Daily Dose of Museums -- The Burrell Collection

A few of the amazing items collected by Sir William Burrell.

A few weekends ago, with our friend Simon, we went to check out The Burrell Collection, which is one man's extremely eclectic amassings of what he liked. There was a far-spanning range of ancient Greek sculptures, Egyptian sepulchres, European paintings, Turkish rugs, etc. The entire collection includes 9000 pieces, but 6000 are in storage. So, yesterday, which Glasgow's schools had off, the boys and I went on a Behind the Scenes Tour, where we got to go into the storage areas and see some of the items not on display. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed in the storage areas.

We saw some amazing silver ship trophies/models that even had miniature men climbing the rigging. We saw a giant candelabra that depicted Britannia supported by her colonies (figures of a Chinese man with a long braid, Arab with a pipe and Indian with a turban) -- very similar to the fountain we saw the day before, showing how much the Empire was incorporated into art.

I'm reading some Scottish authors, and this tour had connections to two books I've read recently. Ian Rankin is a very famous thriller writer with a series about Inspector Rebus, but I read a book called Doors Open about some amateur crooks stealing art from the storage areas for the National Gallery in Edinburgh -- then I was in a museum's storage areas but saw little chance to grab any items (not that I would even given the chance!). I also read a book, by Alexander McCall Smith best known for his #1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, 44 Scotland Street, which is not part of that series, but is about flatmates in Edinburgh who think they've found a painting by Samuel Peploe, one of four influential Scottish colourists. So the stored painting we saw on the tour was a Peploe -- not this one, but another with pink roses.  Odd how things emerge more than once.

As this was a family tour, we also saw some weapons, which Declan appreciated! We were really impressed by the staff who explained things in a kid-friendly and interesting way, making our behind the scenes tour a special treat!

The Burrell Collection is located in Pollok Country Park, an estate donated to the city for a public park. This park also contains beautiful, wooded walkways, a historic home/museum with accompanying gardens (waiting for spring to do that tour), and Clydesdale horses and Highland cows. We saw signs of spring coming -- snowdrops!