Mahogany veneered etagère

Charles Robert Ashbee, 1863-1942

Manufacturer: Guild of Handicraft

73 x 79 x 20 1/2 inches (185.5 x 201 x 52 cm)

circa 1895

Fine Art Society, London

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The Guild of Handicraft was set up by C R Ashbee in 1888 in the East End of London an area of poverty and high unemployment. He trained craftsmen to work in the Guild making metalwork, leatherwork, silver, jewellery and furniture mainly to Ashbee's own designs. Early pieces were rough and amateurish but construction and finishes were soon refined. In 1898 the Guild made furniture for the Darmstadt Palace of the Grand Duke of Hesse to designs by H. M. Baillie Scott. The workshops moved to the Cotswolds in 1901 but could not survive commercial pressures and fierce competition and closed in 1907.

References

Spring '99. London: The Fine Art Society, 1999. Catalogue no. 39.

Last modified July 1999