Sunday 14 April 2013

FLIGHTS OF FANCY


Here is a watercolour portrait of a distinguished gent. We found him recently and, because the board has an inscription on the back, I was soon off on a quest for his identity. His name, according to the inscription, was Mr Fluffy Robinson and this portrait was a present to Digby Cayley. I would say the portrait dates from around 1870.
As sometimes happens when researching, I found out very little about the lightweight Mr Robinson and quite a lot about Mr Cayley's family. They were both from Yorkshire and were aristocratic - Digby's father was Sir George Cayley, an aeronautical pioneer who organized the first ever manned flight in 1853, with his coachman, John Appleby, as pilot.



Cayley first developed his theories of flight as a schoolboy in the late 1700s and since that first flight replicas of his machine, a type of glider, have been flown successfully.
    

Even Richard Branson has had a go!


A replica of the flying machine can be seen at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington near York.


None of which helps me with my quest...


...just who is the distinctly unfrivolous-looking Mr Fluffy?

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14 comments:

  1. Don't know who the gent is but my father served at RAF Elvington in WWII flying a Halifax with 77 squadron.

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    1. What a hero! I wonder if you have ever visited the museum?

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  2. I simply don't believe he was called 'Fluffy' - please look again and check the spelling. Surely it's Arnold or Earnest or something - but Fluffy??? No can be.
    Axxx

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  3. It is a very unusual name, perhaps it was just a nickname that is probably how you may not be able to find him. Good luck with your search I am sure you will root him out nilly x

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    1. There ARE Robinsons around that Mr Cayley would have known - some at Newby Hall just down the Road from us - but I fear the true identity of Fluffy is lost forever.(I had a nice chat with Mrs Purple Feather on Monday at Stoneleigh - I think we might have broken the ice!)

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    1. Sorry, not just yet. Mr N wants to tidy him up & frame him.

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  5. a little Botox would've helped him!!
    xx

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  6. ~ I wonder if 'fluffy' is because of his beard... I would like to think so...good luck with your search....Love Maria x

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    1. I think you're probably right - they were probably friends since their teenage years, when they only had fluff!

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  7. I love how researching a 'find' can lead to all manner of other snippets of useful / useless information! M x

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    1. I am renowned for being a mine of useful/useless information! My children & their children know who to come to for answers - even about pop culture!

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