Nell Vyse

Return to the Potteries
In 1911, the newly formed Borough of Stoke-on-Trent7 commissioned Vyse to design and execute a large frieze (1mx10mx2O cm), carved from Hollington stone. Illustrating North Staffordshire’s two main industries Pottery and Mining, it would set above the main entrance of the New University College of North Staffordshire. On the left side, four miners are depicted with the tools of their trade, a railway cart, pickaxes and a Davy lamp represent Mining. On the right side, three men and a woman are depicted with a potter’s wheel, a kiln and items of finished ware, are representative of Pottery. In the central panel a seated winged female figure in classical dress, an open book on her lap, and a naked winged boy at her side, personifies Learning. On her left and right sides, sit two bare-breasted female figures in classical draperies with chemistry apparatus and the set of scales beside them, they personify Science. The realistic portrayal of the working men and women, with a detailed rendering of the musculature of figures in action, are influenced by the New Sculpture Movement, which assumed a dominant position within British sculpture during the last two decades of the nineteenth century and up to the first World

While holidaying with her husband at Ryde, on the Isle of Weight, Mrs Sarah Edwards, instead of a postcard, sends Nell a carte-de-visite photograph of herself. As a postscript to her message she writes, I wonder if you remember having this photo taken before you were 16 yrs. (Fig. 13). After her marriage to Vyse, Nell became quite stylish in her mode of dress, having a penchant for colourful flowing cloaks, cloche hats, shoes with red heels. The photograph of Charles Vyse is thought to have-been taken in the early years of his marriage to Nell Vyse, and possibly when in his early thirties (Fig.