August
·
This was the trip to the Freemasons Hall on August 1st
Monday 4th September.
Monday 3rd October.
It is with great sadness I have to announce the death
of long time member Bill Whitchelo. His funeral was held on August 3rd in Oxford.
Meetings are held
at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.
July Meeting
Frances Simmons
gave a talk on Medallic Art from a Female Perspective
to a packed meeting of the Reading Coin Club, with 35 members attending.
Frances began by remarking that all of us (even dealers) collect; and explained
how she ended up as a collector as a result of attending fairs and going to
coin shops with Howard. The talk revolved around the reasons why she chose the
things she does, to collect. She divided the Female Perspective into three
sections, Female, Feminine and Feminist, with her first slide illustrating all
three, including a feminist poster with a quote from the artists, Guerrilla
Girls - ‘Do women have to be naked to
get into the Met Museum’.
Women in medallic art are represented in many ways, often allegorically
, other familiar representations are examples of the Madonna and Child, lots of
very cute medals and there are dark allegories such as the representation of
the French Republic as a harpy, all illustrated. Other representations can be quasi-pornographic
such as a nymph. All of these have influenced the choices for Frances’
collection but she tends to keep the ones that are of women, by women and that
have artistic merit. Also high on the list are medals by friends, the Art
Nouveau period, many others and especially anything to do with the Suffragette
movement.
Having explained
the reasons behind her collection, Frances then talked about specific pieces
from it. Pieces from the Art Nouveau included plasters by Charpentier
and a medal by Jean Martel. Medals by friends included the Hazel White piece
‘And then she made the lassies oh!’ which has an imprint of the artist’s hand
on one side and a female torso on the other and two pieces by Nicola Moss, one
of which has a representation of Selene (the moon) on one side and an
indentation on the other, together with a ‘Swift’, the name of the piece. In
its lifetime a swift flies a distance equivalent to the distance around the
moon. Other friends represented were Marian Fountain and Danuta
Solowiej,
other artists represented were Avril Vaughan and Lilian Hamilton, one of the ‘Slade girls’. Following this
were a couple of more frivolous pieces, one of Caroline Clark Holland : a Hampstead lady who used to hold séances - by
Florence Calcott nee Newman - a Slade School girl and
the second of Mme. S. Gismondi.
On a more serious
note we were treated to the St. Thomas School of Nursing prize medal, which
Frances has in Bronze, Silver and Gold. A medal which used to be common was
that of the benefactor Angelina Georgina Burdett Coutts for school attendance,
now becoming hard to find. An unusual family piece of Wattinne
Bossut with a family tree on the reverse came next. Two Russian medals, the first of a Mezzo-Soprano who appeared on
the first Soviet Union broadcast in 1922, the second a famous actress and
theatre manager.
Miscellaneous
pieces including badges, dividend checks, women’s societies and even a Women’s
Institute Centenary medal from the Royal Mint. At this point the talk turned to
strong women, with many of the medallic examples.
This trend continued with a French medal celebrating universal suffrage. The
last part of the collection involves pieces that are not medallic,
for example, spoons and badges and even a pen with ‘Votes for Women’ inscribed
on them. Other famous pieces include the pennies similarily
inscribed. Frances pointed out that since these were included in the British
Museum’s ‘A History of the World in 100 objects’, many modern versions have been produced and the original ones are very hard to
find.
The last item
was Frances’s favourite piece in the whole collection
a medal for the hunger striker Rachel Peace (AKA Jane Short) who was force fed.
She eventually lost her reason and ended up in hospital for the rest of her life.
Our thanks go to
Frances for an entertaining and interesting talk.
August trip
Only a few of us collect
Masonic regalia but the opportunity to visit the centre of Freemasonry, the
Freemasons’ Hall in London was too good to miss. The present Hall was built
between 1927 and 1932 as a memorial to the 3,000 members killed during the
First World War. It is of consistent architectural style and inside one of the
UK’s finest Art Deco buildings. It has been
the home of the United Grand Lodge of England since 1775. Across the world there are about
6,000,000 Freemasons.
The exhibitions and the library are open to the public
and have some fascinating exhibits - a massive chair for the Grand Master, the
Regent (later) George III sticks in the mind. Fifteen Club members and friends
had also booked a guided tour of the Hall. But our guide had to deal with our
prejudices and misconceptions before we started. The odds were against him with
most people’s understanding of Freemasonry drawn from gossip and Dan Brown! He
was convincing: women were not excluded from the movement, neither were
Catholics, it was not self-serving but sought to get the best out its members
in life and in the movement as they progressed to high office.
The guide fielded all our questions and gave us a
knowledgeable and entertaining tour of the building. For the finale, when we
reached the main Hall, we were seated whilst he played Haydn Wood’s 'The Horse Guards,
Whitehall’ to show the scope of the organ (and indeed his own skill). After
this we retired to the library, bookshop, museum, and then to the pub. Anybody
with time in the Holborn area should have a look inside. Our thanks go to the
organisers and to our exceptional guide.
Subscriptions
Be reminded that
subscriptions are now due. It would be most appreciated if members yet to renew
their subscription would please do so at the next meeting. Please see our
treasurer Peter. Membership cards are now available for paid-up members.
Future Events
·
London Coins Auction – 2-3rd September
·
London Coin Fair/Argentum –
Bloomsbury, London – 2nd September
·
Birmingham Coin Fair - National Motorcycle museum – 10th
September
·
Spinks Auction,
69 Southampton Row, London – 26th September
·
DNW, Mayfair,
London – 13-14th September
·
COINEX, Grosvenor
Square, London – 22-23rd September
Past Events
·
Forty years ago Mr. Y Beresiner FRNS gave a
talk on Banknotes.
·
Thirty years ago Michael Broome gave a talk on Turkish coins.
·
Twenty years ago Albert Byde gave a talk on
“Some Berkshire Militaria, What and When”
·
Ten years ago Peter Preston-Morley gave a talk on “Coins and Collectors
– an Auctioneer’s view”
Club
Secretary.