COLLECTING GUIDES Fleetwood Charles Varley

Varley frieze

Ashbee also commissioned Varley for the hall of another of his new builds at neighbouring 39 Cheyne Walk. Varley created a panoramic frieze of buildings in the district in oil on canvas with bold red and black lettering. e resulting nine panels demonstrated Varley’s grasp of architectural draughtsmanship and his interest in recording the area’s important buildings.

But, despite both Asbee and Varley’s love of building preservation, the house was demolished in 1968, and when the interior of number 39 was stripped, Varley’s frieze was removed and sold. ey can now be seen at Petyt Hall, the parish hall attached to the rebuilt Chelsea Old Church.

Move to the Cotswolds

In 1902, or soon after, Varley joined the exodus of guild members quitting the capital for the Cotswolds. e move had been in the o ng for years but came to fruition in 1902 when the lease on Essex House ran out.

But for Ashbee the ‘back-to-the-land’ scheme may have always been his end goal for the guild. For months he had been mulling over potential sites visiting them with bicycling viewing parties, while overcoming the objections of the guildsmen, many of whom were attached to Whitechapel, despite its poverty. When a poll of 40 eligible

Top left Varley’s designs show the Old Church and Lombard Terrace. e nine panels can be seen in Petyt Hall, image courtesy of Tim Gates

Above left e frieze also depicts numbers 74 and 73 Cheyne Walk, image courtesy of Tim Gates

Above right A hammered pewter and enamelled cigarette box for Liberty & Co. decorated with a naive study of a galleon in full sail, possibly by Fleetwood Charles Varley (18631942), marked Tudric 0544 to the underside, it has an estimate of £400-£600

Below e guild in 1906, Fleetwood Varley appears on the back row, third from the left, image courtesy of Court Barn, a Museum of Craft and Design, www.courtbarn.org.uk men was taken, of whom seven were absent, there were 11 against the move to Gloucestershire. e ground oor was scheduled to be the showroom, drawing o ce and the Essex House Press, the second oor was for furniture making with the rst oor reserved for jewellery, silver and enamelling and where Varley would have worked grafting alongside Bill Mark (1868-1956), the Australian-born silversmith and enameller who joined the guild after it moved.

Before long the guild, including wives and children, descended on the 1,500-strong town. ey moved in stages, shifting workshop after workshop, with the wood shop arriving rst followed by the forge and metal shop. e plan was to take over the disused Silk Mill in Sheep Street which they leased for £40 a year.

Turn to enamelling

Turning away from his earlier friezes, Varley took up the enameller’s brush, decorating silver work made by his fellow craftsmen and Ashbee himself.

He produced iridescent enamels for boxes, cigarette cases, presentation ware, sugar casters and jewellery. His favourite subjects were windswept trees, meandering rivers, rocks and mountains with blues and greens predominating his idyllic landscapes.

His work was met with some acclaim. In 1903, e Studio wrote: “Mr F.C. Varley, a descendant of the watercolour painter, showed in his enamels a beautiful sense of colour as well as a pleasant freedom of design.” e guild at rst ourished at Chipping Camden, thanks largely to the patronage of a uent locals allowing Ashbee to oversee the building of a swimming pool, the creation of a craft school and a purpose-built theatre.

Varley and Liberty & Co.

With the decline of the guild Varley found an outlet for his enamels working for the Birmingham silversmith William Hair Haseler, who founded W. H. Haseler & Co. in 1870.

His ranges for Liberty & Co. included designs for its famous Celtic-inspired Cymric range, created by freelance designers including Archibald Knox (1864-1933). Knox became well known for his Cymric work and its pewter counterpart, known as Tudric Varley’s work for the London retailer included gifts, silver and pewter cigarette boxes, pill boxes, jewellery caskets and pendants, all featuring his trademark enamels.

End of a dream

But the good times didn’t last long and sales began to drop in 1903. e guild, more suited economically to the city rather than the country, was swamped by larger commercial concerns, especially Liberty & Co., by then going from strength to strength which was able to machine-produce guild imitations at less cost.

As early as 1903 Ashbee’s wife Janet wrote: “Here is Liberty & Co. putting £10,000 into its Cymric Co., and we are struggling to get our hundreds having to potboil with vile brooches etc to make ends meet.”

In 1907 it went into voluntary liquidation. Some of the guildsmen stayed on, working under their own names but most of them had to go back to the city and look for work.

Above right A hammered pewter and enamel table box for Liberty & Co., probably by Fleetwood Charles Varley (1863-1942), marked Tudric 0236 to the base, it has an estimate of £500-£800

Below A silver cigarette box by the Guild of Handicraft, 1903, decorated by Fleetwood Charles Varley (1863-1942), signed ‘Varley’ to lower right corner, it has an estimate of £1,500-£2,000

It is ironic Varley had to turn to the company which was, in part, responsible for the failure of the guild’s dream of a better life.

Ashbee continued to work as an architect and, in 1909, published Modern English Silverwork, a record of his achievement as a designer of silver and jewellery.

Several enamel boxes by Fleetwood Charles Varley are among the lots at the Maidenhead auction house Dawsons’ sale Decorative Arts and Design: 1860 and Beyond on June 28. e author is indebted to Penelope Hunting for her article in the 2006 annual report of the Chelsea Society titled Fleetwood