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RoyReed
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Early Kite Graffiti

Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:02 pm

Someone on Twitter posted this probably 17thC image of kite flying.

Image

"Some kite-flying (seventeenth century?) doodled on a fragmentary title page of the medical & spiritual compendium known as the ‘Versehung von leib’ (Nuremberg, 1493). Part of a group of uncatalogued binding fragments@theULSpecColl"

"The piece of paper it's on is the title page of a book printed in Nuremberg in 1493, but that book may have been in England by the C17. The TP is all that survives (this leaf likely saved as it has a nice woodcut on the other side). It looks C17 to me but it's just a guess..."

https://twitter.com/liamsims/status/1351173497603682305
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Andy S
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Re: Early Kite Graffiti

Tue Jan 19, 2021 9:04 am

Tsk... single liners  ;)
 
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Lex B
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Re: Early Kite Graffiti

Tue Jan 19, 2021 2:50 pm

Andy S wrote:
Tsk... single liners  ;)

Yet quite interesting :cool:
remember: amateurs built the ark ..
professionals built the Titanic.

PLEASE......NO TAILS ....
 
MatStrick
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Re: Early Kite Graffiti

Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:53 pm

I honestly thought this was a joke when I saw the picture!
 
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Craig
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Re: Early Kite Graffiti

Wed Jan 20, 2021 12:31 am

Nah, it''ll never fly with line that short, I reckon it must be an early lepidopterist, he's trying to catch the black dot :wink:
 
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Re: Early Kite Graffiti

Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:39 am

Roy - following the tweet and then the link to your page... am I reading it right that they used to set fire to the whole kite via the firecrackers on the tail?

https://reeddesign.co.uk/kites/kite-history.html
 
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RoyReed
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Re: Early Kite Graffiti

Wed Jan 20, 2021 11:11 am

Andy S wrote:
Roy - following the tweet and then the link to your page... am I reading it right that they used to set fire to the whole kite via the firecrackers on the tail?

https://reeddesign.co.uk/kites/kite-history.html

Yes, after the bangers in the tail had gone off, the whole sail would have burnt - a Firedrake is a fire breathing dragon in Teutonic mythology.
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