Chris Yeo Antiques Column .qxp_Layout 7 21/05/2021 14:42 Page 1
COLUMN | CHRIS YEO ON ANTIQUES
Expert opinion From Chris Yeo, expert on BBC Antiques Roadshow, valuer at Clevedon Salerooms and curator of the Ken Stradling Collection in Bristol
When Bauhaus arrived in Bristol
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f you thought North Somerset was the last place to find worldclass design, then my aim, this month, is to convince you otherwise. Eighty-five years ago, an agricultural show on the Ashton Court estate was the unlikely setting for a groundbreaking experiment in modern living. Amongst the ploughing competitions and prize-winning bulls at the Royal Agricultural Show was a startling vision of the future – more California 1966 than Somerset 1936: a flat roofed single-storey building with wide expanses of floor to ceiling windows. Inside, the walls were part exposed stone and part unpainted plywood and the floor tiled with plywood squares. Its open-plan interior was designed to showcase a collection of ultra-modern furniture (which show-goers could order for their home) and to promote a new style of living – Modernism. Despite its small size the pavilion is now considered a landmark of 20th century architecture. The story behind its creation involves one of the brightest stars of the Bauhaus – history’s most famous art school – and a visionary Bristol businessman. Crofton Gane was a man of high ideals and tenacious ambition. A committed Quaker, he had spent the First World War in service as an ambulance driver before returning to his home city to resume work at the family business. P.E. Gane & Co. had been at the heart of Bristol’s retail scene for over a century, making good quality, if rather pedestrian, furniture in a range of antique reproduction styles.
Crofton had other plans. He had a keen interest in design and closely followed developments abroad – particularly in Europe where Modernism, the radical new style for the future – was the order of the day. With the death of his father in 1933, Crofton took leadership of the business and began transforming its grand College Green showroom into a beacon for the new look. It was a brave move, 1930s Britons – and Bristolians in particular - were conservative in their tastes, but Crofton had help. The man he turned to was one of the design world’s brightest stars. Marcel Breuer had been the A-grade pupil at the Bauhaus, the revolutionary German art and design school founded in 1919. Although open for just 14 years, the school’s teachings paved the way for the world we know today, embracing modern materials and an unapologetic ‘machine’ aesthetic. Breuer would go on to teach at the school but, following its closure under the Nazis, in 1935 he arrived in the UK. It wasn’t long before Crofton came calling with an offer of work and shortly after Breuer became consultant designer at P.E. Gane & Co. This was a major coup: Marcel Breuer was the most famous designer in Europe. His first project was Crofton’s home – an unremarkable suburban house near the Downs. Breuer left the exterior untouched – but inside he brought the full force of the Bauhaus to Bristol. The hall was fitted with England’s first open-tread metal cantilevered staircase, the living room was panelled in plywood, whilst the dining room boasted a feature wall of corrugated asbestos (yikes). To complement the scheme Breuer designed a complete range of furniture, made by Gane craftsmen at its two Bristol factories. The Gane Pavilion at Ashton Court was his second and final commission. The building was intended to advertise Gane’s furniture but was clearly too challenging for show-goers and not a single order was placed. Only ever intended as a temporary structure, the building stood for just a matter of weeks until the demolition team moved in and Breuer’s revolutionary pavilion became a distant memory. In 1937 Breuer left England for a new life in the USA, where he achieved worldwide fame. With Crofton at the helm, P.E. Gane & Co seemed destined for continued success but World War II intervened and the company showroom, together with its factories, were destroyed in the Bristol air raids of 1940 and 1941. Unable to recapture its 1930s dynamism, the company closed in 1954. Breuer never forgot Bristol. He and Gane remained close friends until Crofton’s death in 1967. Late in life, reflecting on his achievements, the great architect claimed that, for him, there were only two really important buildings in his career, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and the tiny Gane pavilion. ■ • For more information about Marcel Breuer, Crofton Gane and the Bauhaus in Bristol visit www.stradlingcollection.org/bristol-bauhaus
The Gane Pavilion, Royal Agricultural Show, 1936. Image courtesy of The Ken Stradling Collection
36 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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JUNE 2021
clevedon-salerooms.com; @chrisyeo_antiques (Instagram)
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No 199
