Becky Bolton and Louise Chappell have been working collaboratively as ‘Good Wives and Warriors’ for nearly 20 years since graduating from the Glasgow School of Art. Their work has been featured in The Guardian, New Scientist and on the BBC as well as illustrated campaigns for Ren Skincare, Tiger Beer, Absolut, Adidas, Swatch and Tic-Tac.
They are now primarily illustrating elaborate non-fiction children’s books for publishers such as Laurence King, Big Picture Press, Wide Eyed Press, Penguin and Puffin.
‘To take a leaf out a Book’ shows the workings of their richly illustrated picture books, featuring their original hand painted illustrations and published books, full of mythical creatures, plants and animals. It’s great fun – here are some images from the exhibition which runs until 28th April.
Strawberry Squid …
Coral Reef …
Allosauros …
The Prehistotic World …
Great fun and well worth a visit (and some of the work is for sale if you’re interested).
On show outside the library are four monumantal sculptures by Huma Bhabha. These gigantic forms represent the ancient and the modern, the human and the non-human, and draw inspiration from 1980s and 1990s horror and fantasy films …
The works herald the opening of a new gallery on 8th May in the space previously occupied by the Searcy restaurant. Entitled Huma Bhabha Encounters: Giacometti, the sculptures in this show will span nearly a century of artmaking, their mediums ranging across plaster, bronze, terracotta, and found objects. Works from across Bhabha’s career will be displayed alongside iconic works by Giacometti made mostly in the aftermath of World War II.
Hope you had a nice Easter – I’m still finishing off the chocs …
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I first wrote briefly about this building in June 2020 saying that I would return later to write more and I have finally got around to it!
Lloyd’s Register began as The Society for the Registry of Shipping in 1760. In that year, eleven men met in Edward Lloyd’s coffee house to talk about publishing a list of ships, a register to define their quality and safeguard life and property carried on them. Much of the Register’s history, including its origins, has been preserved in the organisation’s Archives which contain over 1.1million digitised and catalogued assets including ship plans and surveys.
It has now eveolved into a charity, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, whose objectives remain the same as those of Lloyd’s Register: to protect people from harm and to ensure the infrastructure that we depend on for day-to-day living is safe for society both now and in the future. The Foundation also strives to provide the right skills and education to achieve these objectives.
It can be found at 71 Fenchurch Street, EC3M 4BS on the corner with Lloyd’s Avenue …
The north and south turrets …
There are numerous maidens holding models of different types of vessels …
The second maiden from the left holds the model of a steamship whilst the figure immediatly behind her holds a model of a galleon …
This panel also contains six maidens. Those in the foreground hold a ship’s telegraph, a hammer and a propeller. A cog or ratchet wheel emerges behind the leg of the right-hand figure …
The central panel contains a standing female personifying Lloyd’s. She wears a crown of sails and stands on a ship’s prow, holding in one hand a caduceus, in the other a book. Behind her is a Zodiacal sphere, and to either side of her are two mermaids ..
A series of bronze maidens holding model ships …
The impressive entrance …
The panel on the left may represent ‘Trade’. At the centre stands a naked youth, wearing mercury’s winged bonnet and holding the caduceus in one hand and in the other an orb surmounted by a galleon …
At his feet are waves bearing a symmetrical arrangement of sailing-ships laden with exotic fruit. Behind the youth is a representation of the globe. Four maidens stand to the left and three to the right, some wearing ethnic costume. One holds an elephants tusk, another a sheaf of corn. An Indian woman holds a war axe whilst the remainder hold closed caskets.
In the panel on the right there is at the centre another naked youth holding a sextant and a compass …
At his feet are waves bearing a symmetrical arrangement of sailing ships laden with packages. Behind the youth is the sun, its rays projecting to form a pattern in the background. The sun is flanked by ornamental columns, with compasses at the finials. There are three maidens on the left and four on the right, carrying navigational instruments, a globe and the model of a ship.
The spandrel above the right hand window on Lloyd’s Avenue. At the centre, from left to right, are the Arms of Cardiff and the words VILLÆ CARDIFF, the Arms of Hull, and the Arms of Southampton, with the words VILLÆ SOUT(HAMP)TONIÆ …
Flanking these are cross-sections of the engines of steamships and pairs of maidens to either side, holding tools and navigational instruments.
Above the left hand window …
At the centre, from left to right, the coat of arms of an unidentified towm, with motto …S…COMMUNI.TATIS V, followed by the Arms of Dublin and the Arms of Belfast with its motto (PRO) TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS, surrounded by a trophy of machinery connected with shipbuilding. Pairs of maidens to left and right hold plans and a model of a steamship.
There are also some amusing figures nearby, children playing with dolphins on a leash …
I haven’t been able to capture all the great aspects of this building, so I do recommend a visit, particularly on a sunny day …
In my descriptions, I am extremely grateful to Dr Philip Ward-Jackson and his comprehensive guide Public Sculpture of the City of London from which I have quoted extensively.
Some miscellaneous news and images.
New Moon above St Giles …
The Big Egg Hunt is on in the City (these two are at Aldgate and Barbican respectively) …
There’s a new image on the Tower 42 screen (but so far I haven’t been able to find out what it’s about – maybe something to do with Turkey?) …
Tulips are emerging in the Silk Street beds, hooray …
And, in the middle of them, a Camassia. Maybe from last year …
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I used to think the Cheapside frieze that I wrote about last week was the best example of terracotta carving in the City, but that was before I came across Cutlers’ Hall.
It can be found at 4 Warwick Lane (EC4M 7BR). Their earliest hall was built in 1638 but was lost in the Great Fire and then rebuilt twice; in 1725 and the 1832. The third and current hall dates from 1884, designed by Samuel Worth and Benjamin Broomhead Taylor who agreed to work together after the Company couldn’t choose between their respective proposals.
The coat of arms of the Cutlers’ Livery Company is – perhaps surprisingly – the elephant and castle. The exact reason for of the choice of an elephant has disappeared in the mist of time, but is presumed to relate to the ivory used to make knife and sword handles. Of old, the cutlers were responsible for producing metal items with a sharp edge, the emphasis shifting over time from implements used in warfare to those for domestic use. The arms were granted to the Company in 1476, although the elephant and castle did not come in until 1622 …
The Cutlers’ Company French motto – To Succeed through good faith …
I love the door handles …
The magnificent terracotta frieze on the Hall façade, showing cutlers at work, is by the sculptor Benjamin Creswick (1853-1946). Creswick had been a pupil of John Ruskin and was a cutler himself from Sheffield. After he had had to leave the trade because of ill-health, he became interested in sculpture. The frieze (containing 33 figures) was made by E. Goodall & Co of Manchester …
It consists of four panels showing the four main facets of the cutlers’ craft: forging, grinding, hafting (preparing and fitting knife handles) and finishing. Let’s take a look at them in more detail.
Panel 1: Forging …
Left to right: plunging hot scissors into the hardening trough; forging scissors; heating the iron and hardening table knives at the bellows; the maker or ‘smith’ and the ‘striker’ (both with hammers) forging table knives; bringing a bundle of steel into the smithy.
Panel 2: Grinding …
Left to right: carrying a box of finished knife blades; a seated old man polishing or ‘buffing’ blades; glazing the blades and checking the stone marks have gone; hewing the grindstone; grinding the grindstone; setting blades before they are put on the grindstone, while a man holding a small grindstone remonstrates with him; an apprentice carrying a box of new work on his shoulder; two men carrying a large grindstone.
Panel 3: Hafting …
Left to right: filing a handle at the workbench; filling handles with compound as a young boy looks on, having brought his father’s dinner; a seated figure polishing a knife handle or ‘dollying’; a bearded man filing a handle; a standing man advising a seated apprentice drilling holes in handles; a seated youth scraping or ‘shaving’ knife handles with a piece of flat steel; a seated moustachioed man riveting handles; wiping off and checking the work.
Panel 4: Finishing …
Left to right: grouping scissors into lots; a man reaching for tongs and blowing the bellows; a little boy poking the fire; boring the scissors on the foot-operated lathe; glazing the scissors; the scissor filer; finishing off and testing the scissors.
I love the young boy absorbed by his father’s careful work …
I had to smile when I noticed this plastic owl just above the terracotta on the right. He’s obviously intended to deter pigeons …
‘To-whit to-whoo!’
We are very lucky to be able to admire the hall today. A high explosive bomb destroyed the entire building next to it on the 10th May 1941, bringing down the hall’s North wall. The damage however was repaired and the hall brought back into use …
After visiting the hall, if you walk to the north west corner of Warwick Lane you will find an interesting bas-relief plaque. You can read about it, and the nearby mysterious Panyer Boy, in my blog from March 2018.
