In Search of Ramsden and Carr

by Helen Ashton

Omar Ramsden was a noted silversmith of the Arts and Crafts Era. In partnership with Alwyn Carr and a team of skilled artisans, he created spectacular silver goods that are still sought after today. But despite the renown of his work, and his involvement in the world of Arts and Crafts, there has been no published information about his life—until now.

​In Search of Ramsden and Carr is the first account of Ramsden’s life and work. While looking into her genealogy, author Helen Ashton uncovered family ties to Ramsden, an interest that soon became an obsession that resulted in this book. Ashton details Ramsden’s early life, including time spent in the United States, the establishment of his practice, and the adoption of a new style, adapted from Gothic and Renaissance designs with Celtic-style inscriptions, which would become their studio’s trademark. Fully illustrated with one hundred black-and-white and color images, this book will appeal to all who appreciate hand-worked metal and the Arts and Crafts movement.

208 pages, Hardcover

Published September 15, 2018

About the author

Helen Ashton was the daughter of the Arthur J. Ashton, K.C. Encouraged by her father, the author of a delightful book of legal reminiscences, she wrote three juvenile novels, then her literary work was interrupted by WWI and she took up nursing. In 1916 she began studying medicine, working at Great Ormond Street Hospital until her marriage to Arthur Jordan, a barrister twenty years older than herself, in 1927.

Over the next thirty years Ashton published 25 novels: Doctor Serocold (1930), her most successful, was about a day in the life of an English country doctor; Bricks and Mortar (1932) is about the life of an architect over forty years; and from 1941-7 she published an excellent quartet of novels about contemporary village life.

Reviews

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book traces the lives of Sheffield silversmiths Omar Ramsden and Alwyn Carr, from their first meeting at Sheffield School of Art, through the successes of their business collaboration, their roles during and after World War One, to their deaths. It is a well-presented biography, with numerous coloured plates depicting some of Ramsden and Carr’s works, as well as family photographs and locations relevant to them.

The reason that this review is short is that I did not gel with this narrative. It is easy to read, but appeared to be presented as fact after fact along a timeline. As a result, I had to work hard to maintain my interest in the book and, after taking a short break from it, did not find myself willing to pick it up again. There is no doubt that the author has written a well-researched book, but I feel people who have an interest in the art of the silversmith would appreciate this more than I have done.