Ron Fuller RIP

Sad news has only just reached us of the death of long time RCA secret contributor Ron Fuller.  Ron was a wonderful toy maker whose hand made toys were very popular, fun and beautiful.  This obituary is worth a read.

I first became aware of Ron's postcards at RCA secret when in 2013 I saw this postcard at the show:

The card depicted a young group of people from yesteryear described as my "RCA friends" - one of them being "Dave".  Surely that was David Hockney?

Then I saw this card also at the show:

This said "Heligan Wedding 1961".  Yes that was definitely a young David Hockney sporting a Union Jack Waistcoat.  I thought this was a lovely piece of art history and was hoping it would be available to buy when I got to the front.  After queuing for 26 hours, lo and behold it was.  So I bought it, took it home and framed it.  But that wasn't the end of the matter.  I wrote to Ron Fuller telling him I had this card and asking for the story behind it.  To my delight he wrote back and I set out below what he said:

"dear perry - thank you for buying my card - there was a group of us at the RCA in 1960 that used to hang around together - fred scott, richard bawden, shane weare -trench, geoff reeve, till, dave hockney, john furnival,mike adams, and others - i had a share in a cottage (no water or electricity) in the direlect heligan estate with mike adams - rent £25 a year - he decided to get married there - the nearest church was st ewe (vicars name was rev. rham (believe it or not!)) - i took the photo of guests arriving for the reception in ivor and brenda's cottage in heligan - till had this old swift car decorated with plants from the heligan jungle - the magic is all gone now - heligan is now a tourist attraction - such is progress - i have a disc of all the wedding photos which i can send you if you are interested - yrs ron fuller"

Needless to say I jumped at the chance and lo and behold a few days later a disk arrived full of absolute treasures of time gone past.  Below are just a couple of the amazing photos on it.  

What a joy RCA secret is that it can reveal these things, and what an amazing man Ron Fuller was to send a disk to a complete stranger of all these wonders.  RIP Ron Fuller, the world is a less happy place without you.