Collection: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Ethnography

  The bulk of the ethnographic collection of over 700 items was put together by the first Lady Brassey (1839-1887) in the 1870’s and 80’s and bequeathed to the Museum on the death of the 2nd Lord Brassey in 1918. The largest section is devoted to material from the Pacific and Melanesia, much of it collected at first hand on the Brassey’s voyage round the world in 1876. The collection includes an important royal feather cloak from Hawaii. The Brassey material also features items from the Middle East and the Balkans, Scandinavia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, North and South America. The Museum’s ethnographic collections are housed in the Durbar Hall, the building in which they were originally displayed by the Brasseys at the end of the 19th century. This structure was built for the Indian and Colonial Exhibition of 1886, transferred to Lord Brassey’s home in Park Lane and finally re-erected as part of the Hastings Museum in 1930. There are a number of smaller ethnographic collections in particular the Ambrose Jones Collection of stone carvings from Costa Rica and the Cullen Collection of artefacts from the Cook Islands and New Guinea. The other important ethnographic collection is the Blackmore Collection of North American Indian Art, bequeathed to the Museum in 1982 and relating to the Plains Indians. It includes material acquired by local writer and sculptress Claire Sheriden, on her visit to America in 1937. Some new pieces have been added since 1982 including a fringed and beaded jacket and child’s “honouring” tipi. There is a growing collection of exhibits relating to the conservationist and Indian protagonist, Grey Owl, who was born and brought up in Hastings in the early years of the century.

  Fine Art

  There are over 2,000 fine artworks held by the museum predominantly a large collection of mainly topographical paintings, drawings, prints and photographs relating to the Hastings area and ranging in date from the late 18th century to the present day. There is also a small collection of 20th century British art and a few examples of works from the main European Schools. There are about a dozen examples of sculpture by artists associated with the Hastings area.

  Decorative/Applied Art

  The Ceramics collection is the largest and most significant of the Museum’s Applied Art collections. Exhibits range from the pottery of the Ancient Civilisations of the Mediterranean, America and the Orient to European Pottery and porcelain from the 17th to the 20th centuries. It includes rare pieces such as the Modena Dish and a large selection of locally made Sussex pottery. There is also a substantial collection of Oriental Art including Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Middle Eastern Ceramics, Japanese and South East Asian armour, Japanese lacquer, Indian and Middle Eastern metalwork and jewellery, Indian and South East Asian textiles, Buddhist and Hindu Sculpture, Indian and South East Asian woodcarving. The Museum also has a large number of Sussex firebacks ranging in date from the 16th to the 18th century. There is also an extensive collection of domestic and agricultural ironwork made locally. Smaller collections include English silver, of which there are approximately 70 items mostly of local significance and including early 18th century church plate on deposit from All Saints and St Clements Church, a few examples of English and continental pewter, English and continental glass (c.65 pieces) dating from the 17th to the 19th century, furniture and woodwork (c.12 pieces) and a representative collection of Tunbridge and Mauchlin ware, also a small collection of miniature furniture bequeathed to the Museum, c.40 cased verge watches mainly from the 18th century, 8 long case clocks predominantly by local makers and a small collection of brooches associated with the Royal St Leonards Archers.

  Personalia

  The Museum is developing significant collections relating to well-known local people, in particular items associated with the invention of television in the town in 1923 by John Logie Baird. The writer, Robert Tressell who based his book “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” on life in Edwardian Hastings is also represented by the archive of his biographer, Fred Ball. There is an important collection of over 100 architectural drawings and family ephemera relating to James and Decimus Burton, the architects of St Leonards. A special gallery is devoted to a growing number of exhibits that relate to the Hastings born conservationist and quasi American Indian, Grey Owl.

  Costume/Textiles

  The costume and textiles collection is large (>400 items) but miscellaneous and includes local smocks, 18th century waistcoats, 19th century women’s and children’s clothing, accessories, fans and parasols, clothing from World War II, lace, whitework and samplers. There is also a good collection of English, French and German dolls.

  Maritime

  Local and social history material includes items relating to fishing and boat building, smuggling, wrecks and the history of the Cinque Ports.

  Agriculture

  The collections contain around 200 items of agricultural equipment and artefacts within the local and social history collections. There is also an extensive collection of domestic and agricultural ironwork made locally in the decorative/applied art collection.

  Geology

  The Geology collection of over 2,500 specimens includes plant and animal fossils of the Wealden area, including the collections made locally by Teilhard de Chardin. Philip Rufford and Samuel Beckles. The Wealden plants in Rufford’s collection are particularly important, and include specimens described as the finest in the country. Hastings has long been a classic site for Iguanodon remains, and the Museum holds many bones of the dinosaur as well as footprints from the Cretaceous rocks at Fairlight and Galley Hill. Other animals of the period that are well represented in the collection are the fish Lepidotus Mantelli, the crocodile Goniophilis Crassidens, and the Hybodant shark species. There is also a small reserve collection of minerals from around the world.

  Biology

  The Natural History collections contain fish, mammals and particularly birds, mainly specimens obtained locally and including examples of the so-called “Hastings Rarities” (totalling over 5,000 specimens). There are some specimens from other parts of the country, collected to form a representative survey of British wildlife. There is also a small group of skulls, bones and skeletons of vertebrates from all around the world. Invertebrates, many found or caught locally, are represented by a small spirit collection of marine life, and collections of butterflies, moths and other insects in collector’s cabinets. There is also a small collection of shells, corals and sponges of both local and foreign origin.

  Archaeology

  The archaeological collection of over 11,000 items consists both of material from Hastings and the surrounding area and, to a lesser extent, material from other parts of the world. Most of the local items have been acquired by organised excavation, some by chance find. One of the largest single collections of material is from Pevensey Castle (Roman and Norman). Some of the major excavations which have taken place have been at Hastings Castle (Norman/Medieval), Beauport (Roman), Hastings Priory (Medieval), Winding Street, Hastings (Medieval), Phoenix Brewery, Hastings (Saxon-Medieval) and Winchelsea, (Medieval/Post-Medieval). Material from earlier periods is represented by large quantities of flints, including the work of J Moore within the Country Park at Fairlight (Mesolithic to Iron Age) and a collection of early Palaeolithic hand axes from the important North Kent site of Swanscombe. There is an important group of bronze items from the Bronze Age, discovered during building work at Marina, St Leonards. Greek and Roman pottery from all periods is well represented. There are smaller groups of Etruscan and Egyptian material, and a larger group, some 300 items, of pottery and glassware from Cyprus, part of the Brassey collection. There are a few pieces from pre-Columbian South America and a small number of flints from New Zealand, Florida, Sweden and Denmark.

  Ancient Egyptian Collection

  The museum holds 40 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. The Egyptian material was mostly given in the early years of the 20th century. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: canopic jars; coffins (mask); flints; human remains (mummies); pottery; shabtis Objects (flints) are known to have come from the following location in Egypt: Fayum.

  Subjects

  Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeology; Egyptology

  Numismatics

  The collections comprise Roman coins, including the coin hoard found on the outskirts of Hastings in 1989 consisting of 53 silver denarii and 92 bronze coins dating from the 1st and 2nd centuries, an important collection of silver pennies from the Hastings Saxon Mint (approximately 6 examples) and other Sussex mints of the period such as Chichester, Lewes and Steyning, a large collection of local shop tokens (over 700) and other local trade tokens, gold, silver and base metal English coinage from the Medieval period to 1953, an album of Chinese cash, miscellaneous commemorative and civic medallions and a collection of approximately 200 campaign medals dating from the late 18th to early 20th century and including the George Cross awarded to local nurse, Dorothy Gardiner and the medals of Sir Henry Webster of Battle Abbey whose portrait hangs in the Museum.

  Social History

  The local and social history collection is the largest section of the Museum’s holdings. Most social history items are collected for their local associations and cover the fields of laundry, dairy, cooking, toys and games, theatre and entertainment, smoking, writing, education, law and order, fire-fighting, transport, church history (not including parish records which are required to be deposited in the County Record Office), agriculture, early electrical appliances, television and domestic items from the First and Second World Wars. Of more specific local interest are the collections relating to tourism, fishing and boat building, smuggling, wrecks, the Cinque Ports, the Bonfire Societies, Sussex Ironwork, gypsum, gunpowder, hops, commemorative and civic items, photographs, guide books, printed ephemera and architectural details from demolished buildings.

  Photographic

  The local and social history collection is the largest section of the Museum’s holdings. Most social history items are collected for their local associations and cover the fields of laundry, dairy, cooking, toys and games, theatre and entertainment, smoking, writing, education, law and order, fire-fighting, transport, church history (not including parish records which are required to be deposited in the County Record Office), agriculture, early electrical appliances, television and domestic items from the First and Second World Wars. Of more specific local interest are the collections relating to tourism, fishing and boat building, smuggling, wrecks, the Cinque Ports, the Bonfire Societies, Sussex Ironwork, gypsum, gunpowder, hops, commemorative and civic items, photographs, guide books, printed ephemera and architectural details from demolished buildings.

  Archives

  A collection of over 10,000 items that includes the town records (court books, chamberlains and pierwardens accounts and rentals) from the late 16th to 19th centuries, Hastings Priory charters dating from the 12-16th centuries, medieval documents relating to the Cinque Ports and charity land grants, large collections of property deeds and wills relating to Hastings and neighbouring villages from the 17th to 19th centuries, documents relating to local societies, 19th and 20th century rate books for the Borough of Hastings, 19th century lists of electors, the Borough records from the 1939-45 war, 2 Poor Law Examination books, a 19th century Marriage Notice book, Borough Health Officers’ reports from the late 19th and early 20th century, letters and a large collection of Hastings and Sussex maps. In addition the manorial rolls of Brede and Udimore dating back to the 13th century are held on deposit.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC