Village Timber Gates is a relatively new firm building bespoke and stock gates and garage doors from sustainably-harvested Scandinavian redwood. Most of their designs are perfectly apropos for an Arts & Crafts home; ledge & brace gates like the Lincoln and Hampshire especially so. They’ve recently put up an extensive gallery of photographs – lots of neat products here, and even if you’re not in the UK it’s a great source of ideas.
woodworking
Frank Lloyd Wright chair seeking authentication
Marie, a reader in Chicago, bought this Frank Lloyd Wright chair several years ago. Can anyone authenticate it, or give us any background information on this design? It looks familiar to chairs at Northome and a few other projects, but is slightly different, and while I’m assuming it was built for a particular project, I couldn’t begin to tell which.
Voysey’s clocks: miscellany
After Wednesday’s post, I’ve been reading a lot about Voysey and his clocks.
He didn’t design all that many, but many contemporary designers – and several contemporary to Voysey – have built clocks in his style. Here are a few originals & paeans to them:
- Christopher Vickers’ clocks, mentioned yesterday, among which most are after Voysey;
- Dickins Auctioneers sold several original Voysey clocks, notably a painted mantel clock for £141,000, an unpainted version for £72,400, and a third for £7,400;
- I’ve got a very high-resolution image of the painted mantel clock available on Flickr (thanks to the Victoria & Albert Museum for that) – this is the clock that was bought from John Jesse for £30,000 in 1998. It is presumed to have belonged to Voysey himself and was made circa 1896;
- Liberty & Co produced a striking polished pewter and enamel clock "in style of Charles Voysey";
- Stickley & Morawe’s clocks were clearly influenced very strongly by Voysey; and
- Hill House Antiques has a Voysey-influenced (complete with heart inlay!) clock for sale.
Christopher Vickers & CFA Voysey
I first encountered Christopher Vickers’ work when a friend showed me photos of a clock he built (he’s also reproduced another famous Voysey clock with which you may be more familiar). Based on C. F. A. Voysey’s original plans, the clock is built from 7,000-year-old bog oak, and is inlaid with (faux) ivory. The original was built by Voysey in 1921 for a client – the same one for whom Voysey designed the beautiful Holly Mount in Beaconsfield. Voysey was known for his clocks, of course; apparently, he loved the confluence of lettering, machine, and furniture that these tiny and complicated objects represented.Vickers is a scholar of all things Voysey, and 20th-century British design in general, with quite a bit of background on this great and often overlooked designer / artist / architect on his website; my own love of Voysey’s work springs mainly from my interest in typography and Voysey’s wonderful and expressive hand-lettering (see the wallpaper advertisement here, taken from Mr. Vickers’ site) – so seeing Vickers’ exceptional work, and through it his obvious love for the combined subtlety and detail that I’ve always appreciated in Voysey, really impressed and resonated with me.
My favorite piece of Voysey-designed furniture in Vickers collection is this replica dining chair with arms, originally designed in 1902. Vickers’ reproduction sells for £1850, and appears to be completely true to the original.
Other impressive bits of Mr. Vickers’ work include unique items of Arts & Crafts lighting; a number of beautiful and useful chests in a variety of sizes and configurations; beautiful and sturdy tables, including some based on Voysey designs for Hollymount and other homes; inlaid wooden boxes; cabinetry and shelving, including several that feature hardware hand-forged by Vickers; and a number of pieces of metalwork, produced in the Gimson-Cotswold tradition in just the way we like it: "by hammer & hand."
Vickers’ work is art and craft, and some of the finest contemporary A&C furniture I’ve seen. If you’re interested, you can see pieces on display from September 10 to 24 at the 2nd annual Arts & Crafts Exhibition in Gloucestershire’s Prinknash Abbey Park; from September 13 to 28, you can actually visit his workshop in Frome, as it will be open to the public during Somerset Art Weeks. His work will also be included in the Ernest Gimson and the Arts & Crafts Movement exhibit in Leicester, November 8 2008 through March 1 2009.
woodworking on Flickr
Flickr user Saltybeagle, aka Brett Bieber, has a very nice shop & is obviously a big fan of the Arts & Crafts aesthetic; some of his recent projects are featured in this 63-item set on Flickr.
User Gizmodyne has his own woodworking projects documented as well, specifically his – very succesful – project to replace the dining room card table with something that would make Gustav quite happy.
Scott Gibson’s Shaker / Craftsman cabinetry
Fine Woodworking has these photographs (by Andy Engel) of some really striking maple & white oak cabinets built by Maine cabinetmaker Scott Gibson for his own home. Take a look at more of the project, and scroll down on that page for a short video.
woodworking injuries – aka “stupid tablesaw tricks”
As always, please use proper safety procedures and gear when using tools that are sharp, pointy, or that could otherwise hurt you or anyone in the vicinity (click for the full, gory thing):
l-r, top to bottom: a b ? d e f
Thanks to the many clumsy woodworkers (and I include myself in that number) on Flickr for these images. Please note that I have left off the most graphic, just so you don’t lose your lunch.
plans for the Limbert double-oval table?
A reader has written in to ask if anyone knows where they can find plans for either Limbert’s double-oval table (speaking of which – check out this neat video about that particular design!) or this Sonoma Craftsman canted trestle dining table, made by Mission Living.If you’ve seen such plans or something very similar to either, please do post in the comments. Thanks!
Rob Bennett, cabinetmaker or scam artist…?
Rob Bennett, a cabinetmaker living in Terre Haute, specializes in faithful recreations of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and other classic Craftsman designs – and also does a fair amount of repair and restoration of antique furniture. His firm, House of Yesteryear, has a modest site that he markets his new items through (including a few items that integrate Motawi and Van Briggle art tile); pay special attention to such details as his Victorian fretwork – it may be the kind of decoration that the A & C movement rebelled against, but it is indicative the level of detail that shines through in all of Bennett’s work. Pictured is Bennett’s newest project, a beautiful 10-foot long Art Nouveau dining room cabinet.Above posted 2005; addendum as of 06.30.08:
Apparently, Mr. Bennett is either a scam artist or a very, very poor businessman; as the comments on this thread – and a half-dozen emails I’ve received from unhappy clients – attest, he’s taken the money & run, and his website, linked above, is now down. If anyone can help get in touch with this fellow, and any guild or trade association he may be involved with, I’m sure his would-be clients would be very appreciative.
Craig Yamamoto, woodworker
Woodworker week (which might turn into a month) continues with Whidbey Island’s Craig Yamamoto, whose fusion of traditional Japanese cabinetry and the simple, subtle lines of Shaker furniture is as attractive as it is useful. He works with sustainably grown and harvested exotics as well as some domestic hardwoods, and as can be seen in the grain and texture of his work, puts an enormous amount of effort nto hand-selecting the woods he uses.Take a look at various galleries of Craig’s work:
