Artists & Makers

The 'Fragile' exhibition was held at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales between 18 April - 4 October 2015. It was the biggest contemporary ceramics exhibition ever held in Wales.

The exhibition brought together key works from the collection of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, including ceramic works by Richard Deacon and Felicity Aylieff, as well as pieces from the archaeology, industry and botany collections.

Also on view were works by four Wales-based artists – Claire Curneen, Walter Keeler, Lowri Davies and Adam Buick – shown together with specially-commissioned films that delve into each maker’s creative process. You can see the films here:

Alongside these were three major innovative installations by Phoebe Cummings, Keith Harrison and Clare Twomey, who challenged you to walk across and break a sea of bone china tiles.

Links

• Adam Buick
• Claire Curneen
• Lowri Davies
• Walter Keeler

• Clare Twomey
• ‘Consciousness/Conscience’ by Clare Twomey

The Hirase Conchological Museum

Shintaro Hirase and family, September 1931.

The Library holds a set of beautiful Japanese shell books in its Mollusca collection.

The book is Kai Chigusa, but is more commonly known as Kai sen shu (or The Illustrations of a Thousand Shells in English) by Yoichirō Hirase (1859–1925), and was produced from 1914-1922.

Hirase was a Japanese conchologist who assembled the largest collection of shells in Japan at the turn of the century, and established his own shell museum (the Hirase Conchological Museum) in Kyoto from 1913 to 1919. His son Shintarō Hirase (1884–1939) was also a Japanese malacologist, who taught at Seikei College.

The book is comprised of four volumes, and each volume is an ‘orihon’ folding book. Orihon is a traditional bookmaking technique that consists of a long strip of paper that is written on one side and then compacted by folding in zig-zag, or concertina, fashion. The style originated in China, but was later developed in Japan, where it is primarily associated with Buddhist works or picture books.

Each of the four volumes has roughly 100 illustrations of shells, resulting in 400 illustrations in total. There is a theory that Hirase originally planned to produce 10 volumes, each with 100 illustrations, and that would have resulted in the ‘One Thousand Shells’ of the English title.

All the illustrations are hand-coloured woodcuts, Hirase chose this technique, rather than the more common lithography of the time, because he wanted the work to be of interest to artists.

The text is kept quite minimal, as they are predominantly picture books, but the preface is in Japanese, and the plate lists are bilingual, in Japanese and English.

The first three volumes are quite rare, volume one was commissioned in 1914 to commemorate the first anniversary of his Conchological Museum. Volumes two and three were produced a year later in 1915. Then there was a delay in the production of volume four, and it was not issued until 1922. Copies of volume four are now very rare, and it is believed by many that it was not produced in as many numbers as the first three.

However, we don’t know exactly when our copy of Kai Chigusa was published. It was produced by leading Kyoto art publisher Unsodo, who carried on printing it after Hirase’s death, right up until the mid-1930s. The publishers never indicated which edition was which, each volume carries the date of its original publication, so it is impossible to know when each of the four volumes were actually printed!

Hirase suffered poor health and severe financial strain in the final years of his life, which might explain why he was unable to complete the remaining volumes. His Conchological Museum closed down in 1919, and the shell collections were dispersed. A number went to the Smithsonian in 1921, many more went to what is now the Natural Science Museum in Tokyo, and the remainder were given to his son Shintarō.

Years later, Shintarō’s collection went to the Research Institute for Natural Resources in Tokyo. Some of it was destroyed during World War II, but what remains of the collection is still stored there.

We purchased this copy of Kai Chigusa from Antiquariaat Junk in 1999 to add to our Tomlin Library. Hirase communicated with many key shell collectors, including John Read le Brockton Tomlin, and the Tomlin archive contains a number of letters, postcards and photos from him.

Although Tomlin didn't own a copy of Kai Chigusa himself, he did have a number of other books in his collection relating to Hirase, such as an album of pictures in commemoration of a Conchological Exhibition in Kyoto Library in 1910. The exhibition was organised by Hirase, and included shells, books, illustrations and paintings from both his own collections, and that of collectors around the world. It was a precursor to his setting up his own Museum in 1913, and Tomlin’s copy of the album also contains two line drawings of the proposed museum.

This article contains photos of human skeletal fragments.

The Biggest

We have some real whoppers in our collections - including a full-size Cardiff Tram and a sea rescue helicopter - but the biggest item in our collection is actually Oakdale Workmen's Institute.

Built in 1917, the Institute features a billiard room, dance hall and library - and is nowadays found in St Fagans National Museum of History.

Horace Watkins testing his monoplane in 1908

Many of the buildings in St Fagans are part of the national collection - meaning they have the same legal status as one of our masterpiece Monets or this coin hoard. The buildings are dismantled, moved, rebuilt - and cared for using traditional techniques, by the museum's legendary Historic Buildings Unit.
 

The Shiniest

People in Wales have been making, trading and wearing beautiful treasures from gold for thousands of years - like this Bronze Age hair ornament and this extremely blingy Medieval signet.

At around 4000 years old, this sun disc is one of the earliest and rarest examples of Welsh bling

One of the earliest examples of Welsh bling is this so-called 'sun disc', found near Cwmystwyth in Ceredigion.

Current research suggests that these 'sun discs' were part of ancient funeral practice, most likely sewn onto the clothes of the dead before their funerals. Only six have ever been found in the UK.
 

Honourable Mention: an Airplane made from a Dining Room Chair

Made from a dining room chair, piano wire and a 40 horsepower engine, the Robin Goch (Red Robin) was built in 1909 - and also features a fuel gauge made from an egg timer.

The Robin Goch (Red Robin) on display at the National Waterfront Museum

Its builder, Horace Watkins, was the son of a Cardiff printer - here he is pictured with an earlier, even more rickety version of his famous monoplane.
 

Horace Watkins testing his monoplane in 1908

Our collections are full of stories which reflect Wales' unique character and history. The Robin Goch is one of the treasures of the collection, and is an example of Welsh ingenuity at its best.

Swaps: Photographs from the David Hurn Collection runs from 30 September 2017 to 15 April 2018. This exhibition celebrates the major gift of photographs from David Hurn’s private collection and marks the opening of Amgueddfa Cymru’s first gallery dedicated to photography. Here are the final collection of short films from the exhibition:

Banner photograph by Clémentine Schneidermann.

More info

• David Hurn at Magnum
• Philip Jones Griffiths at Magnum
• Clémentine Schneidermann
• Bruce Davidson at Magnum
• John Davies

Swaps: Photographs from the David Hurn Collection runs from 30 September 2017 to 15 April 2018. This exhibition celebrates the major gift of photographs from David Hurn’s private collection and marks the opening of Amgueddfa Cymru’s first gallery dedicated to photography. Here are some short films from the exhibition:

Banner photograph by Tish Murtha.

More info

• David Hurn at Magnum
• Josef Koudelka at Magnum
• Sergio Larrain at Magnum

• Tish Murtha