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The deckchair made of high-quality oak and features a five-pointed star - the logo of the White Star Line – on its headrest. The chair is identical to those which would have been aboard the ill-fated liner the Titanic THE White Star Line was one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world in the late Victorian to early Edwardian period, priding itself on providing comfortable passages for every passenger, whether first, second or third-class. The deckchair pictured above was gifted to Captain Walter Parker, captain of the RMS Olympic, on his retirement in the late 1920s. It’s made of high-quality oak and features a five-pointed star - the logo of the White Star Line – on its headrest and would have been available for hire by the ship’s passengers.
THIS bronze token is one of more than 3,000 objects in the Worcester City Numismatic collection which includes coins, banknotes, and medals. Made in Birmingham in around 1795, it bears the powerful image of an enslaved African man, bound in chains and pleading with the reader: ‘Am I not a man and a brother?’ When this token was made, Britain was a leading power in the transatlantic slave trade, transporting more than 32,000 enslaved people to America and the Caribbean each year. This horrific trade was deeply controversial and by the late18th century thousands of people across Britain were campaigning for its abolition.
By Museums Worcestershire
Keisai Eisen did a number of landscape prints but the bulk of his output consists ofbijin-ga and shunga (erotic prints) THIS woodblock print is a portrait of a high-ranking courtesan, parading in front of a flowering peony in an extravagant kimono. It is one of a series of three prints by a prolific and notorious artist Keisai Eisen (1790 – 1848) and one of the most decorative of the Japanese prints in the Museum collection. Eisen was a larger-than-life character among Japanese ukiyo-e artists – ukiyo-e prints represented every-day and leisure activities of common people. The son of a calligrapher, he did a number of landscape prints but the bulk of his output consists ofbijin-ga and shunga (erotic prints) reflecting the decadent life of the yoshiwara – the pleasure quarter of the city which he knew extremely well.
In December, we introduced this English School oil painting on panel belonging to one of the earliest and most cohesive collections within the City Art Gallery & Museum’s fine art store, featuring portraits of many historical characters including Henry VIII and Erasmus. One of 26 artworks donated to the Worcester Natural Society in 1850 by Reverend George Downing Bowles, the subject of this work is thought to be Mary Queen of Scots. For decades, the portrait has been obscured from full view, covered in facing paper designed to protect the image. However, funding from the Leche Trust enabled long-awaited conservation work to take place over the last few months, revealing the portrait in all its glory. After removing the facing paper our conservator was able to painstakingly remove the layer of varnish on the surface, a process which helps to show the paint