Liberty's Furniture 1875 -1915

Liberty’s Furniture 1875-1915 The Birth of Modern Interior Design Daryl Bennett

Contents Acknowledgements

6

Introduction

7

1 The Long Tradition: A Taste for the Exotic

10

2 The House Beautiful

38

3 Liberty:The Enchanted Cave

60

4 Art Furniture

88

5 The Growth of an Influence

154

6 The End of an Era

214

7 The Later Years

244

8 Collecting Liberty Furniture

292

Brief Chronology

320

Liberty & Co. Catalogues at the National Art Library

321

A Selection of Mottoes used on Furniture by Liberty & Co.

322

Bibliography

323

Index

325

2.The House Beautiful

2.13. J.W.Waterhouse, RA. The Missal, 1902;The charm of leaded glass depicted here in the perfect setting. Art Journal, 1909 2.14. ‘Spring’, stencilled and painted panel from a Liberty & Co. hall robe; 41 x 14cm. See also pl. 6.57.

46

One recurring theme in the evolution of Arts and Crafts imagery, certainly for Liberty, was the image of a lady in a flowing gown looking out into the garden of a medieval castle, or poised delicately against a background of stained glass and red roses.These images in painting, tapestry and embroidery somehow appear to be a symbol of nostalgia, suggestive of a sense of loss

2.The House Beautiful

or longing which was perhaps also driven by a reaction to the horrors of the industrialised Victorian society.

They were also a symbol of the long love affair of the middle classes with ‘Olde England’. It was a theme which had gained strength since the early days when Morris and painters of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood joined forces, and it continued through to the work of Waterhouse in the twentieth century; even in 1905, Liberty was still featuring beautiful and wistful ladies in their Dress and Decoration catalogue.

2.15. Liberty & Co. Dress and Decoration catalogue, 1905.

‘Dorothy’ is shown in a seventeenth-century house dress of Tyrian silk in a room featuring stylised rose decoration in leaded glass, fabric and wall-stencilling.

2.16. Liberty & Co. mahogany cabinet with leaded glass bullions; enamel label; approx. h. 104cm, w. 69cm, d. 52cm.

Courtesy Studio 1 Antiques 2.17. Liberty & Co. small mahogany sideboard with leaded glass; applied label; w. 133cm, h. 128cm.

Courtesy Woolley and Wallis

47

4. Art Furniture

Quaint Legends in the Library In the library, a traditional note is struck by the stout table very much in the style of Phillip Webb, but the built in bookshelves are particularly interesting with the little Hobbit-like leaded glass corner cabinet, the long strap hinges, and the gently arched arcades on shelves supported by turned bulbous columns. There is a reference in the text to the use of mottoes: ‘Quaint and appropriate legends from Chaucer and other Early English Poets decorate the frieze of the bookcase and the result combines successfully the dignity of the Gothic style with the comfort and convenience demanded by modern requirements.’35 Curiously, the library illustration, which also appears in later versions of the Handbook does not show these legends, though there are mottoes in the later designs for a library shown in the Handbooks from 1895 and 1890. Another Wyburd feature which seems to suggest

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the development of the Arts and Crafts style, is the decoration on the fire hood which featured a Viking long ship with a prow in the shape of a sea monster; this may be the first version of the design which appears in Wyburd’s work in later years. It is particularly interesting to see the corner cupboard in this sketch (which was repeated in later versions of the Handbook). The design with curved sides which enclose the shelf seems much like an early version of the library cabinet in the Liberty Inexpensive Furniture catalogue of 1906.

4.55. Liberty & Co. Handbook of Sketches, 1895. The Library Gothic first shown in the 1890 Handbook as a library designed

by Liberty & Co.The sketch is initialled CH/0 for Carl Hentschel an engraver of sketches for printing; see note 44.

4. Art Furniture

4.56. A rare Liberty & Co. oak corner cabinet with leaded glass and hand-beaten copper hinges; possibly part of a library or fireplace fitting; h. 60cm, d. 44cm. Lock stamped Liberty & Co. 4.57. Liberty & Co. oak corner bookcase c.1907 with a Liberty & Co. ivorine label; h. 199cm, d. 61cm.

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4. Art Furniture

4.89. Liberty & Co. mahogany ‘Shakespeare’ chair with inlaid design and ivorine label.

Courtesy Christies 4.90. Liberty & Co. oak chair.

The handbooks feature several styles of ingle-nook: the English Renaissance Dining Room, with an arcaded shelf and rather classical columns; the End of Dining Room Jacobean (reproduced from Handbook 3), where almost half the room is devoted to the dramatic ingle (note that there are Wyburd initials on this drawing); and the Hall and Staircase Jacobean featuring a motto, leaded lights, tiny armoured and glazed cupboards with cosy settles either side (see pls. 4.85, 4.86 and 4.87).

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Courtesy Patch Rogers

4.91. (opposite, top) Liberty & Co. Handbook of Sketches, 1895.

The Library Dutch in robust neo Gothic style with the introduction of heart-pierced decoration and the motto ‘Reading maketh a full man & writing an exact man’.

4.92. (opposite, bottom) Liberty & Co. Handbook of Sketches, 1900. ‘Drawing Room Recent Developments’ p. 53.Watercolour; a drawing of this mantel with beak-like hood, appears in the Liberty & Co. stock book dated 31/5/0 no. 8567. Note also the spear-like piercing to the table – a design used later in the Compton newspaper stand (see pl. 6.23).

4. Art Furniture

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5.The Growth of an Influence

Growth of the market Liberty certainly seemed to have the ability to tune into and to amplify trends in taste. However, to understand the growth of the Liberty furnishing empire, it is useful to bear in mind the increasing population of London, and the significant growth of the middle classes – those with administrative, professional or managerial positions – and the increase in house building, particularly from the turn of the century onwards. In terms of simple economics, the growth of the middle classes meant an increase in the number of potential customers for Liberty & Co., either as visitors to the shop or as mail order buyers.There was also an expansion in the market for furnishing, as thousands of new homes were built and furniture became a fashionable necessity for a wider social group. In London, demand from the more affluent was catered for by large department stores – furnishers such as Harrods, Hamptons, Heal’s, Maples,Warings and Liberty, who each had very active advertising and

5.17. Liberty & Co. oak cabinet.

Westminster City Archive

5.18. S.J. Warings advert for fumed oak furniture.

The House, May 1899 5.19. (opposite, top) Liberty & Co. oak cabinet with leaded glass.

Courtesy Christie’s 5.20. (opposite, bottom) J.S. Henry feature; the Rembrandt.

Furnishing and Decoration and The Furniture Gazette, 1897

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5.The Growth of an Influence

marketing. In addition there were the large cabinet makers and furnishers – companies such as Messrs Khan, Harris Lebus, Oetzmann’s, and many smaller specialist furniture makers including J.S. Henry, Shapland and Petter, Morris and Co., and J.P. White (who made up Baillie Scott designs) all competing for trade. It is interesting to note that the J.S. Henry sideboard in the Rembrandt suite illustrated is remarkably similar to one pictured in the Liberty archive at Westminster, and may well have been inspired by it (see Ch. 8).

As home decoration became an artistic activity, it was not uncommon to see ‘the latest fashion’ in furniture, and even wallpaper from companies such as Jeffery & Co. and Essex & Co., being advertised art journals

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5.The Growth of an Influence

motto (pl. 5.76) which is discussed below (a version without the motto has also been observed). The recent discovery of a pair of oak cabinets matching the sideboard (pl. 5.78), reinforces the assertion that special pieces were made; they were possibly commissioned from Liberty & Co. but not shown in catalogues of the day. This creates an exciting prospect for collectors.

It is particularly interesting to read the contemporary commentary on these pieces in the Art Journal (see pp. 178 and 179) in terms of the emphasis on the severity and simplicity of their design.

Compared to designs such as the Athelstan wardrobe, the construction of these pieces is actually quite

5.75. Liberty & Co. oak sideboard (no. 9338). The name is indecipherable, but there appears to be a carved motto.

Westminster City Archive 5.76. Liberty & Co. oak sideboard with carved motto. A really superb piece in original condition, part of a complete dining room set; ivorine label.

Private collection 5.77. Detail of the Liberty & Co. cabinet showing the glass bullions.

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5.The Growth of an Influence

complex, and the intricate decoration in carving, metalwork and leaded glass is very far removed from ‘simplicity’. One imagines the writer, initially influenced by the doctrines of Voysey urging simplicity, to take the view that ‘modern’ furniture, if exciting and attractive, was ‘simple’ no matter how complicated it might have been to make.

An Artistic Lavatory? 1897 An article in the Cabinet Maker in 1897 considered several furniture makers but gave Liberty a firm pat on the back. Looking across several similar businesses in the London market of the day the author notes: ‘The last decade has also been a marvellous period for the production of knick-knacks. Indeed the trade has largely wandered from the serious and the solid, and gone over to the fanciful and flimsy.’38

Wylie and Lochead were commended for their ‘pretty apartment’ consisting of a Sheraton dining room, ‘so restful and homely with its rich mahogany’.

Story and Triggs also won favour with their ‘humble and familiar kitchen chair’, and their fire screen in ‘dainty mahogany with its drawn silk wings’. The reviewer then draws attention to the fact that ‘another style of furniture has arisen for which the word ‘Quaint’ seems to be the only safe and proper name. It has of course grown out of the square and sensible ideas which Eastlake and Talbert advocated twenty years ago.’ Commending the trend for ‘fresh forms and shapings new’, he praises a new ‘quaint’ set of artistic furniture by Messrs Bartholomew and Fletcher ‘stained green or a blackish brown ... and remarkably

5.78. Liberty & Co. pair of oak cabinets with stamped locks and Liberty label; h: 198cm, w: 87cm, d: 52cm.

Private collection

191

9

ISBN 978 1 85149 689 1

58950

781851 496891

£45.00/$89.50