Joseph King & the Peasant Arts Museum lecture 1925

In the Haslemere Educational Museum I came across Joseph King's notes on a lecture about the Peasant Arts Museum.  It is part typed and part written, suggesting that this was a lecture he presented a number of times and had modified along the way, although it is referring to being written in 1925.  The lecture is titled "A Peasant Arts Museum: its characteristics and value".

Joseph King, Honorary Curator, Peasant Art Collections 1925-1943
reproduced courtesy of Haslemere Educational Museum,
examining mangleboards of the Peasant Arts Collection

"What is the way of living of the general mass of our countrymen today? 

"The Englishman today lives in a home, one of a row in a closely built over district; he earns his living at a greater or less distance from home, in a factory, workshop, mine, office or other large undertaking, where he follows a regularly repeated routine, having little chance for variety of scene or occupation, little scope to use or develop initiative or originality, not knowing the men at the head of the concern in which he works.  And when the day is ended, his tired body and mind are refreshed by the standardized music of the gramophone or the wireless, the mechanical pictures of the cinema and the commercialized issues of the evening penny paper.

Peasant Arts Museum
reproduced courtesy of
Haslemere Educational Museum

"Let us not be too hard on the days in which we live nor too superior to the masses of mankind nor too read to exercise the Englishman's privilege to grouse and grumble.  But let us face the fact that life is increasingly standardised, mechanical and commercialised.

"Thirty years ago when these conditions were already powerful but not yet in the overwhelming flood which is sweeping us along today, certain friends imbued with the teaching of Ruskin that life without industry is crime and industry without art is brutality, found a message in these popular forms of art and the employments still existing where the worker used both brain and hand, followed old traditions and suited his aims to the real wants of the people around him.  They found these elements of culture and healthy life especially in the peasantry and in the industries engaged in, and dependent on, agricultural life.  They founded the Peasant Arts Society, which still exists as the Peasant Arts Guild.  For about a quarter of a century the movement has been carried on, and the work has been undertaken by various agencies, by discussions, lectures and meetings, by encouraging, starting and maintaining various handicraft industries especially weaving, by the issue of a magazine each month, continued with sacrifice and with distinction for eight years, and by the carrying on of a business for the sale of the products of selected industries at the Depot.  Besides these activities, some of those in this movement started a Peasant Arts Museum.

Peasant Arts Museum postcard,
reproduced courtesy of
Haslemere Educational Museum

About 15 (in 1910) years since a collection of objects was formed and gathered together at Haslemere.  In 1913 the fine collection of the Rev. Gerald S. Davies (now the Master of the Charterhouse) was acquired.    Mr Davies had collected during his travels, mostly in Northern Europe, such objects as were hand-made and home-made by peasants for their own use and  not for sale* (for an article to be reckoned as a product of Peasant Art it must have been made not to sell to another, but to keep, or at most to give - see The Vineyard).  It was hoped to place and arrange the whole Collection in a special building, for which plans had been prepared, when the events of August 1914 arose to prevent any such development.  Meanwhile, the Collection  was deposited in a building at Haslemere, where some of its beauties and interest could be seen, though much was stored, awaiting a proper gallery for its exhibition.

Recently a scheme for New Buildings for the Haslemere Educational Museum, a quite separate institution entirely independent hitherto from the Peasant Arts Museum, has been adopted.  The Haslemere Educational Museum, a collection of natural history and historical objects with a fine library, was founded on original lines by the late Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.S., and is now to be placed under a new Trust Scheme in a permanent home.  The Peasant Art Museum has been offered to, and accepted by, the Haslemere Educational Museum and will be deposited shortly in a fine set of rooms, adequate in space and every other respect, thus forming a section of the new Haslemere Educational Museum.  The Committee of the latter accepted the offered Collection on generous conditions.  On the other hand certain Members of the Peasant Arts Guild and of the Peasant Arts Museum Committee contributed considerable sums to secure the permanent housing and future upkeep of this unique collection.

Peasant Arts Museum postcard,
reproduced courtesy of
Haslemere Educational Museum

What are the characteristic features of the Peasant Arts Museum?  The handmade home-made equipment of peasant's household will naturally fall (for the most part) into two categories, the articles of wood-work made by the men, and the textiles woven by the women; there are also articles of metal, horn, bone, and leather.  One of the most remarkable set of things are the washing implements, mangleboards, rollers, beating and pressing bats - the simple utensils which have given place to the mangling and washing machine and the new chemical soaps which have made the weekly or monthly washing of linen quite a different business to the old method of cleaning with plain cold water and rolling on board or table.  This section of the P.A. Museum comprises about 100 pieces: 45 mangleboards..."

extract of Joseph King's Peasant Arts Museum lecture notes
reproduced courtesy of Haslemere Educational Museum

Godfrey Blount on Happiness

Godfrey Blount,
from a magic lantern slide,
courtesy of the Dartford Warbler

“It is naturally difficult for most of us to realise that the thing we think we want most is probably the last thing it is good for us to have.  Nine people out of ten, for instance, think they want bigger wages, while as a matter of fact it is less and not more wages they really want.  The happiest person I have ever met, among the poor, of course – the rich are never exactly happy – was a potter who retired from business because his kiln was cracked and he had not enough sparse cash to have it repaired, but he had land enough all the same to keep himself and his family in all the necessities and many of the luxuries of life.”  The New Freewoman, July 1913.

Luther Hooper on machines vs. handicraft

Here is a last word from Luther Hooper, addressing an audience on a subject that sounds like the title of a Godfrey Blount lecture.   I did not realize how closely their views were aligned until I found this article on Chest of Books taken from the Arts & Crafts Magazine, Volume 1-2:

Silk, Luther Hooper, Pitman & Sons

"Handicraft versus Machine Work
The advantages and limitations of handicraft and machine work was the theme of an admirable address delivered recently before the Haslemere Microscopic and Natural History Society by Mr. Luther Hooper. As manager of the prosperous Haslemere Silk Weaving Works, and with his long experience in technical work and design, the lecturer spoke with authority. In defining the terms "handicraft" and "machine work," he said handicraft was not mere skill of hand acquired by constantly practising one particular movement or set of movements. In fact, the same uniform and uninteresting qualities which they deprecated in machine work might be, and often were, produced by the hand, which by constant mechanical practice and repetition had been degraded to the level of a machine. Work deserving to be dignified by the name of handicraft must be produced by the more or less skilful hand under the constant direction of the thinking power of the worker. Handicraft implied that the hands and tools of the worker were under the direct and deliberate control of his brain, and the excellence or otherwise of his work would depend exactly on the artistic power and judgment he possessed and brought to bear upon it.

from Silk, Luther Hooper, Pitman & Sons

"With much ability, Mr. Hooper reviewed his subject from two points of view - namely, that of the quality of work produced and the effects, respectively, of handicraft and machine work on the worker. The latter, he pointed out, was the more important consideration inasmuch as what a man was to become was more vital than what little thing he made. He believed in the use of machines and labour-saving appliances, providing the work done by their means could not be better done by hand. If large numbers of things were required exactly alike and a machine could be constructed to make them, why in the world should it not be used? It would save, perhaps, many men, women and children from monotonous, uninteresting, and in many cases unhealthy labour if used under proper conditions and restrictions. We must, however, see to it that the machine-made articles were as good for their purpose as the hand-made ones, and that the material was as good and strong and unadulterated as it appeared to be: that no finishing or heating or dressing was resorted to in order to enable the maker to sell his product cheaply or to make dishonest profits.

from Silk, Luther Hooper, Pitman & Sons

"That was the test to apply to all machine work, and that was the very point on which it was in most cases unsatisfactory. Up to a certain point and in certain subordinate positions the machine was a good, useful and economical servant, but it was surprising at what a low point its limit was reached. It could make nails and screws and pins and needles, it could saw and plane wood and iron, cut mortises and bore, punch and drill holes. It could wind and spin thread and weave cloth for commonest use. It could print cheap books and newspapers, calicoes and wall-papers, it could even make pigs into sausages, and a host of other things that did not require any judgment or art in them, but it could not make a horseshoe or a yard of velvet worth the name. Its perfection was a dead level of uniformity, unpleasing and dull, and its limitations of ornamental or other art were ghastly, vulgar, and pretentious failures. In short it could not give the impress of thought and mind to its work which render the simplest specimen of true handicraft more or less interesting and satisfactory.

from Silk, Luther Hooper, Pitman & Sons

"One undoubted advantage which handicraft conferred on the consumer was that it afforded him a reasonable chance of getting what he wanted and believed to be suitable for his special purpose, because in the treaty for it he came nearer to, if not, as was best, in actual contact with, the maker of the piece of work. He could order and confer, advise and decide, and in the end get something that had not only given pleasure, interest, and profit to the worker in making, but insight be a perpetual joy to the purchaser, because exactly fitted for the purpose for which he required it.  Not only were works of handicraft likely to be specially fit for the purchaser's use, but he was sure to get better value for his money if he spent it in that direct way. Again, handicraft was of much advantage in that it gave an individual or personal quality to any work produced, and it was that expression of the artist's self which made it interesting. In order to give that quality to his work the craftsman must be well and conscientiously trained. It was sometimes with truth objected to work shown at Arts and Crafts Exhibitions, that though picturesque, it lacked good workmanship. That should not be. The technical should quite keep pace with the artistic training, and the artist-craftsman must see to it that no fault could be found with his work on that score."

Portion of Silk Damask, Side Curtain to Altar,
St. Christopher's, Haslemere
designed by Luther Hooper
from Art Journal, February 1911

Pentecost, Easter and Arthur Romney Green's legs

It is worth briefly explaining how the St Edmundsbury Weavers' Vineyard Poplin and Arthur Romney Green's Holy Table would have functioned in everyday life in St Christopher's Church, Haslemere.   Following various discussions with various learned people it would appear that the following took place:

St Edmundsbury Weavers' Vineyard Poplin altar frontal,
St Christopher's Church, Haslemere

• The Vineyard Poplin altar frontal would have been the 'everyday' altar frontal, with the grapes and vine leaves and birds in the corn creating a colourful covering for the Holy Table designed by Arthur Romney Green.  The intricate carved legs of the Holy Table would have therefore been hidden from sight.

Arthur Romney Green's Holy Table leg detail,
from St Christopher's Church DFAS record

Holy table by Arthur Romney Green,
(Nicholson, C., and Spooner, C., Recent Eccelesiastical Architecture, Technical Journals Ltd., London, c.1910)

• At Easter the altar frontal would have been removed, just as is done at St Christopher's Church today.  Exposing the carved wooden legs of the altar table by Arthur Romney Green.  

Human Worship of Our Blessed Lord,
by Minnie Dibdin-Spooner 1912-13,
St Christopher's Church, Haslemere

• The doors to the altar piece would also have been closed to remove the painting of Human Worship of Our Blessed Lord by Minnie Dibdin-Spooner (1912-13) from view.  This painting was exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition of November 1912.  The picture was installed at the church on Easter Eve 1913.  The lettering beneath it is by Eric Gill, who himself was a great friend of Arthur Romney Green.

Vineyard by Edmund Hunter
silk and gold thread, by the St Edmundsbury Weavers
The Victorian Web

• At Pentecost, at the end of Easter, perhaps not at St Christopher's Church, but maybe in a different church, a similar altar frontal in design to the 'everyday' Vineyard Poplin may have been put on the Holy Table.  That of red and gold silk.