MAY 2015 : WOODCARVING

Wendy chose to tell us about church pew ends. Originally benches were built against the

stone walls or pillars of churches for the elderly and infirm, hence the expression

“weakest to the wall”. During the 13th century wooden benches were built and gradually

pews were made with carved ends. The woodworkers were often illiterate and obtained

their ideas from the clergy. The best carvings are found in the West Country and East

Anglia. St Michael’s Church, Brent Knoll is best known for its unusual carvings on some of

its pew ends and in particular the three that make up an allegorical cartoon thought to

depict an avaricious Abbot of Glastonbury in the guise of a fox.

Jan brought in a Welsh love spoon and explained the origin of these

intricate carvings. They were originally made by fishermen or

peasants during the winter evenings; always by men and often as a

declaration of intent towards a woman. If the spoon was accepted it

was considered as an engagement. Intricate designs were carved to

impress the young lady’s father that the potential suitor was capable

of supporting her. Originally the spoons were practical utensils but as

more designs were incorporated they became decorative items only.

Most love spoons, including this one, are carved from one piece of

wood.

Both Brian and Jenny J chose Grinling Gibbons. He was a 17th century woodcarver, born

in Rotterdam in 1648 of English parents. He moved to Deptford, England, in the early

1670s and became acquainted with Samuel Pepys and Christopher Wren. He was

commissioned by the latter to supply decorative carvings for many country houses and

churches, including St Paul’s Cathedral. Gibbons came to the notice of Charles II and

subsequently William III and George I and was denoted Master Carver. Much of

Gibbon’s work survives in various country houses including Stourhead, although Hampton

Court Palace has perhaps the best display of his fine carvings.

Most of his carving was done in

limewood which is soft, strong but

extremely long lasting. His

trademark was a pea pod - if it was

open he had been paid for the work,

if it was closed he had not!

In contrast, Jenny also brought along this lovely modern carving of a

dancer by Greenfield.

Andrea told us of the Chinese brush pots, or

Bitong, which are used to hold student’s

calligraphy tools. This 18th century example is

made of bamboo with mounts of zitan and was

priced at around £6-8,000. Recently a rare bamboo pot found in a charity shop was sold

at auction for £360,000!

Denise introduced us to Robert Thompson, known as the

mouse man because of his habit of including a carved

mouse in most of the furniture he produced. He was born

in Kilburn, North Yorkshire in 1876 and served an

engineering apprenticeship. However, his father was a

joiner, carpenter and wheelwright and Robert much

preferred woodwork. He eventually started his own

furniture workshop after being commissioned by Father

Paul Neville of Ambleforth in 1925. By 1934 he had 30

craftsmen working for him. Each piece of furniture is hand-made and is the sole

responsibility of one craftsman from selection of timber (only naturally seasoned English

oak is used) to the final coat of wax, including the individual mouse.

Nancy ‘s contribution was the Stave wooden churches of Norway. Stave churches are

medieval wooden church buildings once common in north-western Europe. The name

derives from the buildings' structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber

framing where the load-bearing posts are called stafr in Old Norse and stav in modern Norwegian.

The photos below illustrate the church at Urnes and the beautiful carving around it’s

doorway.

JUNE 2015: TRAVEL

This subject was very differently interpreted by the

various members. Brian chose posters advertising ways of

travel by Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron (1901-1968) who use

the pseudonym Cassandre. He was a Ukranian-French

painter and graphic artist who also designed typefaces.

This poster illustrates the SS L’Atlantique, a luxury cruise

liner, which was launched in 1930 and came to a sad end

only three years later when a fire swept through the ship

as it travelled on its way to be refitted in Le Havre.

Luckily the crew were all rescued but the ship was

eventually sold for scrap.

Wendy told us her holiday in Romania, just after

Ceauşescu fell and 42 years of Communist rule

came to an end. She and John visited several

painted monasteries which are thought to have

been built by Stephen the Great or his sons in

thanks after fighting battles. The illustrations

are of biblical stories and very colourful. These

illustrations are of the monastery in Sucevita

which was painted in 1604.

From here we were taken by Jenny O and Jean on the

travels of Marianne North, who was born in 1830 and spent

her life travelling the world and painting plants. She

donated her paintings to Kew to be displayed in a gallery

which she had purpose-built. Below is the newly restored

gallery which incorporates 833 paintings from all over the

world including Syria, Egypt, Sicily, Canada, America, Brazil,

Tenerife, Japan, Borneo, Java, Ceylon, Australia and South

Africa. Imagine

that i n fu l l

Victorian clothing

and a l l th is

equipment!

Nancy brought along many illustrations from the Luttrell Psalter which show the travel

methods of the time. This celebrated manuscript, commissioned by a wealthy landowner in

the first half of the 14th century, is one of the most striking to survive from the Middle

Ages. Painted in rich colours embellished with gold and silver, with vitality and sometimes

bizarre inventiveness of decoration, this manuscript is unlike virtually any other.

Denise decided to chose one method of travelling and illustrated this with photos of

Heather Jansch’s driftwood bronze sculptures. Heather lives in the South West and was

asked to provide a sculpture for an exhibition at Saltram House in 2002. This was

Poseidon, a life size bronze statue of prancing horse. Below these photos is one of

Heather with two more of her sculptures.

Pat had visited the The Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, often referred to as the Matisse

Chapel or the Vence Chapel, a small chapel built for Dominican sisters in the town of

Vence on the French Riviera. She was impressed by the wonderful Matisse murals,

stained glass windows and artefacts he designed for the altar.

Finally, Jenny J read some amusing passages

from Victoria Finlay’s book “Travels through the

Paint Box” which journeys through ten colour

sections and is illustrated with many photographs

of people and pigments throughout the

world. The book unlocks the history of the

colours of the rainbow, and reveals how paints

came to be invented, discovered, traded and

used. The author writes of a time when red paint

was really the colour of blood, when orange was

the poison pigment, blue as expensive as gold,

and yellow made from the urine of cows force-

fed with mangoes. It looks at how green was

carried by yaks along the silk road, and how an

entire nation was founded on the colour purple.

This illustration is of Notre Dame de la Belle

Verriere, one of the few pieces of 12th century

stained glass in Chartres Cathedral to survive a

fire in 1194.