Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau Chairs
CHAIRS Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and after : 1860-1930
The reader is not going to be bored by another harangue on the differences between the Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau. That is done frequently throughout other sections of the book. Most of the chairs here will be known loosely as ‘art nouveau’ by the trade and many collectors. So be it.
We have illustrated a chair by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for information even though many would claim that it should not be in a Guide of this sort. We dispute this hotly as we explained in the Introduction. Although
chairs by Mackintosh are perhaps the province of Sotheby’s Belgravia and other fine art specialists when it comes to sale values, this book is used as much as an art reference work as it is a Price Guide. Besides, our
readers are not beyond finding a Mackintosh chair and an indication of value is what they are paying for.
A William Morris rush-seated ‘Sussex’ armchair as shown in the firm’s catalogues of the 1870s. This chair is also featured in the Country and Kitchen section but it is legitimately shown here because the middle-class
trendies who bought Morris & Co. furniture used these chairs for dining and occasional use, thus reflecting the genuine role that Morris & Co. played in the Arts and Crafts Movement. Many rush-seated chairs were
produced in emulation of this precedent. So there! 1865-1895
The use of rush seating seems to have been an almost morally-inspired move by the members of the Arts and Crafts Movement, as though rush seats and plain oak, with their `country’ connotations, were somehow
less decadent than stuffed Victorian upholstery. But then architects have always been puritans at heart. Add to that characteristic the socialist principles of William Morris and where do you land On something fairly hard, usually. It was Voysey and others, designing in what is known as the ‘vernacular’ tradition, i.e. in the native idiom who produced chairs in clean lines made of plain oak and with seats of rush. This chair exhibits all these characteristics and the motifs, now associated with ‘art nouveau’, such as the heart shape, used by Voysey. 1890-1910
The celebrated design by A.H. Mackmurdo of the Century Guild. A chair with a high back and original upholstery with characteristic ‘heart’ shapes. A similar chair is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. c. 1885
Another chair by the
William Morris firm, in which the
tulip motif has been used in the inlaid panels in the back uprights. Again, based on a traditional form but this time the width of the back and the length of the arms is a bit attenuated. 1900-1912
A rush-seated chair by William Burges (q.v.) painted dark green, with painted decoration. It has been remarked (by Michael White-way) that the chair looks like something out of a modern Italian cafe. Possibly slightly pre-dates the William Morris chairs but at this point Burges and Morris were fairly close.
An oak rush-seated chair in a style going on from progressive-art nouveau towards something more modern, as evidenced by the arched cross-stretcher between the legs. The tapering back with the pierced ‘handle’ looks most uncomfortable. 1905-1915
More rush seating, more vertical discomfort. Very much a ‘clean’ archi-
tect’s design, the back following a model by William Birch. c. 1900
Plain oak, rush seat, but not particularly likely to have been made by a ‘known’ designer too stiff, a bit pinched. 1980-1910
Chair designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh of Glasgow, now famous for the elongated shape, the low proportion of the seat and the strange motifs, weepy eyes, seagullsviewed-end-on and other Mackintosh
hallmarks. Before you mock or turn away, reflect that Mackintosh designed his furniture to make specific impacts in rooms of high proportion or in the now-famous cafes and tea rooms where other designs would have been unnoticed. His work now sells as ‘art’ rather than furniture, hence the price. 1890-1910
An art nouveau armchair with decorated back panel in characteristic floral design. The wavy arm supports are a ‘quaint’ feature. Possibly Liberty’s. May have had a rush seat subsequently covered over. c. 1900
A more commercial art nouveau chair with characteristic heart shapes cut through. The seat looks like a repair job.
Commercial oak chair with a rexine or leatherette seat cover fixed by brass studs. Owing something to ‘art nouveau’ styles due to the tapering back and legs ending in ‘block’ feet but fairly mass-produced in appearance. 1890-1910
Another oak art nouveau chair, quite good quality and stiffened for strength by the curved apron under the seat. An enduring design.
Arm and single chair of commercial production with drop-in rush seats.
c. 1900 Singles in sets, each 30 40 arm, each 50 00
A somewhat Scandinavian - looking chair with leather panels in the bobbined back and a leather seat. The panels are moulded with flowers and birds. Very ,arts and crafts’.
A lattice-back chair by Ernest Gimson. He was fond of the lattice back and many who admired him followed this feature. Note that the chair is deceptively simple; it is beautifully made and carefully thought out. The
box-and-ebony stringing lines inlaid in the back uprights are characteristic of the later Arts and Crafts Movement.
c.1915 Set of six 3,000 4,000 Photo: Courtesy Jeremy Cooper Ltd.
Another lattice back, this time by Ambrose Heal, in oak. A very traditional, almost 18th century chair. As it is a furnisher’s chair, the seat has been upholstered and covered in a contemporary material, rather than the
rush seat of Gimson type.
1910-1920 Set of six 2,000 2,500 Photo: Courtesy Michael Whiteway
More ‘Cotswold’ lattice back chairs, this time with leather seats and cabriole/pad foot front legs.
Three chairs with wooden seats and loose cushions from Percy Wells, c.1920, intended for ‘the small house’ or cottage. The design is an interesting blend of simple sub-18th century lower halves, combined with top
halves that are also derived from the 18th century and art furniture. Wells disapproved of all the modern chairs in “tens of thousands of cottages and small houses in the streets of our towns and cities”. He must have been busier than a church visitor. The only good examples, to him, were Windsors, stick, or ladderback types, but wait for it they were not ‘easy to dust’. Deplorably, people would think of Windsors as kitchen chairs and would hence buy stuffed-seat plush chairs with a little bad carving on the back and, still worse, polishing or varnishing the legs. Wells’ designs aimed at being strong, comfortable and easy to clean. They were made in any hard wood such as oak, elm, beech or birch, and were intended to strike a medium between ‘kitchen’ chairs and ‘flashy and flimsy’ modern chairs. They were pretty successful in meeting his objectives and survive in large numbers, with variants in the back design. Not far removed from the small oak Edwardian chairs illustrated earlier, but far better in proportion and design.
In sets, each 15 25 c. 1920
A mahogany ‘carving’ chair designed by Percy Wells c. 1920. The legs and arms are distinctly Sheraton in form but the ladder-back is much more forceful and owes something to the Heal-Gordon Russell school of
design.
Good fan-back dining chairs, of 18th century inspiration, of a type made in walnut, oak or mahogany. An honest simple design which is again thin below the seat the front seat rail would look much better if it were
deeper. 1920-1930
An oak chair with a ’sunburst’ back art deco is on the way. An otherwise unremarkable chair except for the thoughtful chamfering of the square front legs at the edges. 1910-1920
Lattice-back chairs of the 1920s, made in oak walnut or mahogany. Probably inspired by the Ernest Gimson-Gordon Russell school of lattice backs but in this case from Maurice Adams. Actually these examples by Adams are well-proportioned, if a bit severe, and their modernity is in an 18th century tradition, whereas Gimson, in one of his lattice-backs, terminated the square section front legs in little, scrolled feet, which must have set even his most ardent followers’ teeth on edge. 1920-1930
An interesting design of oak chair, showing the arm, or ,carver’ and single chair from a set. The back, with its simple cross-lattice, reflects influences going back to Russell, Gimson and even Godwin, but the arms are not particularly attractive. The aforementioned designers would not have approved either of the incised carving on the top rail and the front legs, introduced by a commercial manufacturer to give more popular appeal to a rather severe design. c.1930
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