A portrait of Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton (1790-1851) by Sir Henry Raeburn

London during the second half of the eighteenth century was a place where extremes met. It was full of things to do and see, of people, of excitement and, it was at the heart of affairs both great and small. By 1800 the population had passed the million mark, and provincial industrial cities, although growing fast, were all under a 100,000 people. The British Navy controlled the seaways; industry was flourishing; the new manufacturing class was prospering;  In London sensibility was flourishing, politeness was valued and there was a distinct elevation of interior sentiment, feelings of the heart and a value of intimacy. The city’s environment was being reshaped, new streets, new squares with open vistas and clear classical lines that were pleasing to the eye. As well there was a great variety of both public and private gardens.

England, Europe and America in the early years of the nineteenth century was entering a period of extraordinary political change, of reform and revolution, scientific and botanical discovery, dazzling artistry, literary excellence, military milestones and political and social scandal. London was now the largest city in western Europe. Not only more populous, it offered a different quality of life. Nowhere else in Britain was so urban; no other city so exciting or so shocking! This was an era dominated by men and also an age of paradox, one in which serious government reforms were achieved, including the abolition of black slavery with Amazing Grace through the extraordinary efforts of William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833)

A portrait of Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton (1790-1851) by Sir Henry Raeburn was exhibited in a show the Royal Academy at London in 1821. It is full of concentrated energy, its intensity suggesting that while we are in the presence of a quieter hero, he is nevertheless acquainted with the reality of drama as the red lining of his cloak suggests. The subject is a man western history may not have celebrated very much, but one who contributed much to its growth, intellectually, socially and practically.

British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade William Wilberforce, who was convinced of the importance of religion, morality and education

Born in 1790 by the 1820’s, having completed his obligatory grand tour of Italy, Compton was a respected connoisseur of the arts and literature, particularly poetry. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. 1810, and was created Doctor of Law in 1835. The Member of Parliament for Northampton 1812-20 he involved himself in both politics and cultural life. He sat in the House of Commons where he held an ‘honest independence, and was often called impracticable and crotchety’ by his colleagues. He was connected with Sir James Mackintosh a criminal law reformer and also supported his parliamentary colleague William Wilberforce for the abolition of the slave trade. In his lifetime Compton campaigned vigorously for law reform because he believed in liberty and justice for all.

Our understanding of the meaning of both liberty and justice is at the very heart of the establishment of today’s modern western culture. Justice has many guises and in reality its theory is constantly challenged. It constantly changes its shape based on contemporary societies mores and concerns.

At its essence Justice embraces moral righteousness and truth. Its theories were originally based on ideas and values inherent in concepts of ethnicity, nationality and religion. It ardently believes in punishing those who breach the ethics of society.

Liberty, the freedom to think or act without being constrained by necessity or by force is about freedom from captivity or slavery and the political, social and economic rights belonging to citizens of a state. It is one of the most potent of all western democracies ideas.

Both concepts were honed and refined during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially when Spencer Compton was an active advocate for the law in England. This was when society demanded that everyone who had committed crimes against the people and the state be brought to trial and judged for their misdeeds by a jury of their peers.

For centuries Continental monarchs had ruled absolutely, whereas in England for both good, and not so good reasons, the King’s council had always attempted to circumscribe monarchical power by parliamentary institution.

Visiting Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure wrote of his experience at the court of St James’s early in the century where he found the first of the Hanoverian sovereigns, George 1 (1714 – 1727) was only acknowledged at his morning celebration the gentleman’s ‘levée’ by the inclination of the head rather than the sort of grovelling that went on at the French King’s morning rising ceremony.

Artist William Hogarth's London

The London Saussure encountered on his visit was one of great contrasts. With a population bordering on ¾ million he also found that many an English merchant was richer than the sovereign princes of Europe.

…malice, rapine, accident conspire.
And now a rabble rages, now a fire;
Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,
And here a fell attorney prowls for prey;
Here falling houses thunder on your head,
And here a female Atheist talks you dead.

London was at this stage of its cultural development not a place to be ambushed by thugs or diddled by lawyers.

French author Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694 – 1778) after a short spell in the Bastille for daring to challenge a French nobleman, lived in England from 1726 to 1729 where he was totally astonished by its people and their many freedoms. He found it completely amazing Englishmen were able to virtually say and publish what they liked without fear of prison or exile. He was further astounded there was no torture or arbitrary imprisonment and that noblemen and priests were not exempt from certain taxes.

Debate, a formal framework in which people, without violence, can discuss and determine their differences and disputes as part of a democratic system of government

In England he discovered it was the poor who enjoyed exemption from taxation whereas at the same time in France it was the rich.On top of all of that he discovered that different religious sects were allowed to flourish.

In France Louis IV in 1685 had revoked the Edict of Nantes, a document put in place by his predecessor Henry IV The Great (1553-1610) that granted religious toleration to Protestants living in Roman Catholic France.

Meanwhile in England the Toleration Act of 1689 allowed Protestant non-conformists their own places for worship and teachers etc. They were subject to swearing certain oaths and declarations that ensured they would not act against the crown or Parliament. Any further restrictions in place for Roman Catholics were finally removed in England in 1829.

Gaining enlightenment...

The so-called Enlightenment is one of those rare historical movements that managed to name itself. Certain thinkers and writers, primarily in London and Paris, believed they were far more enlightened than their compatriots. So armed with only self-confidence they set out to enlighten everyone else.

They believed that human reason, the power of intelligent and dispassionate thought, or of conduct influenced by such thought, should be used to combat ignorance, superstition, and tyranny in order to build a better world. Debate, to deliberate about differences and consider someone else’s point of view was honed in the parliament.

In the main they were very successful. Their principal targets were religion, embodied in France in the Roman Catholic Church, and the domination of society by a hereditary aristocracy in both Europe and England.

The wider expertise and experience that Voltaire gained while he was in England meant that his works and ideas became the embodiment of European ‘enlightenment’. Although he died some time before it was established, he irrevocably laid the foundations for the French revolution in the minds of his peers.

He wrote in his Travel Notes about England that it was ‘the freest country in the world’. He made no exception and called it free because the sovereign, whose person is controlled and limited was unable to inflict any harm on anyone.

George III was the third of the Hanoverian Kings and the first to speak English. He had a sense of duty to his country, moral family life, was sincere in his Christian faith, held a diverse range on interests, and was about charitable giving. His life was marred by mental illness.

During the reign of George III (1738-1820) in England the reign of the monarch was altered dramatically. In the second half of the seventeenth century the Whig junto, a self-appointed committee with political aims whose members constantly surrounded and supported the King. They had gradually assumed positions of power distributing the resources of the crown in the form of places, pensions and perquisites and further circumscribing the power of the monarch.

Ultimately the monarchy became about being skillful in managing delicate political and social situations, the embodiment of national morality and a role model for the people.

By the second half of the eighteenth century the King at London was being treated as a human being. Once that had happened something quite unique began to take place, high culture, an integral aspect of the court began to move out of its narrow confines to become an attribute of its people.

During the lifetime of Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, 2^nd Marquess of Northampton’s England’s so-called Westminster system of government honed through debate and experience became by the end of the nineteenth century, the envy and admiration of both European and American people, philosophers and thinkers. It was about dispensing justice and preserving liberty under the law.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

* Heraclitus, Greek philosopher (540 BC – 480 BC)

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2. Archibald Knox, Liberty of London and Modernism
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The greatest artist of the Renaissance era in Italy, and perhaps the most famous painter the world has ever seen was Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Most people would understand today that he was truly a genius as believed by those in his own time including Francois 1 of France who provided him with work and a home in the last years of his life. Da Vinci was brilliant, curious and created a new idea of beauty, one that was all at once subtle, enigmatic and completely captivating. His skill and craftsmanship were without peer. Considering how few of his paintings remain, about fifteen in all scattered around the world, his reputation and fame has been established based on drawings and sketches made for details in his paintings, of nature and for his inventions, which were truly miraculous in his time. They prove both his vision and insight.

An exhibition at the National Gallery of London until February 5, 2012 concentrates on work produced during the period of his life spent in Milan when Ludovico Sforza sponsored him (1482 – 1499). This is the only time the majority of his finest painting works have been brought together to put on show, and probably the last time it will ever happen, because moving them is dangerous, difficult and costly. As would be expected the Mona Lisa at Paris and the original fresco of the Last Supper at Milan are not included. This is the first time his work has been on show with a focus on paintings supported by studies and sketches. They reveal his supreme ability to render in paint images that draw us in, hold us and never let us go.

The ‘Lady with an Ermine’ painted about 1489 – 1490, is very special and on loan from the National Museum of Cracow in Poland. The subject was 15 year old Cecilia Gallerani (1473-1536), mistress of Leonardo’s patron Ludovico Sforza. She is caught in a pose clutching to her breast an ermine, which was a symbol of purity and moderation and an emblem for pregnancy and childbirth.

Her lovely face is caught in an enigmatic gaze in a portrait about power and sex. Her beauty is unmistakable, flawless in many ways, while still subtle and completely alluring. The hands gently caressing the ermine are superbly rendered, their tiny veins, tendons, bones and muscles visible in close up. Painted in the all-new oil paints, the colours too are important. The blue is ultramarine, the most expensive pigment made from grinding up the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli, which was shipped to Europe from Afghanistan.

Supreme among the works on show is the recently found and restored treasure Salvator Mundi, Christ as Saviour of the World.  Its story is amazing. Dianne Modestini an art restorer, together with dealer and art historian Robert Simon in New York, discovered it. They were given the job of bringing back to life what was thought to be a copy of a painting lost for centuries. You can imagine their excitement when it was finally authenticated as a Da Vinci.

These days a great deal of technology can be employed to examine a work such as this, to ensure that it is genuine. All the experts, having looked at the evidence gathered and the restored work itself are completely convinced. The work had been known about for a long time from drapery study sketches currently in the English Royal Collection. X rays have revealed that Leonardo changed the position of the thumb, one of the pieces of evidence that led to its being declared original. One can only imagine the reaction of the owners when the copy, which last sold for 45 pounds in 1958, suddenly became worth in the vicinity of 125 million pounds. It is an engaging and powerful image whose spiritual quality shines out, much like the enigmatic smile of Leonardo’s most famous work the Mona Lisa, whose slight hint of a smile has intrigued millions. The rendering of the rock crystal ball in Christ’s left hand is breathtaking.

Leonardo da Vinci was a true Renaissance man, one whose thirst for knowledge was only exceeded by his desire for more. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, inventor, and scientist and eloquently answered the question was painting a science in his treatise on Painting the Codex Urbinas Latinus published in 1270.

At the heart of his understanding of the material world art and science were joined. Man’s eyes were not only the windows to the soul but also to the universe beyond one in which the image became greater than the word; the visual joy of nature reflected exultantly through the painter’s joy of capturing it. He insisted on representing emotion, for him a painter had to note the real thing, real anger, real laughter, and real pain. Da Vinci believed emotions needed to reflect the nature of man’s inner impulses, while his attitude needed to demonstrate his real intent.

His famous Last Supper Fresco at Milan is today in poor condition with only 20% of its original paint showing.

Many however do not know that their is an exact contemporary copy on canvas, thought to be rendered by a pupil of Leonardo. It is attributed to Giovan Pietro Rizzoli, called Giampietrino ca 1495-1549 or, Marco D’Oggiono ca 1467 – 1524.

Thought to have been painted around 1515, it usually hangs in one of England’s sacred destinations, Magdalen College (pronounced “Maudlin)  at Oxford in the ante-chapel on loan from The Royal Academy.

Wonderfully, it provides us with a great sense of what the faded original looked like.

Also on display are pages from his notebooks that reveal the painstaking lengths he went to record the proportions of the arm, the exact make-up of the skull and studies of the human nervous system, all of which helped his work.

Leonardo was also foremost among the Italian flower illustrators, whose interest can genuinely be called scientific.

The earliest surviving plant studies record ‘many flowers copied from nature’ and mentioned in his list of works from c1482. As catalogues of medicinal plants were created in the sixteenth century a need arose for exacting drawings. Leonardo’s hand in these drawings becomes a vehicle for the energies embodied in the spiral forms and motions of nature. He dissected plants just like he did human bodies to observe how they were formed …his curiosity was insatiable, repeatedly writing in his notes ‘who will tell me if anything was ever finished?’.

His drawings were so accurate that his keen and informed eye helped show the way for future illustrators of botany and send a loud and clear message to us that for him direct observation was the only path to truth.

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan
Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery of London
9th November 2011 – 5th February 2012
Timed Tickets – sold out – only limited tickets available on a daily basis
Expect to queue all night if you want one

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

Watch a Video about the Exhibition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9voMcIEV6I

*Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud

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The Emperor Qianlong in his study (Before 1767) Artist: attributed to the Jesuit Priest Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) and Jin Tingbiao (active at Court 1757-1767)

Many know about Salem in Massachusetts in America, mainly because of its association with witches. However one of its greatest treasures is the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). The roots of the museum date to 1799 and the founding of the East India Marine Society, an organization of Salem captains and supercargoes, who had achieved what once was impossible, sailing beyond either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. The society’s charter included a provision for the establishment of a “cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities,” which is what we today would call a museum.

Recently the PEM had a show that revealed the contents of the Emperor’s Qianlong’s private retreat deep within the Forbidden City. There were some ninety objects, including murals, paintings, wall coverings, furniture, architectural elements, jades and cloisonné.  The Emperor Qianlong  (r.1736-1796) was one of Chinese history’s most influential figures. He was among the richest and most powerful men in the world during his life time. A connoisseur, scholar and devout Buddhist, within the forbidden city Qianlong created a luxurious garden compound to serve throughout his retirement as a secluded place of contemplation, repose and entertainment.

I first learned about the PEM in an unlikely place, Brisbane, Australia during the last year of the twentieth century. At Milton in Brisbane, where I was working at the time in an Antique Shop, we held an exhibition of Chinese textiles and many people came not only to look and purchase rare pieces, but also to show us theirs. One family turned up with a sea chest full of fabulous textiles and objects, which had been brought out of China early in the twentieth century at the time of the Chinese Revolution by a merchant sailor member of their family. It included a fabulous uncut Chinese silk Imperial Yellow Robe, which was still on the roll where it had been placed after it had been woven.

Chinese Rank Badge of a Scholar

An elderly friend, Jim Forbes came to visit and advise. Jim was a member of the renowned American Forbes family, whose wealth had its origins in the China trade that took place between North America and China during the nineteenth century. He had an innate understanding of the culture that surrounded the Emperors in the Forbidden City. Throughout the exhibition he often called in to view and talk about the textiles and the time they had been woven.

He told us about the Boston trading firm Perkins & Company who had sent many young men, including his great grandfather to participate in their business activities abroad. Perkins & Co., like many other Boston trading firms in the early nineteenth century, had sent ships to China to obtain tea. They paid for it by exporting to China, from Boston, large quantities of silver, furs, manufactured goods, cloth, wood and the deadly opium along with any other items they thought the Chinese market would absorb.

The Forbes family founded and were involved in the running of the Museum of the American China Trade at Milton, Mass., on Boston’s South Shore. Until the 1980′s it was curated by a Forbes great-grandson, Dr. H. A. Crosby Forbes, who was an expert on Chinese porcelain and a relative of our Brisbane based expert.

He often went to visit him to discuss special finds and view the family collection. It was housed in one of the family members 1833 Greek Revival style house in ironically, Milton in Mass. In 1984 it merged with the The Peabody Essex Museum leaving the house in the management of the Forbes House Charitable Trust, which now operates it as the Captain Forbes House Museum.

The Forbes House Museum is located at: 215 Adams Street Milton, MA 02186

The PEM is about helping people to access and assess their relationship to creativity, or to help refine their ability to interpret art and culture.

The collection is diverse and cross cultural and includes African, American, Asian, maritime, Native American and Oceanic art. The focus is on enjoying a lively conversation through creativity across time, place and culture.

Their goal is not to hang art on the walls and then tell you what to think. Deep and far ranging, the collection is meant to open windows onto the world and other cultures to learn how people live, work and celebrate.

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM),
East India Square (161 Essex St Milton) Salem, Massachusetts
Contact: 01970 978-745-9500

Carolyn McDowall The Culture Concept Circle 2010 – 2012

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One of the enchanting figures on the Chinoiserie Style Pavilion in Sansouci Park at Potsdam. Johnn Gottfried Büring was the architect and it was built between 1755 and 1764 by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1712-1786)

What is Art Deco
Art Deco (1920 – 1940) is a design style that reached the apex of its popularity between two global conflicts, World War I and II. It borrowed from virtually all the design styles of the past in order to fashion the future. It was the perfect expression of Paris during the 20’s to the 30’s and embraced every area of design and the decorative arts including architecture, interiors, furniture, jewellery, painting and graphics, bookbinding, costume, glass and ceramics. It was all about glamour. It was also about completing a deeply felt need for a style that would never be threatened by change. Its protagonists wanted to ward off the threat of a civilization dominated by either industry or technology, or both. The idea was to integrate contemporary living with art and turn life into art and for a while they succeeded.

Chinoiserie, More than Fantasy and Fashion
During the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions as fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery. It manifested itself in intimate interiors where mirrored rooms reflected scenes of frivolity well. It draped itself delightfully with sumptuous silk textiles that recorded scenes of fashion and folly. The admiration of all things Chinese also led to the ultimate crossing over of cultural influences. On the scale of things a very few people in England and Europe had ever seen someone who was Chinese so their vivid imagination took over and, when combined with a great layering of charm, Chinoiserie was a style that was very fetching.

Jane Austen, more than the cultivation of the mind?
While her only known image may seem to reveal otherwise, there was nothing really plain about Jane Austen 1775 – 1817. Her novels, which have become classics in their own right, allow us today to share the memory of the robust society in which she lived and its privileges of rank. It was a colourful, turbulent and seemingly romantic world in the process of rapid evolution. The English provincial life, as led by Jane Austen and some of her heroines, was one of quality and modesty. A cultivated ambiance of politeness, with a keen though delicate sensibility was well balanced by common sense.

If you would like to watch more videos just bookmark our link http://www.youtube.com/user/carolynmcdowall

Carolyn McDowall, Writer in Residence, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

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Selection of fine antiques courtesy Martyn Cook Antiques, Redfern Australia

According to antique dealers, their associations and the tax man however, it is not really that simple at all. For nearly half a century, following World War II, many believed an antique had to be 100 years old to be of any value. The 100 rule idea came about because in the early 1950’s the newly formed international Customs Co-operation Council at Brussels defined an antique as 100 years of age to exempt old furniture and objects over that age from tax when they were being exported and imported. The Description and Coding System they established was widely adopted across the western world, including America and Australia. Gradually as it became standard practice to exempt furniture and objects over 100 years old from tax, a general perception emerged that for anything (even architecture) to be considered of any merit or value it had to be more than a 100 years old.

In England however it remained very different. Up until the beginning of the last decade of the twentieth century, the term antique meant those goods made prior to 1830. This is because 1830, the death of George IV was the date in England that producing a piece of furniture, or a lovely object by hand, was considered to have ended at London.

Simply superb eighteenth century Meissen Porcelain teapot from Saxony

Hand manufacturing meant quality materials, wonderful workmanship, unique and custom made features, with special attention to detailing and techniques like marquetry, parquetry, inlay and stringing. Then the industrial age took over producing furniture and objects by machine so that a greater number of people in the rapidly expanding middle classes across the western world could enjoy the same designs, which were now made affordable. However the major English antiques and art trade association exhibitions and fairs upheld the date 1830 as defining an antique rigidly for over a 100 years. Many dealers, collectors and connoisseurs fought valiantly to keep the date and reason in play for as long as feasibly possible.

Watch our You Tube Video What is An Antique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVn__dWxx9w

Lyre back chair by master craftsman Thomas Chippendale - a quality piece of fine furniture, of fine proportion, beautifully rendered and amazingly, designed to sit on

However, in the last 20 years of the 20th century it all broke down, as examples of fine furniture, paintings, sculpture and beautiful objects made prior to 1830 began the move into museums or major collections supported by sponsors.

Trade associations also were placed in a position where they needed to also recognize dealers who were trading in fine art deco furniture of the 20′s and 30′s, which was certainly not 100 years old, but certainly of brilliant design and craftsmanship. A great example of the reason why is highlighted by wonderful furniture produced by eighteenth century master English craftsman and cabinetmaker extraordinaire Thomas Chippendale.

Today he has become internationally renowned. Originally an eighteenth century village master craftsman, who designed and made furniture for his clients in his own workshop at Otley in rural Yorkshire, Chippendale was a progressive and ambitious chap. Clever too. He moved into the town (London) opposite a place where successful men of business, and lords and ladies met, to enjoy a daily outing, some business and the rage new fashionable drink coffee.  Sound familiar?

He hung a chair, of his own design, outside the shop, which was in a fashionable part of the town. He wanted to be noticed and was soon successful. But did he last longer than fashion dictates? Yes, he did. He gained a great client list, because he offered a quality product, of excellent design, made from the latest and best materials, including the new rage timber mahogany. And, he also understood about servicing his clients. He called himself an ‘upholder’ and, as well as furniture of his own design, he provided everything they needed for the art of living.

He sold beautiful textiles and soft furnishings that complimented his own passionately produced product. He was flexible too, as a progressive chap should be. He often produced furniture to designs by his  successful colleague neoclassical Scottish architect Robert Adam, who was for a time, ‘all the rage’ as well. Today many owners of great English country houses are thrilled their ancestors had the foresight to hang onto pieces originally made by Thomas Chippendale, rather than consign them to the ashes for the sake of fashion. They were so well built too they just wouldn’t wear out!

Thomas Chippendale, it seems, wanted to be remembered for his innovative creative ideas. So in 1754 he published The Gentleman & Cabinet Maker’s Director, a book full of all his designs for all sorts of furniture and furnishings, including some simply fabulous mirrors. With it he proved he was adaptable to all sorts of stylistic trends. His designs accommodated the frivolous Rococo and its love of asymmetry, the delightfully whimsical Chinoiserie – the European evocation of the Chinese taste and, the Neo Classical style whose symmetrical perfection was very pleasing. You name it, he could design it and make it. And, it was always fabulous. But now the really clever part. He allowed others who subscribed to his Director to use his designs copyright free.

Mirror, in the Chinese taste, by Thomas Chippendale

Clever bed in a closet by eighteenth century neo-classical Scottish architect Robert Adam

Today the designs of Thomas Chippendale have been copied and adapted for over 200 years. Lots of manufacturers and cabinetmakers have purchased his book, which has had, since his death many editions. Literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of furniture have been made using his patterns and today they still grace homes around the world, especially in America. In places like Washington, Boston and New York for a hundred years after his death they absolutely loved his designs and adapted them for local use, such as the fabulous bed in a wardrobe he made for Robert Adam. What a sensible piece of furniture in any age.

By the late nineteenth century the Chinese were also manufacturing pieces designed by Chippendale, as well as the two other English drawing masters who had followed his lead and published Directors. They were Thomas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite. They then shipped them to England, to America and to Australia as part of the China Trade.

Now here’s the thing. All these pieces, according to the tax man and the 100 year rule, are now antique too! But are they as valuable as the pieces made by Chippendale in his workshop or others in workshops during his lifetime?

I have a thing for early eighteenth century porcelain, like this delightful modernist teapot with a silver spout protector

Well no is the answer. Seems Thomas Chippendale, either wittingly or unwillingly, turned out to be a wise old chap as well. With original documentation attached many of his pieces today are worth into the millions of dollars in economic terms. The rest are graded down from that, according to quality, age, timber used, condition etc, all those things that add up to make an antique valuable. They can also only be said to be made ‘in the style of Thomas Chippendale’.

The works of Thomas Chippendale reflect the evolution of humankind spiritually, socially and culturally. For the country houses and museums around the world who own them today their value is in many ways priceless. Each year they, together with the other wonderful pieces by individual artists and designers from each generation, attract hundreds of thousands of visitors world wide. Chippendale’s story certainly proves the theory about the power of one! And then there is all the people over the years who have benefited from his skill, ingenuity, innovation, creativity and above all generosity.

A collection of antiques in a stone cottage designed for living

So what happened next. Well again its really simple. In England, where the whole concept of antiques had been invented, in the last 10 years of the 20th and first 10 years of this century they fell back on the ’100 year rule’, because most of the baby boomer and x generation customers coming along already believed an antique was 100 years old. It is only recently that the lines have become blurred again as much memory is lost during major generational change.

So how do you, or would you classify an antique in 2010? Well the British Antiques Dealers Association, according to their website, still requires its members to adhere to the 100 year rule. They call it the ‘centenary date’. However if you are checking the websites of other major International Antiques Associations you will probably search hard and not find a date mentioned. You can take what you will from that. Hypothetically at least, let’s forget the tax man. Perhaps he needs to update his own system based on best advice.

Is it time a new word for goods being recycled from another era was invented? What about ‘classic’. That means of renowned excellence in any era and culture. Well I am one who doesn’t believe it would work in the long term. This is because a lot of people seem to perceive classic as being boring. Its original ideals are based on the perceived perfection achieved by the ancient Greeks in art and architecture. And after a time for many, living up to perfection can seem very wearying.

But wait, perhaps it’s already happened. InLondon some of its best known dealers stepped outside of their association fair and exhibited their best antiques alongside modern iconic fashion items the growing number of celebrities love. The exhibition was  Masterpiece, London and it is now an annual event.

All the goods on display are certainly fabulous and many are design icons. They were available to be collected by anyone at all really, as long as they had the ready necessary. These days that’s a great many more people than ever before. And, it was so successful it is now an annual event.

Beautiful Bugatti, the boys at Top Gear would love this!

Collecting is, and has become an amazing phenomenon. Yet it is still often misrepresented by out of date journalists as being the hobby of only a select few or the rich and famous. Now that is rubbish. Collecting is a pleasure indulged in by a vast number of people from different backgrounds and all walks of life. It just takes place on many different scales of economy.

The good thing for collectors is that today there is an ever expanding number of categories to collect in. It can be a beautiful Bugatti – love to see the Top Gear boys do a London to Brighton race (like in the old Dirk Bogarde movie Genevieve) in some old beauties such as this one

It can also be a simple fashion item: recently a Ferragamo handbag made out of timber and beautifully finished like a piece of fine furniture, which I purchased when traveling in the early 80′s was whisked away by a family member who has caught the collecting disease.

From this, and from watching the many thousands of people who appear on the Australian ABC Collectors or the BBC’ and America’s various shows for collectors, I have deduced the most important aspect of collecting is, for the majority of people, an emotional connection. This is almost impossible for anyone to define, let alone explain or understand.

Courtesy Martyn Cook Antiques, Redfern at Sydney

We are all fascinated, it seems, by the stories attached to the incredible world of antiques and art, which reflect the growth of humankind.

So, what’s next? Collecting things from the past and keeping them, like us moving forward, makes good sense and good business in a world that needs to recycle goods to aid its sustainability.

An Antique, a Classic, a Masterpiece or a Collectible, whatever you want to call it, something worth restoring, conserving, preserving and collecting should have an aesthetic that pleases the eye, engages the spirit and connects with the soul. It also needs to be made from quality materials and finely and lovingly finished. On top of all the rest if it challenges the mind, like a great work of sculptural art, then for me that is the icing on the cake.

Antiques are definitely more than a load of old tat. Carolyn McDowall, 2010, 2011

PS. Want to know more?

I have attached a PDF: INTRODUCTION TO ANTIQUES for you to download. Cheers!

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   Course Outline

All cultures on earth, just like individuals, have distinct modes of existence. Creation stories are something they all have in common in a logical attempt to rationalize the presence of humans on earth. Early progressive civilizations, around 5600 years before the Christ event, were sited on the plains of the Indus Valley of Pakistan, around the convergence of the Lower Tigris and Euphrates rivers near modern day Iraq and in the Nile Valley at Egypt. Their peoples practiced primitive forms of agriculture and animal husbandry.

At first they hunted prey. Then they learned to tether and pen animals and to look after grazing animals. Sheep and goats were among the first to be domesticated. They collected fruits and berries, raised crops, propagated grasses as cereals. They learned to plait fibres and used them to make gathering bags to collect their produce and for fastening the garments they made to protect themselves from the harshness of the elements. Finally from being nomadic they established permanent settlements. They developed houses from simple mud and beehive huts to the more sound foundations of post and lintel construction.

The Sumerians were the first linguistically identifiable urban literate society, and one of the first documented in human history. With the invention of writing during the third millennium before the Christ event at Sumer, information about higher crop yields could at last be recorded in a retrievable form. This in turn facilitated the efficient administration of other activities becoming an essential aspect of urban life. Their organisational system was a theocracy, a form of government in which the rulers and their policies identify with the leaders of the dominant religion. A theocracy can also be exercised directly by the clergy or, indirectly through a King, who is also the head priest.  This system once established offered a measure of prosperity and for a long time there was peace.

Economic life flourished and improved agriculture permitted the support of an increasing population while urban life, in its turn, allowed for a greater specialisation in arts and crafts. However, as is the case in the histories of all early civilisations when one city or kingdom was seen to flourish and perceived to be successful, along would come one warlord, or another, to conquer or destroy it.

The shape of the Ziggurat at Uruk is believed to have inspired the design for the later smooth faced pyramids at Egypt. Uruk in Sumer was also the home of legendary hero Gilgamesh, who played an important role in the mythology of a variety of early Mesopotamian civilizations.

It is important to clarify the use of the word legend as some may be fearful a lack of truth is suggested. However, that is not the intention. Originally a legend was understood to be an illustrative story, one that conveyed a profound spiritual truth in an attempt to explain the inexplicable.

An icon of popular culture The Epic of Gilgamesh is a heroic tale rooted in the ancient wisdom-tradition of mankind by perhaps the oldest known human author who lived 2750-2500 BCE.

Originally written in cuneiform (which means ‘wedge-shaped’) script on clay tablets, modern generations know the story from the fragments recovered in 1853 from the remains of the extensive library of the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (668 to 627 BCE) at Nineveh, the last capital of the Assyrian Empire.

Take and read out from the lapis lazuli tablet
how Gilgamesh went through every hardship.
Supreme over other kings, lordly in appearance,
he is the hero, born of Uruk, the goring wild bull.
He walks out in front, the leader,
and walks at the rear, trusted by his companions.
Mighty net, protector of his people,
raging flood-wave who destroys even walls of stone!
Offspring of Lugalbanda, Gilgamesh is strong to perfection,

The Epic of Gilgamesh reflects a Sumerian worldview at the time, as well as that of the Babylonians and Assyrians, who later conquered the Sumerians and assimilated their culture. Like all such narratives it contains historical and mythical elements.

Modern archaeologists have found a great deal of relevance to both ancient sites and cultural practices in its prose. At its heart are the human themes of friendship and courage needed in abundance by each and every one of us so that we may gain the skills necessary to deal with the finality of death while learning about, and searching for, the meaning of life.

In the Nile valley the ancient Egyptians established a civilization envied and admired for 3000 years. They became very civilized, cultivating their fields, learned to store crops against times of famine and to gauge the rhythm of the river Nile, whose life giving waters were central to both the organization and political unification of their country.

The grape vine was one of the first plants domesticated, although its nature required certain conditions of geography and climate for it to flourish and produce fruit.   ‘A little wine makes glad the heart’ and there is many that would agree with this observation, including Noah whom the first book of the Bible, Genesis tells us was a man of the soil, the first to plant a vineyard, drink the wine and become drunk. This was an experience that would have left him not only worse for wear but also ashamed, because in early cultures it was not considered hospitable by your peers to overindulge. The juice of the grape was to be enjoyed in an air of conviviality and communion and over the centuries it also became an instrument of religious experience, a practice that continues unabated to the present day.

Wine making developed, alongside a variety of food processing techniques, made possible when nomadic groups of peoples began permanent settlements. Staying in one place allowed time for experimentation and a variety of food processing techniques slowly evolved. These included producing bread, an array of meat and grain dishes, as well as beer. Crafts, important for food preparation, storage and service advanced hand in hand with Neolithic cuisine. Storage vessels made from local clays were crudely made at first however, as time went on production was gradually refined, their surface becoming a vehicle for individual self-expression.

The ancient Egyptians created a civilization that lasted for over 3,000 years. It has been calculated that during this period more than half a billion people existed on Egypt’s soil. Thebes was the ceremonial capital on the West Bank of the Nile. They developed a remarkable knowledge of astronomy, engineering, mathematics and medicine and had an organised taxation and legal system with a police force and courts.

Women had more legal rights than those in some countries today and wore fine clothing and used a wide range of cosmetics and beauty products. Four Queens ruled Egypt in their own right. Two are obscure and two are famous: Hatshepsut and Cleopatra..while the beautiful Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten may have held sole power after her husband’s death. We owe our calendar of 365 days to the ancient Egyptians. They were the first to divide the day and night into 24 hours….they were truly amazing.

Making superb objects for Pharaoh became an ‘act of love’ for many craftsmen, particularly if Pharoah had gained their respect. The ancient Egyptian desired gold as a symbol of survival and eternity and their myths describe the gods as possessing ‘silver bones, golden flesh and lapis lazuli beards’. Jewellery permeated every facet of Egyptian civilisation and was revered at every level of society. It later became the perfect motive for tomb robbers to desecrate the sacred graves of their Pharaoh’s and one inscription found tells us

‘The noble mummy of the king was entirely laid over with gold….and…we found the queen likewise; we collected together all that we found on her also…and… divided it into eight shares.

A great deal of skill is needed to produce a great work of art. First of all there is vision and inspiration. Then the vision has to be combined with great technical ability to produce the work, as well as the spiritual uplift and inspiration, which is unseen but nevertheless, expressed in the figure that can be seen.

The tomb of Psusennes 1 Pharaoh of XXI Dynasty 989 – 943 B.C.E. could be perhaps one of the most underrated discoveries in the scheme of things at Egypt. His name means “The Star Appearing in the City” and his name has been linked with the legendary Jewish prophet and King David, who was renowned for his skills as a warrior and for writing the Psalms, poems put to music, which are published in The Bible.

The great strength of Egyptian culture was that religion and life were interchangeable as well as interdependent in their approach to, and understanding of, their existence. They did not seek to separate themselves from their faith, actions or beliefs in their daily occupation.

The stunning jewellery found in Psusennes’s tomb displayed skilled workmanship of the highest order. Psusennes identified himself with the sun god Ra, in order to attain divine immortality. In Egyptian symbolism Ra is represented with the head of a falcon, surmounted by a solar disc, surrounded with the Uraeus, or sacred flame-spitting cobra who offered protection to Pharaoh and is featured on the crown of Egypt rearing up over the forehead.

‘My heart is the heart of the sun the heart of the sun is my heart’.

Psusennes 1 highly refined gold death mask was to be his face in the after world. Many prefer its simple gold luminosity to the highly decorated mask of the boy king, the youthful Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

We could be entirely cynical and consider that perhaps Tutankhamun has assumed a far greater importance than he would have otherwise attained had his value and worth been measured by the words, deeds and actions of his brief life’s journey rather than by the fabulous and vast collection of worldly goods found in 1932 by Howard Carter (1874-1939) for Lord Carnarvon.

All these were provided to enrich his journey to, and in the after life and that concept of their culture is certainly in direct contrast to the modern conviction… you can’t take it with you.

Carolyn McDowall ©The Culture Concept 2010, 2011

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As fertility is synonymous with survival it doesn’t take much imagination for us to endeavour to understand why allusions to everything associated with the act of procreation, were given prominence in their art and life and why they worshiped the goddess of love.

If you add to this the fragility of human life in a world without antibiotics or sophisticated surgical techniques;  one in which an infected wound, the drinking of contaminated water or a miscarriage meant certain death we can begin to understand a little more.

The city of Rome came into being when the seven hill towns became one to drain the valley floor and improve their collective future. The construction of the Cloacae Maxima, the great Roman sewer six centuries BC meant they could drain the area of low ground south east of the Capitol between the Palatine and Equiline Hills and then markets, and other trading activities could take place on the reclaimed land.

From 60 BC to 49BC a struggle for power played out at against a backdrop of a Senate of powerful men whose factions were all trying to gain control for their preferred leader. It eventually came down to a choice of three of its most prominent citizens and successful military leaders, who initially formed an unlikely alliance to try and govern together.

As in all such struggles it led to a stand off and to resolve the issue and one of the preferred, Gaius Julius Caesar, began a civil war in 49BC knowing that if he won he would become undisputed leader of the Roman world. Caesar came, saw and conquered and after it was over set about bringing order from chaos, enacting extensive reforms, emboldening others.

The Senate gave him the tile dictator perpetuo, ruler for life, and he set about great public works extending the Forum Romanum on the south side of the Palatine Hill, the site of Rome’s earliest settlement.

The Forum Romanum was marked by freestanding commemorative arches at its east and west end. Today very little is left because when migratory peoples overran the city centuries later the columns and other architectural elements were reclaimed and used to build churches and other new buildings.

During the reign of Augustus (31BC – 14ACE) Rome emerged as an economically successful city with a population approaching one million. To become a free citizen of Rome was considered a great honour.

Whoever you were if you were born within the boundaries of the Roman Empire you had the right to hold the highest office in the State. Under Augustus the concept of an eternal Rome emerged, revealing its link to the legendary past and its promise of a new era.

In the account of his own accomplishments he placed side by side two concepts, reflected in the design of Roman architecture: that of auctoritas, or inner weight, the authentic and the exemplary, and ‘potestas’ the powerful and the authoritative. A building with auctoritas had dignity, validity and authority and the use of marble in buildings like temples, led to evolving designs different from those of a previous age.

In Augustan Rome public models of propriety were a meaningful aspect of society and the life of the state. A statesman of consummate skill, Augustus legislated to mould the fabric of Roman society. Some saw his leadership as a return to a mythical golden age, one where there would be a place for everyone. This made it possible for each Roman citizen to devote himself to the creation of a better world by participating in public works on a grand scale.

Augustus empowered others treating people with dignity and respect so that everyone’s self esteem remained intact. Today we would admire him as an ultimate professional. His systems, once established were put in place in other towns throughout Italy and, also other countries as Rome’s influence spread and everyone became prosperous under centralized Roman rule.

The most famous image we have of him is in his military aspect and it was found in the remains of the house he lived in at Prima Porta with his strong willed wife Livia (58BC-29AD).

The sun represents the new day, which dawned for Rome when Augustus became its leader. This image set his personal style, for that of being a restorative figure above all else and the statue is a great piece of propaganda. It dominated the space it stood in. The right foot supports him a device that strengthens our perception of his coming to a halt to command what lies before him and, that he will challenge all those who enter his arena.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

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Sensational Etruscan Jewellery - Metropolitan Museum of Art New York

900 years before the Christ event someone of unsurpassed literary ability wrote this superb line from the Song of Songs, a book of the Hebrew Bible,  Other evidence that jewelry and love were associated in the ancient world is found in the House of Vetti excavated at Pompeii from September 1894 to January 1896. On the house’s walls a detailed fresco depicts a goldsmith’s workshop in which a group of amorini, or cupids, whose very name means desire, are engaged in making jeweled ornaments intended to wound their victim’s heart. Jewelers had a ready market at Pompeii where the elite in Roman society went for a holiday and to enjoy the company of friends. The cameo technique thrived and they were made of different materials such as rock crystal, sardonyx, agate and glass and they were very popular.

Cupid and Pschye Cameo - British Museum

Subjects ranged from portraits to portrayals of deities and mythological episodes. One of the most famous depicts the family of Emperor Augustus. Down the centuries a naughty mischievous Cupid became an icon shooting his bow to inspire romantic love. Over time he became the personification of love and courtship in general.

In the fashionable world of nineteenth century England young ladies of the classical school of ornament wore Cameos. The fashion for them began soon after Napoleon’s Italian campaign of 1796 when cameos were brought back to France from Italy. Many of these were of Greek or Roman origin. Their beauty and perfection fascinated Napoleon. He had some mounted especially for his own use and, for his sister the very beautiful Paolina Borghese. Cameos were so popular they were set in all sorts of jewels such as tiaras, necklaces, bracelets and earrings, usually mounted in simple gold collets

Lady School of Ornament - Punch 1859

During the last 50 years of the nineteenth century, on the basis of a mounting interest in archaeology any lady of fashion visiting Italy would consider her tour of Rome incomplete if she did not call into the Castellani’s shop near the Spanish Steps to acquire one of the famous pieces of Italian archaeological revival jewellery offered there.

It was 1859 when an article appeared in England’s popular magazine Punch.  A satirical sketch, it had an amusing extract attached that made the point on how just hard it was for fashionable ladies to wear the jewellery inspired by the archaeological remains of ancient Roman culture.

‘You know the Randoms have just returned from their long residence on the Continent. I spent a day last week with Imogen Random, who kindly showed me her jewel casket. The only drawback to her classical arrangements is her small and diminutive stature… the weight of her gladiator’s necklace is positively distressing to the collar bones; her hair is visibly diminished since she took to wearing Greek daggers and Roman pins, both of which are so pretty and so antique, … and her poor little ears, well they suffer martyrdom with the weight of her earrings, exquisite flying figures of Victory, which are supposed to be constantly whispering joyful tidings of new conquests…employ every art with your Papa Maude to induce him to bring you to the Eternal city where we may have the inexpressible happiness of shopping at Castellani’.

When people today talk about jewels, jewellery, gemmology and gems it is clear the vocabulary has become confused. Gemstones are treasured minerals found in the earth. ‘Gems’ are the objects fashioned from them. Jewels are gems ready for mounting into jewellery, and other objects of art. And, jewellery – well it is the finished product that if its designer has succeeded, adorns its wearer well.

Be sure to read our four surveys about the evolution of love jewelry from Cupid to Cartier. They are Rome to Renaissance, Restoration to Revolution, Regency to Revival and Romantics to Retro.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

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Australia's first Government House

Australia is by world standards, a young western democracy colonized by the English at the edge of Asia in the days of so-called eighteenth century European enlightenment. At the time the English parliament were seeking a place to send an ever expanding, embarrassing community of petty thieves and criminals, which included many children endeavouring to survive the injustices of the industrial age.

Our indigenous Fauna is unique, Koala's are both cute and cool

The evolution of Australia is told in the stories of its indigenous people, who inhabited the land from a time of dreaming when the heady scent of wattle and eucalyptus filled the cool night air. It is told against the backdrop of a wide brown land, whose raging rivers in full flood revitalize the earth. It is told by the sunlight bouncing off the iron roofs of buildings, such as the first house built for the first English governor, Captain Arthur Phillip. He laid the foundation stone within four months of sailing into Port Jackson on January 26 1788 with the first fleet. It had six rooms and overlooked a safe harbour anchorage, a freshwater stream and makeshift huts and tents. You might be inclined to think it was not really very sophisticated, but against a background of a natural environment its indigenous inhabitants had never disturbed, at the time, it was an assertion of culture in the colonies.

Joseph Banks by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1773

For better or worse in Australia awe inherited the imposition of European cultures on this land of great, and often violent contrast. Producing an adequate food supply in unfamiliar soil and a harsh climate was the major preoccupation for many and it was hardship that initially provoked ingenuity and creativity, not culture or fashion. Botanist Joseph Banks advised Governor Phillip concerning the introduction of economic plants to the colony of New South Wales. Plant and seeds were placed in land set aside for ‘farm and garden’ and the Governor reported to London about ‘a farm of nine acres in corn’, known from 1792 as the Governor’s Farm. These seminal beds were essential for the colony’s first survival but eventually were moved to the Hawkesbury River and other areas opening up through exploration.

In 1810 Government House Sydney was put into a complete state of repair to welcome Governor Lieutenant-Colonel Lachlan Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth. As soon as Macquarie arrived he set in motion an ambitious program, including public works, improving roads, encouraging exploration and the creation of the colony’s first bank. In his own way, and that of his time, Macquarie endeavoured to empathize and work with the indigenous population. As many of his contemporaries he would have believed his ideas of civilization were correct.

Macquarie organized a school for Aboriginal children, a farm for their parents to work at George’s Head, a village at Elizabeth Bay for the tribe that formerly lived on the lands the new town of Sydney occupied, and arranged that a sort of durbar would be held annually at Parramatta, to keep everyone happy. He established a string of townships around Sydney and within two decades of settlement they contained a fine array of buildings, a number of which still stand today.

No one was keener on, or more capable of improvements in buildings or their gardens within, or without the government domain than the Governor and his wife Elizabeth. They saw themselves as arbiters of taste, although their supporters, predominantly solid merchants and emancipists had no such aspirations. They wanted solid houses and warehouses to affirm their status.

The Governor and his wife valued the scenic qualities of the Domain area, whose land overlooked Port Jackson, and it was declared a Botanical garden in 1816.

Sited on the first piece of land in Australia brought under cultivation it is today one of the most gloriously sited botanical gardens in the world.

The intelligent and compassionate Elizabeth was a gently born Scotswoman who bravely accompanied her husband on many adventures while she was here. She took a keen interest in the welfare of women convicts and of the indigenous peoples, as well as gardening and agriculture.

They were shared with pioneer’s wife Elizabeth McArthur and together they are attributed with pioneering hay-making in the colony. She brought from England a collection of books on architecture, which proved useful to her husband and his chosen convict architect Francis Greenway. She was also instrumental in planning a road that encircled the Government Domain to the point which, like the road, was named after her.

Not many colonists had an appreciation for the Gothick style, which was enjoying a revival in the England they had left. Its pointed arches and gargoyles had become involved in a romantic ‘cult of the picturesque’. Fortunately Francis Greenway, appointed by Macquarie to assist public work initiatives, could accommodate the Macquarie’s architectural style preferences. His buildings were informed by an extensive knowledge of the ancient buildings of England.

To the left and right entering Sydney Cove were built the very picturesque Fort Macquarie (on the site where the opera house is now) and the Dawes Point Battery, which had dubious defence capabilities. Both were part of a setting for a new Government House, one imperial in scale, but Gothick in style. The first building completed, the Governor’s stables (now the Conservatorium of Music) enjoyed views to the west over the town, and over the harbor to the lighthouse on the eastern horizon. They certainly would not have shamed a substantial estate back home.

Elizabeth Macquarie designed Parramatta church’s towers. Her participation in architectural affairs was a natural extension of the female artistic role which was finally, and patronizingly defined in 1831 by the Foreign Quarterly Review. It suggested women study architecture ‘not in order that they may be able to draw columns, for that is merely the means, not the end of the pursuit, but that they may thereby cultivate their tastes, and ground it on something less baseless and sifting than mere feminine liking and disliking’. Scottish botanist, designer and editor John Claudius Loudon, whose Encyclopedia of Cottage, Farm, Villa Architecture sold well in Sydney and Hobart in Tasmania, agreed. ‘If the study of landscape drawing by ladies, has led to the improvement of landscape gardening, why should not the study of architectural drawing, on their part, lead to the improvement of domestic architecture’. Why not indeed! This might all seem a bit silly and perhaps trifling issues to us today, but at the time it was an extraordinary manifesto of a maturing culture in the colonies.

In the years between the arrival and departure of the Macquarie’s in 1821 New South Wales changed a great deal, especially in its architectural tastes and the attitudes, fashions and passions of its people, who now included many free settlers moving forward to a new life in a new land.

In format all early colonial bungalows were single storied with a wide shade inducing verandah (Elizabeth Farm).

Loudon in his 1833 edition of The Encyclopedia expressed the importance of association for the people of the colonies. The various elements of Gothic design were meant to arouse an emotional, rather than intellectual response in the viewer – to conjure up moods and associations rather than replicate medieval objects precisely.

It may appear quite odd to a resident in Britain, that a British emigrant to Van Diemen’s Land should wish to build his dwelling in the form of an English church tower but it was all about feeling insecure in a brand new land, feelings that can hardly be conceived by those who have never experienced them. And so it was that Gothic houses would be seen among those sent to establish the penal colony as ideal. They were enduring the hardships of being so far from home while, at the same time, attempting to establish their own identity and it’s easy to understand how and why such a fashion would take hold.

But the Gothic was not the solution for former naval Captain Piper, who was appointed a magistrate by Governor Macquarie. He built his villa in a style that eclipsed the Governor’s house. And, for four brief years before her husband’s fortunes declined, the house’s namesake, Henrietta, entertained all of Sydney’s polite society there.

The 1830’s in New South Wales are often referred to as ‘the golden decade’. This is when the aspirations of pastoral landholders and merchants resulted in public buildings and mansions being rendered in the ‘classical’ style.  Alexander MacLeay, Colonial Secretary under Governors Darling and Bourke embraced horticulture and botany.

Secretary of the Linnean Society (1798-1825) in England a variety of Bocconia was named Macleaya cordata in his honour. He built his country house Brownlow Hill on 1500 acres of land near Camden, which he obtained by grant in 1827.

Elegant Italian urns formalized a generous drive overhung with Chinese elms (Ulmus parvifolia) contributing significantly to the romantic atmosphere, which still pervades this historic garden. His son George inherited it in 1848 but he sold it off in 1875 to the family who have lived there ever since.

McLeay’s city house at Elizabeth Bay was renowned for its rare plants. Its steeply sloping site combined elements of the landscape and picturesque movements advocated by English nineteenth century garden guru Humphrey Repton. ‘From the first commencement Mr. Macleay never suffered a tree of any kind to be destroyed, until he saw the necessity of doing so. He gained the advantage of embellishment from his native trees and harmonized them with the foreign trees now growing. His botanic, flower, landscape, fruit and kitchen gardens are all on the first scale…and he has also planned a vineyard of considerable extent upon terraces, which has answered every expectation’. Today only a small overgrown fragment of the garden survives but detailed descriptions of it keep its place in the evolution of gardens in Australia’.

John Claudius Loudon’s four significant books on horticulture, gardening and domestic architecture were available in New South Wales and Tasmania heralding the arrival of the Victorian Age. The cult of the picturesque had encouraged every point of the garden to have some ornament or architectural feature. The new gardenesque style, promoted by Loudon, featured individual plants in an endeavor to showcase botanical differences.

According to the ‘gardenesque school’ Loudon said ‘all the trees and shrubs planted are arranged in regard to their kinds and dimensions and they are planted at first at, or as they grow thinned out to, such distances apart as may best display the natural form and habit of each’.

A riot of color went hand in hand with carpet bedding and a pursuit of botanical triumphs. By the 1840’s New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land saw years of economic depression and drought as the first Australian pastoral boom passed. It was the discovery of gold and resultant flood of fortune seekers that sent the colonial economy into boom again.

As in England, in Australia a grand country estate represented the pinnacle of material and social achievement. Homestead portraits were commissioned by the owner of the property to adorn his parlour. Greek houses gave way to Italianate style villas. Tiled colonnades, columned pergolas and balustrade terraces linked house to garden.

Grander examples were mansions with palace facades, surmounted by loggia topped towers that overlooked terraces and flights of steps complete with cast cement balustrading, urns and statuary. It was not uncommon to find Venus, Napoleon, or Captain Cook lurking about in the bushes.

These were the boom years of the Industrial Revolution and grand houses like Melbourne’s Rippon Lea, epitomize the extravagance of the era. Its architecture of polychrome brickwork was set off by magnificent wide lawns that swept down to a two-acre lake where a fine bridge, made of iron, has been cast to give an appearance of timber. Much of the charm of Rippon Lea lies in the sensitivity, which has been shown for the garden’s historic origins.

The Botanical gardens in Brisbane, on the river, and the gardens of the Brisbane Acclimatization Society, were established by the 1880’s. They were widely known for their enlightened research and generous policy of distribution. Many plants were recognized as being suitable for subtropical gardening in Brisbane. One of the most spectacular would have to be the Bougainvillea, which could be trained over any style of framework built as a support.

In April 1884 Oxford educated lawyer and ornithologist John Cotton and his wife and nine children constructed a larger house of sawn timber in the Australian countryside. He, like many others, benefited from the changes and the culture in the colonies the Macquarie’s had established. ‘We have now been resident in our new house five weeks and find in it every comfort that we would enjoy in the same style of house in England, and perhaps more, there being no rent or taxes to pay. We have a comfortable sitting room 18ft x 16ft with a brick chimney where there is a cheerful fire of logs constantly kept up unless the mildness of the weather should prevent our replenishing it. We have the piano here, which sounds remarkably well, in our wooden house, and the walls are ornamented with a few pictures. My books are arranged on shelves in recesses each side of the fireplace and they will continue to afford a source of amusement and study’. Within one hundred years of settlement life in the colony became very civilized and culture in the colonies, a reality.

In Australia, our aesthetic choices, like or dislikes were formed through associational interpretation and imagery. Living in the bush for many today still remains a romantic ideal, much like country life in great country houses in England, or villas in Rome, while most people cling to a quarter acre suburban block. Half city, half bush, house and garden style today reflects individuality. This is made feasible by the modern car and American roadway system. It is formed through an interplay of international influences and our own complex multi-culturalism.

Australia today enjoys a robust cultural life, applying its creativity to generate innovative solutions in the fields of medical research, science, design, the arts, resource management and sustainable urban living for all its peoples. It is a multicultural land of opportunity, one whose layers of diversity embolden everyone. Its pioneering spirit is ever present and an ever increasing mix of culturally different people is constantly adding to its layers of diversity.

In Australia today our art, design, music and style are constantly being re-interpreted, distilled and decanted into something quite unique.

Carolyn McDowall 2010, 2011

Photograph Brisbane 150 courtesy ABC Printing and BCC Council, Brisbane Australia.

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Three Wise Men in the Catacombs at Rome

The early ‘followers of the way’ of Jesus gathering in the catacombs, the underground burial chambers at Rome, knew that the story of the now faded image of the ‘Adoration of the Magi’, the three ‘wise’ men who came to witness the birth of the promised ‘Son of God’ was apocryphal. They understood that the image was meant to be symbolic of the community of the faithful coming before the throne of God.

Throughout the Middle Ages reading symbolism was assisted by the ‘art of memory’. The gifts the Three Wise Men brought with them were a key to their identity in ancient texts. They were also a pointer to the earthly ministry of Jesus. Gold represented his Kingship, Frankincense his Priestliness and Myrrh, was for anointing his body following his death.

Together symbolism and art frequently make spiritual things more accessible. This is as true today as it was in times past. Images from art can manipulate our perceptions through the addition of symbolism, because it adds a certain mysticism and beauty and makes the communication much more successful.

Symbolism succeeds where words often seem to fail. Over the centuries the tale of The Three Wise Men  gained in stature, as well as importance and eventually they became ‘The Three Kings’.

From the seventh century onward The Three Kings became liturgical stars of the western church and their images were constantly depicted in works of art. They achieved celebrity status.

Three Kings - Mosaics at Ravenna

The city of Ravenna in Italy, in a number of its most notable buildings, conserves the most intact set of Roman mosaic images from the days of the Byzantine Empire. This is because the northern Italian City was chosen in the year 404 as the Imperial residence of Byzantine Emperor Honorius (395-423).

In the view of many historians, Byzantium’s greatest achievement was the Christian civilizing influence it exerted over the peoples it encountered and the stories related symbolically in the stunning mosaics at Ravenna contributed much to that view.

The early church was blessed with many brilliant minds with a genius for organization, especially Jesus’s apostle, Paul. He inspired and motivated many communities to put in place a mechanism of administrative skills that would ensure traditions established would continue. They were carried forward, at least by one medieval monarchy, which has managed to survive intact until today. The English monarchy.

Altar in St James's Chapel at London

January 6 is the climax of the twelve days of Christmas in the Christian calendar. It is the festival known as The Epiphany and celebrates the day the three wise men, or three kings arrived to visit Jesus.

Every year on that date in England an ‘Affair of State‘ is announced in English court circulars. Queen Elizabeth 11, as head of State and anointed of the Lord, dispatches two Gentlemen Ushers wearing service dress to the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace. Escorted by the Yeomen of the Guard they carry her offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh, keeping alive the traditions of the Christian faith and also honouring the spirit of Byzantium (capital modern day Istanbul) the city that was ‘a golden bridge joining the East and the West’.

Nobel prize winning American born British poet, critic, dramatist and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965), himself a Christian said ‘the purpose of reascending to origins is that we should be able to return, with greater spiritual knowledge, to our own situation.

Ceiling fresco in the Coemeterium Maius near the Catacomb of Priscilla at Rome painted around 320 to 40 The central figure of the Good Shepherd is surrounded by images including those of Adam and Eve and Moses whose symbolism and stories inspired 'followers of the way'

The subject of the life and death of Jesus has, over two thousand years, formed a visual language that allowed many great artists to address universal questions of love, hope, grace and suffering. Those who recorded its stories were not aiming so much as to illustrate the life of Jesus the Christ as they were seeking to capture both his divinity and purpose.

Perhaps if we all seek to better understand the irrational hidden forces that shape our daily decisions we might stop making the same type of mistakes we have for centuries and change the way we interact with each other and the world around us.

Whether we believe or not that Jesus was the son of God, we would have to acknowledge he was one man who was prepared to stand firm for what he believed in. He gave his all so that the followers of his way, for over two millennium, would continue to have hope.

A just society surely is one that works towards the greater good, seeks to conserve freedom of choice and continually debates the right way to value, reward and encourage its citizens. But how do we advise and encourage our fellow man to forget injuries, but never to forget kindnesses without at first having our own ‘epiphany’ so that we can understand the message.

Perhaps the getting of wisdom is when we realize, despite eons of learning, that in the grand scheme of things we really know very little at all

Do we need three ‘new’ good wise men to lead the way? Or is it that we can provide a Renaissance for the original three by tuning into what the Christmas Message they were broadcasting is all about.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2009, 2011

* The statement ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’ is often attributed to Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797). Burke actually never said this. It is however a short summary of words that he did say.

In 1770 he wrote in Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents that

‘when bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. lt is not enough, in a situation of trust in the commonwealth, that a man means well to his country; it is not enough that in his single person he never did an evil act, but always voted according to his conscience, and even harangued against every design, which he apprehended to be prejudicial to the interests of his country. This innoxious and inneffectual character, that seems formed upon a plan of apology and disculpation, falls miserably short of the mark of public duty. That duty demands and requires, that what is right should not only be made known, but made prevelant; that what is evil should not only be detected, but defeated.’

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