JAGO STONE - THE AMERICAN CONNECTION - PART FIFTEEN

This blogpost begins by recycling stories and images from this month's Mailchimp Jago Newsletter. There are 63 subscribers to date and I'm always happy to see the number of new free subscriptions rise - the Newsletters contain material that I haven't shared before so if you do subscribe you're the first to hear about the latest developments in the Jago story. Here's a link to press to get to the online form for completion. The number of Americans connected with Jago Stone for whom I have either an email address or  a Facebook Message connection now stands at 50. There are a further 84 contacts that fit this bill from the UK.


'In late June this year I sent out a template email to all my Jago contacts, advising them that the biography would be published by Unicorn on October 1 this year. I personalised some with a reference to when the first contact had been made. One of those I emailed was Celia Taylor who is an American lady now living in Pocahontas, Tennessee and the daughter of Upper Heyford American vets. Celia attended the Upper Heyford/Croughton American High School between 1976 and 1978. In December last year, she had left a comment on a Facebook 'Jago' post explaining that her parents had a couple of paintings by Jago - but the lead was not developed at that time.  
On June 24, Celia posted this to me: 
'I visited my dad in March and took some photos of his Jago Stone pics'
 I replied:
'Wow! Just opened up your message before going to bed - thank you so much! I'll be back in touch tomorrow.'

Two pictures appeared through cyberspace. Here they are, in the best photoshop shape I could achieve:

'Ebrington, near Shipston on Stour - Jago Stone (1978)

The Fox and Hounds - Jago Stone (1978)

Tantalisingly, the location of this particular Fox and Hounds remains unclear. Can anyone help, please?

Celia also added that her mum and dad had gifted a third Jago painting - a watercolour of Blenheim Palace - to their other daughter as a wedding gift because she had a picnic in the grounds there on her English wedding day. Maybe, an image of this one too will find its way across the Pond to my screen. We will see.

And so the Jago story has a few more pieces in its jigsaw - and the search continues.

The biography will be published in October but there are more stories and images still out there. That feels exciting.'

So much for the material from the Mailchimp newsletter I published in early July. Since then, though, there have been further developments in the search for the identity and location of 'The Fox and Hounds' depicted by Jago Stone in 1978.

Last Wednesday - July 10, 2019 - Trevor Jones, a Mailchimp newsletter subscriber and reader, emailed me to say he thought the painting showed 'The Fox and Hounds' at Charwelton near Daventry. Trevor had first made contact with me in February this year, sending me this email:

 Hi Rob - hope this photo comes through. My Jago Stone book has this message
in it - maybe someone will remember it. I live in Adderbury Oxon where he painted
many houses one being The Old Wheatsheaf which cost my friend a bottle of scotch . He also painted pictures of my friends pub at Priors Hardwick and was paid with meals. Lino [Pires - the landlord and owner of The Butcher's Arms at Priors Hardwick] loved him and gave us both a mention in his book called Fantastic . Look forward to your own book coming out. Trevor Jones 

The photo that Trevor refers to is this image below - an inscription written by Jago Stone inside a copy of his autobiography called 'The Burglar's Bedside Companion' that was published in 1975.

'For Maureen - & for Des - a few tips in case you are ever redundant - Jago Stone'

Jago had provided his readers with a detailed account of how he worked his trade as a burglar.

As soon as I received Trevor's suggestion of a location, I googled this hostelry and made contact with David the landlord. With the help of a pub regular who is a longstanding resident of Charwelton, we were able to establish that Jago's painting was not in fact that of the Charwelton 'Fox and Hounds'. We are back to square one. The search continues.

Nevertheless, the area around the door and windows in Jago's painting is similar to the Charwelton hostelry. Could it be that Jago was creating an archetypical 'Fox and Hounds' that came from his imagination and memories of all 'The Fox and Hounds' that he had ever encountered?

I would love to receive more suggestions about exactly where is the location of this Jago pub!


With publication of the biography drawing nearer, I thought readers of these American Connection blogposts might find it interesting to learn more about the Oxford connections of the biographer. Upper Heyford is close enough to the dreaming spires to mean that perhaps most USAF veterans will be familiar with the city where I spent three years as an undergraduate and then a decade later six years as a resident, living in Summertown with my wife, Louise.

This link below will take you into a light-hearted exploration of the myths and reality of Oxford through the eyes of a transitional object.

robdonovan.blogspot.com/2019/07/peter-ted-goes-to-his-oxford-gaudy.html

You will have to open the link to find out more but here as a further enticement is a painting of the interior of the famous Sloop Inn in St Ives in Cornwall where we live. The two humans featured are myself and my wife - Rob and Louise. The transitional objects you can see behind us were placed there by the artist who had met them that day. He was none other than Merlin Porter, the Oxford artist and Jago Stone's youngest child, born in 1981. How cool and complex is that!

Detail: 'Rob and Louise and PT and SA in the Sloop' - Merlin Porter (2017)

A fuller story of our connection with Merlin is told in the Jago biography to be published in October. This link below is to a blogpost that I published in 2016 that gives an outline of part of that story.


robdonovan.blogspot.com/2016/04/jago-stone-part-3-weekend-with-artist.html


I hope you have enjoyed these glimpses - do leave a comment and let me know.