NHM: Terracotta Herons

Back blip.
Look in large ("L") to see the dust problem in the museum!

This was a wonderful but very long day! After work I went to the 2013 Roy Porter Lecture (The Rise and Fall of the French Smile) at the Wellcome Collection with a friend. I found it quite a bizarre topic, but it was a fascinating and brilliant lecture, and it was amazing that the speaker (Professor Colin Jones) managed to tie together both the historical and medical context of a social (and dental) revolution.

It was a grey day which made photography in the museum a bit more of a challenge, but I've finally been able to take this picture now that I can increase my camera's sensitivity without introducing stars (hot pixels...)! I can't believe that I can now take usable photos at ISO1400.

This is one of the many terracotta details designed by the museum's architect Alfred Waterhouse: this one shows two herons, one of which holds a lizard in its beak. I find this particular panel very appealing, but it is in a very dark corner of the first floor of the museum, and most of its light comes from a display below it (to the right of where I was standing)... I've blipped another one of these round panels before (here). The museum features many of these terracotta ornaments (of various designs, shapes, and sizes) which are all based on sketches by Waterhouse himself. His attention to detail was amazing, but to ensure scientific accuracy he had all of his sketches checked by relevant experts before they were turned into these three-dimensional ornaments by Monsieur Dujardin and a team of sculptors. Here is the sketch for this ornament.

p.s. Last year's picture (bottom right) was of a somewhat feathery gosling "barking" at a daisy: supercute!