Friends Summer Newsletter 2017

Newsletter SUMMER 2017 2 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS Contents

Chairman’s letter 3 Important Membership Matters 4

2017 Future events Friday 23rd June Friends 2017 AGM 4 Friday 23rd June Private View: Tapestry Here & Now 5 Sunday 25th June Holburne Friends’ Book Sale 6 Thursday 6th July Music: Schubert’s Schwanengesang 7 Thursday 10th August A day trip to Chavenage House & 8 Rodmarton Manor Thursday 7th September A day trip to Ablington Manor & 10 Wormington Grange Tuesday 19th September Sezincote House & Owlpen Manor revisited 12 8th to 11th December Three Dutch Cities and their Treasures 14

Past events round-up Craft beer tasting 16 Frank Brown evening 16 Holburne Friends Plant Sale 16 Sezincote House & Owlpen Manor 17

Storeroom visit: Liz Nash 18

Proﬁle: Nina Harrison-Leins 20

Holburne Insights 22

Holburne Friends Committee back cover

Front cover photograph shows the Mauritshuis, in The Hague, heralding the Three Dutch Cities visit in December 2017.

Image courtesy of the photographer © Luuk Kramer WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS 3 Chairman’s letter

Dear Friends The AGM marks I recently had a long and interesting those joining and conversation with someone who was leaving the team, researching Friends' groups, and was and this year we are left feeling confident that we do our very sad to say job well. I was told that we 'punch farewell to Trish above our weight' in terms of financial Tassis. Many of you contribution to our Museum, and I am will have enjoyed sure that this is due to our strong events she has organised; learning sense of community with each other craft techniques in the Gardeners and also with the Holburne and all it Lodge or on short trips to visit makers does. This is in large part the result and fascinating local treasures. I think of good communication - the Director Trish's 'Closer Look' events epitomise or another senior member of staff what the Friends hope to offer, learning attends every Friends' committee about something extraordinary in the meeting and I as Chairman sit on the company of like-minded friends. board of Trustees, so we are all clear Perhaps there are Friends who would as to goals and financial realities. like to think up some more events, and put them into practice? I'll take this opportunity to remind everyone that we still need to raise the We have several trips to look forward endowment to support the Museum's to, and organisers to be thankful running costs, if we want it to continue for - Minnie Tatham for her garden its stellar programme. If any Friend tours, Mark Hake for a couple of is able to help either now or with a great days out, one so successful we legacy, please do get in touch. had to do it twice (see page 12) and Olivia and Simon Eliot for an The next Friends' get together at the exciting Dutch trip in December. Museum is on the occasion of our Also don't forget Sidney Blackmore's preview of Tapestry Here & Now, for book sale at the Museum, returning which we are lead sponsors. I am on Sunday 25th June; Sidney and really pleased that Chris Stephens, David have raised enormous sums Director designate of the Holburne, over several decades, steadily is able to join us, and will say a few spreading books at many sales around words at the AGM immediately the West Country. Our new chapter afterwards. We will also hear from opens shortly as we welcome Chris Sally Hutton, Interim Director and Stephens to the Holburne. Head of Finance. Antonia Johnson 4 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS Important Membership Matters

Firstly, my thanks to all those who on the Front Desk now holds only upgraded April Standing Orders minimal information about Friends, either with or without my prior and sometimes the volunteers there knowledge, some of you doing so cannot answer queries about your even before my reminders! membership. They will generally refer queries to me, but I am only at the And thanks too to all of you who Museum once a week. However if you have sent cheques to make up the are at the Museum, and have an urgent diﬀerence between your old Standing question about your membership Orders and the new rates – please which they can’t answer, Oliver remember to cancel your old Order Merchant of the Development team and set a new amount for next year if might be able to help. However, he is you have not already done so. We are a very busy chap so if you can wait refunding the smaller amount to those for an answer from me please do so! who have paid twice – but you should ask your bank to cancel the lower of Please note that queries about visits the two orders, as some banks seem and events can only be answered by the not to read the instruction that “this organiser and not by anyone else; the cancels any previous order..”, as you relevant name will be in the Newsletter. know we cannot do this for you. This new database is extremely Nearly half our Friends pay in April complex and seems to have a mind of which makes it by far the busiest its own sometimes, so I hope you will month (T.S.Eliot had a stronger continue to be tolerant of any hiccups word for it!) and I apologise if new while we all get used to it. membership cards have been inconveniently late in getting to Undine Concannon, Honorary Membership you. This will mainly apply to those Secretary Email: [email protected] who upgraded without telling me, so I had to await for the April bank Friends 2017 Annual General Meeting statements to check. Please note that the 2017 Holburne Friends AGM will be held on Friday Holburne Friends’ Database 23rd June at 7:30pm in the The Friends’ database has now been Brownsword Gallery at the Holburne transferred to the system which I Museum, Bath. The Agenda for the (at home) and the Development team meeting and Minutes of the 2016 AGM (at the Museum) use. The till system are in the centre of this Newsletter. WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS 5 Friends’ Private View

Friends are invited to a Private View of the exhibition TAPESTRY HERE & NOW

Friday 23rd June 2017 6:00-7:30pm Refreshments in the Garden Café

Sara Brennan, detail of Deep Forest with Old Grey/Blue Band linen, wool, cotton 72 × 95cm © Sara Brennan 6 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS The Holburne Friends’ Summer Book Sale

Sunday 25th June 2017 a serious bookworm or just seeking 11:00am to 4:00pm at the some light summer reading. Holburne Museum, Bath There will be lots of paperback ﬁction, Francis Bacon, the philosopher and and excellent books on history, courtier, declared that “some books biography, literature, travel, the arts are to be tasted, others to be and much, much more. We hope to swallowed, and some few to be have something for all readers. chewed and digested”. Donations of good quality books are welcomed. Further information from Whatever your reading taste, our Sidney Blackmore and David Wiltshire. secondhand book sale will provide Telephone 01985 213195 or email a feast of books whether you are [email protected]

Drawing by Sidney Blackmore Sidney by Drawing WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS 7

Franz Schubert: Schwanengesang D.957

Thursday 6th July 2017, 7:30pm Brownsword Picture Gallery, Holburne Museum, Bath

Richard Frewer: Lyric Baritone (right) David Price: Schantz Fortepiano (left)

Last January, Richard and David gave a performance of Winterrreise in the Museum; it was warmly received. As one member of the audience wrote: as architect and university chair “what a remarkable evening - vocally professor, he has maintained a glorious, musically imaginative, and considerable reputation as a concert altogether deeply moving.” singer. Awarded the Philharmonia Orchestra’s prestigious Martin This summer, they are to perform Scholarship, and invited to take part in Schwanengesang (Swansong, 1828), Elizabeth Schwarzkopf’s masterclasses Schubert’s last collection of songs, in London and Hanover, he has published posthumously. Whereas performed throughout the United Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise Kingdom, in Europe and the Far are song cycles with clear narratives East in a wide range of repertoire. each from poems by Ludwig Müller, Schwanengesang consists of thirteen David Price was the Director of Music songs: six by Ludwig Rellstab, six by at Dauntsey’s School and has been Heinrich Heine and one by Johann conductor of the Trowbridge and Bath Seidl. There may be no narrative Symphony Orchestras, and musical coherence to the set but musically director of a number of West Country they hold together and they are some opera companies. He is a passionate of Schubert’s most expressive and chamber music player, a distinguished dramatic songs. Those who do not coach, accompanist and lecturer. know Schwanengesang, may well recognise several of the songs. Tickets are £12 each, please book via the Museum website: As at the Winterreise recital, the artists www.holburne.org or telephone on are giving their services in support of 01225 388569. As there is only the Holburne Museum. capacity for 100 in the Gallery, it is suggested that booking is made in Richard Frewer sings for the joy and good time. Performance duration is challenge of it. Throughout his career about 50 minutes, with no interval. 8 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS A day trip to Chavenage House & Rodmarton Manor

Thursday 10th August 2017 In the afternoon we will visit Rodmarton Coach departs Holburne Museum at Manor; a supreme example of a house 8:45am prompt, returning about 5:45pm built, and all its furniture made, to Arts and Crafts ideals. It is one of the last A private tour of two lovely houses near country houses built in traditional style Tetbury: Chavenage and Rodmarton. by hand using local stone, local timber and local craftsmen. While the exterior Chavenage’s history goes as far back as of the house has been described as the early 14th-century as sections of the ‘neo-monastic’ the interior is warm, most existing building formed part of an rooms being panelled, with timbered Augustian monastic community. After ceilings. Almost all the furniture has been the dissolution of the monasteries, the handmade, of local wood and in the estate was granted to Thomas Seymour Cotswold style. The final room built here who subsequently married Henry VIII’s was the chapel with stone arches and a widow Katherine Parr and was created beamed roof. Lord Seymour of Sudeley. The manor house is surrounded by an During the tumultuous 15th and 16th 8-acre garden. The link from the interior centuries the estate passed through to the exterior is provided almost several owners until the Stephens family seamlessly by a huge terrace on the inherited it. Chavenage remained in the entire south side of the house. Beyond Stephens family until it was bought by the terrace are walled areas, topiary, the Lowsley-Williams family in 1891. ‘tapestry-style’ plantings, pleached lime trees, clipped yew hedges, ‘outdoor And who better than the current owner rooms’, herbaceous borders and a David Lowsley-Williams to show us kitchen garden. We will have ample time round the house itself? Inside, we shall to stroll round and enjoy the gardens see the Great Hall, a fine minstrels’ gallery after our tour of the house. Mark Hake and fireplace, the impressive Oak Room with fluted and gilded panelling. Tickets are £68 each to include coach On the first floor are two highlights of travel, entry fees, guides, tea and coffee Chavenage: the Cromwell and Ireton on arrival, a 2 course buffet lunch with bedrooms richly decorated with soft drinks at Chavenage, plus tea and tapestries. Many now know the house as coffee before departing Rodmarton. ‘Trenwith’, standing in for the Poldark Please complete the booking form in family home in the popular TV series. the Newsletter.

Photograph © Jonathan Davis WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS 9

A day trip to Chavenage House & Rodmarton Manor continued

Below and right: Chavenage House

Below: the gardens at Rodmarton Manor 10 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS A day trip to Ablington Manor & Wormington Grange

Thursday 7th September 2017 Wormington Grange, Stanton Coach departs Holburne Museum at After lunch we’ll visit John Evetts at 9:00am prompt, returning approx 6pm Wormington Grange. Originally a photographer, John has been the Ablington Manor, Bibury Landmark Trust’s Furnishing Manager Described in The English Garden since 1976 and oversees the magazine as a place of ‘romantic furnishing and interior renovation reverie’, Ablington Manor is an of the Trust’s buildings from his absolute gem, nestled in one of the workshop and furniture store at his most delightful villages in the home at Wormington Grange. Cotswolds. This 16th-century manor house is surrounded by an exquisite His first commission was the renovation four acre garden which has been of John Keats’ apartment in the Piazza created over the last forty years by de Spagna and since then he has its current owners. amassed a huge knowledge from renovating, furnishing and maintaining The garden contains several ‘rooms’ some two hundred of the Trusts’s with magnificent borders packed with properties as well as managing a herbaceous perennials, roses and specialist crafts team here. He’s shrubs. Gigantic yew hedges spill a phenomenally busy man, but John across the lawns and a pretty bridge has generously agreed to give the over the River Coln at the bottom of Holburne Friends a private tour of the garden links the main lawn to the his workshops as well as his gardens. opposite bank, where the owner has This is a rare chance to experience built a charming French style stone what happens behind the scenes of gazebo. No ordinary gazebo, this the Trust’s work and promises to delightful building has two floors with be a fascinating afternoon. a high-pitched roof, a French style Minnie Tatham fireplace, a dining room, kitchen and terrace looking back to the rear of Tickets are £55 to include coach travel, the manor. Wander along the banks entrance to gardens, teas and coffees. of the river, then through a wild flower Lunch is not included at £20 each meadow and finish the tour by (please bring cash on the day). winding through a recently planted Please request a Booking Form by shady garden. emailing Minnie Tatham: [email protected] or Lunch will be at the Wheatsheaf Inn, complete and return the booking form at Northleach in Gloucestershire. in this Newsletter. WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS 11

A day trip to Ablington Manor & Wormington Grange continued

Ablington Manor

Above: John Evetts Left: Wormington Grange 12 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS Sezincote House and Owlpen Manor revisited

Tuesday 19th September 2017 Lunch will be taken at nearby Stow-on- Coach departs Holburne Museum at the-Wold, before we drive to Owlpen 8:30am prompt, returning approx 6:30pm Manor (below, right), a medieval house with 800 years of history, set in Following the success of our first visit its own picturesque wooded valley. to these wonderful properties in May, We will be personally guided by the we have been able to organise a return owner, Sir Nicholas Mander. visit so more Friends can enjoy these special places. Owlpen dates from 1450 and was carefully repaired in Arts and Crafts Tickets are limited however, as there is style in 1926 when the house was a waiting list from the first time round, rescued after nearly a century of so please respond quickly to make sure dereliction. The interiors include a of your booking. magnificent Tudor Great Hall of 1523, an elegant early Georgian parlour This full day trip promises a rare and a Great Chamber with unique opportunity to enjoy a private visit to painted cloth wall-hangings. these unique properties. First we shall visit Sezincote House (top, right), a The gardens range from a charming 200-year-old Mughal style palace, set hillside terraced garden with yew topiary, in a romantic landscape of temples, old roses and box parterres, a walled grottoes, waterfalls and canals. The kitchen garden to an “Old English” house is the centrepiece of a thriving garden which was greatly admired by family-run estate covering 4,500 acres Gertrude Jekyll. We shall be served a of rolling Cotswold countryside, and cream tea before heading back to Bath. was the inspiration for the rather more Mark Hake famous Brighton Pavilion, after the Prince Regent visited Sezincote in 1807. Tickets are £68 each to include coach travel, 1-course light lunch (drinks The House is designed in a unique charged extra), entry fees, guides and a combination of Hindu and Muslim cream tea before leaving Owlpen. architecture with a weathered copper onion dome, minarets, peacock-tail NB there are toilet facilities but no windows and a dramatic curved refreshments available at Sezincote, orangery, unfurling over a Repton so do bring your own bottled drinks landscape which has remained largely as required. Please complete and return unchanged since the mid 19th century. the booking form in the Newsletter. WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS 13

Sezincote House and Owlpen Manor revisited continued

Sezincote House

Owlpen Manor 14 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS Three Dutch Cities and their Treasures

Some Friends will remember the very iconic status in recent years: Vermeer’s successful trip to Amsterdam in December Girl with the Pearl Earring and The 2013. This December we’re planning a 4- Goldfinch by Fabritius. We will also day trip based in The Hague with visits to visit the Prince William V Gallery, Haarlem and Delft. Many of the artists of built in 1774 and newly restored with the Dutch Golden Age lived and worked its Old Master paintings hung in the in these cities, against backdrops which closely-packed 18th-century style. have changed remarkably little. We will The afternoon will be free for people be able to admire magnificent examples to choose whether they want to visit of their work as well as more contemporary more museums (modern art in art whilst exploring cities of immense the Gemeentemuseum or the Escher historic importance and charm. collection in the Royal Palace for instance) or simply enjoy watching We leave on the 9.10am flight from Bristol the centre of Dutch diplomatic and to Amsterdam on Friday 8th December political life prepare for Christmas, and then travel on to The Hague, where before we all meet for dinner in a we’ll be staying at The Park Hotel local restaurant. den Haag (4 star). After lunch there will be a walking tour of the city and a We will spend Sunday in Haarlem, private visit to the renowned art dealers, which retains many of its medieval Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder. buildings and the 17th-century evidence of the city at its most prosperous. Saturday will The Frans Hals Museum celebrates one begin with a of Haarlem’s most famous sons and guided visit to we’ll also visit the oldest museum of the Mauritshuis, the Netherlands, the Teylers Museum, which has which opened to the public in 1784. recently under- gone major On Monday we’ll visit the Panorama Mesdag, refurbishment the largest circular canvas in Europe and houses some depicting what was then the fishing village of the greatest of Scheveningen in 1880. Then we travel treasures of on to Delft for the rest of our last day, Dutch art, before flying back to Bristol. It won’t be including 2 small difficult, on our walking tour, to imagine paintings which the city where de Hooch worked and have acquired where Vermeer spent all his life. The Goldfinch, Carel Fabritius (1622-1654), oil on panel, 1654 © Mauritshuis, The Hague WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS FUTURE EVENTS 15

Three Dutch Cities and their Treasures continued

Practicalities as soon as possible and no later than The trip costs £595 per person sharing 28th July 2017. a room (single supplement £120), which includes 3 nights’ bed and breakfast, For all further information and details two lunches and one dinner. KLM ﬂight please contact Heritage Group times and prices are yet to be conﬁrmed Travel on 01225 466620 or email which is why airfares are not included. [email protected] Once they have the details, Heritage quoting the Friends of the Holburne Travel will pass on the airfare at cost plus Museum/Dutch Art Treasures. After a £10 fee. In order for them to book seats Heritage has sent you a booking at the best possible rate, we are asking form, places are reserved on receipt for an early deposit of £350 per person of the completed form and deposit.

View of Delft, Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), oil on canvas, c.1660-1661 © Mauritshuis, The Hague 16 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS PAST EVENTS A round-up of past events

Craft beer and cheese tasting evening Songs were an integral part of domestic In February, a convivial group of fourteen music making and Richard Frewer, to Holburne Friends enjoyed an evening whom we should be grateful for having of craft beer tasting, paired with local organised the evening, gave us three cheeses, and delicious bar snacks. James Schubert lieder, Der Kreuzzug, Ständchen, Hunter, beer connoisseur and bar owner, and the popular Heidenroslein. Richard's kept us fascinated with historical insight voice a clear and true counterpoint to into ales and beers throughout the ages. the rich tones of Sam Brown’s guitar. Thanks to Kim de Morgan for organising a delightful and interesting evening. Many thanks to the Trevor Osborne Charitable Trust, who supported the Frank Brown Celebration and the concert, and to all those who provided Holburne Ensemble delicious eats and drinks for the party The Holburne Ensemble played at the that followed. A wonderful evening Museum in April to celebrate the life and and I can't wait for next year. generosity of Frank Brown, who was Simon Johnson passionate about music. The Holburne owes its rare Schantz pianoforte to Holburne Friends Plant Sale an enthusiastic fundraising drive led For a few hours on the first Sunday in by Frank. The evening comprised an May, the front of the Museum was decked ingenious collection of pieces transposed with bunting, banners and six for piano and guitar, a practice which independent nurseries and their plants. was very common in the 18th and 19th This year we were joined by three local centuries, though as a genre it is often businesses showcasing terracotta pots, neglected, as the musicians explained. bespoke garden and other furniture, and decorative metal structures. Nathaniel Mander on piano and Sam Brown on guitar played with great The Friends’ Plant stall was groaning fluency, wit and precision. The heart of with generously donated plants, and the evening was one of Mozart's Palatine the ever popular book stall did a brisk Sonatas (K301) and the haunting sonata trade. Sunny weather meant shoppers in E minor (K304) composed on the could sit outside to enjoy tea, coffee and death of his mother. A surprise and cake from a delicious range made by our delight was a work by the Spanish talented Friends. Many Friends gave up classical guitarist Fernando Sor; his an hour or so to help serve at one of our Variation on a Theme of Mozart weaves stalls, and in doing so helped raise over rich and subtle games with tunes from £1300. My thanks to everyone involved. The Magic Flute. Sally Roche WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS PAST EVENTS 17

A round-up of past events continued

Sezincote and Owlpen visit in the 20th. Betjeman adored Sezincote; One of the glories of the Holburne is and Swinburne’s sisters thought that Zoffany’s Auriol and Dashwood William Morris (and £20,000) would Families, painted in India in the 1780s: make Owlpen “a paradise incomparable members of two East India Company on earth”. Set in its half-acre of garden families taking refreshments in the with 17th-century terraces, ancient open air, Indian servants in attendance. topiary, and a yew room, that is what Ten years after Zoffany made this Owlpen now is, damp and ghosts picture, another Company official, notwithstanding. With many thanks to John Cockerell (1752-1798), retired to Mark Hake for expertly organising such England and decided to create a a wonderful day out. Mughal house at Sezincote. John died Robert Wyke in 1798, but his brother Charles saw the scheme through: another brother, the architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell, designed the house with a dome, minarets and a curved orangery lit by peacock-tail windows.

The exterior inspired the Prince of Wales’s plans for Brighton Pavilion. Inside, we are in the world of the Greek Revival redecorated by John Fowler in the 1950s. The Repton garden is full of specimen trees (a magniﬁcent weeping hornbeam, a special Cornus in ﬂower, an ancient maple) and more Indian features: the Snake Fountain, the Indian Bridge and Temple.

After lunch we moved on to Owlpen Manor. Sir Nicholas Mander took us through the geology of the Cotswolds, the history of the house and garden, and the interior itself. This utterly Sir Nicholas Mander showing the Holburne group around charming house evolved between the the gardens at Owlpen. Photograph © Mark Hake middle of the 15th to early 18th See page 12 for details of the return visit to Sezincote and centuries; extensive repairs took place Owlpen on 19th September 2017. 18 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS Storeroom visit: Liz Nash

What an extraordinarily eclectic oval in shape, trimmed with gilt collection of decorative art is to be and with a removable (just - a very found below stairs in the Museum. snug fit) gilt bronze liner. It had Catrin Jones, Curator of Decorative been broken, and carefully mended. Arts, took me first into the older It would seem Sir William must have storerooms, the original vaults which thought it some sort of vase. Would house a lot of the furniture and I he have bought it had he realised imagine some of the objects most it is a craftily designed pisspot made difficult to display alongside other and dedicated (on the ceramic pieces because they don't "fit" beneath the brass lining, and therefore together. Among some of the more invisible when that is in place) conventionally good-looking pieces "Aux plaisirs des Dames”? my eye was taken by a dark oak desk, [Readers will no doubt remember the article by made circa 1900 by Bath Cabinet Catrin Jones about this ‘Bordaloue’ in the Spring Makers. It has a large drop leaf and 2017 Friends Newsletter] on this are carved the words "Words Next we looked at three very are like leaves, and where they most beautiful pieces made by the Martin abound, much fruit of sense beneath Brothers of Southall London, is rarely found” – a motto I think whose work during the late 1800s maybe I should make my own! and early 20th century typifies the movement from the more formal There's a treasure trove of ceramics decorative Victorian work to later and silverware on the shelves of the "studio" pottery. The earliest piece "strongroom" next door – and here we owned by the Museum is a large examined one of the oddest pieces in round vase with a narrow neck and a the whole collection – a charmingly lid, decorated with sunflowers in decorative ceramic container, curved mostly blue, green and cream tints.

The next piece is a tall vase with subtly curving sides, with a free-ﬂowing design similar to tiger stripes or ferns. And the third and youngest piece is another tall grey-blue lustre vase with an amazingly animated design showing a roaring lion emblazoned on one side.

A selﬁe in the storeroom! Liz Nash (on far left) with Curator of Decorative Arts, Catrin Jones Photograph © Catrin Jones WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS 19

Storeroom visit: Liz Nash continued

We had spent so long looking at all by a man. Add in a charming ivory the various treasures in this part of the portrait of a lady (with the artist's cellars that we had to move more dedication of it as a gift to that lady, swiftly through the new storerooms, Mary Ickeringill), and a model of the part of the recent redevelopment at Temple of Vesta, probably made in the rear of the building. There, facilities Naples, in the early nineteenth century, for storage are modern and more and you have a collection which is easily accessed, and it was a delight to amazingly varied in character, style see the shelves of silver and ceramic and provenance – a collection of ornaments and the drawers of collections, one might say. I was exquisite silver spoons and other utterly fascinated, and hope Catrin cutlery and tableware, as well as a can fulﬁl her plan to let us see more beautiful piece of professional and more of these hidden treasures needlework almost certainly made on show in the galleries. Liz Nash

Writing desk, oak, English, Vase, salt-glazed stoneware, Bath Cabinet Makers, about 1900. Martin Brothers, London and Southall, 1902 Holburne Museum no. 1974.1 Holburne Museum no. 1972.16 20 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS Proﬁle: Nina Harrison Leins

Nina Harrison Leins began working Department of Asia before being at the Holburne Museum as the promoted to Project Coordinator for Exhibitions Coordinator in May 2016. International Touring Exhibitions. In In our series of profiles of Museum this role I helped to prepare large experts, we ask Nina about her work. exhibitions that toured internationally. Part of my role included overseeing What was your career path to shipping and managing the team working at the Holburne Museum? installing the exhibition. After graduating from the University of Winchester with a degree in Having worked at the BM for a Media and Film, I began working at number of years, I was keen to look the British Museum as a Gallery for new challenges. Assistant and subsequently as an Information Assistant. Given your background in such a large institution as the British I left and worked briefly at Central Museum, what differences do you find Saint Martin’s College administering in comparison with the Holburne? courses but volunteered in my spare The BM employs around 1000 people time at the Bankside Gallery and at making it difficult to get to know the British Museum doing inventories, everyone, which certainly isn’t the handling collections and assisting with case at the Holburne. Roles tend events. I became more interested in to be quite narrow and specialist at collections management and decided the BM whereas at the Holburne to pursue that for my career. colleagues need to wear a number of different hats. However both I returned to the BM as a Museum institutions are tremendously busy Assistant in the Department of Asia with many exciting projects happening. and spent 5 years working as part of a team looking after the collection. The How would you describe your role? job was extremely varied and I worked My role is to coordinate all the on storage projects, prepared objects elements of developing and delivering for loans and exhibitions and looked an exhibition and bring them together after the display and maintenance of to an agreed deadline. the permanent galleries. I work with the curator to help them to I then moved into the Registrar’s develop their vision for the exhibition. Office and coordinated loans for the I liaise with institutions who agree to WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS 21

Proﬁle: Nina Harrison Leins continued

lend objects, ensure the paperwork is in What do you think is the most diﬃcult place, and work with shipping agents to thing to get right? transport them to the Holburne. I work There are many internal and external with contractors on the design and build stakeholders involved in an exhibition of the exhibition. If the curator has and it can be challenging to manage written a publication to accompany the everyone’s expectations. exhibition, I will secure the image rights for it. I am responsible for the What kind of materials or artworks do installation schedule and ensure I have you particularly enjoy working with? conservators and art technicians on site I always enjoy working with 3D objects, when installing. I oversee the graphics particularly ceramics. I worked for many and labels going up and the lighting. years with Japanese, Korean and Chinese ceramics and enjoying handling I then look after the de-installation of them and putting them on display. the exhibition and make sure the I especially like looking at contemporary gallery is emptied and everything is Japanese ceramics. returned safely. Could you tell us about your An exhibition is always a team eﬀort favourite piece in the collection, or and colleagues and volunteers in perhaps a favourite gallery space? the Museum contribute to ensuring the I always enjoy wondering around development and delivery of the the Posnett and Mezzanine Galleries, exhibition is a smooth process. I think the objects are displayed so beautifully and there is always something interesting to look at.

Nina Harrison Leins Photograph © Jonathan Davis 22 WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS Holburne Insights 1: the building of the Holburne

Working in the art world, we often receive some very strange things through the post: Christmas baubles that look like eyeballs, novelty invitations to bizarre exhibitions, and all manner of peculiar catalogues. Last October, we received a lovely surprise: a lithograph dated 1914 recording the moment when Sydney College became the Holburne Museum. It had been sent from Bushey Museum and Art Gallery in Hertfordshire, a volunteer-run museum of local history, whose curators felt it no longer ﬁtted into their collection and should go to a more appropriate home.

The lithograph is inscribed in pencil Sydney College, Bath – Arthur H Lilley, 1914. We know nothing of the artist, but were delighted with this fascinating image of our famous portico covered in scaffolding. The picture was made at the point when Sir Reginald Blomfield was transforming a derelict old school into the elegant museum Sydney College, Bath of the twentieth century. The project Arthur H Lilley, 1914 Lithograph appears to be at a fairly early stage: Blomfield’s screens of columns are not yet in place on either side of the building, and the picture gallery remains to be completed behind the blank facade of the upper storey. Amina Wright WWW.HOLBURNE.ORG/FRIENDS 23 Holburne Insights 2: yet another Bruegel!

Although Sir William Holburne had a the Bruegel exhibition, helped me to very fine and substantial collection of identify this as the first of the famous prints, including works by Rembrandt Large Landscape series by Pieter and Dürer, they were sold at some point Bruegel the Elder. It was published before the Museum was established. by the enterprising Antwerp printer However, we do occasionally turn up the Hieronymus Cock around 1556, and odd Old Master print, and earlier this engraved from Bruegel’s drawing by year, inspired by the ‘Bruegelmania’ the brothers Johannes and Lucas sweeping the Museum, I decided to take van Doetecum. The original drawing, a look at a ‘Rocky Landscape’ listed in dated 1555, is now in the Louvre and our catalogue. The print I found in our shows Bruegel’s incredible skill and plan chest was very large, creased and inventiveness as a landscape artist. dirty, but spectacular, an extensive vista of soaring mountains and plunging As his biographer Karel van Mander gorges presented in extraordinarily wrote in 1604: “He teaches us to sharp detail, with plenty of human represent, without much effort, the activity to amuse the eye as it roams angular, rocky Alps, the dizzying about the landscape. It was signed on views down into a deep valley, steep the left, in a familiar Gothic script, cliffs, pine trees that kiss the clouds, brueghel inventor and h. cock excude –. far distances, and rushing streams.” Dr Amy Orrock, our guest curator for Amina Wright

detail of Large Landscape Johannes and Lucas van Doetecum after Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-1569) Engraving and etching c.1555-56 32.1x42.8cm Committee

Antonia Johnson, Chairman

Sidney Morton, Honorary Treasurer

Undine Concannon, Honorary Membership Secretary The Holburne Museum Great Pulteney Street Mary Jane Wilkinson, Bath BA2 4DB Honorary Secretary The Museum is open daily Committee Members 10am to 5pm Jennifer Bereska (Sunday and Bank Holidays Jonathan Davis, 11am to 5pm) Newsletter Designer and Editor Closed 24th to 26th December Kim De Morgan and 1st January Olivia Eliot, Foreign Tours Richard Frewer Tim Locke, Friends Web Pages Minnie Tatham, Garden Tours

Do check the regularly updated pages on the Holburne website for updates and news of events and visits etc: http://www.holburne.org/support-us/ friends-of-the-holburne-museum/

www.holburne.org/friends

Contact us at: Registered charity number 1042603 [email protected] or for tours: Printed by [email protected] Emtone Print Limited The Friends of the Holburne100 Museum Years Here Minutes of the 64th Annual GeneralIn June 2016 Meeting, the Holburne held Museumon Advantages of Membership Fridaywill have 24 beenth June on its 2016 current site for As well as giving vital support for 100 years. The Museum urgently the Museum, Friends benefit from: atneeds 6pm more in the support Museum’s to continue its Unlimited free entry to world-class Picturework, so Gallery we are looking to greatly exhibitions (usually 3 per year) increase our Membership. Friends’ Private View evenings Newsletter and What’s On in Help us reach our target of 2016 Spring, Summer and Autumn Friends by recruiting a new Friend… Preferential booking for social …and enjoy an extra year’s events, lectures and concerts JaneMembership Ibbunson introduced at the current the proceedingsrate, as SheAnnual anticipated plant andthat bookSunday’s sales special withsubscriptions special thanks will to rise the thisFriends summer. for this CentenaryVisits to housescelebration and wouldgardens raise year’sPlease fundraising pass this activities form to and one associated of your a Visitsgreat dealto galleries of money and for museums the Museum donationsfriends forto thethem Museum. to complete. andPopular further small-group increase membership visits to numbers.workshops She andasked artists’ for everyone’s studios. 1. ApologiesPotential new for Absence Friends were received supportForeign in visits, attending which exhibitions have recently fromBeat Jennifer a future Bereska, subscription Judith Constantine, andincluded events, Dresden and in promoting and Russia; the Johnrise! and Join Jenny us now Cordova, by using Jane Glaser, Museum’sa visit to core Madrid activities and Segovia. is Tessathe Hayward,application Anne form Pearson, overleaf. planned this October. Christopher Overton and Lisa White, 4. Report from the Hon Treasurer: Liz White. Copies of the Report of the Trustees and Unaudited Financial Statements 2. Minutes of the 64th Annual General for the year ended 31st March 2016 Meeting have been circulated and there were distributed to the Attendees. were no matters arising. The adoption of Sidney Morton drew attention to the the Minutes was proposed by Frances Statement of Financial Activities Smith and seconded by Caroline Ellert. showing an increase from last year in income from subscriptions and fund 3. Chairman’s Report: Antonia Johnson raising events, together with a slight thanked the Committee for their work decrease in expenses, leaving a during the year, with special thanks to healthy balance of just under £19,000. Undine Concannon for administration During the financial year ended of the membership, to Sidney Morton for 31st March 2016 we were able to hand the accounts, and to Richard Frewer for over £31,000 to the Museum. the forthcoming evening’s concert and party, the Friends’ tribute to Frank Brown. A motion to approve the accounts We currently have 1300 members, was proposed by Andrew Fletcher and a considerable increase since last year. seconded by Duncan Locke. 5. A motion to reappoint Moore Museum, and that the staff shared her Stephens as Auditors for 2015 was vision for a bigger and better future. Not proposed by Undine Concannon all Friends groups are so effective and we and seconded by Sidney Blackmore. must all try to increase the membership. The Stubbs exhibition, sponsored by the 6. Resignations and Appointment of Friends, was hugely successful and had New Committee Members: received rave reviews in the national press. Happily there were no resignations. We welcome the appointment of Tim Further blockbuster exhibitions were Locke who has already started the planned, including Silver: Light and Shade important task of updating and improving co-curated by Vanessa Brett and Catrin the Friends’ website pages; proposed Jones. Spring 2017 would see the opening by Olivia Eliot and seconded by Richard of an exciting new show Breugel: Defining Frewer. New applications to join the a Dynasty, co-curated with Amy Orrock to committee are always welcomed include three paintings by Pieter Breughel the Younger, including a newly conserved 7. Subscription Rates: and attributed work. The proposed new subscription rates were put to the vote, which was carried by a The exhibition would be heralded by a substantial majority. These rates will come major PR launch. An exhibition of into force immediately following the tapestries, and two further contemporary Centenary celebration day. shows of work by Linda Bretherton and Djordje Ozbolt will complete the 8. Any Other Business: programme for the forthcoming months. Director’s Address: Jennifer Scott The Museum was also increasingly observed that over the past two years the successful in attracting private events, Friends have been the lifeblood of the such as weddings. 100 Years Here

In June 2016 the Holburne Museum Advantages of Membership will have been on its current site for As well as giving vital support for 100 years. The Museum urgently the Museum, Friends benefit from: needs more support to continue its Unlimited free entry to world-class work, so we are looking to greatly exhibitions (usually 3 per year) increase our Membership. Friends’ Private View evenings Newsletter and What’s On in Help us reach our target of 2016 Spring, Summer and Autumn Friends by recruiting a new Friend… Preferential booking for social …and enjoy an extra year’s events, lectures and concerts TheMembership 65th Annual at the General current Meeting rate, as Annual plant and book sales ofsubscriptions The Friends will of risethe thisHolburne summer. Visits to houses and gardens MuseumPlease pass will thisbe heldform atto one of your Visits to galleries and museums thefriends Museum for them at 7:30to complete. pm on Popular small-group visits to workshops and artists’ studios. rd FridayPotential 23 new June Friends 2017 Foreign visits, which have recently Beat a future subscription included Dresden and Russia; Pleaserise! bringJoin us your now current by using membership a visit to Madrid and Segovia is Card,the to application be shown atform the overleaf.door, as only planned this October. Friends may be admitted.

Sally Hutton, Interim Director and Head of Finance, and Chris Stephens, Director Designate, will briefly address the meeting.

AGENDA 6. Resignation, Election and Re-election of Committee Members 1. Apologies for Absence 7. Any Other Business 2. Minutes of 64th Annual General Meeting Nominations for the Committee, proposed and Matters Arising and seconded, with the consent of the nominee, to be sent to the Hon General 3. Chairman’s Report Secretary of the Friends (Mary Jane Wilkinson) c/o the Holburne Museum. 4. Report of the Hon Treasurer and

Presentation of Annual Accounts www.holburne.org/friends [email protected] 5. Appointment of Auditors for 2017-2018 Registered Charity Number 1042603 Visit to Chavenage & Rodmarton departing at 8:45am prompt Thursday 10th August 2017

I/we should like …………. tickets at £68 each

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Please send cheque, payable to the ‘Friends of the Holburne Museum’ to: MARK HAKE, HOLBURNE FRIENDS, c/o THE HOLBURNE MUSEUM, GREAT PULTENEY STREET, BATH, BA2 4DB

Visit to Ablington & Wormington departing at 8:45am prompt Thursday 7th September 2017

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Please send booking form and cheque, together with stamped self-addressed envelope to: MINNIE TATHAM, POUND HILL HOUSE, SMITH STREET, WEST KINGTON, WILTSHIRE SN14 7JG

Visit to Sezincote & Owlpen departing at 8:30am prompt on Tuesday 19th September 2017

I/we should like …………. tickets at £68 each

Email (or send stamped self-addressed envelope)………………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………..

Please send cheque, payable to the ‘Friends of the Holburne Museum’ to: MARK HAKE, HOLBURNE FRIENDS, c/o THE HOLBURNE MUSEUM, GREAT PULTENEY STREET, BATH, BA2 4DB

If you would like to attend the Schubert recital on Thursday 6th July 2017 at 7:30pm, please book tickets via the Holburne website: www.holburne.org, or telephone the Museum on 01225 388569 For all information and details regarding the Three Dutch Cities visit on 8th-11th December 2017, please contact Heritage Group Travel on 01225 466620 or email [email protected]

If you do not have an email address, please include a stamped self-addressed envelope so that your receipt and booking can be acknowledged. Please write a separate cheque for each event, made payable to the ‘Friends of the Holburne Museum’ All enquiries to [email protected]