troubled about the authenticity of making posthumous casts, neither
that nor the conceptually thorny issue of translating stone into bronze
deterred him. In editions made between 1965 and 1968, Dog was
cast in bronze by Fiorini & Carney, Wrestlers in 'Herculite (a type of
plaster) by the sculptor John W. Mills, and Three Monkeys in stone.
Ede indefatigably sold casts to museums and private collectors around
the world to raise funds. By June 1965, when he travelled to Paris for
the opening of the Musée d'Art Moderne's Gaudier-Brzeska room, he
had already identified buildings and land adjacent to Kettle's Yard for
an extension.
A month before the formal handover of Ede's collection to the
University of Cambridge, in November 1966, a misunderstanding with
one of his longest-standing friends, Ben Nicholson, shed harsh light on
Ede's actions. At issue was Ede's slip (or Nicholson's misreading) over
the estimated cost of the extension, prompting vitriolic criticism of his
muddled ways. Ede was deeply distressed. He apologised repeatedly,
and there was a rapprochement of sorts. Over the coming months,
Ede described Nicholson's presence in the collection as 'really my
tribute to you of my continual regard & gratitude',
57
and his wish to
build a library for monographs on artists in the collection, 'starting
with you who almost are the K.Y.C.'
58
In May 1967, Ede's suggestion
Extension with Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Bird
Swallowing a Fish. Photograph Mark Dalton 2025.
© Courtesy Kettle's Yard.
57 Ede, letter to Ben Nicholson, 13 December 1966,
Tate Archive, TGA 8718/1/2/977.
58 Ede, letter to Ben Nicholson, 13 February 1967,
Tate Archive, TGA 8718/1/2/984.
19
