Recently, a small group of FoGM members were delighted to have the opportunity to visit the “Making a Mark” exhibition held in the offices of Lyon & Turnbull in Glasgow City Centre. The exhibition displayed a small selection of the fabulous contemporary silverware and metalwork from the extraordinary collection of the late Dr. Helen Cargill Thompson, now entrusted to the Glasgow School of Art. Dr Cargill Thompson was a respected librarian and passionate patron of the Arts who had a lifelong interest in collecting modern craft.
It was breath taking to look at each display case and marvel at the beautiful items on display. Some of the items that we saw were by professional silversmith, Bryony Knox who give us a talk on her practice. Bryony has just celebrated 25 years as a professional silversmith and was keen to share the background to how she goes about creating her pieces. We saw her sketchbooks and were able to follow the design process for one of the pieces in the exhibition, “A Playing Card Silver Box” that she made in 2010. Bryony talked about the different methods and techniques she used and even had a few of her silverware objects for us to handle and see the fine detail she achieves.
It was wonderful to see some of the Dr Helen Cargill Thompson Collection, and we would like to thank the staff at Lyon & Turnbull for their hospitality and Bryony Know for her insightful talk. As a society, we have been delighted to sponsor a 3 year research programme at the Glasgow School of Art Archives to ensure this collection will be properly documented and be available for as wide an audience as possible to see and enjoy in the future.
