carpet new trends: arts and crafts

Showing posts with label arts and crafts. Show all posts

Friday, July 15, 2011

Let Glasgow Flourish by Ann Macbeth

Illustration: Ann Macbeth. Let Glasgow Flourish embroidered banner, c1910.

Embroidered banners were a particular favourite of different social, political and religious groupings throughout Britain during the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries. Most, if not all were produced by women and a number have survived into our own contemporary era.

Ann Macbeth, one of the leaders of the Glasgow based revival of embroidery skills during the very last years of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was involved in a number of these embroidered banners. The example shown in this article was produced by her in about 1910. It contains the coat of arms of the city of Glasgow with its motto 'Let Glasgow Flourish.' The full motto is in fact 'Lord, let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word' in commemoration of St. Mungo who is said to have preached these words from his newly founded monastery built by the fishing hamlet of Glasgow in the sixth century. The fishing hamlet specialised in salmon, hence the representation of the two fish. The coat of arms has a number of different features and symbols each of which is tied to the story, both real and mythical, of early Glasgow. A good comprehensive guide to the coat of arms can be found at the Rampant Scotland website.

Although the Let Glasgow Flourish banner is by no means a particularly dynamic version of early twentieth century Scottish embroidery skills, and does not necessarily reflect the creative work that Macbeth was producing during this period, it does give an indication of her public persona in the city. The banner itself was presented by the city of Glasgow to the city of Lyons and therefore in many respects it gave its tacit approval to both the high standard of skills base that had been achieved largely through the localised Glaswegian Arts & Crafts movement, as well as that of Macbeth herself.

It is perhaps difficult today to recognise other personalities within the Glasgow decorative arts movement of the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, other than that of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Although Mackintosh clearly had a creative reputation that was deserving, there were a number of other creative artists, designers and crafts people that were his contemporaries and just as disciplined, professional and committed to new creative horizons as himself. Many were women and they were involved in a cross section of craft disciplines including metal, glass, wood, jewellery, and textiles as well as craft work that bordered and often crossed over into fine art. That many have been either forgotten or marginalised could well have more to do with twentieth century repercussions due to their gender rather than their creative skills base.

Ann Macbeth had a dynamism and lifelong passion for the promotion and expansion of the history as well as that of the contemporary craft skill of embroidery. She was particularly effective in the use of education, being a vital member of the embroidery department of Glasgow Art School during the very early years of the twentieth century, when arguably the art school had reached the apex of it power and influence. Macbeth was also involved in the educational promotion of embroidery as a viable employment skill to young Scottish women. To this effect, she had a working relationship with the Scottish Education Department. In some respects, it was Macbeth's relationship and contacts with the political structure in Scotland that landed her with the Let Glasgow Flourish commission.

The ex-Lord Provost of Glasgow, Sir William Blisland who was a particularly keen supporter of the Glasgow Arts & Crafts movement as well as that of Macbeth and her educational promotion of embroidery, commissioned her to complete an embroidered banner that was to be presented to Lyons in exchange for their initial presentation of an example of their famous silk work given as a gift to Glasgow.

Although much of the effort expended by Macbeth was to fast disappear in the twentieth century, particularly after the trauma of the First World War, it does not negate the fact that despite the loss of the wide-scale attraction of embroidery as a contemporary and potentially financially rewarding craft, Macbeth did much to promote the idea of craft as a viable option and one that could enthusiastically as well as practically be accepted and promoted by politicians as a integral part of the state. It was important for Macbeth to see craft development as one that could be implemented through state education and through the political system of the day.

Any viable relationship between the creative world and that of politics and the state is perhaps a dimension that we have either lost or are incapable of understanding in the contemporary world we live in. A world which is now dominated by politicians who hope to negate their intrinsic responsibilities to the state by endlessly outsourcing to private companies who have neither the inclination or resources to promote any form of creative educational expansion on the scale that Macbeth attempted and thought was necessary. We are ultimately the poorer for it.

Further reading links:
Educational Needlecraft (1911)
The country woman's rug book (Paragraph Press reprint series of craft & hobby handbooks)
Embroidered and laced leather work
The playwork book,
The Glasgow Style: Artists in the Decorative Arts, Circa 1900 (Schiffer Book with Values)
Doves And Dreams: The Art of Frances Macdonald And J. Herbert Mcnair
Textiles from the Archives of the Glasgow School of Art
The unbroken thread: A century of embroidery & weaving at Glasgow School of Art
The Flower and the Green Leaf: Glasgow School of Art in the Time of Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Movements of Modernity: The Case of Glasgow and Art Nouveau
GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART EMBROIDERY, 1894-1920.
Glasgow 1900: Art and Design
Glasgow Girls
Art Nouveau (Midsize)
Taking Tea with Mackintosh: The Story of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms

Friday, June 10, 2011

1851 Bible Cover Design

Illustration: William Gibbs Rogers. Carved front cover of a Bible, 1851.

Father and son team William Gibbs Rogers and William Harry Rogers, produced carved wooden objects in a number of style eras and purposes. They were enthusiastic contributors to the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851. While their products, most of which were carved in boxwood, ranged across the interiors market from wall brackets to wooden cutlery, it was perhaps their wooden carved frames that received the most attention at the exhibition itself.

The frames came in a number of sizes and more importantly in a range of decorative styles, most of which were derived from Europe, rather than England, and were firmly in the styles propagated by France and Italy in particular. Italian Renaissance and French eighteenth century work was fashionably appreciated in England in the mid-nineteenth century. However, the Rogers team of father and son were also aware of the appeal of the gothic and therefore entailed a number of products in this vein.

The piece that perhaps proved interesting to many at the exhibition was the hand carved Bible cover shown in the two illustrations in this article. The first shows the front cover, which has a centre panel with the subject composition of 'the brazen serpent in the wilderness.' It is surrounded by a complex scrollwork border, or frame, that helps to show the accomplishment of both father and son, in woodcarving.

The second illustration shows the carved back cover of the same Bible and, if anything, is even more of an advert for the duo's work, with impressively complex and accomplished carving, showing the range of skills that had been achieved by the Rogers. This of course was the point of the Bible cover. The Great Exhibition was seen by many entrants, whether small hand production teams, or larger national industrial companies, as an opportunity to promote the skill and dexterity of their individual companies products. That many of the products on display at the Great Exhibition were produced specifically as promotional advertising is obvious by the proportion of entries that were deemed not commercially viable. The point was to produce work that combined as many details and extravagances in order to impress, rather than to promote commercially.

Illustration: William Gibbs Rogers. Carved back cover of a Bible, 1851.

Many items had taken weeks to prepare and were either kept afterwards by the company as a permanent marketing tool, or were presented to the Queen as publicly promotional gifts. In this respect, the Rogers produced a hand carved wooden cradle and presented it to the Queen. The gift was mentioned repeatedly in the media of the day, which must have given an impetus to sales and significantly promoted the work of both father and son.

It is sometimes forgotten because of the scale of the event itself, and the inclusion of members of the public on such a vast scale for the first time in England, that the Great Exhibition of 1851 was in fact seen by many commercial enterprises as a wholly market led event, rather than as a spectacular public occasion. Although it was deemed afterwards by critics that many of the entries at the Exhibition, particularly by those that were domestically based, seemed less than satisfactory with a worryingly tentative grasp on any design or decoration principles, it really must be remembered that many of these products were meant to be over the top and were not necessarily for sale as such.

Because, by definition this was the first commercial exhibition on this scale, a number of mistakes were made in promotion and marketing. However, as time went on and the international exhibitions became more regular, the commercial aspects of the exhibitions themselves became much more professional and accurate in both their products and their marketing.

It is unclear what happened to many of the display products from the exhibition, although a certain amount were purchased or requisitioned for the new South Kensington Museum, which was funded from the profits from the exhibition. This museum was eventually to become the world renowned Victoria and Albert Museum in London. As to the Rogers Bible cover itself, it seems to have long gone and is probably not in existence any more. However, some of the father and son duo's carved work can still be seen, and it is interesting to gauge the skills base involved in the Rogers work by examining an example of their carving. Interestingly an example of a carved boxwood bracket can be found at the Victoria and Albert Museums website, which can be found here. The piece was produced by William Gibbs Rogers, but was designed by his son William Harry Gibbs. This tended to be standard procedure in the company, the son having a particular skill for design and decorative work.

Both father and son were involved in the promotion and revival of hand skills during the mid-nineteenth century. That they used the Great Exhibition as a useful promotional tool is evident. However, the amount of work and research that was also involved in their adaptation and understanding of hand production, is perhaps less evident, but no less important. Individuals such as William Gibbs Rogers and William Harry Rogers did much to strengthen the hand skills base of the nineteenth century, which was used to later promote and define the English Arts & Crafts movement, a movement that would have quickly withered and died without the firm foundation put in place by such individuals as the Rogers.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Tile Work of William Morris

Illustration: William Morris. Earthenware ceramic tile design, 1870s.

William Morris produced a number of ceramic tile designs throughout his career. Admittedly not as popular or as widely known as some of the other disciplines catered for by Morris & Co, namely textiles and wallpaper, they are still part of the library of work produced during the latter half of the nineteenth century by Morris and his collaborators.

The two sets of tile designs shown in this article were produced in the 1870s and consist of two tiles each, which in turn go to make up a male and female figure. They are perhaps a little disappointing in character and certainly in composition. Compared to the work being produced by such individuals as William de Morgan and Philip Webb, as well as the established English companies of Minton and Maw & Co, it seems surprising how seemingly ineffectual the tile work is. Even some of the ceramic tile work produced by Morris & Co during the 1870s, particularly those designed by Philip Webb, at least some of which stands out as interesting and original tile work on a par with the first phases of English tile work produced during the 1840s.

It seems as though tile work was not really Morris' forte and he seems to have struggled to find a clear definition of what ceramic tile work truly was. To be fair, there is no clear evidence that Morris produced the decorative effects on these two sets of tiles although they do look naive enough to have been produced by him. However, even though he may well have not been directly involved with their creation, he was in charge of their marketing and promotion, as all aspects of Morris & Co were kept under a tight leash by Morris himself. Therefore, he would have been well aware as to how these pieces looked as finished products which makes it all the more surprising how mediocre they appear when contrasted with the greater bulk of English tile work produced during this period. A period which was seeing a particular creative high point, one that it would probably never reach again, at least not on the scale seen during this particular era.

Illustration: William Morris. Earthenware ceramic tile design, 1870s

Ceramic tile work is a particular and original discipline that needs a specific and individual creative approach. This is not to say that it is impossible for artists and designers to be able to span more than one discipline and indeed a number have produced very effective and arresting tile design work. However, if the discipline is not approached at least with a modicum of sympathy and understanding, then the results can be both lacklustre and even confusing. The fact that these two Morris designs appear as compositions out of place with the practical discipline that should have been vigorously involved, perhaps says much about the initial intention of the project in the first place. That these figures look as if they have been taken directly from a painting or tapestry design and then placed on a ceramic background, adds to their ineffectual appearance.

What is perhaps more surprising is Morris continual and practical approach throughout his career, to the tenet that honesty to materials and sympathy with the craft discipline being used, was ultimately one of the most important aspects entailed in creative work. That he should have seemingly wavered from this practical mantra is confusing. However, it is perhaps important to make personal judgements concerning the entire work of a creative career and not just those that proved most popular or enduring, as the whole panoply of work gives a much better insight to the individual than the seemingly obvious successes.

It is perhaps unsurprising that these particular Morris designs seem largely forgotten compared to his other ceramic tile work. This is not to say that this type of decorative work was not popular during the latter half of the nineteenth century, it was. However, this type of work added little to the genre and compared to the wide-scaling creatively flexible work produced by William de Morgan for example, this particular phase of Morris decorative output is probably best left undiscovered.

Further reading links:
William Morris Full-Color Patterns and Designs (Dover Pictorial Archives)
William Morris: Patterns & Designs (International Design Library)
Designs of William Morris (Phaidon Miniature Editions)
William Morris (Temporis)
William Morris
William Morris on Art and Socialism
The Beauty of Life: William Morris and the Art of Design
V&A Pattern: William Morris: (Hardcover with CD)
The Essential William Morris Anthology (12 books) [Illustrated]
William Morris and Morris & Co.
William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Home
William Morris
William Morris Decor and Design
The Gardens of William Morris
William Morris Designs CD-ROM and Book (Full-Color Electronic Design Series)
William Morris Giftwrap Paper (Giftwrap--4 Sheets, 4 Designs)