Anna Pavlova, the Boyd Art Dynasty and Me - Tenuous Family Connections

Jug with Grapes 1915

Around 1900, my maternal grandfather bought four adjacent plots of land in the Melbourne suburb of Murrumbeena - one for his new home, one for a tennis court, one to graize a cow on ... and the last block he sold to potter Merric Boyd (1888-1959), who was known in the early C20 as 'The King of Australian Potters' ...

Merric Boyd in his Pottery at 'Open Country' 1914

'Open Country' - The Boyd Family Home and Pottery at Murrumbeena c1913

... and who was to become the patriarch of an artistic family dynasty - of painters (David, Penleigh and most famously Arthur, among others) and writers, such as Martin Boyd whose four-part series - including 'The Cardboard Crown' (1952) and 'An Outbreak of Love' (1957) - explored cross-cultural issues of the Anglo-Australian experience).

This sale of land lead to a long but tenuous connection for our family with the Boyds.

Merric Boyd's pottery combined the organic natural fluid forms of the Art Nouveau with the hand-made aesthetic of the English Arts and Crafts Movement, all within an Australian idiom and iconography ...

Pot, 1921

Vase with eucalypt, 1925

Pot with windswept branches, 1925

Vase with Apples, 1931

Jug with tree trunk handle, 1926

Form, 1931

Pot with koala, 1932

Lamp, 1931

Teapot, 1947

The joy of this pottery is, in part, its rough-hewn quality - as opposite to the refined finish aimed for in fine porcelain.

Now, the first incident in this Boyd connection that I know of concerned Anna Pavlova - quite a good start for a long-term relationship!

My mother tells of her very great excitement as a child when, in 1929, she and her sisters saw the legendary dancer arriving at the Boyd's house for a portrait sitting - a Wedgwood-like vase frieze ...


Pavlova toured Australia in 1926 and then again in 1929 ...

Anna Pavlova, Sydney, 1929

The next incident - in the early 1930s - occurred when Merric asked my mother to sit for him, producing one of his few earthenware portraits in the round ...


... another, ten years earlier, being that of his son Arthur ...

Portrait of Arthur Boyd aged three, 1923

The Boyds were notoriously eccentric - so there were other (many) more simply observed incidents, including removal of the internal roof supports to create an extra room (with rather predictably disastrous results) and setting much of the back of the property alight with over zealous kiln firing.

In the early 1940's, my mother briefly and unsatisfactorily dated Arthur - certainly another incident!

Arthur Boyd, 1945

The final-ish incident occurred when my parents married and Merric pottered them this beautiful inscribed vase as a wedding present ...


The only Boyd incidents these days ... are seeing their now highly priced art work in auctions catalogues!

My Reluctant Garden

The garden was a bit reluctant to yield up any treasures today - just a couple of bromeliads ...



... which are so FAB, I should be grateful!

My calm and delight were however momentarily spoiled ... when I went into orgies of smugness over the arty light and shadow effects I achieved in the first image!

Oh, alright, it was just a lucky shot!

Curious How Things Come Your Way - Four Antique Embroidered Muslim Jackets

Antique Mindanao Muslim Jacket

Curious how things come your way - like a set of antique Muslim jackets from Mindanao in the Philippines.

A few years back, we weathered a typhoon in the island of Boracay, the Philippines, in a concrete almost bunker-styled Korean restaurant. And to pass the time we'd fallen into conversation with one of the local traditional landowners who'd developed a museum there devoted to antique Filipino artefacts.



Unfortunately in the course of the malstrom the museum was badly damaged. And so over the next days, we helped our new friend clean up. And were seriously taken aback when she insisted, for our troubles, we take the set of four Muslim jackets and various other antique textiles from Northern Luzon.

Antique Mindanao Muslim Jacket 2 - Front

Antique Mindanao Muslim Jacket 2 - Obverse


Antique Mindanao Muslim Jacket 2 - Detail


Antique Mindanao Muslim Jacket 2 - Detail

Antique Mindanao Muslim Jacket 3 - Front

Antique Mindanao Muslim Jacket 3 - Obverse

Antique Mindanao Muslim Jacket 4 - Front

Antique Mindanao Muslim Jacket 4 - Obverse

The connections with other Muslim cultures in South East Asia is obvious, such as in the following examples from the Hmong Meo hilltribe of Chiang Mai in Thailand ...




Several weeks after returning to Australia, and equally extraordinarily, a book arrived on our doorstep - 'Sinaunang Habi - Philippine Ancestral Weave', sent by our friend to contextualise her amazing gift.

Most interestingly then, the book showed how antique clothing was worn - we could see our jackets modelled for both men and women ...

Lembaning Lake Sebu South Cotabato T'boli

Mandaya Highlands Davao Oriental Mandaya

Savoy Matanao Davao del Sur B'laan

Dungan Pekong Matanao Davao del Sur B'laan

Various Regions

The book was so seductively beautiful I posted on it pretty much immediately - 'Tribal Beauty - Philippine Cultural Identity in Traditional Woven Clothing'.

So guys, what sorts of things have unexpectedly shored up your way?

Obviously, this has potential for a caring and sharing moment/s!

Pleasuring the Senses in Summer - A Detour to Tivoli

In 2003, we were in Spain for some months and, deciding to take a break in the middle, headed off to Italy - I suspect for some kind of nostalgic reasons related to travels past.

Being the height of summer and baking in Rome, it seemed natural to day trip to the watery pleasure gardens of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli.



After meditating for some time beside this copy of Artemis of Ephesus ...


... I found myself in a severely thematic mood ...







... which was only interrupted by the hourly grand water works display ...



Wandering back into town from the villa later in the day, our senses were again assailed - this time by the annual floral roadway displays, the significance of which I've totally forgetten ...



Having being so rudely distracted from my earlier thematic snapping, I decided to take up another long time favorite - entrances and doorways ...


... and the addiction lingered over into the next day in Rome ...


I now realise I've long been deluded thinking my most powerful organ was between my ears ... and fully understand I work much much better on a sensory level.

Surprise surprise, you say!!!