Museum Treasure: The Jade Bull

The bull stares at me and I eye him warily. Gathering my courage, I step a little closer to admire his shiny coat and curved horns, which makes for a magnificent sight. Still keeping an eye on him, and without making any sudden movements, I take out my camera and take a picture without a flash. I don’t want disturb the bull, you see. Though the picture is not great (I think my hands shook), but it is still a good capture.

The Jade Bull

I met this bull in December 2008 during one of my many visits to the British Museum London. I can’t remember the details now, but I think he was part of a visiting exhibition from a museum in China, and not part of the British Museum’s collection (they don’t have any information on this bull on their website).

Yes, this is not a real bull, but believe me staring out of his cabinet at the British Museum he looked real enough. He was no bigger than my palm, and yet every feature of his was clearly visible, right down to slightly flared nostrils. Carved out of very dark green jade, he looked very much alive and full of barely suppressed energy. It was almost as if he was just waiting for an opportunity to break free from his confinement. He could have been the proverbial bull in a museum china shop !

So, what do you think?

Museum Treasure: Bust of Rameses II

The Egyptian galleries in the British Museum in London, perhaps, receive the maximum number of visitors every day. These galleries are full of mummies, figurines of gods and shabtis, sculptures of boats, doors, beetles, the Rosetta Stone, busts of various pharaohs, etc. Amidst all these objects and artifacts from Egypt, is the towering stone of Rameses II.

117 doors

During yet another attempt to organise my digital photographs into some sort of a library last weekend, I noticed one thing.

I had lots of photographs of doors. Yes, you read right. Doors. Wooden doors, painted doors, open doors, closed doors, doors in walls, even door exhibits in museums! All in all, I had 117 photographs of doors.

Here are some doors from my collection (obsession?)

Door Exhibits at the British Museum. The one on the right is made of limestone