Change Alley

These were all details from a coloured print based on this painting -

Edward Matthew Ward 'The South Sea Bubble, a Scene in ‘Change Alley' in 1720' -

exhibited 1847

The South Sea Bubble was 'a period of wild financial speculation, when virtually any scheme, which gullible investors thought could make money, was eagerly seized upon. It was followed by a collapse... In choosing this subject, Ward clearly had in mind the 'Railway Mania' of 1844-5, which, like the South Sea Bubble, collapsed with many fortunes lost.'

This is a self portrait by the artist, in which he is painting a portrait of his daughter.

Both the portrait and the 'The South Sea Bubble' paintings show innocence as viewed from experience. The naivety cannot last and so I think he wanted to keep it in his paintings. 

Chinese Magpies at London Zoo

In China the magpie is a symbol of luck.

Here are some lucky magpies on a plum tree.

The Cotton Crisis

In 1861 Manchester used to make 98% of the worlds cotton. 

90% of the people in Manchester worked in the cotton industry. Then the slave trade started to take off and cotton was being sold much cheaper elsewhere. Everyone in Manchester got together at The Free Trade Hall to protest.

They wished to abolish slavery to protect their cotton industry. They expressed support of Abraham Lincoln who also wanted to see an end to slavery. 

This caused a conflict with the Southern States, who provided Manchester with the raw cotton. They stopped selling the raw cotton to Manchester because they had expressed support for Lincoln. 

Then 90% of the people in Manchester had no income. Soup kitchens were set up so that people didn't starve. 

To begin with they wanted to abolish slavery to protect their business, but though the extreme hardships they then directly empathised with the slaves as well. 

Records from 1851 say that 51% of children died before reaching the age of 14. The children would work in the 'dark, satanic mills' and without their parents to protect them they were treated very badly. 

After their hardships many oppressed workers loved the idea of going to America. Some of them made it and when they did they called their towns Manchester. 

They had an extremely difficult time in Manchester but they loved what people had stood for there and wanted to remember their old home. Or maybe they just couldn't think of a new name. 

Anyway 35 new towns called Manchester appeared at this time. 

Pancakes

The family is distracted by the spectacle of pancake flipping. The cat has one paw up on the small table. The table is guarded only by a doll, and the milk and the mix have been placed upon it.

Opportunism is a survival skill!

George Stephenson Teaching

This is George Stephenson -

His first job was working as an assistant fireman to his father. He was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use steam locomotives, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which opened in 1830. The Victorians considered him a great role model of diligent application and thirst for improvement. 

In L'Univers Illustré there is a picture of him -

I found the original on the BBC website. It's called 'George Stephenson Instructing the Daughters of Edward Pease'

The artist is unknown, and they invite people to write back if they know any more. 

The newspaper says that the print is after a painting by Rankley. 

I've started a discussion about it on the art detective site.

Here is a painting that is definitely by Rankey, to compare the styles.

The George Stephenson painting looks different because it is less finished - but I think 

the colours and compositions seem to be by the same artist. There are three figures together, and

one figure sat a distance apart in both the paintings. 

This is a portrait of Edward Pease who is sat apart in the painting, watching Stephenson 

teaching his daughters. 

The Institute of Mechanical Engineers also has other things about Stephenson. This is his ruler which he used to design the railways -

and some other things from his life - 

The year before he died he became the President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

He wanted to spend his last days encouraging and advising young engineers. 

Bathilda

A French play printed in  L'Univers Illustré -

'One especially, Bathilda,
Alas you know she devoured me alive...
Yes, I was ruining dinners in diners
For that creature;
Beautiful girl, my faith!
A maid that nature forgot to give a heart
Forming the gift I was home, not her lover!'

I think it's Alexandre Dumas's adaptation of a play by Auguste Maquet. It's about a woman who is pursued by the man who rapes her. He doesn't want her to be with anyone else. 

Here is Maquet -

Bathilda is a German name meaning bold battle, woman warrior or heroine.

It is also the name of a Saint who became the Queen of France in the seventh century from being a young English girl slave.

It's a very unpopular name, but there is a Bathilda in Harry Potter. She is the fictional author of the History of Magic which the children read at Hogwarts.

Here is the story of Saint Bathilda - www.allmercifulsavior.com/icons/Icons-Batilda.htm

Le Taureau Sauvage (The Wild Bull)

'Hunting with a lasso a wild bull in Mexico'