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Model of Gorsedd
Wooden model of Gorsedd member, 'Eos Dâr' (Daniel Evans),wearing green robes. The model has been shaped of thin cut plywood and the face and costume painted in detail, then glued to a rectangular base of bare plywood; two rectangular slots have been cut in the model for each detachable arm, one arm holding a green painted pole.
This 'Ovate' or member of the Gorsedd is part of a larger model of the Gorsedd of the Bards. This Gorsedd member can be identified as Daniel Evans (Eos Dâr). He was born in Carmarthen in 1846 but moved to Aberdare and, after first working in a coal mine aged eight and then joining a choir conducted by Llew Llwyfo and then the well-known Côr Caradog, went on to be conductor of the Aberdare Glee Society. In 1876 he moved to Maerdy to work as a colliery winding engine man. He became precentor at Siloa Congregational Chapel, Maerdy, where he arranged for several cantatas to be performed by the chapel choir. He also conducted the Rhondda Fach men’s choir, and as a singer often served in Gorsedd y Beirdd ceremonies and as an adjudicator in national eisteddfodau.Two popular public lectures on the harp and singing to the accompaniment of the harp were also given frequently by him throughout South Wales, before he died in 1915. The toy model was made about 1914 at the Vale of Clwyd Toy Factory in Trefnant which was set up by Miss Mary Heaton, originally to provided employment for local farmers during the winter months. Later, the company also employed wounded soldiers during and after the First World War. The model of the Gorsedd was displayed during the 1915 Bangor Eisteddfod which had been postponed in 1914 due to the outbreak of war.