Hungerford Arcade’s regular customers, Rob Hames, West Region Co-ordinator for the Guild of Aviation Artists, arrived with his dear friend, Diane Hampstead and told us the fantastic story about Diane (much to her embarrassment).  In her early years, Diane was the fastest tap dancer in Europe and she now runs her own dancing school.

Diane, Rita & Rob

Diane danced a duet with Derek Hartley in the “Turned on Tap” show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London where they were compared to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Now that is impressive!

Keep those twinkle toes tapping Diane!

Saturday, 3rd December & Sunday, 4th December 2016
11.00 am to 7.00 pm

Art Fair in aid of Lambourn Riding for the Disabled Association 11am to 7pm Maddle Farm, Upper Lambourn.

https://www.facebook.com/events/706764642815337/

Friday, 9th December 2016

5.00 pm

Everyone is looking forward to the Hungerford Victorian Extravaganza with its, fairground, steam engines, lots of food, people in their Victorian clothes and of course, Father Christmas. An event definitely not to be missed.

Hungerford Arcade will be open from 9.15 am to 9.00 pm.

Quite often as you walk around the Arcade, you might find a print or a painting which one could loosely term Modern Art.  You might find a small sculpture which also falls into the same category.  I have found that people either like or dislike modern art.  In my view sometimes people become uncomfortable with this type of art because they feel it attacks them or challenges them.

Self Portrait of Heni Gaudier-Brzeska 1909

Whilst Constable’s view of Salisbury Cathedral is easy to understand and the viewer feels comfortable, Tracey Emin’s unmade bed (My Bed) for instance takes them out of their comfort zone.  Indeed when viewing the Emin bed a number of years ago, I was surprised by the hostility it aroused.  Some of the comments I heard cannot be shared in polite company.  But whilst I like Tracey’s work and many other modern artists, I am only going to concentrate on one artist in this article.  The name of this artist is Henri Gaudier-Brzeska who lived between 1891 and 1915.

As you can see from his dates these were changing times and Henri’s art reflected this.

This said, his name is not the first one that springs from ones lips when considering artists of the early twentieth century.  Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, I have heard of this chap you might say and indeed you have as his life was the subject of the 1972 Ken Russell film Savage Messiah.  Although I had been aware of Henri before seeing the movie it furthered my interest in the artist. 

The movie starred Scott Antony, the late Dorothy Tutin and a young Helen Mirren.  As per normal, Ken Russell went over the top with Henri carelessly climbing over the rocks at Portland and running across railway tracks with trains evident.  Helen Mirren’s walk down the great stairs of a stately home was also quite memorable for all the wrong reasons. But what the movie did show was Henri’s relationship with Sophie Brzeska a Polish woman a number of years his senior.  But what has this to do with the Arcade?

If I am truthful not much as you would be very lucky to find anything to do with Henri Gaudier-Brzeska in the Arcade or even in Hungerford.  But what set me thinking was a small sketch which appeared to have been executed with a blue crayon which although not Henri’s, bore a passing resemblance to his work.  I saw it in the Arcade about a year ago.  As I was with my wildchild grandaughter, I was not able to examine the work in any detail and could not find it when I returned to the Arcade a week or so later.  It had most probably been sold or I had lost my bearings.

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was born in Saint-Jean-de-Braye near Orleans on the 4^th of October 1891.  Not much is recorded of his life until 1910 when he arrived in London with Sophie Brzeska a Polish woman who was at least twice his age (Henri was eighteen).  They had met at the Bibliotheque Sainte -Genevieve in Paris and the pair started an intense, although it appears platonic, relationship.

Sophie Brzeska played an important part in Henri’s artistic development.  Her views of art were not those of Henri’s and in my view this polarity influenced this art.  They linked their names (although this was always unofficial).  He was troubled by his sensitivity towards art and this was reflected in a letter he wrote at the time.

When I face the beauty of nature, I am no longer sensitive to art, but in town I appreciate its myriad benefits – the more I go into the woods and the fields the more distrustful I become of art and wish all civilization to the devil; the more I wander about amidst filth and sweat the better I understand art and love it; the desire for it becomes my crying need.

Shortly after Henri turned to sculpture and this is what he is best remembered for.

Wyndham Lewis

When in London, he became associated with the Vorticist movement of Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis and others.  For those not familiar with Vorticism this was a modernist movement which rejected landscapes and the familiar and lent towards a geometrical style on its way towards abstraction.  Indeed, it was the dynamic of Vorticism and its near brother Futurism that in its way anticipated the mechanical carnage of the Great War although both movements had all but disappeared by 1920.  It had roots in Cubism, Futurism and was slightly influenced by the Bloomsbury Group.

This said, I can find no evidence that Henri ever visited Hungerford or Berkshire with his British friends.  Pound and Lewis and others were associated with the Bloomsbury’s but I cannot see even a linear connection with our little town.

For a while he was influenced by Jacob Epstein, but soon found his own ground.  He grew away from the highly finished Classical sculptures and began to lean towards an unfinished style (with tool marks evident and maybe traces of the artist).  As he was living in poverty with Sophie, he was unable to afford the materials required to create large sculptures.  He adapted this by working on smaller sculptures and took an interest in the Japanese Netsuke genre.  He was also influenced by African and Pacific Island Art as well as Chinese Calligraphy.  His sculptures and drawings of the period show all these influences.

I am lucky to have seen a number of Henri’s sculptures and drawings both in Cambridge and in London and I am left thinking that if he had lived longer where would his creativity have led him?  In my view his vision exceeded many of his contemporaries.  But Henri was always going to be a shooting star (he shared mental health issues with Sophie) and like Rimbaud or Chatterton was not destined to be with us for long.  As with many other artists he died in the carnage of the First World War in the trenches at Neuville-St-Vaast on the 5^th of June 1915.  Sophie whose mental health deteriorated after his death died in an asylum in 1925.  Although flawed, Ken Russell’s film did bring this slightly forgotten artist into the public consciousness and I am glad of that.

I can never go to Portland without thinking of Henri and Sophie and I think of them both at the Channel Ports when I am travelling to and fro from the continent.  Up to a few years ago before the dreadful redevelopment of Fulham Broadway tube station took place, one could see one of Henri’s small studios a stone’s throw away from Chelsea’s football ground.  I used to see it every time I went to a game (and yes, I am still disgusted by its wanton destruction).  A very small part of our artistic heritage went with this uncalled for development.

As I noted, you will not find anything original related to Henri in an antique shop or Arcade.  His work has been known to fetch six figures at auction.  But what you will find are books about Henri and his contemporaries as well as art that has been created under the influence of the early twentieth century artists such as Henri.  It will obviously vary in quality but these attempts by unknown artists are worth collecting.  I have seen them in the Arcade and in other antique outlets in Berkshire and Wiltshire.

Ezra Pound

Yesterday, I attended the Bedwyn Fete and amongst all the other things I noticed on the White Elephant stall were four busts of African men cut out of either marble or alabaster.

I quite admired these sculptures but they were hiding a small exquisite work of a couple embracing.  I purchased this sculpture straight away.  Although the handsome African sculptures were tempting, the small almost hidden sculpture reminded me at once of Henri’s work.  It is at the most two inches high and about three inches across and the faces of the embracing couple were almost mask like. There is also a screaming silence to the work which I often felt when viewing Henri’s sculptures.  The artist is unknown (there is carved name seen but it is not readable).  It now has a home on one of my bookcases and complements the organic nature of its near neighbours.

If I have whetted your interest then there are plenty of examples of early twentieth century art and sculpture to be seen in galleries all around the country.  Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge is a good place to see Henri’s work as well as Moore, Hepworth and Brancusi to name but a few.

The next time you are in an antique shop or an Arcade and if you are interested, look out for these items of art as they are great fun to have and if you are into minimalist furnishings then these sculptures work well.

Do if you have a moment, visit Henri’s work as it will be rather rewarding for you.

Happy Hunting

Stuart Miller-Osborne

As I wandered the country lanes of West Berkshire and Wiltshire during the hot days of the summer, the thing that struck me more than anything was how timeless everything was.

A hundred years ago a writer or an artist might have explored the very lanes that I was exploring and experiencing the same feelings.  In 1816 or even 1716 the same might have happened.  We are lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country.  As normal thoughts about writing were not far behind me.

What would my next project be?   Things Often Found.

I had not written about the commonplace for quite a while.  So on that hot July day as I sat in a pub near Devizes, I thought about frequency.  The frequency of discovery.  In the month of July what would I find most often?  Obviously certain criteria had to be observed otherwise the popular would win hands down.

It all started in the market hall in Devizes.  I found a shoddy copy of T.S Eliot’s Four Quartets which I purchased.  It had been owned by a Terence Day in 1957 and had the following quote from The Sleeping Beauty  by Edith Sitwell added.

In that dead wild spring

Through the birds shaken voice

We heard God sing

Quite why it had been added to Eliot’s Quartets was open to question.  So this was a start.

Later in the month I was in the Bath area and guess what I found?  Not one but two copies of the Quartets.  I did not purchase them but by then knew what I was going to write about.   There were further sightings in Dover and here in Hungerford.  But where could I start?  It would have been improper of me to write a critique as there are many people more qualified to do so. So I settled on short descriptions of the places noted in Eliot’s work.

I have always admired the Four Quartets with their meditations on man’s relationship with God.  His relationship with time and the universe.  Eliot was articulating what I had felt when I was exploring those country lanes.  Hang on I am beginning to analyse the poems.  We cannot have that.  Let’s get back to basics.

The Quartets are a set of four poems which Eliot created over a six year period just before the Second World War.  The four poems were:

Burnt Norton

East Coker

The Dry Salvages

Little Gidding

All are places which in theory one can visit although one is not in England and not very accessible. 

Burnt Norton is a manor house in the Cotswolds with a lovely garden.  It belonged to a close friend of Eliot and the poet had enjoyed many happy visits to the house and garden.

geograph.org.uk

East Coker is a small village not far from Yeovil and was the ancestral home of the poet’s family. His ashes now rest in the village church.

Little Gidding is a village about twelve miles from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire and was the site of Nicholas Ferrar’s non-conformist community founded in 1625.

 The Dry Salvages are a small group of rocks off of the north-east coast of Cape Ann in Massachusetts.

Although I am a great admirer of Eliot, the nearest I have been to visiting any of these places is being driven through East Coker about ten years ago.  I do not know if I will visit these places as the poems themselves mean so much to me.  If I do it will be to pay my respects to Eliot at East Coker.

What did amuse me though was that I was conducting this little charade during the height of a lovely English summer.  Everything was soft.  The air.  The light.  The colours of the season.  All were most agreeable.  Then there was Eliot opening Little Gidding with the following line.  Midwinter spring is its own season.  And he ends with Where is the summer, the unimaginable Zero summer?

I was reading these lines in Bedwyn.   The temperature was in the eighties.  On the surface it certainly was not a zero summer but I was aware of the underlying meaning.

Little Gidding is the fire poem of the quartet and if I am reading it correctly is about lost causes.  The lost causes of Charles the First and possibly their association with Ferrar’s family community.

I am going to stop here as I promised not to analyse the work.  My intention was to examine the commonplace.

Things Often Found.

As it was I happened on Eliot’s Four Quartets it could just have easily been farm equipment or the like.  Although it is November and the weather is anything but nice there is still plenty of time to explore.  Do examine the commonplace the items that you see frequently when in antique shops and Arcades.  They are always of interest and if you research them well it can be a hugely rewarding experience.

If I have set you off on the Eliot trail then it likely you will find the Four Quartets in the Arcade.  Fill your motor car up with a tankful of petrol and off you go.

I will leave you with this quote from Burnt Norton

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.

Happy Hunting

Stuart Miller-Osborne

Hungerford Arcade love to hear from their customers about the many different things they like to collect. When I say collect, some of their collections run into thousands of items and not surprisingly, they always come to the Arcade for that elusive piece that has always escaped them.

There is a saying that I have heard many collectors state and that is, “Whatever you are looking for, you will eventually find it in Hungerford Arcade”.  This is very true and many of our customers can testify to having that experience themselves.

This lovely lady accompanied by her mother, fell in love with a silver plated tea service. She was truly amazed that she could buy such a beautiful antique at a bargain price.  It was lovely to meet them and knowing that they both went home very happy.   

AFFORDABLE ART SHOW

Unique Art Works for Christmas

26 & 27 November 2016

11am- 5pm

Hungerford Arcade’s very good friend and stallholder, Diccon Dadey the renowned Fine Metal Art Sculpturist, will be exhibiting at the above Art Show on the 26th and 27th November.  For those of us wanting something unique for that special person or indeed ourselves, then look no further than Diccon.  The pictures below are just a tiny sample of his works.

Go along and meet Diccon and also look him up on his website at http://www.dadeymetalart.co.uk/

Full details of the Exhibition and all the local artists are listed below.  

EXHIBITION AND SALE OF WORK BY LOCAL ARTISTS

Paintings • Prints • Books Photography •  Stained Glass •  Ceramics

Metal Sculpture

MAVINA BAKER

NORMANDY BARCELO-SOTO

DIANA BARRACLOUGH

DICCON DADEY

SUSAN KIRKMAN

PATTIE MEDLIN

ARRAN MILES

LORRAINE SAVILLE

PRIVATE VIEW

26TH NOVEMBER 6.00 – 9.00PM

Froxfield Memorial Hall Froxfield

Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 3LD

Froxfield is on the A4 between Hungerford and Marlborough The Memorial Hall is on the Village Green

Hungerford Arcade held its annual Poppy Appeal with the much loved Vintage Military Vehicles.   This year we were honoured to have the Wessex Rangers Brigade Hungerford and the Hungerford Girl Guides join up with the military vehicles helping to raise much needed funds for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

First things first.  A good cook-up at the mobile NAAFI

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning at about 9.00 am when the military vehicles started to arrive outside the Arcade.  The vehicles looked stunning in the sunlight and their owners wearing big wide smiles on their faces as they lined up in their zones.  This year there were 17 vehicles which made for a very impressive sight.

The Wessex Rangers and Girl Guides armed with their buckets, tins and boxes of poppies worked very hard all day and enjoyed every minute of it.  The highlight for them was being taken for rides in some of the military vehicles.  You could feel their excitement.

What struck everyone was how enthusiastic and happy these young people were at being involved in this very important day.  They understood what the poppy stood for and why it was important to have this Appeal.  They mixed and chatted with everyone and couldn’t stop smiling.  It was a joy to see.

Gunner Rita – Doing my bit!

Hungerford Arcade Stallholder Daniel Evans (Dan) couldn’t resist going for a ride with the Wessex Rangers and Girl Guides in a vintage military vehicle

Hungerford Arcade Stallholder, Gary Crook who along with his wife, June organised all the Military Vehicles. Gary is here with a new addition to the family – a lightweight Landrover that can be stripped down and slung under a helicopter. (This was before Chinooks)

I do have a lot more photographs and the names of the Military Vehicle owners, Wessex Rangers and Girl Guides but unfortunately, I have been home with the flu since Sunday and have left my notebook at the Arcade.  I will add the names and more photographs when I get back.

In the meantime,  I and everyone at Hungerford Arcade would like to thank Gary and June Crook for once again organising all the vintage military vehicles.  The owners for bringing their wonderful vehicles at their own expense and raising lots of money for the poppy Appeal.

Thank you to Michelle Tallak, Unit Commander of the Hungerford Wessex Rangers Brigade and Zoe Hopkins for the Girl Guides for all the hard work carried out by the Wessex Rangers Brigade and the Girl Guides who really go into the spirit of the day and raised lots of money in the process. 

Thank you to Di Loft and her husband of the Royal British Legion for supplying the wreaths for the vehicles the buckets, collection tins and all the poppies.

Rita

One of the nicest things about living in the United Kingdom is that no matter where you are there is always a pub nearby.  Unless they are themed they are usually pretty similar whether you are in Rotherham or Rotherhithe or Newbury or Newmarket.

Even the smallest hamlet seems to have a pub and although the newspapers carry stories of these establishments closing down, you nearly always find one open usually serving the local ales and beers of the county as well as all nature of other refreshments.

During the summer on a very hot July day, I visited a pub not far from the shimmering Marlborough Downs. My wife and I were in need of refreshment and although not partaking of alcohol were happily rested in the beer garden with our soft drinks.  It was one of those days when the sun was so high that it created a brilliance that one would expect to see in Venice or maybe St Ives.  All the colours of the garden were in sharp profile.  But as I admired our surroundings I looked through the window of the bar where a celestial light appeared to be emerging.  Sadly it was not anything other worldly but the horse brasses around the fireplace reflecting the light from the bonnet of a car parked outside.

As we had been out in the sun for a considerable period, my wife and I decided to take a break in the deserted bar. The air was much cooler and the low ceiling helped to create a comfortable draft. It was then that I realised the actual number of horse brasses that decorated the bar.  Apart from the celestial ones there were brasses hung in every conceivable space.  I did not count them but at a guess there must have been upwards of a hundred.  It was then that I began to think about them.  Like swallows in the summer we expect to see them in inns and pubs around the country but treat them almost like the glasses we drink from.  They are very familiar.

I do not collect horse brasses (I have one dating from Victoria’s Jubilee in 1897) but wondered at their history as whenever you enter an antiques shop or the Arcade, they are there to be found usually at quite reasonable prices.

Horse brasses are named after their origins, they are to be found quite frequently as plaques decorating the harness gear on horses. As we are all aware we see them frequently on shire horses and other heavy horses.  Being a Wiltshire lad, I always thought that these brasses had originated during the nineteenth century as when very small I remember attending county shows where some of the old timers of the day told me stories of shows dating back to the 1880s.  Mr (Old) Kelsey who lived to be 102, quite often used to show me grainy monochrome photographs of bygone county shows where the decoration of these horses was the subject of much competition.  I was therefore quite surprised when researching the subject to find out that horse brasses actually dated back to Ancient Rome where they were known as phalerae.  During the Middle Ages and before, these brasses were also to be found mainly used as talismans and maybe I would imagine as symbols of status.

Although not connected with its ancestors, the popularity of horse brasses was revived in the mid nineteenth century as the enthusiasm for the decorative arts took hold after the Great Exhibition of 1851. These brasses were often attached to a horse harness called a martingale.  As the use of the heavy horse was very widespread during the final fifty years of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century, the decoration of these horses was common practice.  The brasses were not there to ward off evil spirits or I would imagine as status symbols but for decoration only.

The size of these brasses varied but the most popular ones were sized at three times three and a half inches although looking at photographs of the time the actual size varied. There are many photographs of horse parades at these county fairs (and the like) and I understand the RSPCA quite often presented merit awards to the outstanding decorated horses.

As with most things people started collecting horse brasses in their own right and the subjects depicted varied widely. Rather surprisingly they were very popular with academics and other professionals.  But when one looks at this it is quite understandable as much of their thinking was dominated by the Romanticism of the period and the interest in medievalism.  As we all know, the Gothic Revival was very popular and the interest in the humble horse brass was just part of this.  But to some extent it strengthened the linage and popularity of the item to the present day.

The first horse brasses to appear were the cast brasses which were often made by smiths and other artisans. In our locality these may have reflected local landmarks or superstitions.  The Hungerford Trout may have featured on some of the early cast brasses although I cannot say that I have seen one.  Later in the century (c1880) stamped brasses began to appear. This is likely to have evolved from the creation of military insignia.

Stamped brasses were much lighter than cast brasses which was good news for the poor old horse and like anything that was easier to produce were cheaper which meant they were easier to collect.  Unlike the cast brasses which, within reason, would have not have travelled too far, stamped brasses were soon exported to all parts of the empire.

The manufacture of stamped brasses was not based on moulds (as their cast cousins were) but via a rolled sheet of brass which by its very name was stamped. The ease of this process meant that there were many many varieties created. Most of the horse brasses we see today would have originated from that or
iginal stamping process.  I was shown a cast horse brass a few years ago and my first impression was it was heavier to hold than a stamped one although the actual design was surprisingly delicate.  As I have noted, horse brasses can represent almost anything.  From Griffins to Cockerels, from Jamaica Inn to Jersey from Churches to Cathedrals, the list is endless.

Recently whilst in Coventry, I even found one representing the brave Lady Godiva (although she looked distinctly modern in appearance).  If one can think of a subject then I would imagine that somewhere it is represented by a horse brass.

For the most part it is a cheap pastime with brasses only costing a few pounds be they modern or much older.  Apart from the ceremonial ones which can easily be dated one really would have to research these items and date them.  I am not an expert.

Over the last few weeks I have noted that many antique establishments a well as charity shops in this area have decent stocks of horse brasses at reasonable prices.  If you are collecting horse brasses to decorate your house then like we all do, you will choose the ones that attract you but if you are a more specialised collector of horse brasses, then you will be looking for the rarer ones and will know the prices they attract.

I might pick up the odd one in future (most likely from a coronation or a jubilee) but I do not envisage collecting them en masse.  If you do propose to collect horse brasses then do so as it will prove to be a most satisfying recreation and the large plus factor is that they do not take up much room and look great when displayed whether they are reflecting the soft sunlight of summer days or the harsh lights of winter.

Stuart Miller-Osborne