Author: hamer the framer

The Monument

This Monument designed by Sir Christopher Wren was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London 1666 which burned for three days consuming more than 13,000 houses and devastating 436 acres of the City. The Monument is 202ft in height being equal to the distance westward from the bakehouse in Pudding Lane where the fire broke out. It took six years to construct, 1671-1677. The balcony is reached by a spiral stairway of 311 steps and affords panoramic views of the metropolis. A superstructure rises from the balcony and supports a copper vase of flames.
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The Pursuit Of Happiness

This linocut print by Gail Brodholt shows skaters at Canary Wharf Ice Rink in Docklands participating in a festive communal ritual, chasing the glide, defying the cold and celebrating one of the many and various forms of slipping and sliding collectively known as winter sports.   Their sinuous arabesques on the ice are contrasted with the checker board grids of the architecture.  It’s Brice Marden versus Sean Scully.  It’s snakes & ladders.  Tis the season to play board games.  Happy Christmas.

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The Littlest Birds

For a couple of years now we have had Fanny Shorter‘s suite of exquisite screenprints featuring some of the world’s smallest birds, all of them depicted life size. They are beautiful and popular and fast becoming an endangered species. I sold two more today, which prompted this post, before they disappear altogether. Shown here is the Crimson-Hooded Manakin, a native of the northern coastal regions of South America, where its habitat is mangroves and riverside forests. It measures just 9 cms. Continue reading “The Littlest Birds”

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For Lord Glenconner

We were recently shown this double page from a Bonhams catalogue for the sale of the contents of the St Lucian property of Lord Glenconner. It marks the passing of a longstanding customer, who whenever he was in London it seemed, would bring us items for framing, sometimes beautiful, always exotic and unusual. He will be sadly missed. This drawing on glass of the Great House, Mustique was a gift from Princess Margaret in 1986. He has written this on the label. But that label, designed for us by Iain Bain in 1995 and used for the next ten years, shows that we must have framed it later. In fact, according to our records, we framed it in 2004 using a gessoed black frame with a gilded edge. After 18 years he had decided to reframe it. It is inscribed to the bottom left corner: To Colin with my best wishes for your 60th birthday with love from Margaret, December 1st 1986.

Frames of reference