And from behind the painting, two old maps! A real-life mystery

An uncle over 100 years old dies in Marseilles, leaving an extensive art collection.  A niece takes one of the paintings, of a body of water and a figure of a lion, painted in 1791, out of its frame to clean it, only to discover two fragments of maps hidden between the canvas and the frame backing!

"And when I saw the maps, I thought of you," she said, taking a roll of cardboard out of her bag -  the maps!

No, it's not a Nancy Drew.  Nor is it exactly like Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence BBC series episode 1, where the mystery, as well as the fate of Britain, revolves around a secret treaty concealed behind a painting.

But nonetheless, a mystery!  What were these maps?  What were they doing behind the painting?

Here is the first.  (click on the image to see the full-size version). Clearly French.  But Hudson Bay, Treaty of Utrecht, Lac Nepigon?  And the big Lac, whose name is sliced through at the bottom...?  To the Internet! 

In the Treaty of Utrecht, if we all think hard back to 10th grade European history (and consult Wikipedia) we remember that France ceded the Hudson Bay Company's territories to Britain in 1713.  So the yellow and green line, which looks colored by hand (it actually looks slightly like crayon, and faded in places) is marking that boundary, and, knowing that Hudson Bay is in Canada, this appears to be a map of a part of present-day Canada.

 

So, one terminus post quem (an archaeology term!) - the map is later than 1713.

A terminus ante quem is Lac Nepigon - Wikipedia tells us that by 1883, the name of the lake appeared on maps as 'Nipigon'.  That's still a pretty big time range, though, 1713 to 1883.  Also, now we know that this lake puts us looking at part of present-day Ontario, with Lake Superior being the large lake at the bottom of the map.

Wonderfully, and pretty amazingly, there are digital libraries of old maps with easily-google-able contents.  We were able to determine that this map looked nearly exactly like a very famous 1755 map by John Mitchell, except for the fact that this one was in French.  A little more googling determined that this map is in fact, the French copy of the Mitchell map made by George Louis Le Rouge in 1756.  View the complete map, from a Library of Congress photo.  There's also some nice metadata about it in the David Rumsey Map Collection.  The full title of the map is:

Amerique Septentrionale avec les Routes, Distances en miles, Limites et Establissements Francois et Anglais. Par le Docteur Mitchel, Traduit de l'Anglois. A Paris, Par le Rouge Ingr. Geographe du Roy rue des Grands Augustins 1756.  

1756!  It is pretty much an exact tracing ('re-engraving') of Mitchell's map, with French text instead of English, and some additional annotations, such as in this photo (click for a full-size view).

Holding it up to the light and photographed from behind, you can see the watermark on the paper.  I can't really make it out, and as such we haven't been able to investigate this further.  It may even be only a part of the whole watermark, since this is only a part of the map.  But, the symbol in it may help in identification, and this would really help in identifying the origins of this specific map. (Anyone want to do a little sleuthing?)

Pretty exciting, huh?!  What's really interesting is to compare this to the present day maps of the same area (like google maps).  From some browsing/digging it appears that maps like this one were based on earlier maps and desccriptions of the area by explorers or trappers (hence some of the invented islands in Lake Superior?).  If I have time some day I might look further into this, but not now when we have a second map to explore.

Ok, on to the next map!

It was a good thing we had started with the Le Rouge map, because the second map was considerably more challenging to find. 

(click on the map to enlarge it)

New York.  And Boston in an inset.  New Hampshire, the Connecticut River.  Mostly in English, but some French notes.

But hey, wait a sec, since when did New Hampshire border New York?

Since before the American Revolution, as it happens.  Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys (militia) established the Vermont Republic in 1777.  (Thank you again, Wikipedia.)
Hey, hey, a terminus ante quem.  Wow - before 1777!

A bit of Googling later, and thanks to David Rumsey and his very impressive Map Collection (and even more impressive digital library with hi res scans), we discovered that the English, original version of this map is, "The Provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire. (Northern section)" by Thomas Jefferys, 1776.  View the complete map here.

Long title: "The American Atlas: Or, A Geographical Description Of The Whole Continent Of America ... Engraved On Forty-Eight Copper Plates, By The Late Mr. Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to the King, and Others. London, Printed and Sold by R. Sayer and J. Bennett, Map and Print Sellers, No. 53, Fleet-Street. MDCCLXXVI."

Jefferys was Geographer to His Royal highness the Prince of Wales.  According to David Rumsey's site, this map was part of "one of the most important atlases of the American Revolutionary War period."

However, I have not yet been able to track down what this French version is.  The French mapmaker made the changes of translating the brief history of Boston fires and wards into French, and has added a note under the "Note" about the Connecticut River, paraphrasing "La Riviere de Conecticut fait Limite entre New-York et New-Hampshire".  Not sure why he (assuming a 'he') misspelled CT.

So which map, exactly, this is, remains a mystery, if anyone feels like investigating!

To sum up, what do we know - we have a 1756 and a 1776 map behind this 1791 painting.  Concealed, or used as framing material?  The working hypothesis we have is that whoever framed the painting recycled these old, outdated maps as good framing/backing material.  The least exciting, least imaginative possibility.  More intriguing would be if these particular fragments related to the painting in some way, or meant something to someone besides scrap paper.  What would help is to know something more about 18th century map publishing.  These were both very important maps, according to people in the know, so presumably they would have been the popular maps of the day?  Did lots of ordinary people have maps?  Did map publishers sell old, obsolete stock to framers in early recycling schemes? Did painters frame their own paintings?

In any case, we think they are pretty darn cool!  And we certainly enjoyed the treasure hunt of figuring out what these maps are, and learning some historical geography.

Food chronicles: Krapfen

I have in mind the glimmerings of a series about Austrian food.  Let's start with Krapfen!

Look familiar?  A jelly doughnut!  Yum!  But with apricot jam inside.  Apricot is 'Marille' (pronounced 'marilla').  Krapfen are found all over the place - in the nearest grocery store to us, Billa, they're the first thing you see when you walk in, and typically if it's toward the end of the day, only the 6-packs are left, if even those.  The dough is not overly sweet, a little bit dense, and the apricot has a little bit of a floral tinge, which can verge on perfumey and be a little startling.  Also, the jam can be  elusive, in a large glob at one edge.  You have to do some planning to balance out the filling with the dough, so that you don't end up with a mouthful of just jam at the end.

You can see how that's the case with the one in this photo.  This was maybe our second day in Graz.  You understand I waste no time in diving into food culture, especially where there are sweets involved! You'll notice in the photo that this is a 3-pack.  I was late to the store, and there were no more singles left.  Of course, you can get them singly at a bakery, of which there are tons around the city.  The best best Krapfen I have had yet was at breakfast at the famous Cafe Tomaselli (since 1705) in Salzburg.

Now here's the slightly complicated (and amusing) part about food names when you start to move around.  You know what a jelly doughnut is called in Germany, right, after Pres. Kennedy called himself one in a speech in Berlin? ("Ich bin ein Berliner!") But in Berlin, a jelly doughnut is not called a Berliner, it's Pfannkuchen.  But Pfannkuchen, in the rest of Germany, means pancakes.  Confusing? Yes.

What's even more amusing to me is how at every meal we have had with friends, this whole what-is-this-food-called-where topic never fails to come up.  Everyone tends to be from somewhere different (mostly in Germany and Austria), and this regionality of names is so pervasive.  And while my language understanding is getting better and better, at the start of a new conversation topic I usually need some time to catch the drift.  Well, when I start recognizing various names for the same thing going around the table, I know it's the what-do-you-call-it-where-you're-from name game.

Candles burning on a tree

As I begin this post about Christmas, Weihnachten, I realize that, following the new year's post, this could be a series called 'Potentially Dangerous Cultural Traditions Involving Fire'.  In the US, like the fireworks thing, I believe it is illegal to burn real candles on your Christmas tree.  Not so in Europe.  And oh, there is nothing so beautiful as a tree lit with candles.  A fleeting moment you have to capture in your memory (cognitive and digital) for, once the candles burn down and out, that's it for tree illumination.

We had an incredibly beautiful tree in Berlin, bought & decorated Christmas Eve day as is the tradition in T's family.  The candles were lit and we sang to the tree... 
(as always, you can click on a photo to see it larger)

 

 

Interestingly, to the several people we talked to about this over holidays, Santa's reindeer are virtually unknown.  And more typically it is the Christkind, the Christ child, who brings & decorates the tree, and bring the presents, on Christmas Eve.  Or alternatively, Father Christmas or an angel of the Christ child brings the presents in person. (St. Nikolas comes on Dec. 6, and leaves sweets and other goodies in the shoes of good children.) Christmas itself is 3 days long - there is Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and then the day after Christmas, St. Stephen's Day (or, 'second Christmas' as I call it).  Because the holidays started on a Thursday this year, shops (including grocery stores!) were closed for 5 days in a row.  No last minute running out for whatever you forgot for the Christmas feast!

New Year's Eve Fireworks!

Since I have a lot to catch up on, the next series of posts are not going to necessarily be in chronological order.   Just so you know.

Ok - I gave you a teaser yesterday for the most exciting New Year's Eve fireworks ever, and after successfully grappling with technology I'm proud to present my first-ever YouTube video!  But first, an introduction to the video.  Unlike in CA and many US states, fireworks are legal in Berlin on new year's eve (and only then, as far as I understand).  So, starting well before midnight and continuing to who knows how long in the morning, people all over the city are setting these things off.  There are the bottle rockets, on sticks, that you stick into an empty champagne bottle (implications there, yes) to get it pointed at the sky and light; it zooms up and then explodes (there's a close up of one of these in the video), then there's the 'Batterie Feuerwerk', a square or cylinder block with a number of fireworks packed side-by-side; you light the fuse, stand back, and then in rapid succession each one explodes up and bursts into beautiful colors - this is the type we had, that you can see at the very end of the video.  I think ours had 40 rockets in it.  There was also a type that was quite a bit more dangerous, once lit it whirred around and up like a tiny pyrotechnic UFO.  The problem was that after whirling up a little, it whirred back down and around in unpredictable ways.  We watched one that had just sputtered out at the time it hit someone on the head (or maybe his shoulder).  I don't have any of those on the video.  Needless to say, there is quite a bit of trust in your fellow humans on a new year's eve like this... and I won't go into details because it makes me a little nervous to think about it.

But Teufelsberg really was the best place for this.  T's mother had a new years eve dinner party, so after enjoying 6 amazing courses (with wine pairings!) with 6 others over about 5 hours, T and I hastily bundled up at 20 til midnight, grabbed our Batterie Feuerwerk, and set off on foot through the light snow for Teufelsberg.

The Grunewald forest is a couple of blocks around the corner, and with a little running we just barely made it to the top of the hill at midnight.  Teufelsberg is the highest hill in Berlin, and is manmade - from all the city rubble after the war.  Wikipedia says it's 80 m, or 240 ft high, so it's really not that tall but you do have a view of the entire city, which is pretty flat.  It's kind of sobering to be standing on that hill and have what sounds like a war zone all around, with the fireworks.

There is plenty of space up there, and being a hill top at least you can see where people are setting off rockets, so it feels safer than being down in the city.  The snow didn't obscure the view very much, which was great, and in the middle of the video you can kind of see (and hear) the fireworks in the distance, at the horizon, which are the fireworks all across Berlin.  It was truly marvelous, so without further ado, enjoy the video! (Click here to see it in on YouTube)

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2010!

I realize that, this being January 9 already, the sentiment is a little belated, but we went into full vacation mode for 2 weeks and I'm just now getting back to the blog.  Vacation mode was really nice, for a change!  We had a wonderful Weihnachten und Silvester in Berlin with T's mom, and then returned to Graz via Salzburg.  Lots to post!  I couldn't stop taking pictures in Salzburg, it was so beautiful.  And I have to say that on 1/6, Epiphany (a national holiday), the hills really WERE alive with the sound of church bells going off madly every hour on the hour.  Not exactly Rodgers & Hammerstein, but quite the musical city nonetheless.

And another teaser - right now I'm trying to edit my videos of Berlin fireworks to put up - it all adds up to about 10 min so I'll just do the highlights, but this is really something.  Millions of fireworks going off all over the city, and we were on top of Berlin's highest hill, (Teufelsberg, created from the rubble after the war) adding to the explosions with our own round.  Last time I was in Berlin for New Year's we were somewhere down in the city and I was terrified, with rockets zipping off all over the place in these urban canyons of housing and kids throwing firecrackers at cars and each other.  (And the next day on the news, all the stories of rockets through windows, fires, extremities damaged or lost entirely.)  Up on our hill it was absolutely fantastic, absolutely indescribable.  Which is why I need the videos - so stay tuned!

Day in Vienna - part 1

Vienna at Christmastime is just as lovely as it sounds.  Letze Samtag sind wir nach Wien gegangen - last Saturday we went to Vienna for the day, to meet friends from SB who were home for the holidays.  We drove the 2 hours northeast (mostly north) with a colleague of T's who was heading that direction, and as we watched the snow swirl on the road and the dashboard reading of the outside temperature vary from -8.5 to -10 C as we drove, we worried that maybe it wasn't the best day to explore a city.  But this was our only chance to enjoy the Christkindlmarkts and holiday lights.

And Vienna is famous for its coffeehouses, with their atmosphere, good coffee, and wonderful cakes and pastries.  Sachertorte, Esterhazytorte...  Coffeehouse-hopping didn't sound like a bad idea!

And that's exactly what we did.

We met up with our friends in front of the Opera at 10 am, and proceeded to Demel, near the Hofburg Palace, where patrons have been marveling at their confectionery creations since the mid-1800s.  Going upstairs you pass by the artists at work and some of the recent creations on display.  Someone was decorating a cake shaped like a mountain, which was a blank white mound when we came in,  and forested, with alpine meadows, by the time we left.  We had a very nice light breakfast - T and I shared a plate of bread, cheese, prosciutto, butter, jam, honey, 2 softboiled eggs, and yogurt with granola.  The cafe latte was excellent, and the hot chocolate was crazy decadent - essentially melted chocolate, thick and creamy.  Wow.

We had watched the snow start to fall from our cozy table, which had 2 chairs and a loveseat, and after an ooh-ahh whirl through the Demel shop on the way out we bundled up and ventured back out into the cold.  Down the block we did some sightseeing in the very high end grocery store, taking the glittering glass elevator up to the cheeses and meats and generally gawking at the variety of foods as well as the enormity of the prices.  The closest comparison is Whole Foods, but this is like what Whole Foods aspires to in its wildest dreams.  What I really admire in the grocery stores I've been in here, though, even the normal ones, is the reference to the country of origin by little flag icons on the shelf tags.  Wanting to be true to our location and go for all things Austrian, it's easy just to look out for the flag and there you go.  Although, the packaging tends to advertise Austrian origins in fairly salient ways already.  A friend told us the other day that Austrians are very particular about high quality food.  Of course, you can find a lot of junk as you can anywhere, but I think it's true that we have been eating very very good, fresh foods, from meats and cheeses to fruit and veggies.  Hooray for a foodie country!

Back to the story - so we headed for some Weihnachtsmarkts, which are pretty much in every -platz or square.  The one in front of the Rathaus (city hall) is one of the bigger and more famous ones, and the Rathaus itself is the best advent calendar I've ever seen - check out the photo (you'll want to click on it to see it large).

From there we shuffled through the snow to the market at the hospital, which unfortunately wasn't open until the afternoon, so we continued on to marvel at the nearby Votive Church, Votivkirche.  It was beautiful inside, but cold - not as cold as outside but enough to see your breath, and I thought about how cold it would be sitting through a service.  Yikes.  But how can you possibly heat such a huge, huge, tall, tall space?

The only photo I have from here is of this interesting pair of vending machines at the entrance.  (Inside the heavenly one are booklets and CDs about the church and museum).

We were cold.  Time for the next cafe.  Destination: the Palm House, the imperial greenhouse from the 1880s at Schoenbrunn Palace.  A couple of subway stops, then walk through Maria-Theresien-Platz, which, being a -platz of course had a big Christmas market, situated between the art and natural history museums around the statue of Maria-Therese.

We luckily got a table in the non-smoking section (there are a LOT of smokers here compared to CA), right at the window, looking out onto part of the palace park, the snow coming down and the evening falling.  Pumpkin cream soup, with the ever-present pumpkin seed oil (something Graz is actually known for, so most salad there comes with pumpkin seed oil and vinegar dressing - it's very good, but I think it's also the season now, so this stuff is everywhere), and grilled carp with vegetables.  Mmm...

to be continued in part 2...

Day in Vienna - part 2

continued from part 1...

Once it got dark (around 3:30), the lights came on and Vienna got even prettier.  For dessert, another coffee house!  And some sights along the way, like St. Stevens Cathedral, Stephansdom, with the Christmas tree in front.

Still snowing, still very, very, very cold!  But not windy, at least, which makes a huge difference.  Eating our way around Vienna was turning out to be a great plan, though.  Just before we would ever get completely frozen, time for a nice cozy coffeehouse.

We made our way to Cafe Central, where Freud liked to hang out.  Everyone else had the same idea though - it was crowded and completely full, so we walked to another place a couple of blocks away, Cafe Griensteidl.

I couldn't come to Vienna and not have Sachertorte, so of course, that's what I ordered, along with a cafe latte.  The Sachertorte is a somewhat dry, not-too-sweet chocolate cake, with apricot jam and a thin chocolate ganache.  It was invented in 1832 by Franz Sacher when he was 16, an apprentice confectioner, and has been famous ever since.  On this one, the jam was just under the frosting (a variation I understand - the Hotel Sacher's, the 'original', has the jam between 2 layers of cake.

After thawing and relaxing, T and I left our friends and headed for the 7 pm train back to Graz. Below are more photos of the winter wonderland Vienna evening...

The Hofburg Imperial Palace

 

see how the snow has piled up?

 

sehr sehr schoen...