ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM ANNUAL REPORT 1992--3 Supplement (2) to University Gazette No. 4309 Monday, 6 December 1993 This Supplement, containing a general account of the year under review, reproduces part of the full Report of the Visitors for the Academic Year 1992--3, which will be published shortly by the Museum. In addition to the Director's Report, printed here, the full Report will contain Departmental Reports, details of new acquisitions, and staff records. Members of Congregation wishing to obtain a copy should contact the Publications Officer, Ashmolean Museum. DIRECTOR'S REPORT The Visitors In March the new Proctors, Dr P.A. Allen and Dr E.A. Fallaize, and the new Assessor, Dr J.S. Rowett, took over from their predecessors. At the beginning of Trinity Term, Sir Oliver Millar, GCVO, was succeeded by Mr D.S. Elliott, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, who will serve as a Visitor for a period of six years. Council reappointed the Principal of St Anne's, Mrs R.L. Deech, for a further period of six years. At the end of the term, we were very sorry to receive the resignation of Mr C.A. Kirwan, but would like to express our gratitude to him for his wise counsel over a long period, especially in his role as Chairman of the Standing Committee. The end of the academic year saw the completion of Professor Sir Richard Southwood's term of office as Vice-Chancellor, to whom we are greatly indebted for his strong interest in and support for the Museum. DISTINGUISHED VISITORS During the year we were honoured to receive a visit from the President of Portugal, Dr Mcrio Soares, on the occasion of his receipt of the Degree of Doctor of Civil Law by Diploma. We were also honoured by visits from the Mayor of Moscow, accompanied by the Lord Mayor of Oxford, and Mr Nicholas Robinson, husband of the President of Ireland. All our visitors were given a tour of the Museum. FINANCIAL SITUATION With expenditure on running costs seriously exceeding the Museum's share of the grant received by the University from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the financial situation continues to warrant close attention. But benefiting from the increase in income from the growing Endowment Fund combined with very tight management of expenses we can look forward to another year without the threat of having to impose entrance charges. One most welcome circumstance has been the increase of voluntary donations from the public. Oxfordshire County Council has once again made a grant of 3,470 to cover the salary of a part-time secretary to the Education service. FUND-RAISING: ADVISORY COMMITTEE During the year the committee, which continued actively to raise funds and attract interest in and support for the Museum under the chairmanship of Mr Max Ulfane, was joined by Mr Giuseppe Eskenazi. Mr Brian Pilkington, who was one of the original founding members, resigned at the end of the year. FUND-RAISING: DONATIONS The total sum of money given or promised by the end of the year amounts to 3,290,566. The Endowment Fund, which at present has our highest priority in fund-raising as part of the Oxford Campaign, has attracted gifts totalling 1,292,982 with a further 378,997 promised over the next seven years. Recent large donations have included 34,500 from the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust and a further donation from the Anthony Hornby Charitable Trust (2,000). As part of our efforts to reach the necessary target for the Endowment Fund, a patrons scheme has been set up and in order to launch it in an appropriate style Mr and Mrs Max Ulfane generously gave a most elegant reception at Ashdown House on 27 March. Sir Simon Hornby has kindly agreed to oversee the establishment of the scheme. Donations of not less than 5,000, paid if preferred over four years or under the Gift-Aid Scheme, are requested, and we were gratified that six people, Mr David Davies, Mr J.E. Eskenazi, Sir Eddie Kulukundis, CBE, Mrs Erik Penser, Miss Melissa Ulfane, and one anonymous donor immediately agreed to become members. During the year our great benefactors Dr Dietrich and Mrs Joyce von Bothmer expressed their intention of making a total grant of $750,000 (of which $216,000 has already been given) towards the cost of developing the Sunken Court. Further details of this proposed development will be found below. We have received two major donations from the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation. The fellowship is reported on below. The second gift, amounting to 150,000 over five years, will allow the total rearrangement and refurbishment of the Egyptian Dynastic Gallery, which will henceforth be known as the Sackler Gallery of Egyptian Antiquities. The Michael Marks Charitable Trust has renewed its great generosity to the Museum by making a grant of 30,000 towards the refurbishment of the Hill Music Room. The Helen Roll Charity has once again made a generous donation to the Museum for less high-profile activities. On this occasion we have received a grant of 5,000 to support the Education service. In an imaginative gesture, the family of the late Miss Margaret Grinyer suggested that donations in her memory be made to the Department of Western Art. These donations have contributed to the purchase of a charming landscape by Jean-Victor Bertin which now hangs in the Landscape Room. The Department of Western Art has been awarded a two-year grant from the Leverhulme Trust for a project to study the archival evidence in colleges and elsewhere in Oxford for the treatment of and attitude to silver plate. Dr Helen Clifford will take up the post on 1 October 1993. The Heberden Coin Room was also supported by the Leverhulme Trust. In this case a grant of 140,000 has been made to enable Mr N. Mayhew to undertake a five-year research project on debt and the role of credit in the later medieval economy. Dr Pamela Nightingale has been appointed as Research Fellow. In the Department of Eastern Art the highlight of the year was the sponsored ride to Santiago de Compostela by Mrs Phyllis Nye, which brought in approximately 1,500. Half of the proceeds are destined for the department. This was a remarkable feat of energy and enthusiasm and has been a source of great encouragement to the department. The Department of Eastern Art also gratefully records Mrs Marianne Ellis's further generosity. This has enabled Miss Lorraine Rostant to be employed on a temporary contract, conserving and mounting printed and embroidered textile fragments from the Newberry Collection. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORECOURT As reported in last year's Annual Report (p.10), a munificent benefactor has expressed his willingness to underwrite the total cost of a major development beneath the forecourt leading to a change of use for some of the spaces within the Museum. Over the course of the academic year a plan was gradually forged which met with the approval of the various university committees including, as the final step in the process, that of the Hebdomadal Council, which gave its blessing in Trinity Term. By means of informal contacts we were able to develop the scheme in a manner which was likely to be favourably received by English Heritage and Oxford City Council. We would like to express our gratitude to Mr Howard Colvin for his wise advice over architectural matters. The purpose of the scheme is to transform the public facilities of the Museum by creating a restaurant or cafet-eria and a new greatly improved shop and other basic facilities and by providing easy access for the disabled. The final result can be expected to have a most beneficial effect on all those visiting the Museum, whether as part of their study or research or as general visitors. As the plan emerged we have been able to introduce a further bonus, the restoration of several architectural features which were part of Cockerell's original building but which were for one reason or another either removed or lost sight of over the intervening years. It is intended to seek planning permission and building consent at the beginning of the next academic year, when the plans and the model will put on public display. A full description of the scheme will have to await next year's Annual Report. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUNKEN COURT As reported above, we have received at least half the cost towards redeveloping the Sunken Court from Dr Dietrich and Mrs Joyce von Bothmer. Their gift will fund the installation of a new climate-controlled storage area with various modern facilities for the Department of Antiquities in the existing basement and the creation of a new floor adjacent to the Beazley Gallery, which will contain the reserve collection of Greek vases at present in the basement of the Sunken Court. In addition it is hoped to create two intervening floors in this area; one of these will be devoted to a new Japanese gallery and the other will provide an Eastern Art print room, a facility which we sadly lack at present. Active steps are being taken to raise the necessary funds for this part of the development. SACKLER FELLOWSHIP The Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation has, in an enlightened move to support scholarship of the Museum's collection, agreed to establish, in the first instance for a period of six years, a fellowship attached to Worcester College. Tenable for a period of two years, the Sackler Fellowship will rotate between the four major departments of the Museum. The fellow will undertake specific research on a part of the collection as designated by the Museum. A competition was held for the first fellowship, which will be assigned to the Department of Antiquities with the purpose of preparing for publication a descriptive catalogue of a significant part of the Museum's collection of Cycladic Antiquities. Dr Susan Sherratt was appointed from a very strong short-list of six candidates and will take up office on 1 October 1993. BEQUESTS AND GIFTS TO THE COLLECTIONS Mr Richard Hattatt, a business man and private collector, who died on 30 October 1992 aged 82, had long been a good friend to the Department of Antiquities. In 1988 he had deposited on loan here one 103 objects, mainly Prehistoric European and Romano-British brooches, specially selected by us to complement our existing collections (Annual Report (1987--8), pp. 20--1).2 These have now been bequeathed to the Museum (1992, pp. 57--160) together with a sum of 80,000 which will become a departmental trust fund for general purposes. Mr Hattatt's name has been added to the benefactors' list on the main staircase. Mrs Whitworth Jones, on behalf of the Arthur Evans Will Trust, donated 300 to be spent on behalf of the Minoan collections. Gifts to the Department of Western Art have been principally in the area of twentieth-century art. Particular mention may be made of the bequest from Cicely, Lady Hendy, of a small terracotta and a bronze by Henry Moore, the first sculptures by the artist to enter the collection; and of the gift from Mr Colin Clark in memory of his father Lord Clark (Keeper of the Department of Fine Art from 1931 to 1933) of an imposing drawing by Duncan Grant. A group of engravings by Roger Vieillard (1907--89), given by the artist's widow, will form the basis of an exhibition of Vieillard's work in the McAlpine Gallery in the winter of 1993--4. Dr Martin Rheinheimer, a collector and historian of the Crusades, generously donated his entire specialist collection of Crusader coins, which is outstandingly strong on the early issues of the mint of Antioch. The Department of Eastern Art is indebted to the Pilgrim Trust for the gift of a painting of Nawab Shuja' ud-Daula, by Mihr Chand after a painting by Tilly Kettle (Faizabad, c.1772--5. This gift commemorates the Directorship of Sir David Piper. The department is also indebted to the Neil Kreitman Foundation for providing funds for the purchase of a rare first-century Gandhara gilt bronze stupa to commemorate the Keepership of Dr J.C. Harle. The Friends of the Ashmolean gave a first-century bc Bengali terracotta mould for plaques of a yakshi figure and attendant. This is a generous gift, which complements the famous Tamluk terracotta plaque of a yakshi in a similar style which is on show in the Indian Gallery. ACQUISITIONS The Hattatt Bequest to the Department of Antiquities has significantly enriched an already remarkable collection of Prehistoric European, Romano-British, and Dark Age brooches as well as adding two outstanding examples of Celtic metalwork to the collection. They were found as a result of ploughing on Hod Hill, Dorset, during the Second World War. One is a bronze finial or spout in the shape of a raven's head of the first century bc; the other is the cast bronze handle of a skillet, of the first century ad, decorated with a figure of the Celtic god Nodons holding a hare and a club, with crane heads originally framing the edge of the skillet. The two outstanding purchases for the Department of Western Art during the year were both Italian Renaissance items: a maiolica plate by Nicola da Urbino, made c.1525, which is the first top-quality acquisition of Renaissance maiolica since the bequest of C.D.E. Fortnum in 1899; and a magnificent Design for an ornamental Border by Pirro Ligorio, a late, virtuoso drawing which complements our holdings of sixteenth-century designs for decoration and drawings inspired by the antique. The Heberden Coin Room made its most important purchase of Roman coins for many years, by buying en bloc part of the collection of the distinguished scholar Mr C.L. Clay, of Vienna. In all, 243 coins were acquired, with the help of the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund. The Department of Eastern Art has continued to build up its already outstanding collection of Japanese export ceramics through the Jeffrey Story Fund. The small collection of stone sculpture from south-east Asia was greatly enhanced by the purchase, with the assistance of the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, of a Central Javanese stone lintel with kala face. The generosity of an anonymous benefactor made possible the purchase of a number of objects from north-west India, the Gandhara region, and Afghanistan. A Rajasthani equestrian portrait of the Sawar school was purchased with the aid of the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the National Art Collections Fund. LONG-TERM LOAN The long-term loan of Mr Samir Shamma's vast collection of Islamic coins to the Heberden Coin Room has taken shape gradually during the year, as Mr Shamma has brought successive batches of coins, which have been provisionally classified, placed in sequence, and stored in the security of a fire-proof safe. FRIENDS OF THE ASHMOLEAN The Friends very kindly made donations towards the following purchases: a maiolica plate by Nicola da Urbino (4,000), a lustre aquamanile from Kashan, Iran (500), a fourth-century bc coin of Abdera (800), and the total cost (4,500) of a terracotta mould for plaques of a yakshi and attendant, Bengal, first-century bc. They also generously made a donation of 10,000 to the Endowment Fund. CONSERVATION Karoline Legel (University of Amsterdam) has been employed with the assistance of a special grant from the General Board for a year in the Department of Antiquities as a collections manager to assist Dr Sherratt and Mr Norman with a major reorganisation of the department's storage areas to bring them up to modern standards. This fundamental but unglamorous work becomes ever more important as conservation methods improve and computerised data storage and retrieval systems are introduced to facilitate handling of the reserve collections. She has made excellent progress; but much remains to be done when more funds can be raised for the staff to do it. Some of the items recently conserved by Mrs Svetlana Taylor, with the aid of the Hulme Fund, appeared in the temporary exhibition `Textiles from Byzantine Egypt', for which she also prepared and mounted all the exhibits. Routine cleaning of classical sculpture has proceeded apace, although the major project for reorganising its storage financed by Mrs Joyce von Bothmer (Annual Report (1989--90), pp. 8--9)1 has been put on hold until the future of the Forecourt development scheme is settled. GALLERY REFURBISHMENT In the Department of Western Art work on the new Fortnum and Farrer Galleries has been completed. As previously reported, this work has been funded by the Rhodes Trust, the Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund (Wolfson Fund) and a private donation under the Gift-Aid scheme. The Hindley-Smith Gallery has been repainted, fitted with a humidifier, and relit, with funding from the Peter Moores Foundation and the Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund (Wolfson Fund). As a start to the refurbishment of the Hill Music Room, mentioned above, a new humidifier has been installed. It is planned to complete the work over the coming year. The gallery plans for the Museum have been completely revised and redesigned with the aid of a grant from the John Paul Getty Trust Fund. Published during the summer, the new versions are available in English, French, and German editions. EXHIBITIONS Throughout the year there was an active programme of loan and in-house exhibitions, details of which will be found in Part 2 of the [full] Report. Among the most notable loan exhibitions were `Indian paintings and drawings from the collection of Howard Hodgkin', for which we received generous co-operation from the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and Sir Howard Hodgkin who assisted in the hanging of the exhibition; `Shadow of the Forest: prints of the Barbizon School', lent by the British Museum, and `Drawings from Holkham Hall', which celebrated the purchase of eighteen outstanding drawings from the collection after the sale at Christie's by a consortium of eight British museums and galleries, including the Ashmolean, reported in last year's Annual Report (p. 12); `Byzantine Bridge', timed to coincide with an international symposium on Byzantine art being held in Oxford in April 1993, and designed by Dr Marlia Mango, was generously sponsored by the A.G. Leventis Foundation, Marchessini & Co., and Rochas. The accompanying information leaflet for the last exhibition and others in the Department of Eastern Art were funded by Mrs Phyllis Nye. The last major loan exhibition of the academic year was held in the McAlpine and Eldon galleries, from the end of July until the middle of October. Entitled `Hidden Treasures: Works of Art from Oxfordshire private collections', and accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue written by Catherine Whistler, Christopher White, and Rosemary Baird, it included seventy-two paintings, drawings, and watercolours and two pieces of sculpture by European artists ranging from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries, including Goya, G.B. Tiepolo, Chardin, Law-rence, Turner, Delacroix, Degas, and CAzanne, which had been borrowed from local private collections not normally on view to the public. Both the quality and variety were outstanding, and the exhibition proved very popular. We are most grateful to the lenders, who unselfishly agreed to deprive themselves of their possessions over the summer months. In addition to generous gifts from the late Miss H.Q. Radcliffe-Platt (3,500), the P.F . Charitable Trust (1,000), the Barnsbury Charitable Trust (1,000), and Mr Martyn Arbib (500), the principal sponsor was Messrs Mercers, solicitors of Henley-on-Thames, whose donation of 5,000 was matched by a similar sum from the Government's Business Sponsorship Incentive Scheme. EDUCATION SERVICE The Education service has once again had a very active year achieving a record of tours and courses for the public. 10,500 children and 4,000 adults, representing an increase of approximately 25 per cent over the previous year, were guided in the galleries. As a result three new guides and one new administrative assistant were appointed. In addition to providing four more sessions for teachers-in-training from the Department of Educational Studies, the Education Service has offered courses for teachers and small seminars in the Greek and Egyptian Galleries for primary school teachers. ATTENDANCE According to the electronic recording device the overall number of visitors to the Museum for the twelve months ending 31 July 1993 was 257,000, which represents an increase of 25 per cent over the previous year. EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES On 2 March 1993 Radio Oxford devoted the whole of the morning's programme to a discussion about the Museum. Both members of the staff and the public participated and the occasion engendered considerable local interest in the Museum. FRESHERS A very well-attended tour of the Museum with the Director and members of the curatorial staff, followed by a reception, was arranged for the Freshers during Hilary Term. It was gratifying to discover how many, whose subjects, especially in the scientific field, bore no relation to the contents of the Museum, were interested in coming. COMPUTERISATION Completing a lengthy period of consultation, the museum published its Information Technology Strategy Document, laying down the principles upon which IT, and particularly collections management IT, will be developed over the next five years. As a result of the University's new policy of distributed computing, particularly the disappearance of the central Lasercomp facility, the drawing office in the Department of Antiquities has acquired its own desktop photo-typesetting equipment with the assistance of income from sales and services and with grants from the Littauer and Evans Trust Funds. This will be vital for many aspects of the department's work, not least the labelling of the major exhibition on Arthur Evans in 1994. STAFF It is with deep regret that we record the death on 29 March 1993 of Mrs Ruth Flanagan, Keeper's Secretary in the Department of Antiquities since 1983. Always efficient and cheerful, she bravely fulfilled her duties to within the final few weeks of her life, despite the ravages of a remorseless illness. She will be remembered with affection and gratitude. Miss Eustace has been on maternity leave from the Department of Western Art since January 1993. In her absence Mrs Rosemary Baird was appointed to a temporary Assistant-Keepership, which she has held with energy and distinction. The fourth assistant keepership in the department remains frozen. Once again we would like to thank our loyal and hard- working body of volunteers, whose names will be found under the departmental reports in Part 2 [in the full Report only]. The Museum would suffer keenly without their services. PUBLICATIONS Among a large number of publications produced during the year, the following should be noted: Old Master Drawings from the Ashmolean Museum, containing 100 colour illustrations from across the spectrum of the Ashmolean's collection of drawings---from Bellini to Flaxman---was published in August with text by Christopher White, Catherine Whistler, and Colin Harrison. Originally published in Italian in 1991, the re-designed English- language edition was published to coincide with an ex- hibition in the McAlpine Gallery, mounted as part of the European Arts Festival. Funded in part by the European Arts Festival and by Miss Katrin Bellinger, the book is inscribed to the memory of James Byam Shaw, CBE (1903--92), of Christ Church---`long-time friend and benefactor of the Ashmolean Print RoomÉ' During the Michaelmas Term Nicholas Penny's three- volume Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum: 1540 to the Present Day was published for the Museum by the University Press. Dealing with everything from large-scale sculpture to door-furniture, and enlivened by wit and erudition, this catalogue of part of the Museum's collections represents a remarkable achievement for the author's relatively short period of office in the Museum and has been immediately recognised as making a major contribution to the study of sculpture in general. In April the Museum published volume one of Dr Metcalf's three-volume Thrymsas and Sceattas in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. This catalogue of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver coinage has been planned as a standard work of reference covering all the many types and varieties of sceattas. Volume one covers Thrymsas and primary Sceattas. Volume two, covering continental Sceattas, will be published in autumn 1993, and volume three, covering secondary Sceattas, together with chemical analysis of all the coins, in spring 1994. The catalogue has been published in association with the Royal Numismatic Society as Special Publication 27.