The Last Beverley Pipe-maker, c.1903-10
The Beverley pipe-maker was John Goforth Junior, who traded in the town until 1910 in a small workshop in George & Dragon Passage (since re-named Monkâs Walk.) The sense of nostalgia for âthe lastâ of a kind also recurred in Elwellâs later work. Elwell shows Goforth forming the stem of a clay pipe. The twelve pipes he has already moulded rest upon the âdozening boardâ in the foreground. Tobacco pipes were traditionally sold in dozens. Their placing in the foreground of the composition suggests the depth of space in the scene, and draws attention to the figure of the pipe-maker working at his bench.
