{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1412615"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1412615/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1412615","accessionNumber":"C.12445","objectType":"Marbling","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Early in 1934, when they and their husbands Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden were living together in Brick House, Great Bardfield, Tirzah and Charlotte decided on a joint venture to make and market hand-marbled papers. Charlotte’s enthusiasm soon waned, however, and she stopped marbling in September 1934 when Tirzah moved away to Castle Hedingham. Tirzah continued marbling, and it was her main creative endeavour until the outbreak of war. The first outlet for their work was the Little Gallery, run by Muriel Rose, and they later sold through the Dunbar Hay shop. They also sold to the textile designer Phyllis Barron.\r\nThe papers were used to line cupboards and drawers, were made into lampshades, and were used to cover items of stationery.","physicalDescription":"Marbled paper","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Bawden, Charlotte","id":"AUTH353637"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Garwood, Tirzah","id":"A39702"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"marbled paper","id":"x39835"}],"techniques":[{"text":"marbling","id":"AAT53812"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Tirzah's daughter Anne Ullmann describes her marbling process as follows in her book 'Hornet and Wild Rose: The Art of Tirzah Garwood' (Fleece Press, 2020):\r\n\"The main ingredients for marbling are carrageen moss, an Irish seaweed which in the 1930s could be bought at any chemist’s as it was used for thickening jelly; ox gall that could be had from a slaughterhouse or butcher’s or bought in powder form from craft shops; alum and borax. Notes written in the 1970s by Muriel Rose answering questions put to her by Helen Binyon when researching her book Eric Ravilious. Memoir of an Artist reveal that ‘They did not make the marbled papers in the professional way (on a jelly) but by using petrol on water in the domestic bath at Brick House! This gave scope for very free effects, but it was not possible to make more than approximate repeats’. Peggy Angus often told the story of Tirzah using paraffin when marbling at Furlongs, and their sudden horror when they realised that she had worked for hours with a naked flame in the oil lamp just above the table. Edward Bawden’s daughter, Joanna thought that they used benzene or petrol to thin the paint.\"\n Olive Cook, in 'The Art of Tirzah Garwood' (Matrix 10, Whittington Press, 1990) writes that the base water was thickened with flour:\r\n\"Tirzah quickly mastered the volatile medium and produced patterns the like of which had never been seen, delicate repeating designs which had nothing in common with traditional marbling. The motifs are nearly always based on natural forms, on leaves, frail flowers and grasses, and the freedom and unpredictable character of the medium imbued them with a tremendous, poetic sense of life. . . .\r\nA short description of the way in which Tirzah achieved these ravishing effects will perhaps give some idea of the amazing dexterity she developed. She filled a large shallow dish, sink or portable bath with water and added a little flour to thicken it. Onto this she dropped a brush full of oil paint thinned with linseed oil and stirred the water until it became a uniform colour. This was the background tint of the pattern. Blobs of paint of the desired consistency and colours were then dropped in regular formation onto the surface of the tinted water. Tirzah would manipulate this with the end of her brush, with a knitting needle, a palette knife, a comb or with anything that took her fancy as she prodded and pushed the design into place, sometimes adding more pigment as she shaped the individual forms. Then quickly she put the paper, face downward, onto the surface of the water to take the pattern. Once at Furlongs, the Sussex cottage of a dear friend, Peggy Angus, the wallpaper designer and fellow-student of Eric’s at the Royal College of Art, I saw Tirzah produce a pattern of undulating, gossamery, heart-shaped leaf forms using paraffin instead of linseed oil and a piece of lining paper. Her preference was for Michallet paper measuring about 20 x 22 inches [50.8 x 55.8 cm].\"\nAnne Ullmann also notes that Tirzah may have used gum tracanth instead of carrageen moss as her size. \r\n","categories":[{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"},{"text":"Books","id":"THES48986"},{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"GG","shelf":"33","box":"D"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"marbling","id":"AAT53812"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Essex","id":"x29455"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1936-7","earliest":"1936-01-01","latest":"1937-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This marbled paper is part of a group bought from Tirzah Garwood by Peter Flloud of the V&A's Circulation Department in 1938. The group is mounted in pairs on green card with pasted labels, indicating that they probably formed a small circulating display. The label on the mounts ascribed joint authorship but it is unclear which papers were made by Tirzah Garwood and which were made by Charlotte Bawden. Tirzah Garwood's daughter Anne Ullmann visited the V&A in 2026 to view these papers. In her opinion these papers were probably made by Tirzah, based on the difference in style between these and other papers held at the Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden which are more likely to have been made by Charlotte. The Fry's papers were given to the gallery by Edward Bawden, Charlotte Bawden's husband. Charlotte Bawden only made marbled papers between February and September of 1934, whilst Tirzah continued with the process until the early 1940s.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Hand marbled sheet, by Charlotte Bawden and Tirzah Ravilious","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":" Olive Cook, 'The Art of Tirzah  Garwood' Matrix 10, Whittington Press, 1990"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Anne Ullmann, “Hornet and Wild Rose: The Art of Tirzah Garwood” Fleece Press 2020 pp.91-202"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["C.12445"],"accessionNumberNum":"12445","accessionNumberPrefix":"C","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-15","recordCreationDate":"2017-09-19","availableToBook":false}}