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Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them.
Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them.
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however we are following Lettice’s maid, Edith, who together with her beau, local grocery delivery boy Frank Leadbetter, have wended their way north-east from Cavendish Mews on their Sunday off, through neighbouring Soho to the Lyons Corner House* on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. As always, the flagship restaurant on the first floor is a hive of activity with all the white linen covered tables occupied by Londoners indulging in the treat of a Lyon’s luncheon or early afternoon tea. Between the tightly packed tables, the Lyons waitresses, known as Nippies**, live up to their name and nip in and out, showing diners to empty tables, taking orders, placing food on tables and clearing and resetting them after diners have left. The cavernous space with its fashionable Art Deco wallpapers and light fixtures and dark Queen Anne English style furnishing is alive with colour, movement and the burbling noises of hundreds of chattering voices, the sound of cutlery against crockery and the clink of crockery and glassware fills the air brightly.
Amidst all the comings and goings, Edith and Frank sit at a table for two just adjunct to one of the glass fronted cabinets filled with delicious cakes on display, engrossed in a conversation over the film that they have just seen together in an East Ham cinema.
“Oh I did enjoy ‘The Notorious Mrs. Carrick’***, Frank.” Edith enthuses. “That Cameron Carr**** is such a handsome film star!” she sighs.
“Hey!” splutters Frank as he deposits his teacup back into its saucer. “I would hope you only have eyes for me, Edith Watsford, and not some flicker of light up on a screen at the Premier in East Ham*****.”
“Are you jealous, Frank Leadbetter?” Edith laughs, her amused giggles blending in with the vociferous chatting going on around them.
“Certainly not!” Frank retorts blusteringly, stiffening in his seat. “Don’t talk such rubbish!”
“I declare, you are!” Edith giggles.
“Am not!”
“You are, Frank, and don’t pretend you aren’t.” she teases. “I can tell when you are, and your flushing cheeks give you away.”
“Oh really?” Frank gasps, raising his hands to his cheeks and pressing his palms into them to hide the rising colour in his face.
“Oh Frank!” Edith continues to chuckle. “You know you have nothing to worry about. Those film stars are just matinee idols******. They aren’t flesh and blood like you are. They are…” She pauses for a moment to think of the right words. “They are creatures made of stardust and dreams.” She gesticulates waving her hands elegantly through the air between them. “They aren’t real. I’m just like most girls, Frank. I like the moving pictures for their fantasy and their escapism into another world, far away from the hand graft of our everyday lives.”
“Well, so long as you don’t become like those crazy girls who scream hysterically in the street about that Rudolph Valentino*******, making a scene, and fools of themselves.” Franks says with distain.
“As if I would, Frank!” Edith retorts, lifting her cup of tea to her lips. “You know me well enough to know I’d never do anything like that! If anything, Miss Lettice or some of her flapper friends strike me as being more inclined to behave like that, and even then Miss Lettice would only do it just to shock her parents.”
“Well, she does influence you,” Frank replies sagely. “Even if you don’t know it.”
“Oh, don’t talk such rubbish, Frank.” Edith scoffs with a wave of her hand. “It is true that I admire Miss Lettice - it makes it easier to work for her that I do – but I would never let her influence me like that! She already tries to fill my head with ideas about my place in this new post-war world, but I’m not prepared to be quite as revolutionary as she would have me be.”
Their conversation is interrupted by a Nippie carrying a blue and white china plate on which some dainty triangle sandwiches are prettily arranged and garnished with parsley sprigs. “Tongue and jelly sandwiches********.” she announces cheerily over the hubbub of chatter around them before lowing the plate onto the empty space on the white linen covered tablecloth between their plates and teacups.
“Thank you, Miss.” Edith says politely to the Nippie, who’s grateful smile brightens her slightly tired looking visage beneath her stiff linen cap. After the Nippie leaves, Edith turns her attention back to Frank and adds, “I was always taught that ‘pleases’ and ‘thank yous’ go a long way, in this world, and that you should always thank anyone who is serving you, whether it is a shop girl, or a Nippie.” She slips her starched linen napkin out from underneath her knife and shakes it out before draping it across her lap. “And my Mum taught me that by the way, not Miss Lettice.” she continues, as she makes a selection from the sandwiches on the plate, removing the top one from the stack.
“Well, I’m glad to hear it, Edith.” Frank says as he shakes out his own napkin and places it across his lap before selecting a sandwich for himself. “I’ve always admired you for your manners and how polite and kind you are to others. Your mother taught you well.”
“And your parents and grandmother taught you well… Francis.” Edith adds Frank’s proper name at the end of the sentence cheekily, teasing him.
“I wish Gran had never let that slip.” Frank mutters begrudgingly. “I’m Frank now. No-one at the trades union will take me seriously if I’m called Francis.”
“Oh, I’m only teasing, Frank.” Edith reaches out her right hand and grasps his left as it rests on the tablecloth next to his plate. She smiles in an assuring way towards Frank.
Edith takes a bite of her sandwich, enjoying the soft white bread and the spiced meat as she rolls it around her mouth, and sighs contentedly.
“Oh, and thinking of the trade unions, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about, Edith.” Frank remarks as he chews on a mouthful his sandwich.
Edith swallows her mouthful of sandwich hard and picks up her teacup. Sipping her tea she remarks, “That sounds very serious, Frank.”
Frank looks earnestly at Edith. “Well, I suppose it is, Edith.”
Replacing her cup into its saucer, Edith smiles sweetly at Frank. “What is it then, Frank?”
Frank reaches inside the inner breast pocket of his tweed jacket and withdraws an advertising leaflet. Slightly dogeared, he hands it over the table to Edith.
“What’s this then?” She glances at the colourful brochure. On its cover is a stylised drawing of a Tutorbethan style********* two storey house with a tiled pitched roof set amidst an idyllic and lush English cottage garden. “Metro-Land, price twopence.” she reads the golden yellow wording on a dark brown background in a vignette at the bottom of the booklet.
“How would you like to live there, Edith?” Frank asks, his voice breathy with excitement.
Edith looks up from the brochure with wide and startled eyes. “Have you broken the bank at Monte Carlo********** Frank?” she laughs. “We couldn’t afford to live in a house like this, even with my extra four shillings a month as part of our combined wages! I won’t be earning a proper wage after we get married*********** don’t forget, Frank.” she cautions. “Where is this anyway?” She flicks the pamphlet open. “Chalk Hill Estate.”
“For around five shillings a week, we could rent a nice little two-up two-down************ semi************* just like that, in the Chalk Hill Estate: maybe a little bit more if we want one that’s furnished.”
“You’re dreaming, Frank. We can’t afford this.” she scoffs as she runs her hand over the brightly coloured cover. “This is for the aspiring middle-classes, not for the likes of us.”
“Ah, but that’s where your reckoning is wrong, Edith.” Frank replies, picking up his cup and taking a sip of his milky tea. “You see, when I was at the trades union meeting the other week, I met up with my friend Richard, and well, he told me that there might be an opening or two in one of the new grocers shops being built in places like the Chalk Hill, Grange and Cedars Estates for an assistant manager position, which would lead eventually to a position where I’d be running my own corner grocer. Even as an assistant manager, I’d be earning a decent wage: we might be lower middle-class dare I suggest it.” Frank smiles proudly. “Richard gave me that pamphlet.”
“So where are these Metroland************** estates then, Frank?”
“Well, they are these new London suburbs being built north-west of London: Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex.”
“Buckinghamshire?” Edith splutters, nearly choking on the mouthful of tea she has just drunk. “But that’s where Miss Lettice’s married sister lives! That’s miles away! It’s the country!”
“Well not any more it isn’t Edith.” Frank assures her. “It’s all being subdivided now and served by the Metropolitan Railway. They are the ones who are developing it.”
“But I don’t want to move to Buckinghamshire, Frank!”
“It’s not so bad, Edith. The Chalk Hill, Grange and Cedars Estates are all being built along the railway line not too far from Wembley Park, so you’d be able to visit your parents easily, and they’d be able to come and visit us too. In fact, you’d be closer to them than you are at Cavendish Mews. We’d live in a nice little house behind the shop, with all the mod-cons like indoor plumbing and electricity, just like Miss Lettice’s flat at Cavendish Mews.”
“That all sounds splendid, Frank, but the country!”
“They aren’t the country. They are called the ‘new suburbs’. Anyway, don’t forget that Harlesden was once a country area too. You’ve heard your mother tell stories about how she and your grandparents lived on a farm when she was growing up.”
Edith contemplates what Frank says for a moment. “Well, I think they might have lived a bit further out than Harlesden, then Frank.”
“But even so, Edith, Harlesden was a rural area once. Anyway, if I were running a corner grocer, or even being an assistant manager of one to begin with, we would be right in the heart of the shopping strip, so you wouldn’t be far from anything.”
“I remember what Queenie told Hilda and I about life in a country village, and I saw it for myself,” Edith tempers, remembering the trip that she and her best friend took to visit their friend and fellow housemaid, Queenie, in Alderley Edge in Cheshire. “Everyone there knows everyone else’s business, and the ladies there were all horribly snobbish and mean to Queenie, and were equally snobbish to Hilda and I once they knew that we were maids – not that there’s anything wrong with being a humble domestic.”
“Of course there isn’t, Edith. However, Alderley Edge is different to one of these estates, Edith.” Frank assures her.
“I don’t see how, Frank.”
“Well, Alderley Edge was a village and an old one at that, and Cheshire has some very fancy people living in it. These estates like Chalk Hill,” He points to the leaflet hanging limply in Edith’s hand. “Are new. There are no existing big families with fancy titles and histories and all that. There’s no pecking order. It would be made up of working people – yes, many middle-class families looking to solve their housing problems, but aspiring working people like us, too. It would be far more…” He thinks for a moment. “Egalitarian.”
“And what does that mean, Frank?” Edith spits.
“Well, it’s a belief, a belief based on the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.”
“Hhhmmm…” Edith contemplates. “Well, we’ll see about that. That all sounds fine in theory, but in my experience there are people who look down on other people everywhere, like nasty old Widow Hounslow,” She utters the name of her parent’s doughy landlady with distaste. “In Harlesden. I think people wanting to start new lives and lord that fact over others might live in these new paradise suburbs of yours, Frank.”
“Oh now don’t be like that, Edith! You sound like your mother when you talk like that.”
“Well, you can hardly blame me, Frank. This,” She hands the pamphlet back to Frank with an air of distain. “Is a big change you’re suggesting we make.”
Frank accepts the thin booklet and slips it somewhat reluctantly back into his inner breast pocket. “But just think, we could have a lovely home together: a real home with a little garden.”
“Dad has an allotment.” Edith defends.
“I know, but imagine a proper garden for the children to run around and play in. The children we have, Edith, can grow up attending local schools and getting lots of fresh air. There would be no pea-soupers*************** for them to suffer through.”
Edith considers the great clouds of thick, dense fog enveloping the streets of London and seeping into the corners of even places as fine as Cavendish Mews during the winter months, and how everyone coughs badly during them and in their aftermath.
“Well that’s true.” she admits begrudgingly. “But…”
“And if we lived in a little house like this,” Frank pats his jacket where the pamphlet now resides. “We’d have room for Hilda or Queenie to come and stay. Wouldn’t that be nice.”
“Very nice Frank.” Edith replies a little disbelievingly. “But what about your Gran?”
“What about her, Edith?”
“Well, if we moved to one of these new Metroland estates of yours, we’d be closer to my parents, but further away from Upton Park, and your Gran is older than my parents are.”
“Oh!” Frank dismisses. “Gran will be fine with it. She’s been telling me that I should get out of London if I can for years now. Don’t forget that before she married my grandfather, Gran lived in a little Scottish village. London is the only big city she has ever lived in, and she still doesn’t like it even to this day.”
“But what about when she gets older, Frank? She’s already infirm now.”
“Well,” Frank admits a little sheepishly. “I’ve been thinking about that too.”
“And?”
“And I was thinking that she might come to live with us when the time came that she couldn’t be on her own any more, since we’d have a bit more room with a house of our own.”
“It sounds like this house of yours that you imagine for us might be made of elastic, Frank,” Edith snorts with mild amusement and disbelief. “What with our children, my parents, Hilda and Queenie visiting, and now you Gran coming to live with us. Where will everyone fit? Someone will have to sleep in the inside privy!”
“We’d make it work, Edith.” Frank assures her. “Together.”
“Well, it’s a lot to consider, Frank.” Edith says after taking a few minutes to chew another mouthful of sandwich, the bread, tongue and jelly suddenly heavy in her mouth and stomach.
“But you will consider it, Edith?” Frank asks, the hopeful lilt in his voice echoing the optimistic glint in his bright blue eyes and anticipative stance as he sits across from his sweetheart.
“Metroland.” Edith utters.
“Our future… in Metroland.”
Edith sighs heavily. “You have rather sprung this on me, Frank.”
“Well, I hadn’t even considered the idea until Richard mentioned it to me at the trade unions meeting.”
“It’s a lot for me to consider, Frank. It means a major shift in where I’d envisaged us living after we were married, and how we would live.”
“Oh, me too, Edith. The most I’d hoped for was to take a position as a buyer or merchandiser at another grocer, maybe one south of the Thames.”
“So, you have to give me time to warm to the idea.”
“I don’t see what’s to warm to, Edith. Imagine our live…”
Edith holds up her worn right hand to silence Frank’s immediate defence of his idea. “You know me, Frank. I’m not as enthused as you are about new ideas. You have to give me time, or this will never work.”
Frank smiles as he settles back more comfortably in his seat and picks up the remains of a triangle of tongue and jelly sandwich. “I’ll wait for as long as you need to be convinced that our future in Metroland will be for the best, Edith.” He takes a bite of the sandwich in his hand. “Anyway, it’s not like I’m marrying you tomorrow and whisking you away to Buckinghamshire.”
“And you won’t be, Frank Leadbetter.” Edith cautions him. “Just the other side of Wembley is one thing. Buckinghamshire is quite another.”
Edith picks up her teacup and takes a sip of her tea.
*J. Lyons and Co. was a British restaurant chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ first teashop opened in Piccadilly in 1894, and from 1909 they developed into a chain of teashops, with the firm becoming a staple of the High Street in the United Kingdom. At its peak the chain numbered around two hundred cafes. The teashops provided for tea and coffee, with food choices consisting of hot dishes and sweets, cold dishes and sweets, and buns, cakes and rolls. Lyons' Corner Houses, which first appeared in 1909 and remained until 1977, were noted for their Art Deco style. Situated on or near the corners of Coventry Street, Strand and Tottenham Court Road, they and the Maison Lyonses at Marble Arch and in Shaftesbury Avenue were large buildings on four or five floors, the ground floor of which was a food hall with counters for delicatessen, sweets and chocolates, cakes, fruit, flowers and other products. In addition, they possessed hairdressing salons, telephone booths, theatre booking agencies and at one period a twice-a-day food delivery service. On the other floors were several restaurants, each with a different theme and all with their own musicians. For a time, the Corner Houses were open twenty-four hours a day, and at their peak each branch employed around four hundred staff including their famous waitresses, commonly known as Nippies for the way they nipped in and out between the tables taking orders and serving meals. The tea houses featured window displays, and, in the post-war period, the Corner Houses were smarter and grander than the local tea shops. Between 1896 and 1965 Lyons owned the Trocadero, which was similar in size and style to the Corner Houses.
**The name 'Nippies' was adopted for the Lyons waitresses after a competition to rename them from the old fashioned 'Gladys' moniker - rejected suggestions included ‘Sybil-at-your-service’, ‘Miss Nimble’, Miss Natty’ and 'Speedwell'. The waitresses each wore a starched cap with a red ‘L’ embroidered in the centre and a black alpaca dress with a double row of pearl buttons.
***”The Notorious Mrs. Carrick” is a 1924 British silent crime film directed by George Ridgwell and starring Cameron Carr, A.B. Imeson and Gordon Hopkirk. It was an adaptation of the novel Pools of the Past by Charles Proctor. The film was made by Britain's largest film company of the era Stoll Pictures. It was released in July 1924.
****Cameron Carr was an English actor of the silent era, born in 1876, he died in 1944. He made many films between 1918 and the early 1930s. Then like many stars of the silent era, the advent of talking pictures put an end to his career in films as he found the transition to talkies to difficult. He starred as the lead actor, of the 1924 silent film, “The Notorious Mrs. Carrick”, playing Mr. Carrick.
*****The Premier Super Cinema in East Ham was opened on the 12th of March, 1921, replacing the 800 seat capacity 1912 Premier Electric Theatre. The new cinema could seat 2,408 patrons. The Premier Super Cinema was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres who were taken over by Gaumont British in February 1929. It was renamed the Gaumont from 21st April 1952. The Gaumont was closed by the Rank Organisation on 6th April 1963. After that it became a bingo hall and remained so until 2005. Despite attempts to have it listed as a historic building due to its relatively intact 1921 interior, the Gaumont was demolished in 2009.
******A matinee idol is a handsome actor, admired for his good looks.
*******Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella was born in May 1895, and was known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Sheik. Valentino was a sex symbol of the 1920s, known in Hollywood as the "Latin Lover" (a title invented for him by Hollywood moguls), the "Great Lover", or simply Valentino. His early death at the age of 31 in 1926 caused mass hysteria among his fans, further cementing his place in early cinematic history as a cultural film icon. In spite of his appeal to women of the 1920s, it is now believed that Valentino was gay, or at the very least bisexual, with relationships with actress Pola Negri and actor Ramón Novarro in addition to his second wife Natacha Rambova. Despite claims of him being a “Latin Lover”, his first marriage to lesbian actress Alla Nazimova was never consummated.
********Tongue and jelly is a gelatinous food made from braided calves tongues, boiled with onions, celery, cloves, herbs, brandy and sugar which is then preserved in gelatine. Back in the 1920s, it is more likely that aspic would have been used, rather than gelatine. It was a very popular savoury topping on picnic sandwiches in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
*********Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in Britain, first manifested in domestic architecture in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in reality it usually took the style of English vernacular architecture of the Middle Ages that had survived into the Tudor period. Tudorbethan is a subset of Tudor Revival architecture that eliminated some of the more complex aspects of Jacobethan in favour of more domestic styles of "Merrie England", which were cosier and quaint. It was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.
**********"The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (originally titled "The Man that Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo") is a popular British music hall song published in 1891 by Fred Gilbert, a theatrical agent who had begun to write comic songs as a sideline some twenty years previously.[1] The song was popularised by singer and comedian Charles Coborn. Coborn wrote in his 1928 autobiography that to the best of his recollection he first sang the song in 'the latter part of 1891.'[6] An advertisement in a London newspaper suggests, however, that he first performed it in public in mid-February 1892. The song remained popular from the 1890s until the late 1940s, and is still referenced in popular culture today. Coborn, then aged 82, performed the song in both English and French in the 1934 British film “Say It with Flowers”.
***********Prior to and even after the Second World War, there was a ‘marriage bar’ in place. Introduced into legislation, the bar banned the employment of married women as permanent employees, which in essence meant that once a woman was married, no matter how employable she was, became unemployable, leaving husbands to be the main breadwinner for the family. This meant that working women needed to save as much money as they could before marriage, and often took in casual work, such as mending, sewing or laundry for a pittance at home to help bring in additional income and help to make ends meet. The marriage bar wasn’t lifted until the very late 1960s.
************Two-up two-down is a type of small house with two rooms on the ground floor and two bedrooms upstairs. There are many types of terraced houses in the United Kingdom, and these are among the most modest. The first two-up two-down terraces were built in the 1870s, but the concept of them made up the backbone of the Metroland suburban expansions of the 1920s with streets lined with rows of two-up two-down semi-detached houses in Mock Tudor, Jacobethan, Arts and Crafts and inter-war Art Deco styles bastardised from the aesthetic styles created by the likes of English Arts and Crafts Movement designers like William Morris and Charles Voysey.
*************A semi-detached house (known more commonly simply as a semi) is a house joined to another house on one side only by a common wall.
**************Metroland is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the Twentieth Century that were served by the Metropolitan Railway. The railway company was in the privileged position of being allowed to retain surplus land; from 1919 this was developed for housing by the nominally independent Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited (MRCE). The term "Metroland" was coined by the Met's marketing department in 1915 when the Guide to the Extension Line became the Metro-land guide. It promoted a dream of a modern home in beautiful countryside with a fast railway service to central London until the Met was absorbed into the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933.
***************A term originating in Nineteenth Century Britain, a pea soup fog is a very thick and often yellowish, greenish or blackish fog caused by air pollution that contains soot particulates and the poisonous gas sulphur dioxide. It refers to the thick, dense fog that is so thick that it appears to be the color and consistency of pea soup. Pea-soupers were particularly common in large industrial cities like Manchester and Liverpool and populous cities like London where there were lots of coal fires either for industry and manufacturing, or for household heating. The last really big pea-souper in London happened in December 1952. At least three and a half to four thousand people died of acute bronchitis. However, in cities like Manchester and Liverpool, where the concentration of manufacturing was higher, they continued well beyond that.
An afternoon tea made up with tea and a selection of triangle sandwiches like this would be enough to please anyone, but I suspect that even if you ate everything you can see here on the table in and in the display case in the background, you would still come away hungry. This is because they, like everything in this scene are 1:12 size miniatures from my miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau:
The plate of sandwiches in the centre of the table was made by an unknown artisan and was acquired through Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom. The coffee pot with its ornate handle and engraved body is one of three antique Colonial Craftsman pots I also acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop, as is the silver tray on which they stand. The milk jug and sugar bowl are made by Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces. The Lyons Corner House crockery is made by the Dolls’ House emporium and was acquired from an online stockist of miniatures on E-Bay. The J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. tariff in the foreground is a copy of a 1920s example that I made myself by reducing it in size and printing it. Edith’s handbag handmade from soft leather is part of a larger collection of hats and bags that I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.
The table on which all these items stand is a Queen Anne lamp table which I was given for my seventh birthday. It is one of the very first miniature pieces of furniture I was ever given as a child. The Queen Anne dining chairs were all given to me as a Christmas present when I was around the same age.
In the background is a display case of cakes. The Victoria sponge (named after Queen Victoria) on the cake stand is made by Polly’s Pantry Miniatures in America. Whilst the cupcakes have been made in England by hand from clay by former chef turned miniature artisan, Frances Knight. Her work is incredibly detailed and realistic, and she says that she draws her inspiration from her years as a chef and her imagination. All the cakes in the display cabinet came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom. The glass and metal cake stands and the glass cloche came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The glass cake stands are hand blown artisan pieces. The shiny brass cash register also comes from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures.
The wood and glass display cabinet and the bright brass cash register I obtained from a seller of 1:12 miniatures on E-Bay.
After a bit of time spent in the Hamilton, Ontario farmers’ market just off Ottawa Street North, I went for a wander on Ottawa St North to see what had changed since my last visit. Walking along the West side of the street, I spotted a woman checking out antique (well, at least old) dolls in a display case inside an antique store. The multi-layer effect of the scene inside the store as well as the reflections through which I was shooting enticed me to capture this image. – JW
Date Taken: 2025-11-01
Date PP: 2025-12-20
(c) Copyright 2025 JW Vraets
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Tech Details:
Taken using hand-held Nikon D800 fitted with an AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm VR 1:4.0 lense set to 120mm, ISO560 (Auto ISO), Daylight WB, Matrix metering, Shutter Priority Mode, f/4.0, 1/320 sec with an EV-0.33 exposure bias. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source: Set final image size to 9000px wide, apply Tone mapping at default levels, slightly reduce Lightness and then increase both Chromaticity Contrast in L-A-B, slightly increase Vibrance, sharpen, save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the Brightness/Contrast tool to increase both Brightness and Contrast to help offset the ‘haze’ and general flatness from shooting through the glass, sharpen, save, scale to 6000 px wide, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 3200 px wide for posting online, sharpen very slightly, save.
Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them.
recently finished up this project and am super stoked to get using it. The whole unit breaks down into seven movable pieces, allowing me to pack it up and bring it places.
Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them.
Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them. `
Samples
Department of Geological Sciences
Ball State University
There were several cases of geological samples in the hallways outside the department.
These are bona fide oldies! They could well have been in this store since they were new.
Hill Refrigeration is now known as Hillphoenix. If you are a supermarket trivia buff, this may be of interest to you: www.hillphoenix.com/about-us/history/
Former A&P (about to close again), Joliet, Ilinois
Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them.
Finally found a perfect display case for my LEGO Collectible Minifigures! The display is a higher quality plastic than I'm used to when it comes to display cases. Seems much stronger. There are rubber feet (dots) at all 4 corners to prevent the case from slipping.
I worked for a short while in order to come up with a nice configuration of these figures. Wanted the back row to be raised so that you could see most of each figure in the back row. I wanted there to be some space in between figures and I wanted to have symmetry in terms of space. With this display case I was able to achieve my goals.
I bought the case at AC Moore. They were on sale last week for 40% off. Each one cost me about $13 and I bought 4 of them so I can have the same display for the first 4 series of these figs (if there are 4 series-at this rate though there could be more!).
The company that makes this display case is called MCS Industries Inc and it is in their Collector's Museum line of products. The dimensions are 15.5inX3.5inX3.25in.
Real human scalps, Ugh! On display at the Frontier Texas visitors center in Abilene Texas, showcasing the 1780-1880 Texas Frontier. U.S.A.
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however we are following Lettice’s maid, Edith, who together with her beau, local grocery delivery boy Frank Leadbetter, have wended their way north-east from Cavendish Mews, through neighbouring Soho to the Lyons Corner House* on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. As always, the flagship restaurant on the first floor is a hive of activity with all the white linen covered tables occupied by Londoners indulging in the treat of a Lyon’s luncheon or early afternoon tea. Between the tightly packed tables, the Lyons waitresses, known as Nippies**, live up to their name and nip in and out, showing diners to empty tables, taking orders, placing food on tables and clearing and resetting them after diners have left. The cavernous space with its fashionable Art Deco wallpapers and light fixtures and dark Queen Anne English style furnishing is alive with colour, movement and the burbling noises of hundreds of chattering voices, the sound of cutlery against crockery and the clink of crockery and glassware fills the air brightly.
Amidst all the comings and goings, Edith and Frank sit at a table for two just adjunct to one of the glass fronted cabinets filled with delicious cakes on display. On the table before them, a Nippie has just placed a pot of tea in a silver pot with a Bakelite*** handle and two slices of a Victoria sponge.
“I say,” Edith remarks a she slips her fork easily through the light and fluffy sponge cake, causing the jam and cream filling between the two layers to ooze out the sides. “This is a lovely treat, Frank.”
“Well, we have so much to celebrate, Edith.” Frank says with a beaming smile as he takes up his own fork.
“Oh yes!” Edith enthuses. “I agree: so much!” She pops a small slice of sponge in her mouth and emits a sigh of happiness as she tastes the light and sweet cake on her tongue.
“I’m so glad you do, Edith.” Frank remarks as his fork slices through his slice of sponge. “Although,” he admits. “I am a little surprised.”
“Surprised, Frank? Why on earth would you be surprised?” Edith laughs happily after swallowing her mouthful.
“I just am. I wasn’t expecting you to be so enthusiastic about it as me.”
“Frank,” Edith puts down her fork and leans across the linen covered table and grasps her beau’s left hand as it sits idly on the table next to his gilt edged plate and squeezes it. “Why wouldn’t I be enthusiastic? Christmas Day was such a wonderful success.”
“Christmas Day?” Frank gives his sweetheart a quizzical look.
“Well of course, Christmas Day!” Edith laughs. “It wasn’t that long ago that you have forgotten – at least I do hope not, Frank! I know I won’t forget it in a hurry.” Edith beams across the table at Frank. “It was such a special day, and everything went so perfectly well. Your Gran is such a card! She had us all laughing so much.”
“Yes,” Frank remarks desultory tone. “Partially at my expense. I can’t believe she shared such embarrassing stories about me at Christmas as a little boy. How was I to know as a four year old that Dad was fibbing when he said he heard Father Christmas in the bread oven!”
“Oh I think it was a charming story, Frank.” Edith sooths with a happy smile. “And so were all the others.”
“Humph!” Frank mutters. “That’s only because they weren’t about you.”
“I’m sure Mum and Dad will share plenty of embarrassing stories from my childhood before too long: Dad especially. He enjoys doing that. Anyway, your Gran’s stories were wonderful to help keep Mum on our side and laughing. She knows now that even as a little boy, you were sweet natured and good, just like I know you to be as a young man. And of course, you had Dad eating out of your palm when you gave him that copy of ‘The Murder on the Links’**** by Agatha Christie as his Christmas present.”
“He could hardly believe his eyes when he unwrapped it.”
“Well, you know as well as anyone, Frank, that books are an expensive luxury. Seven and six is nothing to scoff about.”
“That’s true, but you didn’t pay seven and six for it.” Frank pauses for a brief moment. “Did you Edith?”
“No, of course I didn’t, Frank. Miss Lettice gave me the details of her special bookman, Mr. Mayhew***** in Charring Cross who happens to do a brisque trade in well priced seconds of newly printed books out his back door. It only cost three and six.”
Frank sits back against the high Queen Anne back of his chair in relief. “Thank goodness, because that’s all I paid you for it.”
“Of course!” Edith retorts. “Don’t you think for one moment as a hard working maid that I’m going to martyr my wages to subsidise your Christmas spending, Frank Leadbetter.”
“That’s my best girl!” Frank sighs. “Independent and forthright – just two of the many reasons why I love you, Edith Watsford.”
“Well, I’m pleased you like those traits, Frank, because Mum always told me that my ‘forthrightness’ as you so kindly put it, wouldn’t do me any favours when it came to finding a suitable match.”
“Well, it just shows that your Mum never met a chap like me before.”
“And isn’t that the truth, Frank.” Edith giggles.
Frank laughs good naturedly along with his sweetheart.
“And your Mum certainly knows how to make a wonderful Christmas dinner, Edith.”
“Well, like you have Miss Lettice and Mr. Mayhew to thank for the discounted price of the book you gave Dad for Christmas, I have you to thank for the directing me to Mr. Langham to buy our Christmas turkey.”
“It did go down a treat.” Frank remarks. “Your mum roasted it to perfection.”
“With my help, thank you Frank!”
“Oh of course with your help, Edith! I’d never deny your cooking prowess. You learned from the best cook in the world.”
“I did.”
“How did your parents take to you providing them with the family’s Christmas turkey anyway? I never had a chance to ask you discreetly on Christmas Day.”
“Oh Dad was amazed by the size and weight of it when it arrived, and Mum was just tickled pink****** to think that her daughter provided such a fine turkey for Christmas Day. When I said that I wanted to arrange a bird for Christmas, I think she was expecting me to provide a roast chicken.” Edith giggles again.
“Well that just shows how determined you are, not to settle for a chicken, when you can have turkey.”
“More of that determination you like in me, Frank” Edith giggles.
Frank joins in with her laughter yet again before the pair fall into a companionable silence for a little while as they eat some more of their delicious slices of Victoria Sponge, whilst around them the vociferous burble of London diners, the clatter of crockery and scraping of plates echoes through the capacious dining hall.
“More tea?” Edith asks at length, picking up the gleaming silver pot by the black handle and directing it towards Frank’s half empty tea cup.
“I don’t mind if I do.” Frank holds his cup aloft and dangles it closer to make it easier for Edith to fill.
“Let’s make a toast.” Edith remarks, filling her own cup before adding milk and sugar.
“Oh yes! Let’s!” Frank agrees as he finishes his mouthful of cake.
“To a successful Christmas, and a successful 1924 for us, dear Frank.” Edith says with a broad smile as she stares into her beau’s eyes and holds up her cup.
“And to Ramsay MacDonald, our first Labour Prime Minister.” Frank adds, clipping Edith’s cup with his own.
“What?” Edith queries.
Frank returns his cup to its saucer and clears his throat guiltily as he looks down into his lap and wipes his fingers on the linen serviette draped across his thighs. “Well, you see Edith,” he admits awkwardly. “That was why I was surprised when you said you agreed that we had much to celebrate.”
“Well, as wew were just saying, there is much to celebrate about cementing our relationship in Mum and Dad’s eyes, Frank.”
“I know that Edith, and don’t get cross with me, please.” he looks his sweetheart squarely in the face.
“Oh-oh.” Edith remarks, settling back slightly in her chair and delicately folding her arms akimbo as her face clouds over, washing away her happy demeanour. “This sounds like it doesn’t bode well.” She cocks an eyebrow at Frank. “So what is it I’m not to get cross about then, Frank?”
“Well, I wanted to celebrate our first Labour government today. That’s why I invited you out for tea at Lyons.”
“And not to celebrate our first successful Christmas Day together?” Edith asks, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice as her mouth falls open.
“Well, that too, obviously.” Frank blurts out hurriedly.
“Obviously.” Edith replies in a non-committal fashion, clearly seeing through Frank’s backtracking.
“Oh please don’t be cross with me, Edith!” Frank implores. “It’s the last thing I should want, but don’t you see what a momentous occasion it is to have a Labour Prime Minister?”
“You’d better enlighten me, Frank. Please pardon my ignorance in regards to politics and the government, but as you know only too well, I don’t have the vote*******, as I’m not deemed worthy enough to be given the chance to have my say.”
“Now don’t take on so, Edith. If I had my way, I’d let you cast a vote, and your mum and my Gran.”
Edith softens at Frank’s declaration and unfolds her arms. She stabs at her cake, causing the slice to fall on its side, off centre on the white porcelain of the gilt and patterned edged plate. “I know you would Frank. I’m not cross with you, but I am cross with our government, no matter who they are, for not giving us the vote, after all, there are more women than men in Britain now, thanks to the horrors of the war.”
“I know, Edith,” Frank murmurs softly. “Like I said, I’d give a woman as smart as you the vote any day.”
“Oh, you know I’m not very political,” Edith assures Frank, yet at the same time self consciously toys with her blonde waves as she speaks. “You’d better tell me why it is so good that we now have a Labour Prime Minister.” She blushes with mild embarrassment at her own ignorance.
“Well,” Frank begins, his eyes lighting up with excitement as he prepares to talk about one of his passions. “Ramsay MacDonald is the first Prime Minister we’ve ever had from a working class background, so it stands to reason that he will create social change, even with a minority government********, for working class people like us.”
“Is this what you keep saying when you say that now is the time for people like us, Frank?”
“Well, sort of, Edith. I think Ramsay MacDonald will help aid the plight of the poor working man and help them to better themselves, and that has to be a good thing.”
“Well then, I think it’s most appropriate we raised a toast to Mr. MacDonald and his Labour government, Frank.”
“Thank you for trying to understand my passions, Edith. You really are a ripping girl, you know.”
“I know.” Edith blushes, before adding, “And it isn’t just my Mum who has never met the likes of you, Frank Leadbetter. I’m quite sure that you are going to do something fine in this world to make a difference to the lives of others too.”
“Goodness!” Frank gasps. “Do you really think so, Edith?”
“I do, Frank.” Edith opines. “I don’t quite know how you will, but I just have a feeling.”
“Thanks ever so, Edith.” Frank sighs.
“So,” Edith looks down meaningly fully at Frank’s plate. “Best you finish up your cake. No soldier ever won a war on an empty stomach.”
“And since I’m paying,” Frank begins.
“Only half, Frank.” Edith interrupts. “My forthright self is telling me that today, in solidarity with all working men and women, I should pay my fair share.” She nods seriously. “And let that be an end to it.”
“Very well, my forthright and honest sweetheart.” Frank agrees. “But just today in honour of our new government. Next week it shall be my treat.”
*J. Lyons and Co. was a British restaurant chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ first teashop opened in Piccadilly in 1894, and from 1909 they developed into a chain of teashops, with the firm becoming a staple of the High Street in the United Kingdom. At its peak the chain numbered around two hundred cafes. The teashops provided for tea and coffee, with food choices consisting of hot dishes and sweets, cold dishes and sweets, and buns, cakes and rolls. Lyons' Corner Houses, which first appeared in 1909 and remained until 1977, were noted for their Art Deco style. Situated on or near the corners of Coventry Street, Strand and Tottenham Court Road, they and the Maison Lyonses at Marble Arch and in Shaftesbury Avenue were large buildings on four or five floors, the ground floor of which was a food hall with counters for delicatessen, sweets and chocolates, cakes, fruit, flowers and other products. In addition, they possessed hairdressing salons, telephone booths, theatre booking agencies and at one period a twice-a-day food delivery service. On the other floors were several restaurants, each with a different theme and all with their own musicians. For a time, the Corner Houses were open twenty-four hours a day, and at their peak each branch employed around four hundred staff including their famous waitresses, commonly known as Nippies for the way they nipped in and out between the tables taking orders and serving meals. The tea houses featured window displays, and, in the post-war period, the Corner Houses were smarter and grander than the local tea shops. Between 1896 and 1965 Lyons owned the Trocadero, which was similar in size and style to the Corner Houses.
**The name 'Nippies' was adopted for the Lyons waitresses after a competition to rename them from the old fashioned 'Gladys' moniker - rejected suggestions included ‘Sybil-at-your-service’, ‘Miss Nimble’, Miss Natty’ and 'Speedwell'. The waitresses each wore a starched cap with a red ‘L’ embroidered in the centre and a black alpaca dress with a double row of pearl buttons.
***Bakelite, was the first plastic made from synthetic components. Patented on December 7, 1909, the creation of a synthetic plastic was revolutionary for its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewellery, pipe stems, teapot handles, children's toys, and firearms. A plethora of items were manufactured using Bakelite in the 1920s and 1930s.
****By 1924 when this story is set, detective mystery fiction writer Agatha Christie had already written two successful novels, ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ published by The Bodley Head in 1921, which introduced the world to her fictional detective Hercule Poirot, and ‘The Secret Adversary’ also published by The Bodley Head, in 1922, which introduced characters Tommy and Tuppence. In May of 1923, Agatha Christie would release her second novel featuring Hercule Poirot: ‘The Murder on the Links’ which would retail in London bookshops for seven shillings and sixpence.
*****A. H. Mayhew was once one of many bookshops located in London’s Charring Cross Road, an area still famous today for its bookshops, perhaps most famously written about by American authoress Helene Hanff who wrote ’84, Charing Cross Road’, which later became a play and then a 1987 film starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. Number 56. Charing Cross Road was the home of Mayhew’s second-hand and rare bookshop. Closed after the war, their premises is now the home of Any Amount of Books bookshop.
******The phrase “tickled pink” is used to denote that someone is expressing delight. The first term, first recorded in 1922, alludes to one's face turning pink with laughter when one is being tickled. The variant, clearly a hyperbole, dates from about 1800.
*******In 1924 when this story is set, not every woman in Britain had the right to vote. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act was passed which allowed women over the age of thirty who met a property qualification to vote. Although eight and a half million women met this criteria, it was only about two-thirds of the total population of women in Britain. It was not until the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 that women over twenty-one were able to vote and women finally achieved the same voting rights as men. This act increased the number of women eligible to vote to fifteen million.
********On the 22nd of January, Ramsay MacDonald became the first Labour Prime Minister in Britain, leading a minority government, following Stanley Baldwin’s resignation after his government lost a vote of no confidence in the debate on the King’s Speech in January 1924. King George V called on Ramsay MacDonald to form a minority Labour government, with the tacit support of the Liberals under Asquith from the corner benches. On the 22nd of January 1924, he took office as the first Labour Prime Minister, the first from a working-class background and one of the very few without a university education. The Government lasted only nine months and did not have a majority in either House of the Parliament, but it was still able to support the unemployed with the extension of benefits and amendments to the Insurance Acts. The Housing Act was also passed during this first term of a Labour government, which greatly expanded municipal housing for low paid workers.
An afternoon tea made up with tea and a slice of Victoria Sponge like this would be enough to please anyone, but I suspect that even if you ate everything you can see here on the table in and in the display case in the background, you would still come away hungry. This is because they, like everything in this scene are 1:12 size miniatures from my miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau:
The slices of Victoria sponge (named after Queen Victoria) on the plates is made by Polly’s Pantry Miniatures in America. The coffee pot with its ornate handle and engraved body is one of three antique Colonial Craftsman pots I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom, as is the silver tray on which they stand. The milk jug and sugar bowl are made by Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces. The Lyons Corner House crockery is made by the Dolls’ House emporium and was acquired from an online stockist of miniatures on E-Bay. The J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. tariff in the foreground is a copy of a 1920s example that I made myself by reducing it in size and printing it. Edith’s handbag handmade from soft leather is part of a larger collection of hats and bags that I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.
The table on which all these items stand is a Queen Anne lamp table which I was given for my seventh birthday. It is one of the very first miniature pieces of furniture I was ever given as a child. The Queen Anne dining chairs were all given to me as a Christmas present when I was around the same age.
In the background is a display case of cakes. The sweet cupcakes on the glass cake stand have been made in England by hand from clay by former chef turned miniature artisan, Frances Knight. Her work is incredibly detailed and realistic, and she says that she draws her inspiration from her years as a chef and her imagination. The pink blancmange rabbit on the bottom shelf of the display cabinet in the front of the right-hand side of the case was made by Polly’s Pantry Miniatures in America. All the other cakes came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom. The glass and metal cake stands and the glass cloche came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The glass cake stands are hand blown artisan pieces. The shiny brass cash register also comes from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures.
The wood and glass display cabinet I obtained from a seller of 1:12 miniatures on E-Bay.
Description: Thomas Smillie was the Smithsonian's first photographer and curator of photography. He and his studio staff documented the institution's physical buildings and work spaces, including curators' offices, new museum buildings, exhibition installations, and the furniture used to store objects.
Creator/Photographer: Thomas Smillie
Birth Date: 1843
Death Date: 1917
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1843, Thomas William Smillie immigrated to the United States with his family when he five years old. After studying chemistry and medicine at Georgetown University, he took a job as a photographer at the Smithsonian Institution, where he stayed for nearly fifty years until his death in 1917. Smillie's duties and accomplishments at the Smithsonian were vast: he documented important events and research trips, photographed the museum's installations and specimens, created reproductions for use as printing illustrations, performed chemical experiments for Smithsonian scientific researchers, and later acted as the head and curator of the photography lab. Smillie's documentation of each Smithsonian exhibition and installation resulted in an informal record of all of the institution's art and artifacts. In 1913 Smillie mounted an exhibition on the history of photography to showcase the remarkable advancements that had been made in the field but which he feared had already been forgotten.
Medium: Cyanotype
Culture: American
Date: 1890
Repository: Smithsonian Institution Archives
Collection: Thomas Smillie Collection (Record Unit 95) - Thomas Smillie served as the first official photographer for the Smithsonian Institution from 1870 until his death in 1917. As head of the photography lab as well as its curator, he was responsible for photographing all of the exhibits, objects, and expeditions, leaving an informal record of early Smithsonian collections.
Accession number: RU95_Box76_038
This angle just happens to be similar to one of the vintage photos I posted earier...
www.flickr.com/photos/65986072@N00/8726662216/
...so I've posted a direct comparison here:
Supplying the 1930s fashion needs of women in the South East, I give you the Ladies' Department at Hickey's in New Ross.
Hickey's obviously had A.H. Poole photographers in because of a huge sale they were having. I found an advert in the Kilkenny People from 11 July 1936 for:
Special 'Bus Service for Hickey's
First Great Annual
SUMMER SALE
To New Ross - Saturday, July 18th and Saturday, August 1st
This was followed by a load of locations/times, and then this rather curious line: This 'Bus will travel by Old Time and will stop on signal at any point.
What was Old Time?
Date: Wednesday, 1 July 1936
NLI Ref: POOLEWP 4147
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
The Grand Rapids Edition of the Scott Kelby Photowalk 2014 started out from Brewed Awakenings Coffee shop.....mmm. tasty
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, October 2013
Francisco de Goya's painting of Don Ramón Satué (1823), reflected in a silver-gilt toilet mirror made for King William I's daughter, Princess Marianne (1829), and in its display case.
Carved figurine of ancient Egyptian girl swimmer with duck, in the shape of cosmetic spoon, in the Louvre, Paris (France).
I took this as a very speculative shot through the glass of its display glass. Amazing how neat the swimmer keeps her hair-do as she swims along ! - and how modern-looking (well Art-Deco-ish) the ancient Egyptian sense of stylised female beauty seems. In fact the whole piece is just beautifully surreal once you start to look at it, with the duck so large in relation to the girl. The background is not an editing effect on my part, but the back panel of the display case, appropriately in a watery pattern in shades of Nile green.
A similar spoon in the Louvre is described here:
www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/cosmetic-spoon
- not as pretty, I think as the one in this photo, but the one on the Louvre webpage has more painted detail but no duck. Also, the duck's body here seems to be a very small casket, its flat back looking as if it is a lid with two little lifting handles. This Louvre page also gives a lot of interesting explanation and interpretation. The actual use of these swimmer spoons seems unclear. The age of the spoon on the Louvre page is New Kingdom (about 1550 to about 1069 BC) so I assume this was much the same, in which case it was by far the oldest human-made thing we knowingly saw on our whole trip.
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LONDON - PARIS - CATANIA - ROME - LONDON ----- DAY 2
Photo from the second day of our crazy long distance rail trip from home (London) to Sicily. We spent the first day travelling from home in London to Paris, by Eurostar train, and were meant to the take an overnight train from Paris to Rome that same evening. But our Eurostar train out of London was badly delayed due to 'a fatality [unexplained - perhaps fortunately] on the train'. So we missed our onward connection to Rome and had an unexpected but happy second day in Paris. We left Paris that evening, on the equivalent Rome service.
By the end of the whole holiday trip we had seen things and sites from ancient Greek time to modern, so the trip felt like a mini Grand Tour. Or given the rich mythology of Sicily, Etna and the Straits of Messina (Odysseus, the Cyclops, Scylla & Charybdis, etc.) perhaps our trip was like a modern mini Odyssey of our times. Odysseus took ten years to get home. It took us ten trains - but no monsters.
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PROBLEM WITH FLICKR MAP
According to Wikipedia "The Musée du Louvre is one of the world's largest museums, and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, France, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district) .... With more than 8 million visitors each year, the Louvre is the world's most visited museum." All the more astonishing therefore that the (often infuriating) database of Flickr's geotagging system was unable to recognize 'Louvre' or any Paris place name that included the word 'Louvre'.)
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Darkroom Daze © Creative Commons.
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Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them.
Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them.
Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them. `
Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them.
Re-Purposed Baseball Bat Display Case over the TV
* Star Wars Concept Figures
* Retro Mandalorian Waves 1 & 2
* Black Series - The Mandalorian: Trapper Wolf & George Lucas (in Stormtrooper Disguise)
Mummies of Ancient Eggypt: Rediscovering 6 Lives
From July 14 to October 26, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space hostsed an exhibition made up of a collection of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyzes the testimony of six people who lived in the Ancient Egypt.
This sample contains six mummies of people who lived between 900 and 150 BC. C. in Egypt. Thus, through a non-invasive investigation carried out with the most modern technology, the discoveries that have been achieved by the hand of these specimens are exhibited.
Through scientific and historical evidence, it is possible to observe what life was like in these lands, the tools and techniques used for mummification, the medicinal recipes with which they were cured, the diet of those people, cosmetics and adornments, music, cultural exchanges and even the role of women and children in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
Mummification became a common practice in ancient Egypt, believing that the body had to be preserved in order to reach the afterlife. For them death was just the beginning and this represented the separation between the body and the soul.
The first mummies are dated between 4000 and 3000 BC. C. and it is thought that this practice could have come from accidentally unearthing some corpses, which had dried due to the heat of the desert. By keeping much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually mimic this preservation. In this way, they dried the deceased by extracting the viscera from the body and then dehydrated them with natron and embalmed them.
How Clarissa and the Ghoulies were presented: a display case of specimens collected by Monster Hunters from around the world ( see full list here. )