Description

Identification note: catalogue card has "According to Colt Hoare, Francis, who was vicar of Mildenhall, 'had this drawing made'. See Ancient Wilts (North), pp 34/5. Crocker's subsequent drawing and engraving were based on this drawing." on the back

Summary: Watercolour, The Marlborough Bucket, by Mr Tuck, 1807.

Research results

The Re-discovery of the Tuck drawings of the Marlborough Bucket – by Jane Barker 10th March 2023. The drawings by Tuck, created in 1807 on the discovery of the Marlborough Bucket, had been assumed to be lost for several decades. Jope (2000a, p. 96) refers to the drawings being in the possession of the Society’s museum at Devizes in 1887 but they could not now be found. At that point, Jope’s volumes on Celtic Art had been in the course of creation over a period of decades so it is impossible to know exactly at what point Jope discovered that they were missing. The rediscovery of the images came about through a sequence of chance conversations and encounters. A few months earlier Dr Rose Ferraby had been visiting the museum at Devizes to discuss a forthcoming exhibition with David Dawson, the Director of the Museum. During that visit, two images of the Marlborough Bucket were found whilst researching other objects. Sometime later, Dr Ferraby mentioned to Professor Melanie Giles from The University of Manchester that she had seen the two drawings of the Marlborough Bucket. In turn, Professor Giles mentioned to her PhD student, Jane Barker, that the two drawings had turned up. Jane was studying ponies in Iron Age Britain and the Marlborough Bucket was a case study specifically for the equine imagery on the vessel. The drawings had not immediately been identified as the missing images as they are very similar, but not identical to the watercolour images made by Philip Crocker in 1812. Jane Barker visited the museum in early February 2023 and photographed the images and copied several articles held in the archive relating to her research. Shortly after her visit, she noticed that the drawings included a scale on a one inch drawing to three inch object exactly as described in Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s letter to Reverend Francis, which was published by Cunnington in 1887 in A Sepulchral Vessel found near Marlborough. In correspondence with the Museum and Dr Reb Ellis, who has also studied the Marlborough Bucket, it was felt that there was still not enough evidence to be certain that the images were the missing drawings. After further research, Jane found that the same images had been reproduced in an article in Acta Archaeologica from 1958, Volume 29, by Eric Nylén, titled The Remarkable Bucket from Marlborough. The caption read ‘Drawing of the large bucket from Marlborough, made before it fell to pieces. (Published by permission of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society.)’ These were Tuck’s images. From this, it would seem that the drawings had been misplaced at some point between 1958 and pre-2000. The final confirmation came from the Museum Accession records under 1982.7533 and 1982.7534 which tentatively credited them to the Reverend Francis. The additional information in the accession records states that Francis had commissioned the drawings just as described in the letter of May 1812, between Sir Richard Colt Hoare and Reverend Francis. In a postscript, the letter states that the drawings were made by Mr Tuck. The drawings by Tuck and tentatively credited to Francis in the Accession Records are one and the same. The images were finally confirmed as the missing drawings on 3rd March 2023.