Sir William Herschel, Uranus, and the Museum of Astronomy in Bath

It was by sheer coincidence that on the day I purchased a telescope from a shop in Bath,  I also found the Herschel  museum of Astronomy just a short walk away. The Georgian town house at 19 New King Street was the  home of Sir William Herschel and  his sister Caroline. It's open almost every day of the year -  www.herschelmuseum.org.uk .  This charming little museum on  three floors  has been preserved more or less as it was in the Herschels' time and houses a collection of objects connected with their research and work on the construction of a huge wooden telescope, with which William would eventually discover the planet Uranus from the back garden.  Like the late Sir Patrick Moore, a patron of the museum, Herschel was  a talented musician. Indeed, it was as a musician that he first came from Hannover in Germany to live and work in Bath. A number of musical instruments are also on show in the music room of the house.

This 1970 stamp commemorated 150 years of the RAS of which Sir William Herschel was  president.
He is shown on the left, his son John on the right, and in the centre is Francis Baily (Baily's beads).





Herschel's telescope was  featured on the right of the 26p value of the Astronomy set issued in 1990.

Caroline Herschel followed her brother to England to run the house in Bath and assisted him in his research, eventually  becoming a talented astronomer herself. She was responsible for the discovery of  nine comets and won a  gold medal from the RAS for her work.

She is also featured on  postage stamps,  including this one from Guyana, commemorating the 750th anniversary of Hannover, where the Herschels were born.

 Astronomy is a popular theme for stamp collectors.
The name for collecting astronomy themed stamps is Astrophilately!

If you want to find out  about Uranus, I can recommend "14 Fun Facts About Uranus" by Jeannie Meekins, from the 15 minute book series about the planets, for age 8 + (which I am!).

I'm  hoping the weather will improve and we can try out the telescope and make some discoveries of our own!

Cotswold Life March : 5-Minute Interview : Rachel MarKwick

The March edition of Cotswold Life out today has my story on P.18  Please note that my website is www.rachelmarkwick.co.uk  - Markwick has a K in the middle and it's often left out as has happened here .. otherwise everything else is great!  

Art History through stamps .. via Postcrossing.

Postcrossing card received from Audra in  Lithuania

A card from a Postcrossing friend in Lithuania arrived today and the great thing about it is that she included information about the stamps.
On the left are "national whistles made of clay" - I  would not  have worked this out for myself!  On the right is the sacred icon  from Siluva, the place where Mary  is said to have appeared in 1608, and where a church was subsequently built, and has become a place of  annual pilgrimage. Stamp issued in 2008.
The image itself was painted at the beginning of the 17th Century in the iconic style of the "old Byzantine Hodegetria" . The figures of Mary and Jesus are covered by a casing made from a collection of votive offerings by the goldsmith Lawrence Hoffman of Koenigsberg. It was restored in 2002-3.

The 40ct stamp in the centre has lead me to the discovery of yet another great artist I'd never heard of until now -. Mikalojus Konstantinas  Ciurlionis (1875-1911), the most  famous artist  in Lithuania.There is a museum in Kaunas dedicated to his work. Educated in both music and the visual arts,  he was prolific in both fields and in his short lifetime he wrote  almost 400 musical compositions. From 1904-6 he attended the Warsaw School of Fine Arts.  He felt he was a synesthete: perceiving colours and music simultaneously. Many of his paintings have the names of musical pieces. as shown here in a set of stamps from 2005 depicting  Sonata of the sea 1908 : Allegro, Andante, Finale.

As my friend said, "Stamps talk a lot, don't they?"  She is so right!!  Thanks Audra - I've really enjoyed finding out more about the work of this wonderful artist!!

Sonata of the Sea by Mikalojus  Konstantinas Ciurlionis

Beautiful People exhibition by Mark Amis in Stroud

I first met Mark when he was a new arrival to Stroud and took part in the annual Open Studios festival, as he will be doing again this year.  His Beautiful People exhibition is currently on at Stroud Subscription Rooms until Saturday 15th February and is well worth visiting.
His large portraits are beautifully painted and include well know personalities such as Jensen Button. Mark is pictured here between two portraits. On the right is his mother enjoying a candyfloss on a great day out at the seaside! I think she would have been very proud of Mark's portrait of her!

detail of eagle by Mark Amis 

One of my personal favourite is this eagle - one of a pair of paintings of this magnificent bird!

Squirrels on Banknotes (or how easy it is to spend time surfing the net ..)

I've written a few items recently about my new found interest in Postcrossing: writing, receiving and sometimes establishing regular postal links with others all over the world. It's certainly a good way of broadening your knowledge of geography and history, and at the same time making new friends, and finding strange and beautiful postcards popping through your letter box  and leading you to interesting discoveries.

One of my new Postcard exchanging friends, Maria, in Belarus sends me the most beautiful cards showing the wonders of nature. She collects cards and stamps on this theme and I try to send her British stamps  and cards to add to her collection.

Postcards and stamps of Belarus

Watching   Fake or Fortune on  BBC1 on Sunday, the crew were investigating a painting signed by the famous artist Marc Chagall tryint to establish whether it was in fact a fake - which sadly it proved to be with disastrous results.  Research lead them to Vitebsk and Minsk, now in  Belarus.  Vitebsk is where Chagall was born and Minsk is where my friend lives! It certainly has some stunning architecture and beautiful countryside, and a rich artistic heritage.  I had to e mail Maria to tell her what I'd seen of her homeland and she in turn told me about her own favourite artist, who I must admit I had never heard of.  His name is Napoleon Orda .. and yes, you may have guessed, his work appears on banknotes of Belarus.

Birth bi-centenery of Napoleon Orda 1807-1883

Looking him up, and in turn trying to find the banknotes which carry his designs, I came across the squirrel banknote .. got to be one of my favourite banknotes of all time. So that's how you go on a voyage of discovery on the internet!

Latest landmark stamp collages

I sometimes spend hours searching for suitable stamps to complete a picture and add the final touch.
As all artists will agree it's sometimes hard to know quite where to stop .. but I just had to find a dove to finish off the Brandenburg Gate to my own satisfaction.  Having finally placed the eagle on top of my version of the Quadriga - the chariot pulled by four horses, I wanted also to include a dove as a symbol of peace now that the gate is no longer a dividing line, but a sign of the unification of East and West Germany.
It proved a long search and I found several contenders for the role, but finally settled on the South African stamp, which has a strong illustration of a white dove which stands out against the blue sky.

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin    Stamp Collage

And the camels arrived too .. in fact there were so many in the end that I was spoilt  for choice, and used several to give an idea of scale and distance, using some of the smaller ones nearer to the Pyramids, with some of the larger ones in the foreground. Luckily I managed to find most of them from my own stock of stamps, and promised myself that very soon I will have another sort out and filing session to make life a bit easier next time. I recently purchased a very strange assortment of stamps from Libya, and purely by chance they included a couple of nice camel stamps which I've used in my picture.     Both pictures are now being copied for limited edition prints and cards and the originals will shortly be framed for my forthcoming exhibition in March at Gloucester Guildhall Arts Centre.  Further information to follow!

Camel image cut from Libyan stamp 

Pyramids of Giza stamp collage

Shakespeare - the bard of Avon - on everything including stamps!

We recently spent a day  in Shakespeare's home town, Stratford-Upon-Avon. It was a new experience for our youngest daughter,  now 18, as she couldn't remember her last visit .. but she was just 3 years old then! Everywhere, there are reminders of  the Bard of Avon. Even the Bank has his portrait over the door! And  the local branch of W H Smith uses a quotation from Titus Andronicus to entice customers inside! And I didn't know Anne Hathaway had tea rooms!

 Of course it's an expensive day out if you choose to visit all the landmarks associated with him, but the great thing for locals is that you can get a Season ticket, and return at your leisure to do all the Shakespeare sites over the period of a year! We had a leisurely stroll around the Shakespeare's Birthplace museum, Hall's place - the home of his daughter Susanne and her husband, and enjoyed the gardens where there are some wonderful sculptures  - characters from his plays with relevant quotations, and yet more sculptures down by the River Avon.

Shakespeare's birthplace

Tim and Basia Clegg of Torbay Stamp Centre  also recently made reference to stamps issued to commemmorate William Shakespeare, in their latest Youtube film, The truth about first day covers (part 6 of their series about stamp collecting). It  features a cover  bought on board the Queen Mary II signed by Judi Dench!  It's well worth watching and we can  look forward to a new book about Shakespeare too!

Shakespeare festival stamps issued in 1964

 GB Shakespeare stamps celebrating 50 years of the Royal Shakespeare company were issued in  April 2011. They include stamps featuring quotations from Hamlet -" To be or not to be, that is the Question" and  Romeo and Juliet- : "Wherefore art thou Romeo?"

detail from the Cobbe portrait of William Shakespeare

• Since our previous visit  a newly authenticated portrait of Shakespeare has also been added to the exhibits in the Birthplace Museum.  Known as the Cobbe portrait, this beautiful painting was previously held in the Cobbe Collection of art.  A rather different image of William Shakespeare from the one we are used to seeing, and I wonder if it will ever appear on a stamp.