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Paul Nash |
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2009 Esther Fitzgerald |
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Footprints
The Footprints workshop was set up in 1925 by Gwen Pike and Elspeth Little in Durham Wharf, Hammersmith and supported by Celandine Kennington the wealthy second wife of the artist Eric Kennington. Gwen Pike had previously worked with Claude Lovat Fraser of Fraser,Trevelyan and Wilkinson who was behind most of the block printing enterprises of the time.The name, Footprints, was chosen because of the foot pressure used to create most of the block prints.
The workshop became the longest-lasting block printing enterprise of the 1920s and continued, despite the break up of the Pike-Little partnership until after the war. Joyce Clissold arrived in 1927 and continued Footprints when Pike and Little split. At its height,
Footprints had two central London shops and represented artists Paul Nash, Eric Kennington and Marion Dorn.
Footprints used a much wider colour range than Barron and Larcher. Block printed fabric was very much the desire of the Avant-garde and influential.These fabrics were exclusive and expensive with the average price of hand printed fabrics, at 12 shillings per yard, while manufacturers such as Warners could produce printed textiles for 6 shillings per yard. Clients included Deitmar Blow, the architect to the Duke of Westminster, and the stylish and fashionable decorator Syrie Maugham.
Reference -
Powers, Alan, 'Modern Block Printed Textiles', London, 1992. pp. 46-7, 61.
Tanner, Robin, 'Phyllis Barron 1890-1964 Dorothy Larcher 1884-1952 A record of their block-printed
textiles:Volume One', Pg 23.
The archives of both Footprints and Barron and Larcher are useful resources to obtain further information:
The Textiles Collection: University College for the Creative Arts at Farnham, http://www.ucreative.ac.uk
Paul Nash writes in The Listener, 27th April, 1932,
‘For many years, would-be employers of designers [in England] have laboured under the odd superstition that artists with reputations as painters will not condescend to undertake commissions except for paintings.
It would be interesting to discover how this superstition arose; most manufacturers hold this today. I was led to ponder these things on first seeing an exhibition of Mr Allan Walton’s textiles some weeks ago. Mr Walton is a painter and it is to painters rather than to craftsmen that he has applied for textile designs. Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Keith Baynes and Bernard Adeney form the nucleus of this experiment.That experiment has been completely successful within the
limits imposed, and its limits are now being extended. The reason for its success, by no meansonly an aesthetic one, lies in the fact, I believe, that Mr Walton has faced his problem squarely and practically without any oblique high mindedness.
He first made certain of an appropriate and economical material and secured a block cutter able to interpret instead of copy the vagaries of a painter’s technique… The result has been a number of excellent fabrics of original design which can be bought at a reasonable price…
It is hoped this industry organised by an artist for artists will succeed where our ‘business’ men
have not even attempted to fail.’
References -
Jackson, Lesley, ‘Twentieth Century Pattern Design’, London, 2002, Pp. 86- 89.
Hayes Marshall, H. G, ‘British Textiles Designers Today’, London, 1939.
Causey, Andrew, ‘Paul Nash:Writings on Art’, London, 2000.
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Sir Emery Walker |
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2007 Esther Fitzgerald |
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Sir Emery Walker
Typographer, engraver, collector and firm socialist. He was a great friend of William Morris who wrote of him, ‘Walker was with me Saturday and Sunday, to my great comfort’. ( he shared all his spare time) Phillip Webb, architect, who, on dying, left his collection to Walker says fondly that Walker was the ‘Universal Samaritan…to be laid on like water only we don’t pay rates for him’. He was also a friend and advisor to W B Yates and George Bernard Shaw and helped to establish the Cuala Press, Dublin.
References:
http://www.emerywalker.org.uk/home.html
‘The Letters of William Morris to his Family and Friends’, ed. Philip Henderson, London, 1950.
‘7 Hammersmith Terrace’, M.Kramer, Magazine Antiques, June 2005.
‘The Pursuit Of The Ideal: The Life And Art Of William Morris Exhibition’, ‘University of Michigan, Special Collections Library’, 1996. |
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Gertrude Bell |
| ©
2005 Esther Fitzgerald |
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| Gertrude Bell, born in Durham 1868, died in Iraq 1926 |
| Daughter of a Durham industrialist she went to Oxford to read history, and, at the age of twenty she was the first woman to receive a first-class degree in history. She was an Archaeologist, Arabist, linguist, author, poet,photographer, mountaineer and nation builder. But from the turn of the century onwards, along with T.E.Lawrence her life was governed by a love of the Arab peoples. She learned their language, investigated their archaeological sites, and travelled deep into the desert. Her knowledge of the country and its tribes made her a prime target for recruitment by British Intelligence during the First World War, later, as a Political Officer, and then as Oriental Secretary to the High Commissioner in Baghdad, she became a king-maker in the new state of Iraq, which she had helped to create. Her first love, however, was always for archaeology, and, as Honorary Director of Antiquities in Iraq, she established in Baghdad the Iraq Museum. |
A section of a letter sent by Gertrude Bell to her Farther Sir Hugh Bell ( Jan 23rd 1903)
in which she purchases this bokhara embroidery, later given as present to her sister Lady Trevelyan. |
" Well, Mr Jelf, who is, as I must repeat, charming, took us about in the morning and explained the nature of things. It was a horrible day, beginning with a dust storm and ending with rain, but we were too much excited to mind much. We lunched with him and a man with whom he keeps house, a Mr Howells, and after lunch, Mr Jelf, who has been city magistrate - no easy billet, I fancy, in Peshawar - sent us off to the town with a letter to Safdar Ali, the chief merchant, telling him to sell us things good cheap. We stopped first at a shop to which we were attracted by the sign which said that the owner kept "carpets and Bokhara [Bukhara] other things," walked in and made a selection for which we offered a price which was promptly rejected. (Our shopkeeping was in Persian and Persian carries you everywhere in this country. It's enchanting to hear the beloved beautiful speech again.) We were just going away when, on looking at the sign board again, we found that this was Safdar Ali himself, so we returned and handed our letter to him, whereupon he burst into a torrent of praise, the purport of which was that few like Mr Jelf came to Peshawar. Not to be outdone, I remarked that there were few like him on the face of the earth and added that England was fortunate in possessing 5 brothers Jelf. Safdar Ali held up one hand with the fingers outstretched and replied "The 5 fingers are brothers yet they are not alike!" I laughed and repeated this to Hugo and our friend, feeling that he was a success conversationally, fell into the most aimiable [sic] of moods and assured us that for us and for friends of Mr Jelfs' it would be a matter of perfect indifference to him if he gave his wares for nothing. So we sat and watched while Persian silks and Bokhara embroideries and Kashmir curtains and Bushire [Bushehr] rugs and Kashgar [Kashi] china were displayed to us, and bought some things and enjoyed ourselves vastly. Mr Jelf came in after tea and saw our purchases and said we had done very well and that he only feared that next time Safdar Ali came up for murder he would be obliged, in recognition of his services to us, to have him let off."
REF:THe Gertrude Bell Project .Newcastle University. www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk.
" Daughter of the Desert" by Georgina Howell published by Macmillan. 2006
" Desert Queen" by Jane Wallach published by Pheonix. 1996 |
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God
and Beer
A Domestic Furnishing Fabric |
| ©
2005 Esther Fitzgerald |
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Block
printed on cotton in the last quarter of the 18th
century in Alsace. Measurements: 76x43in./193cms x111cm.
These graphic pictorial prints were an essential requirement
for the upwardly mobile of late 18th century France.
They had come to replace brocade as a furnishing^
fabric of choice. These rural scenes displayed an
awareness of the philosophy of Rousseau. |
The
mystery is: why does it depict a Star of David over
what appears to be a public house? This symbol was
not exclusively Jewish. It had roots in sacred geometry.
Its power having been realized in India, China, Persia,
Egypt, Greece and by the Jews, Christians and Moslems
also, Freemason and Alchemist, but in this rural,
context it was likely to be Jewish for several very
practical reasons: |
1.Three
quarters of the Jewish population of France lived
in Rural Alsace
2.One of the few professions that Jews were permitted
to practice was inn keeping.
3.Contemporary to the textile, major changes in the
Jewish way of life in Alsace were in progress. |
In
France as in the rest of Western Europe the Enlightenment
was fostering respect for the individual and asserting
basic equality of all human beings. Thus the stage
was set for Jews to be finally admitted as equals
into the societies of Europe. In Alsace, where the
majority of French Jews lived, several prominent,
wealthy Jews r gained favour in society. Thanks to
these privileges, there sprang into existence a class
of rich Jews who were open minded, subtle, refined
and intellectual. These privileges had been granted
to Cerf Berr, who enlisted the help of the influential
philosopher Moses Mendelssohn to write a report addressing
the political reform of the Jews in Alsace. {Since
the Middle Ages, Jews had been subjected to a compulsory
body tax and they were forced to live in Shtetles,
forbidden to own land and restricted to certain professions.}
My subjective view is that the textile was commissioned
in what turned out to be a brief moment of optimism,
by a wealthy charismatic Jew, hoping that in the new
world emergent in France attitudes were certain to
change. Adding a Star of David to a Rousseauesque
design would be an expression of growing confidence
and a willingness to become part of the wider secular
culture amongst Jews. - Not as has been suggested
a satirical look at Jewish life. Such parodies did
appear in print in periodicals, but one would hardly
embellish a textile, which hung in a home with such
a sentiment. Also at this time the six-pointed star
had not developed as a recognizable Jewish symbol.
It's universal significance would have been known
to an educated Jew. |
Subsequent
Research.
In June we had sold the textile to a noble soul who
planned to give it to a Jewish Museum, subject to
the research proving correct.
In July a letter arrived from a scholar explaining
that a six-pointed star was a sign in Alsace for quality
beer. Therefore the textile was of no Jewish interest.
My first reaction was that this couldn't be right.
Why would a brewer use a sacred symbol to sell beer
?. In the very same area, Jews were being liberated
and the six -pointed star was consciously being adopted
as a sign to represent the Jewish faith, in the same
manner that the Cross represented Christianity.
I next contacted Molou Schneider at The Strasburg
Museum. She confirmed to me;
that the six-pointed star hung from taverns in Alsace
up until the Nazi occupation.
I asked her whether there was an explanation for this
and also when had it first been introduced?
A few weeks later I received information that the
six-pointed star had been a medieval guild sign for
brewing, rather like a present day trading standard.
It was speculated that the sign had been borrowed
from alchemy where it represents the point of transmutation.
During the Inquisition at the end of the 12th century
both Jews and alchemists were either killed or expelled
from Strasburg. The symbol of the six-pointed star
was outlawed. There is no evidence of it reappearing
until the end of 18*n century.
It appears that the six-pointed star had its renaissance
at the end of 18th century in two highly diverse guises.
This could have been very innocent, both being the
result of the Enlightenment.
What is surprising is that throughout the 19th century
these separate guises co- existed. The Star of David
developed very successfully as a symbol of Jewish
faith. - As France had been the first country to liberate
Jews they defined the guidelines for the rest of Europe.
The Jews of Alsace had been highly influential in
this process. If the six pointed star had such a high
profile as a trading standard for beer why did the
Jews chose to develop it into sign to represent their
faith? Far from having no Jewish interest this textile
is a catalyst for Jewish interest. |
References:
Anti -Semitism its history and causes by Bernard Lazare1897
Judaism as revealed legislation by Moses Mendelssohn
1767
Editdu Roi published in Colmar, at Decker January
17th 1784
Stag Berr: representative of a Jewish nation of Alsace
1726-1793. by Chief Rabbi Warschawski
The Alsatian Jews - Should They Be Granted Equal Rights?"
published in 1790.
A History of the Jews, Sachar, Abram Leon, New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 193
Identical piece but with bearded figures:
Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Acquisition number: 1954-14
8-1, catalogued as Alsace, 18th Century
Similar textiles published in this rural theme but
without a Star of David:
Western European printed textiles 16th-18th century
State Hermitage Collection t4059
Les delice des quarter saisons designed by Jean-Baptiste
Huet c 1785 Jouy, Musee Oberkampf 9831512. Published
in Toiles de Jouy by Josette Bredif page 89
Le Fete Flammande c 1797 designed by Jean-Baptiste
Huet. Jouy Oberkampf Musee 97812b published as above
page 13 |
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History
of Limmerick Lace |
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| In
1829, Charles Walker brought 24 girls from Essex to
Limerick, to start up a lace- making school. This
was the beginning of Limerick lace, which came to
be the most prestigious and expensive of the Irish
laces. One of the reasons that Mr Walker chose Limerick
were the large numbers of unemployed young women who
could become his work-force. To get a place in the
lace factories was not easy, as each girl had to provide
a certificate from her doctor, a reference from an
influential citizen and proof of her age, which had
to be between 11 and 14. The social consequences of
the lace industry on the local area were immediate:
better housing, quality of life and even the ability
to put aside some savings. When Mr Walker died in
1843, about 1700 females were employed in the various
branches of the Limerick lace- making industry. |
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lace was a combination of tambour and needlerun embroidery
on a machine-made net, and was also known for its
large variety of different filling patterns (up to
47 on one collar). It was the availability of machine-made
net fabric, rather than the costly hand- made variety,
which had enabled the expansion of the lace- making
industry. |
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quality of Limerick lace came to rival and then to
surpass that of any other district in England. Mr
Walker proudly offered a large wager that he would
select a hundred Irish girls from among his workers,
who would produce any given piece of lace superior
to any similar work made by the same number of girls
from France, Flanders, Saxony or Germany. In a relatively
small amount of time, Limerick lace had become arguably
the best in Europe. |
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designs of Limerick lace were polished and refined,
but were also bound by a very conservative market.
As lace was such an expensive, luxury item, only available
or affordable to the very rich lace buyers would not
want to take risks with their purchases. The same
people who approved entrants to the lace- making schools
also organised and judged the lace- making competitions,
thus the designs developed in a very constrained way.
It was because of this conservative tendency that
new currents in the larger world of design did not
impact as they might otherwise have done on the world
of lace- making. This is illustrated by the rarity
of Art Nouveau lace designs at a time when the influences
of this new style were being felt almost everywhere
else. |
References:
Lace, a History by Santina M Levy,
published Victoria and Albert Museum,1983
Limerick Lace by Nellie Clerigh and Veronica Rowe,
published Colin Smyth, Gerrards Cross, 1995
The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery catalogue 1991,
compiled by Peter Murray
The Art Workers Quarterly, 1905 |
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Maria
Gallenga was born in 1880 and was the mentor of Italian
Futurists.
She was an artist, surrounded by thinking people of
her day. She married Peter Gallenga a medical professor
at the University in Rome. He was one of the first
people to research cancer but also helped her develop
the technique of stencilling gold onto velvet. |
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In 1914 she began to make clothes and textiles. In
1915 she visited the San Francisco Panama - Pacific
exhibition. |
In
1923 she won the Silver Medal in the Monza Design
Exhibition.
In 1925 she designed and exhibited in the Italian
Pavilion at Exposition International des Art Decorative
et Industrial in Paris. Here she won the Grand Prix
for stencilled textiles. More exceptional because
the prominent Italian designer of the time was Mario
Fortuny. |
| In
1928 she opened " Boutique Italian in Rue Mimomisnil
in Paris. It remained open until 1934. |
| She
died in 1944. |
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William
Burges |
| ©
2005 Esther Fitzgerald |
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| Cotton-twill
bed-cover with crewel embroidery depicting
poppies and a verse by Keats written in a
gothic script - professionally made in Arts
and Crafts style, in England, circa 1880.
Measurement: 8ft square |
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"O
soothest sleep,
thy poppy throw
around thy bed
with lulling charities". |
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The
above verse is adapted from a poem by John
Keats, entitled "To Sleep".
Keats was a hero of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,
encapsulating in verse their ideals.
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that
is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know":
the last two lines of "Ode to a Grecian
Urn" by John Keats.
"A thing of Beauty is a joy forever.:
the opening line of "Endymion" by
John Keats.
Oscar Wilde’s tour of America in 1882
included a lecture entitled "The English
Renaissance", in which he outlines Keats’
influence on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
.
The abstracted form of the poem, emphasising
opium’s beneficial properties, is a bold
subject for an embroidered bed-cover in the
19th century.
Despite
opium’s not being outlawed until 1914,
the mid- to late-Victorians had discovered
its ‘darker side’, its use for
recreational purposes was very much frowned
upon. Groups of Bohemian artists nevertheless
had no qualms in using it, like Keats, in
their quest for ‘enlightenment’.
Few within such a group, however, would
have had the courage to commission a poem
to be embroidered on a bed-cover extolling
its ‘lulling charities’.
To
determine the bed-cover’s original
owner, one would have to isolate someone
within this specific Bohemian group, who
had no particular complex about using opium
and had sufficient wit and attitude to go
to the extent of displaying such traits
in the permanent, and, for its time, stylish
bed-cover.
I
asked both my colleagues specialising in
the Arts and Crafts domain and dealers in
Pre-Raphaelite paintings if they had encountered
anyone fitting such a profile. The only
person mentioned was William Burges.
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William
Burges
William Burges was a leading architect in Gothic
Revival style with a reputation for good humour,
wit and overall eccentricities. Dante Gabriel Rosetti
composed a limerick about him.
"There’s a babyish party called Burges,
Who from childhood hardly emerges.
If you hadn’t been told,
He’s disgracefully old,
You would offer a bull’s-eye to Burges".
William
Burges believed that "rules were only for
incapables". In his bedroom at his then-home,
Tower House, he built an opium-cupboard, and the
design for that room incorporated a poppy-motif.
Burges liked to incorporate into a design-concept
an indication of the use to which the object would
be put. A bed-cover incorporating a poem entitled
"To Sleep" would, hence, reflect his
thinking.
In his abstracted diaries for 1861, he sums up
the year with the words "Too much opium".
The
bed which Burges designed for his room at Tower
House is now at the Cecil Higgins Museum in Bedford.
The head-board bears a depiction of ‘Sleeping
Beauty’ by the artist Henry Holiday, one
of the first of the Pre-Raphaelite Group, who
would actually make props to set a scene for each
of his paintings. Note the similarities between
the features of the cover protecting ‘Sleeping
Beauty’ and those of his (Image 4). The colours
in the painting are compatible with those of the
bed-cover. Henry Holiday was married to ‘Kate’
Holiday who was William Morris’ most favoured
and admired embroiderer. It would, therefore,
be a distinct possibility for Catherine Holiday
to have actually designed and embroidered the
cover planned for the bed which her husband was
painting. She was on very friendly terms with
William Burges and had in her possession a drawing
by Burne Jones of Burges in bed, covered by a
huge linen cover (also in the Cecil Higgins Museum).
Curiously, this drawing is distinguished in that
it was executed after Burges’ death.
Catherine
Raven Holiday
Catherine Holiday was the daughter of the Reverend
Raven of Birmingham. Both his sons had artistic
leanings: John Samuel Raven 1829-1877 (painter)
and the Reverend Melville Raven (photographer).
Henry Holiday was very much in love with Catherine.
However, the Rev Raven was not prepared to give
up another child to ‘art and poverty‘
and forbade the wedding. He finally relented after
Holiday won an important commission from William
Burges. Both Henry and Catherine were grateful
to Burges. There is evidence, throughout Burges’
life, of the warmth and affection they held for
him.
It is most likely that either Catherine designed
and embroidered the cover to appeal to Burges’
mischievous nature - it is not unreasonable to
imagine the amusement that the cover would induce
in Burges - or that Burges designed it and Catherine
embroidered it. However, I think that Burges died
before the delight of the bed-cover could be revealed
- which may be an explanation for Burne Jones’
posthumous drawing. The Holidays and the Burne
Joneses were life-long and intimate friends. It
is possible that, after Burges’ death, Burne
Jones was shown the cover; Catherine Holiday may
then have expressed her regret at Burges’
never having been able to share the humour of
her cover-, and as a consolation, Burne Jones
produced the drawing for Catherine.
The
cover is made into a very disciplined square.
In sacred geometry, the square represents the
earth - a fact of which Burges would have been
aware and a comfort to him in his nocturnal, opium-induced
journeys.
The
cover, hence, links two very important personalities
of the Arts and Crafts movement, illustrating
their philosophy, humour and intimacy - which,
therefore, I believe, makes it an important addition
to our understanding of that time.
Note:
Burges, more typically, used wool-twill for his
textiles. However, if wool-twill had been used
here as an embellished prop, it would not have
draped in the manner of Holiday’s painting.
Equally, as Burgess died in April, the cover could
have been planned as a summer bed-cover.
Scholars
consulted: Linda Parry-Victoria and Albert Museum
,Matthew Williams-Cardiff Castle, Caroline Bacon-
Cecil Higgins Museum ,Peter Comack-William Morris
Gallery.
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Bibliography:
‘To Sleep’ - John Keats, 1819
‘The English Renaissance’, re-printed
in 1908 from a lecture delivered by Oscar Wilde
in New York, 1882.
‘William Burges and the High Victorian Dream’
by J.M. Crook, published by J Murray London, 1981
‘The House of William Burges’, edited
by Pullen, 1885
‘Abstracted Diaries of William Burges’,
1880
‘Henry Holiday Reminiscences’, published
by Heinemann London, 1914
Mary Gladstone: ‘Diaries and Letters’,
published by Methuen London, 1930
‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’
by Thomas de Quincy, Macmillan, 1901
Christies’ catalogue of ‘Important Victorian
Paintings’, Oct 16th 1981
‘William Morris Textiles’ by Linda Parry,
published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1983 |
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