Earlier this year the Friends contributed £6,000 towards the purchase of “The Musicians”, an embroidered panel designed by Selwyn Image dating from around 1875 and worked in wool on linen by the Royal School of Needlework. The conservator who prepared it for display described it as “another gem in Cheltenham’s collection”. You will be able to see it in the Arts & Crafts Gallery from next Friday, 25 September, as part of a new display called A Common Spirit: The Century Guild and the Early Arts and Crafts Movement, which will also feature two new acquisitions by AH Mackmurdo alongside works by William de Morgan, CFA Voysey and Walter Crane. The panel was originally designed as a cover for the back of an upright piano and was available as a kit from the Royal School of Needlework, or could be ordered from them (as this item was) already embroidered by their “Artistic” department.