Red Cross : blood on ice

Does anyone know the origin of the Red Cross symbol ?

There are a number of definitions in google land, but I quite like my blood on ice analogy, something dangerous on something pure.

Purity and ice are certainly two aspects associated with the Swiss nation who are also crazy about posters and seem to have spawned a whole poster movement in the 40’s : the International Typographic Style.

Below are some examples

Swiss posters

Its a very serious movement !

More likely we are to see a red cross on a tourist poster for skiing and the mountains

Swiss flag

Hang on though, that is a white cross!! Anyway hopefully you get my point.

Now you may wonder why the fascination with crosses this week, well its simple really. I spotted this sign in a pub in Leek : Staffordshire. The difference between this and the vast majority of vintage brewery item:  the brewery is still going and the beer tastes uniquely flavoursome !

20170613_122705

Finally my search for crosses has dug up this red cross

The artist is Richard Fayerweather Babcock ; I had to find out more

Richard FWB

Quite a guy : now I can cross the subject of crosses off my list

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