Two delightful Robin Tanner finds

Regular visitors will recall the major retrospective that we held last year at the Archive Collection that celebrated the careers and loves of Robin and Heather Tanner. Robin, as well as being a leading educator was also a fine etcher and contemporary at Goldsmiths College of Sutherland and Drury. Probably two of his best known early etchings are the larger scale Christmas and Harvest Festival, both used as illustrations in Wiltshire Village (1939), their timeless paeon of praise to the rural lifestyle.

These fine depictions of rural life during the inter war years remain favourites of lovers of the Pastoral idiom in print making. We were therefore delighted to spot at a rural auction room, two very early trial pulls by Robin produced in the run up to the publication of formal numbered editions by Gallery Twenty One in 1929 and 1930 respectively.

What makes these particularly desirable is the sharpness of both prints, with fine details visible that is frequently missing in more fully inked and later editions.

 

Advertisements

Jolyon Drury and Peyton Skipwith talk on the followers of Samuel Palmer on 1st June 2019

In the second talk of our summer series, we were delighted to be joined by Jolyon, son of the New Pastoralist artist Paul Drury, and Peyton Skipwith formerly a director of the West End based Fine Art Society. Both brought along period prints from their own collections to illustrate the development of a broadly romantic aesthetic in print art, commencing with the late etchings of Samuel Palmer, and continuing with the Palmer revival of the 1920s and the early works of Grham Sutherland and others.

We were particularly honoured to also be joined for the afternoon by Jerrold Northrop Moore, the leading expert and writer on Sir Edward Elgar, and author of The Green Fuse, and The Architecture of Dreams – the standard work on the Cotswolds etcher, F L Griggs. The whole event turned into something of a Masterclass, with an active three way debate as may be witnessed below.

Alan Powers talk at the opening of Cardew’s Craft Circle 18th May 2019

Leading 20th century design historian and writer Alan Powers gave a typically thought provoking talk on Enid Marx at the opening on our new show celebrating the creative friends and influences of Cardew’s Winchombe years.  Marco, as she was nicknamed, was a close friend and supporter of Michael and had herself trained to be a potter before following a design career.  Their relationship is traced in Alan’s new essay in our new book, Cardew’s Craft Circle – Art & Crafts of the Cotswolds (see previous post).

What proved particularly intriguing in his talk and essay was the crossover that emerges in between many of the leading figures in Cardew’s life, with the Royal College of Art (RCA) and the Central School of Art (CSA) emerging as important in craft and design terms in the 1920s as was Goldsmiths College for Graham Sutherland and Paul Drury. A figure in common of particular note was the Stoke born ceramic tutor Dorah Billington, who taught at both the RCA and CSA, and influenced Pleydell-Bouverie, Norah Braden, Charlotte Bawden (nee Epton) and a number of others. Ray Finch was to train under her in the mid-1930s before joining Cardew at Winchcombe in 1936.

As well as documenting Marco’s career, the presentation entailed some coverage of the influence of modernism as opposed to pastoralism in 1930s design aesthetics. Collaboration with industry and the democratisation of design also featured.

 

Cardew’s Craft Circle ~ essays on Cotswolds Art & Crafts of the 1920s & 1930s

Publication date 18th May 2019 ; priced £25 ; 80 pages full colour 21 x 21cm art format

Scene setting introductory essays by John Edgeler :

~  The Simple Life & the Cotswolds Craft interior

~  The Butler family and Winchcombe Pottery

~  Design in Cardew’s Winchcombe

~  Pastoralism Pottery and Printing

Specialist essays by other contributors  (in alphabetical order) :

Richard Batterham  ~  Katharine Pleydell Bouverie

Helen Brown  ~  Charlotte Epton, potter, artist & teacher

R Chamberlaine Brothers  ~  Organic & Abstract in Art & Writings

Mary Greensted  ~  Peter Waals: Cotswolds craft furniture

Alan Powers  ~  Michael Cardew and Enid Marx

Barley Roscoe  ~  Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher

TO ORDER PLEASE  Email: johnedgeler@gmail.com  ( tel: 01242 602 319 )

LIMITED EDITION OF 200 COPIES

Barron and Larcher block printed textiles of the 1930s

This section of material is from a pair of curtains by Barron and Larcher as originally fitted to the 1930s arts and crafts home of the artist and etcher, Robin Tanner. B & L had originally been London based, making high couture textiles for Cambridge Colleges and for wealthy clients such as the Duke of Westminster. However, in 1930 they moved to the small Cotswolds town of Painswick in 1930, continuing to produce delightful materials ranging from the traditional inspired by nature (above) to the jazz age (below).

Their output proved very complimentary to the rural style of arts and crafts that emerged in the Cotswolds in the inter-war years, and their cloths were often co-displayed at London and international exhibitons of the Studio Pottery pioneers, Leach, Beano and Cardew. Friends of the artist and designer, Enid Marx, they were also social friends and customers of Michael Cardew, visiting him at Winchcombe on a number of occasions.

Their textiles feature in a piece by Barley Roscoe to be published in a book of essays by leading writers, Cardew’s Craft Circle, on Saturday 18th May 2019. They will also be the subject of a talk by the contemporary textile worker and writer, Sarah Burns, to be held as part of a textiles afternoon at the Winchcombe Archive Collection on Saturday 22nd June 2019. Please see earlier talks blog for further details.

Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie (1895-1985)

This early and unusual Pleydell-Bouverie vase is one of a large group of Beano (as she was nick-named) pots that will be on display at the Winchcombe Archive Collection Summer exhibition that opens at the Long Room Gallery, Queen Anne House, High Street, Winchcombe, GL54 5LJ  [tel 01242 602 319] at 9am on Saturday 18th May 2019,

Katharine’s pots are being brought together as part of a show, Cardew’s Craft Circle, celebrating the creative group of friends around Michael Cardew in the 1920s and 1930s.  This will be the first substantive Beano show since a Bath exhibition held in 1980-1981, with many exhibits new to the public. Pleydell-Bouverie was a pioneer in the use of wood ash glazes on studio pottery and her influence may be seen in the work of Richard Batterham and his contemporaries – as well of course, Cardew himself.

Beano was a typically modest figure, and her pioneering research provided much of the related information incorporated in Leach’s A Potter’s Book. This show promises to appeal to studio afficinados and potters alike,  as it encompasses  a full range of her forms and glaze effects, and pots ranging from the large and impressive to the modest such as the glaze test miniatures illustrated below.

SATURDAY  TALKS  THIS  MAY  AND  JUNE

FOR  TALK  BOOKINGS  PLEASE  RING :  01242 602 319  OR  EMAIL : johnedgeler@gmail.com

Cardew’s Craft Circle (from 18th May 2019)

This new exhibition at the Long Room Gallery, home to the Winchcombe Archive Collection, focusses on the circle of creative people known to Michael Cardew in the 1920s and 1930s. Aside from a good representative display of the early slipwares of Cardew and his pre-war team, some on show to the public for the first time in 20+ years, this event will also take the opportunity to celebrate the work of Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie – known as Beano to her friends.

The last substantive Beano public exhibition was held some forty years ago in Bath, so this event will provide a unique opportunity for the lovers of good pots in general, and the Studio pioneers in particular to gain a comprehensive idea of her output and creativity. The 100+ exhibits from both Coleshill and Kilmington Manor will include rare examples by Norah Braden and Ada Mason, and will range from charming glaze test miniatures to magnificent show stoppers by Beano. The vast majority are drawn from private collections, many not seen by the public in 20 or 30 years or more, so this is a unique opportunity.

The exhibition, which also includes the contemporary block printed fabrics of Barron and Larcher of the 1930s with whose work Beano was frequently co-exhibited, opens to the public on Saturday 18^th May 2019 from 9am to 5pm, then at the same times daily until Saturday 25^th May inclusive. Thereafter, it will open from Thursday to Saturday inclusive (11am to 5pm) until Saturday 13^th July, or by prior appointment on non-public days.

Christmas 2018 Newsletter

The Winchcombe Archive Collection is now in the process of becoming a charitable trust. To get more information on this together with our plans for 2019 please click on the following link:

CHRISTMAS 2018 NEWSLETTER