birds
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The Siblings of Saint Rupert Collection (Occult Artwork Edition) #7
These paintings are clear examples of the Siblings’ heretical nature. Using eastern orthodox symbolism, they appear to mock Jesus and his apostles. We can see deformed birds and animals, insects, goat skulls, people suffering; all symbolic of a wretched world. A world that nobody would ever want to live in. We know from previous collections…
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Victorian Haute Cuisine Collection #2
If you’ve not long been following the Victorian Underground, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’re a foodie account. Rest assured that we definitely aren’t. However, we do believe that one of the lesser explored cultural subjects is restaurants, their chefs, customers, and the food they serve. That’s why we cover the cheap slop houses…
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Birds of Paradise Collection
The Birds of Paradise was a gentlemen’s club of the traditional type based in Newcastle. It became a meeting place for lonely bachelors who came together to curse the world and drown their sorrows. One night a gentleman called Alfred Beach (photograph #10), who was very drunk at the time, began talking about how easy…
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A Murder of Scarecrows Collection #2
This is the second and final scarecrow collection for a while. Photograph #9 depicts one of the biggest working farms of the Victorian era. At the very peak of the bird epidemic, Melrose Farms employed forty people to trudge through wintery fields while dressed as scarecrows. On average, working in the scarecrow trade for Melrose…
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Quoth the Raven “Nevermore”
We know that Edgar Allan Poe spent several of his formative years in London. Some scholars also believe that Poe set many of his stories in the capital and had returned there over the years to rekindle childhood memories. As can be seen in photographs #1 and #2, it is believed that he would spend…
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Cosmetic Surgery in the Victorian Era Collection #2
We want to return to the cosmetic surgeons of the Victorian era. Photograph #4 is of Malcolm O’shea who was a butcher from Halifax. In his spare time, and to make ends meet, he was also a butcher of a very different kind. On the surface, the room he’s standing in looks like a normal…
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The Big Smoke Collection #1
As the Industrial Revolution steamrolled ahead, London’s microclimate became increasingly unbearable for the couple of million people living there. The year 1876 was particularly gruelling. From a sanitary viewpoint, civilisation was still wearing nappies. The sewerage system was minimal, the streets were littered with rotten vegetables alongside dead animals and birds, and people’s waste could…
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The Bromley Society of Animal Lovers Collection #2
Today’s collection is an assortment of miscellaneous photographs. We have no names, no context, no backstory; only imagination. We’re almost certain that some of them are early examples of ‘photoshopping” and trust that our friends can also spot the culprits a mile off. For us at the Fellowship, these attempts at doctoring images only multiplies…
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The Bromley Society of Animal Lovers Collection #1
We have already shared images of the Victorians’ insatiable obsession with animals. However, none were so passionate as The Bromley Society of Animal Lovers. The society was founded in 1868 by the naruralist Kenneth Crabtree and survived until World War One. These images are only a handful of the ones we have in our archives.…
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The Importance of Cards During the Victorian Era Collection #3
Today we bring you another assortment of Victorian cards. These were submitted by the great grandson of a “white witch” called Godfrey Martin. Mr Martin told us that while they look like tarot cards, they are in fact ritual worship cards used by his grandmother and acquaintances. They were apparently used for taking control of…
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