Wartski donation to Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft

 

Wartski have donated a group of jewels made by the Arts and Crafts silversmith and jeweller Frederick Partridge to the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft. The pieces previously belonged to one of Partridge’s former students, the jeweller and enameller Ella Naper. She lived and worked in Lamorna in Cornwall, an important artistic centre in the early 20th Century. Dame Laura Knight, Harold Knight, Dod Procter, Sir Alfred Munnings, Gluck, Ithell Colquhoun and Marlow Moss all lived, or stayed, in Lamorna.

Wartski Director Thomas Holman has made a study of the life and work of Frederick Partridge, recently writing a biography of him for the catalogue which accompanied the exhibition ‘The Partridge Family of Barnstaple: Ethel Mairet, Fred Partridge and the Arts and Crafts Movement.’

Thomas Holman commented: “I had the privilege of seeing these pieces for the first time with Ella Naper’s niece whilst sitting in Ella’s kitchen. It was so exciting, as you felt that Ella had left the room only moments before.” The pieces include a mixed metal brooch set with amethysts, an enamelled silver and carved horn brooch with two buttons, a stained horn haircomb and a collection of wooden buttons.

They likely date to the period when Partridge and his wife May established a summer school in Branscombe, where Ella worked circa 1906-1907.

Thomas Holman commented: “I felt it was important that these pieces were preserved as they had such a wonderful provenance, having belonged to someone who worked so closely with Fred and who was herself at the heart of an important artistic community.”

“Ditchling Museum is a wonderful home for the objects, as Fred spent the last twenty-five yearsof his life in the town with his sisters Ethel Mairet and Maud Partridge. The museum had few examples of his work.”

Partridge lived in Ditchling during an exciting time, as his sister Ethel established her studio and gallery, which attracted many important visitors such as Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada. Before his move to Ditchling, Partridge had worked for C R Ashbee at the Guild of Handicraft in Chipping Campden.

Naper would model for Dame Laura Knight on many occasions, perhaps most famously for Knight’s extraordinary self-portrait now housed in the National Portrait Gallery, where Naper is depicted as a standing life model being painted by Knight.

Thomas Holman commented: “It was important that these treasures were preserved, especially in the town where Partridge lived and worked for so many years, as they provide a fascinating window into his life and that of Ella Naper, two important figures in the story of British Arts and Crafts.”