Objectnummer
2016/5
Titel
The Saddler,
Vervaardiger
Beschrijving
Unframed engraving by Stanley Anderson RA (1884-1966), titled ‘The Saddler’. Produced in 1946, the print is an edition of 65. Signed in pencil “Ed 65: Stanley Anderson”. The print shows a saddler at work. The saddler is identified as Will (William) Bowl of Burford, Oxfordshire. Bowl is seated at a table covered with tools, using a sewing awl to make the body of a horse collar. Inserted into the collar next to Bowl’s right hand is a collar awl. Various tools are on the table that Bowl is working on, including a mallet, a saddler’s round knife, a pricking iron and a carding tool. A vice and clamp are in the foreground of the print. Finished saddles, a collar and a clamp, along with rolled leather are in the background and a variety of bridles and tacking are hung on the wall.
Anderson has printed a line of text below the image; it reads “And all his prospects bright’ning to the last, His Heaven commences ere the world be passed – Goldsmith”. The quote is taken from The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith. Anderson’s monogram featuring the initials “SA” within a triangle is engraved to the bottom left within the plate.
This engraving is part of Anderson’s ‘English Country Crafts’ series (1933-1953), for which he is best known. The series features workers and craftspeople of traditional farming and handiwork practices. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Anderson gave up his studio in London and went to live in the small village of Towersey, not far from Thame on the Eastern boundary of Oxfordshire. It was here that Anderson knew and befriended many of the subjects who appear in the ‘English Country Crafts’ series.
The print was purchased with the support of the Art Fund.
Fysieke kenmerken
1 unframed print, produced by line engraving. Paper and ink.
Archiefgeschiedenis
Purchased at auction from Rosberys, London. Lot number 38 in the Modern & Contemporary Prints, Photography, Multiples & Editions sale held on 21st November 2015. The vendor’s parents are residents of the village of Towersey in Oxfordshire; they purchased the print directly from the artist. The print was purchased with the support of the Art Fund.
Although acquired in 2016, the museum first exhibited a print of ‘The Sadler’ in the 1958 exhibition ‘The Craftsmen and his Tools’. This was a different individual print from within the same edition of 65. At the time, it was borrowed directly from the artist. In the 1958 exhibition, Anderson’s engravings were displayed alongside a loan of agricultural hand tools from the R.A. Salaman collection.
Although the Museum holds no further artefacts related to Bowl, saddlery was one of several crafts depicted in the series that were subject to programmes of collecting and film-making as part of a project entitled Rural Crafts Today.
Vervaardiging plaats
Thame
Datum
1946 - 1946
Objectnaam
Materiaal
Techniek
Formaat
- Height 18.3 cm
- Width 15.8 cm
