The bay window on the Queen Anne Street facade is decorated with the figures of Day and Night, again by Frederick Schenk.
Day is a woman reclining in a Roman-style columned attic, catching a few rays. She holds something in her right hand - a notebook? an abacus?
Night is an astronomer with a telescope and a celestial globe. The sky is studded with stars that look like paper stars cut out by a child and pasted to the window. He supports his elbow on a pile of books, presumably star atlases.
2 comments:
I don't think Day does have anything in her right hand. There are some fabric gathers behind her hand just like those elsewhere on her dress. These are lovely sculptures. Beresford Pite is an interesting architect. Do you know his alphabetic Islington Library? Here: http://www.londonremembers.com/site/1870
I think she does. I think it looks like a small bag of the satchel type and what our Blogger interprets as an abacus is the buckle of the bag. Whatever it is, it has a distinct rounded edge to it which could be seen as the curl of a drape, but I dont think it is. Quite why Day would be carrying a bag I have no idea - perhaps for nail polish to give her "the rosy fingers of dawn"? Aurora, goddess of
Daybreak and wife of Apollo, was traditionally represented as scattering rose petals before her as she brought light back to the world.
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