Quivis Gallery

Some pieces I made in the past.

CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE. The information on this page is at least twenty years out of date! [Make that 30 and counting.] These pieces, in no particular order, had either a washable [oil] or wipeable [lacquer] finish as indicated. Dimensions in millimetres refer to approximate overall diameters. Unless stated otherwise, all these pieces were made from 50mm thick sycamore.

Oiled - 375mm

COMMIT THY WORK TO GOD

Sinclair clan badge

Lacquer - 500mm

AFTER THE KNIGFISHER'S WING
HAS ANSWERED LIGHT TO LIGHT, AND IS SILENT, THE LIGHT IS STILL
AT THE STILL POINT OF THE TURNING WORLD.

T.S.Eliot ‘Burnt Norton’

Lacquer - 455mm x 65mm

MY DAME IS SICK AND GONE TO BED
AND WE'LL GO MOULD SOME COCKLE -BREAD;
UP WITH MY HEELS AND DOWN WITH MY HEAD,
AND THIS IS THE WAY TO MOULD COCKLE-BREAD.

According to John AUBREY: “young wenches have a wanton sport ... they get upon a table board and then gather up their knees and their coats with their hands as high as they can and then they wobble to and fro with their buttocks as if they were kneading of dough with their arses and say these words...” Come along ladies; all together now! Artwork after a drawing by Picasso.

Lacquer - 465mm

FOLIE QUIS POR FOL ME TINC

From the ‘Roman De Rou’ by Wace of Jersey ca 1170. Another one based on a drawing by Picasso.

Oiled - 380mm

The design on this dish is based on the stone font in Eardisley Church. Carved in about 1130 AD, the original stands some 4 feet high and is carved ‘in the round’. For more information about the original Eardisley Font see HERE .

Oiled - 380mm

AMA ET FAC QUOD VIS

From St Augustine, he of the ‘Confessions’, who was not always good (“...sed noli modo.”) The ‘quote’ means ‘love and do what you will’ which for some reason is most often quoted as above but should read “dilige et quod vis fac.”

Oiled - 310mm

THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN - 17.X.99

WORDSWORTH: ‘My Heart Leaps Up’

Oiled - 380mm

BETTER IS A MESS OF POTTAGE WITH LOVE THAN A FAT OX WITH ILL WILL

Proverbs XV.17 from the Matthews Bible of 1535

Oiled - 380mm

Zzzzzzz

Too tedious doing Greek in html, but it means ‘man cannot live by bread alone.’

Oiled - 255mm

HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS

Costard: “...I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.”

Love's Labour's Lost V.i The longest word in Shakespeare and of his own making. It means roughly ‘those who should be honoured but have yet to be.’

Lacquer - 455mm x 65mm

Anonymous lines

Oiled - 390 mm

JHESU CRIST US SENDE
HOUSBONDES MEEKE, YONGE, AND FRESSH ABEDDE.

Chaucer, from ‘The Wife of Bath's Tale.’

Lacquer - 380mm

TELLE ME ALSO, TO WHAT CONCLUSION
WERE MEMBRES MAAD OF GENERACION
AND OF SO PARFIT WYS A WRIGHT YWROGHT?
TRUSTETH RIGHT WEL, THEY WERE NAT MAAD FOR NOGHT.

Chaucer, from ‘The Wife of Bath's Prologue.’ Artwork based on a drawing by Picasso.

Oiled - 355mm

MEN KNOW BEST ABOUT EVERYTHING EXCEPT WHAT WOMEN KNOW BETTER.

George Eliot ‘Middlemarch’

Lacquer - 330mm

NIGRA SUM SED FORMOSA FILIAE JERUSALEM IDEO DILEXIT ME REX

From ‘The Song of Songs’

Oiled - 285mm x 70mm

I WAS A STOWAWAY; I TOO SURVIVED; I ESCAPED [getting off was no easier than getting on;] AND I HAVE FLOURISHED.

Julian Barnes ‘A History of the World in 10½ Chapters’
All those little spotty things are woodworm holes. Those who have read the book will understand!

Lacquer - 515mm

RYS UP, MY WYF, MY LADY FREE!
The turtles voys is herd, my dowve sweete;
The wynter is goon with alle his reynes weete,
COM FORTH NOW, WITH THYNE EYEN COLUMBYN!
HOW FAIRER BEEN THY BRESTES THAN IS WYN!

Chaucer, from ‘The Merchant's Tale’ Artwork based on a drawing by Picasso.

Oiled - 180mmm

ON AVERAGE, EVERYBODY HAS ONE TESTICLE

Anon

Lacquer - 485mm

NIGRA SUM SED FORMOSA FILIAE JERUSALEM IDEO DILEXIT ME REX

From ‘The Song of Songs’

Oiled - 265mm

RUDIS INDIGESTAQUE MOLES

Ovid. (An unformed, confused mass)

Lacquer - 450mm

BE WAR FROM IRE THAT IN THY BOSOM SLEPETH;
WAR FRO THE SERPENT THAT SO SLILY CREPETH
UNDER THE GRAS AND STYNGETH SUBTILLY

Chaucer ‘The Summoner's Tale’

Oiled or lacquered 250-300 mm

Astrological bowls based on an individual's unique, natal horoscope. Ebonizing [see next] was extra.

Lacquered only 250-300 mm

For an extra fee I made a number of ebonised horoscopes.

Oiled - 170mm

Now here's what I want to tell you. Lean over here so I can whisper in your ear. What I want to tell you is, NEVER SMOKE ANOTHER MAN'S PIPE.

Frank McCourt ‘Angela's Ashes’

Oiled - 270mm x 160mm

MAKE ME A BOWL, A MIGHTY BOWL,
LARGE AS MY CAPACIOUS SOUL
VAST AS MY THIRST IS; LET IT HAVE
DEPTH ENOUGH TO BE MY GRAVE,
I MEAN THE GRAVE OF ALL MY CARE,
FOR I DESIGN TO BURY IT THERE

John Oldham ‘Dithyrambic’ (I think!)

Oiled - 350mm

BE AY OF CHIERE AS LIGHT AS LEEF ON LYNDE.

Chaucer, from ‘The Clerk's Tale’

Oiled - 345mm

TILL THE WIND SHAKE A THOUSAND WHISPERS FROM THE YEW.

T.S. Eliot ‘Ash Wednesday’

Lacquered 455mm

Guard armorial.

Hanc domum gloria complebo

Lacquered - 70 x 70 x 70mm

Paper weights.

Each has an individual's name wrapped across all six sides.

Oiled - 345mm

Sanskrit

Anybody's guess.

Lacquered - 340 x 450mm

Snakes and ladders.

Lacquered - 365 x 400mm

Chess board. There was an inscription around the edge which read, in part:

“Hy twegen sceolon ttæfle fle ymbsittan, habban him gomen on borde,” which means roughly “The two shall sit round at Tæfle (until their troubles glide off of them, they forget their cruel fortunes) and have joy on the board...”