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A history of British furniture designer makers

"Art for All" – William Morris. Circa 1895.

Paradox seems to be the most illuminating truth! "William Morris was a founder of the design for the industry, he hated" (from "Art Catalog artisan exhibition "1975)

The vitality of designer makers in Great Britain today has its roots in the English Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th century and in a sense also shares much of the energy of Art Nouveau. I say this because there was then, and is now a clear reaction to the agenda, expressed in the diversity of individual artistic expression. Some have argued that diversity Art Nouveau has become so contradictory that led to its demise. It was a brief and fascinating character and pure artistic craft in a range of materials in several European countries. The current wave of British designer makers seem to be of longer duration and perhaps because the underlying diversity is a common theme of practical features, many English tradition. Some might say an essential conservatism!

Values of Art and crafts were mainly the ability to use an honest use of materials and a joy to know-how at a time when the worker was stolen pride by the advent of the machine. Its principal exponent William Morris shouted: "Let the masters of machines and not their slaves. It could have been a medieval revival, but not a Luddite! The contemporary design movement Maker certainly includes the machine as an essential element of economic survival. This is how the hand and the machine is used on a scale that is miniscule compared to the mass production that gives the work of sound designer manufacturer nature and importance (and may lead the way).

The term designer manufacturer "evolved from 'designer Craftsman in the late seventies during a period that has been called the British Craft Furniture Revival (alongside other disciplines boats). The word artisan "began to be devalued in popular culture with his obvious sexist overtones further. Unlike pottery studio, furniture was missing one philosophical basis and was more fragmented. I think many would agree on the craft furniture is the most difficult to establish and maintain in particular because of the isolation of workshops based largely rural.

The disappearance of learning is replaced by a new breed of furniture makers graduates from institutions such as the Royal College of Art in the seventies led to an informal group of independent decision makers who were gathered at exhibitions and craft media in development. A handful of trained designers are turning back to the prospect of a career in an industry of mass production unimaginative and limited to establish "cottage" workshops. David Colowell from "Trannon" was a typical example. Martin Grierson is an industrial designer in the fifties and has his studio in the mid seventies with David Field, another graduate RCA. Alan Peters, a very important figure, who sadly died in 2009 (which I made a documentary film on that year) had a different background and has been one of very few direct links with the Arts and Crafts have apprentice Edward Barnsley. He then established his workshops in the sixties. The Edward Barnsley Workshop survives today and still offers learning for young people through its trust.

Again I draw the comparison with the Art Nouveau, whose name comes from a shop in Paris owned by Siegfried Bing in the late nineteenth century. The main catalyst of the movement manufacturer designer, in my opinion, was the appearance of the Gallery Prestcote in Oxfordshire – a meeting country furniture manufacturers boats from Barnsley honor Sir Edward (in his later years) by Fred Baier, a recruit of the CAR with his "Star Wars" furniture. I remember well because I was privileged to be among that small group of decision makers. Happens around this time was the formation the Crafts Council (from the craft Advisory Committee) as a public funding body, the media and the emergence Crafts Magazine John Makepeace "The manufacturer of furniture for the finest Chippendale! So in fact all these forces interact and have no doubt a catalyst group.

Why do I only at the Gallery Prestcote? First, it was a private company founded on a passion for furniture by owner Ann Hartree musician. Some Funding came from his friend Ann Crossman, newspapers her husband MP Richard Crossman. One felt that Ann was a Hartree enthusiastic ambassador for our unique profession.

Prestcote appeared briefly in the late sixties, has attracted both policymakers and the public, then suddenly disappeared (all such as Art Nouveau!) sadly on marriage breakdown Hartree. But the seeds had been sown. It has been a showcase unique and exciting development manufacturers of furniture in their isolation at the height of their powers against each other! There were even heated debates triggered during exhibitions by a machine especially talkative – Richard La Trobe Bateman, far exhibitions quiet and well-behaved today! You felt something exciting really happened and magazines and newspapers kept their pens on the pulse.

I think Prestcote, in his brief appearance, gave an impetus to movement and throughout the eighties of this small group of furniture makers, perhaps a dozen or twenty strong shared the podium same exposure across the country. Peter Collenette, editor of "The Woodworker magazine called us the" gang of 84 "and in that year it was reported in the "World of Interiors magazine," there were no fewer than three major exhibitions highlighting furniture (Camden Arts Centre London Information Centre and Coffee House Gallery in Marlborough Katherine).

1984 was a zenith for furniture and might be a marker transition period between the Craft Revival and the current movement Although the end of the Twentieth Century nostalgia tightened its grip (perhaps for fear of inevitable change?). It is easy to forget now that most magazines throughout the Nineties have slavishly retro and heritage, the words "and" tradition "Have been flogged to death. However, during this period, a quiet revolution was happening and what began as a handful of workshops in the seventies has become almost an explosion over the last ten years.

If magazines like "Garden" and "Ideal Home "have been turning away from modern, and the public was still largely ignorant of how the word get around?

In the late sixties John Makepeace had moved his workshop Farnborough Grange in Oxfordshire for a stately home in Dorset, where he created his famous Parnham School for furniture manufacturers. Mix with a little blood as Royal as the student David Linley ("eighth line of the Throne") some inevitable media attention, with some pretty high price asked for furniture and furniture making had become a feature recognized the cultural landscape and a wonderful lifestyle choice and a second career for many professionals.

Education is nothing without inspiration Parnham and success also rested on the shoulders of the craftsman / Core Professor Robert Ingham (whose brother George was a familiar face to the gallery Prestcote a decade earlier). If entrepreneural Makepeace design skills and flair for faded Ingham education has had its impact a new generation of creative designer, seriously enter the market.

In the seventies and eighties, Rycotewood College in Oxfordshire under the forward-looking stewardship of Chris Simpson, a graduate of the former RCA, has prospered as a leading college designer makers to training and visits of tutors and advisers were leading practitioners in the field. Makers such as John Coleman, Jakki Dehn, Ashley Cartwright, Rupert Williamson and Andrew Varah. I taught for ten years.

The harvesting of young fresh graduates Emerging from Parnham College, Rycotewood and Buckinghamshire College in the eighties and nineties formed the backbone of the current movement. This is not to downplay the growing number of independent shops set up by self-taught furniture makers, perhaps glean the tricks of the trade specialist (Furniture / wood) magazine and its emerging exposures. Makers such as David Savage inspired the readers of wood through his wood papers.

The auction houses have begun to play their role with Sotheby's took the lead in the first sale of contemporary craft Britain in 1980. All furniture sold. I saw my own work come under the hammer, the sale of the collection Paul Ghetty Art Surrey Sutton Place. It was a unprecedented opportunity for the life of artist craftsmen.

But the growth of furniture manufacturers have not been evenly matched by increase in retail outlets – mainly crafts galleries. One in particular has occupied the British flag flying since the mid Artizan is furniture Cheshire managed by Iraqi-Americans and Ramez Djemila Ghazoul. Celebration Crafts Exhibition organized by Betty Norbury, wife of the famous sculptor Ian Wood, has become an important national event and the largest annual exhibition to promote sales of furniture craftsmen in the early nineties to the mid noughties.

What's in a name? In the overall picture of what is commonly called "The Age of Convergence" and "Globalization" he is inevitably the work of future historians to decide what they call this movement present in British furniture and design.

In my recent lecture "Furniture Today" (DVD available now), I argued that in the past thirty years saw a "golden age of furniture design and craftsmanship" that "the best job," to quote Alan Peters OBE is equal to or better than any When did earlier. So let's say it's a working title for the convenience of the promotion of crafts in the interior which is curiously largely unknown outside. Even our heir to the throne (Prince of Wales) sitting on one of my chairs in the eighties, said: "I do not know what kind of thing happening in Britain.

This kind of thing has been quietly happening in Great Britain for a long time. We away from celebrity culture, most decision makers today ate almost unkown superb and the market much stronger than when I started in 1973 is still a bit esoteric.

William Morris may have wept art for everyone, but inevitably, he sold to the rich. Is much changes in the passage of time? However, speculation that future historians might say in time a hundred years about this movement 30 or 40 years, one thing they do not say is "that was the time when Great Britain re-gurgitated its past."

About the Author

Jeremy Broun established a furniture workshop in 1973 creating innovative art furniture. He has exhibited in the UK, Australia and the USA and is a seasoned and award winning author and writer. He is a Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen (Founded by William Morris), A Churchill Fellow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is also an accomplished musician performing on guitars that he builds.