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National Heritage Memorial Fund
The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) was set up in 1980 to save the most outstanding parts of the British national heritage, in memory of those who have given their lives for the UK. It replaced the National Land Fund which had fulfilled the same function since 1946. It received £20 million Government grant in aid between 2011–2015, allowing for an annual budget of between £4 million and £5 million. Between 1980 and 2020, £368 million was spent by the NHMF. Nearly a third (over £106 million) was spent on buildings and monuments, and nearly £194 million was spent on paintings, furniture and other objects. A diverse list of over 1,200 heritage items have been safeguarded by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, including: * The St Cuthbert Gospel (£4.5M to the British Library, 2012) * The Hereford Mappa Mundi * The ''Mary Rose'' * '' Flying Scotsman'' * The last surviving World War II destroyer, HMS ''Cavalier'' * Orford Ness nature reserve in Suffolk * Beamish Exh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Wright Of Derby
Joseph Wright (3 September 1734 – 29 August 1797), styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution". Wright is notable for his use of tenebrism, an exaggerated form of the better known chiaroscuro effect, which emphasizes the contrast of light and dark, and for his paintings of candle-lit subjects. His paintings of the birth of science out of alchemy, often based on the meetings of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a group of scientists and industrialists living in the English Midlands, are a significant record of the struggle of science against religious values in the period known as the Age of Enlightenment. Many of Wright's paintings and drawings are owned by Derby City Council, and are on display at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Life Joseph Wright was born in Irongate, Derby, to a respectable family of lawyers. He was the third ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Weeping Woman
''The Weeping Woman'' (French: ''La Femme qui pleure'') is a series of oil on canvas paintings by Pablo Picasso, the last of which was created in late 1937. The paintings depict Dora Maar, Picasso's mistress and muse. ''The Weeping Woman'' paintings were produced by Picasso in response to the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War and are closely associated with the iconography in his painting ''Guernica''. Picasso was intrigued with the subject of the weeping woman, and revisited the theme numerous times that year. The last version, created on 26 October 1937, was the most elaborate of the series, and has been housed in the collection of the Tate Modern in London since 1987. Another Weeping Woman painting is housed at the National Gallery of Victoria and was involved in a high-profile political art theft. Background Picasso created ''The Weeping Woman'' during the Spanish Civil War, which broke out in July 1936, when General Franco revolted against the Republican govern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chastleton House
Chastleton House () is a Jacobean country house at Chastleton, Oxfordshire, England, close to Moreton-in-Marsh (). It has been owned by the National Trust since 1991 and is a Grade I listed building. History Chastleton House was built between 1607 and 1612, possibly by Robert Smythson, for Walter Jones, who had made his fortune from the law,"A Short Guide to Chastleton House", by Oliver Garnett, for The National Trust, 1997. although his family were originally Welsh wool merchants. The estate was bought in 1604 from Robert Catesby, although his residence was demolished to make way for the new house and no traces of the original building on this spot remain. The house is built of Cotswold stone, around a small courtyard, called the Dairy Court. Chastleton House is famous for an episode from the English Civil War in which a loyal wife duped (and drugged) Roundhead soldiers to save her husband. Sarah Jewell, granddaughter of the art critic Alan Clutton-Brock and his first wife S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kedleston Hall
Kedleston Hall is a neo-classical manor house, and seat of the :Curzon family, Curzon family, located in Kedleston, Derbyshire, approximately 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Derby. The medieval village of Kedleston was moved in 1759 by Nathaniel Curzon to make way for the manor. All that remains of the original village is the 12th century All Saints Church, Kedleston. Members of the family have held 14 hereditary titles such as: George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Earl Howe, Viscount Scarsdale, Earl Curzon of Kedleston, Earl Howe, Viscount Curzon, Viscount Scarsdale,Hall, S. C. 1800-1889. (2016). ''Stately homes of england.'' Place of publication not identified: Nabu Press. Earl Howe, Viscounts Howe, Viscount Scarsdale, Curzon of Kedleston, Viscount Scarsdale, Baron Scarsdale, Baron Ravensdale, Lord of the Manor of Curzon, Earl Howe, Baron Howe, Baron Curzon (other), Baron Curzon, Baronet Mosley, and Baronet of Kedleston Hall. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belton House
Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in the parish of Belton near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, built between 1685 and 1688 by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet. It is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading to follies within a larger wooded park. Belton has been described as a compilation of all that is finest of Carolean architecture, the only truly vernacular style of architecture that England had produced since the Tudor period.Nicolson, 148. It is considered to be a complete example of a typical English country house. For about three centuries until 1984, Belton House was the seat successively of the Brownlow family, which had first acquired land in the area in the late 16th century, and of its heirs the Cust family (in 1815 created Earl Brownlow). Despite his great wealth Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet, chose to build a comparatively modest house rather than one of the grand Baroque palaces being built by others at the time. The contempo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calke Abbey
Calke Abbey is a Grade I listed country house near Ticknall, Derbyshire, England, in the care of the charitable National Trust. The site was an Augustinian priory from the 12th century until its dissolution by Henry VIII. The present building, named Calke Abbey in 1808, was never actually an abbey, but is a Baroque mansion built between 1701 and 1704. The house was owned by the Harpur family for nearly 300 years until it was passed to the Trust in 1985 in lieu of death duties. Today, the house is open to the public and many of its rooms are deliberately displayed in the state of decline in which the house was handed to the Trust. History Calke Priory was founded by Richard d'Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester some time between 1115 and 1120 and was dedicated to St Giles; d'Avranches had inherited from his father vast estates in both England and Normandy, of which Calke and many of the surrounding villages were part. The Priory was initially an independent community, but after th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Craigievar Express
The Craigievar Express is a steam-powered tricycle built by Andrew 'Postie' Lawson between 1895 and 1897 in Craigievar, Scotland. The vehicle's frame is made from wood, as are its wheels. The engine is a single-cylinder model and was purchased second hand from a sawmill. The Express's boiler was obtained through ''Exchange and Mart''. The flywheel brake acted on the engine, and following the principles of the horse-carriage braking system (brake shoes attached to a lever) another was applied to the rims of the back wheels. The Express steamed for the first time on 26 June 1897. After that Lawson would drive it at local festivals. He had ceased using the Express by 1934 and died in 1938. The Craigievar Express was then sold to a man from Aberdeen before later being repurchased by Andrew Lawson's son James. James carried out some restoration on the Express before transferring it to William Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill. The Express was then steamed at various events. With Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skokholm
Skokholm () or Skokholm Island is an island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales, south of the neighbouring island of Skomer. The surrounding waters are a marine reserve and all are part of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Both islands are listed as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Geography Skokholm is long and wide, covering . Made up of Old Red Sandstone, its cliffs stand between in the northeast, to in the southwest. Battered by storms, the high cliffs and isolated nature of the island make it a haven for seabirds. There is a rock outcrop close to the centre of the island, which provides shelter to the island's only structures. Its greatest height is 55 metres (180 feet). History Whilst no trees grow on the island in modern times, Skokholm is possibly Norse for "wooded island", a combination of ''skógr'' (wood, modern Norwegian: ''skog'') and ''holmr'' (small island, middle English ''holm'' and modern Norwegian ''holme''), named by the Vikings. The island ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war. Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war in his "Soldier's Declaration" of 1917, culminating in his admission to a military psychiatric hospital; this resulted in his forming a friendship with Wilfred Owen, who was greatly influenced by him. Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the "Sherston trilogy". Early life Siegfried Sassoon was born to a Jewish father and an Anglo-Catholic mother, and grew up in the neo-gothic man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canterbury Astrolabe Quadrant
The Canterbury Astrolabe Quadrant is a medieval astrolabe believed to date from 1388, and which was found in an archaeological dig at the House of Agnes, a bed and breakfast hotel in Canterbury, Kent, England in 2005. The Canterbury Astrolabe Quadrant is the only one of its kind known to definitely have been made in England. Astrolabes are calculation instruments that enable their users to tell the time and determine their geographical latitude using the position of the sun and stars. An extremely rare instrument, the Canterbury Astrolabe Quadrant probably belonged to a travelling scholar who may have lost it in Canterbury while on pilgrimage to that city. It is also the first astrolabe to have been found during an archaeological dig. Scientific instruments such as this are usually handed down from generation to generation or found among family possessions, but are rarely discovered in the ground. The British Museum was originally outbid in an auction in 2007 for the brass astrola ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaun Greenhalgh
Shaun Greenhalgh (born 1961) is a British artist and former art forger. Over a seventeen-year period, between 1989 and 2006, he produced a large number of forgeries. With the assistance of his brother and elderly parents, who fronted the sales side of the operation, he successfully sold his fakes internationally to museums, auction houses, and private buyers, accruing nearly £1 million. ''The Guardian'"How garden shed fakers fooled the art world" 16 November 2007. The family have been described by Scotland Yard as "possibly the most diverse forgery team in the world, ever". However, when they attempted to sell three Assyrian reliefs using the same provenance as they had previously, suspicions were finally raised. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London held an exhibition of Greenhalgh's works from 23 January to 7 February 2010. The Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiques Unit built a replica model of the shed where the works were created. Many of Greenhalgh's fakes, inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amarna Princess
The ''Amarna Princess'', sometimes referred to as the "Bolton Amarna Princess," is a statue forged by British art forger Shaun Greenhalgh and sold by his father George Sr. to Bolton Museum for £440,000 in 2003. Based on the Amarna art-style of ancient Egypt, the purchase of the ''Amarna Princess'' was feted as a "coup" by the museum and it remained on display for three years. However, in November 2005, Greenhalgh was brought under suspicion by Scotland Yard's Arts and Antiquities Unit, and the statue was impounded for further examination in March 2006.Malvern, Jack"The ancient Egypt statue from Bolton (circa 2003)" ''Times Online'', March 27, 2006. Accessed December 4, 2007. It is now displayed as a part of an exhibition of fakes and forgeries. Background and preparation In 1999, following some early successes, the Greenhalghs began their most ambitious forgery project yet. They bought the 1892 sale catalogue of the contents of Silverton Park, Devon, the home of the 4th Earl of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
