Ok, so Letter X was always going to be challenging, and so I am resorting to the common practice of making an entry under the Letter E, as the Letter X actually sounds like it starts with a Letter E – if you see what I mean!!
So, an eXercise book!
Miss Winifred Ellen Sarson was born on 28th December 1900, to William and his wife Lizzie. Her birth was registered in Leicester in January 1901, and the family were living on Kirby Road, Leicester, probably at number 24. Winifred had an older sister, Gladys born in 1892, and an older brother, Kenneth born in 1899. Winifred’s father, William was a commercial traveller in the boot and shoe industry. The family continued to live at 24 Kirby Road until at least 1921, when William was working for Barsley Tomlinson Watkins in Cosby.
In 1939, Winifred and her sister Gladys were living together at 79 Westcotes Drive, a place where Winifred lived after the death of her sister Gladys on 24th July 1975, until her own death on 20th December 1986, aged 85.
So why Winifred, and why an eXercise book?
The book is a notebook issued by the Leicester Municipal Technical & Art Schools, and it was used by Winifred to record notes, designs, and progress in the area of the Elements of Design, when she was a student at the College around the beginning of the burgeoning of the Art Deco movement. In the eXercise book she describes the meaning behind designs – like an ornament being an enrichment of an object or of a service, or repeating geometric patterns. Many of the drawings she made are of classic designs, and she talks of Roman patterns, Greek patterns, Byzantine patterns, and Renaissance patterns. She also draws a number of Egyptian inspired patterns which chime perfectly well with the Art Deco movement that was about to take off.
In her notes on geometric ornaments, she describes a geometric pattern as being the most conventional of all patterns, which might consist entirely of straight lines, entirely of curved lines, or a combination of both! Triangles, squares, lozenges, diamonds, hexagons, octagons, and polygons being the main geometrical forms for patterns in ornament.
One of the final sections in the eXercise book looks at the idea of plant forms in ornamentation. After a very short introduction, Winifred writes extensively about the Egyptian lotus, papyrus, and palms.
“The Lotus & Papyrus are plants of ancient oriental civilisation; & plays an important part in the social life of the Egyptians and Assyrians. The died stalks of these water plants were used as fuel, or made into mats and other plaited articles; their roots served as food; the pith as wicks for lamps. The paper of the ancients was made of Papyrus. This explains its appearance in the ornamental art of these nations, & its special [?] in Egyptian style.”
As we have already seen in Letter E, and Letter N, these Egyptian motifs have a presence in Loughborough’s Art Deco buildings.
Winifred became an art teacher, and taught at Leicester’s Collegiate Girls’ School for 37 years, before retiring. Her sister, Gladys was also a teacher. Neither sister ever married.
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