A-Z Challenge 2017 - Houses, some real, some not. - 'E'

E - Englefield House

An AD 871 battle between Saxons and Danes on what was to be called the "Englishman's battle field" or the "field of angels" is possibly the origin of the name of Englefield.

The Englefield family were lords of the manor from as early as the 9th century.

However it was via a John Constable painting that I first heard of Englefield House.

Constable's Englefield House© V & A Museum

The Berkshire mansion, with 18th and 19th century modelling is built loosely on the Elizabethan E-plan.

Sir Francis Englefield, the last of the Englefield family to live here, was prosecuted by Queen Elizabeth 1 for his Catholic sympathies. The house was seized by the crown in 1585.

Elizabeth gave the house to her favoured Earl of Essex. He later fell from grace and was executed for treason.

In 1635 the house was purchased by John Paulet, the 5th Marquis of Winchester. Paulet had married the daughter of Walsingham, Elizabeth's spymaster.

Englefield House became the main residence of the Paulets after their Basingstoke palace burnt down, It has remained in the ownership of the descendants of them ever since.

Englefield House - 16 April 2010
(ex geograph.org.uk - by Richard Croft - CC BY-SA 2.0)

Art on Sunday Stamps

I joined Sunday Stamps hosted by Viridian in the second week it ran and have participated since up to this, its 200th edition. As Viridian is handing over the baton after this week to Violet Sky I must pay tribute to Viridian for all the hard work she has put in for us to reach that 200 milestone.

Over the weeks there have been many stamps depicting art of various forms, but I am returning to British paintings on stamps issued on 12 August 1968. I have shown two of these before but have since acquired the full set of four.

Great Britain - British Paintings

The paintings are:

• 4d Queen Elizabeth I - unknown artist
• 1s6d Ruins of St Mary Le Port - John Piper
• 1s Pinkie - Thomas Lawrence
• 1s6d The Hay Wain - John Constable

The 'Darnley Portrait' of Elizabeth I hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.Painted about 1575 it was named after a previous owner and shows the Queen with a crown and sceptre on the table beside her. The portrait is the source of the face pattern 'The Mask of Youth' used for portraits of Elizabeth for years to come.

John Piper was commissioned as a war artist during WWII to paint the 'Home Front.' His series of paintings of bombed buildings included the Bristol church of St Mary le Port which had been hit in attacks on Bristol Docks in November 1940

Pinkie, painted in 1794 by Thomas Lawrence hangs in the Huntington Library at San Marino, California. The museum has given it the title of Sarah Barrett Moulton, Pinkie. Sarah was about eleven years old when she posed for the artist.

Constable's Hay Wain finished in 1821 is one of the greatest and most popular English paintings. It show the wagon in the River Stour between the counties of Suffolk and Essex - the left bank is in Suffolk, the right in Essex.

For links to other art, cross over to Sunday-stamps-200.

British Art on Sunday Stamps

The earliest stamp in my collection is one of a set of three British Paintings issued on 10th July 1967.

Red Boy - Sir Thomas Lawrence

This painting is often paired with Gainsborough's famous Blue Boy. The Red Boy, actual title 'Master Lambton', is a portrait of the eldest son of Lord Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham.

The next two stamps are from a set of four on British Paintings issued on 12th August 1968.

Elizabeth I - Unknown artist

The Hay Wain - Constable

Interestingly this stamp is first example of a dog on a British stamp. You need very good eyes to see it on here. The oil painting (copy) on my lounge wall shows it clearly. [I'll put up a photo for you to see later]. The dog is in the middle foreground on the edge of the water.

My next stamp is one of a set of four issued on 19th February 1975 to commemorate the bicentenary of J M W Turner's birth.

Peace - Burial at Sea; JMW Turner

Finally I found this first day cover at the stamp stall in the local market for 50p.

Artists - 24 Sir Henry Moore; 28 Edward Bawden; 

33 Stanley Spencer; 39 Ben Nicholson

You can visit other artistic interpretations at Viridian's Sunday Stamps 46