The American Vase - Objectivity 90

Brady and Keith look at a trophy awarded to Daniel Ross FRS for his bravery at sea in the early 19th Century.
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[@2Cerealbox]

I've never heard someone say "bling" in a more sophisticated context.

[@WouterWeggelaar]

did Keith just say he likes a bit of bling? that trophy looks proper man size!

[@culwin]

Keith hangs it around his neck when he down at the club

[@otakuribo]

"...manly and important services" sounds like an award Brady and Keith deserve 😀👍

[@spazmobot]

Beautiful cup, interesting piece of history, Brady taking the award for "saving your ship. Keith saying "bling." 10 out of 10.

[@neruneri]

It's quite a smart way to encourage intervention really. The one thing that appeals more to people than doing something flashy and heroic is being recognized and getting to humbly brag about it.

[@BlackHayateTheThird]

Awesome video guys- awesome film work, James Hennesey. He needs some appreciation too.

[@ObjectivityVideos]

+BlackHayateTheThird true - kudos James! - Brady

[@vermashwetank]

So what's was in the cargo?

[@HeyRussianCommissar]

Ancient Chinese pornography

[@kf4744]

I probably laughed harder than I should've at this.

[@lucas0100araujo]

Yeah, probably with fart fetish

[@SuperAWaC]

probably silk and opium

[@BegbertBiggs]

Probably a whole load of silver trophies.

[@Werdna12345]

Love the B-roll

[@orellaminx3530]

Keith looks so content polishing his bits and knobs.

[@FlashakaViolet]

Keith’s voice is so soothing

[@sooth15]

Just a nitpicky detail, but the "feet" are stylized dolphins. They really don't look like dolphins at all, but all the old pattern books describe this specific animal shape as a dolphin, and they appear as decorations on everything from metal work (dishes, silverware, and clocks), to paper goods (printer's decorations and engravings), to wooden carvings.

[@JBLewis]

I was thinking the very same thing based on their tails.

[@tramsgar]

Love the footage of 'Mad Scientist' Keith polishing that vase =).

[@culwin]

Brady, thank you for your manly and important services in bringing us these videos!

[@dannyhanny1191]

Wow. The story this tells, and the history and events it reminds us of, is one of the more interesting items I've found on your channel. Thank you.

[@erictaylor5462]

Considering the animosity between the US and GB at this time, that is kind of a big deal, especially considering that only 5 years after this, they were at war again.

[@gigglysamentz2021]

The polishing is just so ASMR, thanks :')

[@gigglysamentz2021]

"We like a bit of bling, don't we ?" XD

[@mulreay]

Did Keith just mention the bling thing? Man not limited by time Keith.

[@AelwynMr]

But the question is: did Brady pronounce "vase" once as "vayz" and once as "vahz" on purpose?

[@ObjectivityVideos]

+Mr. Aelwyn hedging my bets.

[@SirHiggalot]

Gotta appeal to all your demographics.

[@Theraot]

But there were robots :v 2:28

[@PinkChucky15]

That's one of the best trophies I've ever seen.

[@IrMooCow102]

I like how there is silver tarnish all over the surface. It somehow adds to the overall look an appeal of the trophy

[@spazmobot]

Very cool!

[@shugaroony]

Wow, Daniel Ross himself was son of a freed Jamaican slave and a Scotsman; so must've had an interesting upbringing and life. Great story.

[@hyekang3850]

Philadelphia, dolphins, palmettes, rosettes, classical motifs with the shape of urn, eagle, .... that's very obvious. The delfin legs were very popular in the UK between the 17th-18th centuries, for example Anglesey Abbey in Cambridge has a number of interesting objects like those. Very interesting visual details :)

[@griffinwolf5704]

Is no one going to address "mouth of the Tigris" being contradictory with "off the coast of China"? Also, is this style of vessel one typical used for some specific purpose, holding a specific type of thing or is it a style traditionally used just for decoration. As a potter I would be hesitant to call that form a vase at all, having as it does a mouth as wide as the widest point and no narrowing or neck, as well as a lid.

[@Mikey5781]

That montage of Keith near the end rubbing the Vase is so sensual. I love it 😩💦

[@SirHiggalot]

haha for real though every job has its stresses but it seems like that would be such a neat and relaxing job. You get to handle all that cool stuff with so much history behind it.

[@hyekang3850]

Touchy feely on the bygone times !!!! Great job done 🙃

[@EleetCanoe]

@@SirHiggalot I bet that’s part of the stress! Imagine tearing a page, or shattering something, or denting this trophy.

[@rtpoe]

So what was inside it? They took the lid off the cup/vase - no peek inside?

[@3Mogsters]

But Tigris is in modern day Iraq, so bit far from the coast of China?

[@peterfireflylund]

There's apparently a Tigris in China as well: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humen

[@3Mogsters]

Thanks, that explains things seems that is was a name used by Europeans.

[@MikeDial]

Wait, since when was the mouth of the Tigris river off the coast of China? Otherwise, what a cool piece.

[@naota3k]

At 0:37 did you say "Asia of Philadelphia?" I'm curious about this event but could not find it. D:

[@John_Ridley]

I see Keith polishing it at the end, and I suppose you have to polish silver stuff, but I wonder about how that sits with long term archiving of silver items. Seems like if you polish the things a few times a year for a few hundreds years, eventually the writing would wear down. The tarnish is silver oxide and you're removing it so clearly there is some loss there.

[@jasonparish4703]

John Ridley it's possible he's buffing it with a conservator's wax as a preventative as opposed to polishing the oxidation off with a gritty compound.

[@superdau]

First, don't think it tarnishes that quickly. It depends very much on the atmosphere around it (the hydrogen sulfide concetration) how long silver stays shiny. The tarnish is silver sulfide. If you remove it chemically it doesn't take away much material at all. I doubt they polish the vase that often. If I understood correctly they just got it out for an exhibition.

[@TheHazyshade]

The tarnish is aprox 10-100nm thick. So if assume the worst 100nm removed each polish it would take 10,000 polishes to flatten out 1mm thick features.

[@TheHazyshade]

From what I read on google polishing will make it last longer than if you just left it in the air sitting. Look up uncleaned silver roman coins on google images.

[@John_Ridley]

Jason Parish OK thanks, I hadn't thought of wax. I was thinking that some kind of covering would be good, but I'm not familiar with how these things are done. I have a large silver item at home that gets pretty tarnished - would something like a car wax help, or should I try to find a specialty product?

[@kee1haul]

he didn't say what the cargo was.

[@phampton6781]

I can't find much about this using Google, but seems the cargo was "specie [coins] and goods".

[@sylvainb2125]

The "fish" feet design is called a "Dauphin" or Dolphin.

[@alyasgrey9370]

Those feet are stylized whales of the sort found on pre-17th century maps.

[@allmytoonsareblue]

Manley and important :)

[@flamingcoop]

What was the cargo if you have any idea?!?!

[@igorgylycheyev9294]

Still wondering what the cargo was

[@purpleom9649]

the feet are dolphins just the same as the river thames lights

[@vojvodd]

No homo, but I think I'm in love with Keith

[@Haos666]

@Objectivity Hiow did the Royal Society obtain this item?

[@smaakjeks]

Vaseome video!

[@phampton6781]

Maybe the cargo was a load of valuable vases.

[@nikolaos9175]

Thank you for another great video. Hopefully soon, one day I will come visit you two at the royal society! :)

[@RealHogweed]

theose creatures on the base are leviathans, or other sea monsters. they were depicted like that on ancient maps

[@SirDominic]

the fish on the feet look very similar to the "dolphins" that adorn Brighton. I think at that time no one knew what a dolphin looked like and so a large fish is what sort of developed and has been stuck ever since and we have them all over the ruddy place. I wonder if these are also supposed to be "dolphins" but instead of accurate depictions they have this "common" interpretation to work from

[@Tfin]

There is a fish for that. :) Specifically, the dolphin fish, which has other names more likely to be used today, like mahi mahi. And yes, I've seen the same style fish art.

[@Window_Hero]

Hold up a second, 1807, the atmosphere was still pre-industrial at that point, so the silver wouldn't have tarnished back then. In the video we see them polishing it, but at the time of its construction, they wouldn't have thought about that, because you didn't need to polish silver back then. There really isn't much point in this, i just thought it was a cool thought.

[@Window_Hero]

This article brings up an interesting question, what does the history say? Do we have records of pre-industrial people talking about silver tarnish? That would sort of answer it one way or the other. Interesting article either way, though I do feel the need to point out that it claims humans haven't contributed much to the presence of those gasses (hydrogen sulfide and carbonyl sulfide, for those too lazy to read it themselves) in the atmosphere, but then talks about the upward trend of those gasses since the 1800s. So either it's talking about a slight but consistent upward trend, or this is similar to the CO2 thing, where the environment is capable of removing a very specific amount of these substances, and when Humans start making more than that, it starts to accumulate, even if we aren't making much relative to what is produced naturally. I guess I need to do more research, but if someone knows anything about historic records on pre-industrial silver tarnish (wow it's just occurred to me how boring that sounds, right channel though), I'd love to here about it.

[@lzeph]

***** I was unable to "+1" your comment for some reason, so I'll just tell you: Thanks for contributing to the conversation -- excellent info!

[@Window_Hero]

Interesting, so they had silver polishes prior to the industrial revolution, implying that heavily used things made of silver at least, needed to be polished. As for why things being burned prior to the industrial revolution wouldn't have contributed significantly to this, is that despite the question that has been brought up as to what exactly causes silver to tarnish, we are still in agreement that it is sulfur compounds, and while most pre-industrial burning involved little to no sulfur, coal contains sulfur as an impurity. Additionally, during the industrial revolution, not only did what we were burning change, we started burning a lot more of it, which means it will have had much more significant impacts on the atmosphere. This conversation is fun, keep it going.

[@lzeph]

Mariopartyboy2 It was also pointed out that volcanic activity produces silver-tarnishing compounds -- and sometimes in great amounts. So the original comment - that silver didn't tarnish before the industrial revolution - turns out to be inaccurate. Or, that's how I read things anyway. Yes this is a fun conversation, and very informative. =-)

[@XDEEPTHOUGHT]

The Tigris is in the middle east. Not China, or is there another Tigris in China, if so where? I cannot find it.

[@ObjectivityVideos]

+XDEEPTHOUGHT I believe the incident happened at the Bocca Tigris (aka Humen)

[@michaelsheffield6852]

Tigris is near China?

[@gazzaboo8461]

They were lucky, I imagine the east India company would be just as happy nicking the cargo and letting the ship and crew go under. Plus, sink the other ship because.. witnesses. 😁

[@codycrank3465]

0:03 it's called a bowl game

[@codycrank3465]

Marica!!!!

[@codycrank3465]

Yea hand-egg has field goals and punting almost every 4th down

[@ELYESSS]

0:00 dat face

[@am5442]

First! - Love the content:)

[@ducttapeengineer]

Brady, have you forgotten where the Tigris River is located?

[@ObjectivityVideos]

+Tom Bosley Experience it wasn't the Tigris River. It was the Bocca Tigris (aka Humen)

[@ducttapeengineer]

Ah, that explains it, then.

[@GeertDelmulle]

What’s that “Tigris” remark all about? Surely that is not a river in China?

[@Flocko_]

The sea creatures that are the feet are probably dolphins. The classical way to depict them was much more serpentine.

[@rewrose2838]

Whales is what I think

[@comsubpac]

Britain is going down. Back in the days he would have an army of servants to polish the silver. xD.

[@agemoz]

Naval Dolphins Brady, not fish.

[@johnallardyce4164]

4:30 Why is Keith polishing the Silver??? The patina is what give an item it's value.

[@fx4d]

I'm guessing because they don't keep it for value, they try to keep it looking as it would have at the time it was given. Just a guess, though.

[@jamesanderson6882]

it is crazy to think how little human life was valued back in the day. Oh! They are just some nothing from a fishing village in nowhereville, UK. Who cares? The silk and salted pork is what I am worried about! *sigh* Maybe morality in the west is getting better.