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It took great courage and imagination to organise a nationwide celebration at a time of political and economic uncertainty. Yet many of the textiles shown in the Festival of Britain have a beauty, strength of line and simplicity that have stood the test of time
Just after the end of the Second World War, the British government decided to mark the centenary of the Great Exhibition and demonstrate its post-war recovery to the world. The festival differed from the 1851 exhibition in several important ways. It was a nationwide celebration, with the site on derelict land on the south bank of the river Thames as the centrepiece. Exhibits were selected by the recently formed Council for Industrial Design. This ensured high standards and influenced the quality of manufactured goods in the years preceding the festival.
The festival's success in bringing art and science together is clearly illustrated in the crystal design project. This was a range of designs based on scientific diagrams of materials including quartz, mica and nylon. The idea was initiated by Mark Hartland Thomas of the Council of Industrial Design after consultation with Dr Helen Megaw of Girton College, Cambridge. He considered that '... these crystal structure diagrams had the discipline of exact repetitive symmetry; they were above all very pretty and were full of rich variety, yet with a remarkable family likeness; they were essentially modern because the technique that constructed them was quite recent, and yet, like all successful decorations of the past, they derive from nature - although it was nature at a submicroscopic scale not previously revealed.' The designs were produced especially for the festival by 26 invited manufacturers of wallpaper fabric and ceramics. The crystal structures were intended only to be a source of inspiration, not a shortcut to design. This interest in the atom and the molecule became the foundation for a new school of design.
Lucienne
Day: Calyx, 1951. Screen printed on linen.
V&A
356723
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If one were to pick a single fabric that caught the spirit of the age it must be Lucienne Day's 'Calyx'. This design, printed on linen by Heals, electrified the British textile industry and sent shock waves abroad. It exerted a dynamic and long-lasting effect on industrial design and had a great impact on public taste. The Homes and Gardens pavilion provided opportunities for many young designers, including Lucienne and Robin Day. 'Calyx' was designed at Robin's request: he wanted something modern and in keeping with his furniture. The design's spindly lines and curved shapes complemented the lightweight appearance and graceful curves of Robin's furniture. Lucienne approached Heals, and although Tom Worthington was sceptical about the commercial viability of the design (doubting he would sell a single yard) he was prepared to print it for the sake of the festival.
The word 'calyx' refers to the outer covering of a flower. It is also similar to the Latin word calix, meaning cup. Calix is often used as a generic term for cup-like structures, but Lucienne always stresses the importance of the 'sense of upward movement in the design. I wanted it to have a sense of growth but not to be a floral pattern.' The irregular cupped shapes linked by a delicate network of stems is far removed from the original inspiration, abstracted from plant life. The influence of modern art can also be detected in the mood and character of 'Calyx'.
This design was a bold new move using fine lines broken into dashes and textural effects evident in Lucienne's work of the 1940s - but injected with a new dynamism. She dramatically increased the scale of the repeat and used an avant-garde colour combination of muddy and sharp acid, distributed unevenly. Lime yellow, vermilion and black on olive was the version shown in the entrance to the home entertainment section of the Homes and Gardens pavilion, but Lucienne designed five colourways in all.
Keen to have as much work as possible on display, Lucienne took the initiative and had some of her wallpaper designs printed. 'Provence' was commissioned by John Line and Sons Ltd for their Limited Editions range, joining work by Diana Armfield amongst others.
Diana
Armfield: Buffalo, 1951. Block-printed yardage.
V&A
T.92-1986
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Diana Armfield, one of Britain's most highly regarded flower and landscape painters, showed handcrafted textiles in the festival. Her company, Armfield Passano, was set up in a studio at the bottom of her sister's garden at 7 Lambolle Road, Belsize Park in London, in 1947. Despite having to operate in the difficult post-war climate of rationing and scarcity of materials, the company operated successfully until 1952 when Roy Passano - her partner - emigrated to Canada.
Their range of subtle craft textiles was characterised by individual figurative, abstract and floral designs, hand-screen or block-printed. They made their own screens from parachute silk, which was unreliable and often leaked. Most of the printing was therefore done with blocks on the floor under the foot pressure of Mr Smiltens, their devoted Finnish printer. He earned £4 a week. Diana later remarked: 'He said he could not live on this - but it did not matter as he made his "real" money on the dogs.'
They used pigment dyes and blocks cut from battleship linoleum. The designs were printed on whatever fabric they could get their hands on - generally silk, cotton and linen. Diana admitted that 'to sustain our business it was necessary to make contact with valuable people in the textile trade who found it possible to get material in ways we did not ask about … we bought cloth from dubious sources, who wheeled out bolts of wartime parachute silk from under the counter, coupon free.' When supplies were desperately low they were forced to use architect's tracing linen. This was expensive and had to be soaked to remove the dressing before it could be successfully printed.
In 1951 they were invited to submit work for the festival. Their striking design 'Buffalo', inspired by the Lascaux caves, featured in a display of furnishing textiles in the Homes and Gardens pavilion.
Embroidery also featured in the festival. Constance Howard (née Parker) had just given birth to her daughter Charlotte when she was commissioned to make a large-scale embroidery for the festival's Country pavilion. The piece, 'The Country Wife', depicts activities performed by the Women's Institute. It is embroidered in high relief on a flat felt background with padded figures 5/8 life size. It shows baking, embroidery, weaving, basketry, dressmaking and flower arranging. Peripheral scenes include hymn singing, gardening and fruit picking. A small town with outlying farmland is shown in the background. Experienced artists from within the Institute contributed many of the objects contained in the piece, including a hobby horse, a pair of gloves, some knitting and a basket.
Constance
Howard and students of Goldsmiths College:
The Country Wife at the Festival of Britain (detail)
Surface embroidery, stumpwork on felt. 350 X 540 cm.
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It was worked by Constance's students from Goldsmiths College, including the fashion designer Mary Quant. The students would go to Constance's house in Chelsea to embroider and baby-sit for Charlotte. Shirley Brushett (née Waddington), one of the students, remembers: 'I also experienced having tripe and onions that Mrs Parker insisted was good for me.' At 350 x 540 cm, the piece was too big to be completed in the studio and so was assembled on site. Constance inspected it every weekend during the festival because things kept disappearing. The fish, which are particularly heavily embroidered, had to be replaced three or four times.
The festival also embraced numerous smaller local exhibitions. These were important because they reinforced community spirit and made an impact on those who participated. These exhibitions highlighted folk culture and acted as an antidote to the elitism of the South Bank. One such exhibition, Women of the Century, was held at York House, Twickenham in June 1951. It aimed to illustrate the social and political advancements made by women between 1851 and 1950. On display were costumes, suffragette banners and a patchwork designed by Lilian Dring.
Lilian trained in graphic design and it is by virtue of its design that this piece gained recognition. 'The Patchwork of the Century' is her most well-known piece. It is 300 x 300 cm, composed of 100 squares, depicting a historic event for each year of the century 1851-1950. Eighty housewives with no previous experience or training in needlework completed this community project in just over two months. The theme and design of many of the panels were inspired by Lilian, but she encouraged other participants to create their own designs.
Lilian
Dring and members of the Teddington Women's Association:
The Patchwork of the Century. Recycled fabrics.
300 x 300 cm
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Lilian herself completed the panels for 1851, 1871, 1921 and 1950. Other panels depict Lister's antiseptic spray and the General Strike. Some of the squares reflected the personal interests of the maker - Miss Dorothy Marshall, one of the first women scientists, studied at Girton College, Cambridge in the 1880s and provided the 1869 square of Girton. She was the first member to volunteer to do a square - provided it depicted Girton and was drawn out ready for her to work. Both her requirements having been met, Dorothy worked the square, but later complained that there were too many windows. The 1855 square, Florence Nightingale, was sewn at the instigation of a district nurse by one of her patients. It was felt to be a sad reflection of the times that so many of the squares illustrated wars, but in fact several minor ones were left out. It was with great difficulty that anyone was persuaded to depict the atom bomb for 1945. The squares for 1904 and 1940 were produced literally overnight when it was realised at the last moment that these had not been allocated.
No new materials were bought for the project: instead, old tablecloths, air force uniforms and blackout fabrics left over from the war were used. It is a credit to the patience and care of Lilian Dring that very little repair work has been necessary to this motley collection of fabrics, most of which were old in 1951. The panel for 1950 shows the Royal Festival Hall - where it has found a permanent home and is now in storage. Visitors to the Threads of Gold exhibition at Doddington Hall last summer enjoyed a rare glimpse of the patchwork.
Tapestry weaving was represented at the Festival by Sax Shaw's The Lion and the Oak Tree. Commissioned by Lord Colum Crichton Stuart, it was one of the first tapestries woven to a design by Sax. As well as teaching stained-glass design at Edinburgh School of Art, Sax became the resident designer at the Dovecote Studios, when this position was re-introduced in 1954. As resident designer Sax did much to encourage the workshop in its first faltering steps away from an outworn tradition. Experiments were made using coarser warpings at 8 or 6 to the inch in order to produce the work more quickly and therefore more cheaply, as it is the weaver's time that costs money in tapestry. He changed the way the weavers approached the work by literally turning it around from back to front, thus giving them greater integrity.
When a young man at the Gobelins in Paris, a dyer had said to him: 'Hold the wool in your hands then think with your heart'. This sums up Sax Shaw's attitude to tapestry. In all, he was responsible for the design of 55 tapestries, pulpit falls and rugs during his time at the Dovecote.
Sax
Shaw: The Lion and the Oak Tree. Wool tapestry.
160 x 135 cm
Owner
Major Michael Crichton Stuart, Falkland Palace
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Other Scottish pieces produced to commemorate the festival include two cushions designed by Robert Stewart, a lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art, and worked by Kathleen Whyte, Head of the Department of Embroidery and Weaving from 1947 to 1974. These cushions are the result of the close collaboration between different disciplines that there was at the time. One cushion depicts a sunburst on red linen, and the other shows text surrounded by fireworks. Finally, souvenir embroidery kits were produced and published in the press, such as the one on the cover of Home Chat magazine. Threads were available to work the design from Selfridges, Oxford Street at a special price of 7s 4d (about 40p). And so the whole nation was stitching. Textiles, it may be claimed, figured large in the festival celebrations.
After the festival, artists trained in other disciplines began to experiment with fabric and thread. The result was an infiltration of lively, varied and individual work. These artists started to teach both hand and machine embroidery, though machine work was given considerable impetus. Rationing did not end until 1954, and so rag bags continued to be the main source of material. Commercially dyed felt, linen and layers of net were in vogue. Design-led work, with a spontaneity and quality not previously seen, laid the foundation stones of contemporary embroidery.
In retrospect it is difficult to say whether the Festival of Britain marked the beginning or the end of something. It was certainly a turning point - Great Britain's stylistic apex. It signified the end of post-war austerity and eradicated Victorian excess. Its repercussions can still be seen in the indifferent architecture of the pedestrian precincts and council flats of new towns up and down the country. The influence of festival style, although politically important, was more of an establishment myth than a reality. Although the festival did not solve any of the political, economic or social problems Britain was facing at the time, for a fleeting moment it presented a mirage of hope - a true tonic to the nation.
Part of this article was published in Piecework, November/December 2001
Bibliography
Curran,
Lynne, 'Sax Shaw - his contribution to the world of
tapestry', Journal of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers,
December 2001.
Edwards, Joan, Textile Graphics by Lilian Dring, Bayford
Books, 1988.
Howard, Constance, Embroidery in Great Britain, Four
Volumes, Batsford, 1981-85.
Jackson, Lesley, Robin & Lucienne Day: Pioneers
of Contemporary Design, Octopus, 2001.
Lumsdale, Pat, 'Our Mural', Women's World Magazine,
February 2001.
A commemorative cushion by Lilian Dring is held in the Guild Collection accession no EG1993.11.
A fund has been set up to pay for the restoration of 'The Country Wife'. To make a donation, contact Barbara Gill, Chairman, Denman College Committee, Denman College, Marcham, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 6NW.
A retrospective of the work of Sax Shaw can be seen at the Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh in the Spring of 2003. Details from 0131 558 1200.
More work by Robert Stewart can be seen in Patterns for Living; Robert Stewart, Designer at The Glasgow School of Art, 24 July - 1 November 2003 (details from 0141 353 4500); and at Liberty, Regent Street, London, January 2004, dates tbc (details from 020 7734 1234). A book by Liz Arthur to accompany the exhibition, published by A & C Black, will be available; price to be confirmed.
I would like to thank Mala Jones, archivist at the Royal Festival Hall, Lynn Curran, tapestry weaver, George Simmer of the Festival of Britain Society, and Barbara Gill of the Women's Institute for their help in the research for this article.
This article is from Embroidery, Volume 53 No.6, © Polly Leonard