Sunbeam

[poliphilo]

This is the figurehead from the steam yatch, Sunbeam, owned by Lord and Lady Brassey. The model for the child angel was their daughter Constance- nicknamed "Sunbeam"- who died of scarlet fever aged 4 in 1874. The Brasseys took Sunbeam around the world- and Lady Brassey wrote a number of best-selling books about their voyages .

I keep running into the Brasseys. Lady Brassey's collections of art and ethnography ended up in the Hastings and Bexhill museums- where I've admired them. She died- on board the Sunbeam- somewhere in the South Seas- and her memorial tablet is in the church at Catsfield, Sussex. I've seen that too.

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Disconcerting to see a figurehead which is so realistic a likeness - and how very art deco for the 1870s!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Most figureheads are folk art- and so hard to date- but this is very much of its time.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Yes, very of its time. But rather lovely.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Lovely but sadly poignant...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Lady Brassey is a hero of mine

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It must have been a little odd to sail the seven seas in a boat named after your dead child- and with her likeness on the prow.

[faeriefiles.livejournal.com]

It's beautiful, I'll have to look up her art collection.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Her books are available on-line for free. I'll admit I tried one and didn't get very far. Sailing in a yacht to the South Seas was a daring and exciting thing to do in the 1870s, now it seems.... rather less so.

[faeriefiles.livejournal.com]

Someday I will find time to read again