The Bayeux Tapestry

[poliphilo]

I've had my little book on the Bayeux tapestry since I was a child.  It's a King Penguin, published in 1943- when the tapestry was in enemy hands- and there's a sly dig at Dr Goebbels in the introduction.  It's in poor shape, but then it always was. I begged it off our next door neighbour- Mrs Soundy- who was going to throw it in the bin because the spine was coming off.  It must be one of my oldest possessions of any kind.



The colour plates are drawn and lithographed by someone called Thomas Griffiths. Could this be the same Thomas Griffiths who taught me art at Lancing in the mid 1960s? No, surely not. And yet, the more I think about it, the less implausible it seems...

Comments

[upasaka.livejournal.com]

That's really neat. I have been fascinated with the Bayeux Tapestry much of my life. When my parents returned from a trip to see it in the 1970s, they brought back as a gift for me a scale reproduction about 5 inches tall which folded out to at least twelve feet long. And when my first wife and I were on our honeymoon in Quebec City, we spent our last little bit of money on an old Limoges egg cup with a portion of the tapestry reproduced on it. I still have it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've seen those fold out reproductions. They're neat.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

What you have there is a real treasure!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It has sentimental value. I was fond of Mrs Soundy- and this is the only thing I have of hers.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Nice drawings.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You can't really tell in the photograph, but the artist has drawn every stitch.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Wow!! I'm in awe!!

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Drawing "every stitch" must have been as much of a challenge as was the original stitching.
It is beautiful, is it not?