Vanguard on guard

Six featured articles were promoted this week.

• The Tower House (nominated by Dr. Blofeld, KJP1, and Gareth E Kegg) The Tower House in Holland Park, London, was the home of the architect and designer William Burges. He is regarded as one of the greatest of the Victorian "art-architects", with a short but illustrious career beginning in 1863. By 1875, Burges was no longer receiving major commissions, and the Tower House was his last significant work. It was described by the architectural historian J. Mordaunt Crook as "the most complete example of a medieval secular interior produced by the Gothic Revival, and the last". The house is built of red brick, with Bath stone dressings and green roof slates from Cumberland, and is named after its distinctive cylindrical tower with a conical roof. The ground floor contains a drawing room, a dining room, and a library, while the first floor has two bedrooms and an armoury. It has not always been as protected as it ought; from 1962 to 1966 it stood empty and suffered vandalism and neglect. A survey of the house undertaken in January 1965 revealed that the exterior stonework was badly decayed, dry rot had eaten through the roof and the structural floor timbers, and the attics were infested with pigeons. Vandals had stripped the lead from the water tanks and had damaged the mirrors, fireplaces, and carving work. The most notable loss was the theft of the carved figure of Fame from the dining room chimneypiece. The house was later owned by the actor Richard Harris, followed by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, both of whom had restoration work carried out.
• HMS Illustrious (nominated by Sturmvogel 66) HMS Illustrious (87) was a British Royal Navy aircraft carrier, launched in April 1939 and scrapped in 1957. She participated in the Battle of Taranto in 1940 when her aircraft sank one Italian battleship and badly damaged two others. The completion of Illustrious was delayed by two months to fit her with a Type 79Z early-warning radar; she was the first aircraft carrier in the world to be fitted with radar before completion. The main armament of the Illustrious class consisted of sixteen quick-firing (QF) 4.5-inch (110 mm) dual-purpose guns in eight twin-gun turrets, four on each side of the hull in sponsons.
• Blackrock (film) (nominated by Freikorp) Blackrock is a 1997 Australian film about the rape and murder of a young girl after a party in Blackrock, a fictional "Australian beachside working-class suburb". The film follows Jared, a young surfer who witnesses his friends raping a girl. When she is found murdered the next day, Jared is torn between revealing what he saw and protecting his friends. The movie was based on the murder of Leigh Leigh, a 14-year-old girl from the east coast of Australia who was murdered in 1989. Twenty detectives, led by Detective Sergeant Lance Chaffey, were originally assigned to the case. An 18-year-old pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. A truly sad case. (In happier news, or perhaps additional sad news, Blackrock features the first credited film performance of the late Heath Ledger.)
• 2014 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final (nominated by Cptnono) The 2014 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final was played on September 6, 2014, at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania. The match determined the winner of that year's U.S. Open Cup, an annual American soccer competition open to all United States Soccer Federation-affiliated teams, from amateur adult club teams to the professional clubs of Major League Soccer (MLS). The 2014 competition was the 101st edition of the oldest soccer tournament in the United States.
• Love It to Death (nominated by Curly Turkey) Love It to Death, released in 1971, is the third album by the American rock band Alice Cooper (not to be confused with the lead singer of the band, whose name was also Alice Cooper). The original album cover featured the band's lead singer posed with his thumb protruding so it appeared to be his penis; Warner Bros. soon replaced it with a censored version. The band had taken the name Alice Cooper in 1968 and became known for its outrageous theatrical live shows. The loose, psychedelic freak rock of its first two albums failed to find an audience. The Love It to Death tour featured an elaborate shock rock live show: during "Ballad of Dwight Fry"—about an inmate in an insane asylum—Cooper would be dragged offstage and return in a straitjacket, and the show climaxed with Cooper's mock execution in a prop electric chair during "Black Juju".

Fifteen featured pictures were promoted this week.

• The Resurrection (created by Cecco del Caravaggio, nominated by Crisco 1492) The Resurrection is one of Caravaggio's most notable works. The angel is surely into heavy weightlifting, throwing around soldiers and stones like that.... The painting is part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Dating from 1619, it was originally intended for the private devotions of the Tuscan ambassador to Rome at his private chapel in Florence. It depicts the Resurrection of Christ, the moment described in the Gospel of Matthew 28:2: There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow ...
• A Session of the Painting Jury (created by Henri Gervex, nominated by SchroCat) A Session of the Painting Jury is an 1885 painting by Henri Gervex depicting a meeting of the Paris Salon in 1883; several identifiable artists are voting on which pictures should be exhibited. This painting itself was exhibited in the Salon in 1885 and was acquired by Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, a future French Prime Minister; he later gifted it to the state.
• Dusky lory (created and nominated by Crisco 1492) Dusky lory (Pseudeos fuscata), Gembira Loka Zoo, located in the Yogyakarta Special Region in Java, Indonesia. One thing that regular readers of the Signpost can all agree on is that Chris Woodrich contributes a great number of wonderful images. He has done it once again with this beautiful photo of a dusky lory at the Gembira Loka Zoo, a botanical garden, orchid nursery, artificial lake, and park housing a collection of more than 470 animals. The dusky lory is a monotypic species of parrot in the Psittaculidae family, and the only species of the genus Pseudeos. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, unless a cracker empire allows them to live in opulence due to a radical increase in global cracker demand and low-cost imports from China.
• Danish West Indian daler (created by the Kingdom of Denmark for the Danish West Indies. From the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; prepared and nominated by Godot13) The Danish West Indies 10 daler gold coin was struck only in 1904, and only 2,005 were produced. Talk about a rare coin. The daler as a unit of currency had replaced the rigsdaler in 1849. No subdivisions of the daler were issued until 1859, when coins denominated in cents were introduced.
• The Roses of Heliogabalus (created by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, nominated by Brandmeister) The Roses of Heliogabalus was painted by the Anglo-Dutch artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema in 1888, based on a probably invented episode in the Augustan History from the life of the third-century Roman emperor Heliogabalus. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1888. It is currently owned by the Spanish billionaire businessman and art collector Juan Antonio Pérez Simón, who has it regularly checked for black spot.
• Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (created by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, nominated by Crisco 1492) This is a scene from a public performance in the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Open Air Theatre in Lijiang, Yunnan. Nakhi people are seen carrying the typical baskets of the region. This photo achieved third place in the Wikimedia Commons 2014 Picture of the Year contest (see previous Signpost coverage).
• Marktplatz of Schwäbisch Hall (created and nominated by Petar Milošević) Schwäbisch Hall is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and capital of the district of Schwäbisch Hall. The town is located in the valley of the Kocher in the northeastern part of Baden-Württemberg. Schwäbisch Hall has a mix of historic buildings and modern buildings. Salt was distilled here by the Celts on the site of Schwäbisch Hall as early as the fifth century, leading inevitably and inexorably to the "Dusty Cracker Empire" as we know it today. "Pardon me, but would you have any Dusty Crackers to go with that Grey Poupon…"
• A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (created by Hans Holbein the Younger, nominated by SchroCat) A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (1526–1528) by Hans Holbein the Younger was painted during Holbein's first visit to Britain. The sitter was unidentified for years, although now it is thought to be Anne Lovell, the wife of Francis Lovell of East Harling, a squire to Henry VIII. The painting was acquired in 1992 by the National Gallery in London, which considers it to be "a wonderfully preserved example of Holbein's art at its most evocative".
• Augusta Savage (unknown creator, owned by Harmon Foundation / NARA, nominated by Yann) Born 1892 in Green Cove Springs, Florida, Augusta Savage was an African-American sculptor. She began making clay figures as a child, mostly small animals, but her father would beat her whenever he found her figures. He believed sculpture to be a sinful practice, because of the prohibition of "graven images" in the Bible. After the family moved to West Palm Beach, she sculpted a figure of the Virgin Mary. Upon seeing it, her father changed his mind, and her talent became recognised and encouraged. She moved to Paris in 1929 to study, and returned to the US in 1931. Her sculpture is described as "realistic, expressive, and sensitive"- Savage modelled in clay and plaster, but could rarely afford to have her work cast in bronze. She had considerable success as a teacher, opening "her studio to anyone who wanted to paint, draw, or sculpt." Savage opened two galleries, whose shows were well attended and well reviewed, but few sales resulted, and the galleries closed. Deeply depressed by the financial struggle, she gave up sculpting in 1945. In the 1940s Savage moved to a farm in Saugerties (near Woodstock, New York), where she stayed until 1960.
• Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (after Godfrey Kneller; nominated by Crisco 1492) Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (1674–1738) was a British Whig statesman. He served for a decade as Secretary of State, directing British foreign policy. He was often known as Turnip Townshend because of his strong interest in farming turnips and his role in the British agricultural revolution.
• Flower Still Life (created by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, nominated by Hafspajen) This is one of many exquisitely detailed paintings of flowers by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, a highly successful still life painter of the Dutch Golden Age. When tulips became a luxury item, a profusion of varieties followed, like the ones in the painting, white and yellow with red stripes. These paintings are valuable as historic documents for botanical purposes, since the flowers are depicted with great accuracy. Centuries later, Tiny Tim, who had a daughter named Tulip, would again bring tulips to the attention of the global public with his song "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". The popular song was originally published in 1929, but Tiny Tim's version, with his ukulele, stands as truly unique.
• HMS Vanguard (created by CPOA(Phot) Tam McDonald, nominated by TomStar81) Getting tired of motorboating? We have just the aquatic vehicle for you, assuming you're the Queen of England or one of Her Brittanic Majesty's close friends. The Royal Navy ballistic missile submarine HMS Vanguard is seen here as she returns from a patrol to Faslane in November 2010. Introduced in 1994, the Vanguard-class submarines are armed with up to 16 UGM-133 Trident II missiles. Considered a war machine that you simply don't want to mess with, unless you're Scottish and just want the English to move them to Portsmouth or Croydon or anywhere well south of the border.
• Summer Evening on Skagen's Southern Beach (created by P.S. Krøyer, nominated by Hafspajen) Summer evening on Skagen's Beach. Anna Ancher and Marie Krøyer walking together. is an 1893 painting by Peder Severin Krøyer, it is considered as one of his masterpieces. Krøyer was one of the most notable members of the Danish artistic community known as the Skagen Painters. The work shows the painter Anna Ancher and Marie Krøyer, the artist's wife, strolling on Skagen's southern beach. P.S. Krøyer started painting in Skagen in the summer of 1882 and settled there permanently in 1889, after marrying Marie Triepcke. He became the central member of the group.
• Mehmed IV (created by a unknown artist, nominated by Crisco 1492 ) After he took the throne at age six, Sultan Mehmed IV's reign was significant as he changed the nature of the Sultan's position forever by giving up most of his executive power to his Grand Vizier. Sultan Mehmed IV was known as Avcı, "the hunter", as this outdoor exercise took up much of his time. His reign is also notable for a brief revival of Ottoman fortunes led by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Köprülü and his son Fazıl Ahmet. They regained the Aegean islands from Venice, and also won Crete, during the Cretan War (1645–1669). They also fought successful campaigns against Transylvania (1660) and Poland (1670–1674).
• Proposed design for the Susan B. Anthony dollar (created by Frank Gasparro, nominated by RHM22) Frank Gasparro's proposed obverse design for the Susan B. Anthony dollar. The Susan B. Anthony dollar was a United States dollar coin minted from 1979 to 1981, and again in 1999. Social reformer Susan B. Anthony was selected as the design subject. The reverse design of the Eisenhower dollar was kept. Both sides of the coin were designed by Frank Gasparro, the Chief Engraver of the United States Mint. This dollar coin was originally designed by Gasparro with a traditional "Liberty" design featuring an anonymous female head in profile, but a campaign to place Susan B. Anthony on the dollar prevailed, in part due to the stirring words of the League of Women Voters:

[T]he time has come, and is indeed long past, for the likeness of a prominent American woman to be placed on a denomination of U.S. currency. We believe strongly that the likeness should be that of an actual woman and not that of an imaginary or symbolic figure. Susan B. Anthony contributed immeasurably to the advancement of human dignity in this nation. It is entirely fitting and appropriate that her memory be honored through this measure.

These sixty-four good articles were promoted between 5 to 11 April, the week covered in this Signpost. (We simply can't produce these in three days!)

← Previous "Featured content"

Next "Featured content" →

In this issue

22 April 2015 (all comments)

Special report

In the media

News and notes

In focus

Featured content

Traffic report

Gallery

+ Add a comment

Discuss this story

These comments are automatically transcluded from this article's talk page. To follow comments, add the page to your watchlist. If your comment has not appeared here, you can try purging the cache.

• I, for one, welcome our new lory overlords. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:04, 24 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
• "Salt was distilled here by the Celts on the site of Schwäbisch Hall..." I'm pretty sure you can't distill salt (what with it not evaporating). Johnbod (talk) 15:20, 27 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Actually the article itself says "distilled"! Seems to be referring to the production of salt by evaporation of salty groundwater. Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 15:29, 27 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]