National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, May 24, 2007

I haven’t posted for a while, mainly because I’ve busily working on the web pages for our forthcoming exhibition, Out of this World: The Art of Josh Kirby  before I go off on maternity leave. The pages aren’t ready yet – but in the spirit of the current Star Wars 30th anniversary celebrations I thought it would be good to share this spectacular artwork. Many of you will know Josh for his work on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, but did you know that in 1983 he also created the original artwork for a ‘quad’ format poster for the British release of Return of the Jedi?

Return of the Jedi. Finished artwork for quad poster, 1983. Used with the permission of the Trustees of the Josh Kirby Estate.

Now I’m no expert, although like many of my generation, the Star Wars theme still brings a nostalgic tear to my eye. But I'm reliably informed that this particular image is pretty special, as it is one of very few that features the Royal Guards (red gowns, upper right), Boushh (masked, lower right) and Boba Fett (masked, firing weapon, far left). The poster was painted for Feref from an Eddie Paul design to promote the film in Britain.

Josh Kirby also has one or two other surprises up his sleeve (do the names Monty Python or Alfred Hitcock mean anything to you?) so don’t forget to check back  when the exhibition opens on 15 June or bob along to the Walker Art Gallery for a closer look.
 

The Sawfly

Guy Knight at World Museum Liverpool has sent me more photos from the fieldwork the entomology team are conducting at Smardale Gill National Nature Reserve in Yorkshire. You can see them all on our Flickr page. One of the more exciting finds so far has been the sawfly Macrophya albipuncta (left), known from few localities outside Scotland. There's a bit more on the research in this previous post.

Guy also thought like-minded people might be interested in the Tullie House Museum virtual fauna website.  There is a new area of the site linking the museum's collections with the wildlife records database, so you can examine their insect collections, with details of over 25,000 specimens available so far.

Helmet worn by a hoplite soldier

Well, we might as well be honest about it! Apparently there's a football match of some sort tonight - I wouldn't know, I only have eyes for Everton - and curator Ashley Cooke thought it appropriate to wheel out something vaguely Athens-related for the occassion, so here goes. Actually, we do have a pretty substantial Greek collection so this post isn't entirely without its merits.

This helmet is bronze and dates from around 460BC. It was beaten from a single piece of metal into a pretty distinctive style, and would have been worn into battle by a heavily-armed solider, known as a hoplite soldier. This hoplite soldier was from Corinth, a city state nestled between Athens and Sparta. During the fifth century BC the city states of Sparta and Athens were at war with each other and Corinth fought with Sparta against Athens, so there's a good chance this helmet was worn in a battle against Athenians. 

 

How could anyone leave this cute little chap behind?

As the popular exhibition Shipwrecked closed last weekend, I've had a look at the statistics for the survival game from the exhibition website.

Designed to test people's survival instincts, the game asks you to choose which 5 items from a possible 20 you would take with you had to leave a sinking ship to swim to the safety of a desert island. Some of the items are extremely practical for surviving in the wild, but we also tugged at your heartstrings by including Fluffy the hamster on the list. Surely (or so we thought) nobody who looked into his big dark eyes could bear to leave him behind?

We obviously didn't count on how cold hearted and practical people could be in a survival situation. Out of 23,146 votes cast, only 2% of people voted to save poor Fluffy.

Pet lovers can take comfort in the fact that he wasn't the least popular item to save - only 1% of people voted to take the sweets, MP3 player, credit card, plastic bin bags, plastic bowl, the complete works of Shakespeare and the wristwatch. Some of those items are considerably more useful than a hamster on a desert island!

The exhibition may be closed, but you can still do the online activities, including the survival game, and learning semaphore on the Shipwrecked website. See if you can resist the hamster's charms.

Bubbles by Sir John Everett Millais

Recently saw this Guardian article on Millais and a new Tate exhibition. Reading it I felt quite sorry for Millais and I'm a bit puzzled about his work needing rescuing. A lot of people like 'Bubbles', which is on long loan at the Lady Lever Art Gallery and will be returning there once the Tate exhibition is over. Ok, it might seem a bit sugary and sentimental to our modern eyes but that's a lot of people's cup of tea and fair play to them.

In case you don't know Millais didn't paint 'Bubbles' to advertise soap; instead he intended the bubbles and the innocence of the child to represent the fragility of life, and the painting as a whole is meant to encourage us to ponder the brevity of our existence. Some people think that Millais wasn't best pleased when it was used to advertise Pear's soap, but he'd sold the copyright so there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it. Others suggest that he was happy with the sale as long as the reproduction was of a suitable quality

'Bubbles' actually fits in quite well at the Lady Lever, partly because we've a good few Millais's in the collection (you can explore them in this Millais online feature), but also because of the gallery's history and links to the soap industry. Lord Leverhulme began buying art, not just Millais's work, in the late 1880s to use in advertising for his 'Sunlight Soap' brand. Pieces like The Wedding Morning, Girl With Dogs, Besieged, His Turn Next, A Dress Rehearsal and The Centre of Attraction were purchased to promote soap, and many a home still has a print, postcard, jigsaw or tea tray depicting one of them.

So, if 'Bubbles' is your cup of tea you can read more about it here or listen to a gallery talk on our main site.

Curator of Egyptology, Ashley Cooke, tells us about a student project he's working on.

Carolyn (antiquities curator) and myself have been working with three students as part of a museum work experience the department offers to archaeology and Egyptology students. Rebecca Cessford, Nicola Davies, and Michael Fairclough are students in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at Liverpool University. As part of their degree course they need to gain some experience of museum work and have been working on a variety of projects including help piece together hundreds of pottery sherds.

Group of sherds showing hieroglyphs including the ankh (sign meaning 'life')

Painting on Egyptian pottery is not very common before the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC), but appears often in the late 18th Dynasty. Painted vessels can be colourfully decorated with floral motifs using cobalt blue and other mineral pigments mined from the deserts of Egypt. These vessels were not your everyday containers and would originally have contained luxury liquids such as wine.  This blue-decorated pottery was first recognised on a bigger scale at the palace of king Amenhotep III (1388-1351/50 BC). The painted pottery in the Liverpool collection comes from the palace site at Tell el-Amarna, built by Amenhotep III’s son, king Akenaten.

The museum has an extensive collection from Tell el-Amarna – ranging from gold rings from royalty to reed sandals worn by residents of the town.  Like many large museums, World Museum Liverpool gave financial support to British archaeologists working in Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The museum sponsored excavations at Tell el-Amarna in the 1930s and in return, the museum received a share of the artefacts that were found.

More photos of the sherds can be found on our Flickr page (the last three images).

Blue Funnel Line poster. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post & Echo.

Since childhood I, Stephen Guy, have loved visiting Sudley House, Mossley Hill, Liverpool, which reopens this Saturday 26 May following a £1 million refurbishment.

It is the former home of George Holt, a member of the Victorian shipping family dynasty. When he retired from his company, Lamport and Holt, he extended Sudley to house his magnificent art collection where it remains to this day.

One of his brothers was Alfred Holt, founder of the legendary Blue Funnel Line. Alfred aimed to build safe, reliable and economic ships and achieved this with great distinction. From the 1890s his vessels were of such high quality that the term Holts’ Class was used to describe such excellence. The technical distinction of Holt ships became a great source of pride within the company.

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 was a major boost to Blue Funnel because it shortened the UK to China route by 3,300 miles. From the 1890s it had a worldwide network covering Java, Australia, USA and across the Pacific Ocean. However, the China and Far East trade remained Blue Funnel’s core business until the early 1970s. Blue Funnel later became the Ocean Group, ceasing to own ships in the late 1980s.

The Merseyside Maritime Museum has many Blue Funnel-related items in its collections. The ship models include the motor vessel Priam of 1966, among the last conventional cargo liners to be built for the company. In just a few years she became outdated due to the advent of huge container ships.

Another model is one such container ship - the 58,000 ton Liverpool Bay of 1971 built for Overseas Containers Ltd (OCL), of which the Ocean Group was a founder member.

A fascinating map shows where 41 Blue Funnel ships were sunk in the Second World War. A total of 324 of the company’s seafarers lost their lives. There is a builder’s half-model of one of these unfortunate ships – the Cyclops of 1906. She was sunk by the U-23 submarine in the north Atlantic in 1942 with the loss of 87 lives.

There is the ship’s bell from the Demodocus (1912) which hung for many years in the old Liverpool Institute (now Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts). It was presented by Lawrence Durning Holt, chairman of the school governors, in the early 1950s.
 
A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.
 

Don't set off too quick kids, Gerry didn't bring the Pacemakers

The Walker Art Gallery played host to a musical icon this afternoon as Liverpool legend Gerry Marsden joined local school children for the launch of Merseyside Walk to School week. Pupils across the country are taking part in this national initiative aiming to cut down on pollution caused by the daily school run. It seems no matter how small the feet there’s no escaping those carbon footprints. Gerry got some practice in for Athens and gave us a quick blast of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ - let’s hope for more triumphant renditions next week.   

If you’re still not convinced of the merits of shanks’ pony head over to the National Conservation Centre and check out The Long Way Home. Bernard Fallon captured many of the Liverpool images featured in this exhibition on his walk to Art School. Documenting the changes to Liverpool’s landscape, both physical and social, Bernard’s photographs capture the essence of the city. Something that can be all too easily missed as we race by.   

Emily Tinne © courtesy of Dr Alexine Tinne

For Museums and Galleries Month I've been asking which everyone to nominate which people from the past related to our collections they would bring back if they could, so it seems only fair that I should share my suggestions. It has taken me a while to think of somebody, mainly because there's so many to choose from, I just couldn't decide.

It'd be interesting to talk to any of the sailors from past centuries related to the Merseyside Maritime Museum's collections - the people who set out to sea during an era when they were never really sure if they'd make it home safely again. I'm sure they'd all have some great tales of their adventures on the ocean wave, but I can't narrow down my choice to just one.

I'd also like to talk to the person who did some rather strange things to a 15th century painting of St Michael and the Dragon, which were discovered by our paintings conservators recently, as I'd like to know how they could treat a work of art that way.

I'm tempted to have stern words with the questioning soldier in the painting 'And when did you last see your father?' and tell him to pick on someone his own size, but I realise that he's not real so doesn't really count.

So in the end I've decided that the person I'd bring back would be Mrs Emily Tinne, whose enormous collection of clothing was the focus of the exhibition A Passion for Fashion last year. I'd love to take her shopping to see what she thinks of all the designer shops springing up in Liverpool now. Today's clothing may be a bit too daring for her tastes, but I'd love to get her to at least try on a colourful new pair of shoes, as the shoes from the Tinne collection tend to be more practical than glamorous. I'm sure I could convert her to the joys of bling footwear!

For Museums and Galleries Month 2007 we've been asking which people from the past related to our collections you would like to meet and talk to. Our internal communications officer Karen Young has this cracking suggestion. If you would like to suggest anyone else you can email me using the link at the end of this post. Don't be shy - your idea could be the next one featured here!

National Museums Liverpool is lucky enough to have acquired many unique Beatles objects, including the original stage on which John Lennon’s skiffle band, the Quarrymen, played in 1957. 

It is this stage that I would like to re-build and bring a legendary scene back to life - when John met Paul.  On 6 July 1957, The Quarrymen played at an annual garden festival at St Peter's Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool. During their concert, one of the audience members was a young man named Paul McCartney, who was there with a mutual friend of John's.  Paul was introduced to the members of the band backstage and picked up a guitar and began to play one of Lennon's favourites, 'Twenty Flight Rock'. John was very impressed by Paul and a friendship began which led to him joining the band soon after. The Quarrymen, of course, went on to become the Beatles.

For me this stage symbolises the true birth of the greatest band of all time, even before the Cavern and the Beatlemania that gripped the world.  As a massive John Lennon fan I admire his changing musical style through the years and to see him on stage at such a young age, would be amazing.  Bringing this scene back to life would mean I could witness one of the defining moments in rock and roll.  It is without doubt one of the events when you could proudly say "I was there"!

The Museum of Liverpool, opening in 2010, will uncover the unique and creative character of Liverpool exploring why the city has produced such an amazing roll call of writers, performers, comedians and sportsmen. The planned Creative City gallery will include this original stage and I can’t wait to see it on display!

The stage while it was still in use. Please note: performing on this stage does not guarrantee a successful international pop career

The winning touring exhibition, Eye for Colour

Last week our exceptionally successful exhibition, 'Eye for Colour', won in the 'Temporary or Touring Exhibition' category at the annual Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence. The awards recognise and celebrate best practice in the industry, so to win is a real pat on the back.

Head of exhibitions, Fiona Philpott, was thrilled to receive the award, especially as the exhibition was developed and designed in-house by our own team. In her acceptance speech she thanked the eTEC consortium as this award is very much a tribute to the success of this unique consortium (National Museums Liverpool, At-Bristol, W5, Magna and Science Projects) and thanked the Millennium Commission who gave us a very substantial grant towards the cost of the exhibition.

More on the awards and all the categories and winners on the Museums & Heritage website, and more on 'Eye for Colour' on our main site.

If you missed 'Eye for Colour' at World Museum Liverpool you can catch it now at W5 in Belfast. The good news is that it will return to World Museum Liverpool later this year (Oct 07 - Feb 08), before it travels to Magna in Rotherham. It is also available for hire (contact our exhibitions dept.).

And while I'm on the subject of awards, 'Big Art for Little Artists' is nominated in the 'Large Visitor Attraction' category of The Mersey Partnership 2007 Tourism Awards. Lynn Taylor from the Lady Lever is also short-listed in the 'Outstanding Customer Service' category. Fingers crossed for the ceremony on 1 June.

A couple of programmes to catch over the next couple of weeks. On Wednesday 16 May at 7pm on BBC2, Jonathan Meades: Abroad Again will be looking at urban regeneration, and visits Liverpool when he'll be checking out the Art and the Sea gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Then, 26 May sees the reopening of Sudley House. BBC Radio Merseyside are marking the occassion on the Sunday (27 May) at 1-3pm with a mix of pre-recorded and live interviews from the gallery. 

Model of the Agamemnon. Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post & Echo.

The legendary Holt family left their mark on Liverpool and I, Stephen Guy, have always admired their talents and business skills.

Alfred Holt (1829 – 1911) revolutionised sea trade with his remarkable fleet of steam ships in what became known as the Blue Funnel Line. In 1865 Alfred founded the Ocean Steamship Company with its technologically advanced ships featuring distinctive black and powder blue funnels which made them instantly recognisable around the world. He came from a family of five wealthy and talented brothers, the sons of successful cotton broker George Holt.

Alfred showed early promise as a railway locomotive engineer. However, it was as a marine engineer and ship-owner that he was to make his name. In 1864, when he was in his mid-30s, Alfred developed a type of compound steam engine enabling ships to travel much further and more economically than ever before. His engineering talent and business acumen were to make him a wealthy man living in an impressive mansion called Crofton, which still stands in North Sudley Road, south Liverpool (more on the Holt family and Sudley House here).

Alfred Holt was highly regarded by his peers and among the items in the collections of Merseyside Maritime Museum is the James Watt Medal awarded to him by the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1878. There is a scale model of the steam engine from the Blue Funnel Line’s Prometheus of 1886. Alfred designed this compound marine engine of the type used in all his ships until the 1890s. Compound two-cylinder engines made better use of steam than one-cylinder engines. The steam drove two pistons instead of one, producing more power at less cost. Like most great ideas, it was a simple concept.

There are two models of the Agamemnon of 1865 (one is shown here) – first of the Blue Funnel ships and one of the most influential steamships ever built. Agamemnon was important because she showed that long-distance ocean voyages were economically practical for a steamer.

The museum has personal possessions of William Elston of Birkenhead, a crew member on the Agamemnon between 1866 and 1873. Among other items is his concertina and an embroidered book mark believed to have been made for him by his first wife. It shows a sailing ship and bears the poignant message: “Think of me when far away.”

More about the Blue Funnel Line next week.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.