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The collections of the School of Art at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, consist mainly of fine and decorative arts but also include glassware, baskets from Europe, North America, and Africa, Welsh furniture, weaponry and musical instruments from Africa, Polynesia, New Guinea and Australia. At present there are some 9,000 items of graphic art (prints, photographs, watercolours and drawings), just under 150 oil and acrylic paintings, a small collection of European, Indian and Far Eastern bronzes and approximately 1,300 items of ceramics; studio ceramics, slipware, factory made pots and older ceramics from Africa, South America, Japan and China.

 

Many of these items were formerly part of the collection of the University Museum which was established c. 1876 by Professor Frederick W. Rudler (1840-1915) and later curated by Thomas Humpidge (c. 1852-87) and Professor Hubert J. Fleure (1877-1969). The first substantial gifts to the Museum were made by George E. J. Powell of Nanteos (1842-82) in 1873 and finally by bequest on his death in 1882. Powell’s contribution included not only fine and decorative art, including Pre-Raphaelite watercolours and drawings by D.G. Rosetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Rebecca and Simeon Solomon but also an accumulation of specimens - animal, vegetable and mineral - which comprised his peculiar version of the Renaissance Cabinet. In later years other major benefactors included Lady Mary Elizabeth Williams (neé Hughes) who gave her collection of Swansea and Nantgarw porcelain in 1915 and her husband Sir John Williams, President of the College, who bequeathed his prints and paintings as part of his house and its contents in 1926.

 

A more systematic approach to the accumulation of specimens of fine and decorative art began with the establishment of a collection of Arts and Crafts at the College under the patronage of Gwendoline and Margaret Davies of Gregynog. In 1918 they gave £5,000 to form the Museum and to fund the acquisition of collections. In the same year the architect Sidney K. Greenslade (1866-1955) was appointed as its Consulting Curator. Greenslade was the initial architect of the National Library of Wales, friend and patron of the Martin Brothers potters and a keen exponent of the Arts and Crafts ideal. His co-curator in this venture was Dan R. Jones (1875-1934), Drawing Master and subsequently Head of the Arts & Crafts Department. Between the years 1920 and 1936 substantial collections were ammassed particularly in the areas of contemporary prints and 'pioneer' studio ceramics. The most significant recent event in the fortunes of the University Collections was the bequest by Dr Elvet Lewis (1904-1981) in 1981 of his entire estate in memory of his wife Catherine (1905-1953).

 

Source: University of Wales, Aberystwyth: http:\\www.aber.ac.uk/art/