Street Singer

Isn't this so amazing?
Artist Jimmy Kays was born close to Seaham in another mining town  on the east Durham coast called Horden in the late 1800s. This particular piece is dated around 1912 and shows a street singer surrounded by a group of children - some of whom seem to be enjoying the performance more than others.
The drawing skills them selves are outstanding but the story of their discovery is remarkable too.
I'd like to pay homage to my fellow edan member,  Jean Spence, writer, sociologist and artist for her sleuthing skills.
While researching for our recent Mining, Unions and Politics exhibition to mark the end of the Miners' Strike , Jean came across what were referred to as 'Mining memorabilia' on ebay. She was particularly interested because one of the pieces shown was a 'stoneman' and since her own grandfather had been a stoneman down the mine she decided to bid for this bunch of drawings.
When the 'parcel' arrived she wasn't really sure what to expect, having seen only a small selection of the drawings on the auction site.
But lo and behold - she got more than she had literally bargained for. Piece after piece of tissue paper unfolded to reveal more and more of these stunning drawings by hitherto unknown Horden artist/miner.
It was obvious that this guy had talent; in the parcel were included some newspaper clippings of work that was published in a newspaper we still can't track down called the Weekly Star.
The local paper did a smashing double page spread about the work with as much information as Jean had then uncovered... Jimmy's possible date/place of birth etc.
I say possible because she discovered 2 Jimmy Kays living around Horden at the same time.
We felt sure a member of the family would come forward and tell us they knew of the man and the work.
3 weeks passed and nothing - until one afternoon a woman came into the gallery where we were displaying the work and said that Jimmy Kays was her grandfather - but she felt sure this was not his work.
Names and dates matched, family names matched - but there were no stories in her family of a talented grandfather.
We were no nearer to solving the mystery.
Then, just last week - an email - from the South of France! unearthed a granddaughter - which in turn revelaed another in the south of England - and many emails later the real Jimmy Kays story is emerging.
With the help of the Durham Heritage Coast we've had prints made of the works with the intention of putting them on display in Jimmy's home town, inserting him back into the public domain where, in my opinion - he so rightly should be and enabling the townsfolk to embrace Jimmy proudly - such a unique record of life in and around the mines of the north east of England. Well done Jimmy, and well done, Jean!