The first day of Dartford Arts Network’s ‘Traces’ exhibition at The Mick Jagger Centre is on 2nd November, 2016. This is our first exhibition at MJC, and I’m pleased to have one of my paintings included in the project.
Bronze, Bricklayer & Borough Museum
In 1986, while digging foundations for an extension at his house in Tredegar Road, Wilmington, John Oliver (my uncle) discovered a collection, or hoard, of bronze artefacts. This consisted of two axe heads, one razor and one knife blade believed to have been cast between 1500-600 B.C. Minute traces of textile weave have been seen on the blade of the razor, which suggests the group was wrapped in cloth before being buried. John Oliver donated the complete find to the Borough Museum in Dartford, where they are now on permanent display.
The painting shows, through a depiction of a 1933 Ordnance Survey map, the location where the hoard was found. The two bronze axe heads are represented in the lower half of the painting.
