Looking Down The Barrel

If you have ever attended one of our Tunbridge Ware Days you will know that we often pause to think about the social circumstances surrounding the Tunbridge Ware, which we are discussing. This in fact is one of the most important things, which holds our interest in the subject. Our February Object of the Month has proved especially fascinating. Looking down the Stanhope barrel has opened up vistas, which we ordinarily would not expect from a piece of Tunbridge Ware.

Stanhope Viewers: A Convergence of Technologies

Technological convergence tends to be a modern term of the digital age but the story behind Stanhope viewers certainly suggests an earlier convergence of technologies resulting in a novel way to deliver information.

 In 1857 René Dagron, a Parisian photographer, developed an optical device, which enabled the viewing of micro- photographs without a microscope. Dagron combined two British inventions: the Stanhope lens, invented by Charles, 3^rd Earl Stanhope (1753-1816) and micro-photography, invented by John Benjamin Dancer (1839), a manufacturer of optical and scientific equipment in Manchester. Forming a single miniature magnifying unit, which came to be known as the Stanhope viewer, Dagron patented his device in 1859 and inserted views into cheap novelty items.

 The most popular Stanhope images were topographical subjects and were available at many late 19^th century tourist attractions in the UK, France and as far a-field as North America. Stanhope images also included royalty – especially Queen Victoria and images of national & international trade fairs.

Our  barrel with Stanhope images, which is the feature on Object of the Month, has views of The Catskill Mountains.

A Barrel of Laughs

Taking its name from 17^th century Dutch settlers, the area in New York State known as the Catskill Mountains became, during the 19^th century, a favoured vacational retreat for wealthy New York City dwellers. In the 20^th century many ethnic groups including Germans, Czechs & the Jewish community established summer resorts in The Catskills, which remained popular until around the 1960’s.

 The Jewish resorts in The Catskills became known as the Borscht Belt where many comics and musicians such as Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Danny Kaye & Joan Rivers, started in show business. By some, The Catskills were facetiously referred to as “The Jewish Alps” and by putting Borscht Belt comedy into Google it is still possible to sample the type of humour, which they enjoyed.

Kaaterskill Falls is one of the Stanhope views on our barrel. The waterfall consists of two separate falls totalling 260 feet. This image is from an engraving published in 1852.

And all of this from the smallest piece of stickware we have ever owned!

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January Crackers

Despite it being the middle of January the dealers at The Edenbridge Galleries were not averse to pulling crackers and donning paper hats at their belated Christmas meal last Friday.

The meal had originally been planned for the Gallery Open Weekend in December but it was cancelled due to the bad weather. Friday saw a good representation of the dealers meeting to discuss plans for future Gallery events, about which we will keep you informed in due course. This meeting was followed by our Christmas meal in the Gallery around a magnificent dining table, which seats twenty people and is from the stock of the Gallery owner and well known furniture dealer, Lennox Cato.