It was good to revisit the British Museum. The Great Court was perhaps one of the greatest 'building improvements' in history, even if there were some issues over the meaning of 'Portland Stone' that the trustees couldn't get their heads around.
Adela's first visit.
We enjoyed discussions about the amazing game and lyre stories... And further thoughts on the swimmers...
...even if some of the audience will writhe on their pedestals rather than paying attention...
Mildenhall's treasure...
And Sutton Hoo...
A rather large fist...
Interestingly, these plaster casts of Egyptian freezes are better records of the look of the thing than the real thing these days, as the originals have been eroded since the cast was taken (and of course the originals lost their paint millennia ago) - 'better than the real thing'?
The King's Library, with the move of the books to the British Library building near St Pancras, has been re-used, very well, we thought, to tell the story of the Museum and its acquisitions -
We were amazed to see the copies of the Danish Viking Horns, the originals of which were stolen and melted down, and thus lost.
Bev liked the details:
There was an excellent display from Captain James Cook's voyages, including this miniature portrait I'd never seen before. As he died on his last voyage, and spent most of his life away at sea, most portraits are posthumous and some very speculative. Unlike...
Joseph Banks'. Joseph was made by the voyage to Australia, and the clever, energetic young botanist became a grand old man of society and science. What might have happened if Cook had lived?
Of course we weren't the only ones to be captivated by the Egyptology craze of the 1920s. This building nearby shows what an influence it had on the architecture of the time too.
It was good to be back, and great to see the original was as good as ever, but developments were also underway.
James
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