Beschreibung:

Harold Gresley (1892 - 1967) Portrait of Arthur Barlow signed, oil on canvas, 60cm x 49cm; accompanied by an archive of ephemera illustrative of the life and philanthropic work of the sitter, including framed chalk & charcoal caricature of Barlow by G F Hudson 40cm x 28cm; signed photographs of entertainers and musicians: Dames Sybil Thorndike, Anna Neagle, Paul Robeson, Rawicz & Landauer, Eileen Joyce (print of pastel portrait), Gracie Fields, Ben Lyon & Bebe Damiels, etc; framed photographic portrait of of Barlow with Margot, Countess of Oxford & Asquith, with another, on her own, autographed by the countess; celebrity concert programmes as organised by Barlow (some duplicated); bound souvenir booklet, hand scrivened on vellum Feb 1937 signed HRH Princess Helena Victoria; book Greatorex H N, 'Melville's Derby Legacy' Breedon 1985 (No. 46/1000); newspaper cuttings, receipts for donations, file of Christmas cards from celebrated performers, cache of letters from Elsie & Doris Waters (Gert & Daisy); collection of 58 agency promotional photographic portraits of performers including Gracie Fields, Count McCormack, Richard Tauber, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Anne Browne, etc. also photographs of Royal family: George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth as a child (2); correspondence, some from Royal households, also from Beverley Nichols, Sybil Thorndike, etc., framed cartoon of Barlow as footballer scoring £6,000 'goal' son John Barlow's autograph book containing signatures of many of the above; group of Great war postcards including a hidden U-Boat example (qty) Arthur Barlow, MBE (1890 - 1973) of Little Chester, later of Spondon was a Derby-born philanthropist who was recognised for having raised many thousands of pounds to the Derby Royal Infirmary, 1911-1948. A manager at the Derby Co-op, he channelled his organising abilities and love of music into persuading some of the biggest names in music to come to Derby at favourable rates (sometimes without charge at all) to perform at concerts, either in the Co-Op Central Hall or the Grand Theatre Babington Lane, which raised over the years more than £6,000. His greatest coup was to persuade Gracie Fields (then the greatest of super-stars) to appear in 1938.