Archives and Collections

RESEARCHERS IN THE ARCHIVES

The Archives continue to be busy, and we have been fortunate to recruit two new and dedicated volunteers to help us tackle some long-outstanding, but significant, backlogs with our Clothworker family trees project as well as cataloguing our Book of Deeds and Wills, a fascinating register of all bequests and gifts to The Company from the 16th century onwards.

The volume also includes some wonderful insights into the plethora of matters concerning our livery forebears, including the costs and contents of Election Dinner menus from the 1560s, a list of the 33 Clothworkers who were press-ganged into service for the ill-fated Newhaven Expedition in 1562 and instructions on the effective running of Sutton Valence Grammar School in Kent, including this gem:

‘[It is ordered] that neither the said Master nor Usher shall bee a common Gamester or common haunter of Taverns or Alehouses or a common swearer or by [wearing] unecessarie or unseemlie apparrell or by anie other mea[nes] become an infamie to the schoole and an eville example [to] the youth under their chardge and tuition to whome [in all] points they ought to shew themselves of honest continen[ce] and godlie behaviour.’

LONDON CRAFT WEEK

Now in its fourth year, London Craft Week has a growing reputation for showcasing the best of creativity and craft. On Friday, 11 th May, we became part of this initiative, opening the Hall to shine a light on the craftsmanship behind our new tapestry.

With Chris Ofili’s magnificent The Caged Bird’s Song as a backdrop, the Livery Hall was the location for a series of tapestry master classes hosted by two

of Dovecot Tapestry Studio’s Master Weavers and their newest apprentice. Guests were invited (and, we’re pleased to say, enthusiastically agreed!) to put their weaving skills to the test with one of Dovecot’s portable looms.

Weavers Naomi Robertson and Emma Jo Webster also delivered a fascinating lecture on the making of the tapestry, explaining to an enthralled audience how they went about translating and interpreting Ofili’s small watercolour cartoon – with all its colour and nuance, both accidental and deliberate – to the loom on such a large scale.

We welcomed more than 100 members of the public over the course of the day, and we were all struck by the genuine enthusiasm and appreciation of the guests for both the opportunity to see the tapestry in the flesh (the first time for many viewing it in this setting) and to meet the makers, who were inundated with questions throughout what was a most successful day.

Our first foray at participating in London Craft Week, we plan to open the Hall during the 2019 event and are considering broadening our remit to include the other crafts we support.

SUPPORTING CRAFT SKILLS

In other news, we are pleased to announce that the antique Vulliamy clock, recently recovered by The Company following its theft from Clothworkers’ Hall in 1970, will soon be travelling to West Dean for specialist conservation work.

The timepiece is in need of some attention following its near 50-year absence from the Hall, including removal of congealed oil and severe verdigris in places as well as repairs to its movement. The work will form a one-year project for a postgraduate student, with appropriate supervision from West Dean’s team of expert horological conservators. Given The Company and Foundation’s keen interest in the field of conservation, it is most apposite that the clock can be of wider educational benefit, enabling a student conservator to gain valuable experience on the project, from condition reporting right through to completed treatment.

Supporting skills and emerging talent in other fields, we continue tofund postgraduate silversmiths on their one-year residential programmeat Bishopsland, a unique craft skills and business training course. We provide small bursaries to enable students to purchase raw materials and essential tools, for use both during and beyond their studies. This year, Takuya Kamiyama was one of five students who received a bursary, using the funds to purchase three hammers, pliers and a ‘dremel’ that aided his creation of a silver vase.

Two silversmiths who have previously benefitted from Bishopland’s training and funding provided by QEST, (with whom we formerly funded a bookbinding bursary) are amongst those The Company has invited to produce designs for two new loving cups. The winners of our design competition, who will then go on to make new cups to celebrate our first Lady Master and 500 th Master respectively, will be announced in the next edition of The Clothworker (spring 2019).

Finally, we will soon receive delivery of several new designer bookbindings, which were commissioned in recent years from a number of leading names in the field including Pamela Richmond, Jo Bird and Sue Doggett.