Citation: Barker, Janine (2015) Henry Rothschild and Primavera: The retail, exhibition and collection of craft in post-war Britain, 1945-1980. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/30325/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html HENRY ROTHSCHILD AND PRIMAVERA: THE RETAIL, EXHIBITION AND COLLECTION OF CRAFT IN POST- WAR BRITAIN, 1945 - 1980 JANINE BARKER PhD 2015 1 2 HENRY ROTHSCHILD AND PRIMAVERA: THE RETAIL, EXHIBITION AND COLLECTION OF CRAFT IN POST- WAR BRITAIN, 1945 – 1980 JANINE BARKER A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Social Sciences and in collaboration with the Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead December 2015 3 4 Abstract An AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award has made collaboration possible between Northumbria University and the Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead in providing the opportunity to highlight a significant narrative in craft history. Henry Rothschild, a German émigré, ran the iconic craft outlet Primavera from 1946 to 1980. During this time, he built up an internationally significant collection of ceramics, now housed at the Shipley Art Gallery, along with a personal and business archive. By bringing this inaccessible and underused material to the fore and complementing it with interviews with Rothschild’s contemporaries, connections have emerged that were previously undiscovered. This thesis demonstrated how Rothschild’s position as a retailer, exhibitor and collector marked him as a unique character within the crafts as well as demonstrated the ways in which he utilised his position as an émigré to act outside of the confines of the traditional British standpoint. The narrative of Rothschild has been interwoven into the existing literature on craft in Britain, creating a previously unheard of account of post-war craft. Although Rothschild’s role in the post-war craft world has been remarked upon in a number of texts (Cooper, 2012; Harrod, 1995; Harrod, 1999; Buckley and Hochsherf, 2012) his wide reaching impact and contribution has never been explored in detail. This thesis considered the contradictory nature of Rothschild’s multiple roles and the resulting implications: as a retailer he was motivated to choose pieces that would sell, as an exhibitor he could allow for more creativity and daring in his curatorial choices, and as private collector he enjoyed established relationships with craftspeople. The aim of this thesis was to position Rothschild as collector, exhibitor and retailer not only within the context of British craft, but also to consider how Primavera operated within what David Kynaston calls the ‘justly iconic’ time period from 1945 to 1980 (Kynsaton, 2007). Through both his retail and exhibition activity at Primavera and beyond, craft was given a platform, made accessible to the wider public and influenced taste and fashion. His background as a German Jewish émigré emerged as key to understanding how he negotiated his position within this world. The resulting thesis confirmed and elucidated the significance of Rothschild and Primavera and called for further research into those individuals who are very much of the craft world but not always as producers or educators. As demonstrated here, such examinations have the potential to offer a narrative which is both complementary and challenging to those which dominate, and thereby contribute to the discourse on the nature of narrative based research and craft history. 5 6 Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................ 5 List of Illustrations .............................................................................................. 11 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ 19 Declaration ......................................................................................................... 21 Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................. 23 Background on Henry Rothschild .................................................................... 23 Framing the Research .................................................................................... 26 Methodology and Approach ............................................................................ 30 Chapter Outlines ............................................................................................. 39 Summary ........................................................................................................ 41 Chapter Two: Approaches to Craft – Debates and Narratives ............................ 43 Writing about Craft .......................................................................................... 43 Writing Craft Narratives .................................................................................. 66 Summary ........................................................................................................ 73 Chapter Three : Henry Rothschild and the Émigré Experience .......................... 75 Defining and Negotiating National Identity ...................................................... 77 Germany and Europe Pre - 1933 .................................................................... 78 Leaving for Britain and Beyond ....................................................................... 85 Settlement and Negotiation ............................................................................. 92 Summary ...................................................................................................... 100 Chapter Four: Craft and Retail in Britain, 1945 - 1980 ...................................... 103 Britain in 1945 ............................................................................................... 105 1945 – 1952: Setting up Shop ...................................................................... 109 1952 – 1963: New Consumers ..................................................................... 126 1963 - 1970: ‘Swinging’ Sixties? ................................................................... 136 1970 – 1980: From London to Cambridge .................................................... 144 Summary ...................................................................................................... 152 7 Chapter Five: Exhibitions at Primavera and Beyond, 1952 - 1980 .................... 153 Beginnings .................................................................................................... 155 Craft and Art ................................................................................................. 164 Presenting Traditional Craft and Folk Art ...................................................... 193 The Influence of Europeans .......................................................................... 205 Summary ...................................................................................................... 217 Chapter Six: Rothschild as Collector and the Henry Rothschild Collection ....... 219 The Collector and the Collection ................................................................... 221 Presenting Leach and the Workshop Tradition .............................................. 227 Presenting Makers as Artists......................................................................... 256 Presenting Émigrés ....................................................................................... 274 Summary ...................................................................................................... 280 Chapter Seven: Conclusion .............................................................................. 281 Narratives and the Archives .......................................................................... 281 Rothschild’s Significance in Craft History ...................................................... 285 Areas for Future Research ............................................................................ 288 Closing Statement ......................................................................................... 289 Appendix A: List of Exhibitions, 1952 – 1980 .................................................... 291 Appendix B: Objects in the Henry Rothschild Study Collection ......................... 297 Appendix C: Breakdown of Collection ............................................................... 357 Table 1: Nationality ......................................................................................