APPENDIX 1

Report of Mr. Walter Armstrong and Mr. E. Rimbault Dibdin to Newcastle upon Tyne City Council

Sir,
By desire of the Art Committee of the Newcastle Corporation, we the undersigned, have carefully examined some fifteen hundred of the pictures included in the bequest of the late Mr. Shipley to the City of Newcastle. We have kept the terms of Mr. Shipley's will in our minds while making the examination and compiling this report.

Numerically, the collection is a remarkable result of a professional man's devotion to a task so difficult as the formation of a gallery of pictures. While containing no works of first-rate merit, it includes a considerable amount of paintings inspired by a truly artistic feeling and carried out with much technical efficiency. Many of the frames and a few of the canvases, bear the names of famous artists of the first class, such as Holbein, Rubens, Corot, etc., but in no instances is there any perceptible ground for such ascription's. The collection bears witness, however, to a gradually increasing knowledge and taste on the part of its maker, which facilitated our task in dividing it into groups of various degrees of merit.

We have distributed the fifteen hundred pictures examined into three classes, marking them respectively: A; pictures which ought not to be rejected from such a gallery as the deceased gentleman wished to found; D; pictures which might fairly be admitted to such a gallery; and R; pictures which cannot be considered acceptable from any point of view.

It will be found that in the first two classes, A and D, we have placed 361 pictures. In a few instances, pictures of similar, perhaps even of identical merit, figure, some in the A and D lists, some in the R list. This apparent anomaly is to be explained by the opinion held by both of us, that, while one specimen of a third rate master, or of a third rate style of art, might be acceptable, it would not be wise to multiply such examples.

In making the selections, we have also been governed by two further considerations:- We have taken into account the probable size of such a gallery as Mr. Shipley's bequest of money would provide, and we have assumed that the desire of the municipal authorities would be to create the most dignified and most generally pleasing memorial to a respected citizen that his bequest would allow. It would, manifestly, be quite impossible to hang three thousand pictures, or even fifteen hundred, in a gallery costing no more than £30,000 unless the said gallery was nothing more than a huge barn.

The largest gallery in the world, namely, the great gallery of the Louvre, only holds about fifteen hundred pictures, and yet it is nearly a quarter of a mile long. Clearly, then, the sum left by Mr. Shipley may be taken not only as a measure of the building to be provided by its means, but of the approximate number of pictures to be hung on the walls. We are of opinion that the selection of 361 pictures we have the honour to recommend will meet all these suggested conditions.

A considerable number of works, otherwise acceptable, have been rejected by us in consequence of the destruction wrought upon them by cleaning and restoration. As to the damage done by injudicious cleaning, it is, of course impossible to say whether that is of long standing or not. But much of the "restoration" is apparently new. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon those responsible for old pictures that even the most necessary restoration should never be undertaken without grave consideration, and that the number of expert practitioners in what is really an art is extremely limited, numbering, probably, not more than half-a-dozen persons in the United Kingdom.

The collection, is on the whole, very well cared for in the mater of framing and glazing. The frames do not always suit the pictures and in many cases, the latter might be greatly improved by judicious changes, even without going outside the collection itself. The sum provided under Mr. Shipley's will ought to be amply sufficient to meet any expenditure under this head.

A certain number of the pictures in classes A and D have been included for reasons which are not strictly artistic, viz., some of those dealing with shipping and other local interest, and a few specimens of Chinese paintings of a quasi-European kind.

Finally, we may be permitted to record our appreciation of the obliging assistance given to us by Mr. C. Bernard Stevenson, your able curator, without which it would have been quite impossible to examine such a large number of pictures in the time at our disposal. We do not know how far our classification may agree with that previously made by him as we thought it best to come to an independent judgement, and so abstained from looking at, or in any way discussing his report.

WALTER ARMSTRONG
EDW. RIMBAULT DIBDIN

8th April 1910


APPENDIX 2

Letter sent to the Town Clerk for Gateshead by Joseph Shipley's Executors



Burdon Buildings,
51 Westgate Road & 62 Grainger Street W.
Newcastle upon Tyne.
5th February 1912.

Dear Sir,
By the Will of the late Joseph Aynsley Davidson Shipley of Saltwell Park House Gateshead, and 51 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne. Solicitor, which Was proved by us in the Durham Registry on the 18th May 1909 he bequeathed all his pictures drawings photographs engravings and prints to us the undersigned upon the following trusts namely :

(a) "If on my death or within three years thereafter there shall "be established in Newcastle -upon Tyne an Art Gallery free to "public admission and of sufficient extent to admit of (in "addition to its then existing stock of pictures) such of my "pictures as the Committee or Managers of the said Art Gallery "shall select then my Trustees shall deliver the pictures so "selected to the same Art Gallery as an absolute gift. I declare "that the Art Gallery proposed to be erected in Higham Place will "not be and shall not be regarded as an Art Gallery within this "Trust. The site is too small and there are other objections and I "also declare that if at any time it is deemed necessary or "desirable to make a charge for admission it will not exceed three "pence per head.

(b) ."If on my death or within three years thereafter there shall "be an Art Ga1lery free as aforesaid but it shall not be of "sufficient extent to admit all such of my pictures as shall be "selected as aforesaid but the Gallery shall be capable of being "enlarged so as to render it capable of holding all then I direct "my Trustees to raise the sum of Thirty thousand pounds out of my "residuary estate and pay the same to the Treasurer of the Gallery "to be applied in or towards such enlargement as aforesaid and on "the completion of the enlargement the selected pictures shall be "delivered to the Gallery and in the meantime until such "enlargement sha1l be completed selected pictures shall be "warehoused and the interest of the said Thirty thousand pounds or "a competent part thereof shall be applied in or towards payment of "the rent and expense of warehousing. Provided always that if on my "death there shall be no such Art Gallery as aforesaid but within "the said three years thereafter there shall have teen subscribed "for the purposes of such a Gallery a sum which along with the said "Thirty thousand pounds would be sufficient to provide a Gallery "satisfactory to my I Trustees then my Trustees shall raise and pay "the said sum of Thirty thousand pounds to the Treasurer of the "subscribed fund and such Gallery shall be on the like footing as "if the same had, been a Gallery within (a) of this clause.

(c) "If (a) and (b) shall wholly fail as to a Gallery in Newcastle "upon Tyne they shall take effect as to a Gallery in the Borough "of Gateshead and accordingly the provisions of (a) and (b)

"shall in that case be read and take effect as if Gateshead had "been inserted instead of Newcastle upon Tyne but so that the "period of two years from the expiration of the said three "years be substituted for the last mentioned period and so that "if my Trustees shall consider that a satisfactory Gallery can "be provided for Thirty Thousand pounds without any such "contributions as aforesaid they may apply the Thirty thousand "pounds accordingly.

(d) "If any such Art Gallery as mentioned in (a) (b) or (c) shall be established my Trustees shall raise out of my residuary "estate and pay to the Trustees Treasurer or other person or "persons acting in the management of the Gallery the sum of "Five hundred pounds and apply the same or such part thereof as "is necessary for making new frames regilding any out of order "and otherwise making the same fit for hanging and the balance "if any remaining together with the further sum of Two thousand "pounds to be also raised by my said Trustees out of say said "residuary estate and paid to such Treasurer or other person or "persons as aforesaid upon trust to invest the same and apply "the income of the investments in keeping the said pictures and "furniture contributed me to the Gallery in good repair order "and condition.

(e) "If (a) (b) and (c) shall altogether (but not otherwise) fail "then my pictures shall be offered successively as gifts to the "National Gallery of Trafalgar Square London the Tait Gallery "of Milbank The National Portrait Gallery of Trafalgar Square "aforesaid and the South Kensington Museum and so that the Tait "Gallery shall have the privilege of taking such of my pictures "as shall not be taken by the National Gallery and that the "National Portrait Gallery shall have the like privilege as to "those not taken by the National Gallery or the Tait Gallery "and that the South Kensington Museum shall have the like "privilege as to those not taken by the three firstly mentioned "Institutions.

(f)"Every picture taken by any Gallery or otherwise under this "clause shall be Permanently labelled "The Shipley Bequest".

The bequest so far as Newcastle upon Tyne is concerned having lapsed the collection is now offered to the Borough of Gateshead in the terms of deceased's Will and we will be-glad if you will bring the subject of the bequest before your Council and inform us of the decision arrived at with respect thereto.

We may mention that there are between eighteen and nineteen hundred pictures all of which are stored in a safe repository in this City and should it be necessary to have an inspection we will be glad to give you an interview in order to arrange for same.

Yours faithfully,
Robt. :W. Middleton
Thomas C. Winn.
The Town Clerk, Executors.
Gateshead