Decorative Art Collecting : passion and fashion || Ernest Marsh, Collector (1863-1945)

The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present

Ernest Marsh, Collector (1863-1945)Author(s): Christopher JordanSource: The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present, No. 24, Decorative ArtCollecting : passion and fashion (2000), pp. 30-47Published by: The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the PresentStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41809296 .

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Ernest Marsh, Collector

(1863-1945)

Christopher Jordan

Clive Wainwright frequently remarked on the 'sparseness' of adequate descriptions or illustrations of English urban middle-class interiors.1 Other writers such as Dianne Sachko Macleod have suggested that the information is there to be found, but 'the tincture of trade associated with middle-class entrepreneurs has made them less appealing as subjects to the critics, curators and dealers who launched the revival of interest in Victorian art'.2 The recent find of a collection of photographs taken by collector Ernest Marsh c.1906 (fig. 2) of his home at Kingston upon Thames and archives relating to his diverse collecting interests has offered an opportunity to probe this area further.3

The name of Ernest Marsh as a collector is mostly forgotten today, except by curators of museums that have benefited from donations from his ceramic collections. His interest in ceramics began with the 19th Century saltglaze stoneware of the Martin Brothers, (fig.l) and extended later to 20th century Studio pottery (fig.4). Ceramic literature today tends to divide the period into two distinct eras; the move 'towards independence' and its later achievement. Marsh and his contemporaries, in contrast, saw it as a naturally evolving continuum.4

His taste was eclectic. The availability of funds in the early years, meant he had the means to acquire a wide range of items within the Fine and Decorative Arts. However, from the choices he made he appears to have recognised the importance of the originality of ideas, that 'it is the art which gives the value, and not the material'.5 Many of his acquisitions suggest a learned appreciation of their layers of deeper meaning, particularly in their distillation of innovation and tradition. His collection of about twenty-five Georgian sweetmeat baskets, twenty of which, with 170 pierced sugar tongs were exhibited at the V & A for a year from 1909, was a clear demonstration of his appetite for collecting and considerable connoisseurship.(fig.5) Stylistically c. 1760-75, the baskets bridged the transition from earlier Rococo exuberance to later neo classical restraint,6 comparing favourably in quality with the silver previously lent by J.H.FitzHenry and sold at Sotheby's in 1913. 7 W.W.Watts reported to Sir Cecil Smith at the V & A that he 'considered it a remarkable collection, giving a clear idea of the beauty of the pierced work of that period. Mr. Marsh is a collector of great taste', adding, 'he has no intention of selling

Fronds to article : Fig. 1 . Saltglaze stoneware vase. Martin Brothers. Height 39.8cm. Incised mark: R.W.Martin & Brothers London and Southall 6 - 1897. Courtesy: South London Gallery CE84

Figs. 2 and 3. Ernest and Sarah Marsh, c.1893. Byrne & Co. Richmond. Private Collection.

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Fig. 4. Thrown celadon glaze pot. Charles Vyse. Height 15.5cm. Thrown clay, incised chrysanthemum design. Incised mark: C Vyse 1928'. Private Collection.

the collection'.8 In this, as in so much that Marsh bought, there is no evidence that he bought for investment; recognition as a collector of importance by a prestigious institution was sufficient in itself. Until 1909 he had apparently been content to foster interest in the arts within his locality, Watts recalling meeting 'this gentleman a year or two back in connection with a small exhibition he was organising in Kingston* .Wider recognition of his connoisseurship was soon to come.

The Nineteenth century increasingly saw a distinction within the nouveaux riches , with their 'consciousness of ignorance upon matters of connoisseurship', in patronage between old and 'new' money.9 Marsh would have recognised the distinction between the self-made entrepreneur and himself as 'the typical patron, ... a middle-aged male actively involved in business, but ...not a parvenu ... comfortably off for at least three generations [and] educated at respectable, if unpretentious schools before entering the family business'. In fact, as Macleod observes, 'the archetypal Victorian collector was just as likely to live in London or its suburbs and to earn his living in commerce or one of the professions, disputing] the popular provincial parody'.

Of that third generation, Marsh did not wait until middle age to begin his collecting. The fourth of six sons in a prosperous Quaker family of millers at Kingston, he attended the Friends' school at Hitchin before entering the trade. His contemporaries there included Barrow and William Adlington Cadbury, Alfred and Edward Lucas, Francis Reckitt, and the artist F.L.Griggs. Laid up after a rugby injury, he talks with enthusiasm in a letter about his books, particularly Molesworth's History of England from 1 830- 1 874. But, he notes portentously 'I shall have to go & serve behind the counter for several years after Xmas. I do not know where I am going yet, but I believe to a corn-dealer's

Fig. 5. Georgian pierced silver sweetmeat baskets (1760-1775). Part of collection of 20 lent by Ernest Marsh to the V & A for exhibition 1909. Present location unknown. V & A ref. 33798. Courtesy Trustees of the V & A.

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at Rochester. They wanted ,£300 premium at a place at Colchester where my pater tried. Was not it awful?' Within two years he was working for his father Bedford and uncle Joseph in the family business. Their choice of business accorded with their beliefs, 4 for deep religious reasons, they wished to spend their work on things which were not used to destroy life'. The family was a pillar of business and civic life in Kingston. His father was a JP and Kingston Councillor, his uncle a Councillor for over 40 years, an Alderman and a JP. With his brother Frederick Richard, Ernest took over the day-to-day running of the business by 1887. He was also appointed a JP by 1907.

There is no known family precedent for Ernest's artistic enthusiasms. The first evidence of any interests outside the business lies in a letter in September 1890 from F.A.Judges, Editor and joint proprietor of the Surrey Times & County Express , following their visit to Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead, Guildford. 12 The purpose of their visit is not stated, but was probably to see the garden. Judges wrote to agree with Marsh's suggestion that they 'sent a little bit of Martinware as a recognition of the kindness we received.... Miss J's tastes I am told are for soft colors [sic]

' . Marsh's interest in the Martin Brothers (fig. 6) and

their creations began several years before and is worth looking at in detail. Public awareness of the novelty of the work of the Brothers began with Cosmo

Monkhouse's 'Some Original Ceramicists' in 1882, and in the general press in The Times in 1885. 13 Writing over 50 years later, Ernest was quite clear when his interest began, even if the recollection was by then somewhat polished by repetition.14 Ten years into his association with the Martin Brothers, Charles Martin introduced him to the architect Sydney Greenslade. Marsh recalled, 'From that time onward an acquaintance has grown into a friendship of a most intimate and delightful character, and we have been associated ever since very closely in our admiration and appreciation of the work of these men'(fig.7) Greenslade and Marsh took an active interest in the success and welfare of the Brothers, later lobbying the government to provide financial recognition for their surviving relations.15

Marsh, Greenslade and others emphasised their unique experience of the Martin Brothers shop in Brownlow Street whose discovery and exploration was rated almost higher than that of the products themselves. Their shared sense of being in touch with an otherness, the tangible acquisition of ideas beyond their previous experience, probably says much about their internalising of its novelty and excitement, awakening thè compulsive acquisitive drive familiar to many collectors.16

Marsh recalled Tt was not till 1888 that I ventured to make my first call at Brownlow Street and to see for myself the unattractive looking source from which these beautiful pieces of modern pottery were procured. I

Fig. 6. Walter, Wallace and Edwin Martin, photographed by Ernest Marsh at the Southall pottery, c. 1906. Private Collection.

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Fig. 7. Walter Martin, photographed by Ernest Marsh at the Southall pottery, 5.6.1906. A poor but previously unpublished picture showing many unfired pots, and figures. For the trio of birds at right, see Haslam fig. 206. Private Collection.

Fig. 8. Bowl C.1930. Charles Vyse. Stoneware incised decoration through a white slip under a celadon glaze. d.25.2cm. Inscribed 'Adsum Pene Ademall' (had some, almost had them all). A gift to Ernest Marsh from Francis Berry 1932. A pair of Martin birds, probably intended to be Walter and Wallace (glasses) watch another pot hot from the kiln falling into Marsh's outstretched hands. The face on the right may be Sydney Greenslade. V & A C. 83-1984. Courtesy Trustees of theV & A.

remember my first visit very clearly. After looking at the display of pots and other objects to be seen in the shop window, exhibited with very little attempt of arrangement, I entered the dingy and ill-lighted outer shop, if such it could be described. Pots of all sorts, some of tallish dimensions, stood upon the floor and others were packed on shelves in crowded array, all of which appeared in need of dusting'.

The impact of the Martin Brothers on Marsh was not simply that of the things that they made. In his later friendship with Greenslade and other collectors like the St. Jamess wine dealer Francis Berry, it also brought him into contact with other perceptions of craft, creativity, other craftsmen and the world of collecting.17 Francis Berry presented Marsh with a bowl made by Charles Vyse, inscribed 'adsum pene ademall' in a Latin-esque jocular spoof: 'had some, almost had them all'. Berry styled himself a one man Anti-Marsh Society in recognition of their good-humoured competition, (fig. 8) This competition between collectors could be fierce and was not always helped by the potters themselves. Robert Wallace Martin on at least one occasion infuriated Marsh by allocating a pot, allegedly promised to him, to another collector, (fig. 10).

As a miller of traditional stone-ground flour, Marsh understood the creative potential of hand, eye and ear

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Fig. 9. Bowl 1889. Richard Lunn, Cockpit Hill China Works, Derby. Hand thrown and painted design of Dandelions. Motto: 'Litde Gear Litde Care.' Private Collection.

to achieve a quality product; recognising the achievement of what later became termed the 'studio' potter to produce a 'certain type of ceramic... seen essentially as work produced on a relatively small scale by a single person or small team, where the individual hand-made nature of the product and a consciously non-industrial stance were important characteristics'.18 He recognised the essential difference within what was then broadly termed 'art' pottery, between the Martins' approach, fulfilling the ideas of Ruskin and Morris, and that of the large-scale industrial output of Minton and Doulton, which as a collector he virtually ignored. Oliver Watson suggests the Martin Brothers had an industrial approach to their work. However, following his definition of the studio potter as both designer and maker, the argument can be made that if the brothers individually and severally designed, threw, decorated, glazed, and together fired and marketed their own product then they must surely fulfil qualification as the precursors ofTwentieth century studio-potting.

Marsh recognised that there were a few other potters such as Richard Lunn, a name largely forgotten today, who were attempting to work within this same ethos, though hampered by the demand for the mass produced artefact. Lunn was appointed the first ceramics teacher at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts in 1907. 19

How they met is unknown. Marsh purchased a number of his singular, freely painted and brightly coloured bowls, made while at the Cockpit Hill China Works, Derby in 1889.(fig.9,15) Each has a different design, many bordered with mottoes such as 'They that rise wi the Sun hae their work weel beguri' , ' Broken bread maks hale bairns' and 'Light heart lives long' . According with Liberty & Co. and M.H. Baillie Scott's advocacy of mottoes on their domestic use for progressive furniture

and room decoration, they do not fit easily with any other contemporary ceramic stylistic.

Opportunity to expand his artistic interests came with Marsh's marriage on February 7th, 1893 to Sarah Elizabeth Marriage, youngest daughter of the late William Marriage, a prosperous Quaker miller from Colchester.The families had known each other for some years. Sarah, known as Lillie or Lil, brought with her an extensive dowry. The limited degree to which Ernest

COOMBE BURY COTTAGE, KINGSTON HILL.

Fig. 10. Letter from Ernest Marsh to Sidney Greenslade 10 May 1912 complaining about Wallace Martin. Ealing Local Collection 55/1720.

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had access to his wife's money may have been common in Quaker circles but is perhaps unusual for the period. Representatives from both families were appointed trustees on behalf of the couple to manage the investments, mostly railway stock, totalling £3,555 and to pay the interest to Sarah. Under the wills of her deceased brothers, William and Philip, she also received the income from a share in the family business, from the former to the value of £2,000 @ 5% and from the latter £3,166 in a variety of stocks, both to be 'free from marital liability or control and to the children thereafter'.20 This capital and income in her own right was to be fortunate in view of subsequent events.

Ernest and Sarah set up home at Coombe Bury, Kingston upon Thames. Coincidentally Charles Holmes published the monthly magazine The Studio from April 1893, promoting the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement. Marsh was an avid reader, subscribing completely to its ideals. 21

Given the family's local eminence, the choice of Coombe Bury as their first home is perhaps surprising. His parents lived nearby in a large late Victorian residence and they might have been expected to acquire something similar. Instead, they leased an outwardly modest house built in the vernacular mellow brickwork,

similar to many older properties and contemporary cottages in the neighbourhood. Extended over the previous two centuries, the interior formed a range of linking rooms of varying sizes on different levels. Large gardens lay to the rear. Some of its ceilings had exposed beams, the whole according with Arts and Crafts ideas of the desirable contemporary interior. Its modesty was a virtue. Baillie Scott in The Studio of 1897 suggested 'The necessary restrictions imposed by a limited purse often prove to be the best safeguard against over- extravagance; and so to those who appreciate the beauty of simplicity and restraint, necessity in this case may become a virtue indeed, and instead of trying to emulate the splendours of the palace, so often vulgar, so seldom comfortable and homely, we may accept gladly the limitations which suggest a more cottage-like home'. By accident or design the Marshes probably quickly recognised their relatively modest home lent itself to the incorporation of the latest thinking in interior design.

Marsh photographed the interior of Coombe Bury in 1906 (fig.ll,12,13,14).What prompted him to do so is unknown, but perhaps he recognised that over the intervening decade or so since they were married both he and his wife had achieved Baillie Scott's dictum (also

Fig. 11. Morning Room, Coombe Bury, Kingston upon Thames c.1906. Closed piano with case by C.R. Ashbee. Bronzes: L. Perseus Arming, Alfred Gilbert, rht.Teucer, Hamo Thornycroft. Bowl left: Saltglaze stoneware Martin Brothers 2-1904. Framed Butterflies on Denton plaster mounts. Pictures: L. The Doorway , lithotint 1880, bottom, Early Morning c.1895, top rht. Nocturne: Palaces »James Whistler; far rht. The Gleaners and Going to Work , Millet. Wallpaper: possibly Essex & Co. Private Collection.

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in 1906), that 'Whatever Art may be admitted to the house it must be genuine Art and not Trade Art'.22 This had become a mantra for a discerning section of the middle class, who, able to afford to do so, turned away from mass production to craft made artefacts that demonstrated thought in their design and hands-on skills in their creation.

Evidence of who followed this new enthusiasm is incomplete.Those names that can be recognised suggest that most came from Kensington and Chelsea.23 Unlike the H. Bedford Lemere illustrations of the interiors of the aristocracy and the well-to-do, the Marsh photographs are not commercial set pieces depicting a whole room in a particular style.24 Rather, they show how the domestic interior evolved, producing a home that to Voysey, exuded 'all the qualities of peace and rest and protection and family pride'.25

Some Marsh items suggest a learning curve from what Robert Edis described as the 'utter want of taste' - the undistinguished carpet, chair and sidetables, (fig. 15) to other items demonstrating a growing awareness that, 'design ... is the studied result of accumulative observation and delightful habit; and by a careful regard to this we may make our homes and habitations, if not absolutely shrines of beauty and good taste, at least pleasant places where the educated eye

may look around, without being shocked and offended by some vulgarity and gaudy commonplaceness'. (fig. 11, 12, 13) Attention had be focussed on everything down to the 'meanest object of every-day use'.26 Like many others Marsh appears to have taken such edicts to heart, buying a fine pair of beaten copper Liberty bellows(now with the National Trust at Standen); a room feature in itself. His photographs suggest aspirations to create a unified aesthetic interior. However, there was 'no single recognisable style that was Arts and Crafts. An interior could be exotic and precious, with rich colours and patterns, (fig. 16) or whimsical and self-consciously artistic, or downright plain and homely '.To the rest of the Marsh family, like their contemporaries 'brought up on cabriole legs., such simple honest furniture must have seemed daringly innovative. The social aims of the movement, too, were almost frighteningly liberal'.27

The degree to which his wife actively participated in the choice of furnishing and in collecting is unstated but implied. Having money in her own right gave her financial independence. She left the Society of Friends and joined the Anglican Church at the age of 2 I.Ernest remained a Quaker, although not an active one, holding no office. An undated family group photograph c.1910 showing Sarah addressing the children is endorsed 'a

Fig. 12. Morning Room, Coombe Bury c.1906. C.R. Ashbee case piano open. Movement by John Broadwood & Sons Upright Piano No. 97066. 1903. Ht. 122, W. 137.2, D. 63.5cm. C.R. Ashbee designed case and stool. Oak case. Inset floral plaques of translucent enamel, maker unknown. Candle holders inside case to left and right. Compare with Fig. 11. The Butterflies and some of the pictures have been changed. Two Martin vases have replaced the Bronze figures. Private Collection.

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Fig. 13. Morning Room, Coombe Bury c.1906. C.R. Ashbee cabinet with inlaid coloured marquetry designs of specimen flower heads. Rht.Wyburd made Bureau from Liberty & Co. Panels: probably from Silver Studio. Motto: 'True Ease in writing comes from art, not chance'. The Kiss , Rodin Bronze. Tortoiseshell tea caddies, Martin Brothers Saltglaze vessels. Whistler etchings inc. The Riva , San Giorgio and Upright Venice. Private Collection. ,

Fig. 14. Drawing Room Coombe Bury , c.1906. A Joseph Doran tapestry (1906) upholstered armchair, supplied to Liberty & Co. The bookcase holds a selection of 1895+ Martin vessels, the sideboard a Martin table lamp, a Richard Lunn bowl and a Cauldon Pottery teapot, handpainted by Sarah Marsh. Table left: netsuke, a Chinese bowl on stand and Georgian silver candlesticks. Private Collection.

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suffragette declaiming...'. According to her daughter Phyllis, Sarah, like many women in her position, 'was very fond of painting wild flowers in water colours'; had 'done simply beautiful needlework and embroidery in her younger days, and painted three tea-sets... in china fired for her by Whiteleys, one winning a medal for the Best Exhibit in Class A at the 1889 Fine Art Loan and Industrial Exhibition held at Surbiton, Surrey, (fig. 14).

This enthusiasm for painted pottery 'coincided with the years of the most rampant Aestheticism', when 'the frustration felt by women in an age of exclusive masculinism contributed to the vogue for art- work, ... embroidery and painting on pottery were two crafts which could be carried on at home without incommoding the household, and which provided an opportunity to display the sketching skills which ladies were expected to acquire in the course of their education. One effect of the vogue for pottery-painting was that it gave outsiders further knowledge of, and access to, ceramic processes'.28 Phyllis 's recollections suggest that her mother understood and shared her husband's enthusiasm for ceramics and art. What remains unknown is the degree of her influence on his choice of purchases for his many collections.The fact that many items are absent or only have a token appearance in the photographs of the home suggests that the extent of his interests may not always have been shared.

Some of the rooms at Coombe Bury are relatively small and in photographs the morning room appears somewhat crowded. The wallpaper and prominent frieze accords with a taste, advanced for the period, for hand blocked papers in bold designs, (fig.11,12) typical of those produced by Essex & Co. ofVoysey's designs, who observed tongue-in-cheek in The Studio in 1896, 'Mr. Morris is credited with the axiom 'the smaller your room the larger the pattern you may put on your walls'. Voysey preferred plain walls as a setting for good furniture, but in the absence of such 'there is no doubt that it is better to have large and bold than small and timid patterns..'.29

C.R. Ashbee designed the case of the 'Manxman' upright piano, made by the Guild of Handicraft in 1904. (fig. 11, 12) It is one of at least five, of similar design, made for Broadwood after the original by Baillie Scott, which was exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1896.30 In 'On The Choice of Simple Furniture' in The Studio in 1897, Baillie Scott saw the design of his 'cottage piano' as realising 'something more artistic than the ordinary type of case', avoiding the 'excrescence' of the traditional projecting keyboard. Unfortunately, the market for pianos was extremely conservative. Like previous attempts by Broadwood to move away from traditional lines to designs of' Artistic Pianofortes', they did not sell. 'Though we were constantly talking about education in art, as in other things, the public were not able to appreciate always what was beautiful'. In his choice Marsh, therefore, joined an elite that included the Grand Duke of Hesse and E. Peter Jones, the store

owner.32 Made of oak and originally stained green in imitation of malachite, the case has faded to a uniform golden brown and is decorated externally to the front and sides with marquetry panels of flowers and stringing. Inside, each panel has an enamel plaque of specimen flowers on a turquoise blue ground. These are unsigned.33

In the same room and matching the case work of the piano stood one of two Ashbee oak cabinets, with shelves to the sides and containing six drawers and five shelves behind green leaded light doors, inlaid with stringing and marquetry panels of flowers.34 (fig. 13)

Over the course of his life Marsh owned nearly 1,000 items by the Martin Brothers; about 400 were discovered in the garden shed of a later house after he died, many being subsequently auctioned at Sotheby's 29th October 1946. Beside items given in his lifetime to museums, others were on long term loan and, with a few exceptions, became bequests to the British Museum, Kingston upon Thames Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and the South London Art Gallery. Small items of Martinware were displayed in the home in the Chinese manner on artistic black lacquered wooden stands. (fig. 13) In addition to their practical function of protecting polished surfaces, their use (intentional or otherwise) implied that these newly- made items emulated the virtue and esteem accorded at this time by others to blue and white: a point unlikely to be lost on visitors to Coombe Bury.35 Most of the designs shown date from after 1900, the gourd-shaped bowl to the right of the Rodin figure is dated February 1904. (fig. 13) Careful examination reveals that Marsh composed his photographs, moving items to fit his intended composition. Although he owned pieces dated as early as 1874, (fig.15) none of the 1906 photographs shows pieces earlier than the late 1890s. Clearly, he was using his home as a showcase for the latest designs. In this instance, the examples took their ideas from gourd forms or simplified shapes with minimal surface decoration, emphasising their form and colour. (fig.11,13)

His choice of decorative bronze figures was aesthetically and critically within the avant garde taste of the early 1890s. All evince the renewed awareness of the plastic potential of the lost wax process to achieve 'a new aesthetic effect' of greater subtlety in the modelling.36 One of the problems in assessing Marsh as a collector is attempting to define his emotional response to the objects he collected. His purchase of this permanent replica of Rodin's The Kiss , and his other bronzes suggests he felt an affinity with the flights of imagination revealed within such works. Their physical sensuality probably came nearest to making a statement about his relationship to and enjoyment of the things he bought. First shown in 1886, this edition of The Kiss appears to be one of a number cast by Barbedienne after 1898.37 Other Barbedienne casts owned by Marsh were an unspecified Lion and a Walking Tiger (1847)

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Fig. 15. Saltglaze stoneware beakers. Martin Brothers. Top: Left. Incised mark: 'Martin Bros London & Southall 5 - 1893'. 160A (ink). EM cat. 160ABCD: 'Goblets set of four Rich dark green ground with brown conventional flower decoration tortoiseshell coloured rim'. Price £3.3.0 1902.Refired 1902. Mid. & below: Incised mark 'R.W.Martin London 5 1874 E.35'. H: 13cm. Right: Incised mark 'RWM No. 10 7103 Fulham'. Label: E. Marsh No.l. Silver lip, Hallmark: ECB 1873; Edward Charles Brown of Richards & Brown, 20 Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, London. CE65 38, 61. Courtesy South London Gallery.

created by Antoine-Louise Barye; the latter, one of the finest examples of the sculptor s work.38 Marsh's choice of Barye bronzes suggests he was informed about the sculptor's artistic practice. Barye 's ethos was close to that of the Martin Brothers: 4 the life and work of no sculptor has been so intimately connected with the medium. Barye was, after all, perhaps the only modern example of an artisan in bronze turned sculptor, who cast, chiselled and patinated his own work in the tradition of the great Renaissance ateliers of Ricci and Cellini, ... selling direct to the public'. Neither the bronze foundry or shop paid; '...the question of profit ... subservient to that of art'.39 Two bronzes on the piano top exemplify the British 'New Sculpture', of the last quarter of the 19th century: Alfred Gilbert's Perseus Arming and Hamo Thornycroft's Teucer. Like Barye, Thorny croft's work shows 'the care and attention that he lavished on each individual casting ....making each an individual work of art', testifying to his 'desire

to bring art into the home...'.40 Other sculptures owned included works by Jules Dalou and examples of Reginald Fairfax Wells The Sower , Motherhood and Girl with Faggot. 41 These, with the The Kiss and Perseus Arming featured in the 1911 Kingston Exhibition of Contemporary Art organised by Marsh.42 How and when all these limited edition bronzes were acquired is unknown. The Rodin and Baryes may possibly have come through Oliver Brown at the Leicester Galleries,43 the Wells collection direct from the sculptor. Thornycroft had casts made to order by Singer of Frome; 'small' examples like this 13" model, being recorded as made in 1903. 44

The hanging of his Whistler and other prints suggests an awareness of Philip Hamerton's advanced ideas 'to the aspiring tyro' in Thoughts about Art, 1889, even if the size of the rooms at Coombe Bury precluded their being fully followed through. Hamerton suggests attention should be given to the ' character ' of the collection of pictures so that when hung they form a harmonious whole in 'scale to illustrate the strongest period of the artist's career. The supreme merit of any collection is UNITY. Every picture ought to illustrate and help the rest'.45

Marsh's collection suggests no acquisitive interest in the Pre-Raphaelites or more popular mid century painters. Instead, they reflect an interest in notions of English and European landscape in oil, watercolour and print from Constable and Turner onwards. In 1904 he compiled a catalogue of about 250 of his pictures, for which he had paid a total of £2,975. Sotheby's sale 31 July 1945 reveals many later purchases. Print prices suggest that, compared with the ten oils listed, many commanded high prices. Oils included Constable's Burgholt Common, £35; John Linnell Senr. Changing Pastures , £25, and George Mason, A Warwickshire Farm , £42. The fifty watercolours reflect the then popular taste for Thomas Bush Hardy, Portsmouth Harbour, £70; C.W. Wylie Neptune's Garden, £50, and his brother W. L.Wyllie Bosham, £20. Among others were works by Archibald Thorburn, Leopold Rivers, Rowlandson, Aumônier, De Wint, and Albert Godwin.

His main interest was in proof etchings, with at least 20 by Whistler, mostly ofVenice. These range from The Venetian Doorway ,£45, to a bargain, the Tiny Pool (Venice) £5. D.Y. Cameron etchings total an impressive 35, Marsh paying £35 for three impressions of his Doges Palace. An example of Rembrandt's The Shell cost £40. Landscape etchings included six by Legros, four by Seymour Haden, eight by W.L Wyllie and five by Samuel Palmer. Others by Braquemond and Meryon give a flavour of the rest. In addition to all these there were over 40 Mezzotints by Lucas after Turner and over 20 by Frank Short after Watts, Cox, De Wint, Constable, Turner and others. His choice within the oeuvre of each artist was again well informed, mirroring later judgment on what were to be regarded as their finest work.46 Those by Whistler, Seymour Haden, Cameron

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Fig. 16. Aiuto Axminster carpet. Machine made wool on jute warp. Designed by CFAVoysey (1896). Now reduced in size and consisting of two centrally joined strips 67 x 2.04m with attached border .44m wide. Made by Tomkinson and Adam. Exhibited by Shoolbred &Co., at the Fifth Exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society at the New Gallery, Regent Street, in 1896. Purchased for £6.10.0 by Ernest Marsh 7 10 1896.V & AT159-1978. Courtesy Trustees of the V & A.

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and Short may have been bought at or soon after their acclaim at the 1899 London International and 1900 Paris Universal Exhibitions.47

The list of oils and watercolours suggests an early enthusiasm to adorn the home, echoing Hamerton's 'Mere miscellaneous buying, according to the caprice of the moment' and lacking that beautiful and helpful order, which multiplies the value of every article'.48 Space is made to hang the Whistler prints in accordance with new ideas but earlier purchases crowd the walls around them. Familiar with print collections at the V & A and British Museum, Marsh gave the V & A a copy of Mortimer Menpes's The Grey River , 'in order that the etchings (12) which are all proofs signed by the artist, may be taken out ....and placed with the collection of etchings', to complement a bound copy already held.49

Beside the piano, there were other items featured by The Studio : a Joseph Doran tapestry (1906) upholstered armchair, supplied to Liberty & Co.50 (fig. 14) and aVoysey designed Aluto Axminster carpet (1897), made by Tomkinson and Adam. (fig. 16) Exhibited by Shoolbred & Co., This carpet was bought for £6.10.0 by Marsh at the Fifth Exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society at the New Gallery, Regent Street, in 1896. At some time reduced in size, it was passed to the National Trust at Standen by Phyllis Marsh and is now in theV & A.51 He also attended the 1903 Seventh Exhibition, reported as going down 'in the annals of the Society... as the Jewellery Exhibition. The fanciful yet suggestive names attached to each [exhibit] expresses the very poetry of ornament in the exquisite combinations of material and colour'.52 The Gaskins, 'like Mr.Ashbee and some others, use stones of the humblest, and produce simple things which do not profess to compete with Lalique's wonder work which Paris made known to us'.53 Marsh chose a Gaskin silver 'Briar Rose' necklace set with turquoises and Chrysoprase for £6.6.0. 54

Marsh was a prolific letter writer, (fig. 10) His bureau (fig. 13) with its motto from Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism., 'True ease in writing comes from art, not chance', was probably designed and made about 1902 at the Wyburd workshops by Leonard Wyburd; 'one of Liberty's most important and influential figures'.55 The door designs may be byVoysey but closely resemble those by the Silver Studio.56 For his collection of exotic butterflies individually boxed and mounted on Denton plaster tablets (anathema to the entomological purist), Marsh had three Ashbee cabinets 'in which the furniture, tablets and butterflies are part of an artistic display, with no scientific intention'.57 Some specimens were displayed around the house on the walls, (fig. 11,12) This extensive collection of exotic butterflies, paralleling his obvious pleasure in the grotesque examples of Martin ware, (fig.l) suggests he subscribed to the Victorian fascination for taxidermy in which we see 'the actual body, desecrated,

Fig. 17. Decanter. Silver mounted green glass made by James Powell & Sons,Whitefriars, London. C.R. Ashbee 1901. Height approx. 24cm. Bought by Ernest Marsh and currently exhibited at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Courtesy Alan Crawford.

disembowelled and then reconstructed as ornament'.58 Marsh frequently bought items speculatively made,

direct from the Guild of Handicraft shop, opened at 16A Brook Street in 1899. 59 Purchases included a dressing table set and a 1902 miniature birth tankard for his daughter, Phyllis, its Arts & Crafts handle similar to the 1901 Claret jug Marsh bought for himself; 60

(fig-17) a set of spoons (1904) with blister pearl decoration; an octagonal casket (1901) with unsigned galleon enamel and a circular box (1903) with signed William Mark galleon enamel. A pierced silver basket (1904) with a design of sun-bursts provides an interesting link with the Georgian baskets described earlier. (fig. 18) These and other purchases, like the Gaskin necklace, pose the conundrum of the cross-over between acquisitions for the family and home, and those that suggest they were part of a self-conscious collection. The functionality and day-to-day use of many of them suggest they were personal gifts within the family, but in their range and scale they were perhaps, in Marsh's mind, consciously something more than this in their signifying buying into a movement that was viewed as progressive.

His son, Christopher, wrote irritably on the picture catalogue cover that, combined with his 'Martinware, the piano, furniture, butterflies and stamps' his father had spent, in 1986 values, the equivalent of 'say £1 million pounds - the gardener had per week'. What

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Christopher does not mention in his memoirs and probably did not know was that this represented only part of the collection. Following his father's and uncle's bankruptcy in 191461 Sotheby's held two major sales of Ernest's collections in 191 6. Another was held the same year at the American Art Galleries in New York. All were items withdrawn from exhibition at Kingston.62 In his role as a member of the Kingston Library Committee, Ernest Marsh appears to have regarded its available museum space as his personal fiefdom to display his numerous collecting interests. In this approach he was not alone. George Salting lived in chambers in St James's Street and 'used the Victoria and Albert Museum as depository - on loan of most of his treasures', later leaving the best of them to that and other institutions. Like Marsh, Salting 'was remarkable for the wealth of his collecting activities'.63 The withdrawal of Marsh's collections from Kingston-upon- Thames Museum must have been a severe embarrassment to him and his family.

There are no family records of the bankruptcy but the received wisdom is that Ernest indulged himself at the expense of the business. It may be that he immersed himself in his outside interests to forget his business

problems. The reality is that they probably arose from a combination of circumstances, not all of his making. His father Bedford wrote in 1908 of his 'bitter disappointment' at 'the breakdown of the old business'. The family had sold Wimbledon Windmill in the 1860s and successfully concentrated milling at Kingston, supplying their own Stan-Myln flour under Royal Warrant to the Royal family. However, imported American hard wheat, machine-processed in the London docks from the 1 880s crippled wind and water milling at the end of the 19th century.Those who lacked the financial muscle to embrace the new technology and plough back profit found their business undercut. Reduction in government contracts for animal feed with the introduction of the internal combustion engine also hit the business. Ernest attempted to diversify into insurance but this appears to have been insufficient to stave off disaster.64

The Auction sales again illustrate how his varied collections are notable for their quality, all demonstrating the imaginative, hand-crafting skills of their makers. Sothebys' first sale included fortyfive Tortoiseshell and Ivory Tea Caddies, eight Verge, two Striking and three Repeating Watches; one fine Verge example by Geo.

Fig. 18. Silver Basket. Guild of Handicraft Ltd. (1904). Width 19.2 Depth 3.5cm. Bought by Ernest Marsh. Private Collection.

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Charles having a plain silver case and outside case, London 1782, in a tortoiseshell case and a fourth outside case of silver, sold for £2. 9.0. 65 Among the thirty-four ivory Netsuke specimens, was one by Mitsutsugua with a hare standing on clouds by the moon, with a pesde for pounding drugs for the Elixir of Life. Others were by Kogyoku, Tadachika, Hakuunsai, Sanraku, Masakazu and Masamitsu. Sixtytwo examples of Leeds ware included a fine punch bowl with Silenus and female head masks, sold for £6. The second sale consisted of his collection of Nailsea glass flasks, Jacobean glasses and sweetmeat glasses including a drawn glass with an equestrian portrait of William III inscribed 'The Glorious Memory of King William the 111% sold for £17. The American Art Galleries sale Art of Ancient China included an important collection of antique Chinese porcelains, ancient pottery, fine jades and agates, cloisonne enamels, snuff bottles, carved rhinoceros horn bronzes and other objects.

In spite of all the difficulties in his business life, Marsh's status within the collecting world continued to grow. His correspondence with Greenslade talks with boyish enthusiasm about what was being sold at auction, who was buying and his finds elsewhere.Together they attended firings at the Martin Brothers Southall pottery.

4 On 9 April 1909 seven prominent members of the British art world met at 44 Bedford Square, London, the home of Philip Morrell, a Liberal member of Parliament, to discuss forming a committee which would purchase and exhibit the best of contemporary art'. They included 'Ernest Marsh, an expert on Martinware pottery'.66 He had arrived. The Contemporary Art Society was founded 'by a group of enthusiasts who wanted to do for contemporary art what the National Art-Collections Fund' had begun to achieve for earlier periods.67 At Kingston in 1911 Marsh arranged the inaugural exhibition of CAS acquisitions. These included their first purchase, Augustus John's Woman Smiling , presented later to the Tate, to become the first John to enter a national collection. Other works exhibited were by Gwen John, Ethel Sands, Walter Sickert, William Nicholson, and Charles Conder. Supplementing Marsh's bronzes, from the CAS were an Epstein nude and Charles Ricketts Maternite. Marsh remained a member of the CAS executive 'devoted to its interests' until his death in 1945. 68

In 1912, no doubt based on his informed view as a ceramic collector, he 'raised the desirability of purchasing or encouraging the production of pottery' by the CAS. At a subsequent meeting he, Charles Aitken and others were appointed to consider an acquisition scheme.69 The idea is not mentioned at subsequent meetings and must be presumed to have received a negative response. The committee seemed more certain in its vision with regard to pictures than pots. On the committee at least Marsh seems to have been a lone advocate. Others needed convincing. Their view may well have been that pottery practice was too often orientated 'to the simpler forms of contemporary industrial art-pottery', with 'little relevant instruction for independent studio potters'.70

It was a vicious circle that Marsh recognised could be broken by CAS involvement but which others failed to acknowledge.The work of the Martin Brothers was widely understood but litde or nothing had been written on other potters. The work of Reginald Wells, who had turned to pottery from sculpture, showed the potential for change, producing Chinese inspired stonewares, but was not widely known.71 Roger Fry, given his influence on the committee, may have been a positive voice but was unfamiliar at that time with the making of ceramics. Primarily because of his work on setting up the Omega Workshops but possibly arising from the CAS discussion, he went to Camberwell in 1913 for instruction under Lunn to 'expand his technical knowledge'.72

Nothing further happened on institutional recognition until 1921 when Sydney Greenslade, following a conversation with Alfred Hopkins 'of the pottery class' wrote to William Dalton, Curator at the South London Art Gallery 'wondering whether it would be possible to hold an exhibition of the work of London potters produced during the last 50 years & perhaps chiefly of the Martin Brothers'.73 Dalton responded enthusiastically and wrote to the V & A for a grant-in-aid to buy some Martinware. Their response was to suggest that Ernest Marsh might be willing to give him some. They had been engaged in a fairly stiff correspondence with Marsh over storage of a substantial part of his collection for which they and he were seeking a home following its exhibition at Hanley.74 Another part of his collection was sent to the Louvre for exhibition immediately prior to the war, returning to the V & A store on cessation of hostilities. Ernest and Sarah Marsh had also made extensive gifts of Martinware to theV & A in memory of their son, Francis, who had been killed in action during the war. TheV & A were beginning to feel overwhelmed by his collection. He did not make an immediate gift of Martinware to Dalton, instead lending him for the 'The Exhibition of pottery produced in London during the last 50 years 1872- 1922', at least 160 pieces sufficient to fill eight cases, plus eleven pieces by William Staite Murray.

The exhibition was a notable success and was widely reported.75 Its importance was that it gave immense publicity to all those who participated in the show, encouraging magazine publishers to seek features on their work. During the successful R.F.Wells Beaux Arts show in 1924 the newly launched Apollo commissioned Marsh to write a piece 'on modern pottery with special reference to Wells's work as a potter and sculptor'.76 Elsewhere Staite Murray, Bernard Leach and Charles Vyse (Fig.4,8) enjoyed the considerable patronage of George Eumorfopoulos and Lieutenant-Colonel K.Dingwall.77 Vyse successfully exhibited work at the Walker's Galleries from 1928. 78

All this activity seems to have brought about a change of attitude towards pottery within the CAS, probably stimulated by Sir Edward Marsh presenting a Staite Murray vase to the CAS in 1927. Fifteen years after his first attempt Marsh tried again and this time

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his proposal for a Pottery and Crafts Section was successful. Subscriptions, gift and donations principally from Samuel Courtauld and D.M. Carnegie enabled 40 pieces, including works by Shoji Hamada, Kanjiro Kawai, Katharine Pleydell Bouverie, Norah Braden, Michael Cardew and Louise Powell to be exhibited at Hanley Museum in 1929. 79 Over the following fifteen years he was able, on behalf of the CAS, to encourage and patronise potters, distributing examples of the very best of their work to museums and galleries throughout the country.80 He became particularly good friends with Charles and Nell Vyse, supplying Mrs Vyse with sloe and bracken ash from his garden for experimental glazes.81

His financial difficulties may have drastically reduced his own collections but, as may be gathered from his loan of Martinware to the South London Art Gallery, did not deter his acquisitive streak. It appears that his wife was able to buy them a new home near Haslemere, where Marsh sorted out his affairs. His appointment in 1916 as general manager of the embryo Federation, later the Confederation of British Industry, led to a period of financial stability in their lives.82 A town house was rented in Cheyne Row.

Marsh retired in 1924 to take up the position of Director of Fine Art to the New Zealand and South Sea International Exhibition held in Dunedin, 1925- 26. 83 Its vision for the reconstruction of British industry after the Great War and trade with its Empire and elsewhere, had close ideological parallels with the founding intentions of the FBI.

At Dunedin Marsh actively promoted British art, ensuring that exhibits were sold to public and private collections in Australia and New Zealand. Arising from this exhibition he seems to have become, together, with C.R. Chisman, Joint Organising Director of the Empire Art Loan Collections Society, through which examples of British art were lent to many Empire galleries up to the Second World War.85 He was also instrumental in setting up, with Chisman (as Joint Secretaries) the National Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, and Potters in 1930. By 1924 he was spending evenings with Fred Richards, an etcher in the Frank Short tradition, printing up orders for impressions of his work, (fig. 19) Marsh sold some to New Zealand buyers and Campbell Dodgson bought a selection for the British Museum.86

The legacy of Ernest Marsh is a complex one. For himself and his family, his extensive gifts and bequests to museums and galleries primarily of 19th and 20th century ceramics,87 his extensive distribution of ceramics and books through the CAS and the series of sales of his collections, some of which entered public collections,88 have ensured that his name will endure as a connoisseur within the Fine and Decorative Arts. In this he may have felt vindicated for his time and expenditure in spite of his several years of financial difficulty.

Fig. 19. The Little Shop under the arches. Fred Richards R.'E. (1887-1932). Etching. Trial proof. 11.2 x 12.0 cm. Noted: 'To my friend E.Marsh Feb. 1924 Frank [?] Richards Note to printer! Spec Proof for block for Educational Times to be handled with fear and trembling proof does not belong to me besides this is on Jap Vellum.' Private Collection.

For us, the availability of so much information about his life and interests opens many doors into the private world of collecting at the turn of the last century. Each aspect of his collecting interests, from Arts and Crafts items for his home, the transition from collecting the past to ceramics still warm from the kiln, his enjoyment, his contact with potters, artists and collections, his opportunity to take a greater role and influence in acquisition for public collections, offers potential to explore contemporary thinking. Oliver Watson has traced in detail how so much of the Studio Pottery in the collections of the V & A reflects the interests of donors such as Marsh.89 His collecting and correspondence suggest that he and his contemporaries, in collusion with curators, were comfortable with seeing themselves as arbiters of progressive taste. If the issue of steering public taste arose it is not recorded; for them the due process of advocacy and challenge took place between curator and collector, in committee and in open purchase at exhibitions and sales. It must be hoped that the records of other collectors will come to light for further studies of the middle class collector.

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NOTES

1 Clive Wainwright, 'Patronage and the Applied Arts in Early Nineteenth Century London', London - World City 1800-1840 , ed. Celina Fox, London, Yale UP, 1992. 2 Dianne Sachko Macleod,^4ri and the Victorian Middle Class: Money and the Making of Cultural Identity , Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 1997 p. 3. 3 Private collection & records in Marsh donation archive V & A Dept. of Ceramics & Glass: Greenslade Papers Ealing Local Studies Centre. 4 Garth Clark, The Potter's Art, London, Phaidon, 1995 p. 106. 'The Exhibition of pottery produced in London during the last 50 years 1872- 1922', South London Gallery archive. 5 Bernard Denvir, The Late Victorians: Art, Design and Sodety, 1852-1910 , London, Longman, 1986 p. 158. 6 Judith Bannister, 'Silver Sweetmeat Baskets of the 18th Century', Antique Dealer & Collectors' Guide June 1974 pp. 123-7; Claud Blair, (ed.) The History of Silver , London, Macdonald Orbis, 1987 pp. 141-144; Bernard &Therle Hughes, Three Centuries of English Domestic Silver , London, Lutterworth, 1952 pp. 100, 109, 137-144. 7 Ernest Marsh (Mr & Mrs) file,V & A, Blythe House, 10 7 1909 EM to W.W.Watts Esq.V& A. 8 Ernest Marsh file ibid. Report 20 7 1909. No details of makers and marks on any of the items loaned is recorded. Some are stylistically similar to work by Edward Aldridge I and John Stamper; see Brett, Vanessa The Sotheby's Directory of Silver 1600-1940, London, Sotheby, 1986 No. 962 pp. 218-219. 9 Lady Eastlake in Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts with a Memoir Compiled by Lady Eastlake , 2nd edn. London, 1870 cited in Macleod ibid. p. 5. 10 For a detailed picture of Quaker business ethics and the Cadbury dynasty see Carol Kennedy The Merchant Princes: Family, Fortune and Philanthropy: Cadbury, Sainsbury and John Lewis, London, Hutchinson, 2000 p9-118. Letter 9 11 1879 from The Woodlands to 'Dear Robert [?] from your affectionate friend Ernest Marsh'. The letter appears to have been returned at some time to Marsh. Private collection. 11 Phyllis Marsh, So Much to Enjoy 1902-1986 Privately published by the Author, 1986 p. 7. 12 Letter headed 'Surrey Times and County Express', Guildford; J.H. & R.T. Billing and F. A Judges Sept. 23 1890 My dear Marsh ... from F.A Judges. Copy at Surrey Local History Centre, Woking. 13 Cosmo Monkhouse,'Some Original Ceramicists',77je Magazine of Art, V.5 5 Sept. 1882. The British Architect, 14 November 1884, The Queen, Feb. 1885, The Times, 22 December, 1885 The European Mail, 1 August, 1885. Cited by the Brothers and in their publicity material. 14 Reminiscences of the Martin Brothers of London & Southall, Middlesex, by Ernest Marsh, formerly of Coombe Bury Cottage, Kingston Hill, Surrey (1893- 1913) and Hatch Hill, Kingsley Green, Nr. Haslemere, Surrey (1913-1939). Written from memory October 1937. Revised in November 1939 at Highmeads, Easebourne, Nr. Midhurst, Sussex. Private Collection. Copy at Ealing Local Studies Collection. 15 Malcolm Haslam, The Martin Brothers Potters, London, Richard Dennis, 1978 p 169; the definitive book on the Brothers: any research on them is indebted to the deposit of papers by Sydney Greenslade, now in the Local Studies Collection, Ealing Central Library. Greenslade ibid. 55/685 Marsh to Tom Jones C.H. 11 4 1930. 16 For a broader discussion of these issues see: Jean Baudrillard, Le Systeme des Objets , Paris, Gallimard, 1968; Susan M. Pearce, (ed.) Interpreting Objects and Collections, London, Routledge, 1994. John Eisner, & Roger Cardinal The Cultures of Collecting, London, Reaktion, 1997. 17 BowlV & A ref. C.83-1984.The reverse incised: 'TO EM FROM THE A-M SOCY FEB 1931'. 18 Oliver Watson, Studio Pottery; Twentieth Century British Ceramics in the Vktoria and Albert Museum, London, V & A 1993 p. 12. 19 Camberwell College of Arts, Minutes 75th meeting Sept. 1907: 3 candidates for pottery teaching post George Wooliscroft Rhead, Albert Hollinshead and Richard Lunn. Lunn appointed one evening a week, fee 21 /-.Testimonial from Augustus Spencer Principal of RCA "...it would be difficult to find a man with greater knowledge of clays, glazes, and colours, combined with the artistic ability to fashion them into works of art". 20 Settlement on the Marriage of Mr Ernest Marsh and Miss S.E.Marriage of Securities belonging to Miss S.E.Marriage 6 February 1893; WiU of Mr William Marriage 7th'April 1875, Will of Philip Marriage 25th June 1879. Private collection. 21 'Father had simply volumes and volumes of the 'Studio Magazine' bound in pale green cloth', Letter from Phyllis Marsh to Arthur Grogan,

Standen 30 5 1978. Private collection. 22 M.H.Baillie Scott, Houses and Gardens, London, Newnes, 1906, reprinted as Houses and Gardens, Arts and Crafts Interiors by the Antique Collectors' Club with a Foreward by Simon Houfe, 1995 p.76. 23 Details of items exhibited and many sales from the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society 1893, 1896, 1899 and 1903:V & A Archive of Art & Design, Blythe Road, London W1 4 OAF. There are no records of Liberty sales. 24 Nicholas Cooper, The Opulent Eye: Late Victorian and Edwardian Taste in Interior De sign, London, Architectural Press, 1976. 25 Anscombe, Isabelle Arts And Crafts Style, Oxford, Phaidon, 1991 p. 112. 26 Robert W. Edis , Decoration & Furniture of Town Houses, with new introduction by Christopher Gilbert, London, EP, 1972 p. 25. 27 Anscombe ibid p. 9. 28 Malcolm Haslam, English Art Pottery 1865-1915, Woodbridge, Antique Collectors' Club, 1975 pp. 11-14. 29 A similar design Bieri, Helen and Bernard Jacque Papiers peints Art nouveau, Paris, Skira, 1997 p. 93. Denvir, ibid. p. 186. 30 'Manxman' so named after Baillie Scott, who came from the Isle of Man. With its stool, the piano is now with the National Trust at Standen. Report by Andrew Garrett to the N.T. 3 April 1990: Historic Buildings Dept., Southern Region, Polesden Lacey. See also: The Studio Year Book of Decorative Art, 1906, pp. 61-63; Isabelle Anscombe & Charlotte Gere, Arts & Crafts in Britain & America, London, Academy, 1978 pp. 121-2, 128; Jeremy Cooper, Victorian and Edwardian Furniture and Interiors from the Gothic Revival to Art Nouveau , London, Thames & Hudson, 1987 p. 188; Alan Crawford, C.R.Ashbee, Architect, Designer and Romantic Sodalist, New Haven, Yale UP, 1985 pp. 285-292; Wainwright, David Broadwood by Appointment , London, Quiller, 1992 pp. 208-236; British Art and Design 1900-1960, V & A 1984, pp. 6-7. 31 Wainwright, David ibid. pp. 213-4. 32 Crawford ibid.p. 292. 33 Conversation-between Phyllis Marsh & Arthur Grogan, Standen 1975. Phyllis Marsh thought they were by 'Spence'; possibly Edward Spencer but more likely by Heath, Varley or Pearson. 34 One of these now stands in the Billiard Room at Standen. For designs using elements of these see Tony Curtis, The Lyle Offidal Antiques Review, Galashiels, Lyle, 1992 p. 348; Guild of Handicraft Album, National Art Library, V & A; Cooper, ibid; The Studio Year Book of Decorative Art 1906, p. 66. 35 Coombe Bury Visitor's Book records visits by Greenslade and others. Private Collection. 36 Elfrida Manning, Marble and Bronze: the Art and Life of Hamo Thornycroft, London, Trefoil, 1982 p. 13. 37 Pierre Kjellberg, Les Bronzes du XIXe Siecle, Dictionaire des Sculpteurs, Paris, Editions de l'Amateur, 1989. 38 Jane Horswell, Bronze Sculpture of Les Animaliers, reference and Price Guide, Woodbridge, Antique Collectors' Club, 1971 pp.1-4, 69. 39 Stuart Pivar, The Barye Bronzes, A Catalogue Raisonne, Woodbridge, Antique Collectors' Club, 1974 p. 12. 40 Manning ibid. p. 14. 41 Sotheby Sale 12 3 57 pp. 122-123. 42 Municipal Art Gallery, Kingston upon Thames 'Catalogue of a loan exhibition of modern painters, drawings, bronzes, etchings, and lithographs' July 1st to Sept. 16th 1911. 43 Frank Herrmann, The English as Collectors, Murray, London, 1999 pp. 400-404. 44 Thornycroft Diaries TIIS3a 2 3 1903, Henry Moore Foundation, Leeds. 45 Denvir, ibid. pp. 98-102. Hamerton founded the influential magazine Portfolio. 46 W.P.Robins, RE Etching Craft: A guide for Students and Collectors, with a Foreward by Martin Hardie RE Keeper of the Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design at theV & A, London, The Bookman's Journal & Print Collector, 1922. 47 Frank Rutter, Art in My Time, London, Rich & Cowan, 1933 pp. 69-71; A.L.Baldry 'Great Britain', Charles Holmes (ed.) Modern Etching and Engraving, London, The Studio, 1902. Marsh ibid.p. 22 mentions that he knew Cameron well and may have bought prints directly from him. 48 Denvir, ibid. 49 Marsh file, ibid. 20 10 1908. 50 The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art, 1 906 p. 7 1 . 51 V&AT.159-1978.V&AAAD 1/82-1980, No. 192 1/86-1980, No. 133 1/88-1980, Linda Parry, Textiles of the Arts & Crafts Movement, London, Thames & Hudson, 1988 p.75; Crawford, ibid, p.283 No. 138 (from Dekorative Kunst (Munich) , 1898, Vol. 1 p259). 52 The Court Circular and Court News, 17 1 1903.

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53 Standard, 15 1 1903,V&AAAD 1/103-1980. 54 V&AAAD 1/100-1980. 55 Theo Mance, Liberty & Co. to C. Jordan 29 10 99. 56 Mark Turner, Studio of Design - A Design Source Book for Home Decoration, London, Webb & Bower, 1968 p. 85. 57 Entomologist T.W.Harman to C.Jordan 6 3 2000. 58 Shelagh Wilson, 'Monsters and monstrosities: grotesque taste and Victorian design', Victorian Culture and the Idea of the Grotesque, Colin Trodd, Paul Barlow, and David Amigoni eds. Aldershot, Ashgate, 1999 p. 149. 59 Showroom Visitors Book: Ernest Marsh noted 20 4 and 15 6 1904. Alan Crawford, Chairman GoH. 60 Crawford ibid. p. 331 Rt. hand of 3. 61 Surrey History Centre Petitions in Bankruptcy 1914 No.8 4 3 1914 not proceeded with, No. 10 21 3 1914 dismissed. PRO BT39.82 No.388 5 3 191 4: Trustees appear to have been appointed to settle. Gross liabilities £25,692. 62 Frits Lugt, Repertoire des Catalogues de Ventes Publiques I 901 -1 925, Paris, Fondation Custodia, 1987 Sotheby 22 5 and 1 8 191 6, American Art Galleries (Yamanaka) 1 8 1916. 63 Herrmann ibid. pp. 393-4. 64 Kelly's Surrey Directories 1899-1911; Agent for Royal Exchange and General Accident. Kennedy ibid. p. 13: Traditionally Quaker families supported each other when in difficulties. Letter 15 6 99 Marsh's niece Margaret Stuart to C.Jordan. For a year or so she lived in as a companion to Roger Fry's daughter, Pamela. Thought financial help to the Marsh family had come from 'the Tothill cousins'. 65 Sotheby 22 5 1916 Rostrum copy British Library No.303 ,£2.9.0 to Moore. 66 Judith Collins British Contemporary Art Í9Í0-Í 990, London, CAS, 1991 p 15. Others present were; Lady Ottoline Morrell, D.S.McColl, Keeper of the Tate: Charles Holmes, Director of the National Portrait Gallery; Roger Fry Curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Charles Aitken, Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery. 67 Alan Bowness, introduction to Collins, ibid. p.7. 68 CAS minutes Tate Gallery Archive, 7 2 1945. 69 CAS ibid. 25 4 and 26 6 1912. 70 Watson ibid. p. 18. Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts Inspection 1910. No throwing was taught, only moulding and glazing. 71 Watson ibid. p. 18 for broader discourse, Wells pots pp. 262-266. Greenslade ibid. Marsh bought his first Wells pot 1 9 1908. 72 Malcolm Haslam William Staite Murray, London, Crafts Council, 1984 p. 12. 73 A former Camberwell pupil, Hopkins took over teaching at Camberwell when Lunn died in 1915. Letter 6 9 1921 South London Gallery archive William Bower Dalton, former headmaster of Huddersfield School of Art, chosen from 71 applicants, appointed headmaster of Camberwell School of Art 1899. Resigned as Principal 1919 to pursue potting. Under him the school had flourished and 'now 'enjoyed a world-wide reputation'. College archives. Also appointed 1900 in succession to Cecil Burn curator of the South London Art Gallery, an appointment held to at least 1930. 74 Marsh file, 4 10 192 IV & A Dept. Ceramic & Glass. 75 May 22 to September 30th, 1922. Exhibited: work by Wm de Morgan, W.S.Murray, Cox, Mordake; Doulton & Co., The Brother Hopkins, R.Lunn, Miss D. Lunn, W.B.Dalton, Harold & Phoebe Stabler, Charles Vyse, H.Parr,The Brothers Hopkins, Mrs D.K.Wren, Miss Richards, Miss Séraphin, Mrs. Sinclair, Mark Marshall, George Tinworth and numerous others. Reviews (examples): Public -Pall Mall & Globe 315 1922 'Camberwell leads the way V Trade- The British Clayworker June 1922 p. 98. 76 Letter to Greenslade 29 12 1924. 'R.F.Wells - Sculptor and Potter, Apollo ,Vol 1 No.5 May 1925. Other contributions by Marsh included: Leach 1/43, Cardew 5/43, Vyse 7/43, Pleydell-Bouverie/ Braden 12/43, Staite Murray 4/44, Martin Bros 10-11/44, Marcus n.d.post 1945. 77 Haslam 1984 ibid. pl6. 78 Walker's Monthly December Edition, 1928-1939. 79 CAS ibid. 9215.2.2 13, 1 3 1928,9215.2.2 11a, 16 12 29. 80 CAS ibid. 9215. 4.6.1 'Presentations from the Contemporary Art Society's Pottery & Craft Fund to various Museums &Art Galleries' Ernest Marsh Hon Administrator & Treasurer'. Oliver Watson ibid. Concordance pp 281-285 forV & A presentations. 81 Greenslade ibid. 55/1788 Marsh to Greenslade 29 12 1931. 82 'British Industries'Vol. vii no.51, 30 12 1924 p. 787 CBI archives Warwick University.

83 G.E.Thompson, Official Record of the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition Dunedin Ì 925-26, Dunedin, Coulis, Somerville, Wilkie, 1926. Sir Charles Tennyson Stars and Markets, London, Chatto & Windus, 1957. CBI ibid. MSS/200/F/3/D1/1/1 Objects: 'The encouragement, promotion, and protection of the interests of manufacturers and producers...' See also Stephen Constantine Buy and Build: The Advertising Posters of the Empire Marketing Board, London, PRO, 1986. 84 CAS ibid. 70-7/87, 27 6 1939 copy of letter to Lord Sandwich about a picture loan to Durban, South Africa. 85 Greenslade ibid. 55/1784 letter from Marsh to Greenslade 20 4 1930. C.R.Chisman owner of the Grafton Galleries, Grafton St.W.l Marsh set up the exhibitions, Chisman 's staff did the administration. 86 Greenslade ibid. Marsh to Greenslade 55/1766, 67,71, 72, 73; 24 2 1924-19 3 1925. 87 Will ibid. Public bequests: Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Martinware, Wells and Vyse wares; Kingston upon Thames, Martinware & other pottery; South London Art Gallery, Martin ware; British Museum, Martin ware & 3 Chinese figures; CAS several pictures, National Portrait Gallery, Jane de Glenn portrait of Robert Wallace Martin, V & A, watercolours and Persian pottery. 88 Sarah Riddick Pioneer Studio Pottery :The Milner White Collection, London, Lund Humphries, 1990 Appendix D contains a useful list of gallery pottery sales. 89 Watson ibid. 'Growth of the Collection' pp. 36-40.

Acknowledgments

My thanks must firstly go to the Marsh family without whose help and interest much of this research would have been impossible. I am also grateful to: Linda Sandino & Jim Gladwin, Camberwell College of Arts, David Thorp, South London Gallery, Helen & Arthur Grogan, formerly at Standen, Ruth Gofton, N.T. Standen, Barbara Morris & Peter Rose, DAS, Alan Crawford, GoH, Gill Bohee, Pitshanger Museum; at the V & A : Jennifer Opie (Ceramics & Glass), Linda Parry (Textiles & Dress), Marjorie Trusted (Sculpture), Richard Edgcumbe (Metalwork), staff at V & A archives, Blythe House. Myra Brown, Curator of Ceramics, Liverpool Museum, Matthew Denney, Southampton Institute, Theo Mance, Liberty, Glennys Wild, Birmingham Museum, Alan Crookham, University of Warwick Library, Adrian Glew Tate Archive, Paul Hill Kingston Museum & Tim Everson, Local History Room, Kingston upon Thames, Susan Irvine, Hocken Library Otago,Tony Harman, Entomologist, Librarians at the British Library, Camberwell College, Westminster and Kensington Reference Libraries. Finally thanks to the Trustees of the V & A, the South London Gallery and private collectors for permission to reproduce their photographs.

Christopher Jordan (BA) is Keeper of the Permanent Collection at the South London Gallery and currently writing an MPhil at Camberwell College of Arts entitled 'Ernest Marsh: a study in private collecting in England in the early 20th Century'.

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Decorative Art Collecting : passion and fashion || Ernest Marsh, Collector (1863-1945)

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