Lot 576
EDWARD BARNSLEY (1900-1987)
WALL MIRROR, 1963
Auction: Day Two inc FL Griggs : A Cotswold Legacy | Lots 334 to 654 | Thursday 16th October from 10am
Description
inlaid walnut, stamped to rear BARNSLEY
Dimensions
43cm diameter
Provenance
Commissioned from Edward Barnsley by Arthur Mitchell
A gift to Nina Griggs, and by family descent, see lot 549 for more details
Footnote
The Barnsley job book states that the mirror originally cost £42
Arthur Mitchell (1873-1965), whose father Henry founded the Smethwick brewery that would become Mitchells & Butlers, was a great patron of Cotswold School craftsmen. He was also a collector of prints and his collection is now held at the Ashmolean, Oxford. In a letter to Nina, kept in the Barnsley records and dated 12th October 1963, Edward Barnsley writes “(I) had a talk with Arthur about the furniture, and he may be writing to you himself, but he knows that I am writing to explain that he feels that he must not include a further item in the way of the little desk. He did not fully appreciate present-day costs, and we have rather run above what he had in his mind.. which is nevertheless a generous gift in all conscience! So, we are left with these items: the chest, the wardrobe, the table and the little bookshelves above it, and a chair and the mirror over the chest of drawers. And all are well in hand except for the bookshelves which are not started.”
Mitchell was 90 in 1963, and it may be that this gift was in return for help with collecting prints by F.L. Griggs over the years, of which he had a large holding.