How to value a Wrightscale 16mm model

Silver Studio and 16mm; art has a link with money, so please read on!

Before going any further, we wish you all a happy new year. 

Silver Studio ran from 1880 to 1965 in London. At first it produced 'everything for a well-furnished home' but it was always best known for fabrics and wall-paper. Its products are recognised as artworks, protected by international copyright law. Wrightscale too is a studio, recognised as such by the Federal Law of the USA and its products are artworks.

A Wrightscale 16mm Baldwin Gas Mechanical locomotive, finished in Field Grey

Silver Studio was dissolved in 1967 but many of its designs can still be purchased. Much work is now in the archives of Liberty, Sanderson, Warner and many celebrated fashion houses whose products are famous and pricey. The remaining intellectual property and unsold artworks were donated to Hornsea College of Art, London by Rex Silver’s heir. Hornsea College merged with others to form Middlesex Polytechnic and this in turn became Middlesex University. The archive became part of the Museum of Domestic Art and Architecture and still feeds into modern domestic design. To consult it go to www.moda.mdx.ac.uk

Art clearly means money. Wrightscale products claim to be art for various reasons.

They represent a degree of uniqueness. An oil painting stands alone, as does a single sculpture. When several bronze castings are made of a statue,these don't cease to be art. Just look at the auction prices!  The same applies to woodcuts, fabric designs or the text of novels. They  are protected, as are Wrightscale models. They represent a degree of art. They represent a vision of the world that has been made tangible. A ‘mute inglorious Milton’ isn’t an artist. No matter how wonderful the vision, if it has not some shareable reality, it’s not art. 

This design comes from the Silver Studio Archive at MoDA - our thanks for allowing this to be reproduced. It is a sketch by Frank Price, the last Chief Designer. Though just a sketch, it has excited interest eg from Pinterest. Reproduction rights are expensive

The world is full of tangible objects that do not qualify as art – coal, a loaf of bread. Many beautiful things, such as a view or a fascinating fossil aren’t art.

Both Silver Studio and Wrightscale products don’t fit quite squarely into the Fine Art category. From around 1900 to the time of its closure, Silver Studio designs were aimed to be copied for use around the world.  Wrightscale models are prized for being consistent and yet also supply is limited by how many Malcolm can make.

The models, the fabrics and wall-paper are all designed to ‘do something’.The creator knows where he/she is going. Extremophile critics would claim that their very usefulness disqualifies them. Because they have an end, they are not the exploration that an honest-to-goodness-useless oblong of canvas or ‘art bronze’ can represent. To them, the true artist is Paul Klee taking a line for a walk.

A 16mm model, just like fabric or wall-paper is designed to fulfil to fulfil a purpose. This Wrightscale Quarry Hunslet is not just a pretty face. It is moving slate wagons. Does that make it less an art object?   

There are indeed borderline objects which are both volume-produced but have artistic qualities. Our much prized bidet whose design was inspired by Japanese porcelain is pleasing, well made and now has some scarcity value. As a product of industrial design, it is an artwork. As a bidet, it isn’t.We might auction it, but only on GumTree. It wouldn't go to Christies and certainly not to an auction of collectibles. to an auction of collectibles.

Art can be immensely valuable. Recognised artworks can go for huge sums of money. At the same time, and here’s the paradox, art is inclusive. No-one needs to be left out.

This detail from a design by Frank Price is also reproduced by kind permission of MoDA. The artist was clearly intending to bring some of the joy of Van Gogh's Almond Blossom - a priceless artwork to a wider public.

16mm in general and the designs of Silver Studio belong within the territory of art. They have a functional existence, they invite the participation of their public and enjoying them is one of the most inclusive of human activities. Wrightscale models are bought because they work. In the same way, fabric has always been useful for covering, shelter and as a way of showing off.

Both have a contradictory quality. They are prized because failure is a possibility. Sometimes one of our locomotives doesn’t move. Sometimes a fabric doesn’t ‘work’ in a room. Time and care are needed. There is trouble shooting, there is rethinking. A relationship is built up between the person and the model, or indeed the family and their furnishings. As previous blogs suggest, this is slow pleasure, unlike the instant gratification offered by, say, a sugar hit, a violent movie or junk food. Once the savour is acquired, the pleasure of a tastefully furnished room or an afternoon on a 16mm live steam layout must be one of the finest human experiences.

Both the 16mm experience and appreciation of tasteful decoration are surprisingly inclusive. To experience the 16mm experience, all you have to do is to belong. To belong, all you need is to want to belong. A nominal subscription is needed, less than the price of regularly buying a magazine. You are then welcome at Society meetings. The only cost is getting there. In the same way someone can be a fabric artist. The story of Frank Price, Chief Designer at Silver Studio, illustrates this precisely. He came from humble beginnings, spent much of his working life among art treasures and left us all some of the finest designs in wallpaper and fabrics.

Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modeller www.16mm.org.uk

S. Wright ‘Frank Price: Golden Hand Of The Silver Studio’ Birse Press available from Camden Miniature Steam