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Description: | The collections have been assembled to represent the work of alumni and staff of the present college (now part of the University of the Arts) and its predecessors and to record teaching methods and influences.
THE MUSEUM & STUDY COLLECTION
This comprises five elements:
(a) the Teaching Collection of about 3,000 books, 450 Japanese prints, stencils and blocks, 120 German film posters and supporting material, plus about 2,200 other items such as manuscripts, tiles, wallpapers. The book collection is particularly rich in natural history, architecture, textiles and early printed books and portfolios of design examples because Lethaby advocated the use of good examples from books in the absence of the opportunity to study from life. The Japanese prints were purchased by Lethaby for the Teaching Examples Collection in the period 1899-1904 when Frank Morley Fletcher introduced Japanese wood-block printing methods into his printmaking classes at the Central School. The collection consists of individual wood block prints and several albums depicting children's games, flora and fauna and actor prints. They date from the late 18th to mid 19th century. The collection is particularly rich in the highly stylised images of the Kabuki theatre.
(b) the Prints and Drawings Collection of about 500 wood engravings and 2,500 other prints, drawings and paintings. The Print Collection includes a substantial number of early printed sheets from books such as the Nuremberg Chronicle, early woodcuts by Durer and lithographs by Daumier and Gavarni, as well as some more contemporary prints. The most substantial part of the collection is the wood engravings showing the influence of Noel Rooke who taught at the Central School from 1905 and was responsible for the revival of the art of wood engraving. Among Rooke's pupils represented in the collection are John Farleigh, Robert Gibbings, Margaret Pilkington and Vivien Gribble.
(c) the School of Book Production Collection, with about a thousand books and end papers. By 1916 the Central School offered training in printing, illustration and binding.The influence of J H Mason, Head of the School, who had been chief compositor at the Doves Press, and Douglas Cockerell who established the first bookbinding classes in 1897was very influential in the revival of these particular crafts.
(d) the Lethaby Archive, with a collection of published works and about 150 drawings and watercolours, and
(e) the Textile Archive which and has over 1,000 textiles and wallpapers. This includes the Joyce Clissold archive with around 300 items such as textile lengths, garments, samples, swatches, blocks, dye ledgers and designs on paper. Joyce Clissold was a Central School student and owner of Footprints design studio during its most prolific period, 1929-1940. Her work is hand block printed on a variety of fabrics.
THE CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION
This comprises about 1,000 objects acquired from recent students and staff and covers ceramics, jewellery, paintings, prints, product design and furniture,sculpture, textiles and fashiopn and theatre design for performance.
- | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | Address: | Museum and Study Collection
Southampton Row
London,
WC1B 4AP | FAX: | 020 7514 7024 | Telephone: | 020 7514 7146 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:6022 | Go to resource |
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