TheLosAngeleno – Los Angeles and the World

The History of Tate: From Sugar Cubes to Art

Sugar Sugar Sugar

Henry Tate was born on March 11, 1819, In Chorley UK. He died in Streatham, London on December 5 1899 at 80 years old.

Tate donated frequently and generously to various causes. Often the donations were made anonymously and to causes that were not in the mainstream of society.

He refused a title from the Crown on more than one occasion. When he again was offered one in 1898, he was told that the Crown would take offense if he refused again. He accepted and was made a First Baronet, Sir Henry Tate, on June 27 1898.

He left a grand fortune that essentially came from the sugar cube patent that he acquired from the man who refined the process and began producing sugar cubes in 1875, Eugen Langen.

The person credited with inventing the sugar cube was the Swiss born Austrian physician Jakub Kryštof Rad; March 25 1799 – October 13 1871. He had a five year patent on a machine that pressed sugar into cubes, the product was called Tea Sugar. The company was not successful and eventually went bankrupt.

A bust of Sir Henry Tate from the Tate Museums

The above mentioned German Entrepeneur, Engineer and Inventor Eugene Langen in 1857 while working at his fathers sugar refinery and after having received technical training at the Polytechnic Institute in Karlsruhe, invented a new method for pressing sugar into cubes which he patented. In 1870 he founded Pfeifer & Langen in Colone Germany, it is a family owned food company still in existence. In 1872 the patented process for making the sugar cubes was sold to Sir Henry Tate of Britain. The fortune and Art of Sir Henry Tate was the foundation for the Tate museums.

Tate Modern Bankside seen from across the Tames.

Tate Modern is housed in the old Bankside Power Station. It was built between 1947 and 1963. The design was by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron re-designed it for use by Tate Modern. The museum opened in 2000.

Tate Modern seen from the Milennium bridge with the new Switch House in the background. — **Tate Modern** seen from the Milennium bridge with the new Switch House in the background.

Tate Britain in London is also a part of the Tate museums.

Apart from the museums in London, there are also Tate Liverpool. Tate St Ives is also included in the Tate family of art museums.

Arabia ceramics producer is a company in Finland

Arabia is not only a part of the city of Helsinki, it is also home to one of Finlands most famous maker of porcelaine and ceramic. In 1873 Finland was the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomus part of the Russian empire. Finland had previously been a part of Sweden until 1809 when Russia took control of the territory as part of a peace agreement with Sweden. Arabia was founded by Swedish porcelaine maker Rörstrand in 1873. It was located on a piece of land where Rörstrand was granted permission by the Russian Tsar Peter III to build a factory to produce tableware for the Russian market, the land was called Arabia hence the name of the company.

The entrance to the old factory building, there is now a Bistro in this space.

The old factory building houses a store where you can by Arabia porcelaine and also glassware from iittala, another company in the group of companies that Arabia is part of. This building also has a museum where you can follow the history of the factory and see some products, current and older ones.

This sign says in Swedish translated to English:

MUSEUM

Inaugurated May 22 1948

Planned and set up by

KURT EKHOLM

Interior design by

WERNER WEST

lighting fixtures by

PAAVO TYNELL and L. JOHANSSON-PAPE

Below is the sign in Finnish

Art ceramics/glass is part of what Arabia and the other companies in the Fiskars group make as well as tableware, this is part of the Museum exhibition.

The blue diver .

The beloved Moomin family, created by Tove Jansson in the 1930-s. She wrote the first book: “Moomin and the great flood” during the winter war in Finland, when Russia tried, unsuccessfully, to invade Finland . Tove Jansson both wrote and illustrated the Moomin books.

A typical tablesetting with Arabia Paratiisi (Paradise) series designed by Birger Kaipiainen that Arabia started making in 1969 and they are available currently as well.

The Moomin cups

This piece was designed by Michael Schilkin, Russian
born (May 1 1900 – died May 3 1962) who designed pieces for arabia .

The factory building and the new addition from across the street.

Yucatan Pink Flamingos

In the Yucatan State in Mexico lies the city of Celestun, it is surrounded by mangroves and in the open waters surrounding the mangroves you can find the Pink Flamingos.

The Pink Flamingos in Celestun are Pink because of their diet which is high in pigments from alpha and beta carotenoid. The richest sources of these elements come from algae and different invertebrates that the constantly feeding Flamingos ingest.

This area is home to as many as 300 different bird species.

It is not only the Flamingos that are getting their food out of the bays and the mangroves in the area. The area is full of crab tines that provide for the fishermen and their families.

I believe this is a blue crab *Callinectes sapidus* or in Spanish called Jaiba azul.

This is one popular catch in the area, and the crabs provide sustenance for many families in this part of Yucatan.

I think this is a Juvenile Double crested Cormorant *Phalacrocorax auritus*.

SLOWMO FLYERS

STARRING:
Moth of Pai
Bangkok Bumblebee
Doves of Chiang Mai

Moth of Pai – or maybe even a butterfly…

High up in the Mountains in Northern Thailand lives a moth, it is close to the mountain village of Pai, so this is the Moth Of Pai. Moths and Butterflies are similar creatures, so the above might be a butterfly, maybe in the Pappilonidia family, but Moth of Pai also sounds better than the Butterfly of Pai… or maybe not…

Bangkok Bumblebee

In Thailand, in the big city of Bangkok, Sukhumvit area, on top of a high-rise next to small single family homes lives a Bumblebee. Sometimes the Bumblebee takes flight and sometimes in what could be nectar drunken flight, it seems to almost stall while correcting the direction of travel and trying to level out.

Doves of Chiang Mai

In the North of Thailand lies the city of Chiang Mai. The city was founded sometime between 1294- 1296 as the capital of the Lanna Kingdom and remained so until 1556 when it was occupied by a tribe called the “Taungoo”. You can read more about the history of Chiang Mai here.