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reported jubilantly to Ben Nicholson: 'all my bits & pieces – stones & all – with the present idea of keeping it, as is, in this house'. 52 In the intervening months, however, Ede had already arranged to donate twenty-two pictures anonymously to the University of Essex, as the beginning of an art collection there. One of the fascinations about Ede is trying to fathom his relationship to his collection. He did not, on the evidence of his gift to the University of Essex, consider it an inviolable entity. He also avowedly did not intend Kettle's Yard 'to be an art gallery or museum, nor … simply a collection of works of art reflecting my taste or the taste of a given period.' 53 Unlike a typical museum there are no wall labels or glass cases, yet the setting was conceived to be publicly accessible as well as a 'space to live in'. (Helen complained there was nowhere to put her knitting down.) What is certain is that Ede wanted the collection to be seen, to be appreciated, to educate those who encountered it, and to serve the best possible purpose in relation to its artists. If that meant relinquishing a work (or works), then so be it. In 1962, Ede reassessed his collection of Gaudier-Brzeskas, from which he had often sold or given away drawings. One aim was to create a Gaudier-Brzeska gallery within a public museum in Paris, finally to fulfil the sculptor's dream of a room with his name 'in letters of gold over the door'. 54 There were, in fact, twin goals: to create a Gaudier-Brzeska room and to fund a much-needed extension for Kettle's Yard. To this end, in 1963 Ede asked Henry Moore to recommend a foundry to cast certain of Gaudier-Brzeska's sculptures. Moore generously took over the management of the process, liaising with the foundry Fiorini and Carney, advising on editions and selling prices and even patinating bronzes. Ede also entered negotiations with the US documentary filmmaker Robert Snyder, whose option for a feature on Gaudier-Brzeska, repeatedly renewed but never made, proved lucrative for Kettle's Yard. Ken Russell's later film, Savage Messiah (1972), premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and containing the briefest appearance from Ede himself, likewise boosted funds. 55 Among the first of Gaudier-Brzeska's sculptures to be cast in 1964 were Garden Ornament (1914) and Bird Swallowing a Fish (1914). Moore was remarkably patient with Ede, who commented that Bird Swallowing a Fish, newly cast and patinated, looked 'rather raw & flashy' and should perhaps be weathered outdoors for a while. 56 (Moore liked it so much that he requested a cast for his own collection.) As soon as the Musée d'Art Moderne agreed to a Gaudier-Brzeska gallery in March 1964, Ede's imagination ran wild. He needed to fill the room. Drawings were no problem; sculptures could be borrowed from collectors for moulds to be taken. Ede owned Wrestlers (plaster, 1913), the small carving of Three Monkeys (sandstone, 1914), which first needed to be repaired, and Dog (marble, 1914), which he had always imagined in glass. If he ever 52 Ede, letter to Ben Nicholson, 2 August 1964, Tate Archive, TGA 8717/1/2/962. 53 Ede, 'Introduction', Kettle's Yard: an illustrated Guide, University of Cambridge, 1982, unpaginated. 54 Ede, letter to 'Pat', 20 December 1970, Kettle's Yard Archive KY/EDE/3, quoted in Freeman, p.252. 55 A new paperback edition of Savage Messiah, issued by Gordon Fraser in autumn 1971, created useful publicity. Freeman, p.280. 56 Ede, letter to Henry Moore, 12 February 1964, Kettle's Yard Archive KY/EDE/3/2/21, quoted in Freeman, p.254. 18