I’ve written on several occasions about my Arts and Crafts period home, built 1896-1897. Because of living here I am very interested in the Arts and Crafts movement. It helps that I love the look of Arts and Crafts period designs, and this aesthetic might be why I fell in love with our home when we first viewed it.
Keen to renovate our house in sympathy with the age when it was built, I have spent a significant amount of time researching the Arts and Crafts period, including learning a lot about the designers, the places they designed, and the style of Arts and Crafts designs. I am now working to, as far as possible, furnish my house with Arts and Crafts antiques. This is time-consuming and fun!
Last week an oak bench/settle was listed for sale in eBay. It was clearly an Arts and Crafts period piece, made in oak with pierced decoration in the Arts and Crafts style. I saw it because I was searching for oak Arts and Crafts bedside cabinets. Even though it isn’t what I was looking for it caught my attention because it is so beautiful, and it was very inexpensive at just £150. I sent the details to Dave, my wonderful husband, and he replied “Go for it!”
So, I did!
The seller contacted me and in his message informed me that it had belonged to his great aunt who knew the maker. I was intrigued because I would date this bench as being made sometime around 1900, certainly not later than 1910. So when we went to collect it I questioned him and his wife about the history of the bench. They were wonderfully forthcoming, and the story is fascinating!
The great aunt, Dorothy Gill, lived in Hawling in the Cotswolds. She was a sheep farmer who built her own home back in the early twentieth century. She lived with the same woman all her life, her “partner”. Her great-niece intimated that this was clearly a lifelong lesbian relationship. Nowadays they would have married, and maybe they did in whatever way they could back then, like our local heroes Anne Lister (Gentleman Jack) and Ann Walker did.
Dorothy was described as a strong character who mixed with artists and literary folk, including J B Priestley. She knew the maker of the bench, who was a local craftsman, though they don’t know if she commissioned it. My conclusion is that she didn’t, because as I said earlier, I believe the bench was made circa 1900-1910, and Dorothy was born circa 1898. (She died around 20 years ago aged 106!). The bench must have had a previous owner from whom she either purchased it or received it as a gift. However, it is known that the maker was a local craftsman in her area that she knew personally.
Hawling in the Cotswolds is midway between two centres of the Cotswolds Arts and Crafts movement. Charles Ashbee founded his Guild of Handicraft in Chipping Camden. Ernest Gimson, Ernest Barnsley and Sidney Barnsley established their furniture workshop at Pinbury Park. My guess is that the local craftsman who made my bench learned his skills at one of these centres. Alas, I have not found a photo online of a similar piece by any known Cotswolds craftsman of the period. Cotswolds Arts and Crafts furniture is generally less decorative than my bench, which is more in the style of some of the furniture made by Liberty and Co or Shapland and Petter. That works for me though, as I much love this more decorative style of Arts and Crafts. It’s a beautiful bench, and I am looking forward to making some cushions for it with Arts and Crafts style fabrics.
A really stunning piece! I love it when there is also a story that goes with furniture pieces. I think the story or the people it was around first are why (sometimes) we acquire a piece of furniture that we love in-spite of itself. As if the previous owners imprinted on it. Love transcends time I guess. Anyway, great find!!