Observations About Wales:

From Travel To Business & Politics

first published in   June 1999

Wales for Connoisseurs --

Antique Prints and Handsome Leathers 
on the Welsh Border

The following article was written in 1999. Since then the owner of Brobury House, Gallery and Gardens has sold this property. She, Leonora Weaver, however, is still in the art consulting and restoration business in the US and the UK and can be reached at brobury@hotmail.com.

Brobury House is still renting out its cottages to visitors. Please contact them at 01981 500 229.

The Great English Outdoors, which sells marvelous hand-made and one-of-a-kind items and is covered further down in this article, is still in business in its original location in Hay-On-Wye. 

A stone’s throw from the Welsh border town Hay-On-Wye, right at the doorstep of the Black Mountains, Brobury House Gallery in Herefordshire is a special treat for travelers who collect Welsh and other British and European 19th and early 20th century prints. 

Located in the coach house on Brobury House’s immaculately maintained Victorian estate, Brobury House Gallery is a super-organized Aladdin’s cave of over 100,000 antique prints on every conceivable subject. 

So marvelous is the selection, and so pleasant the ambiance, that my husband and I return to Brobury House Gallery time and again. Over the years we’ve bought several prints with Welsh subjects. Short descriptions of some of the pieces follow. 

“The Eagle Tower at Caernarfon” is a hand colored copperplate engraving, from 1780, with the tower in the background and two girls enjoying a fine day out with their pets, two dogs, a cat and a goat, in the foreground. For me, this print opens a little window onto a sunny holiday afternoon in North Wales. Remember this print is from a world before photography. As such, it is a tangible, original, painstakingly produced record of old Wales. The girls in the print wear soft hats, because the invasion of Fishguard, which popularized the tall black hat, is still 17 years in the future. It is a small print, measuring nine by seven inches. While print sizes throughout the Brobury collection vary, be assured that most will easily fit in the bottom of your suitcase. “Pass at Llanberis” is chromolithograph, circa 1860, that captures the dizzying pitch of the Snowdonia mountainsides as a tiny pony carriage makes its way down the scenic pass in pre-steam railroad times. The carriage is open and the passengers are holding their umbrellas aloft. “Welsh Costumes” is a steel engraving, circa 1860, that sweetly illustrates three Welsh women and a girl in their tall-hatted habits, while a farm servant balances a wooden tub on her head. “The Porthmadog Eisteddfod” is a wood engraving published in the September 14, 1872, issue of The Graphic, which illustrates “the initiation of Sir W.W. Wynn as an ovate at the meeting of the Gorsedd Eyri”. 

My favorite Welsh study at Brobury is a great favorite of the owner’s as well, and so is not for sale. When you visit the gallery, you might ask to see it. It is a caricature that reflects the other side of the artistic process. This color print is called “The Artist In Wales” (1794) and it shows the artist on horseback, obviously on his way out of town, with the accouterments of his trade hanging limply off of his saddle. His face is a study in misery as he holds his black umbrella up against the needling rain. His pony doesn’t look happy, either. In the background children point in his direction and bawl; a woman scowls darkly. We look on wondering about the artist’s transgression. 

In addition to the large number of prints on Welsh topics, Brobury House Gallery’s abundant selection of antique prints available for perusal and purchase appears to be unrivaled by any other gallery in the U.K. The subjects of the prints range through political cartoons, fashion plates, historical portraits, botanicals, animals, views of castles, studies of armor, Pre-Raphaelite beauties, landscapes watery and tranquil or wooded and lush, maps and topographical views, and studies of people at work and play. The stock is neatly arranged by subject or, as in the case of landscapes, by location in large file boxes. The counties of Wales are filed under names used in the 19th century. For example, there is no file for Gwynedd, but there is one for Merioneth. For studies of Snowdonia, there is a Snowdonia drawer, or you might try the Caernarfonshire one. Churches, castles and mountain views are plentiful in the Wales-related drawers. Most of the prints are in very good to excellent condition. Prices are what you would expect to pay in London. However, and this is something to be celebrated, the selection is much more extensive and interesting here. Brobury House Gallery is just over three hours from London by car, or about two-and-a half hours from Cardiff. Its well-marked lane branches off of the A438 about ten miles west of Hereford. It is minutes away from Hay-On-Wye, which lies to the west on the B4352. Their telephone number is 01981 500229. You can have a bird’ s eye view of the Brobury estate, and get more information, on-line at www.btinternet.com/~brobury/. 

Visitors are welcome to spend the whole day in the gallery’s neat and spacious rooms hunting for their special treasures. Often a planned one-hour visit turns into a full day’s treasure hunt with seekers sitting cross-legged on the carpeted floor searching through boxes and trays of lithographs, engravings and other prints. Sometimes these hunters find themselves being used as cushions by the gallery cat, Charlie, who is a huge white and black sweetheart with an off-kilter moustache. Looking, thus, through the prints with Charlie purring in my lap, puts me into what I can only describe as a state of grace. Prices are affordable with many exceptional prints in the £10 to £30 range. Each print comes with a certificate of authenticity listing all available pertinent details: artist, printer, title, and year and country of origin. Moreover, the gallery also has shelves of reference books, so often more information can be found. 

A very nice service at the gallery is that you can have your purchases matted and framed, while you wait; or even hand colored, which, naturally, takes much more time. Work is done on the premises; and if you’re leaving the area before they are finished your prints can be shipped to you. 

The American Okarma family, who bought the Brobury House estate in 1972, owns the gallery and beautiful Brobury Gardens with its thousands of flowers and the babbling brook that feeds into the Wye. The late Eugene Okarma found the property for sale as he searched for the perfect fishing stream while on vacation from Atlanta, Georgia. Currently, Eugene’s American-born daughter Leonora Okarma Weaver graciously runs Brobury House. Leonora, who is in charge of buying and selling the prints, also does restoration (for which she is internationally known), matting and framing. In case you are wondering, Eugene Okarma did, indeed, find that perfect fishing stream. The Brobury estate includes one-third of a mile of private, single-bank salmon and coarse fishing on the stretch of the Wye that adjoins the property. If fishing is your bag and you plan to visit the gallery phone ahead for more information. 

You can easily tie in a visit to Brobury House Gallery when you are in Wales visiting Tintern Abbey, Abergavenny, Raglan Castle or Chepstow Castle. Hay-On-Wye is only a few miles away for book browsing and lunch. There are also a couple of pubs in the Brobury area. If you find you simply cannot leave (Brobury is famous for its gardens as well as its gallery) you might book a room at Brobury House. Some art you hang on the wall. Other art is made to be worn.

 For connoisseurs of hand stitiched leather Great English Outdoors is a shop filled with booty so special it’s worth your while to make the trip. This leather goods shop is in Hay-On-Wye. The eponymous owner, Athene English, hand stitches handsome belts, handbags, wallets, briefcases, bespoke brass studded dog collars (from £75) and leashes (from £15), among other items. Her dog accoutrements have been carried by a Manhattan luxury department store, and they have been barking for more. However, because of Athene’s painstaking care over each piece it is nearly impossible for her to keep up with the demand for these items outside of her own shop. So New York’s loss is your gain if you visit Great English Outdoors. 

Great English Outdoors is at Mortimer House, Castle Street, Hay-On-Wye. Their telephone number is 01497 821205. their fax is 01497 821 642. Their website features a fun, informative catalogue of their wares: www.greatenglish.co.uk. 

It’s safe to say that whatever your line of work or play (and don’t forget your deserving folks back home), Athene will have an exceptional piece to offer. More leather items to choose from include saddles, laptop cases, moneybelts, mobile phone holders and cartridge bags. Beyond leather, the shop’s cozy little spaces are filled with mostly small and interesting items collected from near and far. There are French linen smocks in natural indigo, fishing reels, walking sticks, horn spoons, horn comb and brush sets that will confer an air of good breeding on any dresser top, Welsh blankets, hats made of multi-colored yarn, pottery and other objects representing civilized country life. You will be as fascinated, and as comfortable, exploring Great English Outdoors as you would be exploring the attic of your favorite, globe-trotting Welsh aunt. 

Currently the shop has a few pieces made from antique reindeer hides that sank with the shipwreck of the Danish brigantine Metta Catherina in Plymouth Sound in 1786. The hides were perfectly preserved in estuarial mud. While their look is fashionably “distressed”, their condition, and usability, is excellent. Each piece produced from the antique hides come with a certificate of authenticity. Shoppers interested in unique items please note, once this supply of antique reindeer hide is gone it is gone forever.