A repossession and other discoveries from the Sunderland Shipbuilding Archives project

Collections & Objects   Discovery Museum   Local History   Maritime History   The Archives
Posted by administrator on March 27, 2012     Permalink     Comments (13)

Work on the project has been progressing smoothly for the past month. Colin has now completed the cataloguing of the Bartram & Sons ships plans we hold and has started work on the plans of the Sunderland shipbuilding firm of John Crown & Sons Ltd.

While Colin has been keeping out of mischief (mostly), I’ve been working on the records of Austin Pickersgill Ltd and its two predecessor companies, S.P. Austin & Son Ltd and William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd. Most of the documents catalogued so far are typical of the shipbuilding records we hold and include annual reports, hull and engine specifications, contracts and ships cost files. However, a number of slightly unusual documents have also been unearthed. By a strange coincidence these all touch on the topical subject of credit.

Of particular interest is a series of records relating to the iron barque ‘Mary Roberts’, launched by William Pickersgill & Sons in 1887. The vessel was built for the Liverpool shipowner Richard Hugh Roberts. However, when Mr Roberts defaulted on his payments to Pickersgills in 1888 the firm set about repossessing the vessel. With the agreement of the ship’s other shareholders Charles Pickersgill was appointed manager of the ‘Mary Roberts’ and personally travelled to Hamburg in October 1888 to take possession of her. The ‘Mary Roberts’ completed its scheduled voyage and was then sold in December 1889 against the wishes of the previous managing owner, Mr Roberts.

It appears that Charles Pickersgill may have been pretty ruthless in his dealings with Roberts, who certainly had hard feelings about his treatment. In a letter to William Pickersgill & Sons in 1892 Roberts wrote, “I have suffered false imprisonment … and every calumny owing to your intrigues with Thomas & Messrs Sloman & Co to say nothing of your interference with my private estate & business”.

 

Letter from R.H. Roberts to Wm. Pickersgill & Sons, 19 September 1892 (TWAM ref. DS.WP/2/1/8)

The shipowner’s difficulties are also mentioned in a letter by Charles Pickersgill dated 11 February 1889 (TWAM ref. DS.WP/2/1/5) in which he passed on a report that Roberts was “still in a Lunatic Asylum”.

On the other hand, letters written in August and September 1888 (TWAM ref. DS.WP/2/1/3) by Captain Owen Lewis, the master of ‘Mary Roberts’, paint a slightly unflattering picture of Roberts’ behaviour and he certainly doesn’t appear to be blameless in his misfortune. The events surrounding the repossession and sale of the ‘Mary Roberts’ are intriguing and I hope that further research might one day shed more light on them.

The records of S.P. Austin & Son Ltd also contain a number of unusual items. A document that particularly caught my eye is a register of enquiries of the credit status of potential customers, kept between 1884 and 1927 (TWAM ref. DS.AP/3/4). The vast majority of the entries give a positive account of the potential clients. An interesting example is the entry dating from 17 September 1902 for C.S. Swan & Hunter of Wallsend, who were interested in ordering a pontoon. The enquiry into the firm’s creditworthiness concluded “that they are safe and have a lot of good work in hand”. History confirms that the firm went on to great things.

Not all reports are glowing, though, as is reflected by an entry dating from 26 November 1902 for J.A. Salton & Co. of 31 Lombard Street, London. The report sent by Barclay & Co. Ltd mentions that the firm “were in difficulties in 1901. The business is carried on now by Mr J.A.S. who is not favourably looked on and has not recovered his financial position”.

Entry regarding the credit status of J.A. Salton, 26 November 1902 (TWAM ref. DS.AP/3/4)

This register is also interesting because it includes details of proposed ship repair work. Ship repairing was an important part of the firm’s business but is poorly documented in the collection. Austins was well known for its Pontoon Dock, completed in 1903, which allowed the firm to carry out larger repair jobs on vessels up to 400 feet in length.

 

Image of vessel on Pontoon Dock taken from S.P. Austin & Son Ltd publicity leaflet, c1930s

Over the next few weeks I’ll be completing work on the S.P Austin & Son and William Pickersgill & Sons collections. These include some interesting personnel records and I look forward to reporting on them in my next blog.

 

 

 

Marguerite hidden beneath 100 years of dirt

Art   Collections & Objects   Collections Management   Education   Exhibitions
Posted by administrator on March 15, 2012     Permalink     Leave a comment

The Art for Sunderland Exhibition is designed to give an idea of what goes on behind the scenes in a museum. I was lucky enough to get to choose a painting to work on in gallery.

 

I chose ‘Marguerite Leaving the Cathedral’ a beautiful 19th C painting in a pre-Raphaelite style. It wasn’t just that I liked the painting it was because she was SO DIRTY! I knew that if I could get the dirt and discoloured varnish off of her she would look stunning.

First I tested to see how much dirt I could get off and with what. Below is a picture of the cleaning tests – the swabs came off black! I think we can safely say that marguerite was a very dirty girl and had been avoiding a clean for at least 100 years. The dirt coming off was probably from the time when she was displayed in rooms with open fires and gas lights creating lots of soot on the surface which will also be quite acidic so it’s definitely a good idea to get it off.

 

In the second tests I tried different ways of getting the varnish off as it seemed very yellow (actually it looked more like brown toffee) you can see in the last test on the right how different the colours will look when it is removed.

 

in the bottom picture you can see what it looks like as I begin to clean off the dirt. I will be working in Sunderland Gallery on and off for the next few months so come and see how I am getting on.  

Settle Down Cafe hosts Archives Exhibition

Collections Management   Discovery Museum   Exhibitions   Local History   New Media   Social History   The Archives
Posted by administrator on March 13, 2012     Permalink     Comments (1)

The cafe entrance...always a warm welcome

We’ve installed one of our exhibitions at The Settle Down Cafe in Newcastle. It’s called, “Out of One Eye: the photography of Jimmy Forsyth”

Why not pop along and have a look…? Let me know what you think.

Jimmy Forsyth came to Newcastle from Barry, South Wales, in 1943.  He had come to work at ICI in Prudhoe as part of the war effort.  He had been at work for only four days when an accident led to the loss of sight in his right eye.

 When the war ended and servicemen returned to their old jobs, Jimmy found it increasingly difficult to find work.  He settled in Elswick and spent his days walking and reading about the history of his adoptive home.

In 1954 he bought a camera from a junk shop and began taking pictures along Scotswood Road. At first they were just snapshots – people he knew, places that interested him. Eventually he decided to try to make a comprehensive record of where he lived – he wanted to document the people who lived and worked there and the buildings and the streets that were being knocked down during T. Dan Smith’s redevelopment of the west end of the city.

Widespread recognition of his photographs did not come until 1981, when he was discovered by Newcastle’s Side Gallery, which mounted major exhibitions of his work.  In 1987 he was awarded the prestigious Halina Award for photography. 

Jimmy died in 2009 at the age of 95.  Tyne and Wear Archives holds over 40, 000 negatives of his work. 

Some of the images in situ

Christina and Matt install the photographs

One of the images you can see in the exhibition

http://www.thesettledown.com/

Fashion for the uninitiated

Art   Collections & Objects   Design   Exhibitions   Fashion   South Shields Museum & Art Gallery
Posted by administrator on March 12, 2012     Permalink     Comments (1)

I have to say, I’m a bit like Ugly Betty when it comes to dressing myself and having knowledge of the fashion world, so creating a fashion-inspired exhibition was a learning curve for me.

Fashion exhibition at South Shields Museum

View of the entrance to exhibition

‘When art became fashion: the story of South Shields fashion designer, Jax Styler’ opened on Saturday 11 February, complete with pop art and Jessie J-inspired bottle top jumpers. I wrote the labels for the exhibition and had to search out a lot of information. There is a small section with a case of tattooing instruments (a subject that I’m a bit fan of) so not only did I go and visit the Roker Tattoo Studio in Sunderland, but I also ended up researching famous tattoo artists such as ‘Sailor Jerry’. Now at the risk of showing my ignorance, I thought that was a brand, but ‘Jerry’ was actually an American bloke whose real name was Norman Collins!

Roker tattoo studio objects

Tattooing objects

The main focus of the exhibition, however, is on a young artist- turned- fashion designer called Jax Styler. Last year she won the Shields Gazette’s ‘If We Can, You Can’ entrepreneur’s competition, winning a package of prizes to help her set up her clothing brand, also of the same name.

Many of her designs are still in production (in Turkey) but the exhibition offers a taster of what to expect from the young entrepreneur, which includes t-shirts and jumpers inspired by celebrity styling.

There are also a number of her artworks on display, showing her pop culture inspirations that include music artists such as Lady Gaga and old-school icons including Marilyn Monroe.

Early artwork

Pop art-inspired paintings by Jax

There is probably a lot that I should be taking away from this exhibition with regard to how to dress myself better. Jax’s website will be launching soon, with her clothing range available to buy online. I can see my next pay packet disappearing very quickly….

Victorian Newcastle Disguised: Castle Garth

Art   Collections & Objects   Laing Art Gallery   Local History
Posted by administrator on March 8, 2012     Permalink     Comments (2)

Viewing Emmerson's 'The Lost Child'

The painting on the left of this photo is Henry Hetherington Emmerson’s picture of ‘The Lost Child’, which shows Victorian Castle Garth in Newcastle – disguised as a scene from the past. It is hung next to a picture by Ralph Hedley, which depicts the Black Gate, with a glimpse of Castle Garth in the background. (Hedley’s picture, which records life in Victorian Newcastle, is the subject of another blog.) The paintings are on show in the collection exhibition ‘19th-century Art in Newcastle’, until 29 April 2012 at the Laing Art Gallery.

Henry H Emmerson's 'The Lost Child', 1873

Henry H Emmerson’s picture of ‘The Lost Child’ shows Victorian Castle Garth dressed up as a 17th-century scene.

The street of Castle Garth in Newcastle was the last remnant of many shops and houses that had been built inside the castle walls. Strictly speaking, Castle Garth is the whole of the area inside the castle walls, but by the time Emmerson painted his picture, this little street had become known as Castle Garth.

In fact, the buildings in Emmerson’s picture are almost the same as in Victorian photographs of the street. The main change Emmerson made is to the building on the right, to make it seem grander.

The grey, smoky air in Emmerson’s picture is probably quite true-to-life for Victorian Newcastle.

This 1894 photograph is in Newcastle City Library collection.

Castle Garth in 1894, © Newcastle City Library

In an article on ‘North-Country Lore And Legend’, in the ‘Monthly Chronicle’ for September 1889, J. R. Boyle wrote:

 The crowded dwellings of the Castle Garth have almost all disappeared. When the present Moot Hall was built, many of the houses surrounding the Keep were taken down, and even a larger number were removed to make way for the approach to the High Level Bridge. Now all that remains to show the old-time aspect of the Garth is the short street leading within the Black Gate towards the Moot Hall…. This, indeed, is all that is now generally known as the Castle Garth. It is hastening, also, towards its end. The hand of time and decay rests heavily on it, and before very long even this remnant of Old Newcastle will be gone.

A later photograph, from about 1900, shows that the buildings next to the Black Gate had indeed been knocked down. However, it’s still possible to see the street outline.

17th-century disguise

Emmerson has shown several of the figures in the picture of ‘The Lost Child’ wearing the kind of flamboyant clothes favoured by many wealthy people in the 17th century, particularly Royalists. Newcastle had benefited enormously from Royal Charter for control of the coal trade. It was a Royalist town during the Civil War (1642-1649) until it fell to Scottish forces working with Parliamentarians in 1644. After the monarchy was restored in 1660 with the accession of Charles II, Royalist control of Newcastle returned.

In his painting, Emmerson created a sweet and humorous image of 17th-century life by focusing on the lost girl and the young boy with his little dog.

The little lost girl

The boy’s little dog gazes nervously at the cat behind it.

Both cat and dog seem as alarmed as each other

Not everyone in the picture is richly dressed. 17th-century Puritans believed that expensive, decorative clothing was sinful – a Puritan man in plain black clothes and tall hat is one of the people in the crowd around the town official. In any case, the majority of people could only afford simple clothing.

The barber on the right is also dressed plainly. His shop is marked by the barber’s traditional red-and-white pole, together with a shaving plate with an oval cut out for the customer’s neck. The barber also has a comb in his hair – though the huge scissors he’s holding look dangerous for hair-cutting.

Emmerson has painted a variety of ages and types of people

However, Emmerson was aiming at creating an impression of life long ago, rather than being absolutely accurate in all details. Nevertheless, if you discount the fanciful addition of the fine house on the right, the picture’s setting gives an interesting impression of this ancient Newcastle street in the late-19th century.