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THE WORK AND LIVES OF THE LEADING DESIGNER-SILVERSMITHS by John Andrew
INTRODUCTION The following 50 chapters have mainly been based on one-to-one interviews, or in the event of those who have died, on published material and in two cases, unpublished autobiographies. In some cases information has been obtained from surviving family members. With living silversmiths, all have been given drafts so they could make corrections, amendments, additions and suggestions. It is believed that this is the first book on a generation of silversmiths that is primarily based on one-to-one interviews. The book has been designed so that a good general outline of the subject can be obtained simply by reading the captions for the images.
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MALCOLM APPLEBY Although primarily known as an engraver, Malcolm Appleby is in fact a designer and multi-skilled craftsman whose work ranges from small buttons to large centrepieces. “Of course, I’ve got this other little trick up my sleeve called engraving which can add this extra lustre to anything because what you are doing with engraving is multiplying the surface area and it brings out the tremendous light – it’s just magic and I’ve never lost the enthusiasm for that quality.” Malcolm Appleby
Malcolm Appleby was born at Beckenham in Kent during 1946 and formed an interest in working with metal at an early age. The catalyst was a family friend of the Applebys, John Wilkes of the long-established firm of gun makers bearing his name. It was not only the guns and rifles that fascinated the young Malcolm, but the intricate engraving with which bespoke firearms are traditionally decorated. Deciding that he wanted to be a designer-artist, Malcolm Appleby embarked on a pre-diploma course at the Beckenham School of Art and later studied at the Ravensbourne School of Art, the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Sir John Cass School of Art,1 his studies ending in 1966. It was while at the Central School that there were two events that were to significantly impact on his life. First, he started a ‘mock apprenticeship’ with John Wilkes as a gun engraver. Engraving into the hard steel on firearms is a very specialist skill. Secondly, in 1964 he was awarded a travel scholarship from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and visited Scotland where he was inspired by the natural beauty. From 1966-8 he studied at the Royal College of Art. The RCA gave him the opportunity to explore his numerous experimental ideas. This included die cutting with his first subject being the image of a cockatrice2 that he cut into mild (as opposed to hard) steel. The resulting lead medal won the Company’s and the Arts Council’s competition for die sinking. He also began his research into firing gold on to steel or iron. His pioneering Hawk Ring of 1967, which is carved steel inlaid with 24-carat gold and fine silver, is both visually stunning and of superb craftsmanship. Decades later, this piece is still in his collection. Naturally he brought his experience of gun engraving to his RCA bench and began developing 1. In 1965 the Department of Silversmithing and Allied Crafts of the Central School of Arts and Crafts merged with the Sir John Cass College’s Department of Fine and Applied Art to form the Sir John Cass School of Art. 2. A fantastical creature with the head and claws of a cock and the body of a serpent.
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new engraving techniques. In 1967 he exhibited some of his print engraving at the Royal Academy summer exhibition. Stuart Devlin subsequently saw his work, appreciated his free creativity and suggested he may like to work with him. Carole Devlin has a silver cube paperweight engraved by Malcolm Appleby in 1970-2 on her desk today. His studies at the RCA over, Malcolm was in demand. He collaborated with Michael Driver who had been commissioned by the Company to make four jugs for the University of Kent at Canterbury. Malcolm
Opposite: Baroque ’n’ Bowl Courtesy British Silver Week In addition to designing by making very detailed drawings, Malcolm has a more informal approach where pieces are ‘just made’ and ‘come together as I am making them’. Sounds easy, but of course the process is the result of over 50 years of making. This Baroque ’n’ Bowl is one such creation. It forms part of his triangular series which has its roots in a design exercise he set some students from a local school who spent the afternoon in his workshop. Starting with a sheet of metal, he draws lines on it with a felt pen so that it may be cut to the shape he requires. While still flat he engraves the metal with a bold and simple design. The surface is also textured by placing the sheet on a ringing bed, a large, very rusty and pitted cast steel disc with a hole in the middle that was used in former days to place tyres on wooden cartwheels. It looks like a giant, but grubby, polo mint. The textured surface of the ringing bed is transferred to the sheet of silver by striking the latter with a clapper from a bell while the sheet is on the bed’s surface. The sheet was then passed to Ryan McClean, who periodically works with Malcolm. He raised it into the desired shape using wooden and nylon mallets as well as wooden stakes. The two work together as a team, Malcolm preparing the next flat sheet of silver while Ryan works his magic with hammers. ‘It is fate from the very beginning. We’re just hoping for the best’, Malcolm sighs. Looking at the fluid form of the end result, it may appear to effortlessly curve for the viewer’s aesthetic pleasure, but rest assured there is nothing easy about making a piece like this. Height 52.5cm. Edinburgh 2009.
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its top with the Prince’s emblems. These were the Welsh dragon, corn stooks of the Duke of Chester, feathers of the Prince of Wales and the Black Prince and the bezants of the Duke of Cornwall. Unbeknown to Louis Osman, Malcolm placed the initials of everyone who had worked on the crown at the base of the orb. He also placed small animals around the corn stooks. He revealed, ‘Many people thought they were harvest mice, but they are rats.’ One should always look carefully at Malcolm’s engravings as it is not unusual to find something surprising. The Investiture of the Prince took place on 1 July 1969. Less than three weeks later there was another even more memorable occasion – Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon walk of 21 July. Louis Osman had been commissioned by Simon Horn, a stockbroker, to make small spherical models of the moon to mark the occasion. Like the Prince of Wales’ crown, Louis decided to make these by electro-forming;3 giving Malcolm a press cutting showing the moon photographed from a rocket, he commissioned him to complete the engraving on hard steel in a totally unreasonable four days. Malcolm’s first task was to proceed to the Natural History Museum and secure historic images of the moon’s surface. Working in a studio at his parents’ home in Kent during the early
undertook the engraving of the Arms. The Company had also acquired its first piece of Appleby, a cigar jar made from steel with fused gold and silver. The body is carved and engraved with the sun and the moon, its cover decorated with carved, chased and engraved dog roses. Appleby still considers this to be an outstanding piece of the period. Louis Osman had also been commissioned by the Company to make the Crown for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales and he subsequently asked Malcolm to design and engrave the small orb at 60
Above left and left: Hurricane George Shallow Bowl Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swann ‘Hurricane George is a piece to commemorate George W. Bush playing golf while New Orleans drowned’, Malcolm said. ‘I spoke about my plans to create this piece to RCA students visiting my retrospective at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2006. I explained that I found RCA work unemotional and computer-aided, work generally devoid of any feeling. “Where is the love, anger and political comment?” The hand and tool on the metal is what gives a piece its human quality. Their tutor asked how I was going to sell it. I just responded that I had to do it.’ Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The resultant surge protection failures in New Orleans were considered the worst civil engineering disaster in US history. Malcolm continued, ‘This was a modern environmental disaster. I wanted an image of an effect of global warming. I felt it had to be anti commemorative – I saw the newspaper image of Bush playing golf without a care in the world. Although the spiral effect of a hurricane is destructive, it has a certain beauty. As someone said, “If it wasn’t for the death and destruction, a sea battle is wonderful to watch.” The same applies to hurricanes. I wanted a tee-shirt printed of it to eclipse ones of Che Guevara.’ Malcolm’s deep hammer and chisel technique used in the engraving seems to accentuate the anger and love of nature Malcolm transferred to it during the making process. The piece sold in 2009 to a private client. Diameter approximately 45cm. Edinburgh 2007.
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hours of the morning, he can remember his father shouting up the stairs that Neil Armstrong had taken his first step on the moon. Malcolm has never forgotten this Herculean task, which he describes as a ‘feat of endurance bending hard steel punches under the strain’. Malcolm’s first year after the RCA was certainly a baptism of fire. An enthusiast for hard work, he had nevertheless become weary of the aggressive commercialism of the capital. ‘I moved away from London when I was 23’, he said. ‘I saw this sort of pressure building up all around and I didn’t really like it. I didn’t feel that the essence of what I was doing was in the suburbs of London. I got an opportunity to move to Scotland for a year and I took it. I’ve been in Scotland ever since.’ He rented a friend’s house in Deeside and a year later, as a result of his post RCA success, was able to buy Crathes Station near Banchory off the Aberdeen to Braemar road. A 3. Electro-forming involves building-up an object by electro-depositing the metal, in this case gold, on to a resin mould made from a model, in this case a hard steel. 4. Held from 17 February through to 11 March. 5. 13 February 1971.
casualty of Dr Beecham’s axe in the 1960s, by mid1971 Malcolm had converted it into his home and workshop. Early in that year the young Appleby took London by storm. The occasion was Louis Osman’s ‘Gold Exhibition’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall.4 This was the first occasion that the Prince of Wales’ crown had been publicly displayed. However, the headline for the piece about the event published in The Illustrated London News5 was ‘Royal gold cup’. Half of the text regarding
Above left and right: Raven Beaker Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swann The Raven Beaker was a private commission in memory of a family member. The subject was chosen because of the symbolism of the birds to the family. ‘Ravens do amazing dances in the sky’, Malcolm mused. If you have not witnessed their spiraling and diving in the heavens then there are a couple of short videos on YouTube by Lisa Lee Miller you should watch. As Malcolm had a stuffed raven in his collection, he had a static model to hand. He drew the design on the silver with indelible felt pen as opposed to sketching on flat paper. Although he has been engraving for over 50 years, he confessed that for the first time, while working on this piece, he pierced the metal. It was very skillfully repaired. Height approximately 12cm. Edinburgh 2008. 61
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the exhibition and 65 per cent of the entire page was taken up illustrating one of Louis Osman’s latest works, the 10cm high 435.4 gram fine gold cup raising from a square base to a circular top. The four surfaces were engraved and carved by Malcolm with a fanciful version of the Prince’s heraldic symbols. The unnamed journalist wrote, ‘The most important and beautiful object in the exhibition, surely destined to become an historic one, is the gold cup we illustrate.’ Having explained that it has been worked on all four planes by Malcolm Appleby, the writer continues, ‘It exhibits the extraordinary skill of this 23-year-old genius … The technique is exquisite, ranging from extremely fine stippling, for instance on the lion’s coat, which looks as if someone has gently breathed on the gold, to crisply incised lines with facets which sparkle like jewels.’ The writer then mentions some of the details that are noticeable on closer examination, such as the fact that the dragon’s tail ends with a firework. Very clearly Malcolm eclipsed Louis. Louis Osman made the cup intending that someone may purchase it as a present to Prince Charles as a keepsake. Although the ILN speculated that it would be bought by the Company, it was eventually purchased by a private individual. What is now known as the Prince of Wales Gold Cup was sold at auction by Bonhams on 30 November 2011.6 Meanwhile, back in Scotland, Malcolm moved into his new home. Christine Rew described visits to Crathes Station as ‘like stepping into another world, with a magical fairytale quality’.7 There is no doubting that the converted station was atmospheric’ with the former waiting room being the workshop and the ticket office becoming a secure store. However, Rod Kelly8 is of the view that the magic did not emanate from the building, but from Malcolm himself, a larger than life, affable character with a good sense of humour. Far more at home in Scotland than the suburbia of Greater London, Malcolm certainly finds his environment inspiring. ‘I can sit here in my workshop and outside I don’t have to go any further than the doorstep to pick up
6. Estimated at £60,000-80,000 it sold for the lower estimate, which was £75,000 by the time the Buyer’s Premium (25 per cent) had been added. VAT at 20 per cent was payable on the Premium. The hammer price was also subject to half the Artist’s Resale Right levy (Osman’s Estate had not registered). The applicable rate was therefore 2 per cent on the first € 50,000 and 1.5 per cent thereafter. There was only one telephone bidder who bid against the vendor’s reserve. 7. Christine Rew, Keeper (Applied Art) at Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums writing in Malcolm Appleby, that was published in 1998 to coincide with the exhibition ‘Malcolm Appleby Designer and Engraver’ at Aberdeen Art Gallery in collaboration with Malcolm Appleby, 10 October to 21 November 1998. 8. He undertook work experience with Malcolm in 1980 prior to going to the RCA.
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something to work from’, he said. ‘I only have to look out of the window to see the clouds – I don’t even have to step outside. People say, “Oh, you should do this, you should do that, you should go to these places”, but I’ve stayed put and I’ve got a lot out of what I have around me.’ He continued, ‘Inspiration is a difficult word. It sort of evolves over the years from doing all these things and building all these different techniques together. I suppose its a bit like cookery – throwing ingredients in and seeing what comes out really. I often don’t know what the things are going to look like until they are finished.’ A lengthy project of the 1970s certainly resulted in combining different techniques. The London jewellers Collingwood of Conduit Street commissioned Malcolm to make the chess set that he wished to work on, a task
Opposite above: Textured Bowl Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This textured bowl with its lemon gilt interior is a typical example of Malcolm’s hollowware although, sets excepted, no one piece is the same as another. The flat metal having been textured, the bowl was hand-raised on wood. It sits perfectly vertical on its rounded base with its rim absolutely horizontal to the eye. This century it was inexplicably donated to a charity shop and acquired by a lady for a song. When her husband became very ill and funds were required to aid his recovery, it was consigned to Bonhams in Edinburgh. To the lady’s delight it sold in August 2011 for a hammer price of £750, giving much needed money during her family crisis. After all costs, a dealer added it to stock for just under £1000. The Pearson Silver Collection acquired it from the dealer in May 2012 for £1750. Periodically the Collection reviews its list of favoured dealers. Diameter 10.2cm. Edinburgh 1997. Opposite below: ‘Moral Capitalism’ Beaker Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington On 19 January 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron gave a major speech on the economy in which he outlined ‘moral capitalism’. He claimed that when they work properly, markets and free enterprise can actually promote morality. ‘Moral capitalism – I thought it was hilarious!’, exclaimed Malcolm. It can be no coincidence that in the same year as the speech he launched his beakers engraved with political and personal catchphrases such as ‘No No No’, ‘Friendly Fire’, ‘Peace in our Time’, ‘Collateral Damage’, ‘Less is More’ and as here the ‘hilarious’ ‘Moral Capitalism’. Using an abstract form of lettering, the catchphrase appears unimportant to the object on which it is engraved. Indeed, from a very cursory glance it may appear to be decoration as opposed to a script. Nevertheless the beakers have been noticed. Indeed, they have generated considerable interest from a wide range of people as opposed to just silver enthusiasts. In 2012 one visitor to the Festival of Silver, who had never bought a piece of silver before, remarked on seeing one, ‘I would really like to buy it because I like it and especially as it is a political statement.’ And she did! Height 6.5cm. Edinburgh 2012.
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Left: Downing Street Pepper Mill (drawing) Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swann The original design with an ‘Adam and Eve’ theme. Opposite: Downing Street Cruet Courtesy The Silver Trust In the second half of the 1980s, Malcolm was the first silversmith to be asked by The Silver Trust to design silver for Downing Street. Requested to submit a rough sketch of his proposal for a cruet, he decided to send detailed drawings instead. These were riddled with allegory. This was the era of Thatcher and Reagan, with the former describing their personal friendship as ‘ideological soul-mates’. Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative for protecting the US against nuclear ballistic missiles. The mainstream press derided the proposal as Star Wars after the popular 1977 epic film by George Lucas. Coincidentally, the SDI was halted while the cruet was being made. Malcolm chose an Adam and Eve theme for the pepper mill to represent Reagan and Thatcher respectively. Adam has a lion’s and Eve a horse’s head. The apple that Eve hands Adam explodes bomblike into a mushroom cloud, which is the mill’s screw top.
that he undertook over a seven-year period. The black pieces are carved steel that have been fired and inlaid with gold. Completed in 1977, it was used by the retailer to commemorate Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee. Malcolm comments, ‘My main preoccupation is with combining surface quality and form. In using techniques such as engraving, mixing metals, texturing and hammering, the decorative process becomes complimentary to the final form. The materials I use are gold, silver and platinum, iron and steel and gem stones, in particular those with character.’ It is not surprising that a diverse range of raw materials combined with a cornucopia of techniques results in an eclectic output. Indeed, this is Malcolm Appleby’s objective as he explains, ‘What I’d like to achieve is a variety of work. So that when the work I’ve produced over the years is brought together it will be so, so totally different that people are going to find it extremely difficult to categorise it and shove it into a pigeon-hole.’ He added, ‘I thoroughly enjoy working with other folk.’ Indeed, he regularly collaborates with enamellers, wood turners, jewellers, glassmakers and other silversmiths, drawing upon their talents so that his ideas can be realised. Although his silver ranges from small buttons to large centrepieces, Malcolm Appleby is particularly noted for 64
The mustard pot has a blue glass finial, ‘partly to get the commission’, Malcolm said with a smile, adding mischievously, ‘But, it has streaks of red in it!’ As a container for the English form of the condiment, to Malcolm the pot resembled heat. During the creative process his thoughts turned to deserts. ‘Thatcher hated railways. The miners’ strike changed the working structure of the country’, he said before he started recalling the imagery. ‘There is a unicorn’s skull, symbolising the death of innocence. The pot also features a dragon emerging from primeval mud and rising to the dome at the top of the container. The dome in the base is pierced with an image of a cockatrice, a mythical beast having a snake’s body and a cockerel’s head. It could kill by its withering stare. Finally, the mustard’s body additionally features an ash tree prematurely shedding its leaves.’ Also known as the World Tree in several religions and mythologies, it supports the heavens, while its roots connect the world to the underworld. It therefore symbolises the Cosmic Axis of the universe. ‘A scorched earth piece, a prophetic piece’, mused Malcolm. The salt is symbolic of regeneration. Its top is engraved with a double-headed Celtic god with the salt, which is a life-sustaining substance, emerging from its mouth. Towards the base there are flying salmon, while at the very bottom there is a land-sea-air mermaid ready to rise. ‘Life will begin again from the bottom of the sea’, said Malcolm. He added, ‘Hogarth came from being a silver engraver. I shall remain an artist on silver.’ Indeed William Hogarth did start his career apprenticed to a silver engraver called Ellis Gamble. He later established his own business as an engraver. There is a very finely engraved salver in the Victoria and Albert Museum made by Paul de Lamerie in 1728-9 which is believed to have been embellished with its engraved decoration by Hogarth’s hand. While William Hogarth is best remembered as an 18th-century pictorial satirist, Malcolm will be remembered as a leading post-war engraver of silver and a political animal with a wicked sense of humour. For some unknown reason, the trustees of The Silver Trust favoured symbolism of flora, fauna and heraldic animals on future commissions. Is it coincidental that the image of this cruet has not been photographed with a view of showing the engraving to advantage? Height of the pepper 22cm. Edinburgh 1987.
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his bowls and beakers. ‘I first started work on bowls in 1973, engraved on flat discs of gold or silver which I then had raised’, Malcolm explained. This is the opposite of the conventional process, which is engraving a bowl once it has been finished. He continued, ‘Working firstly with Lew Marlow, then with Peter Musgrove9 the bowls were initially very small and thick with swirling line patterns over the surfaces. As my technique developed and changed I worked on more figurative ones. I have carved, or very deeply engraved, on forged blank discs about an eighth of an inch thick in the centre. The finished raised bowl often distorts the engraved image making once straight lines into sweeping curves flowing with the form of the bowls. Using this method, it is also possible to work on both sides of the disc sometimes causing the engraving to appear through the metal. I work out a form of the finished bowl, but the final shape is often dictated by the process. I rely on Peter Musgrove’s intuition, taking advice if the metal starts to complain. Editions of prints are taken from some of the flat bowl blanks when this is possible, though I try not to let this side process affect the way I engrave them.’ Oliver Walston, a Cambridgeshire farmer and national journalist, perhaps commissioned the most impressive series of Appleby beakers. Following a bumper crop of sugar beet in 1981, Mr Walston decided to commemorate the event with a beaker. However, during the initial telephone conversation, the project was nearly halted in its tracks as Oliver Walston advised Malcolm that he liked his
Opposite: Engraved Standing Cups Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swan These standing cups followed from a commission undertaken for the George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh. It was founded in 1628 following a substantial bequest from George Heriot, the royal goldsmith. In 1792 a John Stewart gave the school a cup in the form of a silver gilt mounted nautilus shell, which was believed once belonged to Heriot. Each year what became known as the Heriot Loving Cup is used at the school’s Anniversary Dinner to drink a silent toast to the ‘Immortal Memory of the Founder’. Following discussions with the National Museums of Scotland, the Governors of the school were made aware that the cup was an excessively rare early example of Scottish silver. With security and accessibility to a wider audience in mind, the Governors decided to place the cup on loan to the Museums, providing it was made available for the Anniversary Dinner each year. The school then commissioned Malcolm to make two contemporary cups – one for the school to keep and the other for it to auction. Instead he made three and two were successfully auctioned. He then decided to make three more similar but not identical cups, which of course do not bear the school’s arms. These are the result. Height of the tallest, 40.5cm. Edinburgh 2011.
silver ‘plain and uncomplicated’. After a long silence, Malcolm responded, ‘You’ve come to the wrong man.’ Nevertheless the commission proceeded with Malcolm being given carte blanche regarding the design. The result incorporated 48 different sugar beets with insects and animals being hidden among them. The other five beakers marked the lunacy of setaside,10 celebrated a successful lambing season, an excellent yield of wheat, a good crop of peas and the Walstons’ farm hosting the national Cereals Exhibition. The beakers were all displayed at ‘Precious Statements’, the major retrospective of Malcolm Appleby’s work staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2006.11 Indeed, Malcolm Appleby’s work has been exhibited at many galleries and museums in the UK during his career and is in the permanent collections of museums both in England and his adopted Scotland. One of the 60 or so guns he engraved, the Raven Gun was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum, then at the Tower of London, now located in Leeds. However, the Raven Gun remained at the Tower. Malcolm has had no shortage of patrons over the years. A larger than life character who is quintessentially a British eccentric with a subversive sense of humour, working with Malcolm is never a mundane experience. His first major commission from the Company, championed by Graham Hughes, was for a bowl to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the establishment in 1478 of the London Assay Office. Each one of its five scalloped sections is engraved by Malcolm with a symbolic leopard depicting its various changes through the years. It is an impressive piece – one of the ‘Appleby factors’ is that it bears an Edinburgh as opposed to a London hallmark! The 1985 seal for the Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum is of machined steel, carved, fired and inlaid with gold and silver. Look carefully and it bears an image of Malcolm’s then recently deceased cat. No one is spared the ‘Appleby factor’. Indeed, when HRH Prince Charles commissioned a cigarette box, the Prince of Wales’ feathers were replaced by three smoking cigarettes and the ‘ICH DIEN’ motto with a HM Government health warning regarding the dangers of smoking! In 1988 he designed and engraved the condiment set illustrated here
9. A silversmith who is a technician at the RCA. He has undertaken work for Malcolm for over 30 years. Other collaborators include Andrew Metcalfe, Kevin Allen, Stephen Bishop, Beverley Moore, Roger Doyle and Graham Fuller. 10. A European Union initiative that pays farmers for not producing crops. In 1993 15 per cent of the Walstons’ land was set aside. The beaker was engraved with every conceivable weed and the base engraved, ‘300 acres of Setaside produced absolutely nothing’. 11. 19 May to 1 July.
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for 10 Downing Street.12 The caption includes Malcolm’s explanation of the imagery. The following year he completed an innovative Standing Cup and Cover commissioned by the National Museums of Scotland and in 1999 a large table centrepiece for Bute House,13 as well as the Millennium Casket for the Company in white and yellow gold that is illustrated here. Over the Christmas period, those who purchase from Malcolm are entered into a draw for a small prize, such as a Malcolm Appleby silver button. In 1996 Malcolm moved from Crathes Station to a home and workshop he designed in Perthshire. An inspiring teacher, he regularly gives one-to-one tuition to visiting students. Known locally as ‘the man with the woolly jumper’ this unique item of attire has become his trademark and was even displayed at his retrospective at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Knitted by his mother, it started life in 1964 as a plain green jersey. Malcolm has darned holes 68
Above: Millennium Casket Courtesy of The Goldsmiths’ Company This Millennium Casket was one of the highlights of the ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ exhibition staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall from 25 May to 21 July 2000. Designed and engraved by Malcolm Appleby, this masterpiece was crafted in 18-carat white gold by Hector Miller. When delivered to the Hall it contained over 200 packets of wild flower seeds, one for each member of the Company’s livery, to scatter in the British countryside as a symbol of regenerating planet Earth in the 21st century. The engraving symbolises the three elements essential for life – sunlight, water and air. The golden sun, which is yellow gold plated on to white, is seen casting its rays on the tidal waters below. The air makes its presence noticeable on the waves of the sea and is also represented upon the cover. The large dark grey mystical moonstone in the centre of the cover is evocative of the moon’s influence on the oceans. The gold is alloyed with a high proportion of palladium to enhance the white appearance of the metal. The base is walnut as opposed to metal. The length of the piece is 17cm. Edinburgh 1999.
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over the years with varying hues resulting in it becoming a riot of colour. ‘I added curtsying tabs and thick padding around the shoulders, later adding silver buttons and epaulettes’, Malcolm explained. ‘It’s a matter of more is more than less is more.’ 12. The silver was crafted to Malcom’s design by Hector Miller. 13. The official residence of Scotland’s First Minister.
Above: Appleby in his Jumper Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swann When Malcolm’s retrospective was held at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2006, his famous jumper was displayed. It started life in 1964 as a plain green sweater his mother knitted for him. Malcolm darned holes over the years with varying hues and liberally scattered it with his silver buttons. It is now a ‘jumper of many colours’ and a work of art in its own right. Locally Malcolm is known as ‘the man with the woolly jumper’. 69
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MALCOLM APPLEBY MALCOLM APPLEBY THE TEACHER While researching this book, one name of a working silversmith periodically surfaced as being an inspiration – this was Malcolm Appleby. In addition to his contemporaries, those who studied silversmithing in the late 20th and early 21st centuries were also mentioning Malcolm as an inspirational source. Most of the latter had attended engraving courses in his Scottish workshop. They clearly enjoyed the experience as well as benefiting from his vast knowledge built-up over decades. Michael Lloyd, a student at the RCA from 1973-6, was the first to mention the Appleby influence. During background conversations regarding the introduction to this volume, he viewed Professor Robert Goodden and Professor Gerald Benney with high regard. He then added, ‘I also found Malcolm Appleby, then a guest tutor, particularly inspiring.’ Like Malcolm, Michael had an interest in nature and from early in his career introduced imagery to his work. Michael also wanted to embellish his work, but he did not take the engraving route like Malcolm, instead becoming a chaser. Rod Kelly, who graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic’s Faculty of Art and Design in 1979, took a year out before studying at the RCA from 1980-3. While he spent the summer of 1980 cycling 2000 miles round France with a friend, prior to this he undertook work experience with Malcolm in his workshop and studio converted from Crathes Railway Station. Rod had decided that chasing was his chosen medium of expression while he was at Birmingham and his time with Malcolm did not result in his altering his preferred course. However, he recalls, ‘That visit was the beginning of a truly wonderful inspirational time; he was so encouraging, engaging and full of enthusiasm. I took away with me a vision for my own work and a goal to aim for, one that I would strive towards and one that I have yet to reach.’ Many would question the last phrase, but then true craftsmen are always striving to reach a higher plane.
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So what was it that his near contemporaries found so inspiring? Michael explained the impact on him. ‘You must remember that in the 1970s, silver was regarded as design more than art. When Malcolm became a visiting tutor at the RCA, he was a breath of fresh air. He was working on a chess set where the pieces were charged with personality and humour. The chessmen were far more than just design, they were works of art.’ Malcolm worked on this chess set from 1970-7 for Collingwood of Conduit Street (see above). He continued, ‘Gerald Benney had created objects that went beyond design, but these were not shown to the students.14 At the time a lot of people believed that the artist-craftsman was dead. From the 1950s it became the thing to be an industrial designer. However Malcolm Appleby and John Makepeace came along and showed that it was possible to make a living out of what you wanted to make rather than designing items to be manufactured in a factory. Malcolm has produced some ground-breaking metalwork. He has an enquiring mind … he is constantly looking for new things and he does not accept the norm. He has done a great deal for the craft and has influenced all those born in the 1950s and has been incredibly kind and generous.’ Michael of course is speaking for his own generation who are contemporaries of Malcolm. However, Malcolm has influenced most if not all generations of silversmiths over the last four decades and continues to do so. For example, to quote Oliver Makower of Bishopsland Educational Trust, writing in the introduction for the listing for Collect at the Saatchi Gallery (2009), ‘Malcolm Appleby is a Guest Fellow [at Bishopsland], a sobriquet earned like a knighthood on the field of battle. Each year he invites to Perthshire as many of the gang as can fit into his capacious workshop. It’s a week of deep immersion from which all get a fine understanding of engraving and each year come away one
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MALCOLM APPLEBY or two masters in the making. As such, Miriam Hanid’s work speaks for itself. Always innovative, always open to new techniques, she has now added the delicate strength of an engraver to her many other skills.’ In essence, from his early days Malcolm has taken teaching away from an institutional environment into a functional workshop. Miriam studied at Bishopsland in 2007-8. She recalls that during her time two groups of up to four students went to the Appleby studio and workshop. She remembers her intensive five-day period with the maestro: ‘On the first day we made our graver, which is a small hand-held tool used for engraving. [Speaking to Malcolm later, he stressed ‘It is essential to know how to make tools.’] Malcolm believes that an engraver has to master engraving straight lines before attempting curved ones. Engraving a straight line may sound easy – one really has to practise for up to two days and even for a third. Before we ventured to Scotland we were asked to prepare a design that we would engrave on silver – we practised on copper sheets. Malcolm advised whether our drawings were appropriate – if they were too complex he would suggest simplifications. On the last day we did our test piece, covering a small sheet of silver with our design, using the skills that we had learnt over five intensive days.’ She added, ‘I admired how Malcolm was prepared to stop his own work to explain engraving techniques in depth with students. He spent a great deal of time with you ensuring that you got it right. I have been back each year either to attend one of his symposiums held under the Hand Engravers’ Association [Malcolm is a founder member].’ It is not only silversmithing students that Malcolm invites to his workshop. As can be seen in the caption to the Baroque n’ Bowl, he also has students from a local school there for design exercises (see p.58). In The Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Awards (Council Awards) 2009, 15-year-old Callum Strong received a Commended in the Engravers (Junior) section for his silver belt and buckle plaque. He was the youngest person to receive the Award. When Callum was a schoolboy he visited Malcolm’s workshop with his mother and immediately wanted to learn engraving. Malcolm said he could when he was 12 years of age. Callum made him keep his word and he returned to the workshop three years later to undertake his ‘apprenticeship’ there when his schoolwork permitted. Callum won another Commended in 2010 and at 16 was still the youngest person
Opposite: Bird Vase by Miriam Hanid Courtesy Miriam Hanid, photographer Clarissa Bruce This is an example of Miriam Hanid’s work five years after she first received instruction from Malcolm. Hand-raised in Britannia silver, the Bird Vase has been chased, engraved and carved and the birds gilded in lemon gold. Height 13cm. London 2013.
to receive the Award. Callum then went on study for his Highers and spent a gap year completing his apprenticeship and working for Malcolm. As at 2013 he is completing the second year of a degree in geology at Edinburgh University, but he still works for Malcolm when he can. Karen Wallace started her ‘apprenticeship’ with Malcolm in 2011 and he now designs pieces for her to engrave for a fee. In 2010 Malcolm held a creative engraving competition in association with Bishopsland Educational Trust. Max Warren won the first prize of £700 and the runner-up was Nan Nan Liu. Both had studied at Bishopsland and both had attended Malcolm’s intensive five-day course in Perthshire. Max commented on being presented with his prize at the Bishopsland exhibition at The Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, ‘It is a great honour to receive this award, especially as it is not purely about technique, but focuses on the creative use of engraving which is so important for the future of the discipline.’ Malcolm Appleby also instigated an annual award for engraving at British Silver Week in 2010 as he believes it is a useful opportunity for craftspeople to gain an addition to their CV as well as giving a moral boost. When Malcolm received a Gold Special Council Award in the Engraver, Die Sinker, Seal Engraver Senior category in 2012, he said at the presentation, ‘It’s great for engraving as a craft to see the younger generations coming up and trying a different approach to work.’ It is largely thanks to Malcolm that they do. Furthermore, he steers some clients in the direction of other silversmiths on the basis that he himself is too busy. Here is definitely a candidate for a lifetime achievement award. Hopefully one day soon he will be recognised as being more than worthy of one.
AVAILABILITY Malcolm Appleby’s work periodically appears on the secondary market, particularly in Scotland. Some galleries and retailers stock his new work. Commissions can be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details, website address and for the list of galleries and retailers stocking his new work.
14. This appears to have been standard practice at the time. Noting that Keith Tyssen and Cameron Maxfield, both lecturers at Sheffield, made a re-arrangeable table centrepiece/candelabra and that Brett Payne a student at Sheffield subsequently made re-arrangeable candelabra, Brett was asked whether his tutors had been an inspiration for his candelabra and candlesticks that became so popular in the 21st century. The answer was that they had not. When Keith Tyssen was broached about the subject he made it perfectly clear that at the time, tutors would not show students examples of the work they designed as commissions.
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BRIAN ASQUITH Brian Asquith was a sculptor, designer and silversmith whose work ranged from tools and china to chalices and fountains. He turned to silversmithing relatively late in his career, viewing domestic silver as an example of elegant modern product design. He found the malleable properties of silver particularly appealing. He received six Design Council Awards before the scheme ended in 1977. Brian Asquith died in 2008. “Whatever I was designing, it was not about being high-tech, but about the visual qualities. I was finding solutions to technical problems through making, not being an engineer, but looking at objects for their shapes. I could see what I wanted to do.” Brian Asquith
Brian Asquith was born in Sheffield in 1930. His creative instinct was inherited from his father who was ‘a creative engineer who made model steam engines’. He had an artistic leaning from an early age and always remembered the first paint box given to him by his parents who not only recognised his talents but also encouraged them. Indeed, he started his formal art education in 1942, aged just 12, when he was enrolled at the Junior Art Department1 of the Sheffield College of Art. He described Mr AT Glover,2 the College’s head teacher as ‘A remarkable man. He was very open about many things and had a sense that all kinds of working were possible.’ It is doubted whether Mr Glover ever envisaged the breadth of work the young Asquith would undertake during his long career. Four years later he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art.3 His ambition was very clear, ‘I wanted to be a sculptor’.4 He studied under Professor Frank Dobson5 whom Brian found as inspirational as Mr Glover, saying of his new mentor that he had a knack of ‘making us feel as though anything were possible’. While at the RCA he also studied silversmithing under Professor Robert Goodden. He graduated at a very exciting time as the
1. The Education Act 1902 established junior versions of art, commercial and technical schools to provide vocational training for those aged 13-16. 2. GH Glover became an eminent educationalist. His Teaching for a New Age, which was based on his experiences in Sheffield, became a post-war classic. 3. Brian was at the RCA from 1947-51. 4. This chapter was written after Brian had died. His quotes are mainly taken from ‘Brian Asquith Sculpted by Design’ by Jacqueline Yallop, the catalogue that accompanied his retrospective exhibition at The Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, with the approval of the Asquith Family and Sheffield Museums, the publisher of the catalogue. 5. He was regarded by many as the one of finest sculptors of his age along with Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore. 6. The modernist architect and designer. 7. The caves, richly decorated in prehistoric times, are believed to have been painted with their naturalistic mural paintings and engravings of animals c.35,000 BC. They were discovered by schoolboys in 1940 and opened to the public in 1947, However, they were permanently closed in 1963 as the humidity generated by visitors threatened them. A replica was opened nearby in 1984.
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Festival of Britain’s principal exhibition site was opened on London’s South Bank on 3 May 1951. ‘I couldn’t believe it. All these wonderful things together in one place, so much visual excitement. It was an enormous boost to me, a great inspiration’, he commented. During the summer of 1951 he accompanied Frank Dobson on a tour of France. This had a significant impact on both his life and work. Professor Dobson introduced him to the work of Le Corbusier.6 They also visited the cave paintings at Lascaux near Montignac, Dordogne.7 In their later life, Brian and his wife Barbara, whom he met at the RCA in 1949, lived half the year at their old farmhouse in the Dordogne. Throughout his career Brian Asquith drew his inspiration from European Modernism and also from the artists and designers who had displayed their work at the Festival of Britain. However, before his professional life could begin, he had his National Service to undertake. He was stationed with the Army Education Corps at Colchester. A keen sportsman, he was invited to play for Colchester United.
Opposite: Trophies for Holts Products and Blue Circle Cement Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Holts Products Trophy (right) was introduced in 1979 to give a fillip to fixtures between county cricket sides and touring teams. The five stylised cricket balls are engraved West Indies, India, New Zealand, Australia and Pakistan and are inset with coloured bands of acrylic. An image of this trophy was used in Art and Design, published on the occasion of the Royal College of Art’s centenary, as representative of Brian’s work. The smaller Blue Circle Cement trophy uses acrylic to a stunning effect. Cricket trophy height 40cm, Sheffield 1979. Smaller trophy height 14cm, Sheffield 1984. These trophies were consigned to auction by Brian Asquith’s widow in 2011.
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After his National Service ended in 1953 he returned to Sheffield and by 1955 was sharing an office and studio with David Mellor, also a native of the city. The two were both at the RCA in 1950-1. The office was located in a former Georgian rectory in Eyre Street next to the Walker & Hall factory. Brian remained there until 1960. Although he taught part-time at Barnsley College of Art, the rich diversity of the area’s industry encouraged Brian to explore new avenues. He envisaged his design talents being directed towards industrial design. He initially found it difficult to break down the inherent conservatism of the local industrialists, but his fortune changed one day when he made a cold call ‘in the pouring rain’ on Newton Chambers, manufacturers of oil and gas central heating boilers. Having gone through his RCA portfolio, they were obviously impressed and offered him work designing their products.8 ‘It seemed an exciting thing’ he said, but immediately added, ‘At the same time I was working on a huge sculpture of Christ for a new
8. According to Jeremy Asquith, his son, at the interview, ‘He was asked what his skills were. He replied, “I’m a sort of designer”, which elicited the retort, “A sort of designer, you’re either a designer or you’re not. Which is it to be?” Needless to say, he gave the right answer, charmed the gentleman in question and began a long and profitable working relationship with Newton Chambers of Sheffield.’ 9. British Overseas Airways Corporation, the British state airline formed in 1940 with the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Limited. In 1946, two further state airlines were established: British European Airlines (BEA) and British South American Airlines (BSAA). BOAC absorbed BSAA in 1949, BOAC and BEA merged in 1974 to form British Airways.
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church at South Ruislip and the two lived off each other. Drawing, sculpting, printing, layering, it was all part of the same process of design.’ The diversity of Brian Asquith’s work is surprising. In addition to the boilers for Newton Chambers, his designs included a set of elegant in-flight china, glass and cutlery for BOAC;9 tyre treads
Above: Tea Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Pearson Silver Collection acquired this tea service at a country house sale in 1999. It is hand-raised and the handle and knob of the teapot are nylon. Brian Asquith advised the Collection’s curator after its acquisition that he made only two such services and that the other was in the Company’s collection at Goldsmiths’ Hall. ‘Whenever I see it, it brings a lump to my throat’, he added. It later emerged that he had also made two other teapots, both of which slightly vary, but which are very similar in design to the above. Height of teapot 15.1cm. Sheffield 1968. Opposite: Replicas of the Candlesticks for Chichester Cathedral Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington Brian’s favourite commissions were those that he undertook for cathedrals because they usually have histories spanning centuries with artists and craftsmen contributing to their fabric over the years and he therefore felt that he was part of a long tradition. In the early 1990s he was particularly pleased to be commissioned to deign and make the processional cross and altar candlesticks for Chichester Cathedral. They were delivered in 1992. The candlesticks illustrated here are half size replicas of the pair from Chichester. Height 9cm. Sheffield 1996/7.
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for Dunlop; gas fires for Baxi heating; mowers and trimmers for Qualcast; stainless-steel cutlery for Denby and Viners; garden and hand tools for Spear & Jackson and kitchens for Magnet. In fact he designed Magnet’s first ever mass-produced fitted kitchen units. He also designed the first saw with a moulded plastic handle and no rivets. It remained in production for three decades. He won his first Design Council Award in 1961 for the Redfyre 35 oil-fired boiler, with five more awards in 1962 and 1965 including one for a rake and hoe that are in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1963 Brian Asquith moved from Sheffield and established his business and studio, The Brian Asquith Design Partnership, in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District National Park at Youlgreave. Here he worked with his three designer-trained sons Nicholas, Jeremy and Patrick and 14 other designers. ‘Some of them were people I had taught who then came to work for me. They were a great help. Because we were making so many things at once, I needed support – but I needed people I could trust. We had little teams working away to get the job done’, he recalled. He enjoyed this teamwork. It reminded him of
the days with Mr Glover at the junior art department of the Sheffield College of Arts and Crafts, ‘the walls between this discipline and that discipline, between old ways and new ways, were falling down. Everyone was trying things out together. All kinds of working were possible.’ It was not until he had established the business in the Peak District that Brian began to turn his attention to metal. ‘I started to make individual objects in metal, which were a link with my sculptural training, experimenting with design ideas and abstract form’, he explained. His first major silver commission was in 1966 when he was asked by the British government to make a centrepiece to be presented to Mauritius upon the occasion of its Independence within the Commonwealth in March 1968. Although Brian Asquith entered the silver business relatively late in life, the fact that he was in his late thirties was not a barrier. Indeed, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths commissioned him to make a three-piece tea service very shortly after he had received the Mauritius commission. Hand-raised, with the teapot having a nylon handle and knob, the piece has a fluid form. It was a favourite of his, which, he confessed, always brought a lump to his throat
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when he saw it at Goldsmiths’ Hall. By the late 1960s he was producing a range of heavy gauge domestic silver combining production techniques with sculptural texture. A common characteristic of his silver is simplicity of form and a commitment to creating a fine finish. He was passionate about the awe-inspiring scenery of the Peak District with its rolling hills and fast-flowing rivers. The texture, shape and form of the countryside in which he lived and worked influenced both his silver and industrial designs. In the early days of his embracing silver, the Company was regularly holding exhibitions overseas. Brian focussed on these export opportunities and participated in the exhibitions. He recalled, ‘I visited and exhibited a collection in the USA, Japan and Australia. However, what were really wanted from English silversmiths were our traditional patterns. Much was the same in England, with the retail trade and generally only traditional patterns were saleable.’ 10 Undeterred, Brian concentrated on the design and development of his own ideas. The commissions did begin to flow in for sport (including the International Tennis Federation’s World Champions awards11), from Oxford Colleges, other universities, local authorities, the Company, 10 Downing Street, churches, cathedrals and from patrons, including the making of gifts for members of the Royal Family.12 Of all his commissions, he particularly enjoyed making altar candlesticks and large processional crosses for cathedrals. ‘These objects are part of a long tradition. There have been artists working in cathedrals for centuries’, he said. He added, ‘Ecclesiastical silver should relate to the architecture – unique to the place so that it serves its function to perfection. The shape and form should be simple and timeless, reflecting the
10. His son Jeremy Asquith, recalled at his father’s memorial service at Youlgreave parish church on 27 March 2008: ‘He toured the world with a collection of silver [i.e. pieces from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ Collection] including the priceless Paul de Lamerie silver platters that he kept under the bed for safe keeping.’ 11. Jeremy Asquith recalled at his father’s memorial service, ‘He met Bjorn Borg who commented, “You keep making them and I’ll keep winning them.” ’ 12. The following is an enchanting story. Although it relates to a non-silver gift to a Royal, it is preserved here for posterity. Jeremy Asquith recalled, ‘In the 1980s, he [Brian Asquith] was commissioned to design a sundial for the Queen Mother on behalf of the Victoria and George Cross Society. I think this was one of his proudest moments as he was struck by the serenity and selflessness of these men who had laid their lives on the line. He often commented about meeting Admiral Plaice who had piloted the midget submarine and sank the Tirpitz. He also enjoyed the fact that he escaped royal protocol when the sundial was presented to HRH the Queen Mother at Clarence House. The royal equerry told him to wait in the bushes until the dignitaries had been presented and then he would nod dad forward to come to be announced. All was quiet, the garden was empty until he was discovered hiding in the undergrowth by a pair of corgis followed by the Queen Mother. By the time the dignitaries appeared they had discussed the sundial, how it was made and where it would be sited.’ 13. One of the Company’s governing bodies.
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poetry of its construction. Decoration should be part of the total concept, idea, construction and form expressing the spiritual quality.’ Brian has always been quick to experiment with new materials. By the late 1970s he was combining acrylic and silver. A penholder and paperweight set in The Pearson Silver Collection was made in 1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. The choice of red, white and blue acrylic was appropriate for the celebrations at the time. The use of acrylic for a novelty item such as this is one thing, but by the 1980s, he was becoming bolder. When Sir Francis Tombs (later Lord Tombs of Bailey) was appointed to The Court of Assistants13 at the Company, he was invited to commission a modern wine cup for use at Goldsmiths’ Hall. He selected Brian Asquith to design and make his goblet. Sir Francis was then chairman of Rolls Royce with its offices in Derby not far from the Asquith studio. Brian suggested a goblet with a laminated acrylic stem. When it was made in 1984, it certainly was the first combination of silver and acrylic among those used by the Assistants and it remains so to this day. It is very similar to the example illustrated here. Visually the combination of acrylic and silver is fascinating. As with the example made for Sir Francis, the stem is of hexagonal cross section. Two opposite sides of the stem are uncovered, while the other four sides are panelled in silver. The acrylic is clear, with a thin vertical sheet of royal blue at its centre. Look at the stem head-on and the bowl appears to be supported by an openwork stem: look at it at an angle and the stem appears to be made of panels of lapis lazuli and silver. Indeed, the stem appears to change appearance at whichever angle it is looked at. This is a simple concept, but one that brings an interesting new dimension to a drinking vessel. A slight eccentricity of Brian’s was to swim outdoors each day – even if he had to break the ice to do so! When he was at the RCA, he would swim regularly in the Serpentine. When he returned to Sheffield in the 1950s, his swim was in the lido at Millhouses Park. When this closed, ‘We decided to swim in rivers. We
Opposite: Drinks Set Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This drinks set comprising six goblets, a siphon and a tray is decorated with cast bands of stylised texturing that was a common theme of Brian’s domestic range in the late 1960s and the 1970s. The range was generally made of heavy gauge silver. Height of siphon 11.7cm. Sheffield 1967-9.
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