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You may find the following guidelines useful when using the search function:
- Entering less gives wider results
- If you are looking for a name beginning 'Mac' or 'Mc' try entering only the second half of the name e.g. 'gillivray' for Macgillivray or 'dermot' for Mcdermot
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Advanced Search
Watch a video demonstrating the advanced search
Watch a video showing how advanced searches may be refined
Sample Searches
Searches on the Mapping Sculpture database can start with a simple keyword. This might be the name of an artist, like Ella Casella, the creator of this wax relief of St George and the Dragon.
Alternatively Ella Casella's relief might make you want to find out more about the use of wax as a sculptural medium between 1851-1951. In this case the search would start with the word 'wax'.
The results would include other people working in wax, objects made using wax as one of the materials, businesses working with wax or art schools offering courses in wax and the titles of exhibitions that included wax objects, or events and classes relating to working in wax.
All the records in the database are inter-linked, because each piece of information has been recorded separately and then connected by a relationship.
So each object has its own record, as does each maker. The same principle is applied to all kinds of information - from where a sculptor worked, to the places he or she studied.
St John the Baptist, about 1944, by Arnold Machin (1911-99) (left), and the artist working in his studio on a relief of Queen Elizabeth II (right).
The links between each record type means it is possible to use the database to explore all sorts of different themes and connections. So, for example, if you looked up Gwynneth Holt because you had seen her remarkable Annunciation, you would see Holt practised sculpture in a number of places.
Scrolling further down Gwynneth Holt's record you would see that she was taught by Richard Garbe. To find out more about his work, you can click on his name.
Scanning down his record, you will come to the link to the record for the Presidential Badge of Office for the Royal Society of British Sculptors.
From the record for the badge you could go on to the record for Garbe's collaborator, Harry George Murphy.
Or you can take another route, and explore the record of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.
This in turn reveals many hundreds of connections to other artists, events and art societies.
Richard Garbe, President's Badge, Royal Society of British Sculptors, 1929-30, ivory, gold, enamel, gems, Royal British Society of Sculptors.
The database also allows more complex queries. For example, one of the interesting points about the career of Phyllis Mary Bone (1894-1972), the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Scottish Academy, is that she worked in studio complexes with other sculptors for most of her life.
This might raise the question, how common was it for sculptors to work in shared studio spaces between 1851 and 1951?
By selecting SEARCH from the menu at the top of any page. Then choosing 'Places' and entering the keyword 'Studio'...
...the query returns over 300 entries.
To refine these results, additional keywords can be added. So if you want to know how many other studio complexes there were in Phyllis Bone's home city, 'Edinburgh' is entered after 'studio'...
...this narrows the results to around 20 entries.
Amongst the numerous other topics you might wish to explore are materials and techniques.
The New Sculpture is associated with the revival of bronze casting and there are almost 2,500 works in bronze recorded in the database. This might lead you to ask how easy was it for sculptors to get their works cast in different parts of the country?
To find out more about bronze casting go to ADVANCED SEARCH.
Enter your search terms - in this case pick Organizations and the keyword 'bronze'.
Select Places from the second group of record types and enter a city - start with London.
...and the system returns about 30 results. Then go on to change your Place keyword to Birmingham, Leeds and Scotland so you can compare the results.
These are just a few of the numerous ways to search the Mapping Sculpture database.