One of the primary aims of the Friends is to raise funds to help the museums, art gallery and archives to acquire and conserve artefacts, buy equipment, run educational activities, refurbish galleries, etc. Below are descriptions by the professional staff of some of the objects that our financial support has recently enabled the museum service to acquire.
Bristol Museum’s geology collections contain many important and beautiful fossils acquired over the past 200 years. The collections are continually being enriched and developed with the addition of new material. In 2016 an incredible fossil of an incomplete dragonfly forewing was discovered by the quarry foreman at Bowden’s Quarry, near Langport, Somerset. The rock that this beautiful fossil was found in dates to the Late Triassic, approximately 205 million years old. The specimen is in two pieces, part and counterpart, revealed after millions of years after the rock was split in two.
It was donated to Bristol Museum in 2018 by local geologist Simon Carpenter. Simon had a feeling this fossil was important and special, and he was right.
Earlier this year a researcher specializing in fossil insects visited the geology collections. She was very interested when she saw this fossil and contacted an international expert on fossil dragonflies for their opinion. After several months of study by a research team including me as Bristol Museum’s Geology Curator, a scientific paper describing the fossil’s significance for the first time has now been published in the scientific journal Historical Biology. The research team have assigned the fossil to the genus Liassophlebia, a type of dragonfly that is currently known to have lived from the Late Triassic to the Upper Jurassic (approximately 209 million years ago to 190 million years ago). The wider family that Liassophlebia belongs to (Liassophlebiidae) is found in the rocks of Europe, Asia and Antarctica. Whilst this family is well represented by Lower Jurassic aged fossils, their appearance in the older Late Triassic rocks has until now only been suggested by three fragmentary and incomplete specimens.
This new fossil is important as it confirms the presence of this family of dragonflies in the Late Triassic and enriches our knowledge of dragonfly diversity during this geological period of time. The fossil itself is also special as it is currently the best-preserved example of this family.
To be able to share this amazing fossil and its story with our audiences a reconstruction of Liassophlebia was commissioned from the palaeoartist Julian Kiely. Julian is specifically a palaeobotanist and palaeobotanical illustrator, specializing in Mesozoic age plants and therefore has a good understanding of the environment, vegetation and plant/insect interactions during the Triassic. To ensure accuracy their illustration was informed by the research scientists and Bristol Museum’s Natural Science team who advised on the colour of this Liassophlebia using modern extant dragonflies for reference. This reconstruction will help interpret this fossil for our audiences, promote the work of the museum more widely and has also been included in the new paper.
The image has had attention on the social media platform ‘X’ since the paper was published, further celebrating this beautiful fossil.
The reconstruction was only possible through funding made available by the Friends of Bristol Museum, Galleries & Archives.
Deborah Hutchinson, Curator, Geology, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery has recently acquired this View of the Avon Gorge and Bristol from Leigh Woods by John Scandrett Harford the Younger, 1787 – 1866. Those familiar with Bristol School painting may be somewhat accustomed to monumental views of the Avon Gorge landscape. The collection boasts a wonderful array of such views by artists such as Francis Danby, Samuel Jackson, and Joseph Mallord William Turner.
What distinguishes this depiction of that subject is the maker himself. John Scandrett Harford was a banker by trade rather than a professional artist. Harford belonged to an affluent Quaker family who occupied Blaise Castle Estate. He was a partner in the local bank Miles, Harford, Battersby and Bayly of Corn Street, also acting as High Sheriff for Cardiganshire, (1825 – 26), Company Director of the Great Western Railway and owner of the Harford & Bristol Brass Co.
As well as an influential merchant, Harford was a significant figure in the cultural development of Bristol in the early nineteenth century. He was a founding member of the Museum’s forerunner, the Bristol Institution on Park Street (opened 1823). While active in the Bristol Institution, Harford contributed predominately to their Sub-Committee for the Fine Arts. He was instrumental in organising the Exhibitions of Pictures, having personally loaned more than 20 paintings to their 1820s exhibitions. Interestingly, following the construction of the Bristol Institution building in the early 1820s, Harford hired the Institution’s architect, Charles Robert Cockerell 1788 – 1863, to extend Blaise Castle by adding a Picture Gallery to the existing Neoclassical structure.
As well as a wealthy merchant, Harford was an amateur artist, a writer, and an aficionado of the Italian High Renaissance. His publications include a Life of Michel Angelo Buonarroti in two volumes (1857) and Recollections of the life of William Wilberforce (1862) having been a close friend of both Wilberforce and Hannah More.
During his time with the Bristol Institution, Harford was particularly devoted to encouraging opportunities for local artists. He was instrumental in organizing free season tickets to the exhibitions for artists from both Bristol and Bath and granting them permission to study from the Old Master paintings. He went on to co-found and lead activities at the Royal West of England Academy from December 1844 onwards.
The View of the Avon and Bristol from Leigh Woods demonstrates Harford’s own artistic talents. His lifelong leadership in fostering opportunities and engagement with the visual arts are illustrated by this rather accomplished watercolour, which formed an integral part of our bicentenary exhibition ‘Opulent Origins: 200 Years of Displaying Fine Art’. The collection boasts two more Harford watercolours and is certainly enriched by the material legacy of this most fascinating man and amateur artist.
The acquisition was made possible through the ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the most generous support of the Friends.
Emma Meehan, Curatorial Trainee, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.
We have recently acquired a rare delftware punch bowl, probably made in London or Bristol ca. 1750, with the support of the Friends. It has become part of Bristol’s large and important collection of English delftware and will be incorporated into a re-display which is scheduled for completion later this year. This is part of a two-year Arts Council England funded project to re-examine the collection.
In addition to enriching our delftware collection, the punch bowl introduces difficult themes of colonialism, enslavement and race in the eighteenth century and will allow us to explore these topics with our audiences. While the decoration on the exterior is a generic delftware landscape scene with a bridge, building, trees and figures, the depiction of a Black child presenting a punch bowl in the centre of the bowl is unusual and uncommon. As the punch bowl is an object associated with pleasure, festivities and excessive alcohol consumption, the depiction of the child is both troubling and thought-provoking. Images of Black servants and their presence within British homes can be found in prints, paintings, textiles and ceramics of the period. Here the figure is painted unclothed, infantilised – in a similar manner to many depictions of Black servants at this time who are usually depicted serving tea – and offering a punch bowl. The depiction of the child in this manner, and the use of the curtain as a framing device, highlights his role in serving and entertaining others.
At the time the punch bowl was made, the city of Bristol had and continued to acquire substantial wealth from the Transatlantic traffic in enslaved Africans and the trade of goods, such as tobacco and sugar, planted and harvested by enslaved Africans forced to labour in Britain’s American colonies and West Indian plantations. Earthenware made in Bristol, such as delftware, was exported to these places on a large scale in response to the growing population. Sugar and rum are key components of punch, the consumption of which increased as these commodities became widely available. It was mostly consumed by men in clubs and at other gatherings, which is illustrated in contemporary prints such as William Hogarth’s ‘A Midnight Modern Conversation’ (1733); a scene depicted on another punch bowl in our collection.
An object such as this may have been purchased for a particular business or building, such as a pub or an inn, possibly in Bristol. By the early 18th century images of Black people on trade signs, that hung outside shops and inns, and trade cards had become commonplace as a means to advertise goods or services. The stance of the child reinforces this as a possible explanation, as he appears to be offering or advertising the punch to the drinker. The bowl will enable us to address the history of punch drinking and its connections with British colonialism and the Transatlantic traffic in enslaved Africans for today’s audiences, while helping us to research the everyday objects that were made from which to drink it. Our approach will necessarily evolve as our decolonisation work continues, and we will be working with community groups to contribute towards interpretation and display strategies.
Thanks to the generous support of the Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives, the Art Fund, and ACE (Arts Council England)/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery has recently acquired a beautiful Japanese lacquer box.
The box comprises of two tiers, a lid and an inner tray, dates to the Meiji Period (1868-1912), and once stored articles for the incense ceremony. The incense ceremony is the art of appreciating incense by comparing various scents and identifying them through games. During the Edo period (1603-1868), lacquered boxes were prepared to contain the necessary utensils for the incense ceremony by parents for a daughter when she was about to be married.
Decorating the box are eleven utensils of the Japanese tea ceremony. Among them are a bamboo ‘one-cut’ flower vase, a porcelain incense burner, a bamboo water scoop resting on a celadon stand, an iron kettle decorated with dragons, a bamboo whisk for preparing the tea, a ceramic water jar with a glossy black lacquer lid, a bamboo tea scoop, a fabric drawstring pouch, and a feather for wafting incense. Impressively, all the motifs save the inlay for the porcelain burner are made of lacquer. The box provides a virtuoso example of the lacquer skills and techniques that craftsmen refined during the Meiji period (1868-1912).
Lacquer has a long history in Japan dating back as early as 7000 BCE. Harvesting, processing and applying lacquer (poison oak sap) is a long and hazardous process that takes several months. Only about 200 grammes of sap can be harvested during the 14-15-year life of the urushi lacquer tree and it takes a further three to five years after harvesting for the sap to mature. It is poisonous to touch in its raw form and even breathing in its fumes can be dangerous. The lacquering process is incredibly time-consuming and labour-intensive; each coat must be thinly applied and dried before it is polished and the next coat applied to build up the shiny surface
The tea ceremony is an important Japanese cultural activity with a long history that dates to the 9th century when tea was drunk as a stimulant by Buddhist monks to improve concentration during meditation. Over the centuries the ceremony has evolved from the aesthetic pastime of aristocrats to a arena for the politicking of warriors, from a salon activity for business elites, to a hobby for largely middle-class housewives today. The tea ceremony involves preparing and drinking tea with a focus on hospitality. It has been credited with having a significant impact on Japanese taste and aesthetics, notably the concepts of wabi and sabi, the appreciation and acceptance of transience and imperfection.
Thanks to a Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant, I travelled to Japan to research Japanese porcelain in March 2022. With the Friends’ generous support, I was able to acquire additional contemporary and antique Japanese works relating to the Japanese tea and incense ceremonies, objects that will complement this lacquer box in future displays.
Click here for the full Francis Greenacre article
Bristol Archives recently acquired a journal written by Mary Beck (1718-1799). This book has returned to Bristol thanks to generous support from the Friends of Bristol Museum, Galleries & Archives.
Mary was a widow from a notable philanthropic Quaker family. She was the daughter of George and Elisabeth Bridges and married the merchant Joseph Beck in 1743. They had four children together and their house at Frenchay was close to the homes of several other Quaker merchants.
Her journal records many visits to and from her family, friends, tenants and religious acquaintances. These show how she was still well supported and connected after the death of her husband in 1793. Writing in her late 70s, the journal includes many details of her declining health. For example, “I have reason to fear a new calamity is coming on as I feel my eyes weaken apace this winter”.
It also includes copies of letters to and from William Wilberforce, one of the best known members of the anti-slavery movement. They write on a different topic however, in relation to some of his theological writings: “I have read Mr Wm Wilberforce’s contrast between real, & nominal christians… I wish he had spoake more fully on the pernicious consiquences of plays & novels… ”
The journal ties in with many other parts of our collections. These include the records of the Society of Friends and the Bristol Dispensary (an organisation which she supported), plus other Quaker family collections.
The only other known document by Mary Beck is a commonplace book held at the University of Pennsylvania. We are very pleased to make this journal available for research in Bristol, as a welcome and enlightening addition to our holdings.
Graham Tratt, Archivist
Bristol Archives are grateful to the Friends of Bristol Museum, Galleries & Archives for their support. As part of this, we recently purchased a pair of mounted posters from opposing campaigns in Bristol in the general election of 1865.
The first poster ridicules Conservative candidate Thomas Fremantle. It advertises a “Wonderful curiosity!! For a short time only in Bristol, up the passage, to be seen alive, the excited gorilla of Wine Street”.
Fremantle lost to Liberal candidates Henry Fitzhardinge Berkeley and Sir Samuel Morton Peto in the election that year. The poster continues by saying that “this rare specimen is the largest alive in this city, and allowed to be the most self-conceited and ignorant in the kingdom” … “his roar at the mention of his conquerors is terrific, and only to be equalled by the Durdham Down lion”..
The second poster promotes Fremantle, in that same election. It asks “The radicals state that ‘Lord Palmerston’s Ministry has proved itself equal to all the wants and wishes of the country’ – Is this so?” It gives figures of government expenditure up to 1858 compared to the Conservative government of the 1840s. It finishes that “the stump advocates of Berkeley and Peto hopped about as bare and ridiculous as the deluded jackdaw. Fremantle for ever! Give him a plumper!”
These posters supplement other election documents throughout our collections, including poll books and electoral registers. The museums’ social history collections include an election flyer also referring to Fremantle as a gorilla. Together, these can enhance our understanding of the elections of the period, as well as the type of advertising and promotion used by candidates.
Graham Tratt, Archivist
Bristol Archives recently purchased a set of sixteen playbills relating to two major Bristol theatres in the 1870s. This was thanks to support from the Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives.
During that period, the Theatre Royal was not running a full programme of productions. The owner had set up the New Theatre Royal on Park Row and focussed on promoting that instead. It later became known as the Prince’s Theatre.
We have recently completed a National Lottery Heritage Fund project with two other partners. These were the Bristol Old Vic (previously the Theatre Royal on King Street) and the University of Bristol Theatre Collection. We hold a large number of playbills for the Theatre Royal, many of which were digitised as part of the project.
By comparison we have very few for the New Theatre Royal. These playbills also pre-date most of those already held in our collections. This means they are a very timely and very useful addition to our theatre-related holdings.
Many of the advertised plays are well known today, such as Shakespeare’s Richard III, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice. They also include less well-known plays such as Jeanie Deans (based on a Walter Scott novel) and Wife’s Secret by George William Lovell. There are also Christmas pantomimes of Red Riding Hood (1875) and Beauty and the Beast (1877).
Graham Tratt, Archivist
Thanks to generous support from the Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives, we recently purchased two volumes of illustrations relating to George Pryce’s book, A Popular History of Bristol.
George Pryce (1801-1868) was the city librarian from 1856 until his death. He was instrumental in acquiring the collection of local material which is still held there.
Published in 1861, Pryce said that his book was the work of more than thirty years’ study. He presented these two volumes to his son, Rev Robert Vaughan Pryce, for his birthday in 1866. The published book contained no illustrations, meaning these are Pryce’s own copies from his research. Many of the illustrations have page numbers for the book added next to them.
The Lord Mayor’s Chapel
The illustrations reflect many of his interests, particularly religion and architecture. These include monasteries and habits of various religious orders, the Lord Mayor’s Chapel, the Cathedral, St Mary le Port and St Nicholas. It also includes St Mary Redcliffe before the addition of its tall spire. There are sketches of monuments in these churches, many of which have their inscriptions recorded in detail in Pryce’s book.
There are also some early salt-paper print photographs which seem to be by John Wheeley Gough Gutch. He was a local surgeon as well as a pioneering photographer. These are of great interest to Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, which already holds some works by both Gutch and Pryce.
The volumes contain a wealth of material, including maps and engravings.
They will be of great interest to anyone interested in history, photography, religion, architecture, memorials, and many other topics.
Graham Tratt, Archivist
