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Westminster Palace: Analysis of the 1844 Trial of Strafford Painting (Part 1)

My apologies if I seemed to have gone “offline” for a few weeks. It’s taken quite a bit of sorting to be sure nothing got lost from the trip to the UK. I also took time for a badly needed camping and mountain biking trip to Moab (which in turn cost me a bit more time to heal from a crash I had on one of those truly fabulous trails)!

I’ve been keen to share the presentation I gave at Westminster, but struggled mightily to get it into a single article. Having failed that, this will be the first of three in which I will take you through the analysis I shared with the Office of the Curator of the Parliamentary Art Collection last month. This analysis regards the “Trial of Strafford” painting that hangs in the House of Lords side of the parliamentary complex at Westminster, London. Continue reading “Westminster Palace: Analysis of the 1844 Trial of Strafford Painting (Part 1)”

Breakthrough – The Chance Discovery of a Photograph of the Lost Portrait of Sir Richard Lane!

I have searched for the Lost Portrait of Sir Richard Lane(or any image of it) for three years – with no luck. That just changed!

Imagine spending three years researching someone you’ve never seen an image of. We humans are a visual tribe. The mind will fill a visual void with a “placeholder” concept of who you picture that person to be. What would it be like to one day finally discover what they really looked like? Would their real appearance affect your understanding of who they were? Did you expect the person to be handsome or homely? Tall or short? Imposing or bookish? Proud or humble? Had I expected Sir Richard Lane be portly, like his predecessor, Lord Keeper Littleton? Or perhaps gaunt? Would his hair be fair, thin and curly, or perhaps thick, straight and black? It seems a human truth that we never seem to feel a tangible sense of someone until we have the chance to “look them in the eye”…

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Homecoming of the Quest for the Lost Lord Keeper

I just love a dramatic breakthrough. And a month before my recent trip to the UK, the Quest for the Lost Lord Keeper had a couple of them – so it seemed high time to throw a “coming out” party for the Quest!

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One of the Most Interesting Days of my Life….

There are days you will remember always. This was one of them!

Yesterday was quite a day. You’d have heard about it last night, but I was simply too tired to do anything but have a glass of wine, savor a bit of chocolate and wonder at the day I’d just had. Just because you put a lot of work into something doesn’t mean it’s going to lead somewhere interesting. Nor does it mean that it will be well received, let alone be referred to as “scholarly”…

Continue reading “One of the Most Interesting Days of my Life….”

“Da Vinci Code” Style Forensics: Symbols and Secrets Lurking Within the Pages of an Ancient Law Book (Part II)

I was surprised when the staff at the Middle Temple Archives office introduced me to the obscure craft of papermaking, and the hidden signatures that lie within the pages of old books…

In Part I of this article, we discussed the forensics of book structure, paper types and how to spot various restoration and repair techniques when authenticating an ancient book. In this article, we step into the world within the paper itself, identifying the craftsman’s watermarks in the pages of my copy of Lane’s Reports, and attempting to “fingerprint” the sheets within that book to the specific screen mould each sheet was produced from. I believe it possible to extend this analysis to “reverse engineer” the original screen moulds used to make each sheet of paper within my book… Continue reading ““Da Vinci Code” Style Forensics: Symbols and Secrets Lurking Within the Pages of an Ancient Law Book (Part II)”

“Da Vinci Code” Style Forensics: Symbols and Secrets Lurking Within the Pages of an Ancient Law Book (Part I)

I was surprised when the staff at the Middle Temple Archives office introduced me to the obscure craft of papermaking, and the hidden signatures that lie within the pages of old books…

The invention of the printing press in the middle 1400’s may have “unlocked the door” to the information age, but it was decidedly NOT flung open. It required the long, slow process of building the components of the publishing industry and markets to pry that lumbering retardment from its casings! Continue reading ““Da Vinci Code” Style Forensics: Symbols and Secrets Lurking Within the Pages of an Ancient Law Book (Part I)”

Breaking News! I Have Proven the True Identity of King Charles II’s Groom Named “Richard Lane”!

In the first article on the career of Richard Lane’s son, we led up to King Charles II’s invasion of England to restore his throne, and how his new Groom, Richard Lane (the younger), likely joined him in Scotland around the time of his coronation there in January 1651. Of course, the throne the young king really had his eye on was that of England. And the Scottish army now under his command was his means to that end…

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The Dramatic Life of Sir Richard Lane’s Eldest (and Only Surviving) Son

Sir Richard Lane had a large family – 12 children. But as I am discovering, many children did not survive to adulthood in the early 1600’s. Although he had 4 sons in total (Richard, Parvulus, Bryan and one unnamed) only one – Richard – lived beyond his first year. What I have found out about Richard Lane the younger tells a dramatic story, but one that may explain some of the historical obscurity of his father, Sir Richard Lane. I recently discovered the will of Richard Lane the younger, and it appears he was the last in his line to carry his father’s name…

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Jean Chevalier’s Diary – An Amazing (and largely unknown) Historical Document!

Have you ever spent a moment thinking about the word “journalist”? Because of modern media, we think of a journalist as someone who reports on news for the public media. But in mid 1600s, a local Jersey man named Jean Chevalier was a journalist in the most basic sense of the word – he began a diary, capturing events in Jersey during the Period of the English revolution – starting in 1643 and continuing until parliamentary forces finally captured the island in 1651. What is so remarkable about this journal is the level of penetrating detail it captured about people and events on the island – providing singular and often quite personal insights into day-to-day and historically significant events alike. I’ve never seen anything like it…

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A discovery! The UK Parliament’s circa 1844 painting “The Trial of Strafford”…

The grounds of history around Sir Richard Lane are simply full of rabbit holes! While doing some research into the 1641 Trial of the Earl of Strafford – an event that included the day the historical biographer Lord John Campbell called “the most memorable day in the life of Richard Lane” – I came across a wonderful painting of that trial in the UK parliament’s art collection. What makes it so wonderful is that the painter had endeavored to accurately portray all of the primary actors in the drama of that trial…

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