1

MagazineWATTS

Issue 9 Summer 2010 £1

Mark Bills Watts Cemetery ChapelLouise Boreham Early Days of the Pottery

Catherine Hilary The Ceiling at Limnerslease

2

Blenheim House Construction is delighted to be working with Perdita and her team towards the successful

completion of this prestigious project.

Transforming Watts Gallery

We are experienced in all types of construction across a variety of sectors including commercial, retail, listed buildings, education, residential and high value exclusive homes. To view our complete portfolio of projects please visit www.bhcltd.co.uk

BLENHEIM HOUSE CONSTRUCTION LTD

THE OLD BANK HOUSE TEL: 01932 578700 11-13 LONDON STREET FAX: 01932 578701 CHERTSEY EMAIL: bhc@bhcltd.co.uk SURREY KT16 8AP WEB: www.bhcltd.co.uk

Sculpture Gallery before works commenced (above), and the current stage of works in

May 2010 (below)

3

The Art Fund An Anonymous Donor Billmeir Charitable Trust The Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation Hamish Dewar Ltd Professor Rob Dickins CBE John Ellerman Foundation English Heritage Esmée Fairbairn Foundation The Fenton Arts Trust Finnis Scott Foundation Christopher Forbes Foundation for Sport and the Arts The Foyle Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Robert Gavron Charitable Trust J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust The Isabel Goldsmith Patino Foundation Guildford Borough Council Peter Harrison Foundation The Derek Hill Foundation The Ingram Trust John Lewis KPMG Foundation The Geoffrey and Carole Lawson Charitable Trust The Linbury Trust The George John and Sheilah Livanos Charitable Trust Man Group plc Charitable Trust The Michael Marks Charitable Trust The Mercers’ Company The Henry Moore Foundation Restoration Fund Richard Ormond CBE The Pilgrim Trust David Pike Rothschild Foundation Sir Siegmund Warburg Voluntary Settlement The Wates Foundation Wolfson Foundation

Thank You

The Tea Shop at Watts Gallery opens to aclaim

The Tea Shop ethos is fresh, English, seasonal food sourced as locally as possible, made on the premises and served by friendly, well informed staff. There is a daily selection of freshly baked homemade cakes and scones and we are making all of our own jams and chutneys. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10.30am to 5pm.

Major Speakers for Chapel Symposium

Celebrate the magnificent Cemetery Chapel created by Mary Watts for the village of Compton this July at the Watts Symposium. Speakers include Richard Dorment (Daily Telegraph critic) and Christopher Le Brun RA (artist). See the enclosed leaflet or our website for the latest news.

Penelope Keith to host Tea Party - 19 June

The Friends’ Victorian Tea Party has now become an annual event and the actress Penelope Keith CBE DL has kindly agreed to be the host again this year. She will be reading from the diaries of Mary Watts as guests enjoy their tea. Afterwards there will be the opportunity to visit Limnerslease, Watts’s privately owned and recently restored house.

Gallery News

Sir Peter Blake to visit on CCA Art Bus - 20 June

Godfather of Pop Art, Sir Peter Blake is famed for his cover artwork for the Beatles but also for his love of Victoriana. He will be visiting Watts Gallery as part of the Fairy Fair in June. Sponsored by Godalming Town Council.

Events for Patrons

Patrons have a rare chance to see the private collection of the late Sir Brinsley Ford, a former Chairman of Watts Gallery, at the family home in London on 17 June. Stephen Deuchar, Director of The Art Fund, will give an address. Another Patrons’ event is a private tour of Sargent and the Sea at The Royal Academy of Art on 21 July, led by Richard Ormond, the artist’s nephew and Watts Gallery’s Chairman. To enquire about becoming a Patron, please contact Stephanie Dennison, Appeal Co-ordinator. appeal@wattsgallery.org.uk.

4

Collection and Exhibition NewsMark Bills Curator of Watts Gallery

Summer sees the celebration of the Watts Chapel. This will include a new guide to its symbolism, which is based upon fresh research and published with the desire to make the complicated symbols easier to read for its many visitors. The previous Curator Richard Jefferies used to say that Mary’s own book on the subject The Word in the Pattern tied him ‘in bigger Celtic knots than any ever conceived by that redoubtable lady.’ With the book, an exhibition at the Lewis Elton Gallery (9-22 July) and a symposium to be held at St Paul’s Cathedral and Compton Village Hall (9-10 July), Mary’s words will become clearer. The chapel is a wonderful building that deserves to be known to a wider circle than those who already love it.

The Watts Gallery partnership with the University of Surrey goes from strength to strength and the exhibition Watts Cemetery Chapel: An Arts and Crafts Masterpiece, is one of a series of exhibitions curated by Watts Gallery for the Lewis Elton Gallery. Between 13 to 26 September an exciting exhibition of new work by the current artist in residence Sheila Wallis continues this programme with others planned for next year.

Painting, drawing and sculpture conservation is ongoing with paintings in the studio of Hamish Dewar, sculpture at Patricia Jackson’s studio and drawings being sent to Louise Drover.

The re-display of the collection is progressing well. Plans for each gallery are moving forward. We have applied for major loans from the Tate for the Exhibitions Gallery for an exhibition of masterpieces by the artist from the national collection. Watts Gallery was always conceived as part of a trinity of galleries through which the artist’s whole achievement could be seen. As David Croal Thomson wrote in 1906: ‘Sufficient for the moment to know that the gallery is so arranged as to give a comprehensive idea of the magnitude of the work the artist produced, and with the collections of his pictures in the Gallery of British Art [Tate], and in the National Portrait Gallery, to render this knowledge practically complete.’

Top A detail from the Watts Chapel.

Photograph by Anne Purkiss. Above

Sheila Wallis, Self Portrait No.2, Artist in

Residence at Watts Gallery 2009/10.

5

The Director’s Restoration UpdatePerdita Hunt Director of Watts Gallery

The eye for detail that is being applied by the architect and the contractor to ensure that we are following the original vision of the building and retaining its character has been welcomed.

It is wonderful to say that Compton is now a hive of activity following the dreadful silence endured over six months during the cessation of work as a result of R J Barwick Construction Services going into administration. Blenheim House Construction, our new contractors, are now beginning to remove the scaffolding to allow the bats to return, have recreated the picture slot on the back wall of the Gallery, have completed the lantern on the roof of the Isabel Goldsmith Patino Gallery and we have now buried one of the largest sewage treatment plants in this area! (above) Taking a group around last week, which included the owner of Loseley Park, Michael More-Molyneux, the comments we received on the restoration focused on the eye for detail that was being applied by the architect and the contractor to ensure that we are following the original vision of the building and retaining its character. The only concern at the moment is saving the wisteria at the front of the building which has had to put up with a much longer period of scaffolding than originally planned.

Around the Gallery, the re-opening of the Tea Shop and the mammoth clearing of laurel in the woodland across Sandy Lane, has brought life and light back in to the Watts Gallery Estate. We certainly could not have come this far had it not been for the tenacious spirit of our volunteers who have continued to man the Information Point on the Estate from Tuesday to Sunday, to attack the overgrowth of the laurels in the woodland, clean chairs in the Tea Shop and catalogue our library.

Moreover, we could not have continued the Hope project if it had not been for the farsighted, brave support and faith of the Heritage Lottery Fund Trustees and other benefactors, in particular the George John and Sheila Livanos Charitable Trust, the BBC Restoration Fund, and three other generous benefactors. Their generosity has been heart warming and hugely appreciated. Follow Perdita’s blog at www.wattsgallery.org.uk

Left The Klargester tank is lowered into

place. Photograph by Anne Purkiss.

6

The Ceiling at LimnersleaseCatherine Hilary Curatorial Fellow at Watts Gallery

In 1891, George and Mary Watts were residing with their friends Andrew and May Hichens in their home, Monkshatch, in Compton, while close by their own home Limnerslease was being built. Mary spent her time making gesso panels to be placed as decoration on the ceiling of the Drawing Room and Hall in their new home. Mary designed the ceiling as a tribute to her husband’s life and work. Symbols were used to represent the universality of life as well as displaying specific characteristics, from patience to strength, which she admired in her husband. Mary photographed each panel before it was put in place and in the collection at Watts Gallery there are glass plate negatives of a number of these (top left).

In the Drawing Room the decoration was made up of a central square panel, from which four larger rectangular panels extended out at each side. Between these there were four smaller panels. The central panel had a sun surrounded by wings which reached out to each corner. Thus at the heart of her design, Mary placed the winged sun as a symbol of light, without which there can be no life. The circular shape of the sun represents eternity, with no beginning or end. The four large rectangular panels stemming out from the vitalizing sun represent the joys of life. The joy of the soul, or faith, is represented through the butterfly or chrysalis and the joys of work through the bee and the cell. In each corner of the Drawing Room ceiling decoration, Mary combines trees and birds within swirling circles. Mary models the owl, signifying wisdom, with the tree of knowledge. The phoenix representing hope is placed close to the oak, symbolic of strength and durability. Peace and love are juxtaposed through the images of the olive tree and the pelican. Similarly watchfulness and patience are represented by the cock and mulberry tree.

Mary breaks up this rich symbolism with eight identical panels displaying the blessing hand with a pattern of a crowned heart entwined with palms. This symbol is comparable to later images used in the Chapel design. Indeed there are numerous features of this ceiling which have parallels with the Chapel design, from the use of birds as symbols of the fruits of the spirit on the friezes, to the swirling Celtic shapes and symbols from early Christian art. Mary’s ceiling at Limnerslease was unmistakably a prelude to the creation of the Chapel. Four years later in 1895, Mary had drawn up her final plan, built a cardboard model of the Chapel and was in dicussions with her architect George Redmayne. Exclusive tours of the privately owned Limnerslease form part of the Friends’ Victorian Tea Party on 19 June. See enclosed invitation to book.

Above Details from the Drawing Room

ceiling in Limnerslease taken from a

glass plate negative (top) and a

modern photograph.

Right Historical photograph of the

Drawing Room in Limnerslease with

the niche on the far right.

7

8

9

Watts Cemetery Chapel: “Beautiful if translated by its accepted meaning in symbolism”Mark BillsCurator of Watts Gallery

Compton’s Cemetery Chapel, which stands on the side of Budburrow Hill, is a Grade I listed building owned by the parish. It was consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester on 1 July 1898 and continues to be a working cemetery chapel. Most who visit it today, however, are there to admire its extraordinary design and decoration. Responses are mixed, but most are overwhelmed by this decoration, the astonishing body of images and symbols that appear on the outside in terracotta and on the inside in painted gesso. For many it provides a place for reflection and peace, which its creator Mary Watts (1849–1938) would, I am sure, have thoroughly approved of. It was built, she writes in the opening lines of her book The Word in the Pattern, ‘to the loving memory of all who find rest near its walls, and for the comfort and help of those to whom the sorrow of separation yet remains’. It is difficult to know when exactly Mary conceived the idea of designing, building and decorating a chapel, but it must have come soon after her move to their Compton winter residence, Limnerslease, in 1891. In her biography of G.F. Watts, Mary notes: ‘A new interest had grown up for us both in the last two years, the building of a chapel for the new village burial-ground, his gift to Compton. He did not design it, but suggested that, if we proposed to hold a class, the people of Compton might like to come to it and be taught to make simple patterns to decorate the walls; so that by this means a special and personal interest in the new graveyard would be acquired by the workers.’

The year 1895 was important for the start of the Thursday-night evening classes to train those who would make the chapel’s decorations. It was also the year that the model for it was built and the land purchased. The building and its outer decoration were completed for the chapel’s consecration in 1898, and the interior was effectively finished on 15 April 1904, two weeks after the opening of Watts Gallery, with the installation of G.F. Watts’s painting, The All-Pervading. To accredit the work of building and creating the whole chapel wholly to Mary is, as Louise Boreham has argued, an exaggeration. The success of the building, architecturally, must go in a great part to George Tunstal Redmayne FIBA (1840–1912), a distinguished architect who was then semi-retired in Haselmere but had been an assistant to Alfred Waterhouse RA.

The aim of the building was to be a mortuary chapel and a place for requiems, spiritual remembrance, comfort and inspiration. It is ambitious in its scope, reflecting the ideals that she shared with her husband G.F. Watts, but her work was essentially very different in its approach. It drew on existing symbols that she refreshed in her own designs, for she believed that certain visual motifs had a universal and eternal meaning: ‘These signs, simple enough in themselves, come

Left The door of the Watts Chapel.

Below The All-Pervading by G F Watts,

from a page of ‘The Word in the Pattern’.

Wattts Gallery Archive. Photographs by

Anne Purkiss.

10

to us through the ages, bearing with them not only their deep spiritual meaning and suggestions, but being also witnesses of the eternity of religious aspiration; the inarticulate cry of the spirit of the human, seeking then, and now, and always, a return to its own source in the Divine Faith.’

The chapel reflected the meaning and forms of earlier ages translated into a late nineteenth century Arts and Crafts masterpiece. Its shape is drawn from the Byzantine Greek cross, while its entrance is Celtic Romanesque. The Byzantine model and its reference to the Holy Sepulchre combine meaning and form. The decoration was inspired first and foremost by Mary’s strong interest in Celtic design: ‘In trying to revive in some degree that living quality which was in all decoration when patterns had meaning, the character of our own Celtic art – ancient British, Irish and Scotch as it is – has been followed, and many of the symbols are taken from carved stones and crosses, or from those rare and exquisite illuminations on vellum, now the treasures of national museums and libraries, but once the most sacred possessions of the Celts, who with devoted labour loved thus to make beautiful their manuscript books of the Gospels.’

Celtic forms and images from Irish and Scottish stone crosses and the Book of Kells are in evidence all over the building. In this Mary could be said to be part of the Celtic Revival movement that was evident in so much Arts and Crafts work being created at the time. When she first saw the Lindisfarne Gospels at the British Museum she wrote: ‘It takes one’s breath away to think of all that devouring love of beautifying and enriching the book as the holy man poured [sic] over it and wrought these marvellous lines & coloured in that delicate tender way his beautiful devices – under the magnifying glass only can one realize what the finish & perfection was.’

For the chapel’s meaning Mary turned to the reasons for its creation and drew particularly from the symbolism of early Christian art. In a letter to the textile and dyestuffs manufacturer Sir James Morton

This page - Above Watts Chapel from

the South. Photograph by Anne Purkiss.

Below A page from Mary’s Chapel

Notebook, Watts Gallery Archive.

Photographs by Anne Purkiss.

Opposite page - Above Consecration of

Watts Chapel on 1 July 1898. Watts Gallery

Archive.

Below The apex of the interior of Watts

Chapel showing the eternal circle.

Photograph by Anne Purkiss.

11

(1867–1943) she noted the sources of her understanding of this symbolism and acknowledged ‘Lord Lindsay whose book on Christian art was one of my great helps when I first thought of trying to make out the meaning in the old patterns’. [I am grateful to Louise Boreham for drawing my attention to this letter] In the letter Mary refers to a number of works that were clearly influential on the formation of the chapel’s rich symbolism, one of which was Lord Lindsay’s Sketches of the History of Christian Art (1847). The overall symbolism of this consecrated Anglican chapel reflects less a particular denomination than an ecumenical and all-embracing Christianity, looking to the early church and using imagery from the eastern and western church traditions. Macmillan reflected: ‘Though founded upon the great central truths of the Christian faith, it does not express any accepted dogmas of religion, but enforces only the universal laws of justice, charity and love, and is so broad and catholic in its teaching that it should conciliate even the most divergent ecclesiastical sects.’

Mary knew that her carefully planned symbolism would not be immediately open to all who saw it: it was ‘exoteric and esoteric in its character, being in some instances so plain and simple that the most uneducated can understand it at once, and in others so hidden and intricate’. In order to make its meaning plain to all, she wrote The Word in the Pattern, which explains in detail many of the decorative symbols. This often overlooked book is the main source of the current guide to the chapel and enables Mary’s intentions to be elucidated. But it was also necessary to present this information afresh, including some of the texts and images that she drew from. The Bible is a primary source, particularly the writings of St John (in both the Gospel and Revelation) and his theology of the Logos, or Word of God, which is referred to in the title of Mary’s book. Macmillan observed: ‘The symbolism on all of them is extremely elaborate, and much of it is purely original; but it is all combined in the most harmonious manner to carry out the moral teaching of the building.’

Follow Mark’s blog at www.wattsgallery.org.uk

2010 Watts Symposium - In partnership with NADFAS West Surrey Area Friday 9 July - Decorating Spiritual Spaces.

St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Saturday 10 July - The Word in the Pattern:

Mary Watts’s Chapel. Compton Village Hall,

Surrey. See the enclosed leaflet to find out

more or visit www.wattsgallery.org.uk

A new book on the Watts Chapel by Mark Bills is published in July.

12

Dressing up for a PainterHelen Hienkens-Lewis Head of Learning, Watts Gallery

G F Watts was very interested in fashion and costume, evidenced by his views and beliefs and through his portrayal of costume in paintings. Watts was president of the Anti-Tight Lacing Society, campaigning against the wearing of corsets for women and promoting the damage that corsets could do to the figure, especially the risks to pregnant women. He was opposed to the use of animals in costume, in particular the use of feathers. His painting A Dedication (To all those who love the beautiful and mourn over the senseless and cruel destruction of bird life and beauty), 1898-9, was used on a poster produced by the Society for the Protection of Birds.

With this in mind Watts Gallery has launched a costume project, helping local Key Stage 2 school children gain a greater understanding and appreciation of our Victorian ancestors. Working in partnership with Surrey Arts Wardrobe, the project was taken to Tillingbourne Junior School in Chilworth and Westfield Primary School in Woking where classes of Year 5 children had the opportunity to ‘become’ Victorians, dressing up in historically accurate replicas of costumes painted by Watts which appear in portraits and paintings in the Watts Gallery collection.

In addition to costume, the project brings other sources from the Watts Gallery archive to the classroom, including original photography, letters and articles, encouraging children to interpret history and get a real feel for what it was like to have lived in the Victorian era.

The Watts Gallery collection includes outstanding formal portraits of rich sitters in both traditional Victorian and aesthetic dress as well as what are described as ‘social realist’ paintings, portraying less fortunate members of Victorian society struggling against poverty, hunger and degradation. Drawing inspiration from these paintings, we have produced accurate reproductions of the costumes painted by Watts, from the beautiful green velvet gown worn by Miss Virginia Dalyrmple (1871-1872) to the Oxford robes and infamous skull cap worn by Watts, and the plain, dark, cotton garments which appear in paintings such as The Irish Famine (1848-1850) and Under a Dry Arch (1848–1850).

One of the many stories relayed to the children was of a portrait of the fashionable beauty Lillie Langtry, wearing a very plain bonnet. Lillie came to the sitting wearing a hat adorned with an ostrich feather. Watts reportedly refused to paint her until she had removed the feather. Watts, once again, was ahead of his time.

To find out more please contact Helen Hienkens-Lewis on 01483 813591 or email learning@wattsgallery.org.uk

“10 out of 10. A once in a lifetime experience.”

“There has been a real buzz of excitement in school and its generated lots of fantastic discussion and ideas.”

Above Pupils of Tillingbourne Junior School

recreate Watts paintings in specially created

costumes. Photographs by Anne Purkiss.

Right G F Watts, Alexander Constantine Ionides and Eutepe Ionides with their Children,

1840-1. Watts Gallery Collection.

13

14

15

In May 1895 Mrs Watts crystallised her thoughts about the Compton Chapel sufficiently to make a terra cotta model, helped by George Barrow, a young village joiner. Four men (George Andrews, Louis Deuchars, Frank Mitchell and Thomas Steadman) spent two years modelling decorative tiles in the ‘Billiard Room’ of Limnerslease. At first they copied her clay models, but soon progressed to work from rough charcoal drawings. She also organised classes, subsequently taken by Deuchars, for villagers to participate in. For some of the originals, plaster moulds were created to allow replication, since there was a danger of losing a piece during the firing process. The tiles were hand-finished once it was safe to remove them from the mould, but many on the Chapel, such as the capitals and faces over the door, are obviously unique. At that stage the work was 10% to 12% larger than the finished article to allow for shrinkage in the drying and firing processes. You have to admire the skill of Mrs Watts and her team as they judged the sizes and shapes that had to fit into the overall pattern. Deuchars made an album of photographs, possibly taken by George Andrews, of some people engaged in modelling.

Drying could take three to six weeks, depending on size and thickness of each piece. Then they could be handled and taken to the kiln in the grounds. It was of a design apparently approved by William de Morgan. His opinion may have been sought because, around the same time, G.F. Watts was setting up his Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice at Postman’s Park, where the commemorative glazed tiles were designed and made by de Morgan. However, Mrs Watts wanted to fire terra cotta in her kiln, which was smaller and squatter (16ft 6ins high overall with circumference of 39ft 3ins) than the commercial bottle kilns of the period, probably because of the time required to prepare sufficient pieces to fill it for each firing, which could take about three days at around 1100ºC thus ensuring weatherproof results. Since the two fire boxes below burned wood, the kiln man had to remain awake, continually stoking the fires and raking out the ash. (A shift system might have been employed) Possibly to keep the heat in the kiln, or perhaps to give it strength, half of the structure was sunk into the hillside, with the result that the chimney was only a few feet above the higher ground level. During firing, the door was sealed with bricks. A skilled kiln man knew when the ware was ready by the colour, which he could gauge by removing a brick or two from the doorway. Each cycle took around a week; one to two days to load the kiln, three days firing and three days cooling. Such was the progress that some of the tiles were shown in the Home Arts and Industries Association (HAIA) exhibition in 1896, as reported in The Studio (Vol.8, p.99) where it was suggested that charcoal was

The Early Days of the Compton PotteryDr Louise BorehamFriend of Watts Gallery and Independent Researcher

Left Dorothy MacCallum modelling the Lion

of St. Mark for capital. Above An unknown

man carving a clay block.

16

Terry McKivragan - Artist’s StudioThe Tea Shop at Watts Gallery

Richard Booth - Photography Studio K D Fine Art - Framing, Art and Gifts

Watts Gallery Information Point & Shop

The Watts Gallery Estate

Down Lane, Compton, Guildford GU3 1DQ - Just off the A3, South of Guildford - call 01483 810235 for more information

17

the fuel, but that is unlikely since it would have been much more expensive than wood.

Mrs Watts gives an insight into her creative approach in her diary entry for Thursday November 26 1896,

If I could but have thought out all my patterns for the class this summer how glad I should have been by & by. I hope to have so big a bank to draw upon I shall not have this rush for each day & as it is we got things ready for those who did not come. Mr Deuchars has done decoration for plates to encourage the weaker members to work neatly –

This suggests she was not following a detailed overall decorative plan from the beginning, but was designing as the work progressed. The ‘plates’ were moulds so that everyone could make a contribution, regardless of artistic ability.

By early 1898 the bulk of the modelling for the Chapel seems to have been finished. However, Mrs Watts wished to continue offering classes to the villagers and realised that she needed a tutor and a kiln man to do this. On Sunday 27 March, she wrote,

I have proposed to take Mr Mitchell for a year. The expense of this & sundries will probably come with Mr Deuchars to £150. If I can sell tombstones, sundials and some other things to fill up time in the Kiln

Above Four men working on clay in front

of the Della Robbia roundel. Louis Deuchars

standing at rear and George Andrews on

right. Below The ‘Winged Hours’ sundial as

illustrated in the 1915 catalogue.

18

when artistic work does not fill it, I think we should get back our money or some of it. That is all - if I find we cannot make anything - I must at the end of the year stop the whole thing but given the class, the Kiln burner is a very necessary appointment.

And on 30 March,

Mr Deuchars has carried out the capital of our first sundial east west north & south as I suggested, with their little frown and smile - it gives a touch of the human.

The ‘The Winged Hours’ sundial was such a success that it continued to be illustrated in the pottery catalogue for years.

Mrs Watts’s plans were going along nicely until Monday 25 April 1898, when she complained,

My last class this evening. Mr Deuchars ill, so I had to (take it) myself & was rather too much for me – the room hot.

On Thursday 24 November 1898, she wrote,

Designing my altar – Then settled to make the theme of it “I heard a great voice from heaven saying the Tabernacle of God is with them : He shall dwell with them”

This was yet another task for the modellers before the altar received the glorious golden finish we see now. (It was exhibited at the HAIA in 1899.) On Wednesday 7 December, 1898, Mrs Watts happily noted,

Our first class a fine sight & fairly well attended.

Although by Saturday, it was not so organised.

Did not expect my little class, & lo they came all scampering up & were sent off by Deuchars – Andrews I fear scattered them with the policeman’s instinct, I heard the sound of vanishing feet & merry voices & ran out too late!

Our Kiln filled today – alas a big break in the Chapel work

This may have been due to the success of the commercial operation of the pottery with Deuchars, Andrews and Mitchell. Steadman was allowed to return to his work as the village carpenter. From such beginnings a thriving village industry emerged. It was thought that the original kiln was lost but, in 1980, a lean-to greenhouse was demolished to reveal the kiln, totally obscured and overgrown with self sown plants. The owners have restored it and are willing to show it to interested parties, by appointment, through Watts Gallery.

I am most grateful to the Trustees of Watts Gallery for permission to quote from Mrs Watts’s diaries and to Gail Naughton, Jenny Graveson & Jennie Waterfall for additional research. Advice on the technical process of modelling and firing the terra cotta was provided by Mick Pinner & Martin Ings of West Meon Pottery (makers of the replacement tiles on the Chapel and replica Compton pots).

The original kiln now.

Photograph by Gail Naughton.

The original kiln as found in 1980.

Photograph by the kiln owner.

19

TUESLEY MANOR | GODALMING | SURREY | GU7 1UDT 01483 429336 M 07900 887021 E teresa@drellagallery.co.uk W www.drellagallery.co.uk

EXHIBITIONS | WORKSHOPS | CONSULTANCY

BEGINNERS COURSES

Designed for the nervous novice. Four intense but fun evenings. Results guaranteed.

Drawing Class: Tuesday 1, 8, 15 and 22 June, 7.30 - 10pm

Still life and Acrylic Beginners Painting: Wednesday 2, 9, 16 and 23 June, 7.30 - 10pm

£160 for four eveningsIncluding artist’s starter pack to take away worth over £20. Use of any extra materials, model if needed, wine, coffee, muffins are included. If you are unsure if these courses are suitable for your level please do call to discuss and be reassured.

MIXED MEDIA TUTORED ART GROUP

A weekly art course for those who have some experience and want a course that takes them on a tutored artistic journey using many different media from pastels, acrylics and oils to pencil, charcoal and indian ink.

With varied subject matter including portraiture, still life and landscape, the emphasis will be on drawing skills and colour. The course includes everything except a £25 contribution for the terms materials, payable with the course fee.

Tuesday 21, 28 SeptemberTuesday 5, 8 OctoberTuesday 2, 9, 16, 23 November 10 am - 3.30pm, £25 per session payable in advance. A taster day is offered on 15 June.

A series of one day workshops and courses are available this Summer/Autumn at the new gallery, studio

and beautiful gardens at Tuesley Manor, Godalming

Drella_Issue9.indd 1 17/5/10 16:22:57

20

250 words

Symposium push

Art insurancespecialists

For further information, please contact

Adam Prideaux

Tel: +44 (0)20 7234 4312Email: aprideaux@heathlambert.com

incorporating Blackwall Green

Heath Lambert Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority

SD1667 Blackwall Green ad 170x240 27/5/08 16:04 Page 1