ERNEST RANDOLPH REYNOLDS

THE ABINGTON ORCHID

ERNEST RANDOLPH REYNOLDS

Ph.D. (Cantab.), B.A. (Lond.)

(1910-1987)

‘Porcelain is perhaps the most entrancing of all the branches of the Antique Tree.’

[‘Guide to European Antiques’. Chapter 2: I, Introduction.

Ernest R. Reynolds. 1963 (U.S. edition. 1964. p. 41)]

Ernest Randolph Reynolds has become a forgotten author, a dusty curio, especially here in his home-town of Northampton where he should be remembered with deep gratitude and affection for he had such love for the town which can be seen by anyone reading his ‘Northampton’ series of books. Scholar, actor, poet, playwright and collector, there seemed no end to his talents, interests and enthusiasms and his humble home at number 43 Wantage Road, in Abington, Northampton, a house on the perimeter of the county cricket ground, has long stood without recognition; one would not know he lived there most of his life until his death in 1987, for there is nothing to honour his presence there. Just an ordinary, Victorian terrace house, originally three bedrooms, front parlour and back room with a coal cellar; one would easily pass it by not knowing what local distinguished person occupied it and who called it ‘home’ and appreciated its architectural features: ‘even the cheapest Victorian terrace houses often contain elaborate front-room fireplaces and a little plaster moulding in the entrance passage or carved stonework outside.’ [‘Guide to European Antiques’. Victoriana: IV, Furniture, Miscellaneous Trifles. Reynolds. 1963 (U.S. edition. 1964. p. 92-93)] In fact, reading his excellent volume on ‘European Antiques’ one is shown many illustrations of his collectibles and if one looks carefully at the photographs in many the wallpaper is consistently the same and it is my belief that these photographs of his collection were taken at his home at 43 Wantage Road.

Ernest Randolph Reynolds was born on 13^th September 1910 in Northampton and he was christened on 23^rd October of that year.

I.

The Census for 1911 (notoriously inaccurate for its dates of birth and places of birth) shows the Reynolds family are at 43 Wantage Road, Abington, Northampton: Head of the household is Alfred Reynolds, 31 (born 1880, Northampton) whose occupation is shown as ‘clicker’ (1); Alfred’s wife, Fanny Reynolds (nee Roddis), 26 (born 1885, Bucks Stoke Stratford) (2); there is an eight year old son, Alfred Thomas Reynolds, (born 1902, Northampton and christened on 8^th July 1902 in Abington), Ernest, not yet one year old, born Northampton and a boarder, Jessie Warren, 47 (born 1864, Northampton) living on ‘private means’.

Ernest’s father, Alfred married Fanny Roddis (actually born 1884, Stony Stratford, Northamptonshire) in the spring of 1902 in Northampton. According to the 1901 Census taken on 31^st March, Fanny was living with her family in Abington, Northampton; she is 17 and works as a ‘Gold Stamper’. She lives with her father: Thomas Roddis, 48, born 1853, Thrapston, Northamptonshire who is a ‘Jobbing Gardener’; her mother: Mary, 45, born 1856, Newnham, Northamptonshire; sister: Helen, 24, born 1877, Duston, Northamptonshire who is a ‘Boot Trimmer’ (3) and sister Annie, 22, born 1879, Duston, Northamptonshire who is a ‘Boot Machinist’ (4).

II.

Ernest attended the Northampton Town and County Grammar School, Billing Road, from 1921-1928 and taught at Stimpson Avenue School, Abington, Northampton from 1927-1928. On 1^st October 1929 Reynolds applied to the University of Nottingham for a one year course of study: 1929-1930: Intermediate B.A. Oxford Senior Locals – English. While at Nottingham University he wrote his first published poem, ‘Tristram and Iseult’, published in 1930. In the preface to the poem, Reynolds calls it ‘pictorial poetry’ and goes on to say that ‘what respect I have preserved for the sequence of events is largely drawn from Wagnerian treatment of the legend’. (‘Tristram and Iseult’. Preface. p. iii. Nottingham. 1930) The poem is divided into four parts: ‘The Prelude’, ‘The Love Dawn’, ‘Red Poppies’ and Liebestod’ which are each divided into eight line stanzas (sixty-five stanzas in total) each describing in flower and gem imagery, particular scenes from the story; each part is preceded by a short passage in French from ‘Tristan’ by Beroul. The main themes of the volume are the slaying of Marhault, the love potion which brings Tristram and Iseult together, the love affair between them and Tristram’s death. The poem was awarded the Kirke White Prize for poetry from Nottingham University for the year 1929-30.

III.

Reynolds was an authority on several subjects including theatre history and his ‘Early Victorian Drama: 1830-1870’ published in 1936 is a brilliant introduction and analysis of the Theatre and its various styles of the Victorian period: ‘in the age of Shakespeare the current philosophy was really of a pagan kind.’ (p. 4) Reynolds was also a sometime actor with the Northampton Repertory Players (in 1976 Reynolds published his twenty-page, ‘Northampton Repertory Theatre’ which was commissioned by the Players to mark their Golden Jubilee: 1927-1977). His expertise in theatre study made Reynolds an excellent critic and historian of the dramatic arts (his articles were often published in ‘The Stage’ such as Reynolds’ piece ‘Twenty-Five Years of Repertory at Northampton’ which appeared in ‘The Stage’ on Thursday 17 July 1952) and his keen impressions of the modern stage built on the foundations of the early Victorians, are often quite enlightening: ‘it is interesting to trace the influence of the new dance-dramas of Yeats on the similar experiments of Terence Gray… and the subsequent great revival of ballet in England… And if modern ballet could somehow link itself with poetry again and re-establish the partnership of dance-drama on a large scale, then the pioneer ideas of Yeats would indeed have a splendid apotheosis on the modern stage.’ [‘Modern English Drama: A Survey of the Theatre from 1900-1950’. Reynolds. 1949. p. 53-4] Yet he was aware that the theatre did not have the same power as literature when it came to society ‘the building of Utopias has to be left to the novelist and the romantic poet.’ (‘Early Victorian Drama: 1830-1870. Reynolds. 1936. p. 4)

IV.

Reynolds was also a great authority on porcelain and collecting antiques – the ‘term ‘porcelain’ has been very loosely used in the past and applied to many types of paste which are not porcelain in the true sense at all.’ [‘Collecting Victorian Porcelain’. Preface. Reynolds.1966 (1968 edition. p. 13)] He spent his whole life learning and memorising various pottery marks (the Chinese marks he found difficult to remember) and he was under no illusion as to the difficulty of becoming proficient: ‘the neophyte who embarks on the great Ceramic Pilgrimage must certainly be prepared for some hard study’. [‘Guide to European Antiques’. Chapter 2: I, Introduction. Reynolds.1963 (U.S. edition. 1964. p. 42)]

V.

Apart from porcelain and antiques his knowledge also encompassed many forms of the world of art including painting and furniture along with some knowledge of architecture: ‘anyone who looks without prejudice at, say, Millais’ famous picture of the drowned Ophelia, or at some of the charming Tudor-style country railway stations along many English branch lines, or at a fine pair of Victorian Minton or Copeland vases, will have to admit t5hat they have a strong character of their own. The models of the past have merely acted as a spur to the artists, not as a stranglehold crushing liveliness or adaptability to the needs of a fresh age.’ [‘Collecting Victorian Porcelain’. Introduction. Reynolds.1966 (1968 edition. p. 20)]

VI.

Reynolds made some excellent antique purchases in his time, many of which are mentioned in his ‘Collecting Victorian Porcelain’ (1966) and his ‘Guide to European Antiques’ (1963); in the latter he mentions a Fuseli painting of 1792 which was one of ‘three large Shakespearean scenes’ – ‘the other two are a delightfully vivacious Angelica Kauffmann work – the last scene of The Two Gentlemen of Verona where the main characters are assembled in a wood, and an unsigned but very well done episode from the Comedy of Errors against a background of classical architecture’ (‘Guide to European Antiques’. Reynolds. 1963 (U.S. edition. 1964. p. 158) among others which are shown in photographs obviously taken at his home in Wantage Road, Abington, although he does say that ‘no one should want to turn his house into an uninhabitable museum where at every step his visitor knocks against a warming-pan, or curse under their breath as they bump into the seventeenth or eighteenth china cabinet.’ [‘Guide to European Antiques’. Preface. Reynolds.1963 (U.S. edition. 1964. p. 10)]

VII.

In the 1939 Register Ernest, his father Alfred and mother Fanny are at 43 Wantage Road, Abington, Northampton. Between 1940 and 1944, Reynolds was in Baghdad and Lisbon as a British Council Lecturer before returning to England to lecture on English at the University of Birmingham, from 1946-1955. In 1941, probably while abroad, he began writing his ‘fantastic symphony in seven movements’, a long poem in seventeen sections: ‘Mephistopheles and the Golden Apples’ which was published two years later in 1943. In the poem, Mephistopheles tempts Guntram, a don, with the promise of unlimited knowledge; Mephistopheles and Guntram go to Tintagel in section six where they are welcomed by Merlin; in the next section we meet Galahad, Lavaine and Bedivere who each speak in turn. In section nine the story of Tristram and Iseult is sang by the siren and in section twelve several other Arthurian references are mentioned by the ghost of Dante Gabriel Rossetti!

During September 1952, his play ‘Candlemas Night’, a ‘fantastic comedy’ was performed at London’s Royal Court Theatre. The play shows the attempts of Miss Spanheim (Lucifer’s minister in Oxford) in her seduction of three Oxford dons – Dr. Tancred, Dr. Osmund and Dr. Adamastor. The dons are shown how to use cards to conjure the Goddess of Wisdom, the Queen of Spades (Pallas Athene) with the intention of imprisoning her; but she is too clever for them and strikes them dumb. The don’s wives: Sigismunda Tancred, Agatha Osmund and Ines Adamastor try to conjure the Queen of Spades to plead with her for their husbands’ voices to return but they do the conjuration wrong and evoke instead the Knave of Diamonds (Hector of Troy). The play was transformed into a ‘radio play’ for the B.B.C. and on Monday 26 December 1955, on the Third Programme at3 p.m. there was a radio performance of ‘Candlemas Night’. The music is by the composer Malcolm Arnold, conducted by Lionel Salter, and the play was produced by Frederick Bradnum. The radio play is performed again on Friday 30 December 1955 (The Third Programme, 8.55 p.m.) and there is a repeat performance on the Third Programme on 26 February 1956.

VIII.

IX.

X.

Dr. Ernest Reynolds gets a mention on p. 179 of Lou Warwick’s 1960 publication ‘Death of the Theatre: A History of the New Theatre, Northampton’ and in October 1964 an article on Reynolds appeared in the ‘Northampton Independent’: ‘Ernest Reynolds: Strange Facts’ by the journalist Ian Mayes (Northampton Independent. October. 1964. p. 57).

XI.

XII.

In the Summer of 1987 Ernest Randolph Reynolds died. He was still living at 43 Wantage Road, Abington, Northampton. According to Anthony Meredith in his book ‘A-Z of Northampton: Places-People-History’ (2017) Reynolds, in his later years, ‘rarely strayed from his home, an ‘Aladdin’s Cave’. Weeks later the house was broken into and his valuable china figurines, porcelain and priceless antiques were stolen. From reading his published works on porcelain and antiques we know some of the exquisite items he owned, such as the three Victorian Worcester plates (1862-70), a Crown Staffordshire hexagonal vase, a Coalport Rose Pompadour plate, a set of Booth’s ‘scale-blue and exotic birds’, a walnut veneered arch-dial long-case clock (circa 1720’s), a ‘patch period’ Derby plate, a French Ormolu clock (circa 1830), a French silver-plated coffee pot and of course the Fuseli painting of 1792, to name a few items of his precious collection. If the thieves were in possession of his volume the ‘Guide to European Antiques’ they would have a quite accurate inventory of his valuable pieces! He was a man who adored beauty and had a distinct appreciation for aesthetic and charming pieces of art: ‘hideous things were undoubtedly produced (is the present age, however, in any position to cast stones in that direction?)’ [‘Collecting Victorian Porcelain’. Introduction. Reynolds.1966 (1968 edition. p. 24)]

Perhaps some day he shall receive the recognition he deserves!

Published works:

Tristram and Iseult. Nottingham. (1930) Winner of the Kirke White Poetry Prize 1929-30, Nottingham University.

Garin Le Loherain: A Poem. (1935)

Early Victorian Drama: 1830-1870. (1936)

Modern English Literature, 1798-1935, with the addition of three chapters by E. R. Reynolds. Alfred John Wyatt. (1936)

Mephistopheles and the Golden Apples: Fantastic Symphony in Verse. Cambridge. (1943) [written in 1941]

Ines de Castro: Verse-Drama in One Act. (1943)

King Sebastian: Verse-Drama in a Prologue and Three Episodes. Lisbon. (1944)

Pedro and Francisca: Verse-Drama in a Prologue and Four Episodes. Lisbon. (1944)

Vasco de Gama: Verse-Drama in Three Episodes. Lisbon. (1944)

Modern English Drama: Survey of the Theatre from 1900. (1949)

The Plain Man’s Guide to Antique Collecting. (1963)

Guide to European Antiques. (1964)

The Plain Man’s Guide to Opera. (1964)

Collecting Victorian Porcelain. (1966)

Northamptonshire Treasures. (1972)

Northampton Town Hall. (1974)

Northampton Repertory Theatre. (1976)

PHOTOGRAPHS taken from the ‘Guide to European Antiques’ by Ernest Reynolds, 1963 (all page numbers refer to U.S. edition. 1964) showing pieces from his collection and taken, I believe, at 43 Wantage Road, Abington, Northampton:

I.                   Blue and white Chinese Vase on carved wooden stand, decorated with birds and flowers. K’ang Hsi mark. Finely carved Chinese wooden figure of a sage. (between pages 32-33)

II.                Italian water-colour in gilt frame with black surround showing a seated woman, c. 1860. (Between pages 72-73)

III.             ‘Victorian Corner’ with a Majolica Jardinierre decorated in blue, yellow, green, pink and brown. Also notice Mr. Reynolds’ sofa, books and cushions! (between pages 72-73)

IV.             Eighteenth-century Long Case Clock, arch dial, walnut veneer with marquetry motif, elaborately chased cherubs and dolphin enrichments in arch and spandrels, c. 1720. (between pages 72-73)

V.                French eighteenth-century Silver-Plate Coffee Pot. Circular Silver alms-dish with lion-head and rococo-style chasing. (page 88)

VI.             Heavy carved oak seventeenth-century Firescreen with panel of crimson floral damask. (Bought at the Sotheby Sale, Ecton Hall, 1955). (Between pages 96-97)

VII.          Georgian Bowfronted Mahogany 5 ft. Sideboard, c. 1780. (Between pages 136-137)

VIII.       Rare Mahogany Patience Table, c. 1780; Silver Tea Pot, hall marked 1787; Oval Satinwood Tea Caddy, c. 1790; Regency Mahogany metal-mounted Chair, c. 1810; Sheraton Mahogany Self-Locking Cellarette, c. 1790; Silver carved Tankard by John Swift, hall marked 1775. (Between pages 136-137)

IX.             Hepplewhite Mahogany Dining Chairs in their original leather, c. 1780. (Between pages 136-147)

X.                Four Chairs: (left to right): Country-Sheraton Fruitwood Chair, c. 1780; Early nineteenth-century solid Yew-wood Carved Chair, c. 1830; Chippendale Mahogany Chair, c. 1755; Late Georgian Mahogany Chair, c. 1810. (Between pages 136-137)

XI.             Pair of Prints in Black and Gilt frames with the legends ‘I Vanderbank pinxt. 1729’ and ‘G. Kneller pinxt. 1735’ (sold by I. Faber at Ye Golden Head in Bloomsbury Square). (Between pages 152-153)

XII.          ‘The Division of Lear’s Kingdom’ (King Lear, Act 1) by Henri Fuseli. (Between pages 152-153)

NOTES:

1.      Alfred Reynolds was born in Northampton in 1878 (and probably died there in 1942); he is recorded on the 1881 Census as a two year old ‘scholar’ living at Inkerman Terrace in Northampton. In the 1891 Census the Reynolds family are living at Margaret Street, Northampton and the family members are as follows: William Henry Reynolds, aged 42 (born 1849, Daventry, Northampton); his occupation is ‘shoe maker’; Harriet Reynolds, wife of William, aged 42 (born Birmingham, Warwickshire); their children: Henry, 22, shoe maker; Emily, 20, shoe hand; William, 18, born Yorkshire, shoe maker; David, 16, born ‘England’, solicitor’s clerk; Alfred, 13, born Northampton, scholar; Alice, 10, born Northampton, scholar; Nellie, 8, born ‘England’; Fred, 6, born ‘England’ and Florrie, 3, born ‘England’. In the 1901 Census the Reynolds are still in Northampton: William Henry is 52 – ‘Boot Maker’, Harriet is 51, William is 28, (born ‘Leeds’) – ‘Clicker Boot Trade’, David, 26 – Solicitor’s Clerk, Alfred, 22 – ‘Clicker Shoe Trade’, Fred, 16 – Ledger Clerk, Alice, 20 – ‘Boot Machinist’, Nellie, 18 – ‘Boot Fitter’ and Florrie, 13 – ‘Cardboard Box Maker’. As we know Alfred married Fanny Roddis in 1902, but the Reynolds family are still in Northampton during the 1911 Census and William Henry, aged 63 gives his occupation as ‘Licensed Victualer’; Harriet is 63, Fred is 26 and single – ‘Clerk Bedding Company’; Nellie is 28 and single – ‘Machinist Boot Factory’; Florence, 23 and single – ‘Barmaid’; Edith Julia Reynolds, Granddaughter aged 12, born Northampton – ‘Scholar’ (actually: Julia Edith Reynolds, born 1899, Northampton, daughter of Henry Reynolds and Elizabeth Ann).

2.      The Roddis family can be seen on the 1881 Census living in Duston village, Northamptonshire. Fanny Roddis (who probably died in Brixworth, Northamptonshire in 1966) is not born until 1884 but her parents and elder siblings are as shown: Thomas Roddis (father) aged 28, born 1853, Thrapston, Northamptonshire, occupation: ‘Gardener and Domestic Servant’; Mary Roddis (mother) aged 25, born 1856, Newnham, Northamptonshire; Mary Helen Roddis (sister) aged 4, born 1877, Duston, Northamptonshire; Annie Elizabeth Roddis (sister) aged 2, born 1897, Duston, Northamptonshire; also at the address is Anthony J. Speight, a single lodger aged 24, born 1857, Kendle, Westmorland who is a schoolmaster.

3.      Helen, actually born Mary Helen Roddis, 1877, Duston, Northamptonshire. She married a Londoner named Thomas Edward Debnam in Northampton, 1904 and they lived in Duston. ‘Helen’ died in Northampton in 1973.

4.      Annie Elizabeth Roddis was born in 1897, Duston, Northamptonshire. She married Arthur Johnson in Northampton in 1902.