Only one more week to enjoy the creativity of Marianne Straub and her circle of friends at the Fry Art Gallery.
Kaspar Fischer was the son of Hans Fischer a Swiss artist and his wife Bianca (née Wassmuth), both of whom had been students in Zurich with Marianne. Bianca worked at Ethel Mairet’s Gospels textile studio in Ditchling and Marianne took her place when Bianca returned to Switzerland. Marianne kept this announcement of Kaspar’s wedding (1), and a hand-drawn thank-you note from him and his wife Esther (2)
The star (3) may be by Mea Angerer or Casty Cobb, both jewellery designers and friends of Marianne, from whom similar cards appear elsewhere in the scrapbook.
Then another minimalist design (4) from furniture and textile designers Robin and Lucienne Day.
We do not know the ‘Julia’ who made this card featuring a spirograph design (5). Marianne was friendly with many children of her artist friends.
Architect/designer Misha Black adopts a design by one of his children as his Christmas card (6).
An obituary of poet C Henry Warren (7). The scrapbook contains several of his published poems and links to Bardfield. Copies of his collections Miles from Anywhere and The Land Is Yours illustrated by Thomas Hennell and Adam Was A Ploughman illustrated by John Aldridge are in the Fry Collection.
Charles Mahoney (8), a contemporary of Edward Bawden at the Royal College of Art lived with his calligrapher wife Dorothy in a 16th century cottage in Wrotham, Kent.