Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

One of the partners from my firm was a former pupil of Christ's Hospital. We are looking for a retirement present and he expressed an interest in something from the school - a print, watercolour, etc. We have already been in touch with the school direct, but apparently they have no items that would be suitable. I wondered if anyone on this website has any idea where I can acquire such a picture or print.

My telephone number at my office is 020 7065 0500. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Lillian Metcalfe
PA to the Managing Partner
PKF (UK) LLP

Hello Lillian,

I find it hard to believe that the school has nothing to offer considering there is an Art school. This would be a prime opportunity for current pupils or even art staff to paint a nice watercolour of the grounds or something CH related. It may be worth contacting the Head of Art to see whether or not this is a possibility. This could even be run as an in-school competition whereby the best painting / piece of artwork is chosen and presented to him.

Best,

Jeeves

Hi, Lillian

Have you tried Googling "Christs Hospital" watercolour and also "Christ's Hospital" watercolour.

The second one especially has a lot to consider but two caught my eye:

http://www.myartprints.co.uk/a/downman- ... chris.html
I have no idea what these would cost.

and

http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/det ... se_all.php
(from £7 to £65 depending on size - prices are on the site)
This latter sems a good lead because quite a lot of CH related prints held by them were found by the search engine.

Something your boss would never forget is the annual presentation of a sixpence or shilling by the Lord Mayor of London at the Mansion House. cue:
http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/ser ... House.html

I just get6 the feeling that reproductions may be available - you'll have to ask.

Good luck (and why is your boss not on the Unofficial Forum? several of us might remember him if he is of that age)

On eBay you will find that there are loads of engravings or etchings of Christ's Hospital -

a) London - where older boys were accommodated in various different locations from 1552 up to 1900 or so;
b) Hertford - where younger boys and the girls were accommodated from the 1730's, - with the younger boys moving out in about 1900 and from then the Hertford site was for girls only, until 1985;
c) Horsham, where building started in the 1890's and which accommodated boys only from 1900 to 1985;
d) Horsham, where boys and girls have been accommodated together from 1985 to the present time.

If your boss is male it is likely that he was at Horsham, so look out for etchings by Wallace Hester - about 1920. He was a celebrated artist of public schools, and produced a suite of three etchings of Christ's Hospital, Horsham. I bought each one individually on eBay for around £15-£20 each and my family paid to have them mounted and framed, as a Christmas present. Kay Lovelock also did some engravings of both the Hertford and Horsham sites, in the 1980's, and GW (I think) Wardle did a suite of etchings of the Hertford site, pre 1900.

However, if you are pushed for time, you may well have to rely upon the recipient's love of the Foundation of Christ's Hospital per se, and settle for an engraving of the London site - there are dozens of those!

Good luck

PS - if you do try eBay you may find you need to search 'title and description' for both 'Christ Hospital' and 'Christs Hospital' (no-one ever spells it right, with the apostrophe before the 's'!). Please feel free to PM me if I can be of any further assistance...

Dear Lillian,

Another option might be a picture by Charles Brierley-Howes, a former Christ's Hospital master who has invented a technique for deriving paintings from photographs and has 35 such images of CH for sale. Go to http://www.hybrid-artworks.com and click on "Christ's Hospital".

Crikey! That is both sophisticated and affordable (though I regret that there does not seem to be a Hertford gallery). Why have we not heard of this site, sooner?

kerrensimmonds wrote:Crikey! That is both sophisticated and affordable (though I regret that there does not seem to be a Hertford gallery). Why have we not heard of this site, sooner?

I'm pretty certain I had it in the Old Blue or the Old Blue section, some time ago.

The watercolouring of photos is doable within Photoshop, with varying sizes of brush strokes/styles.
If anyone has a photo they'd like converted, just email it to me - I'll have a play.
Once converted, the main online photo printers can print on canvas, gossy paper etc. etc. depending on what you want.

If you had a photo of the "managing partner" at CH, it may be possible to create a watercolour of him/her?

J

JT and Officials.

As Lillian hasn't re-visited the forum since posting this request, why don't one of you take it upon yourselves to phone her ?

020 7065 0500

One of us did, yesterday.

Superb !

Lets hope they get a suitable gift !

I must admit to being somewhat underwhelmed by the Brierly-Howes pictures, although without seeing the actual thing, it's difficult to be sure. From a distance, they look like photos, and on closer inspection like watercolours -- but what's the advantage of that? I can't see what they've gained in the transmogrification. They're too fussy to be good watercolours, whose effect lies in their not reproducing everything, and too bland to be good photos except for an estate agent's use, and for that purpose there's no need to process the original photo.

Wasn't there one of the chaplains (Patrick Duncan I think) who did a number of watercolours of CH?

Yes, it was Revd Patrick Duncan.
http://www.patrickduncanart.co.uk