Chimps have secret handshakes

From the Daily Mail....

Keeping it in the family: Researchers find 'secret handshake' passed down through generations of Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees pass down a ‘secret handshake’ through the generations, according to a new study.
Researchers found that troops of chimps pass on traditions, including the handshake, from one generation to the next - and they differ from group to group.
When chimps are cleaning, they adopt a ‘grooming handclasp’ - two chimps clasp onto each other’s arms, raise them in the air and groom each other with their free hand.

German researchers found chimpanzee families have their own unique hand clasp, passed down from generation to generation.

Previous research suggest this handclasp may be a cultural phenomenon - like how people greet each other - but only some chimpanzee colonies practise this grooming behaviour.
Researchers looked at chimps on the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust in Zambia - finding some prefer to clasp hands, while others clutch onto another chimp’s wrist.
Edwin van Leeuwen, of the Max Planck Institute, said: 'We don’t know what mechanisms account for these differences.

 

'But our study at least reveals that these chimpanzee communities formed and maintained their own local grooming traditions over the last five years.
'Our observations may also indicate that chimpanzees can overcome their innate predispositions, potentially allowing them to manipulate their environment based on social constructs rather than on mere instincts.'
Observations also revealed grooming behaviours are transmitted to the next generation of potential handclaspers - showing the chimps learn from one another.

Researchers found some chimpanzees prefer to clasp hands, while others clasp wrists

Mark Bodamer, of Gonzaga University, said: 'By following the chimpanzees over time, we were able to show that 20 young chimpanzees gradually developed the handclasp behaviour over the course of the five-year study.
'The first handclasps by young individuals were mostly in partnership with their mothers.
'These observations support the conclusion that these chimpanzees socially learn their local tradition, and that this might be evidence of social culture.
'Continued monitoring of these groups of chimpanzees will shed light on the question of how these group-traditions are maintained over time and potentially even why the chimpanzees like to raise their arms up in the air during social grooming in the first place.'

Trinidad document

This document from 1819 is coming up for sale at Bonhams in Oxford at the end of September.

The catalogue description reads:

TRINIDAD IMPRINT

The Freemason's Sure Guide, or, Pocket Companion, blindstamp on title and final leaf, shelfmark on verso of title, early half calf, lacks upper cover, 8vo, Trinidad [Port of Spain], for the Publisher, 1819

Estimate:

£200 - 400
US$ 320 - 630
€250 - 500

Footnotes

• SCARCE, COPAC locating only the John Rylands copy. Printed in Trinidad the author, an American resident in Port of Spain, notes that it is "intended principally for the use of the Fraternity in this Island".

Bored?

James D Julia in the US is selling this historic game board. It's valued at about £1,000. The description reads: "EARLY PAINT DECORATED GAME BOARD WITH MASONIC COLUMNS. This very early game board is double sided. One side for checkers with alternating black and cream squares highlighted by red. Either side of the checkered board is a painted column with a ball at top; reminiscent of the type of columns you see in Masonic symbols. The reverse of the game board is for Backgammon and is cream, red, and deep blue coloration. The board is very old and it appears to have been over painted many, many years ago during its period of use. The edge has red board molding dovetailed in the corners. SIZE: 16-3/4" x 24". CONDITION: Scattered paint flecking or loss on both sides and the frame with some worm damage. 9-27176."

Masonic trivet

This hanging wall trivet is coming up for sale at Richardson's auctions in Bourne, Lincolnshire. It is expected to fetch £85.

Early Burns portrait emerges

This early portrait of famed Mason Robert Burns is going under the hammer at Bonhams in Scotland.

The press release from the saleroom reads:

An intriguing early portrait of Robert Burns, Scotland’s greatest poet and song-writer, is to be offered for auction in Part I of Bonhams Annual Scottish Sale on August 20th in Edinburgh.  It is conservatively estimated at £5,000-7,000.
The portrait dates from the winter of 1786-7, during the writer’s first stay in Edinburgh.  Although the 27 year old Burns was still farming with his brother Gilbert in his native Ayrshire he was also establishing a literary reputation, having published, in July 1786, his first volume of poetry – the celebrated Kilmarnock Edition. He had gone to Edinburgh to arrange the second or Edinburgh Edition, brought out by the publisher William Creech in April 1787.
Burns was introduced by his patrons who included the Earl of Glencairn and the Lord Provost of Edinburgh to the leading lights of the cultural and artistic life of the capital.  Among these was the painter Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840), who became a close friend and confidant and painted the poet from life for the frontispiece of the Edinburgh Edition.  This famous work is now exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
The painting to be auctioned is almost certainly by one of Nasmyth’s children, several of whom were artists, and depicts Burns sitting in a chair. It, too, appears to have been painted from life. His facial features and clothing are entirely in keeping with contemporary observations of him. His hair is jet black, his eyes large and very dark, as recorded by, among others, Sir Walter Scott. His lips are slightly parted, described as their habitual position when not speaking by his brother Gilbert.

Bonhams Head of Pictures in Scotland, Chris Brickley, said,” This is one of the earliest portraits we have of Burns.  It was painted while he was tasting the first fruits of success as a poet and was almost certainly derived from a life study which gives the likeness an appealing freshness and immediacy.”