Author: srishti saha

So, you have  an English-themed party  in two days and you go buy one of the best outfits from a designer-clothes brand outlet. And with that you now have to plan and match your accessories. With jewelry, shoes and a bag in place, you feel good enough to go. We all know how important accessories are to accentuate or complete a look. They not only enhance physical appearance, they are also symbolic of ones’ confidence, character and mood.

The significance of accessories is also extended to cultural and social aspects. In the following article, we shall get to know one such accessory.  You must have seen entertainment artists like actors, singers and dancers donning this piece of adornment in a large number of movies and music videos. What today adorns the heads of modern fashion lovers , was once a daily wear for the Orthodox Jews. The Fedora hat along with a smaller variant of the same style, called the Trilby are supposedly two of the most famous hats for men. These never went out of fashion and have been called timeless by people who love hats.

One can easily recognize a fedora as a felt hat with a wide brim and an indented or a pinched crown. Both Trilby and Fedora were originally made of beaver or rabbit felt. They can be found in both stiff and softer varieties. A fedora which is more popular among the masses is just a little different from the Trilby in the way it looks. It generally is also bounded by a hat band or a trim-ribbon around the rim of the crown. The fedora crown has its brim turned down in the front and is snapped up at the back , giving it a characteristic appearance and thus making it popular among all men.

The gutter dent or the crease running lengthwise through the crown and the side-dents give it a particular pinched appearance. Fedoras can also be creased with teardrop crease which gives the appearance of a teardrop from the top, or a diamond shaped crown, centre dents and many others. Although the positions of the pinches can also vary, the basic appearance stays the same. A typical fedora crown is upto 4.5 inches in height while the brim spans up to 6.4 centimeters or 2.5 inches wide. The brim may also be wider as per the rquirement. While the crease is a characteristic feature of the fedoras, some of them might also lack the crease and are called the ‘bucket fedoras’. Though fedoras can be found in a variety of colours and prints, but black, grey, dark brown and fawn are the most common colours. A Trilby looks very similar to a Fedora except for the fact that it has a shorter brim and also a slightly tighter upturn at the back.

The first time some one sported a fedora hat was in the year 1882 as a female accessory on the production of a stage play in Paris. It was a first production of the play titled ‘Fedora’ by the author Victorian Sardou. The actress Sarah Bernhardt who portrayed the role of Princess Fedora wore a hat with a wide brim and a pinched crown with an indented center. This was named after her character and has been popular ever since as the fedora hat. After Sarah Bernhardt wore the hat for her play, it became a popular fashion statement for women especially for women-rights activists. Besides them, the fedora hat found its’ many fans among newspaper reporters, Chicago gangsters, and tough guys in the movies. Rather, it became a basic accessory with a suit of clothes.

Any man who would wear a suit of clothes would top it off with a fedora. In 1924, Prince Edward of Britain started wearing fedoras on public appearances and social gatherings. Soon after this, fedora became a significant part of fashion for men and went on to replace caps, bowlers’ hats or even top hats. The classic black fedora was also worn traditionally by Orthodox Jews in the first few decades of the 20th century. They adopted the fedora as a part of their daily wear and a few of them still wear one. Though many cultures reportedly incorporated the fedora in their costumes significantly, the classic fedora was invented in the year 1891. On the other hand, what is known to be its’ younger brother, the Trilby was invented in the year 1894.

A fedora was typically worn in urban areas by men to protect them from the bad weather. It also has an aesthetic appeal that added to the many purposes of the hat. The structure of the hat makes it fashionable and hence lends to its’ popularity. Besides the appearance, they are also practical. The practicality lies in the fact that it has a relatively shorter brim that the other hats and hence they did not obstruct the view while driving a car. Since they are not so big, they could easily be worn on social outings and in public transports without any hassles. they could also be easily folded and stored or carried around without distorting the shape or  posing any  such problems. Besides utility, cultural and social importance, these hats have also made a significant place for themselves in the fashion industry and have been an important part of popular culture.

The media has played an important role in keeping the fedoras’ popularity intact even if it dipped at times. Hollywood actors and actresses like Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, football coaches such as Paul Bear Bryant, musicians like Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake and even writers of the sorts Terry Pratchett have all sported this statement of fashion and have contributed to keeping it in fashion.

Thus we see, the Fedora has a significant place in the glamour and fashion sector. It has always been noticed since it was invented. Even if it lost its’ popularity in the late 1950s owing to the fact that it was relatively a formal piece of clothing and people favoured informal clothing styles then, the significance was restored as and when important figures belonging to different fields wore it publicly. People have accepted the Fedora and all its variants in all the dimensions that it has to offer.

Antiquities or antiques are ancient collectable items that are valued for their historical importance. The age, beauty, utility, cultural importance, sentimental connection or any other unique feature attached to an item makes it desirable. Any antique is a reflection of the socio-cultural standing of a previous era or a time period in the human civilization. Most collectables of this class possess a certain degree of design or craftsmanship. Some of these antiques were in use till a little time ago and then with the decrease in their popularity and usage over the years, they were deemed to be called the tokens from the past.

This article focuses on a few such articles that our generation has seen but never realized how important they once had been.

The Postcard

Not so long ago, when my Dad had gone to Germany, he called me up to ask what I want from there. Not so sure of what I really did want, I asked him to get anything he feels like. He returned with a bunch of these colourful paper rectangles with a blank other side to be written on. The world knows them better as the postcards.

These small souvenirs brimming with culture, colour and a characteristic story behind them are a staple form of communication from the past and a visual treat to both the sender and the receiver. Besides the message written inside it, the gesture of choosing an appropriate postcard and having it sent to that particular person is enough to bring about a smile to his/her face. A tourists’ souvenir-collection would not be complete without some gorgeous postcards from the place he has struck off his bucket-list. This memento might be a little lacking as per modern aesthetic standards, but these single image cards were once every hobbyists’ treasures.

The first postcard ever was a printed image which was sent via mail and was received in Hungary in 1869. United States’ first postcard appeared in the year 1873. It depicted the main building of the Inter-State Industrial Exposition in Chicago. Paris also saw the postcard-culture when cards with images of the Eiffel Tower were printed in the year 1889. In the Great Britain the very first advertising cards were printed in 1872.

There were a variety of postcards that were once widely used. From a variety of ‘view’ cards with images of famous architectural sites and landmarks, to other ‘art’, ‘fashion’ and ‘historical’ cards; one can find them all.

Societies all over the world had taken to this mode of communication where there is no need of an envelope or stamps. From army personnel to young pen-pals, everyone has used these beautiful cards for communicating with their loved ones.

The Hourglass

Call it the hourglass, sand timer, sand clock or the sand glass; this tool is the oldest device known to mankind for measuring time. These days, hourglasses are used mostly for ornamental purposes or for domestic and kitchen applications like board games or boiling an egg.

An hourglass can measure time varying from a few minutes to even a number of hours depending on a number of factors. The mechanism behind its operation is the flow of sand or any similar granulated substance through an orifice connection two bulbs. The two vertical glass bulbs are connected to allow a regulated trickle of the granulated material from the top to bottom. Once the top bulb is completely empty, the hourglass can be inverted for the next cycle. The factors that determine the time that can be measured are the amount of sand or the granulated substance, the size of the bulbs, the width of the neck/passage or the orifice and the quality of the material that has been put inside the bulbs.

The place of origin of the sand-glass is not very clear; though it is said it might have been invented by the ancient Egyptian civilization. The American Institute of New York claims that it was invited in about 150BC, at Alexandria. There was a phase when the hourglass disappeared till it became a popular culture again in the medieval European civilization. It was in the 14^th century when the sand-glass became a common house-hold item. It was used on land as well as in the sea. Churches and other institutions used them widely to keep track of the time. It was also used by sailors to record time as mechanical clocks were not easily available back then.

Soon after 1500AD the hourglass lost its utility and charm due to the development of cheap mechanical clock technology. The oldest sand-glass that is known to survive is at the British Museum in London.

 The Gramophone

Invented in the year 1887 by Emile Berliner, a German by nativity who was then working in Washington D.C., the gramophone is one of the choicest possessions for many, be it curators or music enthusiasts. Earlier attempts like the one by Thomas Alva Edison, which was called the ‘phonograph’ could record sounds from cylinders but could not reproduce human voice and each recording played only once. There were certain other attempts that were made after Edison, for instance the ‘graphophone’ by Graham Bell.  Here wax cylinders were used and although these could be played repeatedly, they had to be recorded separately, making mass production of records difficult.

Berliner was successful in inventing a convenient system for sound recording. Another advantage was that she employed flat disks instead of cylinders thus bringing in the portability factor.

The concept of recording sound by fixing a needle to a membrane resonating in symphony dates back to early 19^th century. Gramophones formed an important part of human culture. They were a part of huge operas and were even housed in many institutions like offices. The avant-garde reigned the industry till more efficient digital storage technologies came up. It is sad that now the only place we can easily spot one of these is either the antiques-shop or the museums.

Though the article ends here, there is a huge list of such forgotten objects of beauty that were once a common commodity. We sure have better and more efficient alternatives for all of them; but there is a charm about these that shall never be lost. And as they say: “Old is Gold”, these vintage tokens are definitely more precious than we think they are.

High ceilings, minimalist yet statement furniture and rows of bounded paper from various eras screaming wisdom! Doesn’t a library stimulate your mind so much that you could stay there for days altogether reading as many books as you might? What Wikipedia defines as ‘an organized collection of sources of information and similar resources, made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing’ is actually a gateway to knowledge and culture.

Libraries have witnessed human civilizations grow culturally, technologically and intellectually. Right through the Renaissance, Industrialization and ages of intellectual evolution, libraries have witnessed it all and hold scores of written and visual records of the series of events that have occurred in these processes. Libraries not only boast of utmost cultural significance but also have answers to most questions of human existence. They also have the best accounts on most technological, economic, political and cultural subjects. From some great autobiographies to some great technical research papers, libraries house it all under one roof.

Libraries are synonymous with learning opportunities and they can fuel the holistic development of an individual or societies alike to a great extent. Aphra Behn once said, “That perfect tranquility of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a faithful friend and a good library.” A good library is like the oasis with refreshing greenery and sparkling water amidst a vast stretch of the desert of ignorance and mundane civilization.

Some of the worlds’ greatest libraries are listed below. The description of the grandeur of these magnificent structures is beyond the capability of words; yet this is a brave attempt to succinctly chronicle these splendid structures.

1.)    Wiblingen Monastery Library, Germany

The library modeled in the Baroque style has a charm of its own. It was completed in 1744. Just outside the library it is inscribed “In quo omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae,” which directly translates to “In which are stored all treasures of knowledge and science.” The interesting thing about this library is that most of the elements that appear to be marble such as the pillars are actually painted wood.

2.)    Clementinum National Library, Czech republic

This National Library comprises of a series of buildings that owe their design and conception to an 11th century chapel dedicated to Saint Clement thus lending it its’ name. The Clementinum National Library was founded in 1781. Constructed in a Baroque style, the library has served as a copyright library since the year 1782. The collection housed in the magnificent walls now includes historical examples of the mesmerizing Czech literature, special materials relating to Tycho Brahe, along with a unique collection of Mozart’s personal effects.

3.)    Virgilio Barco Library, Colombia

This one boasts of a modern architecture along with a labyrinth of books on a multitude of  subjects. Designed by the famed architect Rogelio Salmona, it was completed in 2001. It features red brick walls, blue water pools and green lawns that adds to its architectural splendor. This creative design looks like a maze of colors.

4.)    Library of Parliament, Canada

The Library of Parliament in Canada has been called the ‘most beautiful room in Canada’. It was once a part of the city’s original Parliamentary headquarters that was constructed in the late 19^th century. The building had been under construction for around a decade before it was finally revealed that the builders engaged could not create a domed roof as shown in the plans. The Tomas Fairbairn Engineering Company of England was then commissioned to create a pre-fabricated dome to solve the issue. Hence, the building had the vivid distinction of being the first building in North America to possess a wrought iron roof. The unique Gothic building is so fabled that it even features on the Canadian ten-dollar bill.

5.)    Jay Walker’s Private Library, USA

This gorgeous wooden library is filled with an array of historical and pop culture artifacts and has been called ‘the most amazing library in the world.’ The gorgeous etched glass, the labyrinthine design and the many stories of book shelves lend it an impressive characteristic. As if this was not enough, the collection of rarities housed in this gorgeous library is completely magical. With books bound in rubies, a Sputnik, a chandelier from ‘Die Another Day’, and a list of plague mortalities from 1665, this place attracts scores of tourists on a regular basis.

6.)    Palafoxiana Library , Mexico

This Puebla library was established in 1646. It was the first public library in Mexico. Some even claim that it was the first library established in the Americas. Its’ name is now mentioned in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register and is definitely one of the biggest collection of texts with its 41,000 books and manuscripts including an array of rare and antique titles.

7.)    Raza Library, India

The Rampur Raza Library is located in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India. The library was established in the year 1904. It is a repository of Indo-Islamic cultural heritage and a treasure-house of knowledge established in the late 18th century. It was built by successive Nawabs of Rampur and is now managed by the Government of India. Rampur’s Raza Library also boasts of printed works in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Pashto (having the original manuscript of the first translation of the Qur’an in addition to other important books/documents), Tamil and Turkish, and approximately 30,000 printed books in a plethora of indigenous and international languages.

8.)    The Tianyi Pavilion Library, China

Boasting of the majestic traditional Chinese architecture, you need to visit the Tianyi Pavilion Library located in the Ningbo City. It is the oldest private library in Asia. Built in 1560, it is the third oldest private library in the world. It is a proud abode to a collection of 300,000 ancient books, including a number of woodcut and handwritten titles.

9.)    The state library of New South Wales, Australia

It is the oldest library in all of Australia, and was started as the Australian Subscription Library in 1826. The current building was built in 1845. The most popular and beautiful part of the library is the Mitchell Wing, construction of which was completed in 1910. This wing was named after David Scott Mitchell who had a collection of old books like the original journals of James Cook. The library now contains over 5 million items, including 2 million books and 1.1 million photographs.

10.) Trinity college Library, Ireland

This library is absolutely gorgeous with two story dark wooden arches. It is also the largest library in Ireland. It serves as the nations’ copyright library, where a copy of all new books and periodicals should be sent when being applied for copyright protection. The library is also home to the famous Book of Kells.

11.) Abbey Library of St. Gallen, Switzerland

The Abbey Library of St. Gallen is not only the oldest in Switzerland, but also one of the oldest and most important monastery libraries in the world. It boasts of a holding of over 160,000 volumes many of which date back as far as the 8th century. The Rococo-styled library is considered to be one of the most perfect libraries in the world and has earned the Abbey recognition as a World Heritage Site.

12.) The Library of the San Francisco Monastery, Peru

This library built in Lima’s San Francisco Monastery is one of most ancient and most gorgeous in the continent. The majestic convent was built in 1672, with renovations and improvements continuing up until 1729. The 25,000 volumes housed here are extremely rare, registering a massive variety of knowledge ranging from the 15^th to the 18^th centuries.

Most of you must have heard of charcoal being used in the mud-stoves in villages for cooking and heating purposes. Many of us relish the grand barbeques that employ chunks of burning charcoal for that distinct flavor. Charcoal obtained from various timbers are used as industrial, domestic and metallurgical fuels of various grades all across the world. Activated charcoal is also used as a purifier or filter as it has properties of absorbing impurities from the atmosphere. Besides these areas of utility, charcoal is also used in art widely. It can produce gorgeous looking pieces of art with just the monochrome it is!

As a part of the Publicity and Printing team of my college, we had to come up with interesting ideas to put up attractive paintings, posters and 3D art pieces around the campus to promote the festive mood and adorn the campus. I took up charcoal as my tool and decided to come up with some decent ideas to attract the attention of the passers-by. This intrigued me to research upon this interesting yet not-so-conventional art medium.

Charcoal art dates back to 15000 BC or even earlier when the walls of caves of human dwellings were mans’ only canvas. The popular cave drawings of a mammoth of Lascaux in France, for instance proves the use of charcoal as a tool for drawing. These pictures would have been made from charred sticks taken from a fire rather than intentionally created charcoal. The paintings were found to be well preserved when the caves were first discovered. After being opened to the public in the last 1940s, the presence of the large number of visitors started interfering with the delicate environment of the ancient caves and hence, the paintings started to deteriorate. The replicas of the caves were constructed after the original caves were closed to the public in the year 1963.

Since then many cultures, civilizations and artists have given importance to charcoal as a drawing instrument. Indigenous people from all continents including Australia and Africa have used charcoal for body painting as a part of many traditions and rites of passage like child birth, weddings, wars, hunting, spiritual rites and even funerary rituals. One of the oldest charcoal paintings date back to 23,000 BC. It is the picture of a zebra found at the Apollo cave in Namibia.

Charcoal was largely used for drawing during the Renaissance period for creating initial drawings for a panel or fresco mural drawings. Only a few of these survived as charcoal marks on paper are relatively ephemeral. As more advanced trends in art came up in the later 15^th century, drawings were now fixed by being immersed in baths of gum! Hence, these pieces of art which were earlier taken to be preparatory frameworks were now considered more seriously and were taken to be finished pieces of art.

Powdered charcoal is the most basic form of charcoal used. Though it can be very messy, but it allows artists to give definition and tone up large areas of a surface. It is an ingredient in compressed charcoal which is also used for drawing. Powdered charcoal held together with gum or wax gives compressed charcoal a range of softness based on the proportions of the powder and the binder. Compressed charcoal is however harder than willow or vine and hence it can retain its shape. Moreover, compressed charcoal is more break-resistant and lends a deeper black colour. It can also be sharpened for intricate detailing. This makes it suitable for drawing fine lines, textures and details neatly.

Willow and vine charcoal are made from grape vine and willow branches which are burnt to a precise degree of hardness. Since it does not contain any binding agent, it can be erased easily and are soft and powdery. It is less suitable for rendering fine crisp images though it can be used for sketching out composition on a canvas before a painting is done.

Since charcoal tends to smudge on any surface, it becomes mandatory to preserve the work with a fixative, irrespective of the type or amount of charcoal used. However, using a fixative does not make the charcoal drawings completely smudge-proof. They still need glassine sheets or need to be framed under glass to protect themselves completely.

The techniques used with charcoal also depends on the quality and texture of the surface or canvas used. One of the most important techniques used is hatching. Hatching is defined as an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing or painting or scribing closely spaced parallel lines, often rapidly. It is used to create the illusion of shade or texture in a drawing. Rubbing is another technique used with charcoal where in gradient is an important feature. Erasing charcoal is used often to lend a lighter shade or define some features. A charcoal artist is capable of creating a variety of levels of gradation by simply adjusting the pressure on the tool, and by turning or rotating the instrument. He or she can create a whole new kind of stroke on the surface of a work by changing the direction of strokes. Like many other drawing media, charcoal responds strongly to the grain and texture of the paper it is used on.

Many famous artists like Albrecht Durer, Paulus Potter and various other Italian artists have created famous charcoal paintings that have survived. Charcoal drawings were also created throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and into the 21st. There are many popular examples by such artists, in particular French artists like Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  Also the Germans, namely, Ernst Barlach and Käthe Kollwitz had created mesmerizing art pieces using this simple medium. Most of the famous artists since the Renaissance, from the likes of Rembrandt, Degas, Matisse and Picasso, have also used charcoal in one way or another.

Some of them have used it extensively for studies, some for portraiture, while some for truly notable unique works of art. For example, “Woman Bathing in Shallow Tub” (Charcoal and Pastel Drawing) by Edgar Degas (1885), Portrait of Sergei I Shchukin in Charcoal by Henri Matisse (1912), and Note in Pink and Brown Charcoal by James McNeill Whistler are some noteworthy pieces one should definitely appreciate.