B.
The smell of a bookshop
Behind the scenes
To the newly re-opened Smith's bookshop...
Smith's is something of a local institution and was a great place to spend an old-fashioned, city-centre lunch hour. For our Rita Angus and William Morris exhibitions, we created reading rooms of books and magazines associated with the themes of each exhibition, mostly supplied by Smith's. On the morning of the earthquake we were in there again, finding 80s material for the Patrick Hanly show which never happened. I'm glad I left at around noon that day...
Anyway, they are back in business now at The Tannery in Garlands Road and while it's certainly not Manchester Street, it remains a great place to visit. The only thing it really lacks is a proper bookshop smell, but give it time and that may develop too. You know, the sort of fragrance that you can almost smell just by looking at a painting like this:
Evelyn Page The old bookshop Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1983
Related
Collection
Evelyn Page The Old Bookshop, Christchurch
As a student, Evelyn Polson lived in the suburb of Sydenham and would have passed seven bookshops walking along Colombo Street to the School of Art. She recalled in an interview: “I used to browse in an old bookshop - second-hand - smelling of musty books.” It is likely this was McCormack’s secondhand bookshop on the corner of Hazeldean Road. The interior view is accurately observed and faithfully recorded, reflecting Page’s training at the Canterbury College School of Art. Page (née Polson) was born in Christchurch and studied at the Canterbury College School of Art. A working member of the Canterbury Society of Arts, in 1927 she also joined other young Canterbury artists in The Group, formed to give artists greater control over showing their work. Page spent a year in Britain in 1937 and on her return married composer Frederick Page. In 1947 they moved to Wellington. In 1966, while travelling on a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Grant, Page attended the Kokoschka school at Salzburg.