Lot 408
PHYLLIS BARRON (1890-1964) FOR TURNBULL & STOCKDALE LTD - ROSEBANK FABRICS
FOUR HAND-BLOCKED PRINTED LINEN SAMPLE PANELS, CIRCA 1935
Auction: 14 February 2019 at 10:00 GMT
Description
stripe and scroll design, in four colourways, four samples mounted in one frame, glazed (4)
Dimensions
each sample 18cm x 24cm
Footnote
Provenance: Archive of Turnbull & Stockdale, Rosebank Works, Ramsbottom (now in the collection of Paul Reeves)
Note: Phyllis Barron, who had trained at the Slade, first became interested in printing fabrics on discovery of some printing blocks whilst on holiday in France. She researched dying at the British Museum and the V&A libraries. As a member of the London Group from 1916 until 1921 she would have been in contact with the leading artists of the day, and very quickly she came to the attention of Roger Fry who asked her to exhibit at the Omega Workshop. Dorothy Larcher meanwhile had been working in India and on her return met Barron through the embroideress Eve Simmonds. She joined Barron in 1923 and together they moved to a workshop in Hampstead. Through Detmar Blow they secured a commission to furnish the coming-out dance of the Duke of Westminster, and another commission through the Duke led to a commission for cushions for Coco Chanel's garden in Paris. They moved to the Cotswolds in 1930 where the local water was particularly suitable for madder dying and from where they secured commissions from Girton College, Cambridge, the furniture maker Eric Sharpe amongst many others. The impossibility of obtaining good quality fabrics during the Second World War forced them to give up their business.