Quacks and Cures: new and improved!

Friday 4^th June sees the return of Wellcome Collection’s hugely popular Quacks and Cures all-building spectacular. The event aims to present a snapshot of some of the opinions and ideas threaded through three centuries of medical history.

Friday’s event will see a new line-up, including Hope Springs Eternal, a talk on medical spas and waters by Medical London’s Dr Richard Barnett, as well as the return of the advice panel spanning three centuries of practitioners, which will now be relocated to the more stately atmosphere of the Wellcome Library due to its popularity last year. We are very excited to be welcoming science writer and broadcaster Dr Simon Singh who will be speaking in the auditorium. The hugely popular leeches will be making a return visit too.

For those who missed the event, have a look at this short clip on our first event here on the Wellcome Collection site.

The event is free and there is no need to book.

Owen Jones and Chinese Ornament

Illustration: Chinese Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

Although Owen Jones was to publish a volume entirely dedicated to Chinese ornament in 1867, The Grammar of Chinese Ornament, he had included only a slim chapter on the subject in his 1856 volume The Grammar of Ornament. The earlier chapter was a much smaller affair than the 1867 book, but was also relatively small compared to some of the other chapters in the book. Only four colour plates were included along with one page of text.

Illustration: Satellite map of China.

Interestingly, Jones was relatively dismissive of Chinese architecture, ornamentation and decoration, something that he was to correct in the 1867 volume. He gave the distinct impression that as far as he was concerned Chinese decoration was a limited and localised style that was prone to stagnation. He seemed to find little if any development in either style or technical achievement. This could be conceived as either ignorance or lack of information, as the 1867 volume seemed much more acutely aware of the Chinese achievements in the decorative arts than the small chapter published in 1856.

The lack of both data and imagery in any form of first hand knowledge was a decidedly acute handicap to the critic. In the nineteenth century, particularly in the first half, collections tended to be limited and travel to such distant areas of the planet as China were both difficult and hazardous for most Europeans. To be limited to collections, mostly in London, was a distinct problem to both Jones in particular and any attempt to form a detailed criticism of world art, design and decoration in general. 

Illustration: Chinese Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

As the century progressed into its second half, examples from across the planet, much of it admittedly acquired through colonial invasions and occupations began to fill in the gaps in the knowledge base held by Europeans. This added greatly to the ever-widening vocabulary of the world of the decorative arts, while at the same time allowing critics to begin slowly and often painfully placing Europe within its correct context.

One point of praise that Jones did concede to Chinese decoration was that of the harmonious balance of colour. He felt that although the Chinese had no real significant history in either architecture or ornamentation, they had instead spent time and effort on the understanding of colour and its importance within the sphere of decoration.

Illustration: Chinese Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

It may seem astounding to us in the twenty first century that Jones so little understood the complexities and uniqueness of both Chinese culture and its contribution to the decorative arts. Chinese decoration appears to have had a long history in Europe through the Chinoiserie style. However, this was a largely European based interpretation of China conceived over a great distance and over considerable cultural and artistic barriers. it therefore had little if any merit as a legitimate style deriving from China itself.

To many Europeans China in 1856 was still considered an unexplored and mysterious culture full a uniqueness and individuality that was both perplexing and intriguing. As the century progressed, European confusion over Chinese culture and decoration became a little clearer as can be found in Jones's 1867 volume. As time progressed, Jones obviously began to understand and appreciate through more positive data and imagery, the complexities of a unique cultural heritage.

Illustration: Chinese Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

Further reading links:
Grammar of Ornament: A Monumental Work of Art
Chinese No 3, Plate LXI, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones Giclee Poster Print by Owen Jones, 18x24
The Grammar of Chinese Ornament
Chinese Art (World of Art)
The Arts of China, Fifth Edition, Revised and Expanded
Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery
Art in China (Oxford History of Art)
Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs: A Comprehensive Handbook on Symbolism in Chinese Art through the Ages
Chinese Ceramics: From the Paleolithic Period through the Qing Dynasty (The Culture & Civilization of China)
Chinese Art in Detail
Chinese Art and Culture
Chinese Lattice Designs CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)

Favorites List --- The Last Flight

There was a writer in the twenties named John Monk Saunders who wanted to be Ernest Hemingway and ended up hanging himself. So much for the capsule bio. It’s as much as I knew about Saunders for a long time. That plus the fact he was married to Fay Wray, which made the suicide part all the more unfathomable. Somewhere there are descendents from the prominent family he was born into. Do they honor memories of one dismissed by others as failed and frustrated? But wait. John Monk Saunders wrote Wings and The Dawn Patrol, among quite a few others dealing with aerial wartime themes. Once, and long ago, he was writing’s promise for new realism and honesty with regards men who fought. Saunders just never got respect Hemingway earned for literature, and was in fact accused of purloining themes and incidents from the latter’s The Sun Also Rises, published a few years ahead of Saunders’ The Single Lady (from which The Last Flight derives). What Saunders enjoyed was applause and recognition a lot of better writers missed. So who needs posthumous acclaim when you can have it now? Something ate away at Saunders and brought him to a tragic finish. Was it realization that he was a mere pretender to greatness? Among sharper thorns was fact he hadn’t actually seen action during the Great War that was subject of most Saunders output. Trained to fly, yes, but fated never to do so in combat. Instead, they put him to instructing others at a Florida pilot’s school. Despite pleas for transfer, Saunders remained well clear of the action. How many times do you suppose patrons impressed with The Dawn Patrol (and the Academy Award he won for penning it) asked him to detail first-hand dogfighting?

Saunders had been a Rhodes scholar and child of privilege. Accounts of a so-called Lost Generation passing hours in Parisian bars roused his impulse to merge with that lifestyle and write about it (and them). Hemingway had done so after all, and Saunders was not alone for regarding him the best literary role model going. Whatever reality there was in that caravan of walking war wounded was enhanced by triflers who bore not their scars but enjoyed the romance by association. Saunders was already married to Fay Wray and much in demand screenwriting when he decamped to France for a taste of what he’d read about. The Single Lady was his yield for time served and Liberty magazine was all for serializing it upon his return. Warner star Richard Barthelmess noticed and saw potential for his own next starring vehicle. Dick was a believable platoon mate to those who’d marched and flown in combat. Two of his best-received vehicles had been The Patent Leather Kid and Saunders’ The Dawn Patrol. For The Single Lady’s author, there was gratification of seeing his story express train from publication to Hollywood’s embrace, with Saunders invited to furnish a shooting scenario (accompanied by publication of the novel by Grosset and Dunlap as one of their “Photoplay Editions,” accompanied by stills from the film). Originally titled Nikki and Her War-Birds, what finally emerged from Warners in 1931 was The Last Flight, an oddity then and more so now, a one-of-a-kind made possible by Saunders and Barthelmess at a short-lived juncture where neither had to compromise integrity of the film’s theme as both saw it.

It was right timing for Saunders. He had a smoother entrée to studios in fact than Hemingway, as Single Lady crabbed a deal EH thought he had for movie rights to The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway was sufficiently miffed to consult with counsel over Saunder’s lift(s) from his novel, but stopped short of legal action. The Single Lady got faithfully adapted, thanks to Saunders typing adaptation keys and Barthelmess protecting what he screen-wrote. The latter was himself a representative of filmland’s own Lost Generation of silent luminaries, soldiering on despite evidence mounting daily that new faces were supplanting him. Barthelmess is precisely right casting for The Last Flight, his own renown headed for eclipse, but maintaining at all times a tortured integrity that serves perfectly his character here. WB brass called The Last Flight uncommercial, as it focused on flyers’ lives after they were done flying, a dismaying contrast to actionful predecessors, which by 1931 were themselves losing boxoffice altitude. The Last Flight’s minimal combat stuff dominated the trailer, making disappointment keener when the feature disposed of said highlights in its opening reel. This was drama of endless talk among the willfully dissipated, not glories won in the skies. It’s a picture better suited to us now than patrons then, being frustrating to their expectations, but congenial to our own. Modern viewers tend to like The Last Flight. It took me watching twice to catch the wave. Now it’s one of my favorite Warner precodes. Some critics then admired the experiment, but a larger public balked. Against negative costs of $491,000, The Last Flight took domestic rentals of $405,000, with foreign a mere $45,000. The eventual loss totaled $253,000.

The first rediscovery I noticed for The Last Flight showed up in a published collection of essays under The American Film Institute’s umbrella in 1972. That appreciation by Tom Shales came at a time when the film was difficult at the least to come by. There was syndication availability, but most stations, even UHF ones, shunned really ancient Warner titles by the early seventies, preferring to cruise with better known Bogart and Davis oldies. Shales called The Last Flight "a revealing and a very significant oddball … recklessly oddball in fact." He singled out director William Dieterle in accordance with AFI then-policy of recognizing behind-the-camera talent too long ignored by mainstream critics. Articles like this could regenerate an old film. The community of cineastes was a small one (still is) and endorsement from a Tom Shales probably led to at least collegiate bookings for The Last Flight, which by the mid-seventies could be had at a bargain rental of $35 from UA/16. For John Monk Saunders’ source novel, there was also revival around the same time. The Single Lady came back into print via a Southern Illinois University Press venture called The Lost American Fiction Series. No claim is made that we are resuscitating lost masterpieces, said the publisher. We are reprinting works that merit re-reading because they are good writing. SIUP maintained it had serious ambitions for the series. They wanted to rescue certain books and authors from what they referred to as undeserved obscurity. The Single Lady was accompanied by a thoughtful afterword from writer Stephen Longstreet that established Saunders’ permanent residency in Hemingway’s shadow. Referring to The Single Lady as a carousel of impressions moving quickly to a very faint tune, Longstreet concluded that the book’s obscurity was largely a deserved one, though it was not without interest. SIUP’s 1976 reprinting was of Grosset and Dunlap’s Photoplay edition, and even included several photos from Warners’ film that illustrated the 1931 book. I made it to page 95 of 383 making up the text, enough to satisfy myself that The Last Flight was a faithful translation of Saunders’ novel. One thing Longstreet pointed out was fact that, as of 1976, there was no published biography of John Monk Saunders. That appears to remain the case. Probably the best place to read about him would be Fay Wray’s memoir, On The Other Hand, published in 1989 and an engaging account of her career and marriage to Saunders. As for The Last Flight, it is recently available from Warner DVD Archives and also recommended.

Wellcome Library Workshops

This week’s free Wellcome Library workshop is:

Free for all: history of medicine on the Web
From full-text books to online exhibitions, find the best places to start if you are looking for reliable, accessible history of medicine resources on the internet.
Thursday 3rd June, 2pm

Our programme of free workshops offer short practical sessions to help you discover and make use of the wealth of information available at the Wellcome Library. Book a place from the library website.

Author: Lalita Kaplish

Browsing Antiques

Want to browse antiques and bric-a-brac? Head to Covent Garden on Mondays.

A Study of Snakes: Armed with New Information

I waited to post my snake entry until the results of the snake poll were in. It was interesting to me to see just how my readers experience snakes. There were 113 people who responded to the poll.

How Often Do You See Snakes?
Frequently 9 votes
A few times a month 17 votes
A few times a year 55 votes
Rarely 24 votes
Never 7 votes

What Kind of Snakes Have You Seen?
Garter 78 votes
Milk 8 votes
Water 37 votes
Rattlesnake 18 votes
Other 64 votes

We are not a big snake family. Although we have had pet iguanas in the past and currently we have fire-bellied toads, snakes have not been a big fascination with my children. Our only on-going contact with snakes has been through our cats when they bring a dead one home and leave it on our doorstep. They are usually the small kind that don't bring much distress when we see them.


I do not take many photos of snakes so I decided to share our fire-bellied toads instead. This is Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley.

Occasionally we will see bigger more scary snakes on our hikes. This spring we have seen two rattlesnakes, one dead and one alive and curled up practically in the middle of the trail. We gave him some distance and left him alone.

We decided to research the garter snake since this is the most common one we see in our backyard or neighborhood. We found more information on this website: Identifying California Garter Snakes. After looking at the ranges and the photos of the garter snakes we potentially could see in our area, we narrowed our garter snakes down to two kinds:

Sierra Garter Snake or the Mountain Garter Snake


We made drawings and journal entries for both these snakes and the next time we come across one, we will be better equipped to identify it.

We also made a list of potential snakes to study in the future:
California Kingsnake
Western Rattlesnake
Gopher snake
California Striped Racer
Western Yellow Bellied Racer
Northern Rubber Boa

My son brought me the current issue of the National Wildlife magazine to show me an article on garter snakes. Lots of interesting bits in the article that helped us understand this snake a little better. (If you click the link above it will take you to an online version of the article, scroll down to the part about garter snakes.)

I encourage all to pick a snake and take a few minutes to learn some facts about it. I find it interesting that the more I know about something, the more I appreciate its beauty. Yes, even snakes.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Dancing Fountain

Summertime the courtyard of Somerset House is covered with dancing jets of water. Coloured lights add to the fun in the evening.
In July a dance performance choreographed with the fountains is promised.

Item of the month, May 2010: Defying "Old graviation's sway"

Etching and stipple print by P.W. Tomkins,1798,
after Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1786. Wellcome Library no. 536282i

In Roman history, the keepers of the temple of Vesta were the Vestal Virgins, who play a part in many myths and stories. One such is the story of Tuccia, who, when her virginity was challenged, offered to prove it by carrying water from the Tiber to the temple in a sieve. The story became very well known in the Middle Ages, and also subsequently, owing to its inclusion in a book by Valerius Maximus (Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri IX, or nine books of memorable deeds and sayings) which was used for centuries as a school textbook.

It was one of the stories used as a model by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds (1723-1792) was a specialist among portrait painters in posing his sitters in the guise of appropriate characters from history, myth, literature or antique art, and thus endowing his clients with the serenity of Apollo or the beauty of Venus. A visit to Kenwood House in Hampstead alone gives one a good idea of his method, for there one can see Reynolds's portraits of Mrs Musters as Hebe, Kitty Fisher as Cleopatra, and Mrs Tollemache as Shakespeare's Miranda.

Tuccia however is a special case. What kind of sitter would be most appropriately portrayed as a woman whose chastity had been impugned, and subsequently vindicated by an unlikely suspension of the laws of nature?

Unfortunately Reynolds's painting of Tuccia has been lost since it was sold in New York in 1933, but its appearance is recorded in a large-format stipple engraving made in 1798 by Peltro William Tomkins (above). Comment on the picture in contemporary newspapers named the sitter as Mrs Seaforth, who appears several times in Reynolds's business records for 1786. So who was Mrs Seaforth?

The first place to look for any information about Reynolds's paintings is the magnificent two-volume catalogue by Dr David Mannings, published in 2000, with entries for the subject pictures by Martin Postle. [1] Although the Tuccia could be described as a portrait historié, it is catalogued not with the portraits but among the subject pictures. There the sitter is described as Rebecca Lyne, called Mrs Seaforth, mistress and child bride of the nabob Richard Barwell (1741-1804). "The reason for the intense interest in Mrs Seaforth centred on the issue of her age and the question of her virginity: she was fifteen when she became the second wife of the forty-seven year Barwell." (Mannings and Postle no. 2171, p. 568). Barwell is described as a "nabob" because he had made his fortune in business in India.

However, the fine detail of this account is corrected by the Oxford dictionary of national biography, and by Mannings himself in his entry for another portrait of Mrs Seaforth in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (Mannings p. 408 no. 1595). From this it emerges that Barwell married as his second wife on 24 June 1785 Catherine (1769-1847), the daughter of Nathaniel Coffin from Boston, Massachusetts, and his wife, Elizabeth. Mrs Seaforth (Rebecca Lyne, who took the name of Seaforth) was the mistress of Barwell by whom she had three girls and a boy. So while Barwell did have a "child bride", it was the sixteen-year old Catherine Coffin rather than his mistress Rebecca Seaforth, the latter being the model for Tuccia.

In comparing Rebecca to Tuccia, which part of the story did Reynolds intend us to take away: the impugnment of her chastity or her demonstration of it? Perhaps the social historian would first look at the client relationship between Reynolds and Richard Barwell (assuming the wealthy nabob was Reynolds's real patron) and infer the latter interpretation: the painting proclaims her innocence. Surely Barwell would not have paid Reynolds a substantial fee to insinuate that Rebecca's virtue was as implausible as the carrying of water in a sieve?

Detail of the lettering (click on image to enlarge)

This point of view is supported by the lettering on the print, which was added by the print publisher Thomas Macklin (who, as a dealer, was also the owner of the painting). Purporting to come from "Dr Gregory's Ode to meditation", the verses read:

Lo! In the injur'd virgin's cause,
Nature suspends her rigid laws;
By power supreme constrain'd;

The trembling drops forget t'obey
Old graviation's potent sway,
And rest on air sustain'd.

No other reference to this ode has been found, and it has been suggested that Macklin might have had the verses written to illustrate the message of the painting. That message would be that the law of gravity ("Old graviation's potent sway") was indeed suspended to aid "the injur'd virgin's cause". ("Graviation" is unknown to the Oxford English dictionary, but as the lettering is engraved by hand instead of being printed in movable type, it should not be a misprint for "gravitation", both meaning gravity.)

However a different interpretation might be suggested by today's literary and art historians, who, for reasons not relevant here, favour a hermeneutics of complexity, irony, and subversion. According to this argument, the vindication of Tuccia's virtue is put forward as a subject in order to draw attention to the possibility of the opposite. Barwell and his girlfriend may have been pleased with the dignified portrayal, while the commentators would treat the portrait as a satirical representation of immorality, with Reynolds either subconsciously or covertly in the role of the satirist. While much favoured today, this kind of interpretation can often be over-sophisticated.

In this case however, perhaps surprisingly, the "ironic" interpretation was actually put forward at the time. The Swiss painter Henry Fuseli commented on the painting in the Analytical review in 1789, as follows:

"It is not necessary to know that the Vestal is the portrait of Mrs B—ll, to discover the whole is an irony; the humid side-leer of this eye can as little issue from the face of chastity, as a vestal from such a mother -– but the picture itself –- as a composition of certain beauties, and certain character, its expression, tones and forms … never let us once remember that it ridicules what it pretends to celebrate." [2]

As Luisa Calè says in her book on Fuseli, the identification helps "less knowing viewers into the cult of celebrity that was such an important feature of Royal Academy exhibitions ... recognition is essential to the insider joke about The Vestal's embodiment of chastity." [3] Such multiple interpretations may be commoner than we might realize when we see what looks at first sight like a routine retelling of an ancient myth.

[1] David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: a complete catalogue of his paintings; the subject pictures catalogued by Martin Postle. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000

[2] ibid. p. 568

[3] Luisa Calè, Fuseli's Milton Gallery: 'turning Readers in Spectators', Oxford: Clarendon Press (Oxford English monographs), 2006, p. 72

Singing Plants

A couple of weeks ago as part of the Tate 10 year celebrations they hosted no soul for sale, an exhibition of over 70 local and international artists.
The quirky and fun installation of house plants by Oregon Painting Society was one of my favourites. You hold two plants and pressure or stroking results in sounds. Talking to the plants is not just for Prince Charles.

John Illingworth Kay Wallpapers

Illustration: John Illingworth Kay. Rose Stripe wallpaper design, 1906.

The decorative work of the English designer John Illingworth Kay is often seen as both expansive and original, with large areas of foliage clustered throughout his work being a particular theme of his style of decoration. However, these examples of wallpaper work produced by him in the first decade of the twentieth century also show the ability of an artist or designer to control, or at least to temper, personal tastes or excesses to those of the larger public taste, or at least to that of their perceived taste.

Kay produced these examples for the English influential wallpaper manufacturer Essex & Co. Interestingly this was the same period that Kay was actually head of the design department of the company. He was to retain that position for the first two decades of the twentieth century. He saw the best of the early twentieth century phase of British design and decoration, with names such as Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, E L Pattison, Lindsay Philip Butterfield and T R Spence providing decorative pattern work for the wallpaper company.

 Illustration: John Illingworth Kay. Abingworth wallpaper design, 1907.

Edwardian England was a period of mixed and often acute contrasts. Socially, politically and artistically it could be said that England was at its most static with the small minority at the top of society holding firmly on to the reigns of power and privilege, while the majority at the bottom were beginning to show obvious signs of irritation and discontent with the imposed status quo. It was obvious to many that society was going to have to accommodate a much larger participation in all aspects of life from all social classes. However, the uneasy and unjust balance between the few 'haves' and the majority 'have-nots' was maintained largely unscathed throughout the Edwardian era. This has given us the often repeated idea that Edwardian England was that of a long and sentimental late summer of garden parties and country retreats. Interestingly, those who maintain this sentiment often derive from the social classes that would never have been allowed to participate in this fantasy in the first place. 

Illustration: John Illingworth Kay. Bianca wallpaper design, 1907.

It would perhaps be more accurate to portray Edwardian England as a society and culture that was locked into a strict framework. This framework was used to strangle any form of upheaval or large-scale change in the status quo. It could be fairly seen as a period when the upper classes attempted to put the brake on any further social or cultural change. Particularly change that was to effect the status and power of women, the working man and even that of the Empire. These changes could, and eventually did affect the position of this small minority, dissolving its influence and power to a great extent.

Society is often reflected in the arts and particularly those of the decorative arts. The formalised and conservative structure of Kay's wallpaper design work could be said to at least partially reflect the stiff intransigence of many aspects of English life. While the rest of Europe largely came to accept, and in many cases to even embrace the tenets of the Art Nouveau movement, England was both cautious and tempered in its approach. Many of the decorative and art magazines published in London were openly scathing of what was considered the 'new movement'. The abandonment of formal structure and the indulgence in the contemporary was considered by many to be shortsighted and contrary to the English way.

Illustration: John Illingworth Kay. Walden wallpaper design, 1907.

Although there is an element of individuality and the contemporary within these designs, and to be fair Kay did produce more varied and luxurious pattern work for wallpaper production, the examples shown here are locked into a fairly rigid and formal structure. In some ways at least, they do reflect the formal cautiousness of the English. To embrace the new and the untried would be to embrace change in more avenues than was perhaps acceptable for Edwardian England.

Further reading links:
The Edwardians: The Remaking of British Society
The Diehards: Aristocratic Society and Politics in Edwardian England (Harvard Historical Studies)
Women and Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian England
Twentieth-Century Pattern Design
Wallpaper: A History of Style and Trends
Wallpaper
The Papered Wall: The History, Patterns and Techniques of Wallpaper, Second Edition
Wallpaper in America: From the Seventeenth Century to World War I
Wallpaper: The Ultimate Guide
Fabrics and Wallpapers for Historic Buildings
The Walls Are Talking: Wallpaper, Art and Culture
Wall Papers for Historic Buildings: A Guide to Selecting Reproduction Wallpapers
London Wallpapers: Their Manufacture and Use 1690-1840 (Revised Edition)
Wallpaper (Historic Houses Trust Collection)