The Fine Lady Tale 10 comments

30 Dec 2009 @ 19:11, by Unknown The Fine Lady Statue **** Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross   To see a fine lady upon a white horse   With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes She shall have music wherever she goes **** It was commissioned in recent years and I think three sculptors worked on it?? I shall see if I can find more info. . . The statue was sculpted in Stoke on Trent and cast in the Welsh village of Llanrhaedr Ym Mochnant... except for the small frog on its base, which was cast in Birmingham and stuck on. The frog - which sits in a puddle after rain - is there because in mythology, it was the first creature to communicate on land. Sculptors Andy Edwards, Julian Jeffery and Carl Payne - work as Art-cycle Ltd. Equine sculptor Denise Dutton, helped craft the Fine Lady's horse - a Welsh cob. The sculptors planned to have two moths and a butterfly in the Fine Lady's head dress, to represent the dark and light periods of the year. But the original wax versions melted under the foundry lights and fell off before casting. One landed in her hair, so they left it. Another's still in the head dress. The third can't be seen - though the sculptors insist it's still there. **** Banbury photographer Rosy Burke gave the sculptors a bunch of daffodils as a gift on the day they made the Fine Lady's head dress. They tore off the leaves, dipped them in wax, and wove them into the final work. No one knows the true identity of the Fine Lady - she probably never even existed - but the sculptors decided she's Guinevere, from the Arthurian legends. The rhyme is also thought to refer to a lady in a May Riding tradition, riding through Banbury on May morning. The sculptors picked up on the theme by putting spring flowers in the statue's head-dress, and a yin-yang symbol on the base. The Fine Lady has her arm raised so she can sprinkle flower petals.  ****

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