Brussels comes out of lock-down…

As the city starts to open up again, we hope that all becomes well again quickly for our friends in the home of the Boy Reporter! Take care and stay safe!

The above image was produced to mark the liberation of Brussels at the end of the SecondWorld War; it appeared on a souvenir lady’s scarf as the centre-piece of a design which included vingnettes of Hergé’s drawings around it. It is the first known time there was an English “translation” of Tintin, as he and Milou have been renamed here as “Tufty and Bobby”. Some have said that the name is given as “Infty” due to a misreading of the cursive script, but the eagle-eyes of fellow Tintinologist Chris Owens deciphered the true meaning: the names are a direct translation of the Dutch rather than French names for the pair, and the naming is clearer if you look at the writing up by the Union Jack. The scarf was manufactured by the spelndidly named Édouard Cnaepelinckx, a friend of Hergé and Hergée (his wife Germaine), through his company Mantérob. M. Cnaepelinckx has a special place in the works of Tintin - over and above his translation skills! - as he actually appears in the books on more than one occasion. Hergé was a great one for including his friends and colleagues in the stories, as he used them as life-models to sketch. Thus you will find not just Hergé and Hergée in the famous royal court scene in “King Ottokar’s Sceptre”, but also Édouard, who is the white-haired gentleman with the monocle, wearing a black jacket, standing to the left of the picture (p.59). You will also find him at the theatre in “The Seven Crystal Balls” (on p.16) when Haddock makes his “bull-headed” appearance on stage: E.P. Jacobs is shown in the middle box on the left-hand side of the picture, together with a figure who, given his shock of hair, could be Jacques Van Melkebeke, although he has his back to us. In the foreground, to the right of the page, and reading right to left, we have the blonde head of Germaine, and then M. Cnaepelinckx, and a lady who is said to be Manon Cnaepelinckx, Édouard’s wife. More interestingly, M. Cnaepelinckx actually seems to appear *twice*, as if you look back to the box on the left, you will see a man sitting, bearing the same round head, fringe of hair and curved nose! One last piece of trivia: he was the recipient of a rather striking picture which came up for auction in the recent past, showing Tintin and Haddock on a beach carrying shells, which was originally a gift from Hergé to him on his fiftieth birthday.