where he attended Science and Art classes. During this time, he was awarded two gold medals in one year. In 1861, he was appointed Assistant Curator at the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street, London. He remained there until, in 1876, he was offered to become a lecturer in Natural Sciences at the University College of Wales (now Aberystwyth University “AU”). He taught Chemistry and also became one of the AU’s earliest Geology Professors. In addition, he founded the university’s museum and was its first Curator. When the Curator of the Museum of Practically Geology, Trenham Reeks (1823-1879), died Rudler took Reeks’s position and the roles as Librarian of the museum and the Registrar of the Royal School of Mines, now part of Imperial College, as well. He remained Curator at Jermyn Street until his retirement in 1902. The same year he received the Imperial Service Order from King Edward VII for his services to science.

Karen’s Cabinet of Curiosities October 2017

Curiosity: Charango

Country of origin: South America (most likely Peru or Bolivia)

Maker: Unknown

Created: possibly late 19th or early 20th century

Measurements: 774mm

Material: armadillo shell, wood and metal

 

 

The charango is a small string instrument belonging to the lute family. It is a typical and popular instrument in the Andes of Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and parts of Argentina. It most likely derives from the early guitars that the Europeans, especially the Spanish conquistadors, brought with them from the 16^th century onwards. Before, indigenous instruments included the panpipe, notched flutes and double-headed drums but not strings. With its high pitch and smaller size than a guitar, the charango is more in line with the musical aesthetics of the indigenous people and can be carried around more easily.

Karen’s Cabinet of Curiosities September 2017

Curiosity: Noh mask

Country of origin: Japan

Created: 19th century or early 20th century (?)

Measurements: 405mm x 382mm

Material: Wood, gesso, horsehair, glass, paint, papier mâché

 

 

 

Noh is the name of the classical Japanese form of theatre. It developed from the earlier performance styles Dengaku no Noh (field music performance) and Sarugaku (“monkey music”) during the 14^th century. During Dengaku, there would be acrobatics and juggling; Sarugaku had comical components and had developed from Shinto rituals. Whereas Dengaku performers would alternate the singing and the more physical parts of their show, Sarugaku actors sung and danced/mimed simultaneously; after 1420, they would also be supported by a choir. Sarugaku also became more serious over the decades and began to supplant Dengaku in the second half of the 14^th century. Father and son Kan’ami Kiyosugu (1333-84) and Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) were famous actors of their time and are chiefly responsible for outlining the rules and conventions of the austere, dramatic art of Noh, which are still being adhered to today. Zeami explains, for example, that “the writing of No consists of three stages: choice of “seed” (subject), construction and composition. The “seed” is the story on which the play is based. This story must be well considered and divided into Introduction, Development and Climax. …Then the words must be put together and the music joined to them.” (The No Plays of Japan, Arthur Waley)

Karen’s Cabinet of Curiosities August 2017

Curiosity: Opium pipe

Country of origin: China

Maker: Unknown

Created: 19th century (?)

Measurements: 558mm

Material: Bamboo and metal (possibly tin or brass)

 

 

Karen’s Cabinet of Curiosities July 2017

 

Curiosity: Panel pipe

Creator: Haida people

Origin: Haida Gwaii

(formerly Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia, Canada

Date of creation: ca. 1820-1900

Material: Argillite

Measurements: 330 x 117mm

Karen’s Cabinet of Curiosities June 2017

Curiosity: Headrest/stool

Origin: South Sudan, Africa

Creator: Bari tribe

Date: 1902

Material: Wood and leather

Measurements: 155 x 200mm

Year of Legends 2017

2017 is the ‘Year of Legends’ in Wales, and we delved deeply into our collection to see what treasures relating to this fabulous theme might come to light. We selected a few, some of which will be included in a small display at the School of Art; others will only be viewable online. This is an on-going project and from time to time we might add to this post, so keep an eye out for updates.

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens with illustrations by Phiz (Household Words, 1874)

“You just come avay,” said Mr. Weller. “Battledore and Shuttlecock’s a wery good game, vhen you an’t the shuttlecock and two lawyers the battledores.”

“I say, how nice you look.”

“Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle had each performed a compulsory summerset with remarkable agility?.”

“Old Lobbs gave it one tug, and open it flew, disclosing Nathaniel Pipkin standing bolt upright inside, and shaking with apprehension from head to foot.”

Mr Pickwick sat in a wheelbarrow. Frontipiece

“The heroic man actually threw himself into a paralytic attitude, confidently supposed by the two bystanders to have been intended as a posture of self-defence.”

“I say insolent familiarity, Sir,” said Mr. Pickwick, turning upon Fogg with a fierceness of gesture which caused that person to retreat towards the door with great expedition.”

“Take this little villain away”, said the agonised Mr. Pickwick.

“Sam looked at the Fat Boy with great astonishment, but without saying a word.”

“Permit me to introduce my friends — Mr. Tupman — Mr. Winkle — Mr. Snodgrass.”

“He has come out,” said little Mr. Perker, greatly excited; the more so as their position did not enable them to see what was going forward.

“There was a scream as of an individual — not a rook — in corporeal anguish. Mr. Tupman had saved the lives of innumerable unoffending birds by receiving a portion of the charge in his left arm.”

“The words were scarcely out of the old gentleman’s lips, when footsteps were heard ascending the stairs.”

“The horse no sooner beheld Mr. Pickwick advancing with the chaise whip in his hand.”

“Mr. Tupman looked round. There was the fat boy.”

“Who are you, you rascal?” said the captain, administering several pokes to Mr. Pickwick’s body with the thick stick. “What’s your name?”

“Mr. Wardle looked on, in silent wonder.”

“Sam, having been formally introduced . . . . as the offspring of Mr. Weller, of the Belle Savage, was treated with marked distinction.”

“Seated on an upright tombstone, close to him, was a strange unearthly figure.”

“Sam stole a look at the inquirer.”

“God bless me, what’s the matter?”

“Before Mr. Pickwick distinctly knew what was the matter, he was surrounded by the whole body, and kissed by every one of them.”

“Old Mr. Wardle, with a highly-inflamed countenance, was grasping the hand of a strange gentleman.”

“Mr. Pickwick no sooner put on his spectacles, than he at once recognised in the future Mrs. Magnus the lady into whose room he had so unwarrantably intruded on the previous night.”

Frontispiece for chapter 1 ‘The Pickwickians’

“The mottled-faced gentleman reviewed the company, and slowly lifted his hand.”

“Heyling!” said the old man wildly. “My boy, Heyling, my dear boy, look, look!” Gasping for breath, the miserable father pointed to the spot where the young man was struggling for life.

“A compliment which Mr. Weller returned by knocking him down out of hand: having previously with the utmost consideration, knocked down a chairman for him to lie upon.”

“The Kitchen door opened, and in walker Mr. Job Trotter.”

“The chair was an ugly old gentleman; and what was more, he was winking at Tom Smart.”

“Standing before the dressing-g;lass was a middle-aged lady in yellow curl-papers, busily engaged in brushing what ladies call their ‘back hair’.”

“Mr. Pickwick….went slowly and gravely down the slide, with his feet about a yard and a quarter apart, amidst the gratified shouts of all the spectators.”

“Mr. Weller was dispelling all the feverish remains of the previous evening’s conviviality, . . . . when he was attracted by the appearance of a young fellow in mulberry-coloured livery.”

“The door was just going to be closed in consequence, when an inquisitive boarder, who had been peeping between the hinges, set up a fearful screaming.”

(Click on the images to enlarge them.)

Karen’s Cabinet of Curiosities May 2017

Curiosity: Tiger head and forepaws in glass case

Date: 1903 (shot)

Origin: Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India

Maker: J. Hutchings, Naturalist and Gunmaker, Aberystwyth

Measurements (case): 71x41x79cm