DDS Joseph Edward Southall RWS (1861-1944), a convex wall mirror, designed and painted by Joseph Southall, gesso work and gilding by Charles M. and Edith Gere, stones set by Mrs Gaskin, cabinet maker J. Norton, the 9 1/2in mirror in a scroll gessoed and gilded hexagonal frame with six painted roundels of the Virgin and Child and five angels, the outside with six cabochon stones, signed with a monogram and dated 1899 to the lower angel roundel, exhibition labels verso, 61cm x 53.5cm overall. Provenance: From Hodson family letters: Joseph Southall sent a mirror to Laurence Hodson, almost certainly the present lot, on Oct. 27th 1899, insured for £25. The following letter says 'It was uncommonly bad of the Arts & Crafts people to reject the mirror (though I say it). That sort of thing does an artist such an injury by loss of reputation which is hard enough to build up any way.' It later appeared in an insurance valuation at the same price as a fire extinguisher!. Exhibited: City Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham exhibition 'Joseph Southall', 8th August 1980 to 30th September 1980, cat. no. H7. Joseph Edward Southall RWS NEAC RBSA (1861-1944) was a painter associated with the Arts and Crafts movement and a leading figure in the 19th and early 20th century revival of painting in tempera. Southall was the leader of the Birmingham Group of Artist-Craftsmen: one of the last outposts of Romanticism in the visual arts, and an important link between the later Pre-Raphaelites and the turn of the century Slade Symbolists. Charles March Gere, RA, RWS (1869-1957) was an English painter, book illustrator, and stained glass and embroidery designer. A member of the Birmingham Group of Artist-Craftsmen that formed around Joseph Southall, Gere taught at the Birmingham School of Art under Edward R. Taylor and illustrated many books for William Morris's Kelmscott Press, including the frontispiece to Morris's own News from Nowhere. Mrs Georgina Evelyn Cave Gaskin (née France) (1866-1934), known as Georgie Gaskin, was a jewellery and metalwork designer. With her husband Arthur Gaskin she was one of the original members of the Birmingham Group of Artist-Craftsmen. Little information survives for James Norton. In 1903 Southall exhibited a print cabinet with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. As in the present lot it integrated craftsmanship in its various disciplines. This small gilded chest, embellished with gemstones and crystals, has as its focal point a classical scene of Ariadne and Theseus painted on panel and inset into the piece of furniture. Southall executed the panel in egg tempera and exhibited the cabinet again in 1905 at the Society of Painters in Tempera. In this work, again a collaborative effort, the gilding was executed by his wife Anna and the cabinet was made by James Norton.