A little info on the new blog banner

If you’re reading this blog through the RSS feed and haven’t looked at the actual site in a while you probably won’t have any idea of what I’m talking about but I finally found a blog banner that I’m happy with after several months of experimentation. When I updated everything back at the start of the year to fix some issues, I updated to a new theme that had a big picture banner up at the top. I knew that I should take advantage of all that space to do something neat, so I broke out the Photoshop and starting cutting things out of portraits and mashing things together and was totally disappointed in how everything I tried turned out. Then I had a brainwave and started playing around with paintings of *places* (especially since they had good horizontal lines) and finally hit on something that I like! I know that somewhere along the way I saw a site with a similar style banner and it lodged in my head as a neat design idea. (I wish I could remember something more specific to give proper credit!)

I’ve put four new banners together (so far) but I’ll leave the other three as future surprises and switch them out every few months.

So, a little information about the first new picture banner:


Click on the image for a larger version

London from Southwark Anglo-Dutch School c. 1630
Oil on panel (Baltic Oak) 57.7 cm x 85.7 cm (22 3/4 in x 33 3/4 in)

This version is the one at the Museum of London, which you can order a print of here. (There is a similar version at Chatsworth in the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire.) This is the earliest surviving oil painting with London as the sole subject and it shows a panorama from Whitehall on the left to past the Tower of London at the right.

I’ve added some labels to the picture above with identifications below:

1. Old St. Paul’s Cathedral. The spire was destroyed by fire in 1561 and was not re-built before the Cathedral itself was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666

2. St. Mary Overie, re-named St. Saviour’s after the Dissolution and Southwark Cathedral since 1905.

3. Old London Bridge

4. Heads on spikes at the end of London Bridge

5. The Tower of London.

6. Four theaters (see below)

7. Whitehall and Westminster (sadly I don’t have a high-enough resolution version to pick out the exact details)

Trying to sort out which of the theaters was which on the south bank has been a challenge but they probably include some combination of The Swan, The Globe, The Hope, The Rose, or The Bear Garden (for bull and bear baiting). Part of the problem is that the painting’s date isn’t firm, and it probably drew on earlier drawings and etchings. The theaters changed several times from the late Elizabethan times through the first half of the 17th century so figuring out which ones are portrayed in this painting is hard (assuming that it even represents an accurate image of the city at the time). The one at the far left is almost certainly The Swan, and I’m thinking that the one at the far right is The Globe. The one tucked behind it might be The Rose, but I can’t be sure. If anyone finds more concrete identifications, please leave a note in the comments!

Sunday Short Takes

Very short news summary today before I head out to food at Mom’s. 🙂

* Year of events in Winchcombe to celebrate Catherine Parr’s 500th birthday – (One nitpick – the article starts out: “She was the only one of Henry VIII’s wives to survive his rule …” It always bugs me when people are casual with their wording about Catherine outliving Henry because of course Anne of Cleves did as well. I’ve occasionally gotten emails from people telling me I must be wrong about Anne of Cleves being at Mary I’s coronation because as well all know, Catherine Parr was the only one who outlived Henry. *sigh*)

* The Making of a Monster – Another book examining the first part of Henry VIII’s life and reign (Amazon links below)

Sunday short takes

* Bess of Hardwick’s life of letters to go on display – Related: Hardwick Hall at the National Trust website

* Dr. Stephan Edwards has updated his Lady Jane Grey website Some Grey Matter with a new design and new information, including research on The Syon Portrait

* The Folger Shakespeare Library’s exhibit Manifold Greatness for the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible has a nice online companion site and there is some Tudor history content in the section on the lead-up to James’ reign and creation of the Bible. I was also thrilled to see that the only other US venue for the original version of the exhibition after its run at the Folger will be at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin!

(Updated 04-19-11: I should mention that the exhibition is currently at the Bodleian Library at Oxford until September before it goes to the Folger in Washington D.C. and finally comes to the Harry Ransom Center here in Austin)

* For my fellow needleworkers, a CBS story visiting the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace (Hopefully this video will work outside the US. If not, I apologize in advance!)

* There was a neat article with lots of images in the Daily Mail about a new reprint of Braun and Hogenberg’s Cities of the World, an atlas from the 16th century. Amazon links below, along with a couple of books that I have with Tudor-era maps that some of you may be interested in:

The Counties of Britain – A Tudor atlas by John Speed

Maps in Tudor England by P.D.A. Harvey

Sunday Short Takes

* A couple of portraits of Tudor interest are up for auction at Sotheby’s next week, including this copy of a portrait of Jane Seymour. More interestingly, spotted on Hope Walker’s twitter @HansEworth, is this portrait of Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford, attributed to Eworth.

* Dig For Shakespeare is back and starting their new field season tomorrow (April 11). If you happen to be in the Stratford-upon-Avon area in the next few months, you can see the dig live.

* Margaret George has ventured back in to Tudor fiction with her new book Elizabeth I. I read The Autobiography of Henry VIII in high school and loved it, but I haven’t read any of her books since (although I have Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles on my shelf). I might have to pick this one up though since I haven’t read as much fiction on the later part of Elizabeth I’s life.

Amazon affiliate links below:

Reminder – Submit questions for Sandra Worth to answer!

I’ve gotten some great questions through email and blog comments but if you still have something you want to ask Sandra there is still time! I meant to close off questions last weekend but since I didn’t post a reminder I’m extending it another week. So if you still have something you want to ask, put it in the comments on this thread: http://tudorhistory.org/blog/2011/03/15/questions-for-sandra-worth-again/ or send me an email at lara@tudorhistory.org.

Sunday Short Takes

* Dr. Susan Bordo is writing at new book called “The Creation of Anne Boleyn” and wants to hear from Anne Boleyn fans, particularly women 20 years old and younger. She and her research assistant Natalie have started a Facebook group for discussion: The Creation of Anne Boleyn

* Dame Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) – Elizabeth Taylor, Mary I and Hans Eworth

* Lucy Worsley: ‘Lots of historians are sniffy about re-enactors’ – Interview with Lucy Worsley including information about her new series If Walls Could Talk

* Spotted at The Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide Blog – Lecture by Anna Whitelock “Woman, Warrior, Queen

Picture of the Week #116

Wax figure of Elizabeth I. Photo June 2000.

This was one of the figures at Brading – The Experience, a waxworks museum on the Isle of Wight that I was sad to learn closed down last year. The building they occupied was said to be the oldest house on the island and was owned by Henry VIII from 1539-1546. It was a really neat building so I hope that it will be repurposed and still accessible.

[Comments are closed on older posts. If you wish to make a comment, please contact Lara via the link in the sidebar.]

Sunday Short Takes

* All the world’s a stage: British Museum to hold blockbuster Shakespeare show ahead of London Olympics

* Mary Rose treasures to go on show – Video story from the BBC. They talk longbows with Robert Hardy, whom some will recognize as Robert Dudley from “Elizabeth R” with Glenda Jackson, and others will recognize as Cornelius Fudge from the Harry Potter movies (and of course, many, many other things). I always forget that he is an expert on longbows until something like this comes along to remind me!

* David Starkey and Jennifer Scott discuss the Royal Portrait

A Day at the Faire

I’ve mentioned on the blog in the past that I go to the Texas Renaissance Festival every year, and occasionally make a trip up to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Scarborough Faire, but this past weekend I visited the Sherwood Forest Faire that opened near Austin just last year. And for a faire only in its second year, I was pretty impressed with what they’ve accomplished already. And it was really nice to visit a faire that only required about a 30 minute car ride, as opposed to 2 to 3 hours!

I think it is a common staple of faires to have a Royal Mint where they do demonstrations and/or make custom coins and medallions, and this faire was no exception. I was just casually glancing through the available designs to have struck into a medallion when a familiar face caught my eye – Elizabeth I! I then noticed the Tudor rose design and decided I had to have one made. I opted for the bronze with antique patina (they dip it in sulfuric acid and then polish) and you can see the final product below. I’m still sorting through the 250 pictures I took (we had really good seats for the falconry show, so I snapped a lot of pics – I love digital cameras!) and I’ll tweet out a link when I get them all uploaded to my Flickr account.

Updated 4-03-11: Flickr set is now up here!

Midweek news round-up

Since I haven’t gotten around to a Sunday Short Takes for the last couple of weeks, here’s a midweek round-up:

* The new Fit for a King exhibit of 500 years of royal armour opens April 1 at The Tower of London. The exhibit will be on the top floor of the White Tower.

* The Anne Boleyn Files has started a calendar competition for photos of Tudor places they will be producing in 2012. Check out the details here!

* And also at the Anne Boleyn Files, a nice write-up of a lecture by David Starkey on Acton Court, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn