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THIS OBJECT IS PART OF THE PROJECT 'A HISTORY OF CORNWALL IN 100 OBJECTS'.

NEWLYN ART GALLERY. The four copper plaques on the street-facing façade of the Newlyn Art Gallery represent the elements, Earth, Air, Water and Fire in that order. The creation of the plaques was engineered by the artists of the Newlyn colony of artists through their educational and employment project with the local community called 'the Industrial Classes'. John Pearson, John Drew Mackenzie and Thomas Cooper Gotch accepted the commission of the Cornish philanthropist John Passmore Edwards (see St Agnes), the donor of the Gallery, to design and make the plaques through the Copper Class which went on to produce the famous Newlyn copperware that has become the collectors' item it still remains today. Philip Hodder one of the students of the Industrial Class, beat the copper patterns against the lead, as designed and supervised by the artists.

The whole story is told in '100 Years in Newlyn, Diary of a Gallery 1895-1995' edited by Melissa Hardie.