This is what the Royal Air Force museum calls a personal mine extraction kit. It’s a little collection of objects to ensure that lives can be saved by finding landmines, all something of a contrast to the large bits of military aircraft located nearby.
These are the instructions and I have to note that using these little bits of stainless steel prods to try and find land mines sounds like a sub-optimal way to spend an evening. I get annoyed at cryptic crosswords, so I can’t imagine the amount of patience and bravery must be involved to be crawling about in the sand somewhere trying to prod for mines.
I liked that the museum had made these little notes visible that were an aide memoir into the use of the kit, it made it seem really rather more real.
I’ve been meaning to visit this museum for a little while after having seen it from the train when travelling between Luton and London. The museum is free of charge and asks visitors to register online, but I don’t think it’s essential.
This exhibit is a briefcase from the 1920s that was owned by Sir Samuel Hoare, the 1st Viscount Templewood (1880-1959), who was a pivotal figure in the development of British civil and military aviation during the interwar period. Serving as the Secretary of State for Air on three separate occasions throughout the 1920s, he became a tireless advocate for the ‘imperial air routes’ that sought to connect the distant corners of the British Empire. Hoare was not merely a desk-bound administrator; he famously took to the skies himself, embarking on a landmark 10,000 mile flight to India in 1927 alongside his wife to demonstrate the safety and potential of long-distance air travel. In reality, at this time, air travel wasn’t entirely safe, but it was certainly right to make others aware of the potential.
In a different world, Hoare could have easily become Prime Minister and he remained one of the most important and influential Cabinet Ministers in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Unfortunately for him, Churchill didn’t like him and threw him out of Government when he became the wartime Prime Minister.
Hoare was one of the most important Ministers during the twentieth century in terms of the evolution of air travel. I like exhibits such as this as they’re a personal connection to a very different time during history and it’s something of a contrast to the huge bits of aircraft that are dotted around the rest of the museum.
One thing that I really rather liked about the Courtauld is that they’ve got information in each room about how the space was once used. Today, this is Room 6 which is used to display the gallery’s collection of works by Peter Paul Rubens. The plasterwork on the ceiling is by Thomas Collins, who also completed work in other rooms at Somerset House.
However, it was once the Council Room of the Society of Antiquaries, which was created in 1707 to study ancient monuments. Their first meeting was at the Bear Tavern nearby on the Strand and they moved into Somerset House in 1780 and remained there until 1874. They moved at that point to Burlington House on Piccadilly and they’re still there today.
When Claude Monet (1840-1926) arrived in Antibes, on the Mediterranean coast of France, in January 1888, he was not just looking for fresh subject matter he was in pursuit of something far more elusive, namely, light. I don’t know very much about artwork, but every guide to this painting talks about the importance of light. Lovely as it is, it was the history of the painting’s ownership that particularly interested me, but more of that in a moment.
Monet himself said “one must repaint a single subject three times, four times, even twenty times”, which I would say is the amount of effort that I put into this blog, although that might not be entirely true. Anyway, there’s one maritime pine in the painting and we’re supposed to look at that and then dwell on the beauty of the light from the water, the sky and from the mountains.
One thing I like from gallery websites, which I think is all too rare, is seeing the provenance of an artwork. This one is listed by the Courtauld, namely:
“Bought from the artist by Boussod & Valadon, June 1888; (?) with Georges Petit, 1888; Mme Vve Barbedienne, Paris, 1894; sold Hôtel Druout, Paris, 24 February 1894 (lot 39); bought Paul Durand-Ruel; Decap, Paris, 1894; Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1907; Baron Caccamisi, Paris, 1907; Mrs Blanche Marchesci, London, c.1910; Paul Rosenberg, Paris; M. Knoedler & Co., London; purchased by Samuel Courtauld, August 1923; Courtauld Bequest, 1948”.
I wondered why a hotel, namely the Hôtel Drouot, had purchased a painting like this, but then I checked and have realised that it’s actually a large auction house in Paris which is still trading. This auction house was implicated in the sale of looted Jewish artworks and Paul Rosenberg, who was a Jewish art collector who owned this artwork for a while, later had some of his collection stolen. It was then purchased by Samuel Courtauld, who ultimately gave it to the gallery which bears his name. Although, if Rosenberg hadn’t of sold it, then it might well have later been part of the collections that were stolen by the Nazis. And on that theme, the son of Blanche Marchesi, namely Leopold Popper-Podhragy, was sentenced to death by the Nazis although he managed to avoid that and lived until 1986, but his artwork collection was also taken.
The gallery gives this artwork the title of “Head of a Man against a Landscape” which is all that they have since this has been cut so tightly that it has lost much of its original meaning. It was once likely part of an altarpiece, but now they don’t know who the image is of, nor who painted it.
The painting entered the gallery’s collections in 1952 as part of the Sir Robert Witt bequest. There’s something perhaps sub-optimal about such a small piece of the original artwork and in such a large frame, but at least some has remained.
Given this lack of clarity, and my slight obsession with AI, I asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini to have a go at this. Along with the gallery’s best guess, this is the result of the artist, date of painting and who is in the image.
GALLERY : No artist known, but likely Dutch influence. Painted between 1495 and 1500. No knowledge of who is in the image.
CHATGPT : Maybe school of Hans Memling, but likely Dutch influence. painted between 1480 and 1500. Possibly Saint John the Evangeliest.
GEMINI : No artist known, but likely Dutch influence. Painted between 1510 and 1540. No knowledge of who is in the image.
I also asked Microsoft Copilot but the answer was complete nonsense, it announced that this was a nineteenth century copy of an earlier piece and was painted by an Italian artist.
I’m interested if I retry this experiment in a couple of years whether the results will be better, although ChatGPT seems to be nearly there.
I’ve been meaning to go to the Courtauld Gallery in London for some time and with my Art Pass I was able to get free entry. And this artwork in the first room was very appropriate, as it’s Saint Julian. The gallery notes:
“The rich garments and fine sword refer to the traditional belief that Julian was a nobleman before devoting himself to the sick and needy.”
That sounds very much like me. Well, other than the rich garments, fine sword and nobleman bit. The artwork is part of an altarpiece from the Church of San Torpé in the Italian city of Pisa. Originally, Julian was looking towards the central panel of the altarpiece which contained the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. The church is still there, but the rest of the altarpiece is likely long gone.
The artwork, originally painted in around 1320 was donated to the gallery as part of the Gambier-Parry Bequest in 1966. The provenance isn’t known, but it’s thought that it was originally purchased by Thomas Gambier-Parry (1816-1888) after 1863. There’s an interesting book on this whole Gambier-Parry collection with the introduction of that written by Sir Anthony Blunt who later became better known for other things…
Anyway, this was a very positive first impression of the gallery for me.
Sorry, wrong image. Anyway, this is the posh bit of the American Airlines lounge and again I’ve only visited the standard bit before so many thanks for Richard guesting me in.
The staff member checking us in wanted to see my passport to check that Richard wasn’t guesting in some member of the lower classes, before joking that she needed to decide which lounge to send us. However, after seeing all of Richard’s bags, she thought she’d better send us to the premium bit and here’s the menu board outside.
Apologies about the complete lack of useful photos in this post, I was too excited about the trip ahead. The beer selection was woeful, American Airlines hadn’t managed to get any American beer in, which would have least shown some willing.
We didn’t go for the table service as we’d just had a three course meal, but I had a healthy salad with a generous amount of bacon bits from the self-service area. This tasted perfectly acceptable for a salad, with the Peroni 0% tasting thin and dull as ever.
I should have really explored the lounge a little more to write a fuller report, but time was starting to get short and I was getting distracted. There could have been more power points available, but we found some by a seating area, but a wider provision would have been useful.
There were some pre-packaged sandwiches in the fridge which I assume they didn’t mind if passengers took, but I decided against it. I did take some crisps for the evening though as I saw numerous others doing that.
I felt that this was the weakest of the four lounges with the whole arrangement being a little lacking in atmosphere, power points, food and drink. The ceiling was also leaking and it didn’t have the calmness of British Airways, the informality of Qantas or the luxury of Cathay Pacific. However, the staff were helpful and the surroundings were generally clean and organised.
Richard was very kind to guest me into the lounges, it’s been some time since I’ve been to Heathrow Terminal 3 (now I use Wizz Air to go just about everywhere) but it was all an interesting experience.
The next lounge for our little visit to Heathrow T3 was to Cathay Pacific, which I’ve visited numerous times before but not to the posh bit. This is the seating area of the First area of the lounge, with the table service restaurant off to the back left. We went over, but there was a fifteen minute wait, so I sat excitedly whilst Richard sat on the phone doing business things.
There was a friendly welcome at the reception desk, it felt authentic and personable so my first impressions were very positive.
The dining room area which all felt clean and comfortable.
The self-service drinks area.
The beer selection was the best of all of the lounges we visited in the day.
The full drinks list in the table service area.
The food menu with some tempting options. With the food and drink, I appreciated the effort to offer some Asian choices as well as some European choices.
Richard with his salmon starter.
My burrata starter, which was delicious although I felt that the burrata could have been just a little creamier and I’m not sure why a second one was provided. It was nicely presented though.
The dim sum selection which is available in the main lounge, but I thought I’d have this for my main course as I don’t ever get to come here any more. This was as tasty as ever, one is shrimp, one is vegetable and the other is pork.
I ordered a pork bun as well as I got muddled up when they asked if I wanted anything else.
The cheese board selection for dessert and this was perfectly pleasant, but only the blue cheese had much in terms of the depth of flavour.
It’s unlikely that I’ll come to this part of the lounge, namely the posh bit, again so thanks to Richard for guesting me in. I’ve always liked this lounge in general and it was a very positive experience to visit it again. The posh lounge area was quite compact and we had a bit of a wait to be seated, but it all felt professional and I hope I can get in the main part of the lounge again at some point in the next few years…..
And with that, we thought we’d pop to the American Airlines lounge.
Rare evidence that Richard can use public transport. Although my usual complaint is that it’s not possible to walk into Heathrow Airport, because the authorities have removed that facility. The travel zone used to be free, but they’ve got rid of that too.
The driver was particularly friendly and upbeat, all very positive.
The bus was at the stop when we arrived and that meant we were at the airport just five minutes after setting off.
We then went to the check-in desk even though we had nothing to check in, but Richard likes being thanked for being gold. I didn’t say anything, well, not much. I will admit, his being able to guest me through fast-track security was handy.
And that’s really why we’re doing this, it’s Richard’s last month of being gold and that means we can lounge hop around Heathrow Terminal 3. This is a very good idea of his and it’ll make for a relaxed day of food, drink and blogging…. I used to do the lounge hopping when I had status with BA and when I worked for them, but I’m a Wizz Air person now and this golden age of decadence is behind me. But not for today….
We were going to get a bus from the delights of the JD Wetherspoon venue in Hayes & Harlington to the Ibis Styles Heathrow. However, Richard thought we should get a taxi, which is very brave given his low Uber rating. But I didn’t say anything. I did wonder whether I should find a sherpa to help him with all that baggage though.
This was the best photo that I could get in the taxi, which was an upgrade to Uber Executive or whatever it’s called. And, to add delight to proceedings, the taxi driver had the same car as my friend Liam (not literally the same car obviously). This is clearly God telling Richard to get a car like that, he’s showing him the way.
Anyway, that got us to Ibis Styles Heathrow in style, I normally arrive worn out after walking three miles to get there. And, we did get a taxi and fingers crossed they rated Richard 5 out of 5.
