If you are planning ahead for a visit to London, you might want to dust down your Cockney Rhyming slang. We sometimes say that someone was never one to call a spade a shovel, and Cockneys are not ones to call boots - boots, they are called Daisy Roots. Stairs are Apples and Pears. Would you Adam and Eve it? translates to Would you believe it? We know that some sources of inspiration for motifs on samplers came from early printed herbals and from engraved pictures, and it is also useful to cast your eye over ceramic designs when you are next in a museum or bookshop. These would have been novel and visually interesting ready reference pieces in family or friend's homes. Here is an Adam and Eve on Bristol Delft pottery dated around 1700, about the same time that Adam and Eve were finding their way onto samplers.
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Would you Adam and Eve it?
If you are planning ahead for a visit to London, you might want to dust down your Cockney Rhyming slang. We sometimes say that someone was never one to call a spade a shovel, and Cockneys are not ones to call boots - boots, they are called Daisy Roots. Stairs are Apples and Pears. Would you Adam and Eve it? translates to Would you believe it? We know that some sources of inspiration for motifs on samplers came from early printed herbals and from engraved pictures, and it is also useful to cast your eye over ceramic designs when you are next in a museum or bookshop. These would have been novel and visually interesting ready reference pieces in family or friend's homes. Here is an Adam and Eve on Bristol Delft pottery dated around 1700, about the same time that Adam and Eve were finding their way onto samplers.
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Wow! That is a lovely plate! All the history you provide makes me appreciate samplers and their designers all the more!
ReplyDeleteHow funny... but now, how can I translate it in french? Any idea?
ReplyDeleteBottles and stoppers - coppers! Cary Grant ca. 1942
ReplyDelete