T Arts: Applied (Craftsmen)

DATE: 1926-1998

LEVEL: Series

The Applied Arts series includes correspondence and records of art purchases involving resident and associated craftsmen including Bernard Leach; and sculptors, including Willi Soukop and Henry Moore.

The Henry Moore folder contains 101 pieces of correspondence, receipts for purchases, records of loans, and letters between Dorothy Elmhirst, Henry Moore, Ralph Beyer, Maurice Ash, and their representatives, including Peter Cox. There is also considerable secondary information about Henry Moore.

Willi Soukop correspondence includes exchanges of letters between Soukop and the Elmhirsts, records of an early lecture on sculpture given by Soukop, and biographical information. There is also a pencil sketch by Soukop of his swan designs for the Swan Fountain in the Gardens at Dartington. Later correspondence includes exchanges of letters and a record of an interview with Willi Soukop in the 1990s, about his time at Dartington Hall.

Also included in the series are administrative records of various Dartington art exhibitions, exhibition posters, and publicity material including exhibition catalogues, from 1926 to 1967. Exhibitions include ground-breaking comparative presentations of early Asian ceramics and modern studio pottery, exhibitions of Devon craft (Made in Devon), and West African stoneware pottery.

Correspondence with other artists and craftsmen includes Sam Haile, Marianne de Trey, (including a report on a visit made to Mauritius in April 1973 by Marianne Haile and Emily Whitby on behalf of the Dartington Hall Trustees); Hein Heckroth; puppeteer Richard Odlin; potter Bernard Forrester; Robin Tanner; Elizabeth Peacock; Susan Bosence; David Leach; Michael Cardew; Ralph Beyer. There is secondary source material on potter Lucie Rie.

Correspondence with galleries, institutions and individuals re loans and exhibitions includes: Marlborough Fine Art; the Redfern Gallery; the British Council; the Arts Council of Great Britain; Hayward Gallery; Royal Academy of Arts; Norman Rosenthal and George Wingfield Digby.

Also of interest are records of the 1952 International Conference of Craftsmen in Pottery and Textiles held at Dartington.

There are four boxes of records of the potter Bernard Leach, including a substantial quantity of correspondence with the potter, records of exhibitions of his work and a journal written by Leach in 1953. Also correspondence re films by Bernard Leach made during trips to Japan and Korea in 1934-1935 and restored by Marty Gross Film Productions Inc.

The series concludes with bookbinding and printmaking and books produced by these departments in more recent years..

In 1934, while Mark Tobey and Bernard Leach were travelling in Japan, Estate classes in painting and pottery were conducted by Adrian Kent and Bernard Forrester, members of the Boarding School staff. In the autumn of 1935, an Arts section was constituted and Tobey placed in charge. Weekly classes were resumed. He was soon joined by two more artists - Hein Heckroth and Willi Soukop. Early in 1939, the Arts Section was re-named The Dartington Hall Studios of Art and Design, with objects redefined as follows: 1) to train a limited number of students wishing to become professional artists or teachers 2) to give Estate classes for amateurs (as in the past) 3) to provide certain artists with the means for carrying out original work. By 1939, Heckroth was in charge of the unit, assisted by Soukop, Bernard Leach and Cecil Collins.

Bernard Leach first made contact with the Elmhirsts in 1926. The Elmhirsts admired his work, and in 1932 he joined the teaching staff of the School. Until 1940 Leach produced slipware and experimented with techniques of production and design at the pottery established for him at Shinners Bridge.

(For more information see Victor Bonham-Carter's Report to the Trustees; Dartington Hall 1925-56)

Information for Researchers

All papers belonging to The Dartington Hall Trust Archive (with the exclusion of Dartington Hall School pupils individual records) are held at the Devon Record Office. All enquiries relating to research should be made to Devon Records Office, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, Devon EX2 7NL
+44 (0)1392 384253
+44 (0)1392 384256
devrec@devon.gov.uk
www.devon.gov.uk/record_office

The following requests should be made direct to the Archives & Records at The Dartington Hall Trust as shown below:
Copies of images as seen on The Dartington Hall Trust online catalogue with appropriate reference number (Ref No.)
Permission to publish or quote from any document held in the Dartington Hall Trust Archive
Former pupils of Dartington Hall School wishing to view their records
Archives & Records
The Dartington Hall Trust
Dartington Hall
Totnes TQ9 6EL
01803 847200
yvonne.widger@dartington.org

This information is copyright The Dartington Hall Trust