Silver- Gilt Enammelled Casket Handicraft Company Newcastle

Richard G Hatton

1865 - 1926

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About MeNote: The Handicrafts Company of Newcastle was born out of the Art Department of The Durham College of Science, Newcastle upon Tyne whose Art Committee responded to the question as to `whether or not designers needed practical experience of the materials for which they were designing.` Charles William Mitchell succeeded his father Dr Charles Mitchell as Chairman of the Art Committee in 1896. As a young man he had trained as an artist in Paris and had exhibited at the Royal Academy and Grosvenor Gallery between 1876 and 1889. From 1884 he was an early member of the Art Workers Guild. During the 1880s the pressure of work in his father`s shipbuilding business forced him to give up these pursuits however it did not prevent him from remaining at the centre of Newcastle`s artistic circle and a major patron of the arts in the city. When elected as Chairman in 1886 the headmaster of the school was Richard George Hatton, a decorative artist and designer, and the two men shared a friendship and a shared goal in promoting and supporting the arts. They also both acknowledged the `gulf that existed between the manufacture of `Art Wares` in an art school environment, and the reality, denied students, of having to make a living from the sale of their productions in the wider community`. As a result in 1899 at C.W. Mitchell`s expense the Handicrafts Company was formed at 37 Orchard Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, under Hatton`s supervision and with the aim `to facilitate the exercise of the `Lesser Arts` and to assist students who wish to earn a livelihood by their practice`.

Other fine examples from this period include two silver and enamel presentation caskets hallmarked for 1903 and 1906 now in the V&A and Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums collections.

Mitchell died suddenly in 1903 but it was fortunate for the Company that he had made financial provision for a further three years. At the time of his death he had also been patron to a project of refurbishments at Walker Parish Church for which the Company was to provide all the sanctuary fittings, all designed by Hatton. Hatton returned to teaching full time at the College in 1906 but continued to supply designs for the Company. The Company continued until 1912 from whence it ceased to exist in all but name. It was only legally dissolved in 1932.