Manual Ref* | NFbrHE001 Show 3 images | 727 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Title* |
Pirate sign (Mary Read) |
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County | Norfolk | District Council | Broadland District Council | |||||||||||||||||||||
Civil Parish or equivalent | Heydon | Town/Village* | Heydon | |||||||||||||||||||||
Road | The Street | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Precise Location | On Earle Arms | |||||||||||||||||||||||
OS Grid Ref | TG113272 | Postcode | NR11 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Previous location(s) | Not known | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Setting | On Building | Access | Public | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Commissioned by |
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Design & Constrn period |
Early 18th century | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of installing |
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Owner/Custodian |
Earle Arms | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Listing status |
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Surface Condition |
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Vandalism |
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Description (physical) |
The figure wears a nautical hat and long dress which emphasises her bare breasts while she rests one hand on a swelling stomach under what may well be a sheath(?) or cutlass | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Description (iconographical) |
The attributes and appearance suggest that this is Mary Read, the most famous female pirate in the early 18th century. Women pirates were reputed to fight bare-breasted to distract their opponents. Contemporary woodblock prints in the Dutch edition of Captain Johnson's book on Pirate show her wearing a similar cap not her dashing pose, with a pistol replacing the bow, is based one of the most famous of all classical statues, the Apollo Belvedere, in the Vatican. Both Mary Read and Anne Bonny leave tops scandalously wide open, to distract the opposition. Mary Read (c. 1685–1721) was captured off Jamaica in 1720 but was spared hanging together with her companion Anne Bonny because she was pregnant, although she died the following year. The figure may have originated as an inn sign for a pub in a major port. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Photographs |
Date taken:
25/11/2007
Date logged: |
Photographed by: |
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On Site Inspection |
Date: 25/11/2007 |
Inspected by: |
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Sources and References |
http://www.woa.tv/articles/hi_readm.html / Captain Charles Johnson (1724) A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pirates, Conway: Maritime Press, 2002 pp. 117-24 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Database |
Date entered: 3/12/2007 |
Data inputter: |