Pair of Glazed Bookcases
Designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852)
c.1860
Height 89" (226 cm); width 43" (109 cm); depth 15.5" (39 cm)
Oak with brass fittings, stamped Gillow; fittings marked Hart.
Appearing in the catalogue of an exhibition devoted to Pugin, this piece must have been made up later to his original design. Of the style of such pieces, Michael Whiteway writes, "It was ... with furniture that the greatest break with tradition occurred. Sometime around 1835 Pugin started to move away from the decorative Romantic Gothic style, a theatrical style without substance, and began to design a series of totally pared down structural designs...."
Whiteway suggests various reasons for Pugin's "radical change in thinking," concluding that "it was probably a combination of a greater understanding of gothic buildings, a pragmatic need for economy, and an innate understanding of structure brought about by the study of boat construction, whilst enjoying his passion for sailing."
Left: Hart and Son's advertisement in The Church Builder, p. 2 in the second issue for 1867. Right: Detail of bookcase.
He also points out that "to facilitate his enormous workload Pugin collaborated with a few trusted manufacturers, Minton for ceramics, Hardman for metalwork, Crace for furniture and decoration and Myers for building and joiner-made furniture." In this later piece, two well-known firms have been involved, Gillow, and Hart: the latter would have been Hart and Son, who exhibited and won prizes at the major exhibitions of the day, and advertised regularly as "Ecclesiastic and Domestic Metal Workers" in the appropriate journals, like The Church Builder. — Jacqueline Banerjee.
References
The Church Builder, 1867: 2. Google Books. Free e-book. Web. 24 May 2014.
Whiteway, Michael. A. W. N. Pugin 1812-1852: An Exhibition Catalogue. London: The Fine Art Society with Haslam & Whiteway Ltd., 7-23 December 2011.
The Fine Art Society, London, has most generously given its permission to use information, images, and text from its catalogues in the Victorian Web. This generosity has led to the creation of hundreds and hundreds of the site's most valuable documents on painting, drawing, sculpture, furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, metalwork, and the people who created them. The copyright on text and images from their catalogues remains, of course, with the Fine Art Society.
Last modified 24 May 2014