May 9th, 2019 : Faces

[Carruthers]

Fizzogs would appear to be flavour of the month...

A series of works called Faces by Gregos are on show at Xin Art Galerie at the Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead Heath.
The show runs until May 12.

I suspect that the gallery's definition of affordable and mine might differ somewhat.


Thread drift follows.

I'm reminded of the Sun Fire Insurance plaque that still adorns older buildings in parts of the UK



Plaques were supplied to the owners of insured buildings and the insurers also owned the fire brigade, so if you didn't have the appropriate plaque your building was left to burn!

In the event of a fire, all brigades from the individual insurance companies would rush to the fire in case it was one of their buildings.
If the fire wasn’t in one of their properties then they would either leave or stand and watch.
However, for a fee other companies would put out the fire of a someone who had a different insurance policy and eventually they would also put out fires of non-subscribers as the fire could spread easily to one of their properties on their own insurance policy.

However, this was not a practical situation. There needed to be a quicker way for companies to know the buildings they represented.
Firemarks were created and issued to all policyholders.
Originally they were made out of tin and would be fixed to the outer wall of the house or under the eaves.
As they evolved they were also made of iron, lead and brass and bore the symbol of the insurance company and often a serial number as well. ​

The fire marks were used during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries until there the municipal fire brigades were established.

There's one on a house just down the road from me.
I happened to pass it about half an hour ago and checked to make sure it was still there.

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