Do you intend to come and look at the Bayeux tapestry?

[PH]

we and the americans saved their butts a few years ago ( twice ), before that, their butts from Napoleon.

Only if your grasp of history comes from Hollywood, which is probably less accurate than the tapestry.

[Mick F]

I've not read all this thread, but I voted NO as soon as I saw the poll.
It would be in London.

For the vast majority of people, it would be better to go over to Normandy and see it there, as you get a nice weekend in a lovely medieval town.

BTW, I saw it in the late 1980s. My ship HMS Sirius visited Caen for the annual festivities, and as I always took my bike, I went out on a couple of rides round Normandy, including Bayeux.

[pwa]

I didn't bother seeing it when I was in Bayeux, so making a special trip to join a long queue in London seems unlikely.

[francovendee]

I think we should keep it. Afterall it has more to do with our history than france's, plus it was created in this country by people who were, in part, our ancestors. Maybe we could give the french them manky elgin marbles and let them sort it out with the greeks.

Anyway, in case no one has said it yet, and to maintain the forum's reputation for quality pedantry, can i just point out, it's not a flipping tapestry it's an embroidery.

Yes my wife pointed out that it was embroidery when we saw it in Bayeux. Good idea about the Elgin marbles but better to just give them back to the owners rather than the French. Don't know where to stop on 'returning' things to the 'rightful owner's. Gibraltar, the Falklands ,

[pwa]

I think we should keep it. Afterall it has more to do with our history than france's, plus it was created in this country by people who were, in part, our ancestors. Maybe we could give the french them manky elgin marbles and let them sort it out with the greeks.

Anyway, in case no one has said it yet, and to maintain the forum's reputation for quality pedantry, can i just point out, it's not a flipping tapestry it's an embroidery.

Yes my wife pointed out that it was embroidery when we saw it in Bayeux. Good idea about the Elgin marbles but better to just give them back to the owners rather than the French. Don't know where to stop on 'returning' things to the 'rightful owner's. Gibraltar, the Falklands ,

Simpler to hang on to things. If we gave Gib to Spain, Spain might have to give back the bits of North Africa it hangs on to. Argentina might have to hand back their country to native people, the USA ditto.

[softlips]

Saw it last year, wouldn't be interested in seeing it again.

[Lance Dopestrong]

If it comes here I'll go see it. Apparently Donald Trump isnon it.

[Tangled Metal]

I think we should keep it. Afterall it has more to do with our history than france's, plus it was created in this country by people who were, in part, our ancestors. Maybe we could give the french them manky elgin marbles and let them sort it out with the greeks.

Anyway, in case no one has said it yet, and to maintain the forum's reputation for quality pedantry, can i just point out, it's not a flipping tapestry it's an embroidery.

Yes my wife pointed out that it was embroidery when we saw it in Bayeux. Good idea about the Elgin marbles but better to just give them back to the owners rather than the French. Don't know where to stop on 'returning' things to the 'rightful owner's. Gibraltar, the Falklands ,

Simpler to hang on to things. If we gave Gib to Spain, Spain might have to give back the bits of North Africa it hangs on to. Argentina might have to hand back their country to native people, the USA ditto.

What about UK? Go back far enough you'll see the natives your incomer ancestors took land from too. Who's really native anyway? Anything you give back is based on a subjective date for deciding who the natives are.

Anyone believes the Elgin marbles would have survived to now without being "stolen" with the permission of the occupying rulers at the time? If conflicts in Athens didn't degrade them then pollution would judging by the efforts the Greek authorities had to go to in order to stabilise the sculptures left behind.

Of course I do think they should go back but in coming to my view it was a close run thing. The redeeming features of London's claim to keep it is the established location to display them safely and the idea that the British museum is actually one of a few museums where you can see the history of the whole world in one place through the artifacts collected from around the world.

[pwa]

Yes my wife pointed out that it was embroidery when we saw it in Bayeux. Good idea about the Elgin marbles but better to just give them back to the owners rather than the French. Don't know where to stop on 'returning' things to the 'rightful owner's. Gibraltar, the Falklands ,

Simpler to hang on to things. If we gave Gib to Spain, Spain might have to give back the bits of North Africa it hangs on to. Argentina might have to hand back their country to native people, the USA ditto.

What about UK? Go back far enough you'll see the natives your incomer ancestors took land from too. Who's really native anyway? Anything you give back is based on a subjective date for deciding who the natives are.

Anyone believes the Elgin marbles would have survived to now without being "stolen" with the permission of the occupying rulers at the time? If conflicts in Athens didn't degrade them then pollution would judging by the efforts the Greek authorities had to go to in order to stabilise the sculptures left behind.

Of course I do think they should go back but in coming to my view it was a close run thing. The redeeming features of London's claim to keep it is the established location to display them safely and the idea that the British museum is actually one of a few museums where you can see the history of the whole world in one place through the artifacts collected from around the world.

Not saying you are wrong, just pointing out that it all depends where in time you draw your lines, and if you don't have a cut-off, practically everything and everywhere belongs to someone else. Easier just to stick with what you have now.

[Tangled Metal]

My point exactly. If you go back a year you might as well go back a millennia. Any going back just leads to an arbitrary cutoff that has no more right than any other cutoff.

[Audax67]

Dunno why I should go and see it in London when I can ride over to Normandy and have a butcher's myself, hoping the while that no thieving tourist makes off with my bike while I'm butchering at the butchery on the wall inside. I've been past Bayeux a couple of times, though, and never felt the ganderish urge.

I'm sparing a thought for the poor bloody nuns, though, who pored over that chunk of cloth for untold years, shoving needles through into their freezing fingers by the smoky light of tallow drips only to be sneered at by the lately informed who've just discovered that it's <shock, horror, awe> an embroidery. The PBN knew they were embroidering and had the PB fingers to show for it. It's really too bad that some ignoramus, likely at two or three centuries remove and very likely a tourist, didn't know his needlework so trotted out "tapestry" and had his ignorance retailed by all & sundry thereafter. Shame on him and all his parrots; and pity, honour and admiration to the PBN for their devotion.

That's all jolly good fun. In fact, though, the word tapestry derives from the French tapisserie, meaning a carpet or wall hanging of unspecified construction, so it mattereth not a damn whether it was embroidered or not. It could have been painted and still been a tapisserie.

I hope, trust and pray that this has contributed nothing to the present wrangle.

[Bonefishblues]

Serious Q. In the context of similar works of the time, isn't the BT a bit of a rubbish piece of work?

[Audax67]

Serious Q. In the context of similar works of the time, isn't the BT a bit of a rubbish piece of work?

Can you point us at any such, of similar magnitude?

[Bonefishblues]

Serious Q. In the context of similar works of the time, isn't the BT a bit of a rubbish piece of work?

Can you point us at any such, of similar magnitude?

Sorry, what do you mean - not sure there's anything as big, but that wasn't my point, which was about its intrinsic quality.

[Cyril Haearn]

The Bayeux Embroidery
The Bayeux Embroidery
The Bayeux Embroidery
The Bayeux Embroidery