Xanadu 2012: The Fine Lady Tale    
 The Fine Lady Tale7 comments
30 Dec 2009 @ 19:11, by Unknown

finelady
The Fine Lady Statue
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fine lady1 Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
 
To see a fine lady upon a white horse
 
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes

She shall have music wherever she goes
fine lady2

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It was commissioned in recent years and I think three sculptors worked on it?? I shall see if I can find more info. . .
The statue was sculpted in Stoke on Trent and cast in the Welsh village of Llanrhaedr Ym Mochnant... except for the small frog on its base, which was cast in Birmingham and stuck on.
The frog - which sits in a puddle after rain - is there because in mythology, it was the first creature to communicate on land.
Sculptors Andy Edwards, Julian Jeffery and Carl Payne - work as Art-cycle Ltd. Equine sculptor Denise Dutton, helped craft the Fine Lady's horse - a Welsh cob.
The sculptors planned to have two moths and a butterfly in the Fine Lady's head dress, to represent the dark and light periods of the year. But the original wax versions melted under the foundry lights and fell off before casting. One landed in her hair, so they left it. Another's still in the head dress. The third can't be seen - though the sculptors insist it's still there.
fine lady3

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Banbury photographer Rosy Burke gave the sculptors a bunch of daffodils as a gift on the day they made the Fine Lady's head dress. They tore off the leaves, dipped them in wax, and wove them into the final work.
No one knows the true identity of the Fine Lady - she probably never even existed - but the sculptors decided she's Guinevere, from the Arthurian legends.
The rhyme is also thought to refer to a lady in a May Riding tradition, riding through Banbury on May morning. The sculptors picked up on the theme by putting spring flowers in the statue's head-dress, and a yin-yang symbol on the base.
The Fine Lady has her arm raised so she can sprinkle flower petals. 

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7 comments

30 Dec 2009 @ 19:13 by swanny @70.65.9.110 : By Suzanne
A tale spun and wove by Suzanne and Swanny  

30 Dec 2009 @ 19:21 by susannahbe : Nice . . .
Yes, I think it deserves a post of its own! well done sir! - by the way my name is Susannah not Suzanne - which means that unfortunately Leonard Cohen never wrote a song about me. ;-(  

30 Dec 2009 @ 19:33 by swanny @70.65.9.110 : Sorry
Sorry Susannah
My brain doesn't seem to be very good with names
had a bit of a stroke once upon a time.

By Susannah then  

30 Dec 2009 @ 19:52 by susannahbe : That's ok
no problem. ;-)

By the way - just for scale apparently it is 1.5 times bigger than life size.

Are there any nice public sculptures near where you live?  

30 Dec 2009 @ 21:02 by swanny @70.65.9.110 : 1958
Had my stroke in 1958 when I was 2 years old
told i almost died.
oh well
we're alive so I suppose make the best of it.

ed  

30 Dec 2009 @ 21:39 by susannahbe : 2 years old. . .
. . . wow. What caused it?  

30 Dec 2009 @ 22:12 by swanny @70.65.9.110 : Iron Deficiency
Nears as has been figured to date
many about 50% 2 years olds who have similar situations ie stroke today
have an iron deficiency. according to the Toronto childrens hospital
research and study. There is no iron in cows milk but there is in mothers milk
apparently.  

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