2011 NEWS
John Hampden
DEC 2011John Hampden was born in London in 1595. He was the eldest son of William Hampden, a Puritan land owner with estates in Buckinghamshire and Middlesex. His mother Elizabeth was Oliver Cromwell’s aunt. John inherited his family’s estates while still an infant upon the death of his father in 1597. This caused a furious quarrel and extensive litigation between his mother and his father’s cousin William Hampden of Ennigton that continued for
several years.
John was educated at Thame School, Oxfordshire, then Magdalen College, Oxford and the Inner Temple. He married Elizabeth Symeon, an heiress of Pyrton, Oxforshire, with whom he had ten children. His second marriage was to Letitia Knollys, widow of Sir Thomas Vachell was in 1640 and he and Letitia had no children.
He first sat in Parliament for the borough of Grampound, Cornwall in 1621, later representing Wendover in the first three parliaments
of Charles I, Buckinghamshire in the Short Parliament (sat from April 13th to May 5th 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England), and Wendover again in the Long Parliament. Long Parliament is the name of the English parliament called by Charles I on Nov. 1640, following the Bishops’ Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English civil War and at the end
of Interregnum in 1660.
In his early days of Parliament, he was content to be overshadowed by John Eliot, as in his later days he was content to be overshadowed by John Pym and to be commanded by Essex. Yet for many it is Hampden, and not Eliot or Pym, who is seen as the central figure at the start of the English Revolution. It was Hampden’s statue (rather than that of Eliot of Pym) that was selected to take its place at the entrance to the Central Lobby in the Palace of Westminster as the noblest type of the parliamentary opposition, his sword at his side, ready to defend Parliament’s rights and privileges by any means necessary. Hampden’s statue stands opposite a statue of Earl of Claredon in his Lord Chancellor’s robes, a symbol of the respect for the law and royalism.
Something of Hampden’s fame is owing to the position which he took up as the opponent of ship money. But it is hardly possible that even resistance to ship money would have so distinguished him but for the mingled massiveness and modesty of his character, his dislike of all pretences in himself or others, his brave contempt of danger, and his charitable readiness to shield others as far as possible from the evil consequences of their actions. Nor was he wanting in that skill which enabled him to influence men towards the ends at which he aimed, and which was spoken of as subtlety by those who disliked his ends.
During his first parliaments, Hampden did not, as far as we know, speak in public debate, but was increasingly employed in committee work, for which he seems to have has a special aptitude. In 1626 he took an active part in the preparation of the charges against Buckingham. In January 1627 he was bound over to answer at the council board for his refusal to pay a forced loan. Later in the year, he was committed to the gatehouse, and then into confinement in Hampshire, from which he was liberated just before the meeting of the third parliament of the reign, in which he once more rendered useful but unobtrusive assistance to his leaders.
When the breach came in 1629 Hampden was found corresponding with the imprisoned Eliot, discussing with him the prospects of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hampden was one of the persons whom the Earl of Warwick granted land in Connecticut in what was then referred to as Saybrook Colony, Connecticut. While some claim that there is no foundation that Hampden attempted emigration to the colonies with Cromwell, others assert that Oliver Cromwell and other future architects of the English Civil War, including Hampden, may have been close to moving to America in the 1630s.
It was not until 1637, however, that his resistance to the payment of ship money gained him wide fame. Seven out of the twelve judges
sided against him, but the connection between the rights of property and the parliamentary system became firmly in the popular mind.
The tax had been justified, said Clarendon, who expresses his admiration at Hampden’s “are temper and modesty” at this crisis, “upon
such grounds and reasons as every stander by was able to swear was not law”.
He served in the English Civil War as a deputy-lieutenant. He took no actual part in the Battle of Edgehill but his troops in the rear arrested Prince Rupert of the Rhine’s charge at Kineton. He was present in 1643 at the siege and capture of Reading. On June 18, 1643, when he was holding out on Chalgrove Field against superior numbers of Prince Rupert’s forces until reinforcements arrived, he was mortally wounded in the shoulder. He reached Thame, survived six days and died on June 24th.
The towns of Hampden, Maryland, Hamden, Connecticut and Hampden, Maine, as well as the county Hampden, Maine, as well as the county of Hampden, Massachusetts are named in his honour. Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia is also named in honour of John Hampden and of Algermon Sydney, another English patriot.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John Hampden
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John Milton
NEWS Late Sept 2011
John Milton was born on December 9, 1608 to a prosperous and
cultured middle class Puritan family. His family consisted
of his grandmother, older sister Anne and a younger brother
Christopher. He also had two sisters (Sara and Tabitha) that
died in infancy.
John Milton’s father, also named John Milton was born in 1562
and died in 1647. He was cast out of the family when his father,
Richard Milton, discovered him reading an English bible. Richard
Milton was a strong believer in the Roman Catholic faith. John
moved to London in 1583 and became
a notary, financial advisor,
money lender and contract lawyer. He also composed madrigals and
psalms. Milton’s mother, Sara Jeffrey (1572-1637), was the
eldest daughter of a merchant tailor. She was described as a
"woman of purest reputation, celebrated throughout the
neighborhood through her acts of charity."
In Milton’s childhood and much into his teens, he attended
church where Richard Stock was the minister. Richard Stock had
a profound influence on
John Milton, and died shortly before
Milton started at the university. They shared many of the same
beliefs of "anti-papist diatribes and the readiness
to censure
the sins of the powerful." John developed many attitudes and
character traits that lasted him throughout his lifetime. He
held in high regard human institutions of marriage, school,
church, government, and had a "disposition to challenge and
resist institutional authorities who fell short of such
standards." At a young age, Milton became aware of political,
religious and cultural strains on the nation.
His father’s prosperity provided him with a private tutor,
Thomas Young, a Scottish Presbyterian who may have influenced
his gifted student in religion and politics while they
maintained contact across subsequent decades. At St. Paul’s
School in London, he met Charles Diodati, a fellow student who
would become his confidant through young adulthood. He also
began the study of Latin and Greek, and the classical languages
left an imprint on his poetry in English.
In 1632 Milton returned to live with his parents in Hammersmith,
on the outskirts of London. Three years later, perhaps because
of the plague outbreak, the family moved to Horton, Berkshire,
and Milton undertook a self-directed private study. He read both
ancient and modern works of theology, philosophy, history and
politics, literature and science, in preparation for a
prospective poetical career. As a result of such intensive
study, Milton is considered to be among the most learned of all
English poets; in addition to his years of private study, Milton
had command of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish,
and Italian from his school and undergraduate days; he also
added Old English to his linguistic repertoire in the 1650s
while researching his History of Britain, and probably
acquired proficiency in Dutch soon after.
John Milton was best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost
and for his treatise condemning censorship, Aeropagatica.
He served as an official under Oliver Cromwell and his views
can be described as broadly Protestant.
Milton was writing at a time of religious and political flux in
England and his poetry and prose reflect deep convictions,
often reacting to contemporary circumstances. He also wrote in
Italian and Latin and had an international reputation.
One can situate both Milton’s poetry and his politics
historically. The phases of his life closely parallel major
historical divisions of Stuart Britain. Under the increasingly
personal rule of Charles I and its breakdown in constitutional
confusion
and war, Milton studied hard, travelled, wrote poetry and
launched a career as pamphleteer and publicist. Under the
Commonwealth of England, from being thought dangerously radical
and even heretical, the shift in accepted attitudes in
government placed him in responsible public office, and he was
acting as an official spokesman in certain of his publications.
The Restoration of 1660 deprived Milton, now blind, of his
public platform, but this period saw him complete most of his
major works of poetry.
Milton’s views were developed from his very extensive reading,
as well as travel and experience, and from his student days of
the 1620s to the English Revolution. By the time of his death in
1674, Milton was impoverished and on the margins of English
intellectual life, yet unrepentant for his personal choices, and
of Europe-wide fame.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton
Sirena
the Mermaid
August 2011
Legend has it that there once lived a
beautiful young Chamorro (indigenous people of the Mariana
Islands) girl named
Sirena. Her skin was golden brown and her long, shiny hair
flowed and swayed gently behind her. Like many Chamorro girls,
Sirena loved to play games and tried her best to be obedient.
(She dared not anger her elders for their words, like many
ancient Chamorros’, were magical. Curses could easily become
reality.) If it were up to her though, she could spend all day
swimming near Agana Springs. She loved the water…..if she had
one passion; it was to swim in the cooling waters of the river.
One day, Sirena’s mother sent her to the Agana River to do some
laundry. She happily made her way to the river and began washing
clothes. She was humming a tune to herself when she suddenly
heard something whisper her name. She stopped and listened.
“Sirena….Sirena…don’t you love me? Wouldn’t you like to swim in
me? Come on, Sirena. Come now….I will offer you relief from the
rays of the hot sun….come, Sirena.”
Sirena smiled to herself. “Okay,” she replied. “I’ll go for a
swim, but I won’t take long, or my mother will be very upset. So
Sirena went into the water and splashed around. She was enjoying
herself so much but by the time she noticed the time, it was
nearly dark.
Meanwhile, back home, her mother was becoming very worried….and
UPSET. “Where is that girl? What if something happened to
her? No! That can’t be! I bet she’s swimming again! I swear one
day…..” With that, Sirena’s mother went to the river to search
for her daughter.
“Sirena! Sirena!” “I’m here mother. I’m almost finished….I’ll be
right there.”
She looked at the pile of unwashed clothes. “Finished? You’ve
barely started! Never mind! Come home with me now and you will
finish this chore tomorrow. Let’s go!”
Sirena obediently followed her mother home. Her head was bowed
and she could feel her face flushing. She silently mimicked her
mother, but dared not answer back.
“I swear Sirena! All you want to do is swim, swim, and swim!
What good will that do you? What respectable man will marry
a girl who would rather swim that do her duties? You have to
start to be more responsible…”
The next day, Sirena was sent to finish her chore. She silently
promised herself that if she finished early, she would spend the
rest of the day swimming. Again, it was nearly night when Sirena
went home.
Upon returning, her mother told her, “Sirena, tomorrow I want
you to go to your Godmother’s house and borrow some coal for the
iron. Please don’t forget.” Sirena answered, “Yes mother. Go to
Nina’s house and get some coal….”
The next day, Sirena made her journey to her godmother’s house.
On her way, she passed the river. “Sirena….Sirena….come.
Come and swim…you won’t take long. Your mother will never find
out….come Sirena…” The river was calling to her again.
Sirena began splashing around and again lost track of time. As
time passed Sirena’s mother was becoming very upset. She stormed
out of the house and headed for the river. She knew Sirena would
be there swimming again. “Sirena! That’s it! I’ve had it with
you! I wish you’d become a fish! Do you hear
me? You’re better
off a fish!”
At that moment, Sirena’s Godmother was also on her way to the
river and heard the curse. “No! Sirena is half mine! Her upper
half will remain human!
She will not completely turn into a
fish!” With that, Sirena felt her legs turn to fins as she
swiftly swam deeper and deeper into the ocean.
To this day, fisherman claim to spot the beautiful mermaid
splashing around near the shore. According to legend, she has
been spotted in different parts of the world and can only be
caught in a net made of human hair.
http://www.sirena.com/mermaid.htm
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The Glint of Silver
July 2011Silver tones, as with gold, first appeared on cigar box labels of the early 1880s by lithographers such as Heppe
nheimer & Maurer. The change was
another printing innovation designed to add a special dash and
flair for appearance’s sake.The silver touch was resurrected during the 1890s and for a short time after the turn of the century. This time the silver effect was enhanced greatly through embossing. And for those cigar makers who did not think silver alone imparted enough visual dazzle and shine, printers
were happy to add gold
embossing to the same image to create even greater eye appeal.
Lithographers did not use real
silver for embossing, of course. This was accomplished through
the use of aluminum powder, which bestowed a silvery appearance.
But real dangers attended the industrial use of aluminum powder.
Tremendous pressures exerted by heavy presses during the
embossing process generated enough heat to ignite the fine
powder and cause it to suddenly burn, even explode.
Accidents
occurred and the threat of flash fires, it was said, made silver
embossing a risky business, so risky that it brought an eventual
halt to its use in lithographed paper labels.
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Cigar Box Labels
On Sale NOW!
by Gerard S. Petrone
ANNOUNCING A NEW BOOK!!
A beautifully photographed,
coffee-table style book, Labeling America: Cigar Box Designs as Reflections of
Popular Culture
is an anthology of cigar box labels and brands from the Grossman
Collection. With over 80 years of printed imagery, the book not
only
reflects the changing customs, attitudes and ideals of Victorian
and
Edwardian life, but also provides the story of four generations
of George Schlegel Lithographers-the family who printed and
produced
the cigar artwork.
About the author:
John Grossman and his wife Carolyn are leading
collectors and dealers or printed ephemera. For decades they
collected antique cigar box labels and other printed imagery
from the
19th and 20th centuries. Today, they own the largest collection
of American cigar label artwork and ephemera-on loan to
The Winterthur Library. For those that can't make the trip to
the Delaware museum first-hand, enjoy the lovely images in this
book.
AVAILABLE NOW $29.95
POSTPAID
(in the U.S.)
(CLICK HERE TO GO TO
LABELING AMERICA)
GEORGE SCHLEGEL NEWS JUNE 2011
George Schlegel (1819-1883) was a German emigrant who, at the age of 22
arrived in New York from Braden and settled in “Little
Germany”-an area in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He found
support and friends in the local German community. It is not
known whether he had trained in lithography in Germany or
whether he became an apprentice at one of the early New York
lithography shops. There is an indication that he worked for the
lithographic firm of George Endicott. He probably was doing
independent lithographic work on a job-by-job basis as well as
having employment at existing firms like Endicott’s to build up
capital to eventually open his own shop. He began as most
businesses in the 19th
century did-as a small sole proprietorship owned and operated by
the entrepreneur and named after him-possibly with George doing
all the work himself. George Schlegel first becomes noted in
public record through an 1849 listing in Doggett’s New York
City
Directory, 1849-1850: George Schlegel Lithographer 47 Division
Street. In 1854-1855 Schlegel is shown as both a lithographer
and a milliner. From 1856-1860 he appears only as a milliner but
by 1862 he is back to being listed as a lithographer in an ad as
George Schlegel Practical Lithographer (which meant that he took
whatever work was at hand, on general contract, cash only, with
fast service. It also generally meant that more than one person
was involved in the production of
the
work.Looking for ways to expand in the 1860s and 70s, Schlegel ventured into producing popular prints. The problem with business at the time proved to be that there were major established competitors already in it. Of these companies were, most notably Currier and Ives and also Sarony; Major and Knapp; Julius Bien; and Endicott and Company just to name a few.
A severe economic depression occurred in 1873, and was not over until 1879, which may have affected him but by 1880, he was back. He bought a new R. Hoe steam press and was ready to go. In 1881, he took his son George, Jr. into partnership. Business had greatly increased and they did well.
Besides patent medicine labels and product show cards, the company was also producing at least a few cigar box labels.
Read Labeling America for the continuing story of the Schlegel legacy......
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*Labeling America-Popular Culture on Cigar Box Labels by John Grossman
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Author of America May 2011
Samuel Smith was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 21, 1808, and his earliest education was at the Eliot School. After graduating from Boston Latin School in 1825, he attended Harvard from 1825 to 1829, and was a classmate of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Samuel did translations from various foreign languages into English and wrote magazine and newspaper articles to raise funds for his tuition. He received many honors upon his graduation in 1829, and first went into journalism before deciding to become a minister, which led to his beginning his studies at the Andover Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts in 1830.
He wrote the lyrics to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" in 1831. His friend Lowell Mason had asked him to translate the lyrics in some German school songbooks or to write new lyrics. One melody in particular caught his attention. The German lyrics was to a German patriotic hymn of some sort. Instead of translating it, Smith decided to write an American patriotic hymn, so he sat down and in thirty minutes had written "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", to go along with the melody. He had never heard the tune before and had no idea of its derivation or associations with the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen".
Smith gave Mason the lyrics he had written and the song was first performed in public on July 4,
1831, at a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in Boston. The song,
titled "America", was first published by Lowell Mason in The Choir (or Union Collection of Church Music) in 1832.
After
graduating from Andover Theological in 1834, Smith worked in Boston
editing the BaptistMissionary Magazine before going to Maine. He was ordained as a Baptist minister on February 12, 1834, in Waterville Maine, where in addition to his ministry, he served as Professor of Modern Languages at Waterville College. In 1842, he left Waterville to go to Newton, Massachusetts.
In Newton, Smith became editor of the Christian Review and other publications of the Baptist Missionary Union (BMU). He continued his ministry as well, becoming a pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newton in the village of Newton Centre. In Newton, Smith bought a house which had been built in 1836 and added on to it until 1842. After twelve years as pastor of the Newton Centre Church, he bacame editorial secretary of the BMU and served there for fifteen years. During the years 1875-1880, he made many trips to Europe, Turkey, the Indian Empire as well as Ceylon and Burma to visit missionary outposts.
On September 16, 1834, Smith married Mary White Smith, whose maiden name was also Smith. They had six children. Smith was foster father for four years to teenager Thornton Chase, who, instead of entering college, left to become an officer in the Civil War. He later converted to the Baha'i Faith and was a leading member in the United States.
Professor and author Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. recommended Smith as a potential candidate for an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Harvard University in 1893. Harvard president Charles William Eliot declined, noting that "My Country 'Tis of Thee" was better known for its tune, which Smith did not write, rather than the lyrics. Holmes disagreed, noting that "his song will be sung centuries from now, when most of us and our pipings are forgotten."
Samuel Francis Smith died suddenly on November 16, 1895, while on his way by train to preach in the
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Boston neighborhood of Readville and was buried in Newton Cemetery in Newton. "America" was among the pieces sung at this funeral. He was survived by his wife and five children.
The home in which Smith and his family lived in Newton is no longer standing. In 1958 a society
was formed to buy and preserve it, though the home was damaged by fire in 1968 and again in 1969, leading to its being torn down. A small monument and growing garden honors his legacy. Smith was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
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Author of America-Smp-Inner NM 8 (PT) $650
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en.wikipedia.org/...Samuel_Francis_Smith
2009 United
States Mint
Lincoln Coin & Chronicles Set
$175
This set includes a 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Proof
Silver Dollar.
This coin was produced to commemorate the birth of Lincoln.
It also includes four different one-cent coins in recognition of
the
bicentennial of President Lincoln's birth. Lincoln's image
appears on the
obverse of each of the coins. The reverses feature four
different designs, each one
representing a different aspect, or theme, of the life of
President Lincoln.
*the rainbow and blue colorings are from
the scanning
process and do NOT appear on the coins
Please call to purchase
The Sesquicentennial of the Civil War
April 2011
2011 marks the sesquicentennial (commemorating 150 years) of the Civil War. The American Civil War (1861-1865) is also known as the War Between the States. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America, also known as “the Confederacy”. Led by Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy fought for its independence from the United States.
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The
U. S. Federal government was supported by twenty mostly-Northern
Free states in which slavery already had been abolished, and by
five slave states that became known as the Border States. These twenty-five states, referred to as "the Union", had a much larger base of population and industry than the South. After four years of bloody, devastating warfare, the confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation. The restoration of the Union, and the Reconstruction
Era that followed, dealt with issues that remained unresolved for generations.
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In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by
Abraham Lincoln, had campaigned against the expansion
of slavery beyond the states in which it already existed. The Republicans were strong advocates of nationalism and in their 1860 platform explicitly denounced threats of disunion as admissions of treason. After a Republican Party victory, but before the new administration took office on March 4, 1861, seven cotton states declared their secession and joined together to form the confederate States of America. Both the outgoing administration of President James Buchanan and the incoming administration rejected the legality of this secession, considering it rebellion. The other eight slave states rejected calls for secession at this point. No country in the world recognized the Confederacy.
Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U. S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state to recapture federal property. This led to declarations of secession by four more slave states. Both sides raised armies as the
Union
seized control of the border states early in the war and established a naval blockade that virtually ended cotton sales on which the South depended for its wealth, and blocked most imports. Land warfare in the East was inconclusive in 1861-62, as the Confederacy beat back Union
efforts to capture its capital, Richmond, Virginia. In September
1862, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a war goal, and dissuaded the British from intervening.
The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars. Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively.
-I%20MT%209-942.jpg)
The
practices of total war, developed by Sherman in Georgia, and of trench warfare around Petersburg foreshadowed World War I in Europe.
It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian casualties. Ten percent of all Northern males 20-45 years of age died; as did 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18-40. Victory for the North meant the end of the Confederacy and of slavery in the United States, and strengthened the role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war decisively shaped the Reconstruction Era that lasted until 1877.
en. wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
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"Bison Note"
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The face of the Bison Note is
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precise identity of the bison is known-he is Pablo as sketched by
Charles Knight at the Washington Zoo and engraved by M. S. Baldwin.
2011 NEWS
MARCH
In Greek mythology,
Leda was the daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, and wife of
the King Tyndareus, of Sparta. Leda was admired by Zeus-the most
powerful of all the gods and he seduced her in the guise of a
swan on the same night as she slept with her husband, King
Tyndareus.
As a swan, Zeus fell into her arms for protection from an
eagle. Their consummation resulted in two eggs from which
hatched Helen-later known as the beautiful "Helen of
Troy"-Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux (also known as the
Dioscuri). Which children are the progeny of Tyndareus, the
mortal king, and which are of Zeus, and are thus half-immortal,
is not consistent among accounts, nor is which child hatched
from an egg.
According to later mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces,
children of Zeus while at the same time bearing Castor and
Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of
Sparta. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the
children hatched.
Another account of the myth states that
Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the
disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris.
This account says that Nemesis was also impregnated by Zeus in
the guise of a swan.
A shepherd found the egg and gave it Leda, who carefully kept it
in a chest until the egg hatched. When the egg hatched, Leda
adopted Helen as her daughter. Zeus also commemorated the birth
of Helen by creating the constellation Cygnus, the Swan, in the
sky.
Leda and the Swan were popular subjects in ancient art. It
became a potent source of inspiration and even made it on to
beautiful cigar label art.
Photo-Wikipedia Commons-Leda mit dem Schwan 1912,Olauf Leinwand, Author: Paul Beckert (1856-1922)
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February 4, 2011
BENJAMIN WEST
Benjamin West (1738-1820) was an American Painter of
historical scenes around the time of the American War of
independence and after. West was born in Springfield,
Pennsylvania, in a house that is now the borough of Swarthmore
on the campus of Swarthmore College. He was one of 10 children
of an innkeeper. The family later moved to Newton Square,
Pennsylvania, where his father was the proprietor of the Square
Tavern, still standing in that town. West told John Galt, with
whom, late in his life, he collaborated on a memoir, the Life
and Studies of Benjamin West that, when he was a child,
native Americans showed him how to make paint by mixing some
clay from the river bank with bear grease in a pot. While he
excelled in the arts, he had little formal education and, even
when president of the Royal Academy, could scarcely spell.
From 1746 to 1759, West worked in Pennsylvania, mostly painting
portraits. While in Lancaster in 1756, West’s patron, a gunsmith
named William Henry, encouraged him to design a “Death of
Socrates” based on an engraving in Charles Rollin’s Ancient
History; the resulting composition, which significantly
differs from West’s source, has been called “the most ambitious
and interesting painting in colonial America.” Dr. William
Smith, then the provost of the College of Philadelphia, saw the
painting in Henry’s house and decided to patronize West,
offering him an education and, more important, connections with
wealthy and politically-connected Pennsylvanians. During this
time West met John Wollaston, a famous painter who emigrated
from London. He learned Wollaston’s techniques for painting the
shimmer of silk and satin, and
also adopted some of his mannerisms, the most prominent being
that he gave all his subjects almond-shaped eyes, which clients
thought very chic.
In 1760, sponsored by Smith and William Allen, reputed to be the
wealthiest man in Pennsylvania, West traveled to Italy where he
expanded his repertoire by copying the works of Italian greats
like Titian and Raphael.
West was a close friend to Benjamin Franklin, whose portrait he
had painted. Franklin was also the godfather of West’s second
son, Benjamin.
In 1763, West moved to England, where he was commissioned by
King George III to create portraits of members of the royal
family. He painted the king himself three times. He painted his
most famous and possibly most influential painting, The Death
of General Wolfe, in 1770. This painting was exhibited at
the Royal Academy in 1771. Although West was originally snubbed
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the famous portrait painter and
President of the Royal Academy, and others as over ambitious,
the painting became one of the most frequently reproduced images
of the period.
In
1772, King George appointed him historical painter to the court.
With Reynolds, West founded the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768.
West was the second president of the Royal Academy in London,
from 1792 to 1805 and 1806 to 1820. He was surveyor of the
King’s Pictures from 1791 until his death. Many American artists
studied under him in London, including Charles Willson Peale,
Rembrandt Peale, Gilbert Stuart, John Trumbull and Thomas Sully.
He is known for his large scale history paintings, which use
expressive figures, colors and compositional schemes to help the
spectator to identify with the scene represented. West called
this “epic representation.” In 1806 he produced The Death of
Nelson, to commemorate Horatio Nelson’s death at the Battle
of Trafalgar. West died in London in 1820.
The Death of General Wolfe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_West
The Death of General Wolfe-wikipedia commons
NEWS at InStone Inc.
January 2011
WINNERS OF THE 2010 CLR
COMPETITION
We are proud to announce the
winners of the 2010 Cigar label Registry Competition!
We would like to thank you all for your participation in our
friendly competition.
1st Place
went to Richard Matsueda with a score of 782.2
2nd Place went to John Camp with a score of 752.8
and 3rd place was awarded to Linda & Randy Sampson with a score
of 730.5
To see the winning summary:
Just go to I-100 Cigar Label Registry and click on Posted Sets
We will be continuing the Cigar Label Registry Competition for
2011 and we hope for
more participation this year! We were surprised by some of the
high on grades on certain
hard-to-find labels that are out there!
And we'd like to announce that we're raising the 1st place prize
for 2011 to $500!
And GCLGS will offer a 1st Prize of $100!
Good luck to all of you!!
Okay, so the label is about horse racing but it had the perfect
title!
OUR WINNERS
EX 7 $85
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