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One of Arthur’s contemporaries at the School of Art was Joseph Southall who was tobecome his closest friend. Subsequently Southall noted that as students they hadboth considered a career in architecture but finally decided to be artists. The two mencorresponded virtually on a daily basis throughout their lives, their letters sprinkledwith witty sketches. In 1897 Southall invited Arthur to accompany him on anextended tour of Italy and France. It was about this time that Southall taught Gaskinto paint in tempera, the medium used for his finest work. One of his masterpieces intempera was ‘The Annunciation’ purchased by his lifelong friend, Laurence Hodson.!4

Arthur painted several portraits of his parents but he also liked to introduce littlevignettes of them into his book illustrations. In 1893 Arthur was commissioned by thepublisher, George Allen, to illustrate a translation of Hans Christian Andersen’sStories and Fairy Tales translated by Oskar Sommer. One illustration in ‘The OldStreet Lamp’ features a touching family portrait of his parents at home. He also drewhis mother to illustrate another of Andersen’s stories, ‘The Little Elder Tree Woman’,while a drawing of her aged 70 was published in The Yellow Book, vol.IX, 1896.By 1885 Arthur’s talents as an artist and teacher were recognised by his employmentto teach at the Municipal School of Art. He was teaching for up to twenty hours aweek by 1903. It was probably in this role that Arthur first met Georgie Evelyn CaveFrance when she enrolled at the School of Art as a student in about 1887. Sheaffectionately described herself as his pupil in a later book dedication.Georgie was born in Shrewsbury on 8 December 1866, the eldest daughter ofWilliam Hamner France, a contractor’s agent, and his wife Frances Emily Cave-!5

Brown Cave. There is little information on her early life; her daughters reported thatshe seldom spoke of her childhood. However the family was well off and socially wellconnected with links to a land-owning family in Ireland. The eldest son of the Irishbranch was killed in action in France in 1914 and a handsome memorial plaquedesigned and made by Arthur survives in the parish church, Ballinkill, County Galway.Georgie was well educated and attended school in Germany as a teenager.Arthur and Georgie married in 1894. Although Georgie’s family felt she had marriedbeneath her station, the marriage was a happy one by all accounts. They set uphome at Richmond Villa, Warwick Road, Olton near the railway line into Moor Streetin central Birmingham. For Arthur this represented a move to the greener spacesoutside the city. Alan Crawford has commented on the significance in the Gaskins’married life of the commuting railway line: Arthur going into to work and coming out toGeorgie in that middle-class compromise land with country associations.They had two daughters, Joscelyne born in 1903 and Margaret born in 1907. Arthurwas devoted to his daughters and made many delightful drawings and paintings ofthem as they grew. His skill in drawing children was well known and described bySouthall in an article in The Studio magazine of 1915. He wrote: ‘Here, one feels, is atrue leader in the art of seeing, one who can point out beauties that we had notsuspected, and can therewithal open to us the gates of a country full of delight andhope.’ Georgie tended to dress her children in an artistic way inspired by the peasantsmocks popularised by Kate Greenaway’s illustrations and always tended towardsthe exotic in her own dress. As a young woman she had striking red hair but lost itearly in life through illness. She wore a wig made from her hair. Throughout much ofher life she suffered from ill health – rheumatism, arthritis, and frequent colds. Manyof her illnesses could possibly be attributed to the fumes from the enamelling mufflekiln that was in use constantly at their home until they moved house to Edgbaston.Arthur never enjoyed the best of health, perhaps for the same reason. It was notrealised until later how dangerous the fumes from the muffle kiln were for enamellers.They were a popular couple. Georgie’s friends included Georgiana Burne-Jones andMay Morris, who was godmother to their daughter, Margaret. Many of Arthur’s friendsand colleagues remarked on his good nature, his love of young people and hisunfailing good humour. Georgie, it would appear, was the manager of the family. Shemade things happen and was commercially quite astute. She certainly was the one incharge of the purse strings. She wrote, presumably in jest, to a friend in 1902: ‘I ‘do’my husband’s letters as a rule and any little odd jobs, thus completely spoiling him I expect you will be thinking me a hard taskmistress and I daresay I am really – butafter this one pendant is made the ‘slave’ shall have a holiday ’In the first years of their married life Arthur worked part-time as a teacher and theyboth relied on book illustration to make a living. A busy period as illustrators for thenext five years ended with a series of commercial disappointments. These setbacksled to a change in direction and they both set about learning to work in metal and tomake jewellery.In the 1898-99 session of the School of Art Georgie enrolled on a class described as‘Designs executed in the materials intended’. She was 32 but worked alongside aneven more mature student, Oliver Baker who became a well-known designer forLiberty. Baker, a landscape painter and active antiquarian, was 42 when he enrolledon this class. Like the Gaskins he also came to live in Chipping Campden in lateryears.!6

Remarkably the Gaskins were exhibiting their first jewellery within months. Theyshowed work under their own names at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society’sLondon show in 1899. Several of their fellow-students including Oliver Baker andBernard Cuzner also exhibited their work, uncredited, under the Liberty’s banner. Itseems that the Gaskins had decided to make a name for themselves. A review oftheir exhibits in The Studio, vol. XVIII, stated: ‘Perhaps the chief interest attaches tothe jewellery, the joint work of Mr. and Mrs Gaskin. The motive for undertaking thisbranch of art was that, living as they do in Birmingham, a principal centre of themanufacture of jewellery, they have always the painful evidences of the need forreform in that industry. While the technique is flawless it is lamentably deficient inartistic quality of design Although they can only spare time in the evenings todevote to their common undertaking, the success they have attained is mostencouraging.’ This motivation for taking up jewellery design was so often quoted byreviewers in the early years that it must have been personally expressed by theGaskins. In reality however there was the obvious pressure in their early married lifeto make a living. In any case their joint career in jewellery making had been launchedand their output of jewellery was quite extraordinary and of huge variety.In 1903 a very significant opportunity presented itself. The Vittoria Street School forJewellers and Silversmiths had been set up in 1890 as a trade school, part of theMunicipal School of Art, in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. Itsheadmaster since 1901 was Robert Catterson-Smith. Two years later he wasappointed head of the Municipal School of Art and his position at the Vittoria StreetSchool was given to Arthur. William Lethaby, the influential head of the CentralSchool of Arts and Crafts in London, wrote: ‘A remark of somebody suggested to methat probably Mr. Gaskin was applying for the Mastership at Vittoria Street: if this isso, surely there could be no better master found.’The appointment to the Vittoria Street School headship in September 1903 with anannual salary of 500 provided a very welcome basis for the Gaskins’ income andsettled the direction their careers would take. The School marked the event with anexhibition of Arthur’s work. A. S. Wainwright, who reviewed the exhibition for TheStudio, vol. XXX 1904, observed: ‘Naturally main attention was centred on his exhibitof jewellery. Rather a revival of the old Italian jewellery than any striking innovation, itpossesses many points of merit of its own. The choice and arrangement in pleasingeffects of colour of inexpensive gems or stones, suggested the possibilities of a widerscope for the trade designer and workman from the standpoint of beauty and effect,rather than that from intrinsic value only.’Apart from financial security, the headship also provided the Gaskins with readyaccess to a skilled and enthusiastic pool of assistants from among the staff andpupils of Vittoria Street and also at the Municipal School of Art where John PaulCooper was in charge of metalwork. The pupils included very skilful craftworkersincluding Cuzner, Bernard Instone, William Blackband, Kate Eadie, Margaret Awdryand others. The list of assistants regularly included Effie Ward a superb enameller, A.E. Jones, Lily Dale and James Morris with Charles Hopkins and John Hardwickappearing later.The Gaskins probably made some impact on the jewellery trade over the yearsthrough their example and through Arthur’s influence at the Vittoria Street School.There is no doubt that his influence on the ‘quite rough and untutored lads’ he taughtwas considerable. He persisted in a unique method. Social life, cultural activity and!7

discussions to develop the interest of his pupils were a feature of this. There aremany accounts from ex-pupils of the impression he made on them and of theaffection in which he was held. At the annual prize-giving of the BirminghamJewellers’ and Silversmiths’ Association in 1902 the Chairman was reported assaying: ‘All employers of labour must have daily evidence of the widened interest andimproved intelligence of the young men and youths who have been privileged tocome under Mr. Gaskin’s influence.’ Any teacher would have been proud of such acompliment but, sad to say, the vast majority of the work passing through theBirmingham Assay Office continued to remain extremely well made but mediocrefrom a design point of view.Arthur retired from the headship in 1924 due to ill health. Cuzner, the son of awatchmaker, who had first attended Vittoria Street as a night student, left aninteresting appraisal of Arts and Crafts work towards the end of a working life injewellery and metalwork. He wrote: ‘There were many weaknesses in the [Arts andCrafts] movement. It was too often insincere, while giving lip service to socialdemocracy, its product, in the main, could only be bought by the rich. It was oftenprecious and contaminated by Art Nouveau. Equally often it was quite out of touchwith the ordinary life of the ordinary person. It took no pains to understand theproblems of industry or the use of mechanical aids. It ignored the fact that craftsmenat all times and in all places used such of these aids that came to hand.’ Hecontinued: ‘On the other side many of the leaders of the Arts and Crafts movementwere men of real intellectual powers. They, more than anyone, made possible abetter and deeper understanding of essential principles. They saw clearly that a trueappreciation of tradition was necessary for advance. These men showed us that itwas the actual quality of workmanship, intimate knowledge of tools and materials andwarm lively interest that gave the work of our forebears its charm, convincingrightness and look of inevitability. A further point, the closeness of the older craftsmento nature, was made clear. We were taught that a fine work must arise as naturally asa plant grows out of the soil. Forms and details should develop as it were ofthemselves and not come from the coercion of the material into some pre-conceivedshape.’These are insightful observations indeed from a man who spent an entire lifetime inthe world of Arts and Crafts jewellery. One imagines that he was referring to Arthur,whom he had known for much of his working life, as one of the ‘men of realintellectual powers.’ Cuzner had referred to Gaskin in 1899 as: ‘A man of sensitive tofine qualities.’IllustrationAs President of the Birmingham Society of Arts William Morris was a frequent visitorto Birmingham. Both he and Walter Crane visited Birmingham to give talks at theMunicipal School of Art and were a strong influence on the staff and students. Morrislent the School a complete set of the Kelmscott Press books. As a native of the cityEdward Burne-Jones also had a special relationship with the School.Arthur’s work as an illustrator began while he was still a student. He showed designswhich were well received for a book John Inglesant by the Birmingham author andplaywright J. J. Shorthouse at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists’ exhibition in1882. His first published illustrations appeared in The Art Student, a magazinepublished in Birmingham in 1886.!8

Between1890 and 1894 he provided illustrations for The Art Rambler and TheEnglish Illustrated Magazine.!9

In his role as teacher at the Municipal School of Art Arthur encouraged his pupils’interest in book illustration and organised the production of two books illustrated bystudents and fellow-teachers. The first of these A Book of Pictured Carols waspublished in 1893. Georgie designed the title page and border and Arthur anillustration for ‘Good King Wenceslas’. There were also illustrations by Henry Payne,Mary Newill, Charles Gere, Sidney Meteyard and others, several cut by BernardSleigh. A second Municipal School of Art production, A Book of Nursery Songs andRhymes, followed in 1895. Arthur provided the illustration for ‘Little Bo Peep’ andGeorgie for ‘Little TomTucker’; other illustrations were provided by other students and staff. Georgie alsoprovided the elaborate border designs for each page.1895 brought the publication of J. M. Neale’s Good King Wenceslas with anintroductory note by William Morris. This is the book that Arthur is best rememberedfor and the first printed by the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft Press. Arthur made sixwoodcut illustrations, all full page, using the common Arts and Crafts device ofcutting the text, decoration and illustration as a whole unified design onto thewoodblock He personally printed the initial limited run on hand-made paper. Thebook was critically very well perceived. A review in The Artist stated: [The pictures]are as vigorous as the northern wind which shaped the mediaeval legend as itspread, and refreshingly beautiful as the illustrated books which issued from theNorth Italian presses at the end of the fifteenth century ’About this time there was a revival of interest in children’s literature. New technologyin colour printing also made possible the production of reasonably priced andattractively illustrated books by established artists such as Walter Crane and KateGreenaway. Georgie decided that this booming market provided an opening for her.In 1893 she produced several colour illustrations for the monthly magazine, TheChild’s Pictorial, her first published work. The publisher, Andrew Tuer, a collector of!10

rare children’s books, wrote a number of books on the history of children’s literatureincluding A History of the Hornbook 1895 for which Georgie provided several fullpage illustrations. Her first venture as both a writer and an illustrator, ABC: AnAlphabet, featured a delightful series of images. According to the review in TheBookman Supplement, ‘there is not one design that is puny or merely imitative.’ Thetext too was witty and charming. The book was dedicated to Helen Mary Hodson, thenewly-born daughter of the couple’sclose friend, Laurence Hodson, and it has remained popular – the most recentfacsimile edition was published by Blackwells in the United States in 1997.The Gaskins worked together on a number of projects including The Quest, a shortlived periodical set up by Charles Gere and Louis Fairfax Muckley in 1895. Arthurprovided initials and illustrations while Georgie worked on the advertising designs –including different designs for Stickphast Paste for each of the six editions. TheYellow Book, vol.IX 1896, was illustrated throughout by members of the BirminghamSchool and included Arthur’s bookplate portrait of Georgie and a portrait of hismother. Georgie’s contribution was a bookplate design for her god-daughter Isabelle.In 1896 Georgie won first prize in a competition for illustrations to be used in TheCalendar of the Seasons published by Marcus Ward & Co. As a result the publishercommissioned her to illustrate Holy Christmas, a collection of seasonal hymns and!11

carols. Some of Georgie’s finest designs appeared in this book, printed on handmade paper in the style of the private presses with one hundred deluxe copies boundin vellum. That year also saw the publication of an illustrated version of one of themore famous of the early nineteenth-century pious books for children, Divine andMoral Songs for Children by the Rev. I. Watts. Georgie provided fourteen illustrationsand dedicated the book thus: ‘These little pictures are dedicated to My Husband byhis pupil and wife.’ The book was well received by the critics but, having beenpresented with a copy, Georgiana Burne-Jones wrote to Georgie: ‘I must confess wewere appalled by Dr Watts’ share of the work and I hope you will not be vexed when Iwill tell you that I deliberately took out your pictures & burnt the book!’ She obviouslydid not appreciate the moralistic tone typical of children’s books from that earlierperiod.Meanwhile Arthur’s career as a book illustrator was developing impressively. He hadknown William Morris for some time, visiting him at Kelmscott Manor in 1892 to showhim some of his drawings and again with Southall the following year. In 1983 hereceived the commission he had desired. He was asked to illustrate TheShepheardes Calendar by Edmund Spenser for the Kelmscott Press. Arthur providedthe twelve full-page illustrations and initial letters. The book was very well receivedon its publication in 1896. According to The Times: ‘It is a choice example ofKelmscott printing Mr. Gaskin’s designs are of the same character as those in hiswell-known rendering of the ballad of ‘Good King Wenceslas’, and fully maintain thereputation he has acquired as a master of black-and-white The figure subjects,charmingly conceived throughout, are varied with admirable skill, and, with thelandscape backgrounds are instinct with graceful beauty . Altogether it is a mostcharming and desirable book, one which will be highly prized by collectors ofproductions of the Kelmscott Press.’!12

However the major tragedy of Arthur’s career as an illustrator was the rejection byMorris of the designs he had been asked to prepare for the latter’s romance, TheWell at the World’s End. Some of Arthur’s designs for this project are dated 1892 andprobably follow on from his first visit to Kelmscott Manor. He produced nearly twentyexquisite designs which were developed to proof stage. They were full of dynamiclife, movement and interest and seem to interpret perfectly the spirit of the story. It isgenerally agreed that they were among Arthur’s best work and i

CATALOGUE ARTS & CRAFTS JEWELLERY. Arts & Crafts Jewellery: the work of Arthur and Georgie Gaskin Introduction: the Gaskins and Chipping Campden From the 1880s onwards the theorists and practitioners of the Arts and Crafts movement were bringing