Collection: Penlee House Gallery and Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The institution now called Penlee House was initially known as Penzance and District Museum, and was founded by the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society in 1839. Its first home was in the Market House, which had just been completed. The Museum was situated in the dome of the building and contained a mixture of Natural Science, Archaeology and Ethnological artefacts – a typical antiquarian museum of the period.

  In 1867, the growing Museum moved to the newly constructed St John’s Hall, the town’s main public building. By the end of the decade, however, the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society had more-or-less ceased to exist and the Museum was in a sort of hibernation. The society was reformed in the mid-1880s, but as no rent had been paid for the museum premises for many years, specimens were sold to raise money and to clear the debt. Insect damage to the Natural History collection meant that much of it was subsequently destroyed.

  The Museum remained in St John’s Hall until 1947. The society sold the collections to Penzance Borough Council in 1937 for a nominal sum, with an agreement that they would be displayed for the public good. In 1939 the collections were put into storage and unfortunately many items subsequently disappeared. No record of the Museum’s extensive Egyptian collection can be found. Also missing is a Bronze Age gold torque, and more unusual items such as the hand of a Mummy with a gold signet ring, a shrunken head and poisoned arrows.

  At the end of World War II, the owners of the Penlee Estate were planning to build on the land and to demolish the house. The then Mayor, Robert Thomas, decided to open a public appeal and purchase the estate as a War Memorial. The estate is about 15 acres, and the purchase price was £13,000. It was decided to use the house as a museum and arts centre, plus two domestic council dwellings.

  The Museum was opened in its new home by Sir Cyril Fox on 24th June 1949. It was administered by the Borough Librarian from 1949 until 1974, when Penzance lost its borough status and the Museum became the property of Penwith District Council. In April 1983, ownership of the Penlee Estate reverted back to Penzance Town Council.

  In the 1990s, substantial funding was raised from various sources, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, Penwith District Council, Penzance Town Council and the Friends of Penlee House, to refurbish and develop the Museum and Art Gallery. Overseen by Robert Allen, architect, the building was completely redeveloped, adding Gallery spaces, lift access and the cafe and shop, as well as refurbishing the museum. Care was taken to preserve the feel of the original genteel Victorian home, while providing state-of-the-art conditions for the display and care of the collections.

  Penlee House re-opened in its current form in 1997 and now offers changing displays drawn from its own collections, supplemented by loans from public and private collections, reflecting the unique, rich heritage of the far west of Cornwall. Penlee House is at the heart of the local community and uses its collections to engage with children, young people, adults and older people. The learning programme at Penlee House is well-established. Its aims are to introduce children and young people to Penlee House and to understand and remove the barriers that anyone may face when trying to access Penlee House and its collections.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Museum Collections

  Comprise of Archaeological, Natural History and Social History Collections. A large proportion of these were owned by the former Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, founded in 1839. This collection became the property of Penzance Borough Council in 1939 and, subsequently, as a result of Local Government reorganisation in 1974, the property of Penwith District Council: since further Local Government reorganisation in 2009, ownership currently rests with Cornwall Council until 31 March 2022. In March 2022 the Service Level Agreement with Cornwall Council will come to an end and ownership of the collection will be transferred to Penzance Council. This comprises 65% of the present collection and it is supplemented by items which are the property of the Penzance Council (32%) and items in private ownership which are held on loan (3%).

  Archaeology

  The present collection covers all periods from the Palaeolithic to the Mediaeval, encompassing the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Romano British and Mediaeval periods. The collection includes flint, stone and pottery, plus a selection of replica gold Torcs and Bracelets (the originals of which are held by the British Museum). Much of the material was field collected between 1875 and 1930. The collection at present numbers about 3,500 items or item groups, including a recently acquired hoard of approximately 2,000 Roman coins, which are in the process of being accessioned, plus two large deposits from Lesingey and Bosilliack.

  Natural Science

  The present collection comprises:

  • A case of butterflies and bees
  • 117 items of taxidermy including mammals and birds.
  • A large collection of birds’ eggs comprising 304 accessioned items containing approximately 700 eggs in clutches, nests and loose eggs.
  • All items are primarily of local significance.

  Social History

  The present collection comprises artefacts that have been acquired by Penlee House since its inception in 1839. The collection covers all the headings listed in the statement above and totals approximately 4,230 items.

  The collections range from around.1800 to the present day with the bulk of items dating from 1850-1910 and have a direct connection with the far west of Cornwall: Commerce, Domestic (home, personal and family life), Education, Entertainment, Farming, Fishing, Horticulture, Local Government, Military, Mining, Quarrying, Religion Tourism, Transport and War.

  In general, the collection has been developed by passive, rather than planned collecting. The exceptions to this are Tourism and Transport, where efforts have been made to cover the subject areas in more depth.

  The collections are primarily owned by Penzance Town Council and Cornwall Council (until 2022 when Penzance Town Council will assume sole ownership). A very small percentage of these items (3%) are on loan.

  The Art Collection

  Includes items that were formerly owned by Penzance Borough Council and were subsequently transferred to the ownership of Penzance Town Council. This comprises 99.5% of Penlee House’s total permanent art collection and the remaining 0.5% consists of works which are currently the property of Cornwall Council until 31 March 2022. The Governing Body regularly solicits and accepts works of art on loan for temporary exhibition. In addition, it accepts works on long term loan to supplement the collections, and approximately 9% of the fine art collection is on long term loan, including 29 works belonging to Newlyn Art Gallery.
  The following gives more detail about each sub-section of the collections

  Fine Art

  The collection currently consists of approximately 920 works including 260 oil paintings, 170 watercolours, 115 drawings and 375 prints. These range in date from the late 18th Century to the present day, the majority being the work of artists associated with the Newlyn School c.1880-1940.
  Significant artists currently represented include Samuel John ‘Lamorna’ Birch, Frank Bramley, Percy Craft, Stanhope Forbes, Elizabeth Forbes, Norman Garstin, Fred Hall, Harold Harvey, Frank Gascoigne Heath, Harold Knight, Laura Knight, Walter Langley, Ernest Procter, Charles Simpson and Ralph Todd.

  The most significant items are a small group of well-known paintings including ‘The Rain it Raineth Every Day’ by Norman Garstin, ‘School is Out’ by Elizabeth Forbes, ‘Eyes and No Eyes’ by Frank Bramley, ‘Among the Missing’, ‘Departure of the Fleet for the North’ and ‘Time Moveth Not, Our Being ‘Tis That Moves’ by Walter Langley and ‘Abbey Slip’ and ‘On Paul Hill’ by Stanhope Forbes.

  Included in this total are 29 Newlyn School works on long-term loan from Newlyn Art Gallery and a further 60 on long-term loan from other institutions or private individuals.

  The print collection is mainly topographical but also includes fine art prints by artists such as Elizabeth Forbes, Laura Knight and Edward Bouverie Hoyton.

  Sculpture

  There are currently only six examples: – two bronzes and one terracotta by Barbara Tribe (‘Medusa’, ‘Simon’ and ‘Linda’); two stone relief carvings by Rosamund Fletcher (daughter of William Blandford Fletcher), dating from the 1930s, and a head study of Barbara Tribe by Eric Hiller.

  Decorative Art

  The collection consists of decorative metalwork, ceramics and printed textiles:
  Decorative Metalwork: The core of this collection comprises around.40 examples of Newlyn copper, one of Newlyn silver and three of Newlyn enamel. There are also a small number of items of Hayle copperware, three examples of work by Francis Cargeeg (on long-term loan) and one necklace by Ella Naper.

  Ceramics: Following donations of over 130 items in 2007 and 2009, the collection consists of around 225 items of 20th Century studio pottery from West Cornwall, including examples by Bernard Leach and the Leach Pottery; Seth Cardew; the Celtic Pottery, Newlyn; Troika Pottery, St. Ives, and Arch Pottery, St. Ives. A further 40 items of Troika Pottery were donated in 2018 (having previously been on long-term loan).
  Textiles: Penlee House has a special interest in the activities of the Cryséde factory (Newlyn 1920-25, St Ives 1925-40) and that of its founder, the designer and artist Alec Walker, and holds approximately 480 examples of garments, pieces and lengths, which includes around 150 items on loan from a private collection. Other textiles include an example of Newlyn embroidery and examples of local hand-block printing from Mill House Textiles, Penzance (1950s).

  Photographic and Image collection

  The present collection comprises photographs (including photographic prints, glass and film negatives, magic lantern slides and digitised images), postcards and other printed images. Included are Cartes de Visite, Cabinet cards, albums and large mounted images.

  The collection numbers in excess of 10,000 items ranging in date from 1850 to the present day and is the largest single collection housed in Penlee House. Photographers represented include Preston, Gibson, Richards, Penhaul, Frith and Valentine. Processes represented in the collection include Ambrotype, Daguerreotype, Ferrotype, Collodion, and Albumen prints. As resources allow, images will be copied onto archival negatives and fibre-based paper to safeguard the collection. The Penhaul Archive consists of around 4,000 prints and 2,000 glass plate negatives, in 2009 we acquired a group of 465 magic lantern slides depicting West Cornwall and in 2016 we purchased the Gibson archive, containing over 1500 prints and glass plate negatives.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC