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25 Sept 2020

From the sublime to the ridiculous?

Written by Emma Inglis (Curator South West)
A painted scene with a rugged hillside in the foreground, rising higher on the right, dotted with trees and ochre coloured Italian houses that are lit by the sun. A dusty brown road winds from right to left. Men and women dressed in peasant clothes walk along the road. The hillside gives way in the middle ground to a curved bay filled with blue water and edged on the left hand side by the impression of streets full of light brown houses. In the background is a scene of two, grey, peaked mountains. The one on the right has smoke coming from the top, seen against a light blue sky.
The Gulf of Naples from Posillipo, c1850
Our collections span hundreds of years and cross the globe. To celebrate World Tourism Day on Sunday 27 September, we uncover 300 years of travel and tourism through a selection of treasures and tourist trinkets.
A black metal bowl with a pimpled surface sits on a Chinese style black painted stand with edges highlighted in gold. The stand is of almost equal height to the bowl and has legs that balloon outwards at the top and come closer together at the bottom to join onto a round base. Between the stand and the bowl there is a light brown leather pad. Inside the bowl is a wooden handle. In the centre of the painting is a tall young man with dark brown hair pulled back from his face who is wearing a knee length scarlet coat over a light brown waistcoat and matching knee length breeches. Below the breeches are white stockings and black shoes with gold buckles. The man leans his left arm against a large rectangular stone tomb with a carved front showing figures in draped clothing. A brown and white dog sits at the man's feet looking up at him. To his right is a full length carved figure on a stone plinth. Behind is a sloping hillside with a trees and views to a distant mountain. The lightly curved brown horn of a rhino is mounted on a round black base on which is a label and the words Souvenir from Darfur from Sir R Wingate 1913. A pencil sketch of a small sailing ship with a long narrow body sitting low in rolling waves and pitching slightly towards the viewer. The ship has two masts and three sails. The sail at the back is large, the one in the middle smaller, and the one at the front small and triangular, coming to a point at the front of the ship. A painted scene with a rugged hillside in the foreground, rising higher on the right, dotted with trees and ochre coloured Italian houses that are lit by the sun. A dusty brown road winds from right to left. Men and women dressed in peasant clothes walk along the road. The hillside gives way in the middle ground to a curved bay filled with blue water and edged on the left hand side by the impression of streets full of light brown houses. In the background is a scene of two, grey, peaked mountains. The one on the right has smoke coming from the top, seen against a light blue sky. A black and white photograph of a shop in a stone building fronting onto a street. The doorway is wide open and filled with tourist souvenirs such as basket on a metal stand, painted ceramic plates and pictures. A cat sits in a wide dish looking out. On the outside of the shop the walls and pavement are covered randomly with souvenirs such as plates, jugs with faces shaped on the front, curly iron candle sticks and brass bells. A white china teacup with swirling gold decoration on the outside, gold edge on the handle and gold rim. Inside the cup on one side is a small colour picture of a brown stag with large antlers standing among tall dark green pine trees with snowy mountains behind as if in the far distance. Above the picture are the words Romershausen in gold. A small cauldron made out of light coloured wood. On the side is a picture in black of a small single storey cottage with a thatched roof, set at an angle with a cloudy sky behind and street in front. The windows have shutters and there is a wooden door. Two small groups of people in old fashioned dress are standing in front of the cottage looking at it. Written underneath is Burns Cottage.

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