Saturday, August 18, 2007

Photo Friday - Old

Blogger has been playing up, so a post I'd been working on for a couple of days has disappeared into the aether and I've been having trouble posting images which is annoying.

The Photo Friday topic this week is 'Old.' I have a lot of photographs that could fit the topic as I've been traveling around visiting a lot of mediaeval and Roman era places recently, but I decided that the mascot from an old Rolls Royce car would fit nicely.

The Rolls Royce mascot is called the 'Spirit of Ecstasy' It has a variety of nicknames including the Angel, Silver Lady, Flying Lady and even 'Nellie in her Nightie' after Eleanor Velasco Thornton who posed for the sculpture.

I'd originally been under the impression that the mascot was based on the dancer Isadora Duncan. Isadora Duncan died in Nice on the Promenade des Anglais outside the Negresco Hotel when her voluminous scarf became tangled in the wheels of a sports car, so I suppose I thought this was a weird irony.
The Spirit of Ecstasy sculptures have been supplied with Rolls Royce cars since 1911. They aren't made of silver [they were silver plated in the early versions] and apparently each piece is unique due to the casting method used.

The Rolls Royce was parked outside a church, its bonnet decorated with flowers for a wedding. The orange and peach colored lilies are just visible behind the mascot




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4 comments:

Nancy Bea Miller said...

Fascinating! Great shots. I always thought this figure was based on Isadora Duncan, too, by the way.

natural attrill said...

Interesting to read, and of course lovely photographs as always!
P.x

paintandink said...

"when her voluminous scarf became tangled in the wheels of a sports car"...

What a tragic way to die. But memorable, I suppose.

I love Rolls Royce automobiles. My old landlady had a Rolls Royce. She used to take it garage sale-ing and would pack the seats full of junk. A sight to see.

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