Wednesday 26 October 2016

Titans of Pop in Devon Art Runways


The 3rd runway at Heathrow - I think it's just a ruse to forcibly relocate the entire population of Harmondsworth to a remote island off the coast of Scotland because a) they don't vote Tory, or b) they're not really into being Londoners.

I noted yesterday the deaths of Bobby Vee and Pete Burns, whom the BBC news website inexplicably called 'Titans of Pop'. Bobby  Vee was before my time, but to call Pete Burns a  Titan of Pop is stretching credulity somewhat. He was a one hit wonder, for heaven's sake! Vee at least had 38 hits and 10 Top 20s, which was a good record for the 1960s.


Saw a Facebook post this morning from an outfit calling itself Refugees Not Welcome in Devon, filled with hateful invective from small minded Neanderthals. I wouldn't mind, but half  the people in Devon are refugees from the Midlands.

There is a counter page called Refugees ARE Welcome in Devon.

In Hamburg yesterday I spotted this painting in a conference room.


Now the passenger ship is decked out in Blue Funnel Line's colours - a blue funnel with a black top.


Above is the signature, which looks like R. Gutschmidt, or Richard Gutschmidt, who was the first illustrator or the Sherlock Holmes stories. Here's one of his illustrations and an example of his signature from another painting.



The conundrum is that Gutschmidt died in 1926 and the vessels in the painting look later than that date. On top of that, none of my Blue Funnel (also known as Alfred Holt and Co.) friends can recognise the vessel in question.

It was painted in Hamburg and you'll also see that the tugs have the same funnel colour. Now Blue Funnel Line didn't have tugs, and certainly not in Hamburg, so the only conclusion is that either a) the blue funnel was copied by a German shipping line, or b) the blue wasn't originally blue and has somehow turned into blue with age.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Comment that your blue Funnel friends are "ancient mariners" with an average age approaching "uncomfortably old"!

Chairman Bill said...

Antiques in their own right, Rick.

;o)