[Vwoolf] VW's (standing) desk

Tue Oct 27 07:10:38 EDT 2020

In the past (on this list?), there was huge discussion about the desk: what happened to it? who cut it down? who painted it? why did VW use it? to be like her sister, a painter?  Above all, for how long did she use it?

Nice pic here (if it were in focus):
https://today.duke.edu/2015/04/baskinrelease

My brief summary:
In 1929 VW gave it QB, who painted it; Anne Olivier Bell cut it down by 6".  Also see correspondence between Colin Franklin and Leonard Baskin; the former promised the desk to Leonard Baskin.  Lisa said Franklin gave the desk to *her*; see: https://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/baskin/essays/insatiable-lust

How did Franklin get it?

Stuart

From: Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf 
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2020 10:49 AM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu 
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] E pluribus unum

Nice one Stuart!

Out of curiosity I Googled <Virginia Woolf + lectern>. Didn't get any eagles apart from the ones listed by Stuart, but I did get this.

https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/woolfdesk

Never knew that Woolf wrote while standing up. Now I do.

Jeremy H

On 27.10.2020 11:25, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:

  “the subservient eagle bears up for inspection the great white book” (JR)

  the ‘brass eagle carrying the Bible on its back’ (VO)

  ‘a Bible spread on the back of the brass eagle’ (W)

  Cf. 
  ‘a large brass fowl, of pious expression, supported a huge Bible’
  (Osbert Sitwell, “Before the Bombardment” (Duckworth, 1926, p. 183)
  [Tessa lifts out a small framed painting and holds it up.] …

  McCorquodale: It was my intention to represent – in a symbolic fashion – the Christian church.

  Tessa:  A bird of prey carrying an olive branch.  You’ve put the matter in a nutshell.

  (‘Funeral Games’ (1968) by Joe Orton)

  Stuart
  (Day 224)

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