Black Magic and White by Mrs Godfrey Blount

This poem printed in The Vineyard, April 1913 reminds me of Ethel (Mrs Godfrey Blount) & Maude's presentation to the General Meeting of the the Peasant Arts Fellowship in 1912 (Caxton Hall, 28th February), which is recorded in their Peasant Arts Guild Paper “To give a little girl the use of her hands is to bring a disinherited princess back into her kingdom” (‘Our experience of the Influence of Handicraft upon the Workers’, Peasant Arts Guild Paper, No. 10 , Ethel Blount and Maude E. King).  

from Blount, Ethel, The Story of the Homespun Web

When time was young a princess fell

     (A heart most rare,

     A soul most fair!)

Beneath a fiendish wizard's spell.

His Hell-broth won, the poison wrought;

     Afar from man

     The princess ran

De-humanised, a thing distraught.

From out the kindly human ranks

    She ran, accurst,   

    For blood a-thirst,

With tawny stripes upon her flanks,

Then came at night in dreadful quest

   To roam and roam

   Around her home

Where once with Love she took her rest.

She saw her husband's spear and dart;

   The eyes of ire

   Glared forth the fire

That fed upon the tiger-heart!

She saw her children's dolls and ships;

   Without a sound

   She snuffed around

And licked those dreadful, dreadful lips;

Then saw her pretty weaving gear

   Of flax and loom;

   In puzzled gloom

The tiger-heart began to fear

from Blount, Ethel, The Story of the Homespun Web

There lay her little spinning-wheel,

   The band unbound,

   The reel unwound;

The tiger-heart began to feel.

There lay her dainty little pirn,

   The thread undone,

   The wool unspun;

The woman-heart began to burn;

The cruel heart, the eyes of steel

   Began to yearn,

   Began to turn

At sight of flax and fleece and wheel.

The yellow stripes and eyes of gloom

   Began to fade,

   Passed into shade;

The princess stood beside her loom.

The loom and spindle, flax and fleece,

   The living art,

   Called back her heart

And filled her soul with vital peace.

Peasants at the Woman's Exhibition 1900

Ethel Blount exhibited a number of pieces at the 1900 “Woman’s Exhibition” held at Earl’s Court.  This exhibition took part as part of the women's liberation movement.  She is recorded as Mrs Godfrey Blount exhibiting:

"373 Bell Pull in Peasant Tapestry  

374 Panel in Peasant Tapestry

377 Portiere in Peasant Tapestry"

The bell pull, a bell to summon a servant, is an indication of the social class to which the Haslemere Peasant Arts aimed their market.   

The introductory article to the Exhibition by Imre Kiralfy (Woman’s Exhibition, 1900, Earl’s Court, London, S.W.: official fine art, historical and general catalogue, Spottiswoode & Co.) provides an interesting insight to the women’s movement at the time:

“During no period in the world’s history has the progress of woman’s work been so remarkable as in that of the present century.  Although this advance is fully realised, and several attempts have been made to illustrate the progress of woman’s work, there has never been an Exhibition dealing adequately with this great subject.  The advance of woman in the fine arts, in education, in refined and beautiful workmanship, in inventions, her studies and devotion in nursing, and her softening influence, which has penetrated into almost every profession, elevates the nineteenth century in the memorable record of the world’s history.  It is an apparent fact, particularly when we turn to literature, that the work by woman during the last hundred years greatly exceeds anything accomplished by her in all previous times.  UI is, therefore, but fitting and just that woman’s work should be represented in a worthy manner, at the close of this century, by a commemorative Exhibition, the first of its kind ever held. 

…Nothing is more interesting than to trace, through all its vicissitudes, the lengthy course of laws and customs which have slowly raised woman from a condition of abject slavery to a position of social and civil equality…

…The day is passed when Woman, inspired by the necessities of a barbaric or warlike age, could repudiate the weakness of her sex, and contend with man on the field of battle.  Christianity and civilisation have taught her to renounce such ideas, and to assume another and a more glorious duty..

The new mission is symbolised by the name of Florence Nightingale, its originator, its apostle, and its example.  Words can scarcely express the great debt of gratitude we owe to this lady, who, by her generous and heroic labours, has given up her whole life to the promotion of humane work, to the amelioration of the condition of our soldiers, to the improvement of hospital organisation.

….Royalty has had many bright representatives in history, but it remained for this century to give birth to the noblest of all – Victoria, the greatest and most honoured of Sovereigns.  …Her monumental work and mighty influence have not only benefited the one-fourth of the women on earth over whom she rules, but all other nations over which it is spread.  No sooner had she ascended the throne than a complete revolution for the advance in education, science, and culture took place which resulted in the great progress of literature, arts, industries. And legislation which have glorified her reign and made her era unparalleled in history.”

Committee Members,
Woman's Exhibition, 1900, Earl’s Court, London, S.W.:
official fine art, historical and general catalogue, Spottiswoode & Co.

The prominence of duchesses, marchioness, countesses and ladies on the committee list is quite striking.  In the introduction to the Applied Art Section Tessa MacKenzie wrote “Women have at all times worn Tapestries, and here we have an example of a remarkable Tapestry design as well as executed by a woman, i.e. Mrs Frida Hansen, and an example of the work being done in Bushey by Miss Clive Bayley….

It is therefore satisfactory to realise that there is a greater field for woman’s capacity than she has, till of late years, had, and the present Exhibition may justly be looked upon as having opened the eyes of the world to her ability to succeed wherever she competes with men.”

It is disappointing to not see Ethel’s Blount tapestry being highlighted in this article.  However it is useful to have the names of tapestry work by other artists of the time.  Frida Hansen (1855-1931) was a “Norwegian textile artist in the Art Nouveau style…several of her weaving designs considered among the best made in  recent European textile art.” (Wikipedia).  Miss Clive Bayley was from The British and Irish Spinning and Weaving School.  The Art Journal (1899) reported that Bayley’s work “strikes one as a genuine attempt at art of a homely kind.  The most ambitious effort of the children working there is a reproduction in tapestry of one of Fra Angelico’s frescoes.  Failing the possibility of obtaining for the purpose designs by competent artists, this is about as good a source as Miss Bayley could have gone to.”

Frida Hansen tapestry,
Fantasiblomster, portiere, 1903
The National Museum, Oslo

Frida Hansen tapestry,
Melkeveien, 1898
The National Museum, Oslo

Miss Clive Bayley's tapestry loom,
The British and Irish Spinning and Weaving School,
The Art Journal, 1899

The Influence of Handicraft upon the Workers, 1918 Part 2

I decided to look at The Influence of Handicraft upon the Workers (Blount, E. and King, M.E., The Peasant Arts Fellowship Papers No. 10, Vineyard Press, Messrs. J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1918) after finding that Clara Pammenter, one of the executors of the Peasant Arts works in 1896, was a neighbour of Maude Egerton King.  She was just 14 years old when she produced the works for the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.  Whilst I have found a reasonable amount of writing about of writing about the works produced by the Haslemere Peasant Industries, there is little describing the impact upon Haslemere residents of the movement.  The tales within The Influence therefore seem a unique and heart warming record of the Peasant Arts movement's success:

Inside The Weaving House, Kings Road, Haslemere
from Studio International, Vol. 43, 5 Feb 1908

"Perhaps one of our happiest examples of the charm and help of handicraft, is an elderly married woman who had reached middle age by a path of patiently performed home duties, before ever she had come into touch with imaginative work of any kind.  She entered the Industries at first as an embroideress, and was immediately happy among the gay colours and designs.

Weavers at St Cross, Weydown Road, Haslemere
from Studio International, Vol. 43, 5 Feb 1908

"But the absolutely beatific life only began for her when was required to put her embroidery needle by and to take up the making of homespun - from the first unscoured wool, through all the processes of spinning, dyeing, and weaving to the shrinking  and perfecting of the cloth itself!  A sudden and wonderful enthusiasm filled her for this work and has never left her, nor ever will.  When at her wheel she says that it is almost impossible to keep from singing- "singing and spinning seem to belong together."  She goes about her daily duties, uplifted, radiant, dreaming daydreams of indigo, madder, fustic, and crottal; the murmur of the spinning-wheel is in her ear, she walks to the rhythm of the weaver's beam, and if her days pass swifter than the weaver's shuttle, they pass as profitably too!  She pretends to spin and weave for necessity and duty, but she doesn't- she does it for pure joy - for she is right in the secret which underlies all real work, and has become, in a humble degree, a creative artist."

 Studio International, Vol. 43, 5 Feb 1908

The Influence of Handicraft upon the Workers, 1918 Part 1

On February 28 1918, Ethel Blount and her sister Maude E. King presented a paper at the Peasant Arts Fellowship meeting in Caxton Hall titled Our Experience of the Influence of Handicraft upon the Workers (The Peasant Arts Fellowship Papers No. 10, Vineyard Press, Messrs. J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1918).  Their speech began:

"If this paper, the subject of which is one of deepest human interest, proves but a dry cataloguish affair, we would ask you to consider the difficulty of compressing the experience of many years into fifteen minutes...

Interior of Weaving House, Kings Road, Haslemere
from Pooley, B., The Changing Face of Shottermill,
Acorn Press, Haslemere, 1987

"A girl coming into the Weaving Home or the Workroom quickly interested in the work, becomes very proud of her growing skills, and, while gradually mastering a beautiful craft, is also acquiring the splendid patience of the good hand-worker.  If, at the outset, she is less refined than her companions in the workroom we find she soon grows noticeably gentler in her ways and simpler in her dressing.  During the careful processes of craft, much grinding and polishing of human jewels would seem to take place, for many unsuspected treasurers are brought to light.

"For example, one embroideress develops the power of drawing minute reductions of large designs, very fluently and charmingly; another reads a paper in defence of hand - opposed to machine-work at her chapel guild; another gets a loom of her own into her cottage in order to weave the clothes of her dearly loved little son, as well as her own best wear; another stays behind and works overtime to make her own wedding-dress.  "Of course, I couldn't be married in anything but a hand-woven dress." she said, when we expressed our pleasure about it.  Yet another develops a rare sense of colour.  Of some more than usually beautiful arrangement of colour we sometimes learn from her fellow-workers - she is too modest to tell us herself - that she has tried therein to symbolise something of herself or of them, her friends, or the mood of a sweet grey morning or the splendour of autumn woods.

The Tapestry Studio, Kings Road, Haslemere
from Art Journal, 1906

"A philanthropic millionaire was watching her weaving in a public exhibition not long since, and - mechanical speed and high pay embodying for him the highest good! - he remarked compassionately, "Well, God help the poor creatures that have to make a living at that!".  "Yes, He does!"" said the little weaver surprised at his simplicity.  Doubtless, had the philanthropist lingered long enough to discuss the matter, he would have asked, "Well, allowing that it is worth a girl's while to weave for you, how is she when busy in her own home ever to find time to weave for herself?"

The Weaving House, Kings Road, Haslemere c. 1902
from The Craftsman, January 1902

"Let this story answer him.  In a remote Sussex village lives a young girl, trained in our Industries, whose father is a small farmer, baker, and miller.   The mother is a very busy woman, constantly called into the little shop, and this, the eldest daughter, must help with the cooking and home-work generally.  And yet on Christmas Day last she gave her father a suit-length of tweed which she had spun, dyed, and woven herself.  Now she is making a dress for her mother, and clothes for brothers and sisters are to follow.  All this, be it remembered, is done in the spare times of a busy, dutiful life, where, as a Highland woman once said to us, "she has a great deal to do all amongst everything, indeed!"  She has a little workroom, where with loom and wheel and the fleeces from her father's South Down sheep, she sits and works wonders like any little princess in a fairy tale!  And here she holds a weekly spinning circle for her sisters and friends, doing her utmost to kindle other flames from her own bright torch.  We are all very proud, I am sure, to acknowledge her as one of the first members of our Peasant Arts Fellowship."

Blount, E. and King, M.E.,
Our Influence of the Influence of Handicraft upon the Workers,
Peasant Arts Fellowship Papers, No. 10,
Vineyard Press, Dent & Sons, 1918
 

Arts & Crafts Exhibition 1896

The Haslemere Peasant Arts movement had it's biggest representation at the 1896 Arts and Crafts Exhibition.  It appears that this put the work of the Blounts and the Kings on the arts and crafts map.

Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society Catalogue
1896

The catalogue (which unfortunately has no illustrations of the exhibits!) includes the following:

West Gallery

Godfrey Blount

Mrs. Godfrey Blount, Studio of Applique Tapestry, Haslemere

Exhibit 13 - Wall Hanging

Designed by Godfrey Blount

Executed by Mrs Godfrey Blount, Mr Blount and, Assistant

Exhibited by Godfrey Blount

Mrs. Joseph King, Lower Birtley, Hand-weaving Industry, Witley, Surrey

Exhibit 14, 15 - Pair of Hand-Woven Curtains

Designed by Godfrey Blount

Executed by Ellen Shenton and Clara Pammenter

Exhibited by Mrs Joseph King

Exhibit 33 - Curtain for Screen.  Applique tapestry

Designed by Godfrey Blount

Executed by Mrs. Godfrey Blount and Mrs. Joseph King

Exhibited by Mrs. Godfrey Blount

Exhibit 228 - Dessert Cloth.  Hand-woven.

Designed by Godfrey Blount

Executed by Clara Pammenter

Exhibited by Mrs. Joseph King

Exhibited 235 - Sideboard or Dresser-Cloth.  Hand-woven

Designed by Godfrey Blount

Executed by Clara Pammenter

Exhibited by Mrs. Joseph King

Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society Catalogue
1896

It is interesting to note that the hand weaving was taking place at Lower Birtley in 1896, and not at the Weaving House on Kings Road which was opened in 1899.  I wonder whether the 'Studio of Applique Tapestry' is the Tapestry Studio on Kings Road, the date of this building's completion is not clear, or whether the 'studio' was actually an interim building, like Meadow Cottage on Foundry Lane, whilst the Tapestry Studio was being built.

Also, you can see that the exhibits were not routinely made by Godfrey Blount or Maude (Mrs Joseph King) King.  The tapestries exhibited were executed by the Blounts and the Kings, whereas some of the hand weaving was executed by Ellen Shenton and / or Clara Pammenter.

The New Gallery, Regent Street, map,
from Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society Catalogue, 1896

Index extract for Godfrey Blount and Mrs Godfrey Blount
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society Catalogue, 1896
 

Index extract for Mrs Joseph King,
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society Catalogue, 1896

Arts & Crafts Exhibitions & Haslemere's Peasant Arts connections

I have not seen a comprehensive listing of the works displayed at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society by the Haslemere Peasant Arts artists, so I have compiled one (I did not look beyond 1935).

First to see the wood for the trees, it is interesting to just look at the statistics.  Godfrey Blount and Ethel Blount had their works shown at only two Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society exhibitions, the 1896 and 1899 exhibitions.  Some of those works involved Maude Egerton King.  I wonder whether they choose not to exhibit at further exhibitions, and if so why, or were their works not accepted by the Society for later exhibitions?

Number of items exhibited at Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society exhibitions
by artists linked to the Haslemere Peasant Arts movement

F.W.Troup who built numerous houses and the Weaving House and Tapestry Studio on Kings Road, was the first artist to exhibit at the Arts and Crafts exhibitions in 1899.  Troup was first listed as a Society member in 1903 and continued to exhibit until 1931.

In 1896 five works were exhibited by Godfrey Blount in association with the Haslemere movement.

Arnold Dolmetsch also first exhibited in 1896, although he was not based in Haslemere until later, becoming an Honorary Member in 1931.

The Blounts continued to exhibit in 1899, with one piece being individually attributed to Ethel Blount.

In 1903 Edmund Hunter first exhibited his works of the St Edmundsbury Weavers, then Haslemere based, whose work was on display in St Christopher's Church, Haslemere and continued to exhibit until the 1916 exhibition.

Arthur Romney Green's work was first exhibited in 1906 when he was based in Foundry Meadow on Kings Road, in later years such as 1912, he exhibited prolifically and was first listed as a Society member in 1916.

Luther Hooper, based a few hundred metres away from Arthur Romney Green in Foundry Meadow also began exhibiting in 1906.  It is interesting that Hunter, Green and Hooper were all exhibiting in 1906, and that their work was around that time seen altogether within St Christopher's Church, Haslemere in the form of a woven hanging, altar chair and table, and wool and silk curtains respectively.

Wise Men and Simple Men by Ethel Blount

Noel by Arthur Hughes,
The Vineyard, December 1910

The Wise Men and the Simple Men

Were bound to run a race:

The Simple Men were first to come 

Within the holy place.

The Wise Men three full valiantly

Pushed on the farther way,

And found, though late, the Manger Bed

In which their Saviour lay.

By this we see Simplicity

Will reach its goal full fast;

And Science too, by harder way,

Will find its own at last.

(from The Vineyard, December 1910, p.262; from the section 'For the Children')

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

May Day, Haslemere 1910

Following on from my May Day posts which included First of May is Garland Day , an article written in The Vineyard in 1911by Maude Egerton King, I have come across a report on Haslemere's May Day celebrations of 1910.

Peasant Tapestry curtain,
designed by Godfrey Blount
The Artist. November 1897

The Times ("May Day In London." Times [London, England] 2 May 1910: 6. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 7 Sep. 2012.) reported on a "Festival at Haslemere", writing that:

"A charming May Day festival took place at the Hall of St. George, Haslemere, on Saturday.  It was arranged by Mr and Mrs Godfrey Blount, who are well-known for their close association with the New Crusade, the Peasant Arts Society, and other movements connected with a higher life on simple lines.  The festival began with a big muster of children weaving garlands and wreaths, and carrying Maypoles adorned with wild flowers.  The children were awarded prizes for the prettiest displays.  A folksong concert with a lecture on homespuns and a demonstration of distaff and wheel hand-spinning followed.  The object of concert and demonstration simultaneously was to show that it is possible to do the necessary work of the world with musical accompaniments.

"The members of the Guild of Country Players concluded the festival with a display of Morris and country dancing."

The emphasis on working and listening to music, is particularly interesting.

from Arbor Vitae,
Godfrey Blount, Fifield, 1910

The Country Alphabet by Godfrey & Ethel Blount

I think that this poem jointly written by Godfrey and Ethel Blount encapsulates their values beautifully.  It was published in the April 1911 journal, The Vineyard, in the section titled "for the children".

A is for Almighty God,
   Who has given every treasure;
Agriculture for our Acres,
Art to give us shining Angels,
   Apples for a homely pleasure.

B for Blessing on all Birth,
   Babies, Buds and Beasts,
Endless beauty for the earth,
   Birds and Barley-feasts.

C for Customs, Country ways,
   Cross of Christ in battle,
C for blessed golden Corn,
   C for gentle Cattle.

D for Distaff with its spindle,
   Homespun Dress for happy toil,
D for Days of Admal's labour,
   Digging deep in fruitful soil.

E for Eating gratefully
   Blessing platter, blessing cup,
Easter and the Eucharist,
   Heart to Heaven lifted up.

F for Furrowed, russet Fields
   Holding wealth in store;
For Flowers and Fruit, for Fire and Force
   And flail on threshing-Floor

G for Groves and Gardens Green,
   Grain and Grapes on hills,
Glory of purple juice in vat,
   And Grist for a thousand mills.

H shall stand for Heart and Hand,
   For Harvests won from earth;
For Harrow, Hoe and binding Hedge,
   For Hammer, Home and Hearth.

Both I and J shall mean to those
   Who live by country ways,
The Justice, Joy and Innocence
   That fill their simple days.

K is for the Kingly heart
   That lives to serve and bless,
To feel, to rule, to help and heal
   In Knightly Kindliness.

L shall stand for happy Labour,
   Loom and fruitful Land;
Love that makes the world go round;
   Life from God's own hand.

M for Men and Master too
   In the Meadows Mowing;
M for Miller in his Mill
   With the Mill-wheel going.

N for Nature with her Night,
   Need of pain and wrestling,
Bringing New-birth with the light,
   New love for the Nestling.

O for Ordered Orchard ways;
   Wind-blown Oat-stalks bowing;
Oaks and Oil and Olive-groves;
   Patient Oxen ploughing.

P for Peasant, Plough, and Prince,
   Patriot, Pagan, Praise,
Pastures green  and Purity,
   Prayer and Peaceful days.

Q for Quaint and homely Quince;
   Q for hero's Quest;
Q for Quenchless, Quickening life
   In cottage, byre, and nest.

R for Reapers in the harvest,
   Rain and Rainbow, Roses, Rooks.
R for noon-day Rest from labour,
   Garnered Riches, golden stooks.

S for Spade and Scythe and Sickle,
   Share and Sword and Saint afar;
Sorrow, Secret, Seed and Spirit,
   Song and Sun and shining Star.

T for Thatch and Tree and Tool,
   Town and old Tradition's lore;
And the Tune the rhythmic flails
   Thump upon the Threshing-floor.

And U shall stand for Unity
   And sympathy of hearts,
And patient Use that trains the hand
   To Useful country arts.

And V is for true Victory,
   And Virtue tried by fire;
For happy Vine-clad Village homes
   Around the Village spire.

Wine and Water, Wheat and Wealth,
   Wage, and Wassail-making;
Winnowing, Wind and Wintry World
   Ere the spring be Waking.

X the Xtians Xmas love
   With creche and Xmas-tree;
X the Cross on which our Christ
   Wins immortality.

Y for leaves of autumn yellow;
   Years that Yield the Yearned-for truth,
Whilst the ancient earth renews us
   With her everlasting Youth.

Z our Zeal and sacred passion,
   Breaking bread in happy wise,
Learning in such simple fashion
   To regain our Paradise.