Art Deco – a design style with enduring appeal

I was asked to contribute an article on an ‘art’ theme to the January 2018 edition of TopicUK magazine for Wakefield. With a deadline to meet and a free rein, it was an ideal opportunity to write about one of my personal interests – Art Deco – while also giving it a local flavour with a link to Wakefield’s history!

The term ‘Art Deco’ is something of a catch-all. It refers to a design style that really came to the fore in the 1920s, although its origins can be traced further back in time. It remains hugely popular today and there continues to be big demand for authentic pieces of the period. The Art Deco term can be applied to just about anything from architecture and decorative arts through to fashions in clothes and furniture and household wares. There were even fonts and a colour palette used in printing that came to typify the style (think of railway posters advertising streamline trains and glamourous destinations). The style persisted well into the 1930s and was revived again in the 1950s, albeit in updated forms

But I’m getting ahead of myself. World War I had changed everything and people were ready to break from the rather fusty traditions of the Edwardian era. Women had begun to find freedom, going out into the workplace and becoming self-supporting. Their skirts and hairstyles became shorter (material was expensive and the bustle didn’t really lend itself to working either in offices or on the factory floor). Corsets and stays were unfastened and discarded. Men’s fashions were changing too – the very formal tailoring (and tailcoats) of the Victorian and Edwardian periods were exchanged for a more modern line that still forms the basis of men’s suits and jackets today.

People wanted to put the memories of war behind them and those who had survived wanted to celebrate! This was the age of jazz, the age of swing: the beat grew faster, the rhythm was syncopated and folk were in the mood to party! Think Flappers, Gatsby, Josephine Baker and the Roaring Twenties!

Art Deco was originally about expensive objets, created for the very wealthy, in precious woods, metals and jewels. The name Art Deco was actually coined (although not until the 1960s) from an abbreviation of the title of the 1925 Paris exhibition, the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, intended to showcase the best of modern decorative art and international design. Art Deco took its cues from African, South American Aztec and European influences. In the USA and Western Europe, the style was developed further – the organic and naturalistic designs of the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements were simplified and streamlined; unnecessary curls and twirls were replaced by more geometric motifs.

Meanwhile, Hollywood films such as the Busby Berkeley musicals were helping to spread this new style moderne around the globe, creating a demand from cinema audiences wanting to have some of the Art Deco magic in their own homes. That demand was met by mass manufacturers whose factories had turned from producing weapons and the machinery of war to creating household wares and goods for the popular market. They used chrome, glass and new materials such as Bakelite plastic to produce less expensive artefacts intended for everyday use.

I guess I fell in love with Art Deco long before I knew what the term meant: indeed, I can trace my fascination with the design style back to when I was a child in the 1950s. On my mother’s dressing table sat a dish, made in amber coloured glass, about 12 inches across and in the shape of a butterfly. There was something about the shape, the style and the colour that just appealed to me. I don’t know how my mother came by it but I later inherited it and for nearly 30 years it sat on a chest of drawers in my guest bedroom. Remarkably, although it must be somewhere approaching 70 years old, if not older, it’s still in perfect condition.

It was a trip to the opening of a new exhibition at Pontefract Museum a few years ago that made me re-evaluate the dish. The museum had a new display dedicated to Bagley Glass, a Knottingley bottle works originally established in 1871 by cousins William Bagley (1842-1924) and John William Bagley (1838-1897) and whose fathers were also glass makers from Yorkshire. The company used coal to fire the furnaces in which their glass was produced – following in the footsteps of an emerging glass-making industry: there had been a glass works in the Knottingley area since the 17th century and so much glass was produced in the area that the nearby village of Houghton acquired the name of Glasshoughton!

Bagleys, as Bagley Glass was to be known, went on to make decorative household glassware and, by the middle of the 20th century, they had become the biggest manufacturer of pressed glass in England, exporting their products all over the world, adapting their styles to meet the demands and expectations of their customers.* (Glass making continues in Knottingley to this day although the company is now part of Stölzle Flaconnage Ltd. under whose name the factory now trades.)

Anyway, back to the museum. On display that day was a butterfly dish, identical to mine but in green glass. My interest was kindled! In fact, on closer examination back home, quite a few pieces of glassware that I’d inherited from my parents turned out to be Bagley glassware; none of it particularly valuable (sadly): you can pick pieces up for around £12-£15 at antiques shops without trying too hard simply because it was so mass-produced and just about every home in the area would probably have had some in everyday use. Nonetheless, my butterfly dish has now been moved to the relative safety of a display cabinet!

A quick internet search revealed that other companies such as Davidson’s and Sowerby’s, both of Gateshead, and Jobling, of Sunderland, as well as European manufacturers such as Walther and Sohne of Germany were also turning out pressed glassware for the domestic market, again keeping up to date with the trend for Art Deco designs. There products have the style, and the look, of the 1920s and 30s but without the price tag of more illustrious names such as René Lalique and they provide a much cheaper starting point for anyone interested in acquiring a few pieces of their own. Of course, you can buy modern Art Deco glassware; manufacturers today are still producing goods that reflect the public interest in the style and I have purchased some 21st century examples myself. Perhaps, one day, they will be the sought-after antiques of the future?

(*) There is an excellent book detailing the history of Bagley glass and from which some of my notes above have been taken. If you’d like to learn more, do try to get hold of a copy of Bagley Glass, by Angela Bowey with Derek and Betty Parsons. Mine is the third edition published in 2010 but a fourth edition is now available.

Art on a plate – the Hepworth Wakefield Café is now ‘under new management’

I think it is fair to say that, before the arrival of the Hepworth gallery, Wakefield had rather turned its back on the River Calder. Unlike other towns and cities, we weren’t making very much of our ‘waterfront’. The railway line high on the embankment from Kirkgate Station and running parallel with Ings Road rather delineated the city centre – why would anyone want to venture down to the riverside?

That all changed when The Hepworth Wakefield opened its doors back in the spring of 2011 but despite its success at bringing visitors to the city, the gallery still feels like it’s a bit out on a limb, part of Wakefield’s cultural offer and yet slightly apart from the city itself. That too will change in the not-too-distant future if, as expected, the eagerly awaited plans to convert the former Rutland Mills into “a vibrant mixed-use creative quarter for collaborative partnerships in music, film, TV, design and new media” come to fruition: the Hepworth Wakefield will find itself part of a much bigger waterfront ‘arts scene’, complete with boutique hotel.

Galleries and cafés go together, of course, but the newly re-vamped The Hepworth Café is something a bit different from the usual offering. Since 20th October 2017, the management of the café has been in new hands: independent Leeds coffee shop House of Koko (Shanshan Zhu and Chris Ball) has partnered with Wakefield’s MasterChef quarter-finalist Chris Hale and his wife, Sophie Mei Lan, to take over the running of The Hepworth Café.

New management, new approach and totally independent: the café is a mix of café and restaurant. It offers a simple range of dishes that will appeal to both vegetarian and vegan palettes but which can then be augmented with a number of extras and side dishes to cater for the omnivores among us. For example, when I visited the new café back in November 2017, I had the ‘The Full Vegan’ (£8.45) which consists of homemade baked beans, sweetcorn fritters, half an avocado, and crispy red onions, salad and toast. (It also comes with tomato and chilli jam, but I passed on this as I never did acquire a taste for chilli.) While this was a real plateful in itself – warming on a cold day and nourishing – you can, if you wish, add a poached egg for £1.50 or smoked salmon, crispy bacon or smoked chicken for £2 each. Skinny fries at £2.95, coleslaw at £1.95 or a side salad (also £1.95) can also be added to any dish.

Meanwhile, my partner opted for the ‘Homemade Baked Beans’, a dish which consisted of chick peas, butter beans and kidney beans with toasted pumpkin seeds, all served on sourdough bread. The dish can be had with or without shaved parmesan. This had a menu price of just £6 but again can be ordered with any of the extras mentioned above.
Among the other dishes available, there’s also a Steak and Ale Pie for £8.95, Corn Fritters and Avocado Stack for £6.95 and a couple of salads (Chicken Caesar and Autumnal Salad, £6.95 and £5.95 respectively).

For desserts, you can choose buttermilk pancakes or select from a range of cakes and pastries available at the counter. Sophie told me that they wanted to keep the menu simple to start with and then build it up once they got to know their customers better. She takes great pride in pointing out that ingredients are sourced from local suppliers wherever possible.

Alongside a range of beers and Fentimans soft drinks, The Hepworth Café builds on the experience of Shanshan and Chris from House of Koko in bringing speciality coffee to Wakefield – something of a first for the city. As with House of Koko, The Hepworth Café serves North Star Coffee‘s Czar Street seasonal espresso. A brew bar offers single origin coffees from around the globe. Tea drinkers are not forgotten: the café serves 20 loose leaf teas, all weighed, timed and brewed to perfection – and there’s always a good cup of Yorkshire tea on hand.

The café employs a team of 20 friendly staff. The business partners each have distinct roles but show a willingness to lend a hand wherever it is needed: Shanshan is in charge of front of house management while Chris Hale works in the kitchen as Executive Chef. A quarter-finalist in the 2016 MasterChef TV competition, self-taught Executive Chef Chris continues to run his Pop-Up North catering and pop-up restaurant business alongside his work at the café while Sophie leads on the media and public relations aspects of the café. Chris Ball from House of Koko is responsible for marketing and design. (Sophie is a blogger and freelance journalist who is also part of the editorial team for the Wakefield edition of TopicUK, for whom I originally wrote this article.)

The café retains the dark wood chairs and tables that regular visitors from the past will be familiar with but there are also soft squishy sofas and even ‘work stations’ for people who want to sit and work while drinking their coffee.

Wherever you sit, you’ll find yourself amid potted and hanging plants which add a welcome touch of greenery and visual contrast while also helping to soften the space and making it feel more intimate. All around the café you will see unusual houseplants, succulents, cacti, ferns, concrete pots and plant hangers supplied by Yorkshire-based plant specialist geo-fleur and these are available to buy. Additionally, The Hepworth Café sells its own range of gifts with produce from across Yorkshire – from the best pickles and condiments to sweet treats – and they also offer hampers. There really is no need to go away empty handed!

So, there you have it – a gallery café which can claim to be a destination in itself. But don’t just take my word for it: get yourself down to The Hepworth Café and try it out. Oh, and while you’re there, you might just want to take in some art as well…..

My partner and I dined as guests of The Hepworth Café. A version of this article first appeared in the January 2018 edition of TopicUK magazine for Wakefield.