The late Hans Windgassen, Pennsylvania artist and lifetime pigeon fancier, was one of the most interesting thinkers–no, scratch that, we were all interesting thinkers!– in our pigeon rearing art and genetics group. He visited once, but we kept up a constant correspondence, and the genes of pigeons he sent– our tastes were similar– live on …
Tag: Art
Aristocracy
Five inch gold- leaf bronze of an old- style Afghan by D L Engle, with a hint of Bugatti in its planes… I would own this one in a SECOND.
Save the Dioramas!
I grew up looking at great dioramas, the magical combinations of painting and taxidermy that rose to a high art in the early twentieth century. Perhaps their highest expression is in two halls that depict the habitats and wildlife of North America and Africa in my favorite museum in the world, The American Museum of …
T H White: Endpapers for The Sword and the Stone
Way better than Disney:
Kurland
Bruce Kurland may be our best still life painter. After studying many masters, he came ‘home’ to do something so old it is original again… See a little (Francis) Bacon in the last? Winslow Homer in the first? Bruce has a new book: Bruce Kurland: Illusion and the Little World. Check it out on Amazon.
Gorbatov and Seton
The live capture of the wolf in the video below put me in mind of a Vadim Gorbatov project I would love to see published in English. Almost twenty years ago a Korean publisher decided to revive the classic Ernest Thompson Seton tale “Lobo”, about a cattle- killing wolf in northern New Mexico; a story …
A little more on covers
I care a lot about covers, and a small selection with very little text might illustrate why. Covers can make every difference in getting a book to jump off the shelf, and I often suspect word- driven editors of slighting the cover’s importance. Specialized knowledge of a cover subject can point to things your editor …
I.D.
Thesis: Sydney Vale, not a birder, called a female Sparrowhawk a ‘Goshawk’. See especially the larger female in Liam O’ Broin’s book, lower right.
Italian
I have specific tastes, and in shotguns they run to side by side English prewar (pre- Great War!) doubles, and certain classic American pumps. Generally I think current Italian guns are beautifully made, striking guns, but often overdone, if not as baroque as the products of contemporary Austrian houses. They do make a lot of …
1911 with Gos
.45 Auto Colt 1927 Argentine, not to be confused with the Baliester Molina which was not a 1911, not designed by John Moses Browning, and not approved by Colt. This one has only the modern additions which actually contribute to function. It has a nicely worn finish, a good trigger, and is tight as a …