Showing posts with label Arts and Crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arts and Crafts. Show all posts

Tuesday 30 November 2021

Harry Clarke Stained Glass Windows. St Mary's Nantwich Cheshire UK

I was first introduced to the work of Harry Clarke by a lady, who one day entered my shop and made friends with me. 

A very interesting person, she was a maker of stained glass who had completed several commissions, in stained glass, for religious buildings in Perth Australia, where she was living. 

She had been born in Liverpool, but like many had emigrated with her parents at an early age.

She showed me his techniques and I was fascinated by his palette of colours.

We became good friends.




I purchased a first edition of Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Falling under a spell.

This was not cheap at the time. Though it looks so now.

It was illustrated by Harry Clarke and I was taken by those illustrations that had the colours of Arabian nights with a Dublin Hue.

 Many were in black and white showing the Aubrey Beardsley inheritance of all illustrators at this juncture in time.


They had an aggressive stylisation with a feminine touch.

 (No I can't work that one out myself either).



I then stumbled across some information that he had been commissioned for stained glass at St Mary's Nantwich in Cheshire. I had to go.

Its probably fifteen years since I first saw them.

I had thought about going for a day out but it always seemed a long way off the motorway, when I would see the signs for the town.

I did get a chance during a recent visit to Nantwich to pick up a Joseph Hoffman glass vase.

I was taken by the whole setting of the church and the respect it retains in the centre of the market town. 
I have become used to seeing historic structures trashed in Liverpool as the clowns who ran the city ruined the listed buildings by allowing innapropriate development.
But not here, in Nantwich. They want their history.



I wanted to see if I could make out the difference.
In the way that the light plays on the stained glass and the feeling that is within, and from several different centuries.
 I played 'Spot The Harry Clarke' and in no time at all I found them.
 It was dull day but the light came shining through the pale pinks and lilacs, and his unmistakable style finally became apparant in the drab light. 
It is at first glance, another stained glass window, in another church. but the more you look, the more you see. You can identify its him by his palette.
So I did a little video that I would like to share.
This was a Harry Clarke alright with all the usual symbolism and hidden meanings that I now associate with his remarkable way of seeing the world. Completed in 1919. The eyes have it.
And through his eyes you can journey into a distant place. 
Of Chivalric Knights and dragons breath and mythical places that feel real in your own imagination. 
That awake when you venture into Harry's thoughts.
This was a window commissioned in sad times but it has a glory in its melancholy.
Richard Coeur de Lion was as bold as I recall.  There is an atmosphere.

There is more than stained glass on view.
The Church is wonderful with its history evident for all to see. 
I won't put it all down here.
You can find more information here. St Mary's Nantwich. 




There are some remarkable carvings inside and on the outside of this medieval sandstone church that was restored in the 19th Century by George Gilbert Scott. 
I know the work of the family well. 
Growing up with the imposing Anglican Cathedral of Liverpool by Giles Gilbert Scott, also in sandstone.













There are a series of Misericords. I love that word.
A misericord is a small wooden structure formed on the underside of a folding seat in a church which, when the seat is folded up, is intended to act as a shelf to support a person in a partially standing position during long periods of prayer.
There are so many beutiful artifacts and historical features that I will have to go back again.
 In another fifteen years maybe?




 

Friday 30 October 2020

David Woodlock Oil On Canvas-Piece of the Week.

I noticed a rather grubby looking but well framed oil painting just as travel restrictions started to be applied which made it difficult to handle it in person. So I was more than relieved to find that it was in excellent condition when I eventually got to see it.

The vendors chosen auctioneers had been so lazy as to not even give it a wipe, and thus presenting it in a terrible state. You could hardly see the painting through the muck on the glass. Which it seems may have been to my benefit. The same lazy auctioneers that don't even wrap a parcel up for you, or even supply bubble wrap.

There can't be another profession where they pluck 25% from the vendors and 25% from the buyer and then treat both with contempt.

But this seems to my advantage in this case.

The painting was by David Woodlock.

His work is held in many institutions. I gave it a clean and it came up looking as bright as a bell.

Labelled several times on the back. One label read Alderman Harford and another label reads WOODLOCK EXHIBITION Walker Art Gallery 1929 and a owners name.


David Woodlock (1842-1929) was a key figure in the development of a distinct school of Liverpool painters, being a founder member, and later the President, of the Liver Sketching Club, (still going today) and also a member of the Liverpool Academy of Arts.


David Woodlock was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, the son of John Woodlock. Moving to Liverpool at the age of twelve, he was apprenticed as a drapers. He showed great artistic promise and began to study at the schools of the Liverpool Academy of Arts. He studied under John Finnie, possibly in the evenings, while he still worked as a draper’s assistant. In 1871 he exhibited at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition, which was held at the Walker Art Gallery. He was living at 28 Almond Street, as the head of the household, with his widowed father, John, who was working as a coal dealer, his brother, Thomas and sister Margaret.

Woodlock helped found the Liver Sketching Club in 1872.

Marrying Marion Theresa Martin that year.

Becoming a member of the Liverpool Academy of Arts.

He exhibited in London in 1880, showing at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1888. Also exhibiting at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, the Royal Scottish Academy.
He exhibited sixteen works at the Royal Academy between 1888 and 1904.

During the late 1880s, Woodlock was living in Sheffield with his wife and four children, and working as a ‘hosier and haberdasher’. In his spare time, he studied at St George’s Museum, Walkley, which had been founded by John Ruskin for the education of local workers.

Having returned to Liverpool by the early 1890s, Woodlock travelled to Venice and North Africa in 1894. He would later visit Holland.

He became President of the Liver Sketching Club in 1897.

In the early twentieth century, he lived in Warwickshire, where he painted some of his most characteristic images of country life with half-timbered cottages set in flower-filled gardens.

Back in Liverpool, he took a studio at Canning Chambers, 2 South Street, Liverpool. In 1911, he was living at 46 Nicander Road, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, with his wife and three younger adult children, Winifred, Evangeline and Charles.

At the time of his death on 4 December 1929, David Woodlock was living at no 2 Voelas Street High Park Liverpool.


So I contacted the Walker Art Gallery and Alex Patterson kindly gave me confirmation that it was exhibited at The Walker Art Gallery in 1929 as Part of The Autumn Exhibition showing contemporary artists. He had exhibited widely in the Autumn Exhibitions from the galleries conception in 1871.

This picture was shown there upon his death perhaps in memory to him.

They have two further oil paintings and four water colours by him in their collection.

None of which are currently on display.


Signed in oil in the lower right corner.

It is a portrait of Alderman Harford who was the brother of The Lord Mayor of Liverpool. Looking ever so Bohemian in his wide brimmed hat with a red plume and sporting a tasseled necktie. Is that a cape he's wearing?

He could almost be mistaken for a painter himself.

It looks to me to be painted during that period we now call The Arts and Crafts. Possibly Victorian maybe Edwardian,

I was so pleased that the auctioneers showed it little respect because maybe I would not have been able to afford it if they did.

It now, thankfully resides with me. Where it is now cherished. A piece of art history.

I have no desire to sell it at present


His portrait of Cardinal John Henry Newman 1988 held in the National Gallery of Ireland was purchased 1987.

https://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/list.php?m=a&s=tu&aid=1507


http://www.nwlh.org.uk/?q=node/116

Mary Bennett, Merseyside, Painters, People & Places: Text, Liverpool: Walker Art Gallery, 1978, Page 235

Tuesday 10 March 2020

Church of St Mark Brithdir-One Of My Favourite Things.


I was recently asked if I knew about an Arts and Crafts Church, in a village that I had been driving past for some time and unfortunatly I had to declare I not seen it. 
I was told that it was hidden back from the road behind some Rhododendrums. 
So I decided to make more of an effort. I almost felt guilty that I had not seen it.
Its not everyones cup of tea, that is spending time, studying architecture but it keeps me out of trouble and its something I have done since I was young.
I stopped the car and opened a stop gate designed to let a single file of people enter, and keep sheep out, and there it was. 
My first thought was whats all the fuss about though it had an interesting bellfry and a rather heavy overhang. 
Then I notice the rather unimposing door was rather small so it is obvious the entrance was round the back...or the front as the road entrance was not the main.
The first thing I notice is the brackets for the gutters being wrought out of two pieces of iron, twisted, leaving a patterned heart as decoration.
The heart was a symbol of the Arts and Crafts period that is forever linked to C.F.A Voysey but was adopted by the legions of architects and designers around the late Victorian and early Edwardian period.
Built of a heavy local stone its long roof with Aberllefenni slate gently slopes down to just above your head as you enter the gates of the porch. It reminds me of the signature roof style of Herbert Lucknorth who designed many houses in North Wales.









Pulling and twisting a delightful wrought iron handle the door opens to reveal a Font right in front of you, almost in the way. Its obvious that the siting of the church is now slightly out of sync with the modern interaction, which is that it is owned by The Friends of Friendless Churches. I think that explains a lot. The Font is unpolished copper, I test it for sound and noticing the wall decoration and the intricate pannelled door I turn to see the most amazing Alter.....made of copper a blaze in the midday sun at the far end of my entrance. Then there is a pulpit, made of copper.
The colour of the walls is a mediteanean terracotta which in the sun seems to transport you to another clime.
I turn back to the double doors facing my entrance which are oak inlaid with what appears to be Macassar Ebony and Abalone shell. The benches or pews are carved with playfull animals Rabbit, mice and owls are but a few. The SM stands for St Marks.
The Church was built in 1895-98 for Louisa Tooth in memory of her second husband Charles who was the Chaplain of St Marks English church in Florence. Her first husband Richard Richards of Caerynwch bequeathed her the land in Merionedd and she was wealthy enough to adopt a style that pleased her.
The architect she picked was Henry Wilson (1898-1934) who was Master of The Artworkers Guild in 1917 and Editor of The Architectural Review. He designed the metalwork for Holy Trinity Church in Sloane Street that John Betjamin called “The Cathedral of Arts and Crafts”. He later turned his hand to silversmithing and designed jewellry.
He said of Mrs Tooths agent, Mr Williams who he had to liase with that “he knew no more than a cat” and it seemed there was plenty of disagreements.
Wilson wanted the stone left rugged but Mr Williams made it smooth.
Wilson believed that “the chief merit of Brithdir is that it is personal”.
I think in that he achieved great success.
He also said that “what has come out of Brithdir must live, because it has come out of my own life”. He wanted a simple beautiful setting and a beautiful altar. In this he achieved a great thing. The altar is lined with copper beaten into a beautiful realism with skill and attention that could only be done by a master.
It was claimed that the work was in fact hammered in parts, in repouse by Wilson himself along with John Paul Cooper.
The small boy, winged, with lillies in his hand is overshadowd by the figures who seem to welcome him or look over him. He seems to be kneeling in front of a hedge of thorns with various inscriprions, hammered from behind.
I believe there could be several different interpretations of this and I will leave people to make their own mind up. But to me it is a lament in copper and as the blade of sun shone across it I saw more and more detail unfolding like a poem before my eyes. It lit up my day.
I really will have to go again as I only had a limited amount of time and as I left I was still noticing further details. On the way out I noticed what must be an ancient stone structure perhaps the original place of worship. Covered in moss the stones were erected in the round. The symbol of an ancient structure that now has a little brook running through it shone in the winter sun. the graveyard is slightly overgrown with large crosses carved from the same stone that stand tall. There is a path that must be the orinal way for procession. It was silent and calm.
I will be back. To study in more detail, When I have some more time,
It made my day. I am so glad I stopped.
I took a little video. Click above.

Two days later I purchase a Copper beaten plate or plaque with Voysey hearts and grapes that could have come right out of The Church of St Mark.


Friday 30 November 2018

Theodore Deck-Ceramic Genius.

Recently the work of one of the most remarkable craftsmen has become sought after again. The appreciation of his work has never wained in the eyes of those who understand the art of the ceramist but here in England we have for so long concentrated on some of the work of rather average makers such as Susie Cooper and Charlotte Rhead. And of course Clarrice Cliff. Though Charlotte Rhead came from an illustrious family of ceramists. The Rheads were indeed a skilled bunch. But there is not many who can compare to the legacy that is left behind by Theodore Deck. (1823-1891)
What he did was de-industrialise the art of the potter running a workshop with around a score of craftsmen. He was inspired by the middle east and his Persian Ware is indeed now highly valued. It may not be clear as to the influence ha had on British ceramics but I see similarities with some of Burmantofts and by far the most important company in the style of the middle East Mintons.
Deck wrote a book called “La Faience”. I must get a copy of this book as I am informed by Peter Hyland that there is detailed technical information.
As a ceramist myself I have a thirst for the information that potters have or did have in the past. I suck this knowledge up, but the skill in interpreting the techniques are a different matter and trial and error is something that I have learned to take with a rather large dose of patience. Having glaze recipes is only half of it.
Josiah Wedgwood was a chemist first and foremost.
Deck's book La Fiaence was read by some of the best Louis Solon who began at Sevre before moving across the channel to Mintons, admired his writings.
Fiance the word derives from the town of Faenza in Northern Italy but Deck thought the word to be clouding the real historical sense of the fact thet the Persians were making fiaence long before the Italians. We now see some of this Persian ware was indeed Turkish, a style now called Iznik. Any type of earthenware decorated with an enamel or coloured glaze was accepted as Fiaence at the time
.
Deck was born in Guebwiller in the Alsace region of France. This was about 12 miles north-west of Mulhouse at the foot of the Vosges mountains. Mulhouse is the town where Christopher Dresser died. He will always be known for his designs for Mintons. His father Richard was a silk dyer. At secondary school near Belfort Theodore showed a particular love of chemistry. At 17 in 1840 he was forced to return home to Guebwiller to continue the family silk dyeing business along with his brother Xavier.
It didn't work out and he left for Strasbourg where he became a stove-makers apprentice.
Cast Iron stoves covered in ceramic tiles were commonplace in France and Germany. In the crowded marketplace the need to make something functional stand out was paramount to selling ones wares. He learned from his mentor Hugelin the art of using different coloured clays to inlay tiles. This style was kown as Saint Porchaire.
He was not to be kept still in the evenings he studied sculpture with Andre Friedrich.
He recalled how he had been fascinated by a painted terracotta figure he had seen on a school trip to Switzerland and when he asked who made it he was told “A potter”.
He must have liked the sound of this.
He went on his own in 1844 at the age of 21. The art of the stove maker was to travel and show off his work and he was noticed by manufactures who wished to employ him as he travelled through Germany learning local skills and styles along the way.
He made his way to Vienna where he made large stoves to for the Palace of Schonbrunn. He then went on to Budapest, Prague, even Berlin.
In 1847 he returned to France and began to work for Madame Vogt one of the leading stove makers. In 1848 work stopped at the factory when the Second Republic began. He retrned to Guebwiller and set up a small atelier to make vases and decorative objects, oh and stoves. It didnt work out too well for him and in 1851 he returned to Paris where Loius Napoleon had quietened down the unrest.
Madame Vogt's daughter Madame Dumas was his next employer where Deck became foreman. The Exposition Universalle of 1855 saw the Dumas factory exhibiting mosaic tile panels in many colours.
Mintons also exhibited that year with their “earthenwares and stonewares enamelled or glazed majolica. Deck would have seen these. He may also have found out that Minton had been developing low coloured glazes applied to earthenware body creating their majolica. Herbert Minton had seen Palissy ware on a visit to Rouen in 1849. Leon Arnoux had joined Minton in 1849 and became Art Director.
In 1856 he ventured out again with the help of his brother Xavier set up a new atelier at 20, rue Fontaine-au-Roi relocating to Boulevard Saint Jaques eventually moving from stove facings to ornamental ceramics and figures.
Had that school trip stayed with him all these years.
The Henry Deux had been mastered by Deck during his training and it was re-adopted.
The style was based on 16th century book binding designs. The potter Avisseau also reproduced this style that was taken up in the 1860's by Charles Toft at Minton.

He showed his creations at the 1861 Salon des Arts et Industries of 1861 and then the London International Exhibition of 1861. He displayed a copy of a 107cm high piece that was known to be in the Alhambra Palace in Spain before 1400. This vase is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, acquired shortly after.
He was now firmly rooted in the middle east for his inspiration. Publications were now being made available showing drawings of Islamaic decorative stylles.
Recuil de dessins pour l'art et l'industrie by Orientalist Adalbert de Beaumont it was reissued 20 years later in 1859.
Owen Jones Grammar of Ornament would have been available to him in Paris.
It had reproductions of Arabian decoration and design.

The 1862 Exhibition saw him well received.
After moving rue de Vaugirirard in Paris.
1867 saw the more experienced Deck show off his technical quality that had been improving all the time.
He now employed trained Paris Salon artistes we in Britain would be less familiar with these artistes such as Jean Louis Hamon and Joseph-Victor Ranvier who painted in a Neo-Grec style. Ranvier would become his chief artist.
Felix Braquemond had worked for Criel Sevres and Haviland.
The artistic director of Christophle & Cie known for their gold and silver work, Emile Reiber supplied Deck with various shapes.
Proceeds from a piece of “collaboration” was always divided equally between Deck and the artist. Solon called this an “unprecidented collaboration.”
Solon published The History and description of Old French Faience in 1903.
In it he accounts Deck tells us the conditions were far from a sweatshop but were most ideal. He says the gatherings of artists of the Bohemian persuasion all gathered anxious to see the results of the last firing.
The V&A acquired several more objects and his reputation was growing wildly. His work often showed semi-clad nymphs some of which show a foretaste of W. S Coleman's work for Minton.
It is not known if the artists influenced each other but Colin Minton Campbell Director of Minton appointed Coleman in 1871 and was known to admire Deck's work.
Mintons were exhibitors in the 1867 Paris Exhibition and he purchased some of Deck's work, for his own collection.
He was offered the chance to half share (without any capital) in a pottery he planned to build....in Leeds.
Deck preferred to stay in Paris and declined.
Could this wealthy industrialist be John Holroyd who in 1863 bought the firm of Wilcox & Co Sanitary Ware near Leeds and in 1870 expanded the factory to trade as Burmantofts Pottery.
Burmantofts came close to Decks Persian ware it is an interesting thought what might have been.
He continued to experiment some of his shapes were now becoming Chinese in inspiration with naturalistic designs on white ground. His move into high fired porcelain in 1868 became cost pro-hibitive and were discontinued.
Deck stood in Municipal elections in Paris just after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War which saw the siege of Paris. Armistice was signed in 1871 but at this time Alsace was taken over by Prussia. He decided to stay French as many Alsatians did.
In 1873 he scored notable success in Vienna being awarded Medalion d'Honnneur.
This is when Edmond Lachenal was mentioned prominantly on his stand.
Edmond would go on to found his own factory. His son Roaul would continue his work through the 30's into a more geometric style.
Deck now had a shop close to the Grande Opera on Rue Halevy.
So it was the period we now call Aesthetic Movement that saw a seed change in styles and inspiration came from all over the world not just the middle east and new artists and industrialists were always looking to exploit the prevailing taste. This melting pot of design was being formed and it is easy to look back now and talk about it in sequence, but at the time a movement was in force that could not be stopped and wealth was available to purchase. History was, literally being made.
It was said in contemporary account published in the Pottery Gazette that his pottery “stands tranquil and as silent in its radiant garden as if its gay creations were all the work of magic”.
Round furnaces were noted and the Director kept the composition of the green-grey Deck Clay secret.
In La Faience he says he could not give fixed formula's on Faience body as it depended on locality.
The Gazette reporter was in no doubt to the overall quality of the enamel, meaning of course the glaze saying. “Extroadarily lustrous, reflecting the light from every protruding boss angle, and curve, as if from burnished glass”.
Deck's love of chemistry enabled him to write with fluidity but merely reading about it does not give a craftsman the level of skill he had. You have to do it.
All potters should bow down to the techniques laid down by Deck.
Many of his glaze recipes are printed in his book but as previously stated that's only half of replicating his work.
By 1887 many other companies had formulated their own Persian Blue but it was thought it was derived from inspiration of Theodore Deck.
Long before I know Le Bleu Deck I knew Lachenal Blue from my buying trips to France.
I have an unavoidable attraction to its distinctive velvet sheen. I did not notice so much at first the patterns of deck mixing these in my mind with traditional Iznik pieces. I have purchased pieces by Lachenal that may have been from Deck's own atelier by style.
I do not own La Fiaence yet but the inspiration from which I choose to write, is from the well researched account of Deck's work by Peter Hyland for the Northern Ceramics Society Journal Volume 33.
Peter writes about Deck's move into Gold ground inspired by seeing the mosaics in St marks in Venice where he exhibited in 1873.
He tells us how he mixes glaze and creates lustre, texture and even the way he applies. Yes if it was that easy.
The 1880's sees more of his Chinese ware accompanied by Japanese.
In 1878 Deck was nominated Officier de la legion d'Honneur.
In 1880 he exhibited a flambe glaze by a reduction firing.
Sevres were conduction flambe experiments by official ministry. The Commission de Perfectionment that had been set up in 1872 described Deck's 20 exhibits as remarkable and unforgettable.
In 1887 he was offered the post of Art Director at Sevres on the departure of Charles Lauth at the age of 64. He felt he had to accept even with ill health.
Xavier his brother was entrusted with the day to day running of production.
Deck, a practical man found it hard to cope with the tradition and management structure at Sevres. The aftermath of Lauth's departure saw him caught up in the middle of politics at Sevres.
He was accused of using his postion to enhance his own factory, but he stook at it exhibiting his Grosse Porcelaine in the 1889 Exposition Universalle.
He died in May 1891. His remarkable brother Xavier continued the business and exhibited at London's Grafton galleries in 1893, in Paris 1896 and in Brussels 1897, all with success.
Without Deck's innovation it did not move with the times into, art Nouveau that cut across Europe at blistering speed. Xavier died in 1904 and the pottery closed. It was demolished two years later.

As a national figure Theodore was given the honour of burial in Montparnasse cemetry where so many of Frances cultural innovators were buried.
In 2013 he was featured on a postage stamp.
Decks gravestone was designed by Auguste Bartholdi, who designed the statue of liberty. It incorporated faience panels in Deck Bleu and was inscribed 'erpuit coelo lumen'-translated it reads.
“He snatched the light from the heavens”.
The headstone was encrusted with a portrait medallion by Ferdinand Levillian.
There were other potters of course but they must all acknowledge Theodore Deck.







Friday 21 September 2018

Joseph Hoffman Die Fledermaus Chair-Piece of the Week.

Stained Beech Bent and solid wood frame. Turned legs.
This is a chair with balls.
Designed 1905-08 by Joseph Hoffman for the cafe at the  Caberet Fledermaus which opened in October 1907 in Vienna  .

Fledermaus translated simply means flying mouse, or Bat.

Its wickedly simple construction makes this chair, one of the most influential designs of the early 20th century.

Noted as model no 728 in J & J Kohns furniture catalogue.

It is hard to now believe that this piece of early modernism was made during the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts period. One Hundred years ago.
Its simple construction lends it to mass production, something that both Thonet and Jacob and Joseph Kohn were the predominant manufacturers of. 
They were always on the look out for interesting shapes and at the time of putting this chair into production and were largely responsible for making affordable furniture for the masses.

Gerbruder Thonet had put into production Model no14 in 1859. This chair is still in production today.
I have sold several Model no 1 which was manufactured in 1866 and this rocking chair still seems worthy of a trendy loft apartment today originally manufactured with its woven cane seat and back into its solid and bentwood frame. 
Chair design also owes a debt of gratitude to the wrought iron semi cantilevered chair that was shown at the great exhibition of 1851. Thought to have been designed by R.W. Winfield & Co it still has a deep buttoned upholstery seat and arm pads that sat on a slatted frame. 
This was being produced, in a slightly altered guise in Germany by L & C Arnold and it must have influenced many.
The construction of chairs was altered by fashion and at the turn of the 20th century simplicity was required in certain circles and this was a democratisation of furniture bringing simple style into the homes of many.
While Louis Majorelle and Galle were making works of art in solid mahogany with gilt mounts and exhibiting them to an international audience. The quiet revolution was taking place.
When Marcel Beuer designed B33 in 1927 made from tubular steel with a simple leather seat it was manufactured by the progressive company Gebruder Thonet in Frankenberg from 1929.
 It is still being manufactured today.
Would there have been a Bauhaus without Joseph Hoffman? Probably not. 
Palais Stoclet designed by Hoffman was a turning point in architecture for many.
Hoffman met Charles Rennie MacKintosh in 1902 and the combustion of ideas from two continents certainly fuelled the fire in the bellies of the Wiener Werkstatte of Vienna. Hailed as a genius by the Viennese. MacKintosh would die largely a forgotten man in his own country but be held as a everlasting beacon of hope in Europe.
The Die Fledermaus chair was originally painted white and these original chairs now command a kings ransom but this version is shown in a 1916 sales catalogue for J& J Kohn as model no 728.
This is a chair with balls. 
Something that along with the chequer board motif was Hoffmans trade mark. 
He would come to be know as square Hoffman.
And it works in all its variations of the theme its simple decoration, less is more is now proving ever more popular with a new generation who seem to have abandoned the past, wanting it only in limited quantities.
This chair, one of a pair has an original label underneath that says THONET MUNDUS. Mundus were a manufacturer and merged with  J & J Kohn in 1914 to furnish the growing sales of the company.
Thonet merged with Mundus in 1921
The original fabric is very interesting it appears to be a design that Gustav Klimt could have done, or was it a general swirl that he adopted from what was around him. Klimt was an original member of the Weimer Werkstatte.
This design has now taken on legendary status.
When you say museum quality.
I sold a exacting pair to The Walker art Gallery along with a side table some time ago.
I held this pair back. 

Its now time to let them go and let someone else have the pleasure of them.



 The pair are in original condition bearing Thonet Mundus-Borlova labels to the underside. 

Price £3750 for the pair.

















Thursday 22 September 2016

Utility Furniture.

During the Second World War it had become apparent, as early as 1941, that the German U-Boats patrolling the Atlantic were sinking so much of Britain's essential materials that it was difficult to supply the country.
 Even before the war, Britain was never self sufficient in its need for raw materials, such as timber and had a severe lack of indigenous timber suitable for furniture making.
Yet there was still increased demand for new furniture due to the losses caused by bombing and to the continuing establishment of new households after marriage. 
And of course increased war production.


The Utility Furniture Advisory Committee was set up in 1942, drawing on considerable expertise.


Gordon Russell, Ernest Clench, Herman Lebus and John Gloag were brought in because of their experience, to assure that these scarce available resources were used in a sensible way.

Rationing of new furniture was restricted to newly-weds and people who had been bombed out, under the "Domestic Furniture (Control of Manufacture and Supply (No 2)) Order 1942" which became operative from 1 November 1942.

The aim was to ensure the production of strong well-designed furniture making the most efficient use of the recsource of timber available.


The Committee were reconstituted as the Utility Design 

Panel in 1943 with Gordon Russell as Chairman.











The furniture, made during the war, featured a 'CC' 

symbol.


The symbol was designed by Reginald Shipp. 

The motif is known as two cheeses. 



Along with the two cheeses there should also be 

number 

indicating the year so CC41 stands for 'Controlled 


Commodity 1941'.

It appeared on all sorts of items, furniture, linen, 

clothes and many other domestic items.


The Committee produced a number of approved 

designs, many were published in the Utility Furniture 

Catalogue of 1943.  





Post War



After the second world war the Board of Trade 

took control of furniture production.

They regulated the industry and set out to control manufacture, by law, controlling the use and movement of all materials
Strict specifications were laid down and the Utility Furniture scheme was used to assist production. Or so it was claimed.
Licenses were issued and quite a lot of these were given to companies already in the manufacture of aircraft, and other war supplies.
These companies, it was thought, were able to make furniture in a form of construction that could make light furniture with the use of plywood.
The control of design through meticulous attention to production encompassing good design was laid down through a technical framework.

1945 saw the Directorate of Furniture production transformed.

This became the headquarters of the British Furniture Industry.
Five different sections were divided into the design section.
  1. The Technical section.
  2. A planning section.
  3. A licensing section.
  4. A material issue section.
  5. The design section.


The Utility stamp was brought in as the abolition of priority cases gave way to the needs of the entire community.
This administration of material was used to control the entire manufacturing process until 1948 when this was revoked and a licence was granted to enable the Utility marks to be used generally.
This in theory stopped the government control. 
But in practice raw materials were still given in precedence to those producing for the Utility scheme.
Gradually they would be able to place the mark on their own designs.
The categorisation of articles had to continue and goods sold under a appropriate maximun price.
In 1946, in conjunction with the important exhibition of post-war design, "Britain Can Make It", three new furniture ranges were unveiled (Cotswold, Chiltern and Cockaigne) intended to carry forward the best of their design ethos into the postwar period.

As the names suggests it was a style that was 


looking back to the past more in line with Arts 


and Crafts.

The general public had less money to spend so it became a buyers market. Slowly the furniture industry would return to a normal community.
The theory was that, if efficient companies were chosen to manufacture from the start there may have been less waste. 
But it was thought that this would have been market manipulation and stifle the fledgling industry.

It is hard to envisage today that it was a offence punishable by imprisonment for any company to make a single stick of furniture. This constriction continued for three or four years after the war.
Many with licenses were not the best of manufacturers.
And the old boy network surely came into play.
Buying of timber was forbidden, by law. There was a rationing of timber, and it was also an offence to consume pre-war stock. That's was if it was not requesitioned.
The government control in effect created a black market.
During the war there were only 137 licensed furniture manufacturers in 1943.
This rose to 450 in 1945 out of a total of 4000 companies. 
The remainder were treated as if they did not exist.
A license was required for the manufacture of a coffee table, and this may be given, provided the timber content did not exceed a fraction of a cubic foot. And all calculations were laid down.
Off cuts and stubs had to come from elsewhere as companies could not use their own. 
To make things worse the license could be refused to obtain these off cuts
Purchase tax rose from 33% to over 66% rendering the tables and other pieces virtually unsaleable.
Even if you were lucky enough to pull all the right strings and get it made you would have to be extremely lucky to sell the damn things.
As an example David Joel released from the Navy wanted to get going. His factory had been let for the production of aeroplanes and then sold to a cosmetics company but he had some land at the back of his old workshops that he acquired.
He then had a factory without labour. Then he acquired machinery and was given a list by the Board of Trade of what was needed. These amounted to Fancy goods and Domestic equipment in reality, Ironing boards, rolling pins, blinds, cards and trays.
When a lady from the government turned up he struck up a relationship with her.
She had been a milliner near his Knightsbridge showroom. “neighbourly feelings prevailed and I got my Timber” he was quoted as saying.
It's not what you know of course.
Stafford Cripps had set up a working party in 1945 for the furniture trade. They had constructed bodies for the nationalization but when the government imposed a purchase tax it killed it stone dead.

War kept its grip for a long time after cestation and it was said a malaise crept in.

To make things worse the national stock pile of timber was piled in the open air but still existed in huge quantities in 1951 but the deteriation due to the lack of care led to most of it being worthless.
The mositure content was left uncontrolled while bureaucracy took place and those in the scheme did alright but numerous craftsmen had to change trade through no fault of their own.
This would add another factor to the industry getting back on its feet.
Up until as late as 1948 the supply of Utility furniture was restricted to priority cases.
The intended 'setting free of design' came about but it still took three months of bureaucracy to be able to apply for a license to be able to apply the utility mark.

There was a market for reproduction style furniture and the Utility scheme seemed hardly worth its bulk through design.

The task of creating ingenious design hardly seemed worth it for many companies struggling enough and wanting to, just get on with honest work of giving the public what they wanted. 
There was a black market with carvings added making the design more appropriate and easier for the public to accept.

The cost of shipping and crating was prohibitive to its manufacture.
Still the Development council was engaged in performance tests. 
Chairs had to pass breaking tests along with others. It was all very well to design wear tests but if the timber used was not the right moisture content then it seems pointless.
A chair could withstand any test at manufacture but if it is not properly seasoned it may well fall to pieces in a couple of weeks. The quality it seems had been taken away from the people who understood the task in hand, the craftsmen.

Scandinavian design was held in regard and was possibly a major influence on the post war design. Though it now seems apparent that design was indeed led by cost and the Scandinavian style was not as thick and heavy as the Arts and Crafts inheritance that was prevalent before war broke out.

The scheme was officially closed in 1952, the same year that furniture rationing ceased.


Heals produced Utility furniture as did Gordon Russell.