COLLECTIONS ACCESS GRANTS
2023 Collections Access Grant awarded to the Stourbridge Glass Museum
Image: Keith Murray description book and Gray-Stan pattern book in the new display case ©Stourbridge Glass Museum.
The museum opened its doors in 2022 and has a temporary exhibition gallery and permanent displays highlighting the history of the Stourbridge Glass Quarter, facilities for artists for hot and cold glass and a busy programme of events. It is also actively collecting and the CAG (£5000) is for a special case to display archival material. This includes the recently conserved Stevens and Williams pattern and design books, a recently acquired set of Whitefriars factory set of designs and glassmakers’ drawing boards including 1960s vases by Geoffrey Baxter and the Keith Murray description book and original designs for glass.
2023 Collections Access Grants awarded to Dorich House Museum and Lotherton Hall
Image: Blue cased opaline glass bratina with gilt decoration, after a design by Elisaveta Bem for the Maltsov Crystal Works, c. 1885 © Dorich House Museum, Kingston University. Photo: Ellie Laycock
Dorich House Museum in Kingston upon Thames was the home and studio of the sculptor Dora Gordine (1895-1991) and her husband, Richard Hare (1907-1966), an avid collector of Russian art and artefacts. Hare’s Russian collection was the largest assembled by a British collector. This Collections Access Grant of £5000 will facilitate research into Hare’s Russian collection, focussing on the late 19th and early 20th century lacquer, glass, silver and vernacular design. It will allow the museum to make substantial progress towards publishing an illustrated catalogue of the collection, which also includes paintings, engravings, icons and furniture.
Image: Lamp by W.A.S. Benson before restoration, c. 1895 ©Leeds Museums and Galleries [Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by H M Government from the estate of Beatrix Cooper and allocated to Leeds Museums & Galleries, 2021].
Lotherton Hall, part of Leeds Museums and Galleries, is where its important collection of later 19th and 20th century decorative arts is displayed. The Collections Access Grant of £2500 is for the conservation of four Arts and Crafts light fixtures in the museum’s collection, three designed by C. F. A. Voysey for Moor Crag, Windermere and one designed by W.A.S. Benson. Once conserved the lights will go on display and enhance the important story of electricity at Lotherton, a house rebuilt with all mod cons in 1903 for the Gascoigne family.
- 2022 The Stourbridge Glass Museum for new casework to improve the display of its collections including Amalric Walter pâte-de-verre from the early 20th century, Gray-Stan glass (1922-36) and supporting archival material (£5000).
- 2022 The Hepworth, Wakefield towards a new display exploring the relationship between sculpture and ceramics from the 1950s to the present (£5000).
- 2021 Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery to help fund a display case for the major exhibition of civic silver (£5000).
- 2021 Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA) at York Art Gallery to support the publication of a book on the pioneering British studio pottery collector, W. A. (Bill) Ismay (1910-2001) (£4800).
- 2020 Ushaw College for the conservation of a large, detailed 1858 bird’s eye view drawing of the college (£1500).
- 2020 William Morris Gallery for restoration of a settle, wallpapers and textiles to be displayed in an exhibition on The Century Guild (£4800).
- 2020 De Morgan Foundation for the conservation of two major oil on canvas cartoons for stained glass windows by William De Morgan (£2500).
- 2020 Bushey Museum and Art Gallery for a new case and interpretative panels which will allow a permanent display of its Bushey Heath Pottery collection (£5000).
- 2019 Shipley Art Gallery to create a permanent display of ceramics including highlights from art historian John Christian’s outstanding collection of British studio ceramics. (£5000)
2019 Kelmscott Manor/Society of Antiquaries to enable the redisplay in a purpose-built case of the important embroidery The Homestead and the Forest, 1890, designed by May Morris and embroidered by Jane Morris (£2500)
- 2019 Haslemere Education Museum to publish a book entitled The Rustic Renaissance: The Haslemere Peasant Arts Movement (£5000)
- 2018 Lotherton Hall, Leeds Museums and Galleries, to conserve the pietra dura top of a table designed by William Burges (£5000)
- 2018 Kingston Museum, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, to redisplay and reinterpret part of its ceramics collections (£5000)
- 2017 Portsmouth Museum, to photograph its holding of objects originally from the Handley-Read collection (£2,000)
- 2016 William Morris Gallery, London, for conservation of a Japanese screen donated by Frank Brangwyn RA (£2,000)
- 2015 Bury Art Museum, Greater Manchester, to publish a catalogue of its collection of Pilkington’s Royal Lancastrian Pottery (£2,000)
- 2014 Blackwell, The Arts and Crafts House, Windermere for Lakeland Arts’ initial research on a new master bedroom and dressing room (£2,000)
MUSEUM ACQUISITIONS
- 2023 The Bushey Museum and Art Gallery, grant towards the purchase of four enamel panels (1897-99) from a silver shield entitled The Triumph of the Hour by Sir Hubert von Herkomer (£2000).
- 2022 The Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead, grant towards the purchase of a Della Robbia Pottery platter, 1894, decorated by Henry Rathbone, the founder of the Pottery (£2400).
- 2022 V&A Wedgwood Collection at Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, grant towards the purchase of a tea and coffee service designed for Wedgwood by Paul Follot (1877–1941), a French designer of luxury goods (£2000).
- 2022 Victoria & Albert Museum, London, exceptional grant towards the purchase of the export-stopped sculpture, The Death of Cleopatra, 1859, by Henri de Triqueti (£3000)
- 2020 National Museums of Liverpool for Marjorie, a watercolour of a young Bootle resident set within an enamelled Arts and Crafts frame, 1896, both by Lily Day (£425).
- 2020 The Box, Plymouth, exceptional grant towards the purchase of the export-stopped Martinware Crab salt-glazed stoneware designed by Robert Wallace Martin (£10,000)
- 2020 Leeds Museums and Galleries for three pieces of silicone jewellery by Jenny Llewellyn (£800)
- 2019 The Milford House Preservation Trust for three sculptures: a marble of Psyche and a pair of bronze runners by Joseph Uphues (£2000)
- 2018 The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, for a partial coffee set, 'Vogue' with 'Sunray' pattern, 1930-33, designed by Eric Slater, made by Shelley Potteries, Staffordshire (£750)
- 2017 Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston for six dresses by Horrockses Fashions made from fabrics designed by Alastair Morton, 1946-50 (£640)
- 2016 Victoria and Albert Museum for prototype aumbry door, 1956, by Geoffrey Clarke RA (£1160)
- 2016 British Museum for a covered, lustre vase by Pilkington, 1910, designed by Gordon Forsyth and given to Charles Hercules Read (£2000)
- 2014 Victoria and Albert Museum for double-gourd vase designed by Christopher Dresser (£2000 including gifts from individual members)
- 2014 Stained Glass Museum, Ely for four stained-glass panels by Geoffrey Clarke RA (£500)
- 2013 V & A Museum of Childhood for Joan’s Chair, 1901, designed by Ambrose Heal (£350)
DAS STUDY TOUR BURSARIES
- Barbara Vujanović, Meštrović Atelier, Zagreb, Croatia (Glasgow 2018; pictured above)
- Rebecca Bell, PhD candidate, Victoria and Albert Museum / Royal College of Art (Budapest and Pécs 2018)
- Simon Spier, PhD candidate, University of Leeds (Lille 2017)
- Elizabeth Bisley, Victoria and Albert Museum (Helsinki 2016)
- Helen Ritchie, British Museum (Helsinki 2016)
- Lesley Richardson, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle (Paris 2014)
- Dr Rachel Conroy, National Museum Wales (Czech Republic 2014)
- Dr Melanie Vandenbrouck, Royal Museums, Greenwich (New York 2013)
The institutions listed are where the awardees worked when applying for the bursary.
RESEARCH TRAVEL GRANT
- 2023 Dr Helen Shaw, research manager at Queen Mary University, London for research in the Poole Pottery archives related to civic mural commissions and particularly two at Queen Mary University.
- 2022 Dr Jareh Das, independent scholar and curator, for a research trip to Nigeria to investigate the life of Ladi Kwali, her ceramics, her links with Michael Cardew and her legacy both in Nigeria and the wider world.
- 2019 Ngozi Ikoku, independent scholar, for research into the history of animal skins and their patterns in textiles and dress, using objects and documentation at Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire, The Fashion Museum Bath, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
- 2017 Benjamin Angwin, PhD candidate, Kingston University, London for research into the Omega Workshops at the Harry Ransome Center, University of Texas at Austin.
AD HOC GRANTS
- 2021 William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow for sponsorship of the House under the Firs model in the exhibition Young Poland (£3000 from funds raised in honour of the chairmanship of Robert Wilson).
- 2021 Contribution towards the publication of Collinson and Lock: Art Furnishers, Interior Decorators and Designers, 1870-1900 by Clive Edwards (£1000).
- 2021 Contribution towards photography costs for the book Daniel Cottier: Designer, Decorator, Dealer by Petra ten-Doesschate, Max Donnelly, Andrew Montana and Suzanne Veldink (£1000).