The Lure of Gardens

Recently, I was thrilled to be invited to the Bloggers’ Breakfast at the Queen’s Gallery for the opening of their new exhibition, Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden, which looks at four centuries of royal gardens through paintings and objects in the Royal Collection.

 

1.     The welcome tea urn

We were invited for 8.30 am – only one and a half hours before the public opening – and offered tea, coffee, fruit juice and a choice of the most delicious croissants. As we arrived, the finishing touches were being done to the trellis and flowers on either side of the entrance; we learned that everyone had worked late into the night to get the exhibition ready. They were obviously successful – it was immaculate.

 

2.     Finishing touches

The curators then showed us round, told us what they wanted to get across in the exhibition, how they had set about it, talked us through the highlights and gave us the behind-the-scenes stories. It’s a fabulous exhibition and I thoroughly recommend it, but, for this post, I’m concentrating on those objects which I thought might interest writers of Georgian and Regency romances, like Queen Mary II’s delightful blue and white tulip vases designed to display rare (and expensive) tulips.

I decided that the tulip vases had definite dramatic possibilities. The hero’s formidable grandmother, the Dowager Duchess, owns a pair of tulip vases which are her pride and joy. The heroine, Araminta, a sweet-natured girl but badly bullied by her shrewish elder sister, becomes disastrously clumsy whenever she’s nervous …  I’m sure you see what I mean.

 

3.     Tulip vase (1702)

By the mid-18^th century, the formality of Tudor and Stuart gardens was being superseded by a more natural look, with landscaping by garden designers such as ‘Capability’ Brown and his successor, Humphry Repton. In Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814), Mr Rushworth declares himself eager to ‘improve’ his family home, Southerton Court. ‘Your best friend upon such an occasion,’ said Miss Bertram, calmly, ‘would be Mr Repton, I imagine.’ And Mr Rushworth lets drop that Repton charges ‘five guineas a day’ (£5.25), a stupendous amount of money, considering that a farm worker at Southerton would be lucky to earn ten shillings (50p) a week.

 

4.     The Gardens at Kew by Johan Jacob Schalch, 1759

Repton would turn the formality of Southerton’s avenue of trees and the wood (which is famously locked) into the epitome of classical elegance with specially-created lakes, accessible stands of noble trees, ornamental bridges, ‘classical’ temples and Greek statues, so that Mr Rushworth’s guests could wander at will. Plenty of scope for romance and intrigue there.

The Painting Paradise exhibition has a number of delightful watercolours from the 18^th century, with gardeners going about their everyday work, such as the gardener’s boy with his watering can at Windsor Castle by one of my favourite artists, Paul Sandby. The boy, indeed, is almost part of the natural look himself.

 

5.     Norman Gateway and Moat Garden, Windsor Castle, watercolour by Paul Sandby, 1770

The exhibition also celebrates the arrival of thousands of new plants, starting as a trickle in the 16^th century and becoming a flood by the 19^th century. Plant designs now appear everywhere: on china, like the Chelsea porcelain below above; in the Fabergé jewel flowers which have a case of their own; as well as in the botanical prints on display.

 

6.     Chelsea porcelain, 1755

Moving slightly out of period, I’m including a few of the Victorian pieces of jewellery in the exhibition, also inspired by flowers. The fuchsia earrings and pendant (below) were made for Queen Victoria. The outer petals curling up are gold-mounted enamel; the central petals, however, are Princess Beatrice’s milk teeth!

 

7.     Fuchsia earrings and pendant, Garrard, 1864.

I loved Queen Victoria’s orange flowers headdress. The Queen wore a real orange flower wreath, symbolising chastity, for her wedding in 1840; and, in 1846, Prince Albert gave her the headdress, which is made of porcelain, gold, enamel and velvet, with silk ribbons, and completed the set over the following few years.

 

8.     Parure, Garrard, 1846

And lastly, the beautifully-decorated flower fan, made for Queen Victoria’s birthday, which was a gift from her eldest daughter, Victoria, the Princess Royal. The flowers, painted by the princess herself when she was only fifteen, were specially chosen to spell out VICTORIA: violets, iris, cornflower, convolvulus and corn ears, tulip and thistle, orange blossom, roses, ivy and auricula. She was obviously very talented.

 

9.     Fan, 1856. Leather leaves with mother of pearl and ivory.

 I have only been able to cover a fraction of the wonderful things in this interesting and inspiring exhibition. There is surely something for everyone here. In fact, I lingered after the general public had come in to make sure I’d chosen the right items for this post. Painting Paradise is on at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, until 11^th October. www.royalcollection.org.uk

Photos:

1, 2, 3 and 6 by Elizabeth Hawksley

4, 5, 7, 8, and 9, Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015

Elizabeth Hawksley

www.elizabethhawksley.com   

 

All that glitters ...

Gem stones and jewels are endlessly fascinating and I have recently noticed that I seem to feature these in a lot of my stories although I didn’t mean for this to become a recurring theme.  I have blogged about both diamonds – “a girl’s best friend” – and pearls before, and I love treasure and precious things of any kind, but that goes for most people I think.  Through the ages, mankind has always coveted that which is most difficult to acquire, so at least I’m not alone!

(Not the Cheapside Hoard jewels but still pretty)

When Elizabeth Hawksley very kindly told me about an exhibition at the Museum of London called The Cheapside Hoard –London’s Lost Jewels, naturally I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to go and see it.  It sounded absolutely amazing, as indeed it was.  Not just because of the beauty of the treasures on display, but because of the mystery behind the discovery and the uniqueness of the collection – what looks like the entire stock of a 17^th century jeweller, giving us vital knowledge of his trade at that time.

The find was shrouded in mystery for quite some time, although it is clear now that the cache of jewels was discovered by workmen in 1912.  They were demolishing a house in Cheapside – once one of the main markets and thoroughfares of the city of London and the place where all the best goldsmiths and jewellers had their shops during the 16^th and 17^th century.  When the builders reached the cellars of the house and broke through into an original cellar from before the Great Fire of London (which happened in 1666), the glittering hoard came to light.  They must have been both stunned and delighted!

Although such finds should be reported to the authorities, the labourers didn’t.  Instead they filled their pockets and anything else they had to hand and went to see a pawnbroker who was known to buy anything antique dug up in London.  Fortunately for posterity, he did the right thing and alerted the London Museum, who subsequently bought most of what had been found.  Some of the pieces did get lost and may still be in private ownership somewhere, but the vast majority of gems and jewels ultimately ended up at the museum.  And what a dazzling display they make!

There were bodkins (hairpins), rings, necklaces and loose gemstones.  Brooches, cameos, watches and buttons.  In short, every kind of item you would expect to find in a goldsmith’s shop.  I imagined myself as a 17^th century lady, trying to choose something out of this magnificent collection and decided that if I could only have one thing, it had to be one of the lovely pendant drops.  Made of amethysts, emeralds or garnets, they sparkled in the muted light and looked like mini chandeliers, some with little jewel clusters that had been fashioned to resemble bunches of grapes.  I could have bought two and used them as earrings, or just one for a necklace.  They were quite simply stunning!

I think we definitely owe that pawnbroker a debt of gratitude for saving the Cheapside Hoard from being dispersed – it would have been a terrible shame not to be able to see it now.

So back to my own stories and jewels – the one I’m working on at the moment (Monsoon Mists – to be published August 2014) features a gem trader who is based in India in the late 1750’s.  Unfortunately this was a bit later than the Cheapside Hoard, but I had great fun doing the research for this era too.  It’s never a hardship to go and look at beautiful diamonds, rubies or sapphires, and I enjoyed learning about the various ways in which these were graded and valued.  The best of them came from India, Sri Lanka or Burma, whereas if you wanted emeralds, the quality stones were from South America.  My hero travels both to the fabled diamond mines of Golconda (India) and to Burma in search of rubies.  And along the way he comes across a very unusual jewel, which causes him no end of trouble … but more about that in August.

As for the jewels of the Cheapside Hoard, I have a feeling they will come in very handy for my next time slip which is set during the English Civil War.  Now all I have to do is choose whether my heroine should have amethysts or emeralds for her pendant drop earrings …

Christina x

www.christinacourtenay.com

Pearls

We all know that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but in the past there was another type of jewel which was just as highly prized – pearls.

I recently went to see an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum here in London which was dedicated to pearls and told the story of this precious natural phenomenon through the ages.  I found it absolutely fascinating!

Never having given it much thought, I had always believed that pearls came mostly from the Far East.  I was therefore surprised to find that in the past, the majority of them originated in and around Qatar and the Arabian Gulf.  The pearl fisheries there have existed for thousands of years apparently and pearls from that region made their way to Egypt, Rome and the rest of Europe even in ancient times.  The next largest supply came from between southern India and Ceylon.  Finding them was hard work as only one in every 2,000 oysters actually has a pearl inside it!

Another surprise for me was the fact that pearls are not formed from grains of sand that have happened to enter an oyster.  That is just a myth and never happens.  Instead, it is usually parasites of some sort that trigger the beginnings of a pearl.  Cultured pearls, pioneered by the Japanese businessman Kokichi Mikimoto, are not formed from sand either, but by a different and rather complicated technique that involves a tiny piece ‘donated’ by another oyster.  (This was not developed until the early 20^th century.)

Pearls have a natural sheen and, unlike precious stones, don’t need to be polished in any way.  (I’ve been told that the more you wear them, the shinier they become, presumably because of being in proximity to the wearer’s skin.)  The exhibition showed that even the ones that were not perfect were put to good use by jewellery makers.  Some weirdly shaped ones formed for example the torso of a fish or insect and were made into a brooch or pendant using a gold or silver setting.  One had even been made into a miniature Statue of Liberty!  They come in lots of different colours too – grey, pink, black and brown are just some of the available shades – but for me, the white ones are the most beautiful.

Many women wore them as symbols of purity and virginity.  Owning vast quantities of pearls (and wearing an awful lot of them all at once, either as jewellery or sewn onto garments) was also a symbol of power and riches.  There were some magnificent necklaces, tiaras, brooches and other kinds of jewellery on display at the exhibition and the most fascinating were those with a known provenance – for example, there was a single pearl earring which had apparently been worn by King Charles I at his execution!

Pearls go in and out of fashion, but one thing never changes – their incredible beauty.  The warm, creamy lustre can’t be improved upon (although a setting of diamonds makes them shine even more!) and no matter what type of jewellery is made out of these natural miracles, they can be guaranteed to enhance the wearer’s outfit.  I’m sure they will continue to be appreciated for centuries to come.

Christina x

http://christinacourtenay.com/

The Secret Kiss of Darkness - time slip, 18th century Devon - forbidden love, smugglers and romance! - available now on Kindle 

"A Girl's Best Friend"

Ever since the dawn of time, humans have been fascinated by precious stones and metals and it’s no wonder - the sheer beauty of, for instance, a diamond sparkling in the light is undeniable!  It’s easy to see why primitive people would have considered them as gifts from the gods and worn them as amulets or talismans.  Even today, there are gemstones which are considered to either bring luck or be cursed, and when you look at something like the Koh-i-Noor diamond (once the largest known diamond in the world and said to be a cursed with bad luck for men who own it, but not women), I for one can totally understand this.  There is something both magical and evil in the way it draws your eye which one can well imagine would make people so greedy they’d want to kill to possess it!

Regency ladies obviously loved jewels as much as anyone and I’m sure most of our heroines would be very pleased to be presented with a “parure” (matching set) of jewellery of some kind, be it priceless diamonds, rubies or emeralds, or something made of lesser gemstones like garnets and amethysts.  I wouldn’t say no myself to any of those!

Most of the aristocratic families had heirloom sets of some kind and still do – there was a wonderful exhibition of tiaras for example at the Victoria & Albert Museum a couple of years ago, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  And for an author, such heirlooms can of course play a vital part in our plots, especially after the year 1758.  That was when a Viennese man, Joseph Strasser, developed strass, a type of glass which could be mistaken (by someone who was not an expert) for diamonds.  It could be cut and was very similar in appearance.  What better way for an impecunious lord or lady than to have their real diamonds exchanged, secretly, for strass so that they could sell the real thing?  And then perhaps have to do everything they can not to be caught out …

For anyone wanting to do some research on gemstones, a visit to the Natural History Museum in London is a must.  Apart from the fact that the building itself is a wonderful example of Victorian architectural exuberance, with its ornate façade, sculptures and gargoyles, it houses a huge collection of precious stones, rocks and minerals.  I can spend hours there, looking through the row upon row of glass cases up on the first floor.  In the so called Vault in a side room are some beautiful specimens and a collection of 296 naturally coloured diamonds – one of each colour that can be found.  These are displayed as a work of art in the shape of a triangle and called “The Aurora Pyramid of Hope” since they reflect the light just like the Aurora Borealis.  And the lighting changes from normal to ultraviolet, showing the viewer how they sparkle with different colours depending on the light.  It’s magical!

The museum has the largest ever cut topaz – 2,982 carats – from Brazil, which is amazing.  And in one display case you can see what the Koh-i-Noor looked like in its original form.  Its Indian Mogul-style cut wasn’t considered brilliant enough by Europeans so Prince Albert ordered it to be recut before Queen Victoria wore it.  This made it smaller, which is a shame, but both cuts looked beautiful to me, each in their own way.  (See photo above - Mogul cut on the left).  There is also another supposedly cursed stone, the “Cursed Amethyst” which was donated by someone called Edward Heron-Allen.  (Photo below)  He believed it was so evil he had it set in a special magical ring to neutralize its power!

 

Another must for anyone interested in gems is of course the Tower of London, where the fabulous Crown Jewels never fail to amaze.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen them now, but they are as fascinating every time.  For slightly “lesser” jewels (or perhaps I should say, jewellery which could possibly be affordable by ordinary people) I prefer to stroll along Old and New Bond Street and the nearby Burlington Arcade, where Regency ladies used to go too.  The shops there have some amazing examples of both new and antique jewellery, and being a historical author I, of course, prefer the antique ones.  It is always fun to speculate which of the lovely diamond earrings or bracelets one would buy, should one be lucky enough to win the lottery.  One day …

A few facts about jewellery and gemstones – “coloured stone” is apparently the trade term for all of them except diamonds (even those that have no colour).  They are valued according to their rarity and the most sought after are pure or flawless, ie. do not have any foreign matter or fissures inside them which could affect their transparency or “clarity”.  Colour, lustre, and iridescence play a part in grading them, with colour being the most important, and also the stone’s weight and size – its “carat”, a measurement used since early times.  Hardness (ie. its resistance or not as the case may be when you scratch it with something else) is also taken into account - the less valuable and not very hard gemstones are only “semi-precious”.  Diamonds are, of course, the hardest of all.

The cutting of coloured stones is called lapidary work, and the cutters (or lapidary) of gemstones are usually highly skilled and must know the different properties of the stones they work with.  They take into account the various characteristics of each stone before cutting them so as to get the best out of each one.  In ancient times, gemstones used to be decorated only by scratching figures, symbols and letters onto them.  Stone cutting as we know it now with facets didn’t develop until around the 15^th century and there are lots of different types of cut.

Everyone talks about diamonds being “a girl’s best friend”, but as can be seen by the “Aurora” display, there are many different types and colours.  And personally, I prefer rubies – the most sought-after being the so called “pigeon’s blood” or pure red with a hint of blue.  Their fiery colour draws me in every time I see them.  Sapphires and emeralds are of course also beautiful, but for sheer colour, I think I like aquamarines and amethysts better.  We all have our preferences – if you had the money, what would you buy?  I’d love to know!

Christina
www.christinacourtenay.com
Highland Storms - winner of RoNA for Best Historical
The Silent Touch of Shadows - time slip, coming 7th July 2012