Today we celebrated Dr Thomas Mannack's 40th anniversary of starting work here as a researcher on our #BeazleyArchive Pottery Database – an extraordinary milestone on the Database's extraordinary journey!
Peter Stewart
@petercnstewart.bsky.social
Professor of Ancient Art. Director of the Classical Art Research Centre at Oxford University @carcoxford.bsky.social. Chair of Trustees at The Brooking @thebrooking.bsky.social. Antiquity, modernism, arts. Mainly on Instagram @petercnstewart
Hidden for a century in the Godalming Institute attic, this c.1903 wooden round louvered vent was never meant for a building. It is actually a joiner's apprentice piece. Made for City & Guilds exams, it perfectly showcases a young woodworker's mastery of Edwardian craftsmanship.
A fine example of Henry Woodyer's hand: these Gothic Revival entrance doors, dated 1864–65, come from the original buildings of Cranleigh School, Surrey. A closer look reveals internal matchboarding, criss-cross bracing, and incised wrought-iron hinges—all characteristic of Woodyer's work.
Ironic if it takes the paralysis caused by the Labour coup to show us how much the government was actually doing.
![Page from a book. Text reads:
206
MARY W. SHELLEY
He sprang from the cabin window as he said this, upon the ice raft which lay close to the vessel. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.
[handwritten in pen]
As he drifted away I could just make out his final words.
"It's okay if you just call me' Frankenstein' instead of 'Frankenstein's Monster.
I really don't mind."
The end](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fz67tljkrmid2xc354ateeg4/bafkreiekeronou3xqi7rd7d5c3fhupvdmyvqi2xfbdpjupdn75vnm4ayte)
Polymarket is giving 86% odds that Trump will order the Strait of Hormuz to be whipped and branded by noon tomorrow.
And of course, Trump has smeared himself over NASA and the extraordinary courage of the astronauts.
Through the Round Window... Just over four months since @thebrooking.bsky.social launched on Instagram and Facebook – even as a trustee of the collection I'm learning so much from these posts! www.instagram.com/p/DUS_F7DDok...
Earlier this month, we welcomed BA Interior Architecture & Design students from the University of Portsmouth to our warehouse. Among doors, windows, and fittings, they traced the language of making through sketches, rubbings, and plasticine impressions. We can’t wait to see where these studies lead!
A survivor from Orient House on London’s New Broad Street, this c.1907–08 baluster features crisp uprights, framed circles, and wrought-iron scrolls that project from the newel almost like a signature. It was sectioned and saved in 1987–88 when the building was demolished. The façade remains today.
A salvaged survivor, this seventeenth‑century paneled door retains Tudor‑leaning scratch mouldings, chamfered edges, and a latch that still wants to click. Once bare oak, it was later painted and raised with one (perhaps two) planks at the top. Today it’s wearing St Patrick’s Day green! 🍀
Marbling is quite a boring job, so you can forgive the painter who gets carried away… 📸 from Aphrodisias 2025 field season report.
Through the Round Window... Just over four months since @thebrooking.bsky.social launched on Instagram and Facebook – even as a trustee of the collection I'm learning so much from these posts! www.instagram.com/p/DUS_F7DDok...
We are looking for a new trustee to join the board of the Brooking Museum of Architectural Detail, @thebrooking.bsky.social. It’s an exciting time as we shape the future of the charity - find out more and apply app.nurole.com/roles/6964e1...
Nurole | The Brooking - Trustees
<p class="mb-2" dir="ltr"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Brooking is seeking to appoint two committed and dynamic Board members who can support the charity through an exciting period of tran...
app.nurole.com
🚸 Imagine generations of schoolchildren passing through this grand door from Ripley Church School, crafted in 1846 with striking Gothic ironwork. Originally painted green, the door now displays its solid oak, carefully revealed by the restoration work of our Founding Collector, Charles Brooking.
Fragments of the Apocalypse - I missed this amazing story last year www.culture.gouv.fr/regions/drac... ##culture
Les fragments retrouvés de la tapisserie de l’Apocalypse | Ministère de la Culture
Identifiés il y a cinq ans par une galerie parisienne, ces fragments viennent tout juste d’être restaurés. Retrouvez en image l’histoire de cette découverte.
culture.gouv.fr
Job alert: Director for Historic Churches Scotland, deadline Monday 9th February 2026. Anderson Knight is delighted to be partnering with our member Historic Churches Scotland to appoint a new Director at a pivotal stage in the charity’s development. For more information, go to: buff.ly/eteYlh1
Exciting times for The Brooking and we have a dynamic, multi-talented board. We're looking for a Finance Trustee and second trustee with professional experience in one of a range of areas.
The Brooking – breathing life into architecture@thebrooking.bsky.social · 6mo agoWant to join our trustee board at this exciting time for The Brooking? app.nurole.com/roles/6964e1...
Water high at the 800-year-old R. Thames crossing at Bablock Hythe. near Oxford.
Great post combining Christmas jumpers with one of @thebrooking.bsky.social’s several prison cell doors!
The Brooking – breathing life into architecture@thebrooking.bsky.social · 7mo agoNew year, new equipment: a larger trolley custom-built to handle our collection, with no more tipping when we move hefty doors! The trolley is already earning its keep by helping our staff to move a cell door from Guildford Police Station, which dates to 1854.
New year, new equipment: a larger trolley custom-built to handle our collection, with no more tipping when we move hefty doors! The trolley is already earning its keep by helping our staff to move a cell door from Guildford Police Station, which dates to 1854.
My knowledge of the first 64,000 years of the history of art is embarrassingly sketchy. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Oldest cave painting could rewrite origins of human creativity
A stencilled outline of a hand found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is the world's oldest known cave painting, researchers say.
bbc.co.uk
Extraordinary. “Thomas could also be audacious - we found a poem which he managed to get published himself in Boy's Own … but was a copy of a poem already published in Boy's Own 15 years before." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Dylan Thomas 'plagiarised other poets' repeatedly as schoolboy
He became a literary legend but as a schoolboy the young Dylan Thomas has been found to have copied poems.
bbc.co.uk
A Roman Antonine youth? No: stucco head of a Buddhist bodhisattva(?) from the Tapa Kalān site near Jalahabad, Afghanistan. Photo via the incredibly valuable Hadda Archéo Database haddaarcheodb.com/en/objet/tet...
