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Inscription surrounded by floral border: Centaurea uniflora L.: PD.11-1980.f.45

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Titles

Inscription surrounded by floral border: Centaurea uniflora L.

Maker(s)

Draughtsman: Bicknell, Clarence

Entities

Categories

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1980) by Bicknell, Peter

Dating

1910s
Production date: AD 1914

School or Style

British

Materials used in production

Watercolour
Graphite

Components of the work

Support composed of paper
Leaf Height 278 mm Width 190 mm

Techniques used in production

Handwriting : Watercolour and graphite on paper
Watercolour

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: and they declaimed in heroic metre a long story. / Our sires were the Centaurs / The famous inventors / Of horseradish lotion for sprains; / They fought with the Corsairs / And lashed them with horse hairs / Pulled out of their tails & their manes. / Both horses and horse-men / Resisted the Norsemen / Who came o'er the sea-horses foam: / Their horsehair-stuffed sofas, / Too hard for those loafers, / Convinced them t'was best to go home. / They scourged every Viking / Not much to his liking, / With whips of their blue and red tails, / While all common Pirates, / Weighed anchor at dire rates / And perished at sea in the gales / But horsemen and horses, when tired of their courses, / Retired to these mountains and vales: / And their children here present, more hoarse than / is pleasant. Now tell you what's left of their tales.
  • Location: Recto
  • Method of creation: Watercolour
  • Text: |||| 1804 R.W.S. GUARANTEED PURE PAPER 5A PALL MALL ||||
  • Location: Bottom of leaf
  • Method of creation: Blind stamp
  • Text: Lychnis / flos Jovis Lamk.
  • Location: Verso
  • Method of creation: Watercolour

Identification numbers

Accession number: PD.11-1980.f.45
Primary reference Number: 43810

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Wednesday 15 October 2025

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints

Citation for print

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

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2026) "Inscription surrounded by floral border: Centaurea uniflora L." Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/43810 Accessed: 2026-01-10 05:00:11

Citation for Wikipedia

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/43810 |title=Inscription surrounded by floral border: Centaurea uniflora L. |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2026-01-10 05:00:11|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-43810

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        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp78/PD_11_1980_f_45_1_201704_sjc288_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Inscription surrounded by floral border: Centaurea uniflora L."
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        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Inscription surrounded by floral border: Centaurea uniflora L.</figcaption>
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