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Kit Williams' Masquerade, Chouette d’Or, The Golden Treasure Of The Entente Cordiale & Other Treasure-Hunting Competitions

And of course Kaiser Wilhelm II's appearance was akin to a living caricature and must have been a god-send to political cartoonists at the time!


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blessmycottonsocks said:
Kaiser Wilhelm II's appearance was akin to a living caricature
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Yes and no: he wore a military uniform and mustache in a style that was almost Indistinguishable from all other Imperial German military officers. So he was a self-caricature outwith the country he ruled: but was simply a standard-looking representative of the mainly Prussian class & profession he was a part of, in the eyes of most German citizens (especially following creation of the German state itself in 1871)

blessmycottonsocks said:
but the tip of the scabbard of a cavalry sabre protruding from beneath the Kaiser's army overcoat, implies a potential resort to force.
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I did seriously wonder if this was indeed the fascinating case, but told myself I had to be over-interpreting a technical detail. Is this definitely the intended significance of the revealed scabbard, by the artist? I mean do we have any quoted commentary from the time (I suppose the equivalent of Letters to the Editor of Punch) or current expert historians who would agree with this?
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
my Anglo-French ménage
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ma très chère @blessmycottonsocks , s'il vous plaît - je vous demande maintenant, avez-vous une famille ou un zoo ?

Aujourd'hui, j'ai découvert la différence entre un ménage et un menagerie....je suis un grand imbécile!!

(pardonnez-moi, bénissez mes chaussettes en coton - oui, je suis un très personne drôle)
 
Ermintruder said:
ma très chère @blessmycottonsocks , s'il vous plaît - je vous demande maintenant, avez-vous une famille ou un zoo ?

Aujourd'hui, j'ai découvert la différence entre un ménage et un menagerie....je suis un grand imbécile!!

(pardonnez-moi, bénissez mes chaussettes en coton - oui, je suis un très personne drôle)
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Almost perfect.
Except should have commenced with mon très cher!
 
Absolutely. Really I was moaning about the kind of condescending attitudes that, say, depicts all Frenchmen as bicycle-riding onion-sellers.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
And of course Kaiser Wilhelm II's appearance was akin to a living caricature and must have been a god-send to political cartoonists at the time!


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Some of my Steampunk hats were inspired by that image. I imagined a pompous but minor Prussian politician commissioning metalworkers to make a copy to wear with non-military finery for state events.

Techy called the spike one 'preposterous' which was exactly the effect I'd aimed for. :bthumbup:
 
Ermintruder said:
Yes and no: he wore a military uniform and mustache in a style that was almost Indistinguishable from all other Imperial German military officers. So he was a self-caricature outwith the country he ruled: but was simply a standard-looking representative of the mainly Prussian class & profession he was a part of, in the eyes of most German citizens (especially following creation of the German state itself in 1871)


I did seriously wonder if this was indeed the fascinating case, but told myself I had to be over-interpreting a technical detail. Is this definitely the intended significance of the revealed scabbard, by the artist? I mean do we have any quoted commentary from the time (I suppose the equivalent of Letters to the Editor of Punch) or current expert historians who would agree with this?
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As this is a caricature it only needed to present the stereotypical features that Brits would recognise. It needn't be accurate.
The scabbard certainly does imply a threat of militarism.
 
escargot said:
Some of my Steampunk hats were inspired by that image. I imagined a pompous but minor Prussian politician commissioning metalworkers to make a copy to wear with non-military finery for state events.

Techy called the spike one 'preposterous' which was exactly the effect I'd aimed for. :bthumbup:
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Made me recall how erstwhile Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell used to depict Bundeskanzler Angela Merkel - as a dominatrix, draped in world war memorabilia and with a Pickelhaube on her head, thereby combining Germanophobia and misogyny!


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blessmycottonsocks said:
Made me recall how erstwhile Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell used to depict Bundeskanzler Angela Merkel - as a dominatrix, draped in world war memorabilia and with a Pickelhaube on her head, thereby combining Germanophobia and misogyny!


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Even as a big Steve Bell fan I didn't like that. Showing her as a dominatrix was most certainly misogynistic, with a whiff of slut-shaming.

The problem, one assumes, for a cartoonist intending to portray ideas of German domination or aggression is that they mustn't suggest Nazism. Instead they have to fall back on Kaiser-era symbolism along with good old sexual perversion. Could do better.
 
escargot said:
The problem, one assumes, for a cartoonist intending to portray ideas of German domination or aggression is that they mustn't suggest Nazism. Instead they have to fall back on Kaiser-era symbolism along with good old sexual perversion. Could do better.
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I am reminded of Max Mosley's private business which was shamefully spread all over by a salacious and prurient rag....
 
It's appalling. What is it about so many men in political circles that they fear women who won't fawn over them or at least be submissive? And despite the cartoon's insulting nature, there's an undertone of fear there.
 
Bell is generally very good, with an especially sharp eye for any aspect of a politician that he can illustrate. His Chancellor's Clawback Trousers had me in stitches. :chuckle:
He shouldn't slide into cheap stuff like portraying women as sex workers.
 
Steven said:
Yep. To be honest, I just dislike the 'grotesque' nature of political cartoons and caricatures - I end up even feeling sorry for politicians I can't stand! :D
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This is the risk they take.
Their image is carefully constructed and maintained. It's the cartoonists' and satirists' job to question that process.
Accepting what politicians tell us about themselves is deference. That went out of the window in the '60s - not without a fight.
 
Steven said:
What is it about so many men in political circles that they fear women who won't fawn over them or at least be submissive?
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I doubt anyone here needs me to tell them this, but it isn't just men in political circus—er, circles—who appear to fear women who are dignified, self respecting human beings who don't live by fawning over male power brokers.
 
In the woods of Massachusetts, someone has uncovered a treasure: a small, oddly marked spiral of 24-karat gold worth more than $25,000. The statuette was part of a treasure hunt called Project Skydrop, and it contains instructions for accessing an additional $87,600 worth of Bitcoin.

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The 24-karat gold spiral statuette is inscribed with a message pointing the finder to more than $87,000 worth of Bitcoin. Project Skydrop

The project’s organizers—video game developer Jason Rohrer and recording artist Tom Bailey—announced the hunt on September 19. Participants could pay $20 to receive daily clues about the treasure’s exact location, which was somewhere within a 500-mile circle in the northeastern United States.

The challenge was scheduled to last three weeks, with organizers revealing a narrower search diameter each day. The project’s website was also regularly updated with new footage from a ground-level hidden camera trained on the golden statuette.

The hunt ended on October 1 at 5:19 p.m., when an unidentified individual bent down to retrieve the golden spiral from its woodland hiding place, according to surveillance footage. By that point, the search area had been narrowed to a 27-mile circle inside Massachusetts.

The individual who found the treasure, which is made of 99.99 percent pure gold, was was clad in Adidas sneakers. However, they were not filming themselves—a Project Skydrop requirement to claim the Bitcoin prize. As Rohrer tells the Times Union’s Patrick Tine and Mike Goodwin, the treasure’s discovery eight days before the deadline is a “strange mystery.” Some competitors have commented that the finder should be disqualified.

Rohrer and Bailey haven’t heard from the person who found the treasure, and they haven’t yet released the prize money.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...-hidden-in-the-massachusetts-woods-180985181/

maximus otter
 

Treasure hunter finally finds Golden Owl after decades​

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The world’s longest treasure hunt appears to have come to an end, after an announcement in France that a buried statuette of a golden owl has finally been unearthed - after 31 years.

“We confirm that the replica of the golden owl was dug up last night, and that simultaneously a solution has been sent on the online verification system,” reads a post published on Thursday morning on the hunt’s official chatline.

“It is therefore now pointless travelling to dig at any place you believe the cache might be situated.”

The message was posted by Michel Becker, who illustrated the original Chouette d’Or (golden owl) book and sculpted the buried statuette in 1993.

No further information about the site or the finder was available and Mr Becker was not contactable by telephone.

Tens of thousands of people have taken part in the search, which has spawned a huge secondary literature in books, pamphlets and Internet sites.

They have all been following 11 complicated puzzles set out in the first book by its creator, Max Valentin. When he died in 2009, Mr Becker took over the operation.

The complex clues were supposed to lead to a precise point somewhere in France, where a bronze replica of the actual golden owl would be found under the ground. The winner would get the precious gold original.

The world of chouetteurs – as the treasure-hunters are called – was in uproar on Thursday morning as news of the reported find spread.

“Finally – liberated!” reads one post on the hunt’s chatline on the Discord forum.

“I didn’t think I’d live to see the day,” reads another. And: “It’s like Covid. So good when it’s over.”

“Curiously, I’m relieved. I’m desperate to know the solutions now to see if I was on the right path,” comments another user.

Some hunters remained sceptical, fearing that the cache might have been discovered with a metal detector. Under the rules, the finder has to show that they correctly solved the enigmas and did not just stumble upon the owl by chance.

The hunt was mired in legal rows for some years after Mr Valentin’s death, and not all owl-hunters accepted Mr Becker’s inheritance of the central role.

Mr Becker himself originally had no knowledge of the situation of the buried owl. The solution was in a sealed envelope in the possession of Mr Valentin’s family.

But after the legal difficulties were resolved, Mr Becker read the solution and travelled to the spot to verify that the owl was still there.

From BBC News.
 
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