Letters criss-cross so many of the novels we publish, but letter-writing is decreasing which means that wittily or beautifully illustrated envelopes are also becoming a thing of the past. All the more reason to treasure those that survive and those that delight their recipient/s. So this week we are celebrating the illustrated envelope, and begin with this (1930s) by Evelyn Dunbar who also illustrated many of her letters. 

The Murray Edwards exhibition focusses on the four artists mentioned here this week, but there are more artistic Nicholson family connections. Winifred Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth were, at different times, sisters-in-law to Nancy. Winifred's daughter, artist Kate Nicholson (1929-2019), was a successful painter, and now there is the new generation, represented by weaver Nancy. The Nicholsons are illustrious examples of how artistic and creative skills are handed down the generations via the female line, but the same is just as true of many ordinary yet accomplished families.

EQ's daughter is Louisa Creed (b1937), the Yorkshire-based artist known in particular for the rag rugs she began making in 1988, carrying on from Winifred Nicholson involvement in the craft (as per this Substack article). She is a self-taught maker and, coming from a family of painters but not particularly drawn to painting herself, "has used rag rugs as ‘paint’ and hessian as ‘canvas'". This is 'Louisa and Lewis Making Rugs' (1999).

Nancy Nicholson's sister-in-law, married to her brother Kit, was EQ (Elsie Queen) Nicholson (1908-92). EQ was a well-connected, talented painter and textile designer, but remains something of an enigma. Her bold, modern patterns, often inspired by plant forms, were produced by leading companies such Cole & Son and Edinburgh Weavers, and her furnishing fabric "Runner Bean" (c1950) was used on the Royal Yacht Britannia. Early in her career she specialised in batik, and here she is in 1932 working on a batik bedspread.

Mabel Nicholson, the first of the three generations of female artists in the Relative Ties group exhibition, has featured on the Post before (w/c 30 September 2024). Her daughter was Nancy Nicholson (1899-1977), painter and fabric designer, sister of Ben, first wife of Robert Graves, and "quite the renegade", according to the curator, Harriet Loffler. In 1930, she set up Poulk Press and printed her textile designs which include 'Penny Fiddle' (late 1920s).

Murray Edwards College in Cambridge is home to the Women's Art Collection (free to view daily(. A new exhibition, Relative Ties, has just opened there. Featuring paintings, wallpaper, fabrics, rugs, stencils, and works on paper, many of which have never been on public display, it brings together works by three generations of the artistic Nicholson family: Mabel Nicholson, Nancy Nicholson, EQ Nicholson, and Louisa Creed. In doing so, it illustrates how "creative legacies are inherited through matrilineal lines". This is the college's dining hall, part of the 1960s buildings by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon.

The first silk factory in Macclesfield, Cheshire, opened in 1745 and at its peak in the 1820s when it was said to be the world's largest producer of finished silk, the town had seventy-one silk factories. Although almost all of it has disappeared, it is still known as Silk Town, the local radio station is Silk FM, Macclesfield FC is the home of the Silkmen, and there is a silk museum in Paradise Mill. One business, though, which is thriving is Adamley silk printers who print scarves for Toast.