Libro

Swanage, in Dorset, may not be the first place that comes to mind in relation to mosaics. However, we do have a Maggy Howarth in the square - a beautiful rendition of the town's symbol of a triscale with three fish - and, in the hall of what is now the Purbeck House Hotel, a reproduction of a RomanoBritish mosaic. George Burt built this house and had the mosaic installed after Mowlems, the firm he had inherited from his uncle, John Mowlem, had uncovered the `Bucklesbury' mosaic when constructing Queen Victoria Street in London. The original is now in the Museum of London.
I have long been an admirer of Maggy Howarth's work and it is a great pleasure to me to have an article from her about her work in this issue. She has produced books and DVDs, but it is revealing to find how she came to start creating her incredible pebble mosaics, one of which I can see any day I walk around the town. With regards to our second mosaic, I am still trying to find out who actually made the `Bucklesbury' copy. The local books just say 'ltalian' workmen created the marble fireplaces and the mosaic floors. This is so often the case when researching mosaics of the Victorian period and although many of the workers in the mosaic firms were Italian, especially in Manchester and Liverpool, the companies themselves were not Italian. These, and the work they produced, are in great need of recording and research. ANDAMENTO would welcome articles on this subject.
James Powell and Sons (Whitefriars) was responsible for a vast amount of stained glass in Victorian Churches. They devised a system of `opus sectile', using `spoiled' and waste glass in panels, to provide many a reredos or memorial in churches up and down the country. They also challenged the Venetians and started producing smalti. This was used by William Blake Richmond in his mosaics in St Paul's Cathedral in London (the subject of an article in this issue by Martin Brandon) and by John Clayton for his work on the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park.
In last year's editorial I mentioned the destruction of the Eye of the People mosaic, the creation of Ray Howard Jones on Thomson House in Cardiff. She only made two mosaics, although she designed others that were never realised. David Moore has written about the long, creative life of this enterprising and innovative Welsh artist.
For the subject of our fourth article we have travelled to Australia. I first became aware of the mosaics of Napier Waller through a fascinating piece on Australian mosaics in our newsletter, GROUT. So, I asked the author, David Jack, to concentrate on Waller's life and many achievements.
We are, as our name states, a British organisation and our journal should obviously reflect this. I hope that the other mosaic organisations now in existence around the globe will produce similar journals reflecting the history and current practice of the art of mosaic in their own countries so that we can all learn about them. At the moment these journals do not exist.
Finally, I have not exactly been inundated with contributions for our own journal, although several are now promised for future issues. More submissions, or ideas for articles, especially of an historical nature, would be most welcome. Mosaic is such a wonderful art. It needs to be celebrated and recorded for posterity. Only this can truly safeguard its future.