Autumn Meeting of Friends

Friends who were able to attend the penultimate meeting of 2004 had been promised an afternoon of nostalgia and, judging from the feedback they were not disappointed.

This was an opportunity to invite Mr Kevin Salt, the museum’s Digital Archivist, to leave his state of the art photographic equipment (provided by the Designation Challenge Fund) in the vaults of the museum offices, and treat the audience to a unique portrait of Mr Harry Barnard - artist, designer, London manager, one-time museum curator, manager of the tile department at Etruria, travelling sales and public relations representative and fez-wearer.

 It was a photographic portrait of the latter which first attracted Mr Salt’s attention to this multi-faceted character who, while born in Lambeth and initially affiliated with the firm of Henry Doulton, eventually made his home in the Potteries.  Not only did he record various chapters of his life in meticulously kept hand-written journals, but he was evidently an avid and, fortunately for Wedgwood historians, an extremely talented photographer. His album of 1898, entitled ‘Etruscan Bread-winners’ is a wonderful record of Wedgwood employees, photographed in their different ‘Shops’ and painstakingly identified in Barnard’s hand.  However, Mr Salt was further drawn by the numerous boxes of glass lantern slides prepared by Barnard for lectures which took him as far a field as Australia and America both before and after the First World War.

Significantly, it was Kevin’s use of ultra-modern photographic technology that enabled him to bring his hero’s antiquated images before the Friends’ meeting and to show them as part of a ‘Viewpoint’ presentation - a development which would no doubt have won Mr Barnard’s approval.

Sadly, Harry Barnard fell victim to the economic cutbacks of the early 1930’s, otherwise he may well have been involved with the making of a film which documented the manufacturing processes at Etruria in 1935.  Interestingly, Barnard’s trip to America in 1927 anticipated the one made by Keith Murray and Norman Wilson, taking in visits to major modern ceramic-manufacturing plants.  However, Barnard would not be involved in the building of the new factory. This twenty minute film captures the old factory in its twilight years. Indeed the last few frames are dedicated to showing the fields of Barlaston -the green-field site chosen for the new works. The audience was captivated by this wonderfully-detailed insight into Etruria even if a little bemused by the crisp pronunciation of the narrator’s ‘King’s English’.  Nevertheless, the unanimous opinion seems to have been that the film contributed a unique and vital insight into the life and workings of a factory which no longer stands.

By now, with the ‘Friends’ thoroughly steeped in the past, our attentions turned to a more general, but no less intriguing history of the Potteries with a showing of one of Ray Johnson’s celebrated compilations entitled Stoke-on-Film 1910-1930. In addition to views of Edwardian Tunstall and Burslem, we were treated to what remains of a film charting the fortunes of an unfortunate Potteries lass, transporting us to the era of the silent screen. We saw the Potters at work and at play during ‘Wakes’ week. The final stars of the film were the participants of Wedgwood’s historical pageant, staged in Hanley park to commemorate the bicentenary in 1930, of the birth of Josiah Wedgwood l.  

Refreshments of tea and cake were available throughout the afternoon.