Family Crest Research Articles

Sixteenth century recessed armour: evaluating links with the Spanish Armada

Several black and white Italian cabassets, and associated armours, are described. All share an unusual, recessed construction and typically bear an etched family crest on the front. The cabassets also have (1) a predominantly Spanish distribution, (2) a high frequency of damage, including tears (that may reflect exposure to ballistic projectiles), (3) a high frequency of paired holes in the brim (for conversion into make-shift buckets?), and (4) distinctive copper-alloy plume-holders. We critically evaluate the stylistic, historical, geographic, ballistic and archaeological evidence that may link these recessed cabassets with the 1588 Spanish Armada. Furthermore, the distinctive family crest on the cabassets, and one breastplate, may provide specific links with a Spanish infantry company commanded by Captain Fernando de Ayala on the Armada’s flag galleass, the San Lorenzo. In combination, these independent lines of evidence suggest that the recessed cabassets were used by troops on the Spanish Armada.

Identification Design of the Emblem Pattern on the Official Robes of the Central Plains Dynasty — Taking the Ming Dynasty As an Example

These Identity design has been an important subject of human concern since ancient times. In ancient feudal society, the same group of people formed a pyramid structure. Taking the Qing Empire as an example, the emperor's robe is yellow with a dragon emblem embroidered on it, symbolizing the emperor's majesty, while the official robes are divided into bird patterns and animal patterns, forming a strict hierarchy. In addition to the level identification between the same groups, the power information and other information of different groups can also be clearly distinguished from each other. For example, the Japanese family crest shows the family information to which the individual belongs, while the European family crest is more of a multi-level presentation, which may include family, class, status and other information. In addition, both of them have a long history and culture and a well-structured and systematic emblem pattern. When later generations studied the totem emblem patterns in other regions, they invariably used the two as a reference for comparison. What are these coats of arms and coats of arms used as a basis for judging status and class? This is the goal of this study, and it is hoped that the final findings will serve as a reference for other researchers.

Identification Design of the Emblem Pattern on the Official Robes of the Central Plains Dynasty — Taking the Ming Dynasty as an Example

These Identity design has been an important subject of human concern since ancient times. In ancient feudal society, the same group of people formed a pyramid structure. Taking the Qing Empire as an example, the emperor's robe is yellow with a dragon emblem embroidered on it, symbolizing the emperor's majesty, while the official robes are divided into bird patterns and animal patterns, forming a strict hierarchy. In addition to the level identification between the same groups, the power information and other information of different groups can also be clearly distinguished from each other. For example, the Japanese family crest shows the family information to which the individual belongs, while the European family crest is more of a multi-level presentation, which may include family, class, status and other information. In addition, both of them have a long history and culture and a well-structured and systematic emblem pattern. When later generations studied the totem emblem patterns in other regions, they invariably used the two as a reference for comparison. What are these coats of arms and coats of arms used as a basis for judging status and class? This is the goal of this study, and it is hoped that the final findings will serve as a reference for other researchers.

Consolidation of Property Rights in Customs and Law: From Family Crests and Coats of Arms to Ex-Libris

The paper is devoted to the study of the features of consolidation of property rights in customs and in law. The authors are shadowing the genesis and evolution of family crests among the Finno-Ugric peoples as one of the ways of of property rights objectification and drawing a parallel with ex-libris endowed with traditional customary and legal characteristics and securing the ownership of books. The choice of the research topic is not accidental, as it is predetermined by the absence of contemporary research works devoted to the problems of customary law of various peoples and research papers covering the features of the customary legal objectification of property rights among the Finno-Ugric peoples, as well as the legal nature of the ex libris. Under the conditions of the positivist legal doctrine prevalence, the Soviet science was convinced in disappearing and rudimentary nature of customary law and in the absence of the need to study the problems of ethnic law explaining the functioning of customary legal institutions. This conviction did not allow exploring various elements forming the essence of ethnic law that «emerged from the people», determining characteristic features of their functioning and carrying out research on social relations in a traditional society. The paper reveals similar and distinctive features in the consolidation of property rights in customs and law using family crests and ex-libris applied exclusively to books as property objects.

Corporate identity, company law and currency: a survey of community images on English bank notes

ABSTRACT Financial instruments are the subject of considerable interest. The supply of promissory notes has attracted the attention of financial historians, political economists and antiquarians, alike. We consider bank notes as a mechanism for building corporate identity. The article focuses on the bank notes that were issued in the early nineteenth century by newly established joint stock banks in the English provinces. Despite not having a legal personality, which could be separated from the bank’s owners, the banks did not use symbols of the owners, such as family crests or other personal means, to communicate their identity. The article shows that these notes displayed symbols of a collective culture and regional identity. We argue that this was crucial to building the bank’s position within the local commercial community and in generating a persona which customers could trust.

Amxsame’ su sa ‘Nawalakw (the supernatural spirit wraps around us): impacts of Kwakwaka’wakw regalia making on identity, wellness and belonging in ‘Yalis, British Columbia

In this article, we share findings from a community-based Participatory Action Research project, titled Sanala, which means to be whole in Kwak’wala—the language of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwak̓wala-speaking people; a First Nation from what is now called Canada). In response to community priorities, the Sanala team initiated regalia as a weekly programme where people from the ‘Namgis tribe and other surrounding Kwakwaka’wakw Nations on the northwest coast of British Columbia, Canada, come together to create regalia. Participants learn about family crests, design and sew button blankets and dance aprons, and learn oral histories belonging to individuals and families, all within the context of Kwak’wala language revitalization and regalia making. We outline the impacts of this programme on identity, belonging, wholistic health and collective wellbeing, as well as implications for Participatory Action Research and community-led research aimed at strengthening individual and collective health and wellness through Indigenous languages and cultural continuity.

Pillin: A Family of Sword Cutlers

To many with an interest in British military swords the name of Pillin will be very familiar. Yet, for a firm which traded for at least 65 years there is little information available about its activities beyond a few bare dates and addresses often quoted from the same sources. The original source of much of this information is unclear and some of this now appears questionable. In writing this article my intention is to provide a more comprehensive account of the Pillin dynasty. By examining what new evidence may be available I hope to evaluate and revise contemporary wisdom regarding Pillin’s operations. In conducting this research during a global Covid-19 pandemic, amid national and local lockdowns, I am restricted in source material but have relied heavily on sources available online. Such methodology carries its own risks, there are gaps in the available datasets and frustratingly, transcription errors can both hamper searches and offer false positive matches. Nevertheless, with the rise in popularity of ancestry research, new data sources are constantly being made available. In today’s world of social media and online resources we have ready access to data of which researchers even 15 years ago could only have dreamed. Information regarding sword cutlers, such as their trading dates and addresses, is of particular interest as it can help to correctly date a sword. This in turn can assist with identifying an original owner. In the case of British blades, etched with the owner’s initials or a family crest, cross referencing with the Army lists will often provide multiple possible candidates over the lifetime of a sword pattern. Accurately identifying the year of manufacture can significantly assist in narrowing the field of potential matches against any one set of initials. A desire to identify the original owners of some of my own collected swords, and to assist others to do the same, provided the seed of motivation for my research into the Pillin dynasty. I hope this article provides a useful platform for additional research.

“Innumeras praetera sumptuosissimas domos”: le residenze di casa Borromeo. Vivere nel Ducato di Milano tra XV e XVI secolo

«Innumeras praetera sumptuosissimas domos»: Urban and Suburban Residences of Borromeo’s Family Members in the Ducato of Milan (XV- XVI century) From the beginning of the 15th century, the Borromeo’s family members (bankers and merchants coming from Tuscany and established in Milan), began to restore and build many residences for family use. Scattered throughout the Ducato of Milan, mansions were located inside feuds or countryside properties, devoted to crop production. Fortresses in Arona, Angera, Camairago and Bissone could guarantee the control of their domains; the abodes in Lainate, Robecco, Origgio ensured a relaxing stay, a pleasant hospitality and hunting grounds as well as the leisure activities of otio. In the city, the three districts of Porta Vercellina, Porta Tosa and Porta Romana/Ticinese were representative of the high social status achieved by the family. In the suburbs, there were the profitable lands of Peschiera and Longhignana with their castle-shaped farmsteads surrounded by irrigation ditches and gardens to witness the economic success and entrepreneurial skills. The urban and suburban houses were constantly enlarged and reorganized in terms of planimetry as well as interior layouts. The exterior walls of each buildings were also decorated with rich paintings full of different colours, based on geometric shapes and family crests, of which, however, only a small residual trace remains today. Living these mansions over seasons, the Borromeo family spent its time moving from place to place for safety needs, economic reasons and social visibility. This way of life, which we could actually consider as “Late Gothic”, was probably not only a typical feature of the family of the Counts of Arona, but perhaps it was shared with other peers having similar roles in the ducal society of Milan between the 15th and 16th centuries. However, it was so a distinctive feature that it became the most consolidated memory of the family’s way of life in the following centuries.

Taya Caves, a Buddhist marvel hidden in underground Japan: stone properties, deterioration, and environmental setting

The Buddhist sacred site of Taya Caves is a gem hidden underground in Yokohama, Japan. The caves were excavated and sculpted into bare rock by Shingon Buddhist monks from the Kamakura until the Edo period (thirteenth–nineteenth century), and dedicated to ascetic training, rituals, and pilgrimage. They are a maze of halls and galleries decorated with hundreds of rock-cut reliefs, picturing deities and masters of Buddhism, temples and shrines, real and fantastic animals, vegetal motifs, mandalas, zodiac signs, family crests, etc. The history and rock art of Taya Caves and the urge to preserve their cultural value led to this first-ever scientific investigation, dealing with the stone properties, deterioration, and environmental setting. Textural, mineralogical, geochemical, and petrophysical investigations were combined with a microclimate monitoring and chemical analyses of groundwater and rainwater. The caves are excavated into a clay-rich fossiliferous siltstone, extremely soft and porous and highly susceptible to water-driven weathering. Water represents a constant in Taya Caves, either flowing, dripping, and stagnant; or rising from the subsoil; or related to the extremely high relative humidity. Crusts and efflorescences represent important indicators of mineral dissolution and mobilization. The crusts are made of gypsum, crystallized from the dissolution of calcareous bioclasts and oxidation of pyrite, with minor calcite. The efflorescences are composed of chlorides, phosphates, sulfates, and carbonates, possibly deriving from agrochemicals and the surface vegetation cover. The salt weathering is strictly related to the microenvironmental variables and physico-chemical properties of the phases and waters involved. Rock-water interaction is particularly damaging even considering just the physical mechanisms. The stone is strongly sensitive to water absorption, hygroscopic adsorption, and slaking: the stresses generated by in-pore water and air movement and the swelling clay minerals may lead to rapid disintegration, especially during cyclic processes. This research is expected to raise concerns about the safeguard of Taya Caves and support future monitoring and conservation plans, and to foster a wider promotion and valorization of this heritage site.

Theodore Roosevelt’s Tattoos and the Presidential Election of 1912

On April 10, 1912, America’s leading humor magazine, Puck, featured on its cover a satirical political cartoon entitled The New Tattooed Man: He Makes an Exhibition of Himself. The illustration depicts Theodore Roosevelt’s skin covered with tattoos. This contribution tells the story behind this political cartoon and the role that it played in the 1912 presidential election. It also corrects mistaken Internet folklore that claims that Theodore Roosevelt had his family crest tattooed on his chest. He did not have such a tattoo. Roosevelt did, however, have gunpowder tattoos that he accidentally inflicted on himself as a 13-year-old boy. A brief review of gunpowder tattoos is provided.

The effects of transformations of family crests symbolizing plants on changes of impressions

The effects of transformations of family crests symbolizing plants on changes of impressions

Branding: A Prosthesis of Identity

This article investigates the prosthesis of identity through the process of branding. It examines cross-cultural manifestations of this phenomena from sixth millennium BCE Syria to twelfth century Japan and Britain. From the Neolithic Era, humanity has sort to extend their identities using pictorial signs that were characteristically simple. Designed to be distinctive and instantly recognisable, the totemic symbols served to signal the origin of the bearer. Subsequently, the development of branding coincided with periods of increased in mobility both in respect to geography and social strata. This includes fifth millennium Mesopotamia, nineteenth century Britain, and America during the 1920s. There are fewer articles of greater influence on contemporary culture than A Theory of Human Motivation written by Abraham Maslow in 1943. Nearly seventy-five years later, his theories about the societal need for “belongingness” and “esteem” remain a mainstay of advertising campaigns (Maslow). Although the principles are used to sell a broad range of products from shampoo to breakfast cereal they are epitomised by apparel. This is with refence to garments and accessories bearing corporation logos. Whereas other purchased items, imbued with abstract products, are intended for personal consumption the public display of these symbols may be interpreted as a form of signalling. The intention of the wearers is to literally seek the fulfilment of the aforementioned social needs.

Appreciating the Whole: Dante Now

Appreciating the Whole:Dante Now Akash Kumar I am sure that many teachers who teach Dante dwell on the chapter "Il canto di Ulisse" when they come to Inferno 26. And how could we not? Primo Levi's moving account of his struggle to remember the text and meaning of Dante's poem, his difficulties in explaining the details of the Commedia to his French companion Jean, and most importantly, his stunning evocation of Ulysses' dictum "Considerate la vostra semenza," provide an oasis within the horrors of Auschwitz recounted in Se questo è un uomo. When Levi recites those verses, it is as if he too is reborn and able to forget where he is: "Come se anch'io lo sentissi per la prima volta: come uno squillo di tromba, come la voce di Dio. Per un momento, ho dimenticato chi sono e dove sono."1 If Ulysses' vision of a human potential that ever seeks new and greater knowledge can provide Levi something to hold on to, something to have faith in as he witnesses and is subjected to the most vile inhumanity that we are capable of, then surely we can make the case to our students in the global twenty-first century classroom that this is a poem worth reading. It reaches out well beyond its own moment to inspire us to rise above and embrace a vision of human excellence that defies boundaries of religion, culture, and class. As Teodolinda Barolini argues, this is in line with Dante's non-stereotyping imagination. If Ulysses represents, in part, a deep and abiding respect for classical culture, Dante also steps out of line with the popular, orthodox culture of his moment in making his usurers of Inferno 16 not Jews but Christians hailing from his own city, with their moneybags prominently emblazoned with their family crests. Barolini notes that "Dante transfers the stereotypic image—the moneybags [End Page 178] worn around the neck—from the stereotypic wearers—the Jews who were synonymous with usurers in much of Europe—to contemporary Florentines and one Paduan."2 But this is by no means the only representation of Jews in the Commedia. A full accounting must also consider the razing of the Temple by Titus framed in Paradiso 6.93 as just vengeance and the charge of deicide leveled against "Giudei" in Paradiso 7.47. Before we get to these moments, we have the spiritual competition over vows put forth in Paradiso 5 and Beatrice's exhortation to Christians that they not follow the pull of greed like sheep, lest they be subjected to the mockery of Jews: "Se mala cupidigia altro vi grida / uomini siate, e non pecore matte, / sì che 'l Giudeo di voi tra voi non rida" (Par. 5.79–81). And it is here that we can think once again of Primo Levi as a reader of Dante, as he homes in on a moment far less groundbreaking and far more typical of a cultural paradigm that marginalized him and his community. In Il sistema periodico, when he recounts the fraught atmosphere in the wake of the passing of the racial laws, Levi poignantly expresses his conflicted feelings with respect to how his fellow students and his teachers viewed him: Da pochi mesi erano state proclamate le leggi raziali, e stavo diventando un isolato anch'io. I compagni cristiani erano gente civile, nessuno fra loro né fra i professori mi aveva indirizzato una parola o un gesto nemico, ma li sentivo allontanarsi, e, seguendo un comportamento antico, anch'io me ne allontanavo: ogni sguardo scambiato fra me e loro era accompagnato da un lampo minuscolo, ma percettibile, di diffidenza e di sospetto. Che pensi tu di me? Che cosa sono io per te? Lo stesso di sei mesi addietro, un tuo pari che non va a messa, o il giudeo che "di voi tra voi non rida"?3 Levi cites Paradiso 5 not in the vein of light and celebration, but as a way of pointing back to the ancient roots of the anti-Semitism that was being directed at him. He wonders if his old ties of friendship, education, and camaraderie still hold or whether the people...

The fatherly consciousness and the father's image of Yun Jeung's family crest

The fatherly consciousness and the father's image of Yun Jeung's family crest

2016 International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival

2016 International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival THE 2016 INTERNATIONAL SIGLO DE ORO Drama Festival ran from March 30 to April 2, and, while similar in scope to that of years past, this year's festival was distinctive in that it featured the American debut of recently discovered play by Lope de Vega (Mujeresy criados) and marked the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes with bilingual presentation of selected entremeses (Entremeses cervantinos). A new theatrical adaptation of La Celestina and unique staging of Lope's lesser-known El principe ynocente, featuring the naque style of theater, rounded out the festival's program. The performing troupes hailed from Spain (Madrid), Mexico (Ciudad Juarez, Mexico City), and the United States (El Paso), performed in both Spanish and English, and contributed meaningfully to Chamizal's efforts to promote and understand a culture which has had significant impact on our own (About the Festival). The following reviews reflect the diversity of staging, acting, and texts that make Chamizal's annual Siglo de Oro festival perennial favorite among community members, academics, and theater practitioners alike.Mujeres y criados: Lope's Recovered Comedy at ChamizalIn January 2014, Spain's National Library and the Grupo de Investigacion PROLOPE of the University of Barcelona announced the discovery of Mujeres y criados, long-lost comedia by Lope de Vega. (Lope most likely wrote the play in 1613 or 1614, almost exactly 400 years before its rediscovery.) The following month, Alejandro Garcia-Reidy's article, which described the process of finding and authenticating the work, appeared, and in May of the same year, Garcia-Reidy published the first edition of the play with Editorial Gredos. Sometime during those exciting months, Rodrigo Arribas received phone call asking if his theater company, Fundacion Siglo de Oro, would consider bringing the newly discovered work to the stage. Arribas and Laurence Boswell (Royal Shakespeare Company) directed the production, which premiered at the Teatro Espanol in Madrid on April 29, 2015. The troupe gave their 45th performance of the play in El Paso, Texas at the Chamizal Siglo de Oro Drama Festival on March 30, 2016.The play opened on dark stage. A church bell rang three times and then an acoustic guitar played few bars of baroque music, which suddenly sped up and merged into rock music on an electric guitar. Throughout the show, the music, composed for this production by Xavier Diaz Latorre, surprised the audience and made it difficult to locate the work solely in the seventeenth century. Most frequently, music served to keep scene changes from dragging, and in his conversations about the play, Arribas revealed that the group intended to use the music to make the sets dance. Sometimes the music reflected the mood of scene. Slow, deep, descending notes built suspense during night scene and then became animated during sword fight. When all turned out well, guitar strummed happy notes, accompanied by castanets. At other times, ceremonial music marked significant moment in the play and added comic effect. Before the scene in which Florencio tried to force his daughters to drink acero (medicine to help with anemia), an almost sacramental music played as the servant Lope pushed onto the stage small cart with the vials of medicine covered by domed lid. As the sisters stepped slowly toward the dreaded potion, drum beat the rhythm of an execution. Similarly, whenever Count Prospero entered the home of Florencio, fanfare music to announce the arrival of dignitary heralded his visit.Karmen Abarca designed the sets that danced to the music and all of the play's action developed in front of them. Her design, reminiscent of Golden Age trastos and bastidores, consisted of flexible set of interconnected frames with double curtains hanging from each section of the framework. Three frames unfolded across the stage with the center frame decorated by large, slightly nebulous family crest represented the count's palace. …

Strange Whims of Crest Fiends: Marketing Heraldry in the United States, 1880–1980

The display of a “family crest” to signal family identity is prevalent in the contemporary United States. However, during the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, many American commentators perceived the widespread use of heraldry by the high bourgeoisie as at best a mark of social pretension and at worst a symptom of an un-American predilection for aristocracy. Over the course of a century, heraldic entrepreneurs sought to broaden the market for family crests, and in doing so Americanized heraldic practice. The early projects of Albert Welles, Frank Allaben and Frances M. Smith linked heraldry with new approaches to genealogical research and encouraged its use by a broad cross section of American society. In the late twentieth century, entrepreneur Gary Halbert sold millions of heraldic mementos that epitomized the modern commodification of history and identity. The result of a century of marketing is an American heraldry that is both more accessible than its European antecedents and less closely tied to verifiable genealogical relationships.

Uwagi o znakach własnościowych z drugiej połowy XV i pierwszej ćwierci XVI wieku w inkunabułach Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej w Poznaniu

This article reports on a set of remarks on the characteristic types of private ownership marks that are to be fund in the incunabula currently held in the collection of old and rare books at Poznan University Library. The marks of ownership are analyzed and positioned against the cultural phenomena of the late Middle Ages and early decades of Renaissance in Europe and Poland. First, the hand-painted bookplate (the earliest form of book plates) is discussed. This analysis is then followed by descriptions of the sketched altar model (bookplate depicting an altar) with the coat-of-arms of the donator pasted into a book as an object of devotion and, presumably, a proper mark of ownership, then the so-called clasp hasp bookplate (in German language: Schliesen-Exlibris), placed on the hasp of the clasp on the binding. Finally, names inscribed on the inside front cover of a book that indicated its owner or owners, and individual family crests placed on title pages are discussed. Separate attention is given to graphical bookplates, in particular to unique pieces of ornamentation that relate to the anonymous book collector with the exhibited noble Rawicz coat of arms, as well as to book plates imprinted directly onto pages of books.

Japanese Crystallography in Culture and Art

"We can find many seeds of crystallography in Japanese culture. Most of the family crests have symmetry elements such as rotation axes and mirror symmetry elements. Sekka-zue, a picture book of 86 kinds of crystals of snow, was made by Toshitura Doi, who is a feudal lord in Edo-period and he observed snow using a microscope in nineteenth century. In recent years, people enjoy to make crystal structures, polyhedrons, carbon nanotube, quasicrystal etc. by origami, the art of folding paper [1]. In the field of science, the Japanese crystallography has contributed to explore culture and art. An excellent example is unveiling the original color of Japanese painting "Red and White Plum Blossoms" by Korin Ogata [2]. Prof. Izumi Nakai (Tokyo University of Science) developed an X-ray fluorescence analyzer and an X-ray powder diffractometer designated to the investigation of cultural and art works and had succeeded in reproducing the silver-colored waves through computer graphics after X-ray analyses of crystals on the painting. The scientific approach by Prof. Nakai et al. unveiled the mystery of cultural heritage of ancient near east, ancient Egypt etc. and is being to contribute to insight into the history of human culture. [1] An event to enjoy making crystals by origami is under contemplation. [2] The symposium ""Crystallography which revives heritages"" was held on February 16, 2014 at Atami in Japan."

Das Familienwappen: Eine Methode zum besseren Verständnis der emotionalen Situation und dem familiären Umfeld von Kindern und Jugendlichen

Introduced is a method which presents drawing and creativity from the child's perspective for family therapy. This procedure is especially applicable for children from 5 to 13 years of age. Focused are the drawing, the comments of the child and his or her sense for the patterns of relationships within the family. The family crest mirrors the inner life of the child as well as his or her perception of family relations.Working with the family crest is realised by the therapist and the child and taped on video to be able to talk about it with the parents, evaluate it together and establish systemic relationships. Presented are the course of the procedure, position and influence of the therapist as well as theoretical aspects.

The Drowning of Hubert Crackanthorpe and the Persecution of Leila Macdonald

The Drowning of Hubert Crackanthorpe and the Persecution of Leila Macdonald Jad Adams On 27 December 1896 diplomat Dayrell Crackanthorpe sat down in the Hotel Metropolitain, Rue Caraban, Paris, to explain to publisher John Lane exactly how the death of his brother should be interpreted: "I was so closely linked to him in point of years as well as by natural sympathies that I feel it my duty to get rid of any wrong impression that may have been produced as to the cause of his death."1 Dayrell and his mother, the writer and society hostess Blanche Crackanthorpe, and her youngest son, Oliver, had rushed to Paris three days previously on being informed by the French police that a body, almost certainly that of Hubert Crackanthorpe, had been recovered from the Seine on 23 December. The story of Crackanthorpe's death is a familiar tale of the fin de siècle, recognised at the time as a defining incident and frequently recounted thereafter. Previously unpublished letters, however, show how the story was manipulated by the Crackanthorpe family and how his wife Leila was blamed for Crackanthorpe's death by his friends and relatives. They show how Leila used John Lane as a go-between to communicate with James Welch, the husband of Crackanthorpe's mistress, and how Leila was supported by Henry and Aline Harland. The period after his death saw the elevation of Crackanthorpe as the great lost leader of the Decadent/Realist school with a commemorative volume including an "appreciation" by Henry James. Leila Macdonald's work was disregarded as if she had nothing to offer, despite her later works showing a developing talent. Worse were the lies and persecution; in a previously unpublished letter the author Haldane Macfall described how he plotted to cheat Leila of her inheritance; new research in probate records shows how this was achieved. A previously unpublished letter to Aline Harland shows how ten years after the death [End Page 6] Click for larger view View full resolution The "Missing" Notice The Graphic 14 December 1896 [End Page 7] Leila still lived in fear of the wrath of the Crackanthorpes. She was banished to such obscurity that important biographical details, including such essentials as her date and place of death, are reported here for the first time. Not even a photograph of Leila can be located. Before the Crackanthorpe family arrived that December day in 1896 the body, decomposed beyond recognition, had been identified at the morgue from the clothes, linen marks, and articles upon it such as a single cuff link, a silver cigarette case and match box, and a ring bearing the family crest. The police found no evidence of robbery or foul play; they judged that from the appearance of the corpse it must have been in the water for fully six weeks. That being the case, the death on 5 November 1896 was either suicide or accident. Dayrell, an official at the Foreign Office, was at pains to ensure his brother's death was not subject to an inquest. The police concurred, one presumes with a shrug; there was nothing in it for them to hold an inquest on a foreign national where there were no suspicious circumstances. The body was released to the family to be shipped back to England. That secured, Dayrell set to ensure the family's view of events was the public one. His letter to Lane explained: My brother's death was self-inflicted: on his body was found a letter written to him by his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, on the 4th of November last. They had been living in the Avenue Kléber during the two previous months, and in this letter she announced to him her intention of leaving him. This she did the same evening. Having traced her to a Paris hotel, my brother went to her early on the 5th of November and implored her to give him an explanation. She refused to see him and that same night my brother disappeared. "I beg you will make all possible use of this letter," he wrote, in this previously unpublished communication which is a small gem...