1592997946000 1548420390000 Standard Record object-110005449 1619180698077 1596725516000 1615827172920 adlib fitz-online adlib-object-110005449 http://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110005449 fba952a3-4a13-39f8-b2da-781bc8d00401 5 person reference agent-150522 adlib-agent-150522 4dec5047-6f47-36f5-bd3b-cdb64cfaf960 Cockerell, Sydney C. content description James G. Mann, Reader in History of Art and expert on the history of armour at the University of London, became Director of the Wallace Collection in 1936 and then Master of Armouries at the Tower of London in 1939. In 1934 Sydney Cockerell invited him to serve as Honorary Curator of Armour at the Fitzwilliam Museum, which was preparing to open a new gallery of Arms & Armour. The collection contains 33 letters, some of them annotated by Cockerell, and the envelope in which they were once housed. (FM/5/6/3/Mann 1-34) This collection is closely related to the correspondence from Gertrude and Gilbert Stead to Sydney Cockerell and James G. Mann, and should be read concurrently with that collection (FM/5/6/3/Stead 1-20) and subsequent correspondence from Mann. 1934: Mann accepts Cockerell’s invitation to become Honorary Curator at the Fitzwilliam and hopes to contribute to the design as well as the content of the display in the new gallery. 1935: Mann wants the gallery to be dramatic and interesting. He suggests various possibilities for loans, for example, from the collection of the Hon. J. J. Astor, MP, of Hever Castle, Kent, or that of Sir Edward Barry, Bt, of Bray, Berks, whose collection is smaller than Astor’s but who would be flattered to be asked. Mann sends Cockerell a list of pieces he had noted on a visit in 1930 to Dalston Hall—the property of Mr and Mrs Edmund Stead. Mann thinks that Mrs Stead, now widowed and preparing to move from the house, ‘if she is gently flattered she might later be induced to present part of the collection’ to the Fitzwilliam. Mann rates the Stead Collection higher than the James Henderson Collection, bequeathed to the Museum, along with £10,000, after Henderson’s death in 1933, and intended to form the basis of the new gallery. Stead’s son, Gilbert, visits Mann, and they talk about loans versus gifts. Mann recommends to Cockerell that the Museum display as many loans from the Stead Collection as possible when the gallery opens, then gradually replace some of these with materials from the Henderson Collection when these come to the Museum. He hopes that Cockerell can negotiate long-term loans from the Stead Collection that might later be turned into gifts, and persuade Mrs Stead, if she decides to sell some of the pieces, to give the Museum an opportunity to make an offer before placing them on the open market. 1936: Mann’s letters to Cockerell in 1936 increasingly focus on the practical details of the gallery’s design and preparation, and he makes frequent trips to Cambridge to oversee the work. He discusses options for getting an equestrian figure to display in the centre of the gallery, notes the problems and methods of cleaning metal armour and leather, and warns that any new leathers or rivets must be an exact match for the original, and therefore should be avoided whenever possible. He describes the manufacture of brackets to display helmets and forks for swords, and draws pictures: it is best if these objects can be set several inches away from the wall. Mann proposes putting a note in the Burlington Magazine on some of the better Stead and Henderson pieces in June to coincide with the opening of the gallery, and wants to begin the work of making photographs. In March he submits a list of objects from the Stead Collection from which he asks Cockerell to select six for inclusion in the gallery; Cockerell adds another object to the list and ticks his six selections. Mann expresses his delight that royal permission has been given for the loan of a suit of Henry VIII’s armour (valued at £50,000) from Windsor Castle, describes how it must be packed for transport to the Museum, and suggests that the Holbein and Carew portraits of Henry VIII in armour might be placed next to it. But he strongly objects to Cockerell’s proposal that the window cases be used to display documentary exhibits; he is adamant that these be used for the display of small objects such as pistols. After the opening of the gallery, Mann writes to Cockerell commenting on its success (though he regrets that no member of the Stead family attended). He looks ahead to upcoming auctions, for which he hopes £1000 might be available, and mentions various offers of loans, including one made by his friend Major H. D. Barnes of a XVth-century German sallet. He notes that the Metropolitan Museum in New York wants to photograph the Henry VIII suit for study. Mann thanks Cockerell for congratulating him on becoming Director of the Wallace Collection, and for Cockerell’s ‘friendly offices which seem to have born[e] fruit’. In July 1936 Mann, now in his new post at the Wallace Collection, describes a badly damaged dummy horse he has found in the museum vaults. Assuming it can be repaired, would Cockerell want it for the Fitzwilliam gallery? If so, he will see if it can be given as an indefinite loan. He records progress made on the photographing of the Henry VIII suit, invites Cockerell to look at the dummy horse, and expresses his pleasure that Major Barnes has agreed to lend his sallet. The final item is an envelope inscribed in Cockerell’s hand, indicating that originally the Mann and Stead correspondence on the new gallery were archived together. FM/5/6/3/Mann 1 accession number FM/5/6/3/Mann 110005449 priref 110005449 uri http://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110005449 http://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110005449 reference agent-188234 adlib-agent-188234 8d50fc03-c278-310c-bd0d-d91ace7b4bbb GB 00280 1934 1934 1934 1934 1936 1 1936 1936 1936 reference agent-198835 adlib-agent-198835 7e647058-e07f-3984-83e7-627d535ac37e Mann, James Gow 34 items history note Archive of the Fitzwilliam Museum 1 reference object-110005450 adlib-object-110005450 67ac3aa8-a16b-3978-9760-8584ee1bbf48 FM/5/6/3/Stead FM/5/6/3/Mann object OBJECT