Omega Workshops tray with abstract design
Vanessa Bell (Kensington 1879 – Firle 1961)
Category
Wooden objects
Date
1913
Materials
Mahogany carcase, with marquetry of oak, walnut, and ebony
Measurements
6.3 x 72.5 x 68.0 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire
NT 1274867
Summary
A large circular tray with marquetry abstract design in coloured woods, the carcase in mahogany with flat handles. Designed by the Bloomsbury Group artist Vanessa Bell and made by the cabinet-maker John Joseph Kallenborn for the Omega Workshops. Much of rim missing or broken.
Full description
George Bernard Shaw purchased the Omega Workshops circular marquetry tray, featuring an abstract design by Vanessa Bell, in 1913. In late 1912, Shaw had become the first patron of the Omega Workshops, founded by the artist, connoisseur and critic Roger Fry to provide work for avant-garde artists, in the form of decorating artefacts and furnishings for the home. The tray reflects Shaw’s friendship with Fry, and his desire to influence reform in the decorative and applied arts. Having heard Shaw lecture on Socialism at Cambridge University many years previously, Fry wrote to Shaw for support when forming the Omega Workshops. In his fundraising letter Fry complained: ‘since the complete decadence of the Morris movement nothing has been done in England but pastiche.’ (Spalding 1980, p. 165). The Omega prospectus outlined the main aims of the Workshops: ‘to discover a possible utility for real artistic invention in the things of daily life […] a gain both to the producer and the consumer.’ (Reed 1996, p. 199). Shaw was convinced by the business plan presented by Fry, and invested £250. (Sutton 1972, p. 361; Spalding 1980, p. 166; Cork 1985, p. 131). Shaw later felt obliged to offer an additional £500 when the Workshops ran into financial difficulties, and thus advised Fry to expand Omega’s social horizons. Recognizing the need to be competitive in the marketplace, Shaw wrote: ‘you will need above all things a shop window. Morris found that out. It is all very well to live in a quiet London square and look like an Orthopaedic Institute, but the price you pay is that your business remains the secret of a clique.’ (Spalding 1980, p. 177). Omega’s wealthy patrons included one of Shaw’s friends Madame Lalla Vandervelde, the wife of the Belgian Socialist leader, who furnished her house with Omega products, and appeared in Shaw’s playlet Augustus Does His Bit (1916). Three different versions of the marquetry tray were made for the Omega by the cabinet-maker John Joseph Kallenborn: the abstract design by Vanessa Bell, a version by Duncan Grant featuring a woman riding an elephant, and a design by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska based on his drawing of two wrestlers. The abstract design on the tray by Bell is very similar to the abstract motifs which appear in her work in other media at this time including paintings and rugs. (Gerstein 2009, p. 90). A small number of each design of the trays would have been produced and sold through the Omega Workshops. The Bell version featured in the shop display in 1914, placed vertically on a table, and can be seen in a photograph published in the Omega Workshops Descriptive Catalogue (1914). Other versions of the tray survive in the collections of the V&A Museum: the elephant design by Duncan Grant (MISC.2:12-1934); and the Wrestlers by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (W.30-1978). The carcase is in mahogany, with marquetry of oak, walnut, and ebony. Shaw chose the tray by Bell whilst visiting the Workshops (located near to his previous residence) at 33 Fitzroy Square in 1913. The art historian Richard Shone has claimed that the tray Shaw purchased was the elephant design by Grant however the survival at Shaw’s Corner of the version by Vanessa Bell with the abstract design suggests otherwise. Shaw evidently said to Winifred Gill whilst making the purchase: “Would you very kindly tell [Fry] that I chose it myself without any prompting from you. He doesn’t believe I’ve got any taste at all.” (Shone 1999, p. 176). Bell wrote to Grant (30 November 1913) repeating Shaw’s quip. A few months later we find Shaw discussing his purchase of the tray with Fry: ‘I looked in at the Workshops one day, and even went the length of buying intarsia which struck me as cheap.’ (Spalding 1980, p. 177). The quality of the workmanship by Kallenborn was not what he had expected however. Evoking the Italian masters of the technique, Shaw complained: ‘I regret to say that the artificer, not having had the opportunity of being apprenticed to the people who did the intarsia work at Bergamo cathedral, does not know all the secrets of the trade. His beautiful surfaces are beginning to burst up as if a traction engine has gone over them; and my wife has naively proposed to send the plate back to get it set right. And indeed it might be as well to let the hopeful reviewer of the lost art see what happens when his slices of wood begin to blister and curl up.’ (Spalding 1980, p. 177). The absence of evidence of historic repairs suggests that Fry had the tray professionally repaired for the Shaws, probably by Kallenborn, whose business premises was located close to the Omega Workshops. It is likely that the tray was kept at the Shaws’ London residences, where Fry would have seen it during the luncheons he attended. Fry owned the elephant version of the tray by Grant, and displayed it at Durbins (his country home) where the Shaws visited and could see it taking pride of place on the mantelpiece. (Reed 2004, p. 44). At some point however, Shaw’s tray sustained significant damage (of unknown origin) to the rim. This accounts for the absence of the Omega symbol or cipher, which typically is located on the outside of the rim. Possibly brought to Shaw’s Corner during the 1940s when Shaw was curating the interiors ready for the Trust, the tray was placed in storage after his death. The Shaw’s Corner Probate Inventory of January 1951 records the presence of an ‘inlaid large circular tea-tray’ on the top floor ‘Room No.1 (store)’. The tray was eventually located in the Accumulator House in November 2010, where it had been stored for some years. (Alice McEwan, 2017) Shaw's Corner (The National Trust)
Provenance
Purchased by Shaw from the Omega Workshops in 1913. The Shaw Collection. The house and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust by George Bernard Shaw in 1950, together with Shaw's photographic archive.
Makers and roles
Vanessa Bell (Kensington 1879 – Firle 1961), designer Omega Workshops Ltd. , maker John Joseph Kallenborn (fl.1895 - c.1914), cabinetmaker
References
Gerstein, 2009: Alexandra Gerstein (ed.), Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19. London: The Courtauld Gallery, 2009 Reed, 2004: Christopher Reed, Bloomsbury Rooms: Modernism, Subculture, and Domesticity. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004 Shone, 1999: Richard Shone, The Art of Bloomsbury: Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. London: Tate Gallery Publishing, 1999 Reed, 1996: Christopher Reed (ed.), A Roger Fry Reader. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996 Cork, 1985: Richard Cork, Art Beyond the Gallery in Early Twentieth Century England. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985 Spalding, 1999 [1980]: Frances Spalding, Roger Fry: Art and Life. Norwich: Black Dog Books, 1999 [1980] Sutton, 1972: Denys Sutton (ed.), The Letters of Roger Fry, 2 vols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1972