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Places
featured in the mural, from left to right are
:-
The Avon Gorge Bristol; Edinburgh (on the
hill); York Minster; the Roman Baths at Bath; The Shambles, York;
The Rows Chester: St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; the Houses of
Parliament and Big Ben, London; The Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells;
Whitby Harbour: Windsor Castle; Holy Trinity, Stratford.upon-Avon
(where Shakespeare was christened); and the Shakespeare Memorial
Theatre, Stratford.
It was in mid-1971
that our Secretary, Gladys Walker, first conceived the idea of
making and selling a large marquetry mural as a means of raising
funds for The Society. Despite the initial lack of encouragement she
set to work and produced a design for a mural that was to be just
over eight feet long by two feet high, depicting important and well
known places from North, South, East and West of Britain. The sheer
size of the project seemed to petrify many who saw these early
plans, but nevertheless by the end of 1971 the design had been
divided up and parts of it sent to the various Groups who had
volunteered to help.
Members of Leeds, London, Bristol, Tunbridge Wells, Thames Ditton
and West Kent Groups helped to cut the main features of the mural,
and the parts were assembled and cut into the background by Mrs.
Walker during the early part of 1972. The firm of Shadbolts of North
London stuck, edge-lipped and polished the completed mural, and Mr.
James Shadbolt made a point of reducing the cost of this work
because of the interest it had engendered in the firm.
During the London Arts Festival in 1972 the mural was shown at
Bromley, Kent; Olympia; and Hall Place, Bexley, Kent. Wherever it
was displayed it caused a great deal of interest, especially at Hall
Place, which was such a fitting venue for our work.
If not sold before May, the mural will be on show at the Fairfield
Halls. Croydon. during our 1973 National Exhibition.
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The
Jubilee Mural was the brainchild of Mr. Charlie Good, whose main
interest was two-fold. One, to present to the Queen a momento of
Marquetry for her Jubilee year, and two, to re-kindle some of the
interest that seemed to be waning a little at the London group
meetings in the middle of last year. Both of these interests were
fulfilled, whether by pleading, cajoling or bullying (myself
included). The mural was completed and presented to Buckingham
Palace on December 22nd, 1977.
To return to the beginning, ideas on all sorts of subjects were
bandied about for some time until the final format emerged. The
mural was to depict a pictorial panorama of British achievements
during the first twenty-five years of the Queen’s reign.
The pictures included Concord, the Hovercraft, the liner QE 11,
Bobby Moore with the World Cup, Calder Hall (atomic reactor), a
North Sea Gas rig, the Post Office Tower and the Joderell Bank radio
telescope, the climbing of Everest, Coventry Cathedral, also a
picture of Sir Winston Churchill. Balmoral, Windsor and Caernarvon
were three of the castles shown together with Buckingham Palace.
A picture of the Queen herself took pride of place in the centre of
the mural and just below, a small picture showing Queen Victoria’s
crib with a riding hat and saddle plus rattle - this was a last
minute inclusion as a tribute to Princess Anne’s new baby Peter.
Lastly, but certainly not least, a beautifully worked scroll that
read: “This mural depicts some notable achievements and events from
the first twenty-five years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. It
has been made by members of the London Group of the Marquetry
Society in commemoration of the Silver Jubilee Year 1977”.
The pictures were then linked together with two ribbons of satinwood
and figured ash, and interspersed along these were emblems of the
four countries. This helped to balance the whole thing. The mural’s
finished size was over eight feet long and three feet high.
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Now let’s go back once again to the beginning.
Members of the Group chose the particular picture or pictures they
would like to do, and so we began. A suitable background was chosen.
This wasn’t easy as pieces of veneer of over three feet wide and
nine feet long just don’t grow on trees (sorry, I’ll rephrase that)
are not so easy to come by; at least not that which would be
suitable for the kind of background we had in mind.
Two pieces of 18 inch wide Aspen turned end to end gave us the
answer. They were then joined together by glue stitching (a method
of joining used in the veneer trade).
We now come to the problem of transport. As we could not leave the
mural at our clubroom it had to be brought to and from Malet Street.
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Horrie Pedder admires
the Silver Jubilee Mural in its display setting |
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It
was done in this way: The veneer was taped to a piece of 3/8”
plywood and this in turn was put into a large plastic envelope to
prevent the weather getting to it, and this was then tied to the
roof rack of Mr. Good’s car. For eight or so group meetings it was
shuttled back and forth so we could offer up our completed or near
completed pictures to the background. When at last the final
positions of the pictures were settled, Mr. Good began to cut them
in.
This was done in a hastily set up workroom (i.e. his front room). It
was the only place large enough to lay the mural flat.
When this was completed an ebony stringer was added, then the
crossbanded border of Nigerian Walnut fixed into position and
finally an edging of Macassar Ebony all the way round. We were now
ready for the laying. This was to be done by the firm of F.R.
Shadbolt & Son.
A day was fixed for Charlie and myself to be there while the mural
was being laid, and speaking for myself, it was an experience not to
be missed.
The first step was to prepare the baseboard. This was to be of one
inch blockboard cut to size with a solid Nigerian Walnut edging
glued all around. It was then trimmed to a quarter of an inch larger
all round than the mural itself. Next was to sand the board flat and
this was achieved by passing the board through large sanding
rollers; the first being a rough one, the second medium grade and
the last a smooth roller. Unfortunately during this process it was
found that the ply facing on the blockboard had discoloured to a
greyish black due to some peculiarity during its manufacture. So the
team at Shadbolts decided to scrap that one and prepare another. As
they said, “After seeing all the work that had gone into making the
mural they were not taking any chances of anything going wrong with
the laying part”. This time everything went well.
The board was then cross-veneered, first it was put through the
rollers in the glueing machine and a few pieces of Kato layed across
the board. It was then put into the steam heated hydraulic press to
be stuck down. Once the board has been removed from the press and
allowed to cool down, it was again put through the glue rollers,
this time to glue the side on which our mural was to be put.
We placed the mural on the board, covered it with two or three
layers of brown paper and then a blanket was placed on top of that.
It was placed once again in the press. This time for ten minutes at
a pressure of 3,000 lbs. per square inch and at a temperature of
l400F. Watching the pressure build up, I wondered if instead of an
eight foot mural it wouldn’t end up more like twelve feet!
Anyway, after the allotted time, it was removed from the press and
allowed to cool for half an hour. We came now to the trimming down
to size and squaring off of the mural. When I saw how Shadbolts
intended to do this I was more than surprised. It was mounted on a
sliding carriage and then passed between two circular saws! I had
visions of our cross-banded Nigerian Walnut flying in all
directions, but obviously they knew a great deal more about what
they were doing than I did. After the mural had passed between the
saws it looked as if it had been sanded not sawn! (Sigh of relief
from Charlie and me!). The brown paper we had put on before the
mural had been put in the press, now had to be removed. It was at
this point I really had pups.
Two men arrived with buckets of water and proceeded to swab the
mural down as one would when washing a car! I think our anxieties
must have been showing by this time so it was just as well a cup of
tea was handed to us. I’m not sure if it was to calm us down, or get
us out of the way! Having removed all the brown paper and washed it
once more, the mural was left for another half an hour to dry.
We came now to the last part of the job, that of sanding. The
gentleman who was to do this told us he would like to be completely
alone when he did it. In his words he wouldn’t care to have a hoard
of raging marquetarians knocking his door down if he went through
the veneer with his sander. (I saw his point!). So this was one part
of the operation we didn’t actually see. So while the sanding was
taking place we took the opportunity of having a good look round the
works. With their thousands of sheets of veneer stacked around it
was a sight for sore eyes.
Incidentally, they have over ten million square feet of veneer in
stock at any one time and over one hundred different varieties. (I
think I’ll get a job there!).
After twenty minutes or so we were told that the sanding had been
completed. So with fingers crossed we went to see the mural
beautifully flat and smooth, showing once again how those fellows
know their job. The laying and sanding now completed it was once
more loaded onto the car.
Later that week it was taken to W. Horwoods of Poplar to be
polished, and completed with a satin finish. The date was Wednesday,
21st December, and the mural was due to be delivered to the Palace
on the 22nd. To say it had just been finished in the nick of time
was an understatement.
The following morning the mural was loaded onto Charlie’s car for
the last time. (“Thank the Lord!”, sighs Charlie) and off to the
Palace we go.
We were received by the Privy Purse who showed considerable interest
in how the mural was made, the ideas behind it, how many people were
involved, what woods were used etc. He then assured us that the
Queen would be notified of its arrival and when she had seen it,
would then decide where it should be put.
The two letters received by Mr. Good from Buckingham Palace are
reproduced on our VIP page - (click
here to see).
So it seems that we are to be fortunate enough to have the mural
put on public display. So those of us who wish, will be able to see
it.
Well a big venture was concluded successfully and a big vote of
thanks is due to all concerned, but I couldn’t conclude this article
without giving a special mention to Charlie Good without whose
enthusiasm and hard work the mural might never have got off the
ground. Also to the firm of Shadbolts who showed us encouragement
and help from start to finish with the laying of the mural. They
charged absolutely nothing for doing it too! Last, but not least, to
Mrs. Trickey whose drive behind our Bring & Buy Sale more than
offset the cost of the polishing. (Didn’t she do well). So once
again, well done everybody.
D. Austin.
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