Arts and Crafts Collection from across Europe
The European Peasant Arts Collection
The European Peasant Arts artefact collection consists of about 400 ceramic, wooden, textile and metal objects collected mainly from the countries of Northern and Eastern Europe such as Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Hungary and Russia. The objects were made for domestic use and represent a range of household functions. The types of objects include food containers, spoons, mangleboards, dowry pillows, embroidered towels and furniture. The earliest item dates from 1573 but the majority were made in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The collection is unique both in the age and geographical range of the objects. These objects were mostly collected by Rev. Gerald Davies but added to by Joseph King and Godfrey Blount and formed the Peasant Handicraft Museum in 1910, which was then transferred to Haslemere Educational Museum in 1926.
The Haslemere Peasant Arts Collection is formed of around 90 objects that were produced in the Haslemere craft workshops during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It includes woven tablecloths, appliqued hangings, cards, toys and talismans. These objects were made for sale in the Peasant Arts Society shops but a wide selection was acquired by Haslemere Museum.
The Peasant Arts Archive consists of around 500 documents, photographs and publications which provide rich context to the other objects in the collection. Amongst these are contemporary photographs of the Haslemere weaving industry and the Peasant Handicraft Museum, correspondence and publications authored by the founders of the Haslemere Peasant Arts movement, early catalogues and visitor guidebooks for the collection, guidebooks collected from contemporary European Museums, sketches and designs by Godfrey Blount and other related contemporaneous documentation such as newspaper cuttings.