A bat out of hell

Heaven, or Hell

The elaborate gilded altar

A side entrance to the temple with the carved relief of Heaven, (or Hell)

The residents, keeping an eye on the proceedings

The the house described in Monday's post, Pinang Peranakan Mansion, has all the requisites that any self-respecting Baba-Nyonya Chinese would need, including its own temple, depicted here. The temple has intricate carvings of both heaven and hell, which face each other on either side of the open courtyard. It was difficult to determine which was which, so I can't recall whether the picture I took is heaven or hell. However, to the right of this area a group of bats had taken up residence in the rafters and they buzzed around from time to time adding an unexpected air of eeriness to the scene.

...Like a bat out of hell

I'll be gone when the morning comes...

For myself, the continuing disruptions in the city have rectified a long overdue exploration of one of Thailand's islands. In the morning we're off to Koh Samet, in the Gulf of Siam. Back in a few.

Slavishly devoted

A Pair of Chinese Imperial Yellow Peking Glass Square Bowls,

19th century, each decorated with two sides having stylised facing dragons and two sides with dragon faces.

 

Aravind Adiga's novel The White Tiger is, as described by The Times, "A masterpiece". Adiga's quotation of the Indian poet Iqbal's words: "The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave", was for me the seminal moment in the entire book.

 

In a recent conversation with a friend I was stating a recognition that my expectations were often too high, and that resulted in disappointment. It led me to wonder whether one should lower one's expectations, to reduce this occurrence. But lowering expectations also means lowering standards. And lowering standards often means ignoring an innate sense of beauty.

 

Let me use an example, if I haven't already lost your interest, or understanding in what I am trying to say. If I go and stay in an hotel and have great expectations that it will be up to the standard of its five star rating in respect of say aesthetics, when it turns out to be less than my expectations, then I am disappointed. It is not easy to lower one's expectation, because I cannot alter my understanding of what constitutes beauty.

 

And however many disappointments one experiences, when one encounters truly outstanding beauty, that in itself is a huge reward. One could therefore argue that Iqbal's words mean quite the reverse, if beauty is innate. When you have a sense of beauty you are a slave to disappointment, because much of what we see is not pretty, in any sense of the word.

As gaudy as it gets

The Pinang Peranakan Mansion

The upstairs, above, looking down to the courtyard below:

According to the blurb Peranakan Mansion is one of the most ornate private homes in Penang. It once belonged to Kapitan Chung Keng Kwee, a colourful personality in the C19th. Currently it is a museum showcasing the Peranakan/Baba Nyoyian community.

The rather sedate and neoclassical building in the first picture, if somewhat unusually coloured, gives way to the most vulgar over-the-top glitz of which a Middle Eastern interior designer would be immensely proud. It's so vulgar, it's almost kitch, becoming a caricature of itself.

That notwithstanding, this building is one of many within the World Heritage Site of George Town, Penang, founded in the C18th by the British, as Prince of Wales Island, and subsequently named George Town, (or Georgetown), after King George III.

Architecture in Georgetown includes a mélange of different styles, reflecting the variety of peoples who have settled over the last 200 years: Chinese, Indians, Arabs, local Malays, Achehnese from Indonesia, Siamese, Burmese and Europeans.

This house featured in the current edition of The Amazing Race, for those of you, (like me), who watch this programme.

Cool Colors

Luigi Lucioni (American, 1900-1988), oil on canvas still life titled Cool Colors, signed lower left and dated '56, 11'' x 14''.

My lack of acquisitions at the auction house has been reversed with this purchase on Friday. News of my success is accompanied by an almost "still life" in the streets of Bangkok, which we hope may lead to a compromise that will begin to resolve the impasse that we have experienced for several weeks. It's also very apt that the picture should be entitled Cool Colors, given the colour coding attributed to both sides of this conflict.

Lucioni was born in Malante, Northern Italy, and died in Greenwich Village, New York. He was best known for his realist still lifes, but he also produced many landscape etchings. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1911 and settled in North Bergen, NJ, and had a studio in Washington Square in NYC until 1945.

His biography also reveals his work is held in a number of museum and art galleries including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; the Denver Art Museum; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; High Museum, Atlanta, GA; the Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln; Kansas City Museum; Rhode Island School of Design.

The Pearl of the Orient

The Eastern & Oriental Hotel, or E&O in Penang has been my home for the last few days, whilst we escaped from the madness that ensues in central Bangkok, to which we returned last night just before the latest violent outbreak. Trips away are always good to clear one's head and to enable life's troubles to be viewed from a different perspective. I also find that they make you appreciate where you live with much greater clarity, and that is perhaps a surprising feeling to have, given the extraordinary circumstances in which Thailand finds itself today.

The E&O is within a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and more about that in the coming days. The hotel was founded  in 1885 by the Sarkie Brothers. It was patronised by colonial administrators, planters and the local and international elite. Among its more famous guests it has welcomed Noel Coward, Douglas Fairbanks, Hermann Hesse, Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham.

It was also home (separately) to my parents who came to live and work in Malaya in the early 1950s, and Penang was the city where they met, and thereafter married, (in England). They subsequently lived in Malaya until the late 1960s, when they moved up to Hong Kong.

Wherefore art...

Italian Hand-Colored Engravings of Architectural Rosettes, 18th c., after Carlo Antonini (Italian, born c. 1740), each sight 9 in. x 7 in., attractively matted and framed, (2 of 8), sold for USD950.

...thou Romeo?

Juliet:

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name;

Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love

And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

Romeo:

[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

Juliet:

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy:

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What's Montague? It is nor hand nor foot,

Nor arm nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O be some other name!

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

and for thy name, which is no part of thee,

Take all myself.

Romeo And Juliet Act 2, scene 2, 33–49

OK, it's been an unproductive week, interspersed with high drama, which jangles the nerves. Not quite the war of the roses, but a war of colours, and perhaps, as in Romeo & Juliet, a discord between clans, gangs or groups. 

Time to escape the mayhem with a trip down memory lane, assuming the airport and access thereto isn't overun by a (red, yellow, pink or rainbow) coloured mob. Yes, we have them all.

Counting ones chickens

When I first saw this picture I thought that the drought that I have experienced as far as pictures I like being available for auction had at last come to an end. It was described as:

framed oil on canvas, ''The Witty Countess of Dorchester, (Catherine Sedley), Mistress of King James II''  after Sir Peter Lely (British, 1618-1680), unsigned, titled on label affixed verso, sight: 17.25''h x 14.25''w, overall: 22.25''h x 19.5''w.

In doing my research I found that this (above) was what the artist copied - the portrait by Lely at the National Portrait Gallery in London, which Treasure Hunt informs me is on loan to the National Trust at Lyme Park.

There is of course a world of difference between the two pictures, and I know which one I would rather have. Perhaps a case of "If you liked the book, you'll love the picture", (the book being the copy). So of course my enthusiasm waned slightly, but nonetheless I decided to bid, within a sensible limit, reflecting the fact that this would be a decorative acquistion, rather than one made on the merit of investment. When I checked the auction house site the next day, (the auction takes place whilst I am pushing up Zs), it appeared the picture had been sold at my limit. But at that stage there was no breakdown of who bid what. When that was posted later in the day, it revealed that because of the order of bidders, my last bid was just short of my limit, and the final bid price was made by someone on the floor.

So, it slipped away. In the circumstances, I am not overly sad, and one has to take the view that it was not meant to be.

In the same auction there was a portrait of King Charles II - "after" Sir Godfrey Kneller, as below:

Initially I was quite keen on this picture too, but there were dissenting voices in the household, so it never progressed. Sir Geoffrey Kneller completed two portraits of Charles II. One of them is written about by Treasure Hunt in the arcticle aforementioned, and this is another:

in which the emphasis appears to be on the king's fine legs, however bizarre that looks today. But apart from the connection of the countess being the mistress of Charles's younger brother and his successor as king, the plan went no further. Both prices achieved reflect that copies (or "after" pictures), whilst not without some value, cannot compete with originals as far as investment and prices.

Scents and sensibility

Yesterday started off well, with a delegation of condo staff visiting us in the morning to present us with puang malai - garlands made of scented flowers, including the ginger flower, which forms the arc of the garland, above.

These made pretty adornments to the cachepots in the dining room, and diffused a heavenly scent throughout the apartment, which still lingers today.

In the lobby of the condo there was the usual altar with a Buddha statue surrounded by white roses and burgundy orchids.

On a table to the right of this are vessels holding scented water and cups from which to take the water and pour it over the Buddha, to wish for a good new year, (which begins on Tuesday).

Ahead of our brief exeat next week to Malaysia, we decided to make hay whilst the sun shines, (or in this case to cut hair whilst the hairdresser's working). We managed to book an appointment with our hairdresser, who's work schedule seems to be divined by the gods, and hopped into a cab for the Skytrain, which is right next door to where he has his salon. It also happens to be right in the centre of the one of the major demonstration points of the current unrest. This seemed to be an acceptable risk to take, given that we are in our fourth week of strife, and the situation had been very non violent.

However, there was a sense of uneasiness, with very light traffic. We were on the platform for the train, when an announcement informed us that trains would not be stopping at three stations on their route, including the one from which we wanted to disembark. The feelings of unease increased markedly, so we rushed down to the street and hopped in a cab back to the condo.

It later transpired of course that this was just before the crackdown by the army, which has resulted in several deaths of soldiers and civilians.

As I wrote last year, and it now seems like a broken record, more than ever, and now more than then, we are hoping for sense and sensibility. Sadly, it does not seem likely in the short term.

Calm

Now that I've found a few pieces of Georgian furniture, it would be appropriate to use them in my fantasy house, and this picture shows what that might look like. No castle for me, thank you very much. (Sorry Pigtown Design.) My experience of castle life is that unless you have plenty of bodies around, (and preferably live ones), it can be a bit of a waste of space, and a very expensive exercise heating the wretched place in the less than friendly weather, which judging by last summer's experience, does not confine itself to the obvious winter months.

This house has everything - beautifully laid out in divine symmetry, and apparently secluded. Well, let's say it's totally secluded, as it's my fantasy. And whilst I'm on that subject, isn't privacy and seclusion the most luxurious thing money can buy? I'm finding the older I get that I almost take on the characteristics of a recluse. Unless I'm in a good mood, a trip to the department store or to the supermarket is not the joy I once thought it was. Well, actually that's not true. I never thought these things were a joy, but they were less worse. It's the mixing with the great unwashed, in all their (in) glory. And don't get me started on travelling.

Well, alright then, if you insist. The peasants are revolting (again) scenes from downtown Bangkok have encouraged us to venture into the tiresome world of international travel. But not too onerous, just a quick break to the nearby island of Penang. But not an immediate one, as the Thai new year, Songkran, begins on Tuesday next week, and unofficially tonight with many residents taking the whole week off and incorporating two weekends. So, given my distaste for mixing with the hoi polloi, travelling during this period would be complete madness. More importantly seats on aircraft are well nigh impossible to find. But my point here is that no matter which class of travel you book, (and for any long distance we always choose the pointy end), flying is one of the most undignified forms of punishment known to man. It's always a means to an end, no matter how comfortable the Shanghai Tang pajamas, or the bed made up by the stewardess, and your clothes and chattels hung in your own private closet.

Is it obvious that I need a break?

I'll take these

George III mahogany secretary bookcase, ca. 1770, the dentil molded cornice over two glazed doors resting on a base with a fall front and four drawers supported by ogee bracket feet, 84'' h., 39'' w.

Estimate $1,500 - $2,500. Starting Bid $750.

George III mahogany bachelor's chest, ca. 1765, with an upper linen slide over four drawers and bracket feet, 33'' h., 35'' w.

Estimate $1,000 - $2,000. Starting Bid $500.

George III mahogany camel back sofa, ca. 1765, the square legs with rope carved edges, 38 1/2'' h., 78'' l.

Estimate $2,000 - $3,000. Starting Bid $1,000.

George III mahogany dressing table, ca. 1770, with three drawers and square legs, 28'' h., 27 1/4'' w.

Estimate $800 - $1,200. Starting Bid $400.

Without really spending a huge amount of money you could do no worse than pick up one or all of these Georgian gems available at auction in two weeks. I've always stated that my preference is not to overload any one room with furniture exclusively from one period, and that it is more effective to mix eras. These pieces would enable you to do that with the joy and clarity of C18th English furniture.

Spring in verses, Verses in Spring*

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~ Mark Twain

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. ~ Ruth Stout

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. ~ William Shakespeare

Awake, thou wintry earth -

Fling off thy sadness!

Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth

Your ancient gladness!

~ Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

*Violet Gartenlicht

Pictures from the gardens in Scotland.

The Art of the Cross

This is the work of Cimabue, the magnificent Crucifix hanging at San Domenico, Arezzo. It is extraordinary to note the modernity of the picture, and difficult to acknowledge that it was created in C13th. Cimbue is credited with having inspired modernists, including Francis Bacon.

Matthias Grünewald (c. 1470 – August 31, 1528), an important German Renaissance painter, whose most famous work is this the Isenheim Altarpiece, completed 1515, now in the Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar. This Crucifixion, is one of nine images of twelve panels, showing the harsh and unblemished depiction of the decay of Christ's body. The harshness of the picture is somewhat undermined by the finger of the figure on the right, which looks almost cartoonish.

Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dalí,1951, at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow.