1955 University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour of the West Country

Feb28

In the 1950s the University of Bristol Dramatic Society had a tradition of undertaking summer tours of West Country villages, performing one of two plays in schools, church rooms, and village, town and Women’s Institute halls. I don’t know when this tradition started, nor when it ended, but I do know that such a tour took place both in 1955 and 1956. My parents became engaged while they were on the 1955 tour, when my mother was 21 and my father about to turn 24.

1955 UBDS Players Tour programme

I know little about these tours, but during my riffling through family papers and photographs I have been able to piece together a small account of the 1955 tour. I’ll try in the coming weeks to do something similar with the 1956 one, for which I have less information. But right now the focus is on 1955.

The two plays that were performed were As You Like It by William Shakespeare, and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. The first performance of the tour was on Friday 8 July 1955, at Wells Town Hall in Somerset, and the final performance was possibly at the Town Hall, Dulverton, also in Somerset, on Thursday 4 August 1955. In between the tour travelled mainly through Somerset, but also ventured into Devon and Dorset. On Friday 29 July my parents got engaged, while they were at the Somerset village of Hardington Mandeville.

Luckily a typewritten itinerary for the tour survives, annotated by my father, as well as my mother’s diary for 1955. There is a very slight discrepancy between the two for places and dates, but I would be inclined to follow the itinerary as I think the diary entries might represent the preliminary dates given to the cast and crew, before being refined into what was presented in the typewritten itinerary. Certainly my father didn’t amend any of the dates or places on it.

The 34 photos that survive are very small black and white prints, but they can tell a lot about the life on the tour. Two lorries were packed up by the side of the Victoria Rooms in Bristol: it seems the whole production was carried in these two vehicles. The students roughed it, sleeping in the halls after the performances, or if the weather was clement, sleeping out under the stars. Each day the production had to be unpacked from the lorries, the stage, backdrop, sound and lighting, and seating for the audience set up, the costumes and make-up and wigs put on often in makeshift dressing rooms (again, sometimes outdoor ones), and the performance given. Then everything was taken down, packed up and ready for the next stop on the schedule. Sometimes there were two performances in a day, a matinee and an evening performance, in different places. Sundays were a day off.

My father’s annotations of the itinerary mark three open-air performances, and that there was no audience for the evening performance of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Women’s Institute hall in Beer, Devon, on Monday 1 August!

The photos as found were in a muddled pile, with no negatives to help with ordering them, and no annotations on the backs. I have put them in some sort of order here, but as many of the places shown are unknown to me, I almost certainly haven’t placed them in the right order.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Packing the lorry outside the Victoria Rooms, Bristol, ?8 July 1955. Photo 2264.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Packing the lorry outside the Victoria Rooms, Bristol, ?8 July 1955. Peggy Riddel at left. Photo 2265.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Travelling in the lorries. Photo 2266.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. A stop in a town. Squinting at the original with a jeweller’s loupe I can see the pub/hotel is The Old White Hart or less likely The Old White Hare, and that the street opposite the pub/hotel is South Street. Photo 2267.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. I assume the students are buying some food from this gentleman. Photo 2268.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. ?Roger Montague having a snooze in the back of one of the lorries. Photo 2269.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. A stop for candy floss and lollies. Photo 2270.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Shenanigans. This camp site with its distinctive wall was used again during the 1956 tour. Photo 2271.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. On the swings. Photo 2272.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. One of the camp sites. Photo 2273.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Two nymphs and onlookers. Photo 2274.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. I think this lady is Prudence Knowers. Photo 2275.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Night time relaxing – after a performance? ?Roger Montague standing at right. Photo 2276.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Camping in a village hall. Photo 2277.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. I think this must be in one of the Town Halls that the tour visited. ?Peggy Riddel. Photo 2278.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Camp beds in one of the halls. Roger Montague and Peggy Riddel at the pole. Photo 2279.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Constructing the stage. Photo 2280.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Hanging the backdrop with a cuppa. Photo 2281.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. A painted backdrop for As You Like It. Photo 2282.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Getting ready for a performance of As You Like It. Photo 2283.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Backstage at an outdoor performance of As You Like It. Roger Montague seated at front right. Photo 2284.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. An outdoor performance of As You Like It, at a school. Roger Montague at right. Photo 2285.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Drumming up publicity in Somerton, by the Butter Cross, for that evening’s performance of The Importance of Being Earnest: Eric Stevens, (Rev. Canon Chasuble), pushing Pat Whitehouse (Miss Prism) in a chair. Photo 2286.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. A poster for the performance of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Memorial Hall, Merriott on Tuesday 19 July 1955 at 7.30 pm. Photo 2287.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Getting ready outdoors for a performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. John M Cann standing in foreground, Roger Montague second right. Photo 2288.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Waiting for the performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. Eric Stevens in costume as Rev. Canon Chasuble. Photo 2289.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), Lady Bracknell (Margaret Stallard), Lane (the butler – Wallace Weaving), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann). Photo 2290.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague). Photo 2291.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann). Photo 2292.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel). Photo 2293.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: L-R: Miss Prism (Pat Whitehouse), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel), Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Rev. Canon Chasuble (Eric Stevens). Photo 2294.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel). Photo 2295.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Lady Bracknell (Margaret Stallard), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Rev. Canon Chasuble (Eric Stevens), Miss Prism (Pat Whitehouse), Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel). Photo 2296.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Lady Bracknell (Margaret Stallard), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), Rev. Canon Chasuble (Eric Stevens), Miss Prism (Pat Whitehouse), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel), Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague). Photo 2297.

A lovely story I remember being told was that my parents were so deliriously in love that they kissed during a scene in The Importance of Being Earnest when they weren’t supposed to.

A member of the tour was Wallace Weaving (‘Wally’). He married Anne Lennard, my mother’s good friend at university, on 6 July 1957, just a couple of weeks before my parents married. The Weavings had three children, including Hugo Weaving, who went on to become a rather more famous actor than his father …

We took many of our family holidays in the West Country, and my parents often commented on the large Wellingtonia that grew by the old road by the village of Norton-sub-Hamdon, (now the south side of the A303, just near the turning for Crewkerne), remembering it from their time on the tour. In later years they moved to West Dorset, and I would pass this tree every time I drove to see them. For me, it will always be the tree that marked their falling in love.

A stock photograph in my parents’ photo collection of St Audries School in Somerset. The tour visited here on Thursday 14 July 1955 for an open-air evening performance of As You Like It. I wonder if the cast camped out here? It’s a very romantic setting … Photo 2356.

There are also photos from the 1956 tour, though I think only my mother took part in this (just after she’d graduated) as my father graduated in 1955 and was working by then, and I can’t see him in any of the photos. I don’t have a programme for the 1956 tour, but I do have an itinerary. I will try to put together a piece on what I know of it.

I pulled together a list of everyone I know from the programme that was involved in the 1955 tour: there may be others missing.

Players (some backstage positions as well):

John Barrett: AYLI; 1955 Tour Committee electrician
Carolyn Blackmore: AYLI
Roger Bull: AYLI
Edith Burke: AYLI; assistant producer AYLI; 1955 Tour Committee property mistress
John M Cann: AYLI; IBE; 1955 Tour Committee assistant director
Lesley Coleman: IBE; dance arranger AYLI
Michael Gibson: AYLI; stage manager IBE; 1955 Tour Committee stage director
Jean Goffe: AYLI
Diana Greenhalgh: AYLI
Brian Ives: AYLI; stage manager AYLI; assistant producer IBE
Jill Marshall: AYLI; 1955 Tour Committee catering officer
Roger Montague: AYLI; IBE
Mary Nowell: AYLI
Peggy Riddel: IBE
Margaret Stallard: IBE
Eric Stevens: AYLI (x2 parts); IBE; settings and production AYLI
Ian Turner: AYLI (x2 parts)
Peter Wagstaff: AYLI; IBE
Wallace Weaving: AYLI; IBE; 1955 Tour Committee assistant business manager
Pat Whitehouse: IBE; 1955 Tour Committee property mistress

11 men, 9 women = 20 actors / actors and backstage

Non-acting involvement, might not all have been on the tour:

Sylvia Alexander: music composer AYLI
Helen Floyd: 1955 Tour Committee wardrobe mistress
Prudence Knowers: production, costume and setting design IBE
Jay Parry: 1955 Tour Committee director
John Pople: 1955 Tour Committee business manager
Anne Simon: costume design AYLI
Barbara Somerville: costume design AYLI

2 men, 5 women = 7 non-actors

If all those listed went on the tour, 13 men and 14 women = 27 total. There might have been yet more people on the tour that aren’t mentioned in the programme.

If any readers have any memories or knowledge of the tour, or recognise any of the people or places in the photographs, I’d be delighted to hear.

A William Morris alphabet

Jul28

I have some tiny brooches for sale in my Etsy shop – all in sterling silver letter in a lovely ornate script, decorated with leaves and curling tendrils, and one with extra enamelled decoration.

Tiny William Morris letter ‘F’ brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Tiny letter ‘G’ brooch, in a William Morris style, by Ortak/Malcolm Gray. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on link for details.

William Morris letter ‘C’ brooch, enamelled, made by Ortak/Malcolm Gray. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

A few years ago I sold a letter ‘C’ in the plain silver series: an alphabet of brooches in a William Morris design, made by Ortak, the Orkney firm of jewellers founded by Malcolm Gray and based in Kirkwall on Mainland, the largest Orkney island off the north cast of Scotland. I have since sold letters ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘E’, ‘J’, ‘L’, ‘M’, ‘P’ and ‘R’ in this series, and have seen others (‘A’ and ‘H’):

Ortak silver letter 'A'. Photo by CAtaway on flickr.

Ortak silver letter ‘A’ brooch. Photo by CAtaway on flickr.

Tiny William Morris letter ‘B’ brooch in sterling silver by Ortak / Malcolm Gray. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Vintage tiny William Morris design sterling silver brooch forming a letter ‘C’, and made by Ortak in the 1970s. Sold in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery. Click for details. (NOW SOLD).

Tiny letter ‘E’ brooch in sterling silver, design by William Morris. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Tiny William Morris letter ‘E’ brooch in sterling silver by Ortak / Malcolm Gray. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

William Morris letter ‘H’ brooch, made by Ortak/Malcolm Gray. Photo by her.dream

William Morris silver letter ‘J’ brooch (I thought it might be a J or an L, but have since seen the L, so now know this must be a J), made by Ortak/Malcolm Gray. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Tiny William Morris style letter L brooch, by Malcomlm Gray/Ortak. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

William Morris silver letter ‘M’ brooch, made by Ortak/Malcolm Gray. Sold in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

William Morris letter ‘P’ tiny brooch, for sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery. Click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

William Morris silver letter ‘R’ brooch, made by Ortak/Malcolm Gray. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

This series was also available in gold: I have only ever seen one, a letter ‘M’:

9 carat gold William Morris letter ‘M’ brooch, hallmarked in Edinburgh in 1990. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

I also had another in the enamelled series:

Small enamelled letter M brooch in a William Morris style, by the Scottish firm of Ortak. The brooch is available to buy in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

From my internet truffling, it seems that these letters are most similar to those used by William Morris in his Kelmscott Press edition of Chaucer’s collected works. You can see the letters here (alphabet starts on page 33 of 56).

Morris is one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement, and a designer of beautiful textiles, tiles, stained glass, furniture, book design and calligraphy—you name it, he probably designed it.

Morris’s skill at calligraphy is well known, and his illuminated manuscripts and book illustrations are gorgeous and wonderful. Here are some letters designed by Morris that might also have been part of the inspiration for the brooch series above:

Letters designed by William Morris.

Joe Orton, Genius

Aug9

Today is a sad anniversary: 50 years ago today the playwright Joe Orton was murdered by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell.

Joe Orton in 1967.

I have long been obsessed by Joe Orton. I was a young teenager when I first saw one of his works: the wonderful 1970 film of Entertaining Mr Sloane, based on his 1964 play of the same name. It was dark – blackly dark, and funny as hell, and full of the most joyous and brilliant language.

It spoke to me, even more so when I learned that he was from Leicester, the Midlands city where I lived at the time. From then on, I tried to find out as much as I could about him, to see all his plays and read everything he had written, and that had been written about him. It seemed so cruel that such a wicked, witty and scabrous mind had been taken from us at just 34 – what other wonders would he have created had he not died so young?

Joe in the one-room flat he shared with Kenneth Halliwell in Noel Road, Islington, 1964. (c) The Leicester Mercury.

John Lahr wrote a fantastic biography of Orton, Prick Up Your Ears, which was published in 1978. He later in 1986 published Orton’s diaries in edited form.

This BBC Arena documentary from 1982 is a good introduction to Orton:

A film adaptation of Prick Up Your Ears was released in 1987. Gary Oldman plays Orton, and Alfred Molina plays Halliwell. I can’t think of a better actor at the time than Oldman to capture not only the physical likeness of Orton, but his mischievousness and charm and sexual confidence and humour, all of which are abundantly clear in Orton’s diaries.

I have always felt a connection to Joe, even though he was a gay man and I am a straight woman: I adore his black humour, his sexual innuendos and irreverence, his pomposity pricking and subversion. He is my writer. I was even happier to learn that he had lived for his first two years in Clarendon Park, the same area of Leicester in which I had lived.

Joe Orton.

In 1988 I briefly worked in a bookshop in Leicester, and helped out when the shop hosted an evening with John Lahr, to coincide with the new productions of two of Orton’s lesser-known plays, The Ruffian on the Stair and The Erpingham Camp, at the Haymarket Theatre. He gave a very interesting talk about Joe, and Leonie, Joe’s sister, was there too to answer questions. I took all my Lahr Ortonalia along for the great man to sign: treasured possessions still.

Joe in 1965, photo by Lewis Morley. You can read Morley’s recollections of the photo session during which the photo was taken here.

The publication in 1993 of Kenneth Williams‘ diaries, edited by Russell Davies, gave another wonderful insight into Joe’s life. Lahr had talked to Williams for Prick Up Your Ears, and had been allowed to quote from Williams’ diaries, but the publication of the diaries gave us a much fuller picture of Joe, and his relationship with Halliwell and with Williams.

Joe in 1966. Photo by John Haynes.

If you haven’t discovered Joe Orton yet, I encourage you to dive in, head first. Entertaining Mr Sloane is my favourite play of his, and the film version starring Beryl Reid, Harry Andrews and Peter McEnery captures its anarchic irreverence perfectly.

Joe Orton, 1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967.

Joe Orton website, run by his estate

BBC Radio 4 Front Row half hour special edition on Joe, first broadcast 11 August 2017 and available for download. Features Leonie Orton, Sheila Hancock and John Lahr, among others.

Elsie Higgins 1872-1953

Sep2

I have just posted a package to one of my customers. I like to put postcards in with my parcels, and as my customer has already had one of my John Ruskin kingfisher postcards that I had printed as part of my (not-very competent) attempt at branding, I decided to send them another one, one of the large collection Chap and I recently bought at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery. (The Museum is closing for a couple of years for its very exciting development and refurbishment, and so they were selling off all their cards and postcards for a song, and we can never resist a bargain!). The card I sent is A May Morning, by Elsie Higgins.

‘A May Morning’, by Elsie Higgins. (c) Plymouth City Council: Museum and Art Gallery; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

All it said on the back of the card about the artist was ‘Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1905. Oil on canvas, 43.2 x 68.5 cm’. There are no dates or biographical details given for Elsie. I wondered about her – was she a Glasgow Girl maybe? A bit of internet truffling was in order.

The Royal Academy of Arts: a Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work From Its Foundation in 1769 to 1904, Vol. 4, 1905 has been digitised and has an entry for her. It shows that she had three paintings exhibited at the RA (presumably the Summer Exhibition), one each in 1899, 1900 and 1901, titled Miss Edith Gorham, Summer time, and The rompers. It gives her title as Miss Elsie Higgins, and her address in 1899 as ‘Red House, Rye, Surrey’, in 1900 as ‘The Lynches, Salford [sic – Shalford], Surrey’ and in 1901 as ‘1, Rosebery Road, Bushey’. This was further googling gold, and for Rye up comes the site Portraiture in Sussex Before Photography: apparently Elsie was also a miniaturist. Her dates are given: born 1872, and flourished 1899-1901. Maybe those were the dates she flourished at miniature painting, but going on A May Morning she was clearly flourishing artistically for longer than that. She would have been about 33 when she painted A May Morning.

In (deep breath) British and Irish paintings in public collections: An index of British and Irish oil paintings by artists born before 1870 in public and institutional collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Christopher Wright, Catherine May Gordon and Mary Peskett Smith (2006), the entry for Elsie reads ‘Working Birkenhead, Cheshire (later Merseyside); Rye, Sussex, Shalford, Surrey, & Bushey, Hertfordshire, 1895-1916’ and it appears the only piece of hers in a UK art gallery or museum is A May Morning.

Googling Bushey brings about more and detailed information: Elsie was the life-long companion of fellow artist Edith Gorham (born September 1864, and who was deaf-mute from birth), and Elsie’s “portraits, miniatures and landscapes were shown between 1895 and 1916, including eleven times at the Royal Academy. A photo and report on her work appears in The English Illustrated Magazine of September 1907 ‘Some Lady Artists of Today’ … Edith and Elsie Higgins shared a house [in Bushey] on Merry [Hill] Mount for more than 40 years, until Edith died at the age of 66 [sic – 76] in June of 1941. She left an estate of £5,418, which passed to her friend Elsie, until Miss Higgins herself died in 1953.” (This information comes from a fascinating blog post about an 1832 map signed by Isaac Manley, who sailed as a young boy with Captain Cook on Endeavour – it’s very interesting, and well worth a read).

And that’s it, for now. I am sure there is much more information about her in various archives, but that’s all I could find out on the web about her so far.

If anyone has any more knowledge of Elsie, I’d love to hear. Did she study at an art school or was she self taught? What did she do for a living? How many paintings did she paint? Where are they?

UPDATE November 2019. Elsie did indeed study at an art school: Herkomer’s Art School in Bushey: Elsie first attended there in 1893 and Edith eight years earlier in 1885.

Rings that remind me of things, Part 10

Aug3

Part 10 of an occasional series about rings in my Etsy shop that remind me of things.

Ring:

Vintage foiled raked glass ring with a lovely swirly pattern. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Thing:

The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, June 1889. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

UPDATE: The ring has now sold. Sorry!

So far I have had rings that remind me of an Iron Age hillfort, an alien spaceship, a cream horn, a radio telescope, Noah’s Ark, an octopus tentacle, spider eyes, Pluto and its moon Charon, and the rings of Saturn.

A Charles Rennie Mackintosh Mockintosh

Apr14

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) is the most iconic of all Scottish Arts and Crafts designers. Glasgow-born and based Mackintosh was a talented architect, furniture designer, artist, and more. His works have inspired a range of replicas and items inspired by his designs, and these are fondly known as ‘Mockintoshes‘ (I’m a sucker for a bit of word play).

I recently acquired a piece of silver jewellery, a pendant, in a style that I thought was almost certainly Mackintosh, but with a motif I didn’t recognise. The pendant has two turbaned figures with what look like long capes facing each other. They are so stylised that it is easy to look at the design and not see the figures immediately.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh-inspired sterling silver pendant by Malcolm Gray of Ortak. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

I wondered what the inspiration for the piece was. Some internet truffling was in order. Luckily for me I hit pay dirt in the first place I looked: the Wikipedia page on Rennie Mackintosh:

Cabinet designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada. Photo by Tony Hisgett.

Going to the Royal Ontario Museum website, I found that the cabinet was designed by Rennie Mackintosh in 1902, and made by Francis Smith and Son in Glasgow that same year. The cabinet is in white painted oak, and the insides of the doors are lined with silver foil inlaid with a design in coloured glass of a woman holding a stylised rose in the design known as the Glasgow Rose. The Museum acquired its example in 1983-4.

More truffling showed that Mackintosh’s original design for the cabinet (accession no GLAHA 41118) is held by the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow. The Hunterian holds a huge collection of material by and related to Mackintosh. The pair of cabinets were designed for Mrs Rowat (the mother-in-law of Mackintosh’s friend and mentor, Francis Henry Newbery) for the living room of her house at 14 Kingsborough Gardens, Glasgow.

Mackintosh had a duplicate pair made for his own home in Glasgow, and this pair is now on display in ‘The Mackintosh House’ in the Hunterian Museum (accession nos GLAHA 41221 and 41222), where they can be seen flanking one of the fireplaces.

As well as featuring the Glasgow Rose, the design also features the heart-shaped leaf motif known as the ‘cicely leaf’ or ‘cecily leaf’. Both motifs were used by Mackintosh and so are often found in Mockintoshes. I’ve written a short blog post on the cicely leaf motif here.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society website.

John Ruskin

Feb17

I have long loved the art of John Ruskin (1819-1900). I was given a card in the 1970s with a reproduction of one of his watercolours, and I still have it. It’s a study of a peacock breast feather, held in the Collection of the Guild of St George, Museums Sheffield.

John Ruskin. Study of a Peacock’s Breast Feather. 1875, watercolour, 22.3 x 14.7 cm.

This first got me interested in his art, especially his stunning watercolours (click on all pics to make bigger):

John Ruskin. Rocks and Ferns in a Wood at Crossmount. 1847. Perthshire. Pencil, ink, watercolour and bodycolour, 32.3 x 46.5 cm

John Ruskin. Rocks and Ferns in a Wood at Crossmount, Perthshire. 1847, pencil, ink, watercolour and bodycolour, 32.3 x 46.5 cm.

John Ruskin. The Garden of San Miniato near Florence. 1845, watercolour on paper.

John Ruskin. Mountain Rock and Alpine Rose. 1844-1849, pencil, ink, chalk, watercolour and bodycolour, 29.8 x 41.4 cm.

John Ruskin. Part of the Façade, San Michele, Lucca. 1845, pencil and watercolour on pale cream paper, 33 x 23.3 cm.

John Ruskin. The Chateau of Neuchatel at dusk, with Jura mountains beyond. 1866, pencil and watercolour, 13.3 x 21 cm.

John Ruskin. Coast Scene near Dunbar. 1847, pencil and watercolour, 32.5 x 47.5 cm.

John Ruskin. The Casa d’Oro, Venice. 1845, pencil and watercolour, with bodycolour, 33 x 47.6 cm.

John Ruskin. Study of a peacock feather and another feather.

Ruskin was particularly fond of painting peacock feathers. In 1875 he wrote, ‘I’ve to draw a peacock’s breast-feather, and paint as much of it as I can without having heaven to dip my brush in.’

I wanted to get some postcards printed for my Etsy shop – my first attempt at branding – and needed an image. My photography doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny, so in the end I thought I’d just choose an image I love, and that was available for free use. It meant that my postcards wouldn’t reflect what I sell in my shop – probably a huge no-no when it comes to branding, but I’d rather have a lovely picture rather than a crappy one I took of some of my beautiful vintage jewellery. The image I settled on is one Ruskin painted of a kingfisher.

John Ruskin. Kingfisher. 1870-1871, pencil, ink, watercolour and bodycolour, 25.8 × 21.8 cm.

If you would like to know more about John Ruskin – he was so much more than just an artist – his Wikipedia page has much information and many links to more. Also, this blog is an interesting place to start.

Stoneywell, an Arts and Crafts house

Apr15

Stoneywell is a wonderful Arts and Crafts house built by designer-architect Ernest Gimson (1864-1919) for his brother Sydney in Ulverscroft in the Leicestershire countryside between 1897 and 1899, and lived in by Sydney’s family until 2012. It has been bought by the National Trust and restored to the state it was in in the 1950s, and is now open to the public, opening for the first time ever this spring.

Stoneywell. Photo by Joe Giddens/PA.

Stoneywell, drawn by Ernest Gimson in July 1898.

Stoneywell is in Charnwood Forest, north-west of Leicester, and I know the area well because I grew up in Leicester, and Charnwood Forest and Bradgate Park (‘Braggy Park’) were favourite weekend family walk spots. I’m also familiar with the work of Ernest Gimson, because there were a couple of his houses just around the corner from where I lived in Leicester, Inglewood on Ratcliffe Road and The White House on North Avenue.

Inglewood (1892), a house by Ernest Gimson on Ratcliffe Road. Photo by NotFromUtrecht.

Inglewood (1892), a house by Ernest Gimson on Ratcliffe Road, Leicester. Photo by NotFromUtrecht.

The White House (1898), a house by Ernest Gimson on North Avenue, Leicester. Photo by NotFromUtrecht.

Gimson built several houses at Ulverscroft for his family. Stoneywell is special because it was furnished by Gimson and his furniture-making colleagues the Barnsleys, and as the family never left the house, much of the original furniture remains.

The kitchen at Stoneywell. Photo by Joe Giddens/PA.

The living room at Stoneywell. Photo by Joe Giddens/PA.

The master bedroom at Stoneywell. Photo by Joe Giddens/PA.

Now here’s a little story. When I was about 14, on one of our weekend trips to Charnwood Forest we passed an antiques shop—I can’t remember where it was: Woodhouse Eaves, maybe?—and some of its wares were displayed out on the pavement. My eye was caught by a beautiful chair with a twisted cord seat, and I asked my Dad to stop so I could look at it. I found out how much it was from the shop owner (I think he might have taken pity on me and given me a good price), worked out how many months-worth of pocket money that would be, asked for a sub from my parents, and bought the chair. Luckily our car was big enough to take it home in the back.

I still have it: such a pretty little Arts and Crafts chair. Maybe this is a little fanciful of me, but I like to think it could have been a Gimson or a Barnsley chair, from one of the Gimson houses in the area. Whoever it was made by, I haven’t ever seen another like it. Update December 2016: an extremely knowledgeable Arts and Crafts collector tells me that my chair is by William Birch. At last I know who made it. Thank you, Vanessa!

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National Trust information on Stoneywell.

Eric Gill, The Song of Songs

Jan26

I have always loved Eric Gill‘s work (though revelations in his 1989 biography by Fiona MacCarthy make me not at all keen on the man himself). Gill (1882—1940) was a supremely talented sculptor, typeface designer (Gill Sans is probably his most famous), stonecutter and print maker. His work has a wonderfully sparse, graphic quality, with purity of line and lack of fussy ornamentation and detail.

Gill illustrated a 1925 edition of The Song of Songs, otherwise known as The Song of Solomon from the Old Testament of the Bible, published by the Golden Cockerel Press in a limited run of 750 copies. The Song of Songs is a strange part of the Bible: it is a celebration of erotic, sexual love. Gill was drawn to erotic subjects, and so it is no surprise that he chose The Song of Songs to illustrate.

Eric Gill, woodcut from The Song of Songs, published by the Golden Cockerel Press, 1925.

This piece accompanies the part of the text that reads:

While the King was reclining

mine own spikenard gave out his odour.

A bunch of myrhh is my beloved to me:

he shall rest between my breasts.

A hand-tinted version of the Eric Gill woodcut in an edition of The Song of Songs, published by the Golden Cockerel Press, 1925.

I recently bought a small brass plaque with an image that I didn’t recognise, but a style that I did. A bit of poking about on the internet, and my hunch was confirmed: it was based on an Eric Gill woodcut, specifically one from The Song of Songs.

Brass plaque based on the Eric Gill woodcut in , for sale in my Etsy shop. Click on photo for details.

Brass plaque based on the Eric Gill woodcut in The Song of Songs, published by the Golden Cockerel Press, 1925. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Another view of the brass plaque based on the Eric Gill woodcut in The Song of Songs, published by the Golden Cockerel Press, 1925. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

I’m not for a moment suggesting that the plaque itself is by Gill, but it is clear whose artwork is depicted in low relief. The ‘Relax’ underneath is also nothing to do with Gill (a shame the makers didn’t use a Gill typeface for it … Bit of a missed opportunity there!)

There is also a lovely hand-coloured Gill woodcut for sale in the FittedFab shop on Etsy at the moment:

Hand-coloured woodcut ‘Angels and Shepherds’ by Eric Gill, 1923. For sale at FittedFab on Etsy: click on photo for details.

Website of the Eric Gill Society.

Lost sheep, icy murders, and an immortal

Dec14

Every now and then I hear a piece of music that is so distinctive that whenever I hear it subsequently I know it immediately. One of these earworms for me for a Norwegian folk song called ‘Den Bortkomne Sauen’—‘The Lost Sheep’.

I first heard this melody while watching the marvellous Coen Brothers film Fargo, which was released in 1996. The main theme of the film is an adaptation by Carter Burwell of ‘Den Bortkomne Sauen’.

Such a distinctive melody, which seemed to echo so well the icy landscapes of northern Minnesota—a wintery land populated by people of Scandinavian extraction where horrible murders happen, wood chippers optional, and heavily-pregnant police chiefs doggedly pursue their man. The music stuck with me, a lovely earworm I didn’t expect to hear again.

Fast forward a few years. I listen to a lot of BBC Radio 4 while I work, and I particularly enjoy the afternoon dramas. One set of plays that grabbed me right from the start was the Pilgrim series by Sebastian Baczkiewicz, the first episode broadcast in 2008 and now five series in. The stories involve William Palmer, a 12th century immortal cursed to wander the modern British countryside, encountering faeries and demons as well as hoodies and housewives. And lo! Used in Pilgrim was ‘Den Bortkomne Sauen’, a version played by Norwegian musician Annbjørg Lien on her Hardanger fiddle, accompanied by a church organ:

The later Fargo version, with its syrupy harp at first and rather overblown orchestration after the fiddle part, has wonderfully slow tempo, full of foreboding. Annbjørg’s 1994 version is plaintive and stripped-down, but at a slightly faster tempo, and I could really sense the lost sheep in the icy Nordic snowdrifts as she played. It also fitted perfectly with the theme of Pilgrim, with Palmer the lost soul condemned to wander forever.

A Hardanger fiddle, made by Knut Gunnarsson Helland. Photo by Kjetil r.

A Hardanger fiddle, made by Knut Gunnarsson Helland. Photo by Frode Inge Helland.

Annbjørg’s version is available on her album Felefeber (‘Fiddle fever’), released in 1994, and available on Amazon. Series 3 of Pilgrim was awarded the Silver Medal for the Best European Radio Drama of the Year at the Prix Europa in Berlin, and nominated for the Prix Italia Best Original Radio Drama award. It’s a great listen if you get the chance. As one other listener described it so well: ‘I love the way one world settles seamlessly in-between the cracks of another’, and in that same post Sebastian has confirmed that Series 6 and 7 have been commissioned, hurrah!

And then earlier this year, I was delighted to see/hear that the title track of the 2014 television series adaptation of Fargo, which I hugely enjoyed, had nods to ‘Den Bortkomne Sauen’ and its use in the original film:

I haven’t seen it yet, but apparently ‘Den Bortkomne Sauen’ also crops up in the Norwegian tv series Lilyhammer (and no, that’s not a typo). I am definitely going to catch up on this one as it is a Norway-set mash-up of The Sopranos (my all-time favourite tv series) and Scandinoir, with a good dash of comedy thrown in, and stars Steven Van Zandt as Frank, an Italian-American mafioso relocated by the Federal Witness Protection Program to Lillehammer. Frank even picks up a lost sheep in the very first episode, so I read.

Update 22 December 2014: A new series of Pilgrim has just started this afternoon on Radio 4. The Beeb hasn’t exactly gone overboard with publicising it, as the first I heard about it was when I was listening to the radio and it started! But hurrah, more, new Pilgrim!

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