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The exhibition featured all the big names in the Arts and Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds. The displays were laid out in room sets showcasing furniture, pictures and smaller pieces. Display cases showed precious metals, ceramics and jewellery. The exhibition featured all the big names in the Arts and Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds. The displays were laid out in room sets showcasing furniture, pictures and smaller pieces. Display cases showed precious metals, ceramics and jewellery.
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The exhibition was held in Cheltenham's Montpellier Rotunda, one of the town's larger venues. This photograph, showing Montpellier Walk and Rotunda in the 1950s was taken by W R Bawden of Eagle Photos.
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This display shows ecclesiastical furniture, including a Morris & Co. tapestry, kneelers by the Embroiderers of Gloucester cathedral, an embroidered cope worn by Bishop Headlam of Gloucester at the coronation of George VI, and a lectern by Ernest Gimson.
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In the 1960s and 70s, the art gallery and museum acquired a several items of furniture from Arthur Mitchell's Charlton Kings home, Glenfall House. He supported the Cotswold School makers, with pieces by Sidney Barnsley, Peter Waals and Norman Jewson. He supported Peter Waals throughout the 1930s, and this dressing table and toilet mirror, designed by Waals and made in 1929, was not only displayed at the 1951 exhibition but also at the Royal Academy in London in 1931. It was acquired by the museum in 1972.
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In the 1960s and 70s, the art gallery and museum acquired a several items of furniture from Arthur Mitchell's Charlton Kings home, Glenfall House. He supported the Cotswold School makers, with pieces by Sidney Barnsley, Peter Waals and Norman Jewson. He supported Peter Waals throughout the 1930s, and this dressing table and toilet mirror, designed by Waals and made in 1929, was not only displayed at the 1951 exhibition but also at the Royal Academy in London in 1931. It was acquired by the museum in 1972.
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The art gallery and museum has acquired this corner cabinet shown at the exhibition recently, from a family member of Ernest Gimson. It was designed by Gimson around 1904 for his brother's house, Stoneywell, near Leicester. It was lent to the exhibition by Gimson's nephew Humphrey.
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Some people lent very personal items. C R Ashbee's daughter Felicity lent her own silver christening mug, designed by her father and made by the Guild of Handicraft in 1913. It is engraved with her name, and a rhyme: 'a wise old owl lived in an oak, the more he saw the less he spoke', and then suggests that Felicity might imitate the owl!
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Felicity's sister Winifred lent a belt buckle that had once belonged to her mother, Janet Ashbee. This silver buckle set with turquoises was probably a gift to Janet when she got engaged to Ashbee in 1897, and has a fish motif. The art gallery and museum acquired the buckle in 1997.
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This plate, decorated by Alfred Powell, shows the interior of Lodge Farm in Painswick. This house had been altered by Sidney Barnsley for L B Murray, and the Murray's had a series of plates painted by Alfred Powell to celebrate their home. The house conforms to the Cotswold School's idea of a comfortable country home: a settle by the fire, plain walls with textiles to liven them up, and even a candelabrum designed by Gimson in pride of place!
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The art gallery and museum had already started to collect some local craft material. In 1926 Michael Cardew opened the Winchcombe Pottery in the old Greet Pottery, only eight miles from Cheltenham. By the 1950s the Art Gallery & Museum had a small collection which they lent to the exhibition. This bowl, designed and made by Michael Cardew around 1935, was purchased directly from the Pottery
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Mrs Janet Ashbee didn't just lend Guild of Handicraft jewellery, but also examples of fine printing from the Essex Press, and handwritten books like this one. The Lyrics of the Nile was begun by Ashbee while in Egypt in 1917, and this volume was handwritten and illustrated by him.
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This piece of stained glass by Paul Woodroffe was one of the few pieces acquired by the art gallery and museum directly from the exhibition. It was part of a series depicting nursery rhymes – in this case Taffy was a Welshman – that Woodroffe came back several times over the years. There were two in the exhibition, both on sale for £11 11s, and it seems likely that Woodroffe offered to the art gallery and museum at the end of the show.
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May Morris, William Morris's daughter, lived nearby at Kelmscott Manor. In 1938, when she died, the contents of the Manor were auctioned off, and it is possible that the items on display in the exhibition were acquired at that time. May Morris was a skilled embroiderer and designer. This white silk bedspread was made by her near the end of her life in 1935.
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