Windfall (Czech-Republic)
Date1996
Artist
Jill Mathis
(American photographer, born 1964)
MediumDigital chromogenic print
Dimensionsimage: 11 7/8 × 7 5/8 in. (30.2 × 19.4 cm)
sheet: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
sheet: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Francis McIntyre, 2006
Object number2006-76.4
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPHOTOGRAPH
Label TextUnexpected good fortune has been called windfall for almost nine centuries. An ancient law, dating as far back as 1100, prohibited all commoners from cutting down trees but allowed the gathering of wood that had fallen from the wind.There is also another accepted version of the origin of the word beginning with a charcoal burner named Purkiss. Purkiss found the body of William Rufus, King of England, who had been killed by an archer in Hampshire's New Forest. He carted the king's body back to Winchester and was rewarded with permission to gather all the firewood he needed that could be found on the ground. 900 years have passed and the Purkiss family still live in the New Forest, which is the largest surviving medieval forest thanks to this and similar laws.
