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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on November 7, 2024 at 3:56pm

No plexiglass here! It's all hands on. And no lines :-)

Lunar breccia 4.5 billion years old, not the usual meteorite that hit the moon, but a moon rock ejected into space during such an event. Just picked this up:

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Permalink Reply by JMS1223 on November 7, 2024 at 4:12pm

That’s very interesting and cool. You can hold the whole rock/meteorite and turn it around and really look at it while touching it. Lucky you! Very few probably have that opportunity to hold and touch the entire rock. I know the meteorites have a different look/structure to them due to the intense heat but still from the moon. 

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on November 7, 2024 at 4:19pm

Thank you. Yes, the lunar meteorites have a different appearance. The first example is very heavy - surprisingly so. It looks as you would expect and feels quite dense with speckly dark grey reflective areas that are dead flat surfaces.

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Permalink Reply by AustinCollector on November 7, 2024 at 5:40pm

This is great! Where did you finally locate it? This goes nicely with the signed piece

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on November 7, 2024 at 6:19pm

I sourced it from the widow of a collector. I've been looking for years - just like the vintage signed Joyce Randolph - them BOOM! It's been a heck of a week or two. Also, I managed to find an original stereo photograph if one of my favorite artists, Winslow Homer, at the beach in New Jersey in 1879. He is the man in the center with a hat watching the young painter. Taken by Dr. Thurman Kelso Treadwell, whose  collection of stereo view cards is the largest and perhaps the most important privately held stereo view collection ever amassed.

I just stuck it in my C.1900  stereopticon and wow! I have it for my handmade stereo views of Mauretania being built in 1906, but now it will hold this in my studio. 

UPDATE: This is NOT Winslow Homer. I just heard from the Curator at Bowdoin College Art Museum and is not likely. I bought this with a 60 day return and I am using it.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Woods on November 8, 2024 at 4:36am

And built one mile from where I live. If you ever get to Ireland, there’s a brilliant Titanic museum in Belfast. 

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on November 8, 2024 at 4:46am

Thank you. That is simply wonderful! I have had many invitations to cross on the QM2 and only now will I have the time. I want to get the to Mauretania Pub in Bristol as I have some of that woodwork. If you ever go to the Discovery Museum Annex at Segedunum in Newcastle you will see a First Class Pilaster from the 1907 Mauretania that I authenticated and sold to them in about 2009 or so. The permanent display is just a few  thousand feet from where the thing was built in 1904-1907 which pleases me to no end.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on November 8, 2024 at 7:24am

Here is the Pilaster after being restored on permanent display in the Discovery Museum Annex. This was one of the highlights of my work in this area.

And here is one of the visuals I prepared for the sale presentation

Above - Archival photo showing these pilasters and their location in the Lounge in green; key below.

Key to illustration:
1) Detail of the capital showing a Ram’s ear, horn and laurel leaves.
2) Archival photograph showing two pilasters in situ in the Lounge on the starboard side, near the double doors leading forward to the Grand Entrance (Warren, plate 43, exact location shown with arrow in image 7).
3) The capital showing one of the two the Rams’ heads.
4) Archival detail of a Ram’s head Lounge capital (from a column).
5) Profile of the carved mahogany skirting and pilaster.
6) Detail of the pilaster carving with an archival detail of the acanthus fluting.
7) Deck plan showing the Lounge with pilaster locations highlighted in green (LLR).
8) The fluting with gilt floral motif.
9) The carved pilaster with skirting.
10) The crossed ribbon detailing.
11) The pilaster and skirting with the separate left side.

(Digital Photo File © 2012 Eric K. Longo)

Above - Pulling Away, 2:15 p.m. 22 October 1907 Wallsend
© Eric Keith Longo Collection, prepared and loaned for exhibit.

(Museum Tag by EKL)
Pilaster, First Class Lounge, R.M.S. Mauretania 1907-1934
Louis Seize style with Acanthus fluting, Roman-crossed ribbons, and double Ram’s head capital with Britannia, by Messrs. C. H. Mellier & Co., London
Mahogany, pine, plaster, gold leaf, bronze paint

What was the Mauretania?
The Mauretania is remembered as the largest passenger liner built on the Tyne. She was launched in 1906, very close to our Segedunum Museum. She was over 240 metres long and had four large funnels. Her Captain’s Bridge was nearly as high as the upper deck of Newcastle’s High Level Bridge. She could carry 2165 passengers and 938 crew members. She also used a new type of engine, the turbine, which was invented here in Newcastle by Sir Charles Parsons.

Why is the Mauretania important?
With Parsons’ turbine engine, the Mauretania earned world fame for being the fastest liner to traverse the Atlantic to New York. On her return maiden voyage in 1907 she won the Blue Ribband, an award given to the liner that made the most rapid crossing. The Mauretania ran at 23.69 knots (over 27 miles per hour) on that first trip home, providing a great source of local pride for Tyneside, the British Cunard Line, and the entire nation. She held the Blue Ribband for 22 years.
The Mauretania, and her sister Lusitania, incorporated several features not previously offered to passengers at sea such as hydraulic barber chairs, one of the first uses of aluminum in the lift grilles, and the popular Veranda Café, which allowed passengers to take tea in an outdoor setting.
The Mauretania served in The Great War as a cruiser, hospital ship and troop transport. She returned to passenger service in 1919 and was retired in 1934. The Mauretania was scrapped in Scotland in 1935, providing needed employment at Rosyth. Much of her Lounge, the room this pilaster came from, survives and can be seen today in a pub in Bristol.

  

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