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watermarks

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Gongoozler

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  1. Thank you for all the replies and pictures everyone, this has been fascinating (and sorry for slow response from me! Came down with Xmas flu, so various things went on the back burner....) I never would have thought about the bacofoil connection as well, but that makes total sense! Brilliany photos and will definitely check out the 'Brightwork' book. Thank you.
  2. Hello all. I have been interested for a while in the presence in many canal boat painting schemes of what canal historian Tony Lewery calls the "six-petal roundel," a symbol that looks something like a six-petalled flower. These, as I'm sure many people here will know, appear in a number of possible positions on the boat, including on wooden rudders. These motifs have received relatively little attention among historians (as far as I've found so far - but I am interested in and welcoming of reading recommendations!) and seem to be seen, for obvious reasons, as secondary to the more romantic and eye-catching "roses and castles" paintings. Meanwhile, there has been a growing body of research in recent years examining the use of the same symbol as an "apotropaic" mark - i.e. a mark to "turn away" bad spirits - scratched / carved into the surface of the thresholds of various buildings in the British Isles and beyond, particularly churches, agricultural buildings, and sometimes houses. In this context they are known variously as "daisy wheels" or "hexafoils." More info here: http://www.medieval-graffiti.co.uk/page13.html. Seeing these marks for myself around the doorways, windows and chimney pieces of Brook Hall in Wiltshire, a building originally made for domestic purposes in the 16th century, but later converted to agricultural use, was a spark to my interest here. Could there be a link between these marks around building thresholds and early canal boat painting, or is it coincidence? I suspect there will be no historical "smoking gun" in this case, but I am interested to hear what people know of this symbol. Does it have any other names or associations among canal boat dwellers (I am very much a land dweller!)? Are there any theories or stories about its origins? I would also be fascinated to see photos/examples from people's own boats, if you are happy to share. Pictures are from Sonia Rolt's wonderful book A Canal People (1997), showing boats on the Oxford Canal in the 1940s.
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