Dr Anna Clark

Early medieval silver ring, found in the Thames, dated c.770-850CE, the period of Viking raids on Britain.

Perhaps it was lost in some desperate battle on the riverside or dropped from a bag of stolen silver.
Or just lost after a drunken evening. So many possible stories...

(V&A, 📷 mine)

Read Colin Thubron’s eulogy to Gillian Tindall in Spitalfields Life. And celebrate her rare insight.

Floodlit red & white striped lighthouse, with light in lantern. Floodlit dome & lights of ship at sea.

Plymouth Hoe at night, #Plymouth #Devon

• “Smeaton’s Tower” - #JohnSmeaton - former Eddystone lighthouse. 1759
• “Plymouth Dome - former museum & visitor’s centre, now eatery. 1988
• Lights of a ship at anchor in Plymouth Sound.

Late (or early 😉) for #PharosFriday

Embarkation of Queen of Sheba, 1648, by Claude Lorrain, French Baroque artist known for ideal landscapes inspired by Roman campagna, and seaports suffused with golden light, which influenced work of Constable & Turner; died #OTD 1682.
National Gallery London

Portrait of Eleanora of Toledo & her son, c. 1545, by Bronzino, leading Florentine mannerist painter died #OTD 1572; pupil of Pontormo, working under the patronage of Cosimo I de’ Medici, his polished style influenced development of European court portraiture.
Uffizi Galleries

My photo shows a three quarter profile of an ancient Egyptian figurine of a leaping dog facing left. Carved from ivory, now a warm caramel brown colour with glossy surface. The dogs eyes are outlined in black, the ears are floppy, the mouth is slightly ajar (the inside of the mouth is painted red - not sen in my photo). The front and back legs are outstretched as if running at full speed. A lever under the dog’s chest opens and closes the mouth so that the dog looks as if it’s barking. Dimensions: L 18.2 cm × H 6.1 cm × W 3.6 cm. Dated to Late Dynasty I8, I400-I350 BC, reign of Amenhotep III who was Tutankhamun’s grandfather. The dog is mounted on a thin metal rod in a display case. In the background in the same display case is a ‘galloping’ brown horse, which is the handle of an ancient Egyptian fly whisk or light whip.

A very good boy! 🐾🐕😍

An amazing c. 3,400 year-old ancient Egyptian dog carved from ivory. This leaping dog opens and closes its mouth as if barking by using a lever below its chest.

The Met 📷 by me

#Archaeology

Delightful lunch at Magdalene Coll Cambridge in memory of the poet & critic Arthur Sale (d. 2000). F. R. Leavis, no friend of his, still called him ‘the best individual teacher of English in Cambridge’. Arthur’s pupils included Bamber Gascoigne, Alan Rusbridger, Nicholas Shakespeare & Monty Don.

A sixteenth-century handwritten book, lying open on a dark grey-blue cushion. Cloth-covered weighted cords hold the book open to display the text, including a section underlined in red and a paragraph starting with a large, red capital M.

The St  Andrews Chronicles, one of the most important manuscript histories of Scotland, is going on public display for the first time in its 500-year history. The book will be on display at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social from 21 November to 7 December
#BookHistory
news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/500-...

22nd November is the feast of St Cecilia. Here an angel is depicted crowning Cecilia and her husband Valerian.

BL Harley 2897; the 'Breviary of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria'; c. 1410- 1419 CE; France, Central (Paris); f.440v

As it’s St. Cecilia’s Day, here are photos of my extraordinary private visit to Sibelius’s home.
Here is his Steinway where Martin Segerståle and Folke Gräsbeck played two of his works for me. And the fireplace where he burned his 8th Symphony. The green represented F to synaesthetic Sibelius. 1/2

William Nicholson looking splendid at Pallant House. A beautifully-installed exhibition which will repay several visits - fortunately it’s on till May next year.
1/3

The remains of 4 pillars in parkland

A view across the remains of the East end of the church

Looking down on the remains of the crypt

An upstanding section of the nave wall and window against a clear blue sky

Lovely afternoon wander round the substantial remains of Bury St Edmunds Abbey....

Ynys Llanddwyn ('Llanddwyn Island'), small tidal island off the west coast of Anglesey, photo by Catherine Chambers.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
Aldous Huxley, English writer, author of Brave New World, died #OTD 1963.
Photo by Charles Sheeler, Michener Art Museum

Middlemarch, published 1871-2, by George Eliot, born #OTD 1819; described by Virginia Woolf as “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people”.
Portrait by François D’Albert Durade c 1850, National Portrait Gallery London | MS British Library

The unusual sight of Snipe flying #birds

A corroded metal arrowhead displayed upright on a thin stand. The triangular point is heavily weathered and rough, with two short side barbs extending from the base. Its surface shows a mottled texture of rust and mineral deposits, giving it an uneven, pitted appearance

#FindsFriday!
An arrowhead made of #meteorite iron: around 1,500 BC, a meteorite struck #Estonia. A fragment of it arrived - presumably in the baggage of an amber trader - at what is now Lake Biel, #Switzerland. An arrowhead was then made there from the cosmic iron.
From Mörigen, 900-800 BC.

📷 me

Now the exhibition's over, the Luzern Kunstmuseum have sent some stats and our little Max Ernst was part of something big: 5 years to plan, 99 international loans, 46,000 visitors in its 4 months' run. Safely home now; it'll be back in the Red House drawing room next open season.

✨ Friday inspiration: The achingly beautiful village of Bosham in West Sussex. King Harold saw the same church tower before he set sail in 1064 to meet William of Normandy who would be his conqueror in 1066. Bosham is named in the Bayeux Tapestry alongside a depiction of the church.

The reconstructed Berlin Palace.
#Photography #Architecture

Ceci n’est pas une pipe: René Magritte, influential Belgian surrealist painter, born #OTD 1898; commemorated in Brussels by the comprehensive Magritte Museum, and a street “Ceci n’est pas une rue”.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art | Magritte Museum Brussels | Grant Snider cartoon

“Cela est bien dit…mais il faut cultiver notre jardin.”
The smile of reason: Voltaire, influential French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, crusader for freedom, tolerance & truth; born #OTD 1694; author of Candide (1759).
Portrait by Nicolas de Largillière, c. 1718, Musée Carnavalet, Paris

”Bad money drives out good.”
Sir Thomas Gresham, English merchant & financier, adviser to Tudor monarchs, founded London’s Royal Exchange in 1565; died #OTD 1571, left bequest to found Gresham College, London’s first higher education institution est.1597.
Portrait by Anthonis Mor c 1560 Rijksmuseum

And I *cannot* wait to read this, with essays by some of my favourite writers: @hystericalblkns.bsky.social; Lucy Lippard; and Rosanna McLaughlin (who’s also one of our graduates).

And look at that gorgeous die-cut cover

Gorgeous out there today in crisp sunshine ☀️ Headed up the Montgomeryshire Canal to Llanymynech via Carreghofa Locks

Handwritten copy of the opening sonnet from Sidney’s ‘Astrophel and Stella’, in a late 16thC secretary hand.

Thanks to the wonderful staff in the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research Collections, today my 2nd-year tutorial groups have been thinking about book history and reading practices from the Middle Ages to the 18thC, including this copy of Sidney’s ‘Astrophel and Stella’ (c.1592)

In the exhibition of J-L David's work at Musée du Louvre (Oct2025-Jan2026), there is an extra dimension to the paintings in many of the frames...

David's frames: theframeblog.com/2024/04/17/j...

Goldfinch #birds

Afternoon walk, Greenfield, Saddleworth.

With frost on the ground this morning I'm rather wishing I was back in the high altitude Alpine pastures of the Dolomites - heaven!

📷 My own, Sesto, June 2025