Musings On Thanksgiving & How Hermes Scarf Madison Ave. By Kermit Oliver Relates to My Thankful Musings

Many people in America will celebrate a special holiday this week. Our children in school have been learning all about the "pilgrims" who came to this great land, and stopped for a moment in time to be grateful, and to share and show their gratitude with the Native American people who now permitted them sanctuary on these shores.

Looking back over this past year on my personal life, and the lives of people across this vast land I realize that for many thinking of things to be grateful for may prove very difficult this up coming Thursday. But I am reminded of words my mother continued to speak almost daily during her last year as she lost her battle with cancer.

I would be driving her to her chemo therapy appointments and she would suddenly turn to me as we looked out and enjoyed the changing leaves of fall on the trees planted on the parkway we took the medical center. She would turn and say "You know DeNice, we are very blessed...", and I would always stop and think for a moment how strong she was to be going through what she was enduring, and to still see each new day as a day filled with blessings of some sort if we but opened our eyes.

All over the world finances are in turmoil, people who saved lifetimes are now watching stock markets tumble to the ground. People who worked for most of their lives for major companies are now either without a job, or worried that the doors will close tomorrow. People who realized the dream of home ownership are now watching those dreams fade away to dust. People with children are worrying how will they continue to to keep them clothed, fed and housed. And many will ask themselves "Thankful, what can I possibly be thankful for???"

In 1620, a group of people left the only home they had ever known, aboard a ship to travel over 3000 miles to a land they had never seen. Their trip was perilous, the sea was beset by storms. They did not turn back. When they landed, on these shores it was the middle of winter. Many were already very weak from their hazardous 2 month voyage. The local Native people shared their knowledge with people who today would be called "illegal aliens". They helped them to survive, to flourish, and to establish the beginnings of what would the first of many colonies to come. Colonies which would develop into the land that I call home today.

This great land has gone thorough many changes since those days, some for the better, and some we as citizens have lived to regret and to learn from the mistakes made all along the way. But we are blessed, we are blessed that those early pilgrims did not turn back, we are blessed that they felt led by faith to make the journey, we are blessed that they were befriended by a people whom they could not even communicate with, we are blessed that those living here first allowed them to live amongst them.

And today we are blessed, because we still have leaders who have asked to lead, who will not give up, we are blessed because others in history traveled to this land also to make it what it is today. We are blessed because today technology, connects us to others far far away and makes the world seem smaller. It is for all of this and much much more I will be grateful this Thanksgiving, I will be grateful for all of those who came before so that I could live so blessed.

Kermit Oliver's Madison Ave. to me speaks to the rich bounty of this great land, the flowers, the animals, the people, those here now, and those from the past. The title when standing alone, may speak of material things, but Oliver's painting makes us realize what is truly valuable. He contrasts true wealth, with what is perceived wealth or bounty. He leaves it up to us to decide.

I hope you enjoy the video exploration, and I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving

The song is a Native American piece called "Mahk Jchi (Heartbeat Drum Song)"
Written by Pura Fe, Soni, Jen. Saponi translation by Lawrence Dunmore. Performed by Ulali: Pura Fe, Soni, Jen. Album: Music for the Native Americans

Saponi translation:

Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi

Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi

Mahmpi wah hoka yee monk

Tahond tani kiyee tiyee Gee we-me eetiyee

Nanka yaht yamoonieah wajitse

The words translate to English as:

A hundred years have passed Yet I hear the distant beat of my father's drums.

I hear his drums throughout the land.

His beat I feel within my heart.

The drum shall beat so my heart shall beat.

And I shall live a hundred thousand years.

A Study Of Napoleon - A Scarf Meditation

One of the most classic and timeless pieces ever done by the design house of Hermes is Napoleon. First issued in 1963, it was later re-issued in the years 1985, 1995, and 2002. The design was done by Phillipe Ledoux one of the most prolific designers of Hermes scarves in their history. No collection would be complete without a Ledoux design, as he is perhaps the most beloved of all designers by Hermes. I am not speaking regarding collectors, I am speaking regarding representatives of Hermes, they speak regarding the works of Ledoux with a reverence that they seem to rarely give others. Monsieur Ledoux has long since past, but his designs will live on forever.

Many collectors I know prefer their Napoleon scarves in the colorway that best represents France, such as the colors of the flag. I however, prefer the soft elegance suggested in soft pink border, perhaps giving the suggestion of the memory of Josephine.

The original Napoleon was produced with a bee jacquard as seen here. Hermes no longer produces Jacquards as they proved to be very expensive to produce.


Napoleon's Bees


William Henry Ireland in 1822 wrote:

"It was custom in France during its early and barbarous ages, that whenever a monarch died his horse and page were killed and buried with their master, that they might be in ready attendance upon him in the next world. In the year 1653, the tomb of Childeric, the father of Clovis was discovered and within it were found the skeleton of a man that of a horse and part of he skeleton of a youth, concluded to be the remains of Childeric and his companions. On furhter search in the tomb were found a purse, containing above a hundred pieces of gold and two hundred pieces of silver, bearing the heads of different emperors of France; a crystal ball or orb, a pike, a battleaxe, the handle, mounting and blade of a sword; gold tablets and style; the bit and part of the harness of a horse; fragments of dress or robe; and more than three hundred little bees of the purest gold, their wings being inlaid with red stone like carnelian. The appropriation of this emblem was hence suggested to Napoleon. A gold signet ring was taken from the finger of the larger skeleton; upon it appeared and engraved head, having long hair flowing over the shoulders, and it the words, "Childerici Regis"..."

"The State Council followed Cambacérès and Lacuée, who proposed the bees, as "a republic with a chief", with a sting but producing honey, which was the emblem of work for Ségur. The team, directed by Vivant Denon, that designed the imperial arms, proposed a semy of bees in "Merovingian style" on the imperial purple coat. The original design was deemed "too archaic". Later, a bee with well-detached wings was selected, and appeared on the Emperor and Emperess' clothes, as well as on the hanging in the Notre-Dame cathedral during the coronation.The bee was part of the French symbolic from 1804 to 1814 (First Empire), during the Cent-Jours (20/03-22/06/1815), and finally under Napoleon III's Second Empire (1852-1870)."
Source: Encyclopaedia Universalis

Below is a picture of the Merovingian Bees from the Gallica web site

I am fascinated by the pure luxury of the Hermes Napoleon Scarf, it seems to carry with its name a since of the decorum of the era it represents. I thought it would be interesting to do a photographic study of the scarf, a kind of visual meditation of it. Letting my camera be my eyes as it swirled the twill of bees. Below is the result of that meditation. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did.