Latest musings

A couple of images from the latest sketchbook.

This first image was an effort at 'reportage' (where you draw what's going on around you) when I was working at the recent Queen's Jubilee celebrations at RAF Cosford. I'd been drawing caricatures all day so it was nice to take a break and do another type of drawing!

This is another one of those teapots I find around the place - this one has obvious Pisa influences.

Teapot in Bristol

I found this beauty while travelling in the Bristol area recently but it's actually not a product of any local factoriy. It was in fact manufactured by a company based in Manchester call Mann, Webb & Co in about 1842. They were a rather unique company in as much as they were tea importers as well as pot manufactures and were very successful until the late 1860's. I really like these pots as you will notice the fancy flags or banners visible on the upper level of the structure - these were the (original) tea advertisements for the company's tea importing side of the business and the company greatly reduced the purchase price in exchange for displaying the banners on a permanent basis.
This pot is a beautiful design in as much as the tea compartment was quite large (the windows in the upper area are 'level guages' and not windows for looking out of!) and the living quarters were really very comfortable even for the large families of the day. The little structure on the side has often been mistaken as a common garden shed but was actually both the coal bunker and tea caddy. Not many of these 'caddy bunkers' have survived.

Computer crash

We're having work done on the house, there are electricians present and they want to turn the main power supply off - hang on, I need to turn my computer off! No problem is the reply from the ground floor and I notice that my computer is usefully telling me that I should NOT turn off just yet as it is updating important software.......the screen goes blank as the computer turns off. Did it update properly or did the pesky electricians turn off the power too soon? Yep, you guessed it - they screwed up my operating software and so out comes the old back-up system while I try to find someone to fix the main system for me. You'll be pleased to hear that it's now well again....
While travelling around (with sick computer in tow looking for a computer A&E) I came across this beauty (below) nestling in the corner of rural England and it is an interesting follow-on from the last pot house I detailed in my last posting. Although this was built by a Staffordshire factory (according to the hallmark in 1836) it is another great example of an early eco-pot. Like the pot in the previous post, this baby was designed to collect rain water which would run down the lovely red and green striped gullies (seen on the outside of the upper part of the house) to be collected at the base (in a tank found just above the living space) thus creating its own water supply. A really clever idea but it had a major flaw - the external water running down the outside of the pot would quickly cool the brewing tea inside. Not good especially when you would obviously need tea during a rain storm. Not many made. Poor show.....

More teapots

This teapot probably dates from around 1790 and is definitely pre-1820 as there are no hallmarks of any sort on the structure (hallmarks were introduced in 1820!). It was most probably manufactured at one of the famous Derby factories and these pots were highly successful due to the spacious accommodation, large tea capacity, along with excellent construction, insulation and durability.
You will notice the large window next to the spout which many people thought was introduced so that the occupants could look through while the tea was being dispensed but of course this is quite incorrect. The window was infact impossible to view through from within as this was the tea compartment! It was intended for viewing from the outside so that the viewer could determine the tea level within the pot - an early example of a level guage in these structures.

Tudor Teapot

This is a very rare teapot - it's rarity is not due to the lack of numbers produced (in fact over 1,000 of these were produced over a three year period) but to it's longevity. They were manufactured in Derby by Hardwrights & Co who were at the peak of production in the 1850's and were considered groundbreaking in their designs. The Tudor Teapot was the first to introduce chimneys (the heat from which helped retain the temperature of the tea and those living within) and, of course, as the name suggests, they were constructed using timber and thus adding to the general insulation. Please note the distictive 'ball and claw' feet.

There was, however, a serious design fault where the timbers would untlimately suffer from wet rot and the handle would fall away from the main building. This would result in the structure crashing to the ground and thus crushing (and usually killing) the occupants. The manufacturers eventuallty ceased manufacturing the product - a very early case of Health & Safety amongst these factories.

Wedding caricatures but not as we know them....

I was recently commissioned by a bride to be to draw a caricature of both the bestman and usher (from photographs) which is not very usual as I normally draw them AT the wedding itself! Anyway, I'd been working on a new technique (for me anyway) where I don't draw any prelimenary pencil lines but put the black ink down straight away and if it works i.e. I think it looks like them, I put the watercolour wash on. The results are below and yes, they only wanted black & white images rather than full colour:


This was the bestman



and this was the usher.....

I've been trawling through the teapot temple images again and I came across this one:


You'll notice that there's been a bit of damage to this teapot between the junction of the spout and the main body which has obviously been very badly repaired. That'll greatly reduce the re-sale value.....

Another teapot

Here's another strange teapot that, with the best will in the world, would be quite impossible to make or build.

More silliness....

I've always liked drawing old buildings and I certainly drink a lot of tea and so it's not so suprising that I come up with an image like this while doodling in a sketchbook.