Appendix 36: Notes on Britain's Post-Morris Architect/Designers

The entrance hall of Voysey's own home, The Orchard, Chorley Wood, Buckinghamshire, of 1900 can serve as an example:

Later, in a bench made for Garden Corner, Chelsea, London in 1906 (pl. 68) even these reminiscences of Art Nouveau have gone, and the whole design, with the exception of the brackets to the small side flaps, consists entirely of vertical and horizontal members. And as for the brackets, they have the elementary geometric shape of exact quarter circles.

The material is unpolished and unstained oak, another instance of the "back to fundamentals" and "back to nature" tendencies which stand at the beginning of our century.

There is one more thing which must be said about Voysey and which places him further from Morris and close to us. He was a designer, not a craftsman.

Ernest Gimson (1864-1920), the greatest of the English artist-craftsmen, was, as a matter of fact, in not too different a position, although not many people realize it. He had been trained, it is true, in craftsmanship, but his famous works of cabinetmaking, metal-work and so on are only designed and not made by him. The chairs shown here (pl. 67) give an impression of his honesty, his feeling for the nature of wood, and his unrevolutionary spirit.

Source: Nikolaus Pevsner, Pioneers of Modern Design New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1947, pages 89-90

According to Isabelle Ansncomb, page 112, Voysey began designing furniture in the 1890s, with preference for pieces in plain oak, decorated either with brass strap-hinges or his favourite pierced heart motif.

To Voysey, the horizontal signified repose, while the vertical represented vigour. His furniture emphasizes structure and proportion, with tapering legs or supports which often end in a wide, square cap, an element borrowed from Mackmurdo.

According to the major biographer of C F A Voysey -- Wendy Hitchmough -- in 1900 C. F. A. Voysey

For Hitchmough, Voysey probably learnt the teachings of Ruskin and Pugin at his father's knee. When Voysey decided to become an architect, his natural talents:-- his clarity of vision; his refined sense of simplicity; the insistence on harmony and balance in his work and an uncompromising scrutiny of every detail, were probably "consciously developed family traits".

Voysey's furniture, like every other aspect of his work, was recognized as exceptional for the period, for,

It was particularly appropriate to the plain lines and lifestyle of a modern country cottage, and according to The Studio in 1899 its influence established 'a school of its own'.71

If you can appreciate the reticence and severity of Mr Voysey's work, you can no longer tolerate the ordinary commercially designed product. His furniture deserves elaborate and patient study, for its one aim is 'proportion, proportion, proportion' and that is a quality most elusive and difficult even to appreciate, still less to achieve.

There were patches of brilliant colour at The Orchard in the turkey-red twill of the curtains, which Voysey liked to specify whenever the client would permit them. It was an exacting specification, indicative of the detailed attention that he gave to every aspect of his buildings: the top hem had to be one and a half inches, and the bottom hem one inch. The curtain rings were to be seven-eighths of an inch in diameter and fastened two and a half inches apart. Each light was to be covered by a single width of fabric: 'The several widths should not be joined together in any way and on no account should they be pleated or gathered.'67 Only the narrow pelmet was allowed to be slightly gathered and the lengths of fabric were neatly aligned with the stone mullions.

Voysey was equally rigorous on the subject of hall floors and again The Orchard served as a paragon.68 The Orchard hall and the kitchen offices were exquisitely paved with Delabole slate and the hall window was fitted with a long seat, which doubled as a chest for storing rugs. Voysey claimed that the hall fire, by virtue of its central position, kept the whole house warm in severe weather and early photographs show the fireplaces equipped with tongues, pokers, and shovels made to his designs and his hand-painted clock, 'Time & Tide Wait For No Man' on the hall mantel-shelf.

The study, the school room and the bedrooms were decorated with Voysey wallpaper, and the study and dining room were fitted with Voysey carpets. The dining room was papered with a plain, bottle-green, Eltonbury-silk paper, which contrasted with the red curtains around the porthole window, and with the blue and green carpet decorated with red and yellow flowers (which was also photographed in the bedroom). But if Voysey was extravagant in his use of colour the overall effect was restrained by his meticulous handling of proportions, and the consistent quality of his detailing.

All the rooms were furnished with Voysey's plain oak furniture, 'simply oiled'. He was by no means the only architect to decorate and furnish his houses, although as a contemporary noted in 1899: 'It was not so very many years since ... the architect who wandered from the strait and narrow path and took to designing furniture, wall-papers, and so forth, had committed a species of professional suicide.'69

As his predecessors, Voysey cited E. W Godwin and A. H. Mackmurdo for their furniture, 70

However The Studio described Godwin as the architect who 'more than any other dissipated this absurd theory', and Voysey was heralded as the most 'completely successful in this respect'.

The rush-seated, high-back chairs with splats shaped around two cut-out hearts, which furnished the dining room at The Orchard, together with the lathe-back armchair, were identical to the ones photographed in the dining room at Broadleys.73 Variations on the lathe-back chair, with and without arms, were used again at The Homestead, but with four lathes in the back in place of five.

Characteristic profiles and motifs were repeated from one piece to another: the gentle curve at the top of a chair back and the projection of verticals beyond the line of duty — sometimes capped with circular plates — became part of a clearly defined and recognizable style.

Plain oak surfaces were left unadorned and the oak was often carefully selected for the quality of its grain, but although Voysey was adept at modelling there is no evidence to suggest that he crafted his own furniture. F. Coote made up many of his designs from 1889 through the 1890s, and from 1901 F. C. Nielsen's prices were repeatedly given on his drawings. There were other, less predominant names: Thallon and J. S. Henry both made furniture for Voysey under the prerequisite that the standard of their craftsmanship and the quality of materials used were to be irrefutable down to the dovetails:

One of the furniture-makers who Voysey occasionally used, and whose affinity for the inherent beauty of wood may well have influenced his designs, was Arthur W. Simpson of Kenda1.75

The two men shared a profound admiration for Ruskin (Simpson had met him at his home, Brantwood on Lake Consiston) and they became life-long friends with a mutual respect for each other's work, so that when Voysey designed Broadleys he specified that Simpson should make the finely cut and inlaid balusters and the veranda seat.

Simpson often dined with Voysey when he was in London buying timber or for exhibitions, and there is a story that on one occasion when Voysey was in the Lake District he and Simpson took the train together from Kendal to dine at Riggs Hotel in Windermere. From the train, Simpson pointed to a building and asked Voysey what he thought of it. Outraged, Voysey is said to have replied, 'Its damnable, Simpson. Damnable! Don't look at it; it'll spoil your taste.76

Later, in 1909, Voysey designed a house for Simpson — Littleholme in Kendal. Simpson's observation of the simple lines and fine proportions of Voysey's furniture clearly influenced his own designs. However, though he admired Voysey's buildings, the furniture at Littleholme was made to Simpson's designs.

Voysey's furniture was meticulously proportioned and often it was the proportions of the piece that gave it its elegant or sturdy character, as The Studio noted in October 1899: He ... relies very much on grace of proportion, a feature to which reproductions on a reduced scale cannot, of course, do adequate justice. Indeed, the rigidly severe character of the joinery, accompanied by plain though elaborately-studied mouldings, make it seem almost bald, unless the objects themselves, completed full-size, are examined; in which event the restraint and refinement of the whole can hardly fail to be appreciated!77

Although Voysey's furniture was extremely simple, the detailing was refined by thought and feeling.

The legs were often chamfered towards the base, so that while they were square in plan at the top, the corners were tapered away making them octagonal at the base; this detailing was appropriate to the function of the parts, as well as to the elegance of the piece as a whole — strength is required at the top of a chair leg, where it meets the seat while the leg can afford to be more slender and consequently weaker towards the base.

Voysey claimed a deliberate avoidance of style and to reject mannerisms in his work.

Nevertheless the chamfered legs, the tapering or capped uprights, the recurrence of pierced hearts, the gently curved tops and oak pelmets and his consistent use of straight lathes, arranged in groups in his bed-heads or with candid regularity in his chairs and chesterfield, all define an unmistakably individual style.

A sense of proportion, he wrote, was the consequence of temperament rather than learning and education, the expression of feeling far more than thought.

At The Orchard, this spontaneous expression of temperament and Voysey's discriminating sense of proportion and propriety suffuse every element of the house. Early photographs of the interiors commissioned by Voysey ring with his voice and demonstrate that the wholesome goodness, which made so many imitations of his work irksome, was never overbearing in his own designs. Despite his condemnations of the 'useless and often gimcrack ornaments and nick-nacks' that cluttered 'nine thousand out of every ten thousand houses ... the typical, hideous, carved coal-box, or a three-legged standard lamp with tiers upon tiers of silk petticoat and the like monstrosities',79 The Orchard was not stripped of every vestige of sentimentality and nor was it as obsessively clean as some of Voysey's writings might suggest: the photographs show interiors peppered with small pictures, vases of peacock feathers and honesty, and an array of personal objects, and the dining room and study hearths were scattered with the residue of spent fires.

Voysey believed that beautiful surroundings had an inspirational and morally uplifting effect on people: All objects possess intrinsic qualities, having a direct influence on our minds and emotions.'80° He once wittily quipped: 'If I cannot be graceful and comely, I can at least have a graceful and comely umbrella, and in that way help to keep up my interest in those qualities.'81 And again, (with more than a hint of irony) he told The British Architect: 'Cold vegetables are less harmful than ugly dish covers. One affects the body and the other affects the soul.'82 His philosophy of spiritual advancement through exposure to beauty was essentially Platonic and a 1901 edition of Plato's The Republic was found among Voysey's personal effects after his death. His interpretation of these ideals, however, was inextricably linked with his quest for a harmonious and peaceful environment through the perfection of proportions and the proliferation of restful horizontals. A sense of balance and calm was one of the most distinguishing features at The Orchard.

Even before The Orchard was complete it was the subject of an article in Country Life, who urged their readers to imagine the 'soft warm red of the tiled roof [!]'. In 1901 it was lavishly illustrated in Charles Holme's book on Modern British Domestic Architecture and Decoration. Inevitably it brought Voysey clients who would entrust him, not only with architectural commissions, but also with the provision of interior architecture and furnishing.

With a rectilinearity he derived from Mackmurdo and an elegance reminiscent of the great Aesthetic movement designer Edward William Godwin (1833-1886) -- my entry on the Aesthetic movement is under revision -- C. F. A. Voysey's furniture looks thin and delicate, employing simple, beautifully proportioned forms.

With its starkness, its thin lines, and its simplicity, Voysey's furniture was definitely idiosyncratic, approaching Art Nouveau. And although clearly influenced by country furniture, it possessed a refinement that kept it from appearing rustic. Ordinarily typically built with unfinished solid oak and traditional joinery.

Voysey's program was uncomplicated: rectilinear elements fashioned as thinly as function would permit; wide overhanging horizontal planes playing off strong vertical ones; and carefully selected shallow curves to soften straight lines. His work was uncomplicated but skillfully executed.

Trained in London, Voysey drank deeply of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic. He was an early member of the Art Worker's Guild and contributed to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society shows from the start.

Voysey's Retail Contributions

Unlike such contemporaries as C. R. Ashbee and Ernest Gimson, however, Voysey did not share the movement's abhorrence of factory production or its inclination to make a craftsman of every designer. Indeed, throughout his career, Voysey supplemented his architectural commissions by selling designs to be manufactured and sold in stores.

Before he began attracting architectural clients, Voysey supported himself with commissions from manufacturers of textiles and wallpaper. His sprightly pattern designs, cleaner and less cluttered than popular Morris-inspired work were an immediate success and showed Voysey to be the rare designer who was equally fluent working in two and three dimensions.

As an architect, Voysey specialized in building small houses. In a profession that traditionally awarded distinction based on designs for churches and public buildings, he became one of the first to attain international recognition based solely on residential work.

Voysey was as gifted in metal design as he was working in wood, stone, or fabric, and he styled most of the hardware and fittings for the houses he designed as well as for the furniture. Voysey's way with wood was always restrained, but he often used metal to give his furniture a decorative flourish.

Definitions Needed

Impact on America of Britain's New Architecture

Chicago Architecture: Its Debt to the Arts and Crafts Author(s): H. Allen Brooks Source: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians30, No. 4 December 1971, pages 312-317

(See also: David Gebhard, "C. F. A. Voysey- to and from America", The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 30, No. 4 December 1971, pages 304-312; some of Gebhard's comments about the impact of Voysey and some of his British colleagues are discussed below.)

I turned to these sources out of curiosity about whether the British new architects originated the trend of including designs for furniture in their architecture ? for clients, or is that custom something the Frank Lloyd Wright originated?

In a paper given at the twenty-fourth annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians in Chicago, in Jan. 1971, H. Allen Brooks argues first that the Arts and Crafts "was a movement and not a style".

To isolate the debt which Chicago architecture owed to the Arts and Crafts, we need first to look at what is known of the background, that is: --

Moreover, Chicago, the hub in America of much avant garde architecture, was among the earliest and perhaps most important centers of Arts and Crafts activity in the nation.

For evidence see: M. T. Priestman's 1906 account:-- "History of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America" House Beautiful 20 1906, page 14. This article appeared in two parts: Oct. (pp. 5-16) and Nov. (pp. 14-16) 1906.

David Gebhard, "C. F. A. Voysey- to and from America", The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 30, No. 4 December 1971, pages 304-312

Arthur H. Mackmurdo (1851-1942)

A Scottish architect and designer who set up in London in 1875, he was influenced by William Morris and subsequently became a pioneer of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In advance of trends, in the 1880s, Mackmurdo's influence was evident on the European Continent.From 1884 to 1891, Mackmurdo edited The Hobby Horse, the prototype for later, similar "trend-setter" magazines like The Yellow Book and The Studio.

In 1880 he founded the Century Guild, a group of artist—craftsmen which included Selwyn Image (1849-1930) and William de Morgan (1832-1911). In 1884, with Herbert Home, he started the magazine The Hobby Horse, a focus of the new art movement.

Let us first examine the question of Voysey's possible effect on United States architecture.

A survey of American publications of the 1880s, '1890s, and 1900s shows that Voysey's architectural and other designs are not plentiful. His first design in an American journal, a perspective drawing for the Cazalet house (Malvern, 1890), came out in the American Architect and Building News 30 November 1890, page 71, including plate 774; cited source noted above and in David Gebhard, Charles F. A. Voysey, architect 1975, Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1975, page 11. In addition to this article, Gebhard reports on several others, but with lesser impact.

In 1899, one of his houses was illustrated and discussed in an article, "A House for a Man with a Hobby," in the popular magazine House Beautiful 7 December 1899, pages 24-27.

Of more interest for woodworkers is this article was followed by two pieces devoted to his furniture The Furnisher New York, 1899), n.p. [ill request, wed sept 22]

In the popular press, several of his pieces of furniture are both illustrated and discussed: the April 1903 issue of House and Garden, as "Some Recent Work of C. F. A. Voysey, an English Architect" (Fig. 3), and in Edward W. Gregory's "The Seventh Exhibition of Arts and Crafts in London."11 The first article was at best lukewarm, the second was quite enthusiastic: "Mr. Voysey occupies a position in decorative arts entirely to himself. He has had many followers and is unquestionably a designer of singular originality and power ." 12 [12. House and Garden, Iii, 211.]

Another sympathetic treatment of Voysey's work occurred in two issues of The Craftsman magazine, one an article on his furniture and interiors in August 1911 (Fig. 4) and the other an article by the architect himself, accompanied by a number of illustrations of his work, in November 1912.13[13. The Craftsman, xx (Aug. 1911), 276-286; The Craftsman, xxm (Nov. 1912), 174-182.]

Page View

Voysey's work was well published in the professional English architectural journals, in numerous popular books on the British house (most of which came out during the years 1900-1912), and above all, through the pages of The Studio (and of the version which most Americans received, The International Studio) from its first issue (of 1893), for which he designed the cover, through the next two decades of its publication:

"An Interview with Mr. Charles F. Annesley Voysey, Architect and Designer," The Studio, 1 (1893), 231-237.

"Some Recent Designs by C. F. A. Voysey," The Studio, vii (1896), 209-219;

"The Work of Mr. C. F. A. Voysey," The Studio, xi (1897), 16-25;

Horace Townsend, "Notes on Country and Suburban Houses Designed by C. F. A. Voysey," The Studio, xvi (1889), 157-164;

Aymer Valiance, "Some Recent Work by Mr. C. F. A. Voysey," Studio, XXII (1904), 127-134;

M. H. Baillie Scott, "On the Characteristics of Mr. C. F. A. Voysey's Architecture," International Studio, XXXIII (1907), 19-24.]

Could Voysey's work have been made available through the visits of Englishmen to Chicago and the Midwest? Perhaps! Walter Crane came in 1891-1892, visited the Fair then under construction, stayed at the new Auditorium Hotel, and lectured. C. R. Ashbee, who knew Voysey's designs quite well, came first in 1896, then in 1900-1901, and again in 1908-1909. His visits certainly encouraged the Arts and Crafts Movement and, after 1900, Wright, the Prairie School, and the brothers Charles Sumner Greene (1867-1957) and Henry Mather Greene (1870-1954)in California. If he affected Chicago and Wright before 1900, it must have been in an indirect fashion, i.e., through the Arts and Crafts.

Another possible connective link—that is, the visit of American avant-garde architects and their apologists to England—is not, at least on the surface, as impressive as one might have thought. Elbert Hubbard had visited England in 1894 and again in 1896. During his first visit he had met William Morris, but there is no indication that he met any English architects or for that matter showed much of an interest in architecture. The second great exponent of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, Gustav Stickley, travelled to England in 1898 where it is said he met Voysey along with other avant-garde British architects.20 [20. John Crosby Freeman, The Forgotten Rebel, Gustav Stickley and His Craftsman Mission Furniture (Watkins Glen, N.Y., 1966), p. 44. --according to david cathers, this is incorrect.]

Since Stickley's intent at this time was almost exclusively turned toward furniture and interior design, it is not known whether he visited any of Voysey's houses. Even William Gray Purcell, one of the major exponents of the Prairie School, who was always sympathetic and appreciative of Voysey's work, did not see him or visit any of his buildings during a 1906 trip to Europe.21[21. W. G. Purcell, Parabiography for 5906 (unpublished, 1940), p. 6.]

While Wright and others could have seen Voysey's decorative designs at the Chicago exposition and in the pages of several journals, there is no direct evidence in their own work that they were specifically affected by it. All that one can say is that Frank Lloyd Wright did feel a strong kinship with the English Arts and Crafts Movement and its exponents, as opposed to Paris and the Beaux Arts, and certainly did keep abreast of what was published in the English art and architectural magazines. George Grant Elmslie, who worked closely with Sullivan for many years, once remarked that while Adler and Sullivan (and later Sullivan alone) received The British Architect, it was seldom looked at, while on the other hand, The Studio (or its American version, International Studio) was received with enthusiasm.22 [22. Interview by the author with G. G. Elmslie, Chicago, 21 Jan. 1952. ]

The Studio, then, unquestionably provides the major link between England and America.

After 1901, the presentation of the ideas and products of the English Arts and Crafts Movement was supplemented by the United States publication, The Craftsman (1901-1917), edited by Gustav Stickley.

Speculatively, Gebhard argues that the design of high back chairs which Wright was so fond of using both before and during his Prairie period (1898-1914) conceivably could have been derived from Voysey; but this is debatable, because Wright began using such designs in the opening years of the in early 1890s and little of Voysey's furniture was published until the mid to late 1890s.

Source: David Gebhard, "G. F. A. Voysey — To and From America," Journal, Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 30, Dec., 1971, pp. 304-312.

M H Baillie Scott,

Then, too, Voysey's furniture, in contrast to Wright's, was conceived of as furniture in a usable traditional sense, not as a small-scale variation on an architectural theme. When one looks into the Anglo-American Arts and Crafts scene of the 'nineties and early 1900s, it seems more likely that the English influence on America came via other English architects and designs: M. H. Baillie Scott was represented in The Studio and elsewhere, and during the 'nineties and after 1900, the furniture and architecture of Barry Parker were far better known than that of Voysey.

According to Hermann Muthesius -- the German architect famously wrote about the revoluionary architecture and furniture design emerging in England and Scotland at the end of hte 19th century and who was acquainted with Baillie Scott -- Baillie Scott designs rooms

"... with the most intimate poetical and concentrated feeling that they are for living in".

He always considers rooms with furniture, planning always for the

"room as it will be when it is fully furnished and occupied. Thus every square foot of space is considered in the light of its suitability for living in: no door is positioned arbitrarily no window is in anything but the correct relationship to the room it has to light."

The settee pictured above is designed by Baillie Scott and exhibited at the seventh Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society's show in London in 1903, and was admired by Gustav Stickley and later "copied", with adaptations, by Stickley's renowned designer, Harvey Ellis. (Harvey Ellis (1852-1904) is a central figure in this narrative because he was the one transcendent creative collaborator of Stickley's Craftsman career. Source: David cathers, gustav stickley ny: phaidon, 2003, page 80. David Cathers speculates, though, that rather than Ellis, attribution for this design might be better pinned on LaMont Warner, Stickley's other designer. Warner's drawing of a miniature version of this settle for children appears in a June 1903 --page 195 -- article in The Craftsman , "Housekeeping in Miniature", pre-dates Ellis' first illustration by two months.)

See image of Ellis' copy here
.

Baillie Scott derives his decorative motifs from plants except when he uses a geometrical pattern for edges etc. His furniture is always primitive or rustic in form. Yet he manages to give it a feeling of quite sophisticated intellectual culture. His pieces breathe a poetry and intimacy ....

Source: Hermann Muthesius, The English House London: Frances Lincoln, 2007, volume 2, page 177. The link above is for a 2007 reprint of a book Muthesius wrote in the latter 1890s and early 1900s, the period when Muthesius was living in England.

Those who have read that exquisite "Gossip on Romance", by Robert Louis Stevenson, may remember how he shows that the aim of the writer of fiction should be to fit to a particular place its appropriate story to make the right thing happen in the right place, and so satisfy the imagination of the reader; and he goes on to describe in quaint and beautiful language how this has been done by the great writers of romance.

To the architect a somewhat similar task presents itself. He must first use the divining power of his imagination to discover the particular kind of house which his site demands, and try to express in bricks and mortar the spirit of the countryside ; he must then, having built the right kind of house to harmonise with a particular site, finally complete his task by furnishing _. this right kind of house with the right kind of furniture.

For it is not enough that furniture should possess intrinsic beauty, unless it also possesses this further quality of exquisite appropriateness to its position and to its use. It should appear almost to be a piece of the room in which it is placed and in absolute harmony with its surroundings.

It is in this respect that the various kinds of fixed furnishings become of especial value in the effect of a room, filling the gap between the house and its furniture, and thus giving an appearance of unity and harmony. The fixed seats to the ingle-nook, the mantelpieces and bedroonv fitments, all appear as part of the structure itself and so form a connecting link between the movable furniture and the house.

The essential point then in the choice of furniture may be said to be not so much the individual merit of a particular thing as its relation to everything else in the room. The furniture should appear to grow out of the requirements of the room, to represent the finishing touches of a scheme which had its inception when the first stone of the house was laid, and not an alien importation from the upholsterer's of spick and span suites, at war with themselves and their surroundings.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)

Scottish architect and designer who -- as leader of the Glasgow School -- was a precursors of British and European art nouveau. His furniture design and interior decoration combined grace and austerity set a trend. His influence on the avant garde in Europe was very great, particularly in Germany and Austria. mackintosh drawing room

C R Mackintosh, in Hermann Muthesius, The English House London: Frances Lincoln, 2007, v 1

His style of interior decoration was perhaps most famously exhibited in the furniture and decorations he designed for tearooms in Glasgow, between 1897 and 1912. These exhibits were featured in The Studio in 1897. His work, which attracted enthusiasm from the avant garde, was exhibited in Munich, Dresden, Venice, Vienna and Moscow.

Source: Harold Osborne, ed., The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts Oxford, England: Oxford University Press 1975; David Brett, C R Mackintosh: The Poetics of Workmanship Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992

C R Mackintosh, in Hermann Muthesius, The English House London: Frances Lincoln, 2007, v 1

" width="504" height="377" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5" alt="mackintosh drawing room" />

C R Mackintosh, in Hermann Muthesius, The English House London: Frances Lincoln, 2007, v 1

" width="441" height="583" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5" alt="cross-section for four-sided post" /> start here for impact on gustav stickley of voysey, baillie scott, mackintosh, mackmurdo

December 14, 1902, Stickley set out for his first trip to Europe since 1896. In 1896, Stickley visited England and France for the firm. Stickley and Simonds.21 Cathers lays to rest the incorrect assertion in John Crosby Freeman's The Forgotten Rebel. Freeman claimed that Stickley traveled to Europe in 1898, a date subsequently repeated in other books. No corroborating evidence exists of a 1898 European trip Stickley. Instead, Cathers argues,

"it is unlikely that Stickley, busy shutting down Stickley & Simonds and starting up the Gustave Stickley Company, would have had time to leave the country that year."

Source: David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, NY: Phaidon, 2003: In footnote no 21 of chapter 3 in his 2003 book, Gustav Stickley,]

Between 1896 and 1902, Stickley's life had greatly changed.

He had met Irene Sargent

Impact of The Studio, International Studio and other new art periodicals of the day

Stickley had begun reading art journals.

he was becoming well known as an Arts and Crafts furniture maker.

Stickley went to Europ in 1902-1903 "to select 'fine specimens of the most recent industrial art work' for his planned Arts and Crafts exhibition."

Stickley's goal in late 1902 was to seek out examples of the new art, especially furniture, which heretofore he had only encountered in magazines

The objects Stickley chose while on this trip reveal his evolving eye.

Paris

In Paris he visited La Maison de l'Art Nouveau, the shop owned by Siegfried Bing, the merchant-entrepreneur who since 1895 had been the leading promoter of the emerging Art Nouveau style.

From Bing, Stickley bought an Edward Colonna-designed Limoges porcelain dinner service decorated with a delicate tracery of plant forms on a cream-colored ground. The price was reportedly $700, a staggering sum if correct, the equivalent today of about $12,000.22

[22 Source: David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, NY: Phaidon, 2003, The price is reported in "Crafts Show Now Open," Syracuse Evening Herald, (24 March 1903): back page; this Limoges dinner service stayed in Stickley's family for eighty-five years, and most of it was sold at Christie's New York, 10 December 1988, lots 24-27; see also Gabriel P. Weisberg, "Bing Porcelain in America," Connoisseur 158 (November 19711:200-203; The dollar equivalency is derived from Scott Derks. The Value of the Dollar-- Prices and Income in the United States 1860-1999 (Lakeville, CT: Gray House Publishing, 1999): 2; and from the American Institute for Economic Research Cost-of-Living Calculator, www.aeir.org/colcalc.htm.]

He acquired other Art Nouveau objects from Bing as well, and in the shop of René Lalique he bought a silver and gold belt buckle that Lalique had designed and made.23

[Source: David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, NY: Phaidon, 2003: Stickley exhibited these objects in Arts and Crafts exhibitions in Syracuse and Rochester in March and April 1903.]

The "bare essentials" perhaps no longer exerted quite the hold on him that they had the year before.

London

Stickley also went to London, and this proved to be the most decisive part of his trip.

His visit coincided -- as Stickley certainly intended -- with the opening of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society exhibition at the New Gallery, on Regent Street, on 16 January 1903 .

This was the seventh exhibition the Society had held since its founding, and these events had become essential showcases where English Arts and Crafts designers, architects, and artisans could place their work before the public.

Stickley had probably become aware of this Society by reading about it in International Studio during the winter of 1899-1900. Now, in January 1903, he was no longer limited to thumbing through magazines; he had steamed across the Atlantic to see for himself the handicrafts on display (and for sale) at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society's show.

What did Stickley see at the exhibition? Seventh Arts and Crafts Society catalogue, 1903

names of exhibitors:

According to a later item in The Craftsman, he returned from England with examples of metalwork made by three Birmingham firms: the Faulkner Bronze Company, the Art Fittings Company, and the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft. He also sought out English Arts and Crafts textiles. (These subjects will be taken up in a later chapter.)

At the New Gallery, Stickley bought an upholstered oak wing chair, with a geometric inlay pattern worked into its front legs, made by the firm of Walter Scull & Son.

He also admired furniture designed by the English architects who were already influencing Craftsman design.

C.F.A. Voysey exhibited several pieces of his furniture and household objects, including a side chair with a tall back made of vertical slats, and a small, inlaid, fall-front writing cabinet.

[edit here]

In the 1903 Arts and Crafts Society Exhibition -- the seventh -- Baillie Scott placed only a single piece:

a low settle with wide, vertical slats inlaid with circular, biomorphic shapes. Designed by Baillie Scott, the settee was made at John P. White's Pyghtle Works in Bedford.

Source: David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, NY: Phaidon, 2003, page 20

Stickley, the evidence suggests, looked on ingered over them and savored the designs.24

Source: David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, NY: Phaidon, 2003:

At the Exhibition, Stickley did not buy any of the Voysey or Baillie Scott furniture at the exhibition, but he looked at it with care, and later he and his designers read the journals that published illustrated articles on this show.

Before the year was out his factory would be making Craftsman versions of both the inlaid writing cabinet and the tall-backed side chair he had seen in Voysey's exhibit, and also the Baillie Scott settle.

In addition to going to the Arts and Crafts exhibition, Stickley visited the London shop of J.S. Henry, a maker of "art furniture" who sold primarily to the trade. Stickley bought several pieces of Henry's inlaid furniture designed by G. M. Ellwood (1875-1960 ca.).25

Source: David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, NY: Phaidon, 2003: For Ellwood, see Jeremy Cooper, Victorian and Edwardian Décor from the Gothic Revival to Art Nouveau (New York: Abbeville Press, 1987):216.

He also bought a small, inlaid Voysey cabinet; it was nearly identical in form to Voysey's writing cabinet at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, but its inlay was more elaborate. Henry is known to have executed some of Voysey's designs, so it is likely that Stickley bought this piece from him.26

Source: David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, NY: Phaidon, 2003: Duncan Simpson, "Furniture," in John Brandon Jones and others, C.F.A. Voysey: Architect and Designer 1857-1941 ( London: Lund Humphries, 1978): 72.

With criticisms of the massiveness of his 1902 furniture fresh in his mind -- the Handicraft and House Beautiful reviews had appeared six weeks before he left on this trip -- it is not surprising that Stickley was drawn to the Voysey, Baillie Scott, and J.S. Henry furniture he saw in London. It was built on a lighter scale and was more overtly decorative than his own, and may have recalled for him the furniture displayed in Turin that he had read about the year before. He was seeking change, a next step in the evolution of Craftsman design.

Source: David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, NY: Phaidon, 2003:

Sources: Hermann Muthesius, The English House, in 3 vols, ed with intro by Dennis Sharp; trans by Janet Seligman and Stewart Spencer London: Frances Lincoln, 1905-1906; reprinted, 2007; Nikolaus Pevsner, Pioneers of modern design from William Morris to Walter Gropius New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1949; Gillian Naylor, The arts and crafts movement: a study of its sources, ideals, and influence on design theory Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971; ; Isabelle Anscombe and Charlotte Gere, Arts & crafts in Britain and America‎ New York: Rizzoli, 1978; Mary Greensted, Gimson and the Barnsleys: "wonderful furniture of a commonplace kind" New York: Van Nostrand, 1980; Lionel Lambourne, Utopian craftsmen: the arts and crafts movement from the Cotswolds to Chicago Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, 1980 ; Eileen Boris , Art and labor: Ruskin, Morris, and the craftsman ideal in America‎ Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986 Isabelle Anscomb, Arts and Crafts Style, London: Phaidon, 1991; Mary Greensted, The arts and crafts movement in the Cotswolds Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 1993; Kitty Turgeon and Robert Rust, The Arts and Crafts Home‎ New York: Michael Friedman, 1998 ; Wendy Hitchmough, The Arts & Crafts lifestyle and design‎ New York: Watson-Guptil, 2000 ; David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, NY: Phaidon, 2003; ;

Appendix 36: Notes on England's Post-Morris Architect/Designers

2. Charles F. A. Voysey (1857-1941)

F. A. Voysey: Refined Simplicity

Voysey's Retail Contributions

Definitions Needed

Impact on America of Britain's New Architecture

Impact:-- Arts and Crafts Movements in America in the First Decade of the 20th Century

David Gebhard, "C. F. A. Voysey- to and from America", The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 30, No. 4 December 1971, pages 304-312

Arthur H. Mackmurdo (1851-1942)

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