The Mower

My friend Susan brought me back pictures of scythes from her recent visit to the newly revamped Tate Britain. Among them was The Mower by Sir Hamo Thornycroft. Made at the end of the 1800s it depicts a British labourer in his workng clothes with his English, straight-shafted scythe and whetstone carried on his belt. Trying to imagine myself working with his scythe (while Susan commented on the similarities of my and his hats) something didn’t seem quite right..

Take a look at the image from the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, where they have the life-size bronze and suddenly you see that the snath is actually curved slightly though in the opposite sense from most English snaths, ie with the top of it curving upwards. I’m still tryling to understand it and the positioning of the nibs as the lower one seems turned far too downwards but I wonder if it’s all artistic licence on Mr Thorncroft’s part. A trip to Liverpool may be in order..