Review to Follow Lecture

Review to Follow Lecture

Review to Follow Lecture

LECTURE REVIEWS 2008-09
2^nd October  7.30 pm  2008
Various Aspects of the St Ives Society of Artists
Mr David Tovey.
Gave up a career as a lawyer to study the History of Art at Warwick University.  Subsequently becoming an author and much sought after exhibition curator in all aspects of Cornish art.
Review
The opening of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Royal Albert or Saltash bridge in 1859, carrying railway passengers to Cornwall for the first time, proved a landmark event for artists. The link forged to St Ives brought a crowd of international painters to enjoy what they found there.

Namely the light.  In the opening lecture for the new term of Wells Evening Society’s held at Wells Town Hall on Thursday, art historian David Tovey spoke of this 19^th-century ‘dirty, stinking, industrial town, based on the pilchard industry’, as having a unique quality. 

It faced north, so the water and its four sand beaches were lit from the land and the Atlantic Ocean blended with vast skyscapes for artists to exercise their talents.

They ranged from Turner, who visited the little Cornish town in 1811, all the way through Henry Harewood Robinson and his wife to those who arrived before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Some came from America, some from Scandinavia. All were seduced by the challenge of painting the vast landscapes and Cornish fisherfolk, as well as the local countryside.

Artists such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Arthur Meade and the lecturer’s great-grandfather, William Titcomb flourished. By exhibiting in London and – more importantly – in Paris and as far away as Chicago and Pittsburg, they all contributed to the Cornish village’s international reputation as a centre for fine art.

The lecture was attended by some 130 members. In her introduction to the evening’s proceedings,  chairman Sara Whitehouse said that membership of Wells Evening Society is holding up well, but new recruits are always welcome.

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6^th  November  7.30 pm  2008
The Story of Posters
Mr Paul Atterbury 
Trained as a graphic designer before studying art history and working for Sotherby Publications, as a historical adviser to Royal Doulton and then editor of Connoisseur magazine.  He has written or edited over 30 books, mostly on ceramics but also on canals and railways.  For the past 16  years a member of the BBC Antiques Road Show team.
Review
‘The poster is our history’: the concluding words of a lecture given by Paul Atterbury of BBC Television’s Antiques Roadshow to Wells Evening Society on November 6.

Entitled ‘The Power of the Poster’, his lecture was illustrated with a remarkable series of images collected from the mid-19^th century to the present day.

By the end of it, his claim was entirely creditable because he had shown the links between milestones in social and political history and how they were made known to the public or advertised through the medium of posters. His lecture also recorded patterns in art history over the past 200-odd years, since the invention of lithography in the 1790s.

As a form of commercial art, posters have reflected the leading trends of the days. So the earliest of them were formed from simple wood blocks and fly-posted to walls, In Atterbury’s words, ‘word upon word, text upon text, image upon image’.

Colours were introduced in the 1840s and a further breakthrough came in the 1860s when Japanese printed blocks became collectable items in the west.  In the 1870s artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec began to use the medium.

So modernism gave way to art-nouveau, to art déco and eventually to abstraction as posters, ‘the decorative language of the street’ found a place in our emotional landscape. For products such as soap, cigarettes, tea and tobacco each found a distinctive ‘label’; meat spread became Bovril and mustard became Colman’s; and always with the teasing promise that ‘Players please’.

Travel and tourism featured heavily in this visual world, with posters featuring the delights of railway and ocean liner, or the advantages of a run in the motor - provided it had a full tank of Shell. Interestingly government propaganda posters followed the same trends as fierce pride was induced in fortress Britain, with its long and varied coastline, a place where ‘careless talk costs lives’.

And all this despite the fact that, as Paul Atterbury said, ‘The appeal of the poster is that you are dealing with something ephemeral, designed to be thrown away.’

Those that remain are now highly sought after and valuable collectors’ items, to be treasured by afficianados of programmes such as the Antiques Roadshow.

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4^th December  7.30 pm  2008
The Current Renaissance in Contemporary Silver
Mrs Phillipa Glanville
A Liveryman of the Goldsmiths Company, her work has ranged across the decorative arts and social history having been Tudor and Stuart Curator at the Museum of London and Keeper of Metalwork at the V & A.  Subsequently Academic Director of Waddesdon Manor. 
Review
Almost everyone has silver jewellery in their lives, but larger silver pieces have been traditionally seen as for the rich – or as presentation pieces. Roy Strong has used the phrase college plate to sum up these perceptions.

Last Thursday, in a vivid and animated lecture, Philippa Glanville told the Wells Evening Society how all this has changed over the last twenty five years.  In her lecture “The Current Renaissance in Contemporary Silver”, she explained how in the early 1990s, during her time as Keeper of Metalwork at the Victoria & Albert Museum, she introduced contemporary silver pieces to complement the famous collection of antique silver. Since then, a whole new generation of silversmiths has emerged, producing exciting pieces, both functional and sculptural.

Contemporary work can be both formal and intimate, and often be commissioned for surprisingly small sums. The Internet has facilitated direct contact between makers and the public, but to absorb the excitement of these gleaming sculptural shapes, direct physical exposure is still essential. Goldsmiths’ Silver Fair, runs in London’s Goldsmiths Hall each autumn, and has ninety artists showing their skills. There are few exhibition spaces in the south west, but Sheffield, home to tableware (‘flatware’) is the sponsor of their Millennium Gallery. The Harley Gallery in Worksop and the Shipley Gallery in Gateshead all show specialist collections of recently-designed silver. Saatchi, that great patron of British innovation, is about to open a new Gallery to promote crafts, which will of course include pieces made in silver. 

So contemporary silver is now established but it needs a constant flow of new young designers and makers. Philippa Glanville is actively involved with the Bishopsland Trust in Oxfordshire which is a bridge between college and the realities of the gallery world. It offers young makers the opportunity to work alongside established silversmiths, learning techniques as well as how to meet deadlines, to price their work and to meet and satisfy clients as well as taking part in regular exhibitions.

On the Evening Society’s 12-foot square screen members saw magnificent examples of contemporary silverware. Downing Street has a striking and innovative collection of tableware representing the work of many different silversmiths.  Silver tankards inventively used the handles of a motorbike for Ewan McGregor, and a simple oval teapot – insulated - for Lulu which she can cup in her hands showed the inventive approach of today’s makers.  A particularly magnificent sculptural candle centre piece drew an audible gasp from the audience, and it is good to hear that these examples of British design have drawn crowds in Beijing and Tokyo as well as London.

Questions at the end of the lecture reflected the audience’s lively interest. They covered the making process (the terms raising and chasing were defined and the techniques described) and how to keep silver clean. (Keep it in use, but don’t store it near the Aga!) A description of Roman silver hordes found all over Britain reminded us that working in silver is an ancient as well as one of the most excitingly contemporary art forms.

On a cold and rainy night, the lecture was attended by 110 members and seven visitors. The next lecture in the Evening Society’s winter programme will be held in the Town Hall on Thursday January 8. This will be on ‘The Silk Road’ and given by Jonathan Tucker. The Society encourages visitors to come along and get a ‘taster’ of the lectures. There is a fee of £6.00 at the door, with reduced membership if joining for the rest of the season.

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8^th January  7.30 pm  2009
The Silk Road
Mr Jonathan Tucker
Educated at the University of Wales and the School of Oriental and African Studies, he served as an RAF pilot and Police Detective in Hong Kong,  He worked for Spink and Son as an Associate Director in the Indian and S.E. Asia Department and now operates a gallery with his wife in St James's.  Consultant and author of a number of books on, and a map of, the Silk Road 
Review
Although entitled The Silk Road, the lecture enjoyed by the Wells Evening Society pm on Thursday , January 8 could more properly have been  entitled the ‘Silk Roads’. Jonathan Tucker showed three slides on two screens simultaneously. One of these featured a map with all the routes from the Mediterranean across Syria, Iran, Arabia, the Stans and India all the way to China; the other his slides. Many routes, many roads and a two-way traffic of ideas, culture, religious beliefs and ultimately disease – with the spread of the Bubonic plague - as well, of course, as silk.

From east to west came ceramics, tea, dyes, jade and cosmetics too. From west to east went gold, silver, amber, gems and, when they were the height of fashion and almost a currency in their own right, tulip bulbs as well. The earliest trade routes had opened up to deal in horses, Arab blood stock being at a premium and highly considered by the Chinese. These early ‘roads’ had regular fortresses and beacons which burnt tamarisk branches and wolf dung – the latter giving off a pungent black smoke to alert would-be trouble-makers.

Jonathan Tucker, author of Treasures From The Silk Road: Devotion, Conquest and Trade Along Ancient Highways, explained that the original name for these trade routes was given by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877. His own engagement came from trips regularly undertaken over a ten-year period in the 1990s. So his lecture was littered with personal anecdotes as when, for example, suffering extreme cold in the evening, his native guides would put the embers from their fire into a shallow pit covered with sand and then place their beds on top of it to ensure a comfortable night under the stars.

The eventual demise of the Silk Roads came when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453. Subsequent maritime exploration meant that sea traffic took over from the routes across deserts and mountains and the safety of overland travellers could no longer be secured.

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5^th February  7.30 pm  2009
The Great East India Company Adventure
Mr Gerald Davison
Author, art dealer and lecturer (in Asia and UK), whose books on Chinese ceramics are among the standard works on the subject. 
Review
More than 100 stalwarts braved the elements on Thursday evening to attend the Wells Evening Society’s lecture on the history of the Great East India Company. Given by Gerald Davison, it ably demonstrated how a project that began with trade and – as he put it – ‘bravery, public service and compassion’ gradually changed over the 250 years of its active life and became embroiled in territorial conquest.

The Royal Charter that set up the Company was signed by Queen Elizabeth 1 on December 31, 1600. The project was a simple one: to secure trade for the English in a theatre largely dominated by the Spanish and Portuguese.  The Brits went in on the tails of the Dutch, who were also concerned to get a slice of the giant cake represented by trade with India and, increasingly, with China. The east had spices, ebony and ivory, jade and rose quartz; the west had silver and cloth. China in particular had tea as well as rare woods and porcelain, in which to store and then to serve it. To make his point, Mr Davison held out a humble nutmeg to his audience, reminding them that once this spice was literally worth its weight in gold.

For the first hundred years the British lagged behind the Dutch but during this period theirs was a benign presence where they traded, as they often intermarried with the native population. But gradually the desire for luxury goods back home generated greed and corruption. Bases or factories at the trading stations had to be defended, so a military element and eventually an army became inevitable.  The Church of England too became an ingredient of the recipe as garrisons developed churches and a social infrastructure.  No wonder that when the Company’s influence declined, it had already transmogrified into the British Empire and the Raj.

In its heyday, however, the luminaries, such as Sir Thomas Smith, buccaneer John Dee of the Sussex, Clive of India, Warren Hastings, General Cornwallis and Sir Stanford Raffles all carved out reputations for themselves. The most ingenious traders bought and sold in bulk on behalf of the government backers or syndicates who sponsored their travels but also knew how to acquire that unique bedspread or dagger or a watering ewer made of jade. Exquisite artefacts from the Far East made their way over to Europe and, as Mr Davison reminded his audience, are still to be seen in English stately homes or National Trust properties.

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5^th March  7.30 pm  2009    [AGM at 8.55 pm]
Scottish Arts and Crafts
Dr Elizabeth Cumming
For many years involved in art history.  She ran the Edinburgh City Art Gallery and taught at the City College of Art.  Now involved in running exhibitions, particularly on the Scottish Arts and Crafts Movement.  She is the author of a book on Phoebe Traquair.

Review
At the meeting of the Wells Evening Society held on March 5, a gathering of 126 members heard Dr Elizabeth Cumming lecture on the Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland. She ran the Edinburgh City Art Gallery, taught at the City College of Arts and has written extensively on her subject matter. This familiarity with the topic and superior quality of her photos made this an exceptionally informative evening.

When she was indexing the book she wrote on the Movement she found she needed 1,300 cards to carry the detailed lists of names and places and crafts she had written about. During her lecture these tripped so fluently off her tongue that her audience were drawn in to appreciate the marvels of work by the great artists such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Robert Lorimer and Phoebe Traquair and to understand how a variety of less well-known craftsmen came to create a distinctive Scottish idiom. Their ‘delight in materials and working hands’ ensured a future for Pictish art.

At first though, the Scottish Movement lent on William Morris and his colleagues for its English inspiration. Indeed its 1893 journal, The Studio carried the letters NB, standing for Northern Britain on the cover. Then the work diversified as the Scottish tradition was modernised and found expression in the interior design of homes, castles, churches and cathedrals. To bring on a new generation of artists, training colleges and workshops were set up in Edinburgh and Glasgow to forge links with industry and so improve all commercial design. Furniture, wrought iron metal, leaded glass, embroidery, stencilling, radiators, pottery, electric fittings, panels and friezes, as well as external design were all simplified and modernized and Scottish myth and allegory fed in a variety of designs. The thistle and Scottie dog featured along with other heraldic motifs, cropping up in sites as exalted as the Thistle Chapel at St Giles’ Cathedral and in simple boot scrapers to adorn an ordinary doorway.

In both its formal and vernacular contexts the Movement reached its apogee in Edinburgh’s Scottish National War Memorial of 1927, commemorating the 150,000 Scots men and women who died in World War I.

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2^nd April  7.30 pm  2009
Art, Architecture and Music at the Court of James I
Mr Peter Leech
A distinguished musician and Scholar.  Since arriving from Australia in 1996 he has held a number of prestigious positions and is perhaps best known locally as Musical Director of the highly successful Bristol Bach Choir.

Review
The Society met on April 2nd for a lecture by Dr. Peter Leech on "Art, Architecture and Music at the Court of James I1". given to a full audience. Dr. Leech, originally from Australia has held a number of prestigious positions,in this country and for ten years was known locally as the Musical Director of the Bristol Bach Choir.

James'reign only lasted for a little over three years but it was a period when the Arts flourished and we were welcomed back into Catholic Europe. The King brought in musicians, artists and engravers from Italy and the Dutch Netherlands. Like his brother Charles II he had been brought up a Roman Catholic by his mother, Henrietta Maria. She was allowed to do this as long as the boys adopted the Anglican tradition when they reached twelve years old. Charles II did this, but James was a devout Catholic all his life.

This meant there were many difficulties at his Coronation when he refused to take the Sacrament and he was always uncertain in his own mind that he had been properly consecrated by the Oil which had been blessed at an Anglican altar. In all events the Coronation itself was a magnificent affair and we are indebted to some wonderfully detailed engravings as to what the principal characters looked like and what they wore. We were shown an original music score that was written for the service, and views of the musicians with their instruments. Dr. Leech also played excerpts from some of Purcell's music which evoked the spirit of the age.

James was to build his own .chapel in Whitehall and commissioned an Italian artist to paint the altar piece as had been done for the Queen' s Chapel that his mother had used. He also had Prayers Books printed, bringing over Jesuit scholars. Unfortunately this chapel burnt down some years after his departure and the court library with music scores and manuscripts were lost.

Perhaps the most intrigueing pictures were those of sugar sculptures which were made to grace a fine banqueting table and which were incredibly intricate. We have lost the art of this form of sculpture and have no idea what preparations were used on the sugar and could only marvel at so much art and industry being expended on such an ethereal subject.

Dr.Leech thought that, had James I1 kept out of the politics of the day he might have kept his throne, but as History has revealed he could not do this and the brief but brilliant reign came to an abrupt end.

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23^rd April  7.30 pm  2009
Computers and the future of Mankind
Gordon Mills
Review
Thursday 23^rd April was the last Presentation for the Season of Wells Evening Society.  Gordon Mills gave a Lecture Presentation in Wells Town Hall on the subject “Computers, the nature of man and the future of mankind”. 

Gordon is a committee member and has been involved with the Society from its early days. He began by dedicating this presentation to retiring Chairman Sara Whitehouse and colleague Chris Hann, who five years ago decided to form Wells Evening Society.  Since the early days, these pioneers have overseen the Society grow and extend its activities. With a very stimulating audio-visual digital demonstration on mans’ progress in the field of ‘Cybernetics, ’ this presentation demonstrated brilliantly the Society’s leading hardware and software technology . 

For those who are technically minded, the Society provided ‘high definition’ imagery via the Societies Blue Ray enabled computer and a 5000 watt cinema digital projector. The software was a very enhanced PowerPoint presentation, superimposed by inserting digitally edited moving film. 

The presentation began with outstanding beautiful pictures and music entitled ‘The Beauty of Nature’. Gordon explained that this presentation of Cybernetics was a combination of progress in the fields of computers, the brain and psychology. He showed us studies developed from the philosophy of Plato through to the present work in Physics on quantum sub atomic circuitry. At the same time we were being warned  of ‘the thought provoking and disturbing nature of leading scientists work on Cybernetics.’

Gordon personalised his presentation with incidents relating to the nature of man. He presented the different fields of psychology and questioned to what extent man was a conditioned machine. He suggested that the human brain could be seen as a ‘basic’ computer, and then looked at the development of thinking, creative, intelligent human-like robots. Then we were shown contemporary work on computers that were much more advanced than robots. 

Although mankind now owes so much to computers, the world’s leading cybernetic scientists show deep concern and predict that in the next 20 years computer intelligence and power will be billions more powerful than the human brain. 

The ‘nature of being human’ was analysed and found to be a precarious balance of body, mind and emotion.  Any unbalance causes stress, aggression and even paranoid destructive behaviour and mankind seems constantly to seek selfish self fulfilment. Although computers don’t suffer from such problems, Gordon suggested that we may well be in danger of global wars from the ‘human’ programming of our military computers.

The lecture ended with Gordon reminding us that it was St George’s day. George’s Likening the machine to a Dragon, Gordon asked - “Is it possible that mankind could have a St George Saviour?” 

LECTURE REVIEWS 2007-08
4^th October 7.30 pm 2007
The Life and Works of Oscar Nemon – The Sculptor, My Father
Lady Aurelia Young. 
Politician and daughter of the famous sculptor Oscar Nemon (1906-1985).
Review
Lady Aurelia Young's talk was the first to be made with the assistance of our new high powered digital projection system and also the first to use our new radio microphones and powerful surround sound system.

Lady Young gave us an informative talk on the life of her father, the extraordinary sculptor Oscar Nemon, who was born in Croatia in 1906. We were told how Nemon, a sculptor whose works were often experimental or radical, spent his early professional life in Vienna before leaving in the early twenties for Paris and eventually Belgium and that his first Royal Commission was that of King Albert I of Belgium. After an abortive first meeting, Nemon became good friends with Freud, one of the many famous people who were to become his subjects and who make up a veritable Who's Who of twentieth century history.

Nemon was driven to escape the Nazi encroachment on Europe and fled to England in 1938 but his direct family in Croatia were killed in the Holocaust.

Nemon's busts and statues are numerous and include those of: The Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth, Winston Churchill, Harold McMillan, Montgomery, President Eisenhower, and Margaret Thatcher, to mention a few

In 1985 he was commissioned to sculpt Diana the Princess of Wales, unfortunately, he died before he could carry it out.

Lady Young said that she was still receiving information and was constantly surprised with her ongoing research into her father's life and she finished by saying that it was reported that the Queen had said, on one occasion, that Nemon was "the only person to get Churchill to do what he was told".

People wishing to find more information on Oscar Nemon should try this site: - Click Here Wikipedia - Oscar Nemon

3^rd January 7.30 pm 2008
The Pinnacle of Chinese Ceramic Art (AD 1662 - 1795)
Mr Gerald Davison.
Author, art dealer and lecturer (in Asia and UK), whose books on Chinese ceramics are among the standard works on the subject.
Review
Mr Gerald Davison’s talk concentrated on Chinese ceramics of the early Qing (Ching or “Pure”) Dynasty 1662 -1795, which covered the reigns of the Manchu Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng (Yung-Cheng) and Qianlong (Ch’ien-Lung).

These Emperors, who were believed to be Living Gods, pursued a frugal life and continued the long held Chinese tradition of combining military prowess and scholarship with a passion for the arts. Their patronage resulted in the productive output and skills of the Chinese potter reaching an absolute pinnacle of technological innovation, creative flair and quality.

Several million pieces of ceramics were ordered each year to complement the furniture, carvings and silks of the ornate Imperial Palaces as well as the homes of officials, scholars, the prosperous merchant class and also for the growing export markets with increasingly westernised designs. However, only the best and flawless items made their way into the hands of the Imperial Family.

We were told that the kiln failure rate was very high and that production was a large scale "Cottage Industry" with skills which had developed over hundreds of years and, at that time, involved tens of thousands of kilns with an individual item passing, in an industrial production line technique, through up to seventy pairs of hands before being finished.

Mr Davison said that Cobalt Blue was the only colour which could survive the extreme temperatures of the initial glazing. Other colours were applied with enamels as an over-glaze and then re-fired. Amongst the colours produced was Imperial Yellow which was reserved exclusively for the Emperor and his sons. To obtain a different texture lead base enamels were applied to biscuit ceramics. 

Together with their incredible technological achievements with enamels and firing, the Chinese liked to play on words and that they produced ceramics which were not just decorative but could be read as well.

Examples of this symbolism are;
Clouds represented tranquillity. Two butterflies: Marital bliss. Peaches: Immortality. Bats: Happiness. Children: Good luck or Happiness. A Quail : Tranquillity. A Cockerel: an Official.

We were shown, amongst others, slides of figurines, plates, tea pots, wine pots, dogs, vases, lanterns, flasks and "Egg Shell" ceramics, some of which with flambé, coral red, bronze and gold enamels, as well as some of the intricate and sophisticated ceramics of the later period.

Mr Davison concluded by saying that the end of this period was the pinnacle of Chinese Ceramic Art and that it has never been equalled.

LECTURE REVIEWS 2006-07
12th October 2006  7.30 pm
My favourite things -Antiques
David Battie
Review
A famous face from BBC1's  Antiques Roadshow paid a visit to Wells on Thursday to talk at the inaugural meeting of a new social group.

The Wells Evening Society launched its first season of monthly lectures by welcoming David Battie, an antiques expert well-known for his appearances on the popular TV show, as its first lecturer.

His talk at a packed Wells Town Hall was entitled My Favourite Things - Antiques.

Society Chairman Sara Whitehouse said that those who had been involved in the planning of the society had been greatly heartened by the enthusiastic response from the people of Wells and the surrounding area.

She was also delighted that so many people had attended the Wells Evening Society's first event.

The Society has invested in a 12ft Screen for use in the lectures, and has taken great care with the audio system to enable everyone in the hall to see and hear with ease.

14th November 2006  7.30 pm
Vermeer and the Dutch Interior
Brian Cairns
Review
A professional artist as well as art historian, Brian Cairns gave us a beautifully illustrated lecture making full use of the 12 foot square screen purchased by the society.  He provided the audience with the historic background to the emergence of Vermeer as a superb exponent of human character, with his figures set in fine perspective and showing the Dutch interiors that are so much loved.  Our speaker also drew attention to the many subtleties often embodied in pictures of this period.  These set the social context by, for example in group portraits, providing clues as to whether relationships between the sexes were honourable or otherwise.  Although recognised as probably the greatest artist of his time, the fact that Vermeer was so interested in character and did not strive after rich patrons, or when he painted them did not always flatter them in ways they might have wished, was among the reasons for his suffering financial hardship during much of his life.

People wishing to find more information on Vermeer should try this site: The Essential Vermeer 

7th December 2006  7.30pm
'The Valley of the Kings
Martin Davies
Martin Davies.  Has lectured extensively on Ancient Egypt.  For many years, committee member the Egyptian Exploration Society and Sudan Archaeological Society.
Review
We were treated to an excellent lecture by Mr Martin Davies on the Tombs of the Pharaonic period of the New Kingdom .  This was a period when the Pharaohs of Egypt had given up building large and ostentatious tombs, such as the Pyramids, and had turned to covert burial in the Valley of the Kings.

Together with the talk, we were shown an excellent presentation of slides, amongst which were photographs of some of the most remarkably preserved mummies of the period, slides of hieroglyphic inscriptions, sarcophagi and maps. This lecture gave us an insight into the period and included a look at the everyday life of the Tomb Builders.

At the end of his lecture Mr Davies suggested that anyone interested in finding out more about this period and the tombs in The Valley of the Kings should try the following Web Site: The Theban Mapping Project 

With particular reference to KV5 the tomb of the Sons of Rameses II, and another site has pages on KV63 the latest discovery in The Valley.

A summary of a lecture on KV63 by Otto Schaden can be read by clicking here.

4th January 2007
Edward Elgar - A Man of Contradictions
Digby hague-Holmes
Digby Hague-Holmes is an active member of the Elgar and Puccini Societies and is employed by the Duke of Wellington at Stratfield Saye.
Review
Mr Digby Hague-Holmes explained why the Edward Elgar has become a part of the National Heritage but that his image has been distorted today by so many myths.  He explained that Elgar's music was 'thinking with sounds', and that his persona was not quite the conventional image of a composer of his day. However, Elgar had a rapier like mind, quick ready wit, and 'punkish' sense of fun.

Mr Hague-Holmes briefly mentioned Elgar's wife Alice who was 9 years his senior and suffered his inferiority complex, bouts of depression and the rudeness that ruled his life.   However, it was this dark side of his character with its everyday distortions which shaped his musical inspiration.

His versatility confirmed his position as a, if not the, composer for the common man of the day, when his music became whistled and hummed by the ordinary man in the street.

People wishing to find more information on Elgar should visit the Elgar Society page - Click Here

1st February  2007
Railway Architecture
Janet Cutler
Janet Cutler was formerly a lecturer in the history of science at Sheffield Hallam and the Open Universities and she has lectured to the National Trust and many Civic and Historical Societies.
Review
Janet Cutler explained how the railway network was built by muscle power and that this power was provided by migrant workers called ‘Navvies’ who worked for poor pay in appalling conditions and were often attacked by Landowners. There was a heavy cost of life, thousands died.  The Navvies were always paid on Saturdays and spent their money the same night on alcohol, or so it is said.

Classical architecture in railway construction was used to re-assure people that the Railway Companies were not a ‘fly by night’ operation, but solid Companies.  This resulted in ‘Castellated’ bridges and entrances to tunnels, in order to to re-assure the people who were worried about this new mode of transport.

The Forth Bridge was, if anything, we were told, over-engineered mainly because of the Tay Bridge disaster.  Tavistock Viaduct opened in 1908 was built of concrete shaped like stone.  Other bridges were metal girder viaducts. Of the bridges, only one wooden bridge survives.  Many of these structures still carry today's traffic.

The stations were solidly built with iron work, columns and filigree panels.  Many are Grade Listed.  Kings Cross which was built in 1852 the oldest terminal in London and St Pancreas built as Terminal for the Midland line in 1868 together with Curzon Street in Birmingham are all Grade 1 Listed.

Janet finished by saying how disappointed she was at the disappearance of much of the infrastructure, particularly the old Signal Boxes.

1st March 2007
Masterpieces of Classical Art
Ann Birchall
Ann Birchall is an internationally recognized land and underwater archaeologist.  She was formerly Assistant Keeper at the British Museum and has extensive world-wide lecturing experience.  She was guest speaker at the Woman of the Year Luncheon.
Review
Ann Birchall’s lecture covered the period from the pre-classical Cycladic period of the Aegean Bronze Age 4000-5,000 yrs ago to the early years of the Imperial Roman Empire.

We were shown figurines from the Cycladic Islands which were very beautiful primitive art but can be seen as almost modernistic ‘À la Henry Moore’. One of the high points of this Civilisation occurred around 2000BC with the Minoans. We were shown a slide of a vase of this era from Knossos in Crete which featured the famous Bull Leapers and Ann voiced conjecture on whether perhaps the leaper could be a girl.

Moving on we were told of vases from c.730BC in the British Museum whose subjects are mythological figures. Slides were shown of the panels, known as the Elgin Marbles, from the Parthenon in Athens and slides of the Erectheion on the Acropolis with its Caryatids, one of which is part of Elgin's collection in the British Museum.

We were informed of Attic pottery in the black figurine technique, which was developed in Corinth and taken up by Athenian potters in the 6th - 5th Century BC and also of 4th Century BC red figurine vases which had transposed the colours of the black figurine technique.

We were shown a slide of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in Turkey with its solitary rebuilt column. This Temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The lecture wound up with a look at the most famous cameo-glass vessel from antiquity, the Portland Vase, which was made in Rome in the early part of the 1st Century AD and is applied with mythological scenes.

People wishing to find more information on Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean or Greek classical art should try this site: - Click Here