The Friends contributed £2,000 in 1985 towards a music cabinet and stand (c. 1889) designed by William Arthur Smith Benson and George Heywood Maunoir Sumner. This piece may have been made by Morris & Co., for whom Benson worked as a designer. The subject of the decoration by Sumner is the ancient Greek bard Orpheus charming the animals. It is executed in the unusual technique of wax stopping.
Gere, Charles March; The Tennis Party; Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum; https://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-tennis-party-61804
Flute by Neil Ions was purchased by the Friends in 1987 for £65. It is a long cylindrical earthenware blue flute with four finger holes and curved end. It also features moulded decoration of dolphins and other fish and was made by Neil in Gloucestershire in 1987.
To see a list of all the items given by, or purchased with the assistance of, the Friends of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, and other contributions to the work of the Museum click here.