Cutty Sark wind. The ship was named after Cutty-sark, the nickname of the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns's 1791 poem "Tam o' Shanter". The ship's figurehead, the original of which has been attributed to carver Fredrick Hellyer of Blackwall, is a stark white carving of a bare-breasted Nannie Dee with long black hair holding a grey horse's tail in her hand. In the poem she wore a linen (Scots: a short chemise or undergarment), that she had been given as a child, which explains why it was "cutty", or in other words far too short. The erotic sight of her dancing
Robert Burns (artist) Robert Burns (artist) Robert Burns HRSA RSW (Edinburgh, 1869–1941) was a Scottish painter, limner and designer, of the "Art nouveau" and Decorative arts. He was born in Edinburgh in 1869. Robert Burns spent long time, studying at London and Paris, and traveling northern Africa; then he returned to Edinburgh. He followed the example of the Arts and Crafts movement artists, employing a variety of materials for handicraft works. Such school also fomented the relationship between arts, commerce, and industry. Burns' most famous and complete designs have been for the Crawford's Tea Room (1926), which was located on Hanover Street just