Value 2

A couple of strands are intertwining!  In thinking about value and having loved Mary’s spoon collection, I was reminded of a spoon from my own collection, a Victorian, ceramic measuring spoon.  This got me thinking about making some kind of measure of value.  At the moment I am thinking spoons, but it may develop into other things like cups.  Instead of being marked with the usual units of measurement the objects would carry a value measurement such as precious, priceless, worthy etc stamped into the clay or maybe written on a tag.  I would aim to reference Mary’s spoons in some way.  Perhaps some would be made then broken, torn or worn etc.  I like the idea that these ones might carry the highest value measure. Perhaps I might include some accession numbers or some of the unknown initials marked on the spoons.  Lots to play with!  Sharon

Victorian ceramic measuring spoon

Spoon drawer, Mary Greg Collection

Miniatures

We had another day doing object photography today. Ben’s pictures are amazing – even the tiniest of objects can be blown up so that all the intricate details invisible to the naked eye become significant. Colours and torn edges on books, fine engraving on pin ends, patterns seeping through paper…

One highlight of the day for me was re-finding the solander boxes full of miniature books.  Mary amassed lots of children’s books – tiny ones, nursery rhymes with beautiful lino block miniature prints to illustrate, Biblical ones, and books of religious and moral instruction for children, tiny almanacs and diaries of Saints’ Days that are smaller than my thumb.  I first saw them when I started work at the gallery about two years ago, but haven’t seen them since: I’ll definitely be going back for another peek.

Horn Books

I was interested in the Horn Books that Mary collected so many of and looked up one of the books she gave to the gallery in Aug 1925; History of Horn Books by Tuer. Here is a picture from the book. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the text and learn more about it.  Melanie

Miss Campion holding a hornbook, 1661, from Tuer's History of Horn Books

Some Wise Words

‘We owe it to those who have preceded us and have left us those specimens of their painstaking and beautiful work and to those who will come after us to do likewise, to treasure good work and produce something into which we have put our best, our love, our intelligence, our power.’

Mary Greg, Preface to Catalogue, October 1922 

I like the poignancy of Mary’s words and I suspect that many museum professionals had this sort of ideal in mind when they decided they wanted to work in museums.

Melanie

A passport to Royalty?

Held in the OPUA Collection at Platt Hall Museum of Costume

Worn and faded inside

In finding the Rebekah Bateman Hope of the passport, did anyone notice further down in the Hope Family tree document, a marriage between Alexander Faulkner SHAND and Augusta Mary COATES?  They had a son Philip Morton SHAND whose descendants included Camilla Rosemary SHAND who is married to Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor – or Prince Charles as we know him!  Now if that doesn’t add value I don’t know what does!!  Sharon

Thomas Greg’s family tree

Have a look at this link on YouTube to see Thomas Tylson Greg’s family tree.

This ties in beautifully with Melanie’s post about the Hope family tree: the one above was found by Sharon and is of the Greg side of the family. With no women mentioned. As Sharon says,

I had to pencil the women in myself!

I’ll put an image of the family tree on this post later so that you can see it while listening to Sharon talk about it.

The Hope Family

After a morning of visiting perhaps every family history website known to man I eventually made some progress. The photographed obituary mentions Mary Greg’s parents Thomas Arthur Hope and Emily Hird Hope. I simply typed this into google and came across an independent site ‘The Family Tree of Peter A. Brown’. He traces the Hope family back to John De Hope (1626-1674)

I focused on Thomas and Emily and discovered they had 12 children! One of Mary’s sisters is the mysterious Rebekah Bateman (1842-1901), named after her grandmother of the same name. Harriet Selina and Arthur are mentioned as in the passport as well as Caroline mentioned in the letters. The children were born in either Sefton or Liverpool, however I couldn’t find Mary’s birth date and place. None of the Mary Hope’s mentioned were born in 1849 and most had died by 1901.  

I intend to draw up a proper family tree in the next few days as the website is a bit disjointed but feel free to look up all the Hope’s in the meantime. You can also look up Births and Deaths. It’s all rather exciting!

Melanie

Value

Mary Greg letters

I’ve been thinking a lot about value. It’s a common thread of discussion every time we meet. The value of the collection to Mary and the lack of value (or perceived lack of value) the collection has within the Art Gallery currently. I wondered if this was always the case. The letters certainly reveal that the collection was held in greater esteem in the 1920’s. It was considered worthy enough to house a permanent display at Heaton Hall. Bathos writes (9th Oct 1924)

“….your collection at Heaton Hall is still attracting thousands weekly. Up to date this year over 154,000 visitors have passed through the turnstiles.”

And again in 1925 (Aug 17th)

“…123,208 visitors to your exhibition of dolls at Heaton Hall this year.”

There was even a Royal visitor in May 1927!

“.. Princess Mary appreciated all that was shown her”.

Interestingly in June 1927 Bathos informs Mary that Heaton Hall had 16,000 visitors over Whitsun compared to the 14,000 at the City Art Gallery. 1-0 Mary!

If value were to be judged by visitor figures alone then this collection was significant. I also think there must be some value in further research into the visitor demographic and exhibition content held at different sites. Did one appeal more to the masses and why? Are there any other historic, statistical records held at the Gallery? When and why was the collection taken off display at Heaton Hall? Is that when it went into storage?

Sharon

Chatelaine

From Mary Gregs Bygones Collection.

Pin wheel from Mary Greg’s Chatelaine

Curatorial anxiety – as promised

Hmm. On the subject of Crompton’s cotton threads and their changing status. One minute they’re the first threads from the mule, a truly momentous find, and we’re speechless with discovery. Then the dates prove impossible and they’re still fab, still curious, but we’re slightly disappointed that they’re probably not what we thought they were. Then, hang on a minute, a curator from another museum provides a bit of information and we’re back on – they COULD be the real thing. I really want them to be, I’ll believe it to be true. A curator said so. Well, he didn’t actually, he just gave me a bit of info about Crompton’s grandson. The weight of curatorial responsibility. The source of curatorial anxiety. If I say it is so, then it is so. Museums tell the truth.