Slice 5 of a 5-slice Random Treasure blog post, about a loaf of bread which won a home-baking competition in 1907. This final Slice 5 considers the Winner of the Prize. Who was she? Where did she live? What was her place within local society, where everyone knew their place but everyone competed in the annual show? … More Prize Loaf: Slice 5
Slice 4 of a 5-slice Random Treasure blog post, about a loaf of bread which won a home-baking competition in 1907. This Slice 4 is about the Exhibit which won the Prize: a home-baked loaf of bread. But what kind of loaf? Let us investigate, or perhaps speculate, what the loaf looked like and what recipe was used. … More Prize Loaf: Slice 4
Slice 3 of a 5-slice Random Treasure blog post, about a loaf of bread which won a home-baking competition in 1907. This Slice 3 considers The Prize-Giver, Carr’s Flour Mills of Silloth, Cumbria. What motivated them to give away around 20 such tea sets at local flower shows in that damp summer? … More Prize Loaf: Slice 3
Slice 2 of a 5-slice Random Treasure blog post about a loaf of bread which won a home-baking competition in 1907. This Slice 2 is about the Prize, a Handsome China Tea Service in blue and white bone china. Where did the tea service come from? Who made it? And why am I so interested? … More Prize Loaf: Slice 2
Your Random Treasure blogger has been investigating a very special loaf of bread which won first prize in a home-baking competition. My findings are sliced into five Slices, each to be served to you in a separate blog post. Slice 1: The Prize Competition, held at the Annual Show at St Bees, Cumbria in August 1907. … More Prize Loaf: Slice 1
In Chapter 3 of the Missing Monk Mystery, I continue my investigation of why the Monk disappeared from Daniel Maclise’s painting, his meaning in the picture, and who at Knebworth was responsible for his disappearance. I have five scenarios to offer, any one (or none) of which might explain the Mystery. Take your pick. … More Missing Monk Mystery: Chapter 3
Chapter 2. A Monk, formerly present in a painting by Daniel Maclise, isn’t there now. The edges of the original composition were chopped off. My Investigation begins. Who owns the picture, where is it now, and who is featured in it? Why has the Monk been deleted and who was responsible for his departure? … More Missing Monk Mystery: Chapter 2
Chapter 1 of a 3-part blog post. In 1851 the painter Daniel Maclise exhibited a narrative painting showing William Caxton demonstrating his printing press to King Edward IV. The composition originally included a scowling, miserable Monk – but if you look at it today, the Monk has disappeared. There’s a Missing Monk Mystery. … More Missing Monk Mystery: Chapter 1
Wars and fighting and armaments and heroes don’t much interest me. But I’ve found a book that stands as an extraordinary link between four great military figures: Odysseus of Ithaca, Lawrence of Arabia, the First Earl Wavell and the Second Earl Wavell. Unimpressed as I am with heroism, I find these connections strangely moving. … More Four Heroes
A newly-acquired Mystery Object has taken my researches to new heights or depths of obscurity and unfashionableness. A small oval lidless vessel with intriguing low-relief figures and inscriptions, cold to the touch, hard and brittle, yet not ceramic. Nothing about this object rings any bells with me. Welcome to the forgotten world of Fictile Ivory. … More Fictile Ivory
Random Treasure 