{"id":9022,"date":"2023-04-27T17:39:32","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T17:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9022"},"modified":"2024-01-28T00:21:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T00:21:16","slug":"book-review-treasures-of-royal-museum-greenwich-pt-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9022","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REViEW: Treasures of Royal Museum Greenwich, Pt. II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, I\u2019m parked outside Tesco, whilst Teresa does our weekly shop. I stayed in the car, as I wanted to finish reading Treasures of Royal Museums Greenwich<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And literally just now, before I started typing this, I did just that. It\u2019s the kind of easy reading smorgasbord one could potentially read in a single day. Although that might feel rather too much like cramming!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Marine Timekeeper, H4, John Harrison.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As it is I\u2019ve spent a very pleasant three or four days reading tranches of the 100 numbered entries. The book starts with the Caird Astrolabe, and finishes with a new \u2018fresco\u2019, adorning The Queen\u2019s House, by contemporary artist Richard Wright. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reviewed this book once already. And gave it five stars. I\u2019ve upgraded that to the rarely bestowed but coveted six stars. It\u2019s just fantastic. A compendium of mostly exquisitely beautiful – and a few apparently mundane – artefacts, all of which have interesting tales to tell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A superb Hodges painting of Easter Island. (1)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
This one adorned a Melville book I read years ago! (2)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A sure-fire sign of an excellent book is when it promotes further exploration, be that purely literary, or in some other form. I\u2019m now very keen to explore ship models further; to study the works of numerous marine artists more deeply (the Van de Veldes, William Hodges, W L Wyllie, and many more*); and perhaps to expand my modelling\/wargaming interests to include the Anglo-Dutch naval conflicts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Golden Leeuw, at Texel, Willem Van de Velde the younger.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The cornucopia of artistic and crafts or engineering brilliance is also very, very humbling and awe-inspiring. Oh, and inspirational, as well. I want to incorporate aspects of things I see here – from intricately worked brass, to art or wall paintings – into our home life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019ve found studying this book – gazing in awe at the objects, and reading with great interest the pithily short accompanying texts – a hugely pleasurable and massively enriching experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The back cover.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And at the current asking price of \u00a310? It\u2019s a no-brainer! This was a real bargain, and is a wonderful addition to our library. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Some I already knew, some are new to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Wyllie at work, with his daughter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the artists I\u2019d not really know about before – I may have encountered him, by name, but I wasn\u2019t truly aware of either him or his work – was W L Wyllie. That\u2019s him, pictured above (this image is not<\/em> in the book I\u2019m reviewing), working on an enormous panorama of Trafalgar, in Portsmouth. With his daughter as assistant. In the book he\u2019s represented by a fabulous under<\/em>water scene, titled Davy Jones\u2019 Locker<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also works by lots of familiar names, such Canaletto, Hogarth, Reynolds, Stubbs, Ravilious, and even Heath Robinson! And of course there\u2019s Turner\u2019s humongous Trafalgar<\/em>. An amazing work. Not my favourite Turner painting – although I do <\/em>love it – but a must see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Monumental!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(1) (2) Neither of these Hodges paintings appear in the book. Their selection is the fantastically dramatic A View Of Cape Stephens<\/em>. I include these two because they illustrate how reading this book inspired me to explore Hodges\u2019 work further. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I\u2019m parked outside Tesco, whilst Teresa does our weekly shop. I stayed in the car, as I wanted to finish reading Treasures of Royal Museums Greenwich. And literally just now, before I started typing this, I did just that. It\u2019s the kind of easy reading smorgasbord one could potentially read in a single day. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “BOOK REViEW: Treasures of Royal Museum Greenwich, Pt. II”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-2lw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9022"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9022"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10926,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9022\/revisions\/10926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}