Skip to main content

Inscription, by Clarence Bicknell

Image attached to PD.11-1980.f.57

An image of Recto: Inscription with floral illustration: Sempervivum hirtum L. Bicknell, Clarence (British, 1842-1918).  RECTO: hold on to us: and off they went / singing merrily / "Never say 'did', / Or think about 'I', / Live for the others / Never mind bothers, / Sempervivum, Sempervivum, / All alivum, all alivum!" / And people thought the show was / over, but there was one more, and / when he was seen coming, voices / said. Shy, it's Mr. Dandelion! / Who ever would have expected him / to come. We've seen him millions / of times, the common Dandelion! / and some called out "Halloa! / Dandy", and others "Beware of the lion." But though his real name was / Taraxacum, he didn't mind their nicknames, and he cer- / -tainly looked very bright and beautiful with his round shining / face. When he came up he said very modestly, / I'm such a common thing you know, / I hardly liked to come. / Nor can I speak out well; this show / Of beauty strikes me dumb. VERSO: I only try by smiling face / To gladden every one, / And have no merit, save the grace / Of being like the sun. / My work brings me but little wealth, / Tho' all work blessing gains, / I just grow salad for your health / And med'cine for your pains. / I have great teeth and fearful claws / Quite like a savage beast; / But never kill or wound, because / I would not hurt the least / And when in stormy days, few choose / To travel up above / I send my aeroplanes with news / And messages of love. / And everywhere I gladly live; / In Babylon or Sion! / And all I have quite freely give, / Though but a Dandelion." / And so the procession ended, and the judges conferred together, while the / crowd collected. Then Mr. Rhododendron said "We are very grateful to you / all who have taken part in our most successful festival, and hope that next / year many of those who have not competed this time will do so: Some of / you we consider to be more beautiful, more original, or perhaps more useful, / but no one seems to us to combine so many me

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

About this image

Recto: Inscription with floral illustration: Sempervivum hirtum L. Bicknell, Clarence (British, 1842-1918). RECTO: hold on to us: and off they went / singing merrily / "Never say 'did', / Or think about 'I', / Live for the others / Never mind bothers, / Sempervivum, Sempervivum, / All alivum, all alivum!" / And people thought the show was / over, but there was one more, and / when he was seen coming, voices / said. Shy, it's Mr. Dandelion! / Who ever would have expected him / to come. We've seen him millions / of times, the common Dandelion! / and some called out "Halloa! / Dandy", and others "Beware of the lion." But though his real name was / Taraxacum, he didn't mind their nicknames, and he cer- / -tainly looked very bright and beautiful with his round shining / face. When he came up he said very modestly, / I'm such a common thing you know, / I hardly liked to come. / Nor can I speak out well; this show / Of beauty strikes me dumb. VERSO: I only try by smiling face / To gladden every one, / And have no merit, save the grace / Of being like the sun. / My work brings me but little wealth, / Tho' all work blessing gains, / I just grow salad for your health / And med'cine for your pains. / I have great teeth and fearful claws / Quite like a savage beast; / But never kill or wound, because / I would not hurt the least / And when in stormy days, few choose / To travel up above / I send my aeroplanes with news / And messages of love. / And everywhere I gladly live; / In Babylon or Sion! / And all I have quite freely give, / Though but a Dandelion." / And so the procession ended, and the judges conferred together, while the / crowd collected. Then Mr. Rhododendron said "We are very grateful to you / all who have taken part in our most successful festival, and hope that next / year many of those who have not competed this time will do so: Some of / you we consider to be more beautiful, more original, or perhaps more useful, / but no one seems to us to combine so many me

Image data

  • Accession Number: PD.11-1980.f.57
  • Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
  • Aperture: f/19.0
  • Focal length: 80
  • Camera: Hasselblad H4D-31
  • Photographer name: Sam Cole
  • Image height: 1025 pixels
  • Image width: 699 pixels
  • Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
  • Filesize: 593.67kB
  • Exposure time: 1/125
  • ISO Speed: 100
  • Fnumber: 19/1

Key words

20th Century Bicknell British School Clarence Bicknell drawing Fitz_PDP handwriting handwritten illustrated illustration inscriptions sketch sketchbook writing

Colours in this image

rgb(238,232,217), rgb(6,6,5), rgb(230,160,63), rgb(227,195,133), rgb(208,103,22), rgb(150,143,120), rgb(193,162,125), rgb(210,194,170), rgb(108,108,92), rgb(106,100,92), rgb(191,184,165)

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Inscription, by Clarence Bicknell" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-208976 Accessed: 2024-12-18 17:11:43

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-208976 |title=Inscription, by Clarence Bicknell |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 17:11:43|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-208976

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp78/PD_11_1980_f_57_verso_201704_sjc288_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Inscription with floral illustration: Sempervivum hirtum L."
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Inscription, by Clarence Bicknell</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>
    

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...