Royal Cornwall Museum and Tin.

24th April 2012

Royal Cornwall Museum - the coffee's as good as the native minerals collection!

Royal Cornwall Museum 

I head off to Truro to spend some more time in the Royal Cornwall Museum. I revisit the minerals and mining section to look more closely at certain things, and spend time in the art galleries. I am drawn to the Arts and Crafts Newlyn copper work - the Arts and Crafts designs are great examples of that era - and the craftsmanship is superb.

Tin smelter's mark - pelican. Watercolour

The collection of tin ingots is fascinating - I love the images used and the increasing complexity of the designs as time wore on - pelican (for sending to non-Christian countries) or lamb and flag. Sketches below.

Bissoe and Trereife smelters marks. Watercolour

Another shape which catches my eye is that of the miners' oak shovels - many preserved for hundreds of years in bogs. Their simple, weathered shapes have a true beauty to them and a direct connection with the people who sought this metal long ago. I have seen these before, and my first Kerensa Cornish tin and gold pendants in part owe their design to this shape.

Tin - Miracle Theatre and The English Touring Opera
Hall for Cornwall, Truro

I catch the last performance of Tin at the Hall for Cornwall, Truro. Starring Jenny Agutter and Ben Luxton, it is a melodrama and love story incorporating the true tale of  corruption and fraud within a mine in the St Just area. The programme for the event is produced as a newspaper from the 1800's - I have used a copy to create my Tinners Coast map.  The depiction of the characters in the play (apparently very true to life) has definitely brought the human aspect of the tin story closer for me.