ST EDMUNDSBURY WEAVERS
This file is one of three on five members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the 1890s who were related by blood and one marriage. This is the file about St Edmundsbury Weavers, the firm which Edmund and Dorothea Hunter owned and ran between 1901 and the late 1920s. The other two files are about the five of them in the GD; and about their families.
While Edmund Hunter was a member of the Hermetic
Order of the Golden Dawn he was also working as a designer. His decision to go
into business, making up textiles to his own designs, was one of the reasons
why he and his wife, GD member Dorothea Hunter (née
FIRSTLY A NOTE ABOUT SOURCES
Dorothea Hunter’s papers and reminiscences are the
source for a lot of the information on Edmund’s working life. She was answering
queries raised by academics researching the life of W B Yeats. The other main
source is the records of Edmund’s firm, St Edmundsbury Weavers, now in the
Warner Textiles Archive in
SECONDLY A NOTE ABOUT WEB PAGES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
Try www.meg-andrews.com Antique Costumes and Textiles. There are photographs of Edmund, Dorothea and baby Ralph; and of Dorothea sitting in the weaving works, presumably the one in Letchworth.
There are photographs online of Dorothea and the Letchworth house and factory on the web pages of the garden city museum: www.gardencitymuseum.org
And on the Haslemere period 1901-08, see //peasant-arts.blogspot.com which also has photographs including one of the interior of St Christopher’s Haslemere.
And see also the ‘works’ section at the end of this file, where I name some websites that have pictures of pieces of cloth designed by Edmund and woven by the firm.
CONFIRMING THAT EDMUND WAS A DESIGNER, NOT AN ARTIST
Edmund isn’t listed in the main source-books for artists working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That means he didn’t send any art works to the main gallery exhibitions of the day.
Sources:
Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940 p265.
Dictionary of British Art. Volume IV: Victorian Painters I: The Text. By Christopher Wood. Antique Collectors’ Club 1995: p270.
THE BEGINNING
Edmund Hunter’s father Arthur and his uncle John were in business together in Bury St Edmunds as wine and spirit importers and sellers. In the manner of the period, they expected Edmund to join the family firm. However, Edmund persuaded his father to let him train as a designer instead; and a legacy left him enough to survive in a profession where a regular income could not be guaranteed.
EDMUND’S TRAINING
Edmund went to
After
Sources so far:
The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works copyright Stevenage and Letchworth Museums 1981: p1, quoting a letter from Arthur Hunter to Arthur Silver, 1 October 1884. Edmund’s father negotiated a deal to pay Silver Studio 100 guineas at the start of the apprenticeship, half of which would be repaid in instalments during its three-year term. The agreement had a clause that the apprenticeship was not to run past Edmund’s 21st birthday (in 1887); that seems odd to me but was perhaps standard at the time.
SILVER STUDIO
When Edmund started his apprenticeship in 1884, Silver Studio had only been in business for a short time: its owner, Arthur Silver, had set it up in 1880, at 84 Brook Green in Hammersmith. Silver Studio sold its designs to a wide range of buyers, including Liberty and Co and Jeffrey and Co of Islington, to be made into wallpaper, fabrics, ornamental plaster-work, metal and stencils. It had employees, but also took in designs from freelancers. While Edmund was doing his apprenticeship, Silver Studio’s designs were influenced by William Morris, though in general it was keeping its style options open. Employees John Illingworth Kay and Harry Napper, who joined it in the early 1890s, made art nouveau its signature style, inspired by its appearance at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition of 1896 which surely Edmund too must have gone to. Sue Kerry has said that while at Silver Studio Edmund did a lot of graphic design – book illustrations and adverts – as well as designing textiles.
Sources:
Arthur Silver died in 1896 aged 43. For a few
years, Harry Napper and then J R Houghton managed Silver Studio until Arthur
Silver’s sons were old enough to take over. Silver Studio continued in business
until 1963. Its records are now at the
A
Www.moda.mdx.ac.uk/docs/Designation/SS-coll-significance07.pdf
For more on Arthur Silver see www.victorianweb.com.
And for a modern assessment: Neo-Classicism to
Pop Part 2: 20th Century Textiles. Compiled by Sue Kerry for an
exhibition at Francesca Galloway,
WHAT THEN?
Virtually nothing is known about what Edmund Hunter was doing between 1887 and 1901. This is a difficult area to research: when Silver Studio sold its designs to a company for its use, the company wasn’t under any compulsion to put the designer’s name on the end product; and the names of the designers were often lost in transit. I’m assuming that Edmun was doing some work as a freelance designer, probably for Silver Studio and perhaps directly for producers of wallpaper and textiles; but I haven’t found any designs from this period that are definitely by him, other than a few done for members of the GD.
Edmund joined the Theosophical Society and the
Order of the Golden Dawn, and married Dorothea Butler, during this little-known
period. Later, Dorothea recalled that during the 1890s Edmund spent a lot of
time in
In his article on Dorothea Hunter and W B Yeats in the GD, Warwick Gould mentions several designs done by Edmund during the 1890s:
- a wallhanging The Tree of Life, in which even the colours chosen were symbolic, designed and executed by Edmund, for Yeats. Edmund’s design included symbols from the Kabbalah, from tarot packs and from astrology. Gould doesn’t give a date for the wall hanging but I suggest that Yeats had probably asked for it in late 1897 as part of his Celtic Order project, in which both Dorothea and Edmund were involved. When Gould was writing his article in the late 1990s the wall hanging was still owned by Yeats’ son Michael.
- designs drawn by Edmund in his GD 2nd
Order notebook, including The Tower Struck by Lightning – the 16th
tarot card. I’m not sure where this notebook is now but as there were designs
in it, perhaps it went with the St Edmundsbury Weavers’ papers to the Warner
Textile Archive in
- some astrological drawings apparently sent by Dorothea to Richard Ellman in the 1940s and now in the Richard Ellman Papers, McFarlin Library University of Tulsa.
One thing that Edmund was certainly doing in the late 1890s – which is why I think he must have been working as a freelance – was getting frustrated at the use to which his designs were being put by the firms to which they had been sold. Though not a great joiner and networker in general, he joined the Society of Designers in 1898, perhaps thinking that its members might address the issue. Eventually, though, his feelings coalesced into a desire to control what happened to his designs from sketch-book to finished product. He resolved to go into business as a textile designer and weaver.
Sources:
Neo-Classicism to Pop Part 1: Late 18th
and 19th Century Textiles.
Catalogue compiled by Sue Kerry for an exhibition held 5 to 28 September 2007
at the Francesca Galloway gallery,
Yeats and Women edited by Deirdre Toomey. 2nd edition, Macmillan Press Ltd 1997. Dorothea occupies Chapter 3: “The Music of Heaven”, by Warwick Gould: p97; p125 note 84, p155.
At //utulsa.as.atlas-sys.com,
Society of Designers: Edmund joining it is mentioned in The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works copyright Stevenage and Letchworth Museums 1981: p2.
When I googled ‘society of designers’ the
responses I got all referred to a body not formed until 1963. However, a chance
reference in the Times gave me the name of its president in 1898 – George
Charles Haité, who turned out to live in
My Times reference to him was: Times Wed 12
January 1898 p6: as president of the Society of Designers, Haité was a guest at
a fund-raising event hosted by the Duchess of Sutherland. In Times Tue 4
October 1898 p11 he was named in a large advert for the NAP Window Co Ltd, as
its art metal advisor; as president of the Society of Designers and with an
address in Bedford Park. Looking through the Times in 1898 I came across
several notices of monthly meetings of the Society of Designers; at Clifford’s
Arts Decoratifs de Grande-Bretagne et Irlande. Exposition Organisée par le Gouvernement Britannique. Palais du Louvre. Pavillon de Marsan. Avril-Octobre 1914. Catalogue, in French, printed for HMSO by the Arden Press at Letchworth. On ppxi-xii there was a long list of consultative committee members. It included Haité, May Morris, C F A Voysey, Arthur Rackham; and Walter Crane as president of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. Edmund wasn’t on the list though.
HASLEMERE and HASLEMERE WEAVERS
To go into business producing textiles from his own designs, Edmund needed two things quite urgently: a knowledge of the techniques of weaving and the processes of production; and quite a lot of money. The second one was dealt with by Dorothea – she got a loan of £500 from her ever-generous sister Chris Cohen; probably sometime between 1900, when Chris joined the GD, and 1902. To deal with the first need, in mid-1901 Edmund, Dorothea and their two sons moved from Chiswick to Haslemere, to join the arts and crafts community that was forming there, around the two married couples Joseph and Maude Egerton King, and Godfrey and Ethel Blount.
The choice of Haslemere was so that Edmund could
learn from Luther Hooper, who had just moved there after thirty years in
Sources:
At //peasant-arts.blogspot.com a lot of good information and illustrations on the work of the Peasant Arts movement which was focused on Haslemere. I found the London Gazette notice dissolving the Haslemere Silk Weavers’ partnership on this website; notice published in LG
13 December 1901. The site also had illustrations of the altar in St Christopher’s Haslemere.
At www.accn.org.uk - Arts and Crafts Collection Network’s pages on Haslemere Peasant Arts Society 1896-1933.
At www2.cs.arizona.edu, a typescript of Luther
Hooper’s autobiography. Hooper is best known now as the author of a series of
books on weaving, beginning in 1911 with his Handloom Weaving, Plain and
Ornamental published in
For Theo Moorman see the 1930s below.
ST EDMUNDSBURY WEAVERS
Dorothea Hunter was an important part of St Edmundsbury Weavers from before the outset – it was she who had first encouraged Edmund to go into textile production; and she raised the money for it. A magazine article in 1908 described Edmund as being “largely assisted” by Dorothea. Between them, with their son Alec’s help in the last decade, they ran St Edmundsbury Weavers from 1902 to the late 1920s. The firm began at Haslemere and moved to Letchworth in 1908. At least in the first few years, Edmund did some of the weaving himself: a length of cloth in Edmund’s ‘vineyard’ design, shown at the St Louis International Exhibition in 1904, was described as having been woven by Edmund, as well as designed by him. It was a complex piece of weaving, with a white silk warp; and the design, in several colours and four metals, woven on the weft. See the ‘exhibited’ section at the end of this file for more details.
Particularly at Letchworth, where the work-force was all women, Dorothea did a lot of the daily personnel management while Edmund focused on design and production. The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works, the firm’s factory in Letchworth, still exists and is in use as offices.
St Edmundsbury Weavers offered a service very much like that of William Morris and Co. It used – as far as I can tell – only designs by Edmund; and by his son Alec (born 1899) who started to design for the business while still at school and who worked for it full-time in the 1920s. The designs were woven as brocades and damasks and tapestries, using very high quality yarn in silk, linen and wool, and with lavish use in some designs of metal thread including gold and silver. Fabrics in cotton and cotton/linen mixes were added to the repertoire after 1908. Prices in the years up to the first World War began at £2 per yard. It was not a firm which catered for the mass domestic market.
Particularly in its early years, St Edmundsbury
Weavers had some very prestigious commissions. In its first few months some red
silk hangings were ordered for
The firm’s daily bread was its furnishing fabrics,
but after a few years it was clear that there was not enough money coming in
from them, and some changes would have to be made. As late as 1906, Edmund had
told the fine arts magazine The Studio that better craftsmanship could
be achieved with the jacquard hand looms he was using, than with power-looms;
so it must have been very hard to give them up and with them, his idea of
restoring the hand-weaving tradition that had almost died out in
Sources:
The main one, which uses the firm’s design books,
sketches and samples now in the Warner Textile Archive in
Neo-Classicism to Pop Part 1: Late 18th
and 19th Century Textiles.
Catalogue compiled by Sue Kerry for an exhibition held 5 to 28 September 2007
at the Francesca Galloway gallery,
Times Fri
13 May 1904 p10 Court Circular. List of royal engagements undertaken on 12 May,
issued by
The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and
Applied Art published at its offices in
On Dorothea’s importance: The International
Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art volume 34 Mar-June
1908 numbers 133-136. Published for The International Studio in
LETCHWORTH
Though St Edmundsbury Weavers and the Hunter family
moved a few miles in 1908, in terms of milieu they didn’t move far at all:
Letchworth Garden City, founded in 1903, came from the same climate of ideas as
was inspiring the Kings and Blounts in Haslemere. The design style of the
buildings was arts-and-crafts, with the architects’ partnership of Richard
Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin being employed by the city authority to design
buildings in that style so as to give homogeneity to the town as a whole. They
designed two for Edmund and Dorothea Hunter: the weaving works; and the
Hunters’ house, St Brighid’s, on
Sources:
There are separate wikipedia pages for Richard Barry Parker (1867-1947) and Raymond Unwin (1863-1940).
Times 21 August 1908 p11: long article on the garden city movement, and on the writer’s visit to Letchworth. The reporter visited The Swiss Embroidery Co and Dent’s book-binding works as well as St Edmundsbury Weaving Works.
See photographs of Dorothea in the weaving works, and the St Edmundsbury Weaving Works in Letchworth, at Www.gardencitymuseum.org and at www.meg-andrews.com
Www.morrissociety.org has an article on founding of Letchworth Garden City, the first such, by Ebenezer Howard; beginning 1903. I pick this one out from the many on the web about the garden city movement because Edmund and Dorothea’s son Alec and their daughter-in-law Margaret Eleanor, were keen morris dancers.
On St Edmundsbury Weaving Works:
Www.davidreedmedia.co.uk are now in the building built in Ridge Road Letchworth for St Edmundsbury Weavers and known as the weaving works. It was taken over by St Christopher Press 1954.
At //britishlistedbuildings.co.uk St Edmundsbury Weaving Works is now Grade 2. Built 1908, extended 1913 and 1923. NGR: TL 2253232828.
ST EDMUNDSBURY AT LETCHWORTH
Cloth for clothing – dresses and dress and coat-linings - became a mainstay of the firm once it had power-looms; and Edmund began to make designs with that kind of product in mind. St Edmundsbury Weavers’ products were bought by Savile Row tailors – Dunhills was a particularly keen client – by Burberry and by Harvey Nichols. Tablecloths and bedspreads began to be made and Edmund was able to use some of his designs to make different types of cloth: the design Path was first woven in silk as a scarf in 1904; but by 1916 it was being used to produce a cotton-mix cloth for furnishings. In the 1920s cloth for upholstery was also produced for clients such as Gordon Russell’s furniture company and Hugh Parsons’ shop. In the late 1920s St Edmundsbury Weavers’ designs began to show the influence of art deco – probably the result of a visit to the 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Decorative Arts, which launched art deco as a style.
In 1923 St Edmundsbury Weavers produced enough surplus for Edmund and Dorothea to add two extensions to their house: a second studio now that Alec was working for the firm; and a garage, suggesting that the Hunters could afford a car. But as the 1920s progressed, times got increasingly hard; and in 1926, Edmund turned 60. He began to look for a buyer for St Edmundsbury Weavers. In 1927, the firm was sold to Morton Sundour Fabrics Limited, in a deal which led to Edmund and Alec moving to Scotland to set up Edinburgh Weavers, under James Morton of Morton Sundour’s auspices and using the Hunters’ designs.
The new arrangement had only been running two or
three years when it was overtaken by the consequences of the 1929 financial
crash. As part of his efforts to keep his main businesses going, James Morton
closed down the works in
RETIREMENT
In 1932 Edmund and Dorothea moved from Letchworth to Hampstead Garden Suburb. There they met the handloom weaver Theo Moorman, who had also just moved there with her mother; It was Theo who described Edmund as a good jacquard weaver; perhaps he was still weaving the odd length of cloth in his retirement. Theo was working as a freelance weaver with a loom on the ground floor of her house, but in 1934 she accepted an offer from Alec Hunter to create a hand-weaving department at Warner and Sons of Braintree. Theo probably met Alec through his parents.
Sources:
Neo-Classicism to Pop Part 1: Late 18th
and 19th Century Textiles.
Catalogue compiled by Sue Kerry for an exhibition held 5 to 28 September 2007
at the Francesca Galloway gallery,
Yeats and Women edited by Deirdre Toomey. 2nd edition Macmillan Press Ltd 1997. Dorothea occupies Chapter 3: “The Music of Heaven”, by Warwick Gould: p115.
The 1920s:
The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works copyright Stevenage and
The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (its English translation) has its own wikipedia page, with plenty of photographs; and there is a lot else on the web about the exhibition which launched what came to be known as art deco. The exhibition was open from April to October 1925. 16 million people visited it and it seems inconceivable to me that Edmund and Dorothea were not two of them.
Gordon Russell Ltd:
There’s a wikipedia page but a better source for the man and the firm is the article posted February 2016 at
//antique-collecting.co.uk: The Russell Brand –
the Furniture of Gordon Russell. Gordon Russell’s first exhibition was held at
The website of the design museum which is now in Gordon Russell’s shop at Broadway is at
www.gordonrusselldesignmuseum.org
The only references to Hugh Parsons that I could find with google were very modern – attempts to sell me perfumes with that name on them. He must have been a perfumer.
The take-over by Morton Sundour Fabrics Ltd; Edinburgh Weavers:
20th Century Pattern Design by Lesley Jackson. 2007 On p81 in section 1930s: Functionalism and Industrial Art.
Theo Moorman’s opinion of Edmund’s skills as a weaver:
Quarterly Journal of the Guilds of Weavers Spinners and Dyers numbers 63-72 1967-69. Published in London for the Guild. On pp1221-1226 there is an appreciation of Theo Moorman to coincide with an exhibition of her work at the Oxford Gallery Oxford. After training at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, Moorman had worked for Heals before going freelance in 1930. A list of Moorman’s main commissions is all from the 1950s; all the commissions are for churches.
For Theo Moorman (1907-90) see also //archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk introduction to the Moorman archive at the University for the Creative Arts. And www.theomoormantrust.org.uk
ALEC BUTLER HUNTER 1899-1958
Times 14 January 1958 p11 had an obituary.
A pdf file on the web at www.estherfitzgerald.com of E F Rare Textiles of Hampstead has a profile of Alec on its p28. It says that Alec joined the firm in 1919 – that means, as a full-time worker; my section below shows him doing designs for St Edmundsbury Weavers as early as 1916. E F Rare Textiles’ pdf says that Alec went to work for Warner and Sons of Braintree in 1932; from 1943 he was a director of the company.
There’s a wikipedia page on Alec. Alec Hunter Humanities College in Braintree is named after him and several roads in the area are named after some of his well-known designs.
www.enjoybraintree.co.uk/Museums-and-Culture: Warner and Sons’ archive is still at Silks Way Braintree. The firm was founded 18th century and moved to New Mills Braintree in 1895.
Via www.gardencitycollection.com to its collections pages: LBM2427 is a picture of Alec’s Briar Dance 1916. And see below for his design ‘Armada’ exhibited 1916.
EDMUND HUNTER’S DESIGNS and WHERE EXHIBITED
I’m sure the list below isn’t complete.
THE 1890s – DESIGNS FOR THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN:
ASTROLOGY DRAWINGS
Mentioned in Yeats and Women p109. I think these are now in the Richard Ellman Papers at the McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa, though they are not listed on the library’s introductory web page.
THE TOWER STRUCK BY LIGHTNING
Mentioned in Yeats and Women p125 note 4 and p127 note 84; it was in Edmund Hunter’s 2nd Order notebook. The Tower Struck by Lightning was a relatively late addition to the tarot pack. In GD terms, it was the 27th path in the 4=7 Philosophus Grade. Edmund will have been working on the study material for that Grade in 1896.
The TREE OF LIFE
This was a wall-hanging.
W B Yeats: A Life Book 1: The Apprentice Mage by Robert Fitzroy Foster. Oxford University Press 1997. On p186 Foster says it was done as part of Yeats’ Celtic Order project.
Yeats and Women p97, with its dimensions.
FROM AROUND 1900 TO LATE 1920s: DESIGNS BY EDMUND MADE BY ST EDMUNDSBURY WEAVERS
In alphabetical order by title of design, but there are a lot mentioned whose name isn’t given or isn’t known. First, though, some useful definitions and destinations for further information:
TAPESTRY
The online Cambridge English Dictionary at //dictionary.cambridge.org defines it thus: “piece of cloth with a pattern or picture that is created by sewing or weaving different coloured threads onto...strong cloth”.
BROCADE
The online Cambridge English Dictionary at //dictionary.cambridge.org says that it is a heavy cloth with a raised design woven into it, often using gold or silver threads.
DAMASK has a wikipedia page, on which it’s described as a reversible, figured fabric in silk, cotton, linen or synthetic fibres with a pattern formed by weaving. The technique was used in Byzantine and early Islamic workshops and the first use of the word in the West was in the mid-14th century, in French.
Both damask and brocade can be woven on a jacquard loom, which is how the St Edmundsbury Weavers firm wove them.
At www.greenhousefabrics.com, posted November 2017, there’s a discussion, with examples, of differences between damasks and brocades. At //thedreamstress.com posted July 2014 is an entry by textile historian Leimomi Oakes on the knotty problem of which is which!
The designs. With dates exhibited and where examples of the design or the woven cloth can be seen now:
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA – designs for a theatre production.
Several sources for St Edmundsbury Weavers mention them. None could date the production, nor say exactly what the commission was for – scenery, costumes or both. However, other evidence indicates 1906: at www.npg.org.uk there’s a photo of Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra. Taken by Frank William Burford 1906. NPG x160599. Maybe his costume is by St Edmundsbury Weavers.
Copy at University of Toronto seen online: The Garden City: A Study in the Development of a Modern Town by C B Purdom. Published London: J M Dent and Sons 1913. On p150 there’s a paragraph on St Edmundsbury Weavers in a wider discussion of the town’s industries. The paragraph mentioned three theatre productions supplied by Edmund and the firm: Antony and Cleopatra; Nero; and False Gods.
I presume that once the performances were over, the set was destroyed and the scenery and costumes thrown away. I haven’t found any evidence that they still exist.
CHESSBOARD
There’s an example at the V&A: collections.vam.ac.uk and unlike most of the other designs by Edmund in their collection, it’s illustrated. Donor W F Morton (Morton Sundour Fabrics Ltd). It was a furnishing fabric. Originally designed 1905-10 but this particular piece was made in 1930 by Edinburgh Weavers.
Exhibited, though not during the lifetime of St Edmundsbury Weavers:
Letchworth Garden City 1903-78 Catalogue of Exhibitions. First Garden City Museum 1978 p43.
CROCUS
I couldn’t find any information on this design other than that in the catalogue below.
Exhibited in 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952 though I couldn’t find the actual dates of the exhibition in the booklet. The exhibition had sections dedicated to Charles Rennie Mackintosh and to Edmund Hunter’s friend Charles Voysey. Edmund didn’t have his own section. On p135 in section Y, Late Victorian and Edwardian Textiles and Wallpapers. Exhibit Y1: Crocus. Wall hanging in woollen tissue. Made by St Edmundsbury Weavers c 1900. Lent by Alec Hunter. Just noting here that 1900 is a bit early for Edmund and St Edmundsbury Weavers; 1901 or 1902 is more likely in my view.
FALSE GODS
Items for a theatrical production in which Beerbohm Tree was involved, 1910.
Copy at University of Toronto seen online: The Garden City: A Study in the Development of a Modern Town by C B Purdom. Published London: J M Dent and Sons 1913. On p150 there’s a paragraph on St Edmundsbury Weavers in a wider discussion of the town’s industries. The paragraph mentioned three theatre productions supplied by Edmund and the firm: Antony and Cleopatra; Nero; and False Gods.
At //theatricalia.com there was a small amount of information on a production of False Gods at His Majesty’s Theatre in 1910, which must have been the one St Edmundsbury Weavers provided materials for. The play was originally in French, by Eugène Brieux; it was translated into English by James Bernard Fagan. Herbert Beerbohm Tree directed it and played a small role in it.
FOREST
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1912 and 1916:
Seen at archive.org Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 10th Exhibition. Grosvenor Gallery 1912. A lot of designs by Edmund were on show; all designs were woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers
p 128 catalogue number 408 Forest. A damask
At archive.org, Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 11th Exhibition 1916.
p54 catalogue number 10 Forest. Damask in silk and wool
Exhibited in 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952, On p135 section Y was Late Victorian and Edwardian Textiles and Wallpapers.
Exhibit Y3 was a set of fragments designed by Edmund Hunter for St Edmundsbury Weavers; they were all silk and metal tissue and all lent by Morton Sundour Fabrics:
p135 (b) The Forest c 1914. The catalogue noted that the design had appeared in Studio Year Book 1917 as its catalogue number 144; with an illustration.
FOURSQUARE FOR OUR CITY
Info from peasant-arts.blogspot.com – this banner is illustrated at that blogspot. It was designed in 1909 for a pageant in Letchworth. Now at the First Garden City Heritage Museum Letchworth.
Www.gardencitymuseum.org says that it was the city’s official banner. You can buy a mug with the same design on it.
GOTHIC ROSE
There’s an example at the V&A: collections.vam.ac.uk. Donor Morton Sundour Fabrics: it’s a furnishing fabric, c 1905.
Exhibited – not before 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p135 section Y was Late Victorian and Edwardian Textiles and Wallpapers.
Exhibit Y3 was a set of fragments designed by Edmund Hunter for St Edmundsbury Weavers; they were all silk and metal tissue and all lent by Morton Sundour Fabrics:
p135 (a) Gothic Rose c 1905
The GRIFFIN
There’s an example at the V&A: collections.vam.ac.uk. Donor Morton Sundour Fabrics: The Griffin; a furnishing fabric c 1905.
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1912:
Seen at archive.org Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 10th Exhibition. Grosvenor Gallery 1912.
p130 catalogue number 19b Griffin. In three metals.
Exhibited 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p135 section Y was Late Victorian and Edwardian Textiles and Wallpapers. Exhibit Y3 was a set of fragments designed by Edmund Hunter for St Edmundsbury Weavers; they were all silk and metal tissue and all lent by Morton Sundour Fabrics:
p135 (f) The Griffin
INTERTWINE which might be a different name for Vine Intertwine
Exhibited Arts Decoratifs de Grande-Bretagne et Irlande, Paris 1914:
Arts Decoratifs de Grande-Bretagne et Irlande. Exposition Organisée par le Gouvernement Britannique. Palais du Louvre. Pavillon de Marsan. Avril-Octobre 1914. Catalogue, in French, printed for HMSO by the Arden Press at Letchworth. In the index p158 Edmund Hunter and St Edmundsbury Weaving Works exhibited catalogue numbers 553-558; all designed by Edmund and woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers.
P49 catalogue number 553 as Entrelacs; which I take to be ‘intertwine’; I hope I’m right! A damask.
Times Fri 24 April 1914 p9. Report issued Thurs 23 April 1914 on the visit of King George and Queen Mary to Paris. They had found time amongst more important engagements to visit the Exhibition of British Decorative Art on the Thursday morning.
Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Art: the Handley-Read Collection. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Royal Academy 1972. On p84 the Exhibition of British Decorative Art is mentioned, with reference to works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh that were in it. Apparently the French weren’t enthusiastic about the designs in the exhibition, though they did admire the craftsmanship.
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1916:
At archive.org, Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 11th Exhibition 1916.
p54 catalogue number 11 Intertwine. Tapestry
The KERUBIC
All I know about this design is from the catalogue below. Exhibited 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p142 section Z was Edwardian Ecclesiastical Design. Z18 was The Kerubic, woven as a chalice veil. Silk and metal tissue. C 1904 Lent by Morton Sundour Fabrics Ltd.
KING GEORGE AND QUEEN MARY
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1912.
Seen at archive.org Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 10th Exhibition. Grosvenor Gallery 1912.
p126 catalogue number 405g King George and Queen Mary. A coronation damask
Is this the unnamed design embroidered by Morris and Co for Westminster Abbey during the coronation?
LUDLOW BRIDGE
Exhibited:
Letchworth Garden City 1903-78 Catalogue of Exhibitions. First Garden City Museum 1978 p43.
MONK
Not a textile.
British Public School War Memorials by C F Kernot 2012 p113 section on St George’s School Harpenden. Just noting here that the school motto is the same one chosen by GD member Percy William Bullock: Levavi oculos. On p114 the book says that ‘monk’ was designed by Edmund in 1915 for a reredos to commemorate the first ex-pupil to be killed in World War 1. The school also has two memorial windows designed by Alec in 1917 and 1923.
Catalogue of the War Memorials Exhibition 1919. Published by V&A 1919: p81 catalogue number 911.
NERO
For a production by Beerbohm Tree’s company, 1906.
The International Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art volume 34 Mar-June 1908 numbers 133-136. Published for The International Studio in New York: John Lane of 110-114 West 32nd Street: pp341-42 mentions a cloth of gold costume for Nero to wear, woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers.
Copy at University of Toronto seen online: The Garden City: A Study in the Development of a Modern Town by C B Purdom. Published London: J M Dent and Sons 1913. On p150 there’s a paragraph on St Edmundsbury Weavers in a wider discussion of the town’s industries. The paragraph mentioned three theatre productions supplied by Edmund and the firm: Antony and Cleopatra; Nero; and False Gods. Nero’s cloth-of-gold costume isn’t mentioned though.
Wikipedia has quite a few plays called Nero or featuring him. The only one that falls in the period that St Edmundsbury Weavers was in operation was Nero by Stephen Phillips (1864-1915). Produced by Herbert Beerbohm Tree 1906. The company had previously put on Phillips’ Herod 1900; and his Ulysses 1902. Phillips is in ODNB.
ORCHARD
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1912:
Seen at archive.org Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 10th Exhibition. Grosvenor Gallery 1912.
p34 catalogue number 109b Orchard. A damask.
Exhibited Arts Decoratifs de Grande-Bretagne et Irlande, Paris 1914:
Arts Decoratifs de Grande-Bretagne et Irlande. Exposition Organisée par le Gouvernement Britannique. Palais du Louvre. Pavillon de Marsan. Avril-Octobre 1914. Catalogue, in French, printed for HMSO by the Arden Press at Letchworth. In the index p158 Edmund Hunter and St Edmundsbury Weaving Works exhibited catalogue numbers 553-558; all designed by Edmund and woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers.
P49 catalogue number 556 as Verger. Damask in blue silk and copper
catalogue number 557 as Verger. Damask in silk and three metals.
Times Fri 24 April 1914 p9. Report issued Thurs 23 April 1914 on the visit of King George and Queen Mary to Paris. They had found time amongst more important engagements to visit the Exhibition of British Decorative Art on the Thursday morning.
Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Art: the Handley-Read Collection. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Royal Academy 1972. On p84 the Exhibition of British Decorative Art is mentioned, with reference to works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh that were in it. Apparently the French weren’t enthusiastic about the designs in the exhibition, though they did admire the craftsmanship.
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1916:
At archive.org, Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 11th Exhibition 1916.
p71 catalogue number 78 Orchard. Tapestry in silk
Exhibited 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p135 section Y was Late Victorian and Edwardian Textiles and Wallpapers. On p135 section Y was Late Victorian and Edwardian Textiles and Wallpapers. Exhibit Y2: The Orchard. Silk and metal tissue. Made c 1910. Exhibited Paris 1914 as numbers 556 and 557. Lent by Morton Sundour Fabrics.
PATH
Sue Kerry says this design was first manufactured as a silk scarf in 1904, to make Dorothea a birthday present and to remind her of time spent in Paris while Edmund studied tapestries such as La Dame à la Licorne in the Cluny Museum . Later it was made up as a lining material for tailors in Savile Row.
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1916.
Seen at archive.org, Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 11th Exhibition 1916.
p57 catalogue number 24 Path. Tapestry in silk, linen and cotton
Exhibited 2007:
Neo-Classicism to Pop Part 1: Late 18th and 19th Century Textiles. Catalogue compiled by Sue Kerry for an exhibition held 5 to 28 September 2007 at the Francesca Galloway gallery, 31 Dover Street. In Sue Kerry’s introduction p28 and pp162-64 catalogue numbers 67a and 67b.
The PATH (which I’m assuming is a different design from Path, though perhaps I’m wrong)
1911 design for the Theosophical Calender. I found the calendar in the British Library catalogue, but when I ordered it, it didn’t arrive.
The PELICAN IN HER PIETY which is not the same design as the one called ‘St Paul’s’.
This was the altarcloth designed by Edmund and made by St Edmundsbury Weavers for St Paul’s cathedral. In the catalogue below the V&A gives it a date of 1904. There’s an example in the V&A collection. It’s not illustrated on the V&A’s website but the description of the design indicates that it used the typical iconography of this strange piece of Christian symbolism – the mother pelican with wings protectively around three offspring. Edmund set the design in a border of briar roses. Silk tissue and metal thread; cream silk on a dark blue background.
The actual altar cloth may no longer exist. The wikipedia page of St Paul’s Cathedral mentions that the cathedral was hit by two bombs on the night of 10 October 1940; one destroyed the high altar and one landed in the north transept, damaging the crypt.
Design exhibited in 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p142 section Z was Edwardian Ecclesiastical Design. Exhibit Z17 was The Pelican in her Piety. Silk and metal tissue. Lent by Alec Hunter.
PINEGROVE (sometimes seen as Pine Grove)
Sue Kerry describes this design as having been done in 1903/04. Originally it was woven initially as a furnishing fabric but later it was used for coat and dress linings.
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1912:
Seen at archive.org Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 10th Exhibition. Grosvenor Gallery 1912
p66 catalogue number 109a Pinegrove. A damask
Exhibited Arts Decoratifs de Grande-Bretagne et Irlande, Paris 1914:
Arts Decoratifs de Grande-Bretagne et Irlande. Exposition Organisée par le Gouvernement Britannique. Palais du Louvre. Pavillon de Marsan. Avril-Octobre 1914. Catalogue, in French, printed for HMSO by the Arden Press at Letchworth. In the index p158 Edmund Hunter and St Edmundsbury Weaving Works exhibited catalogue numbers 553-558; all designed by Edmund and woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers.
P49 catalogue number 554 as Bouquet de Pins. Damask in silk and aluminium
catalogue number 555 as Bouquet de Pins. Damask in green copper.
Times Fri 24 April 1914 p9. Report issued Thurs 23 April 1914 on the visit of King George and Queen Mary to Paris. They had found time amongst more important engagements to visit the Exhibition of British Decorative Art on the Thursday morning; it was in the Louvre.
Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Art: the Handley-Read Collection. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Royal Academy 1972. On p84 the Exhibition of British Decorative Art is mentioned, with reference to works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh that were in it. Apparently the French weren’t enthusiastic about the designs in the exhibition, though they did admire the craftsmanship.
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1916:
At archive.org, Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 11th Exhibition 1916:
p72 catalogue number 12 Pinegrove. Damask in silk and wool
catalogue numbers 82a, 82c Pinegrove as a silk damask.
Exhibited in 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p135 section Y is Late Victorian and Edwardian Textiles and Wallpapers. Exhibit Y3 is a set of fragments, designed by Edmund and made by St Edmundsbury Weavers. They are all woven from silk and metal tissue and they were all lent by Morton Sundour Fabrics:
p135 (c) The Pinegrove c 1910.
Exhibited in 2007:
Neo-Classicism to Pop Part 1: Late 18th and 19th Century Textiles. Catalogue compiled by Sue Kerry for an exhibition held 5 to 28 September 2007 at the Francesca Galloway gallery, 31 Dover Street. In Sue Kerry’s introduction p28 and pp162-64 as catalogue number 66.
ST CHRISTOPHER’S
In 1901, Luther Hooper and Edmund did a set of altar cloths for St Christopher’s Haslemere. Edmund’s contribution was the altar frontal.
There are photographs of the whole altar on the //peasant-arts.blogspot.com website.
ST PAUL’S
There’s an example at the V&A: collections.vam.ac.uk. Donor Morton Sundour Fabrics: St Paul’s design woven 1904 in silk tissue with woven threads.
Exhibited 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p135 section Y was Late Victorian and Edwardian Textiles and Wallpapers.
Exhibit Y3 is a set of fragments, all designed by Edmund and woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers; they were all woven in silk and metal tissue and were all lent by Morton Sundour Fabrics:
on p136 (d) St Paul’s c 1904.
It is figure 6 in the illustrations of an article by Frances Pritchard of the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester: All That Glistens is not Gold. See the article at www.thetextilessociety.org.uk.
THE TEMPEST which was a design for a book cover
This is now at the V&A: collections.vam.ac.uk. Donor, Edmund’s grandson John Hunter. Date unknown.
VINE, which might be another name for Vine Intertwine, or Vineyard
Exhibited Arts Decoratifs de Grande-Bretagne et Irlande, Paris 1914:
Arts Decoratifs de Grande-Bretagne et Irlande. Exposition Organisée par le Gouvernement Britannique. Palais du Louvre. Pavillon de Marsan. Avril-Octobre 1914. Catalogue, in French, printed for HMSO by the Arden Press at Letchworth. In the index p158 Edmund Hunter and St Edmundsbury Weaving Works exhibited catalogue numbers 553-558; all designed by Edmund and woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers.
P49 catalogue number 558 as Vigne. Silk brocade.
Times Fri 24 April 1914 p9. Report issued Thurs 23 April 1914 on the visit of King George and Queen Mary to Paris. They had found time amongst more important engagements to visit the Exhibition of British Decorative Art on the Thursday morning.
Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Art: the Handley-Read Collection. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Royal Academy 1972. On p84 the Exhibition of British Decorative Art is mentioned, with reference to works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh that were in it. Apparently the French weren’t enthusiastic about the designs in the exhibition, though they did admire the craftsmanship.
As VINE INTERTWINE
The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works published by Stevenage and Letchworth Museums 1981 and based on the archives of St Edmundsbury Weavers. On p5 Vine Intertwine is dated to 1903.
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1912:
Seen at archive.org Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 10th Exhibition. Grosvenor Gallery 1912
p34 catalogue number 109c Vine Intertwine as a damask.
Exhibited in 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p135 sectionY was Late Victorian and Edwardian Texts and Wallpapers.
Exhibit Y3 was a set of fragments designed by Edmund and woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers. They were all made of silk and metal tissue and were all lent by Morton Sundour Fabrics:
on p136 (e) Vine Intertwine c 1908
VINEYARD
Sue Kerry notes the closeness of this design’s title to the famous ‘vine’ design by William Morris (1890).
Exhibited at the St Louis International Exhibition 1904:
St Louis International Exhibition 1904: The British Section. Printed for the Royal Commission 1906. Compiled by Sir Isidore Spielmann FSA: p245, pp265-66, p315. Edmund and two other weavers – both women – were mentioned as having on display “novel work from hand looms”. Edmund’s exhibit was Vineyard: catalogue number 279. It was described quite minutely in the catalogue and specifically stated as having been hand-woven by Edmund as well as designed by him. The piece was 54 inches wide. The warp was white silk, with the design on the weft, in several colours with highlights in gold, silver, aluminium and copper. A small photograph of it was in the catalogue; in black and white of course.
Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society 1912:
Seen at archive.org Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 10th Exhibition. Grosvenor Gallery 1912
p34 catalogue number 103a Vineyard. A brocade.
Letchworth Garden City 1903-78 Catalogue of Exhibitions. First Garden City Museum 1978 p43.
Exhibited in 1952:
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p142 section Z was Edwardian Ecclesiastical Design. Exhibit Z16 was Vineyard. Silk tissue. Made 1904. Lent by Alec Hunter.
Exhibited in 2007:
Neo-Classicism to Pop Part 1: Late 18th and 19th Century Textiles. Catalogue compiled by Sue Kerry for an exhibition held 5 to 28 September 2007 at the Francesca Galloway gallery, 31 Dover Street. In Sue Kerry’s introduction p28 and pp162-64 as catalogue number 65.
At thevictorianweb.org there’s a reproduction of Vineyard, 1912.
WAVE LOTUS
There’s an example of this at the V&A: collections.vam.ac.uk. Donor Edmund’s grandson John Hunter. No date other than “20th century”. A furnishing fabric. I’m wondering if this is by Alec.
WEAVING FAIR AND WEAVING FREE
The website peasant-arts.blogspot.com has some information on this design by Edmund. It was a banner, woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers for a Haslemere suffragette society. The blog writer couldn’t find an illustration of it, but did find a reference in the local paper, which dates it very specifically: the Surrey Times of 20 June 1908 said that the banner would be taken on the Women’s Sunday March in Hyde Park on 21 June 1908.
ZODIAC
There’s an example at the V&A: collections.vam.ac.uk. Donor W F Morton, owner of Morton Sundour Fabrics Ltd. It was a furnishing fabric. The date it was designed is not known but the V&A suggests 1905-10.
Www.gardencitymuseum.org has an illustration of it.
DESIGNS OF WHICH THE TITLES ARE UNKNOWN. They may be some of the named designs above, of course.
* fabrics in red silk for Buckingham Palace. 1902
The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works published by Stevenage and Letchworth Museums 1981 p3.
* further fabrics for Buckingham Palace. 1904 by Queen Alexandra after the Home Arts and Industries Association Exhibition.
The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works published by Stevenage and Letchworth Museums 1981 p3.
Times Fri 15 April 1904 p5 had an announcement about the Home Arts and Industries Association Exhibition, with its dates - 12-16 May 1904 at the Royal Albert Hall. The announcement particularly mentioned that “specimens of woven brocades in gold and silk” would be on display.
Times Fri 13 May 1904 p10 Court Circular. Official engagements on 12 May issued Buckingham Palace.
* unnamed c 1905-10
An example of it at the V&A: collections.vam.ac.uk. Donor W F Morton. Unnamed but described as stylised birds and tulips.
* banner for the Pageant of Magna Carta, 1907
The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works published by Stevenage and Letchworth Museums 1981 p3 mentions a banner designed by Edmund for a pageant in Bury St Edmunds. The design is now in the Garden City Collection in Letchworth.
At www.stedmundsburychronicle.ac.uk the Bury St Edmunds Chronicle uses its back-issues to give a history of Bury St Edmunds, Edmund Hunter’s home town. The banner he designed was for the Pageant of Magna Carta, performed on the nights of 8-10 July 1907 in the Abbey Gardens. One performance at least was filmed; the film is now in the BFI Collection. Meg Andrews at her www.meg-andrews.com website, says that the banner had appliqué work in it. That will have had to be put on by hand. I couldn’t find a name for the banner, so I’ve left it in this list.
* unnamed fabric exhibited at the V&A 1952; dated in the catalogue to c 1910; but as the catalogue says it was hand-woven, it must have been produced before mid-1908.
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts at the V&A. London: HMSO 1952. On p86 in section P, which is mostly works by two of Edmund’s contemporaries - Charles Robert Ashbee 1863-1942; and Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott 1865-1927. Exhibit P40 was a furnishing fabric designed by Edmund and handwoven in cotton and wool tissue by St Edmundsbury Weavers. Lent by Alec Hunter.
* altar dressings for the 1911 coronation, which might be the design King George and Queen Mary.
The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works published by Stevenage and Letchworth Museums 1981 p3. They were designed by Edmund and embroidered by William Morris and Co.
* untitled cloth exhibited 1916
At archive.org, Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Catalogue of the 11th Exhibition 1916:
p69 catalogue number 72 Unnamed tapestry
p70 catalogue number 75 Unnamed damask in silk and copper
* At www.gardencitycollection.com, their 2004.34.4 is an embroidery sample of cloth woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers. Unnamed and no date.
* See //craftingtogether.wordpress.com, a posting from November 2015 about a visit to the Garden City Collection. It’s illustrated with an unnamed example of fabric woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers, and also with the banner Foursquare for our City.
* a very late example now in the Art Institute of Chicago and dated 1925-29; in a collection marked Russell Workshop Ltd; without a title. At www.artic.edu/aic/collections.artwork/150641: banner shape, stated as definitely being by Edmund despite how modern it looks; and as probably woven by St Edmundsbury Weavers Cotton and linen, satin damask weave. Catalogue number 1992.442.1
TWO OTHER DESIGNS IN WHICH EDMUND WAS PROBABLY INVOLVED
I’m assuming that Edmund – a man with very strong ideas on good design – would have wanted to influence Parker and Unwin as they designed a house and a factory for him: at www.gardencitycollection.com see photographs of both buildings:
- LBM2545 is a photograph of the Hunters’ house - St Brighids, Sollershot Road West. The main house is 1908 with additions to the original studio, done in 1914; and a second studio and garage, built in 1923.
- LBM2520 is photograph of the St Edmundsbury Weaving Works in Letchworth. It’s undated but as the land around it looks so bare, perhaps it was taken soon after the building was finished – by August 1908.
ATTRIBUTED TO EDMUND HUNTER
At //auctions.lyonandturnbull.com, an item in their February 2017 exhibition Textiles as Art: From the Collection of Paul Reeves. Stag and Deer, c 1902. Hanging panel.
Copyright SALLY DAVIS
8 October 2018
Email me, particularly if you know anything more about Edmund Hunter’s designs; at
Find the web pages of Roger Wright and Sally Davis, including my list of people initiated into the Order of the Golden Dawn between 1888 and 1901, at:
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