Furniture focus catalogue 4

FURNITURE FOCUS

Interior of Lair, Dundas Street, Edinburgh Photo: Digital Design Consultancy Ltd.

FURNITURE FOCUS 1-25 JUNE 2016 We are delighted to present a focus on three contemporary furniture makers and two local businesses specialising in furniture this June. The gallery will feature Edinburgh based contemporary furniture designer and maker Namon Gaston, the pioneering furniture of Andrew Holmes from Stoke-on-Trent and Edward Teasdale from Cumbria.

Beyond individual makers we are raiding Lair and The Thrie Estaits - two independent businesses situated on Dundas Street in Edinburgh. Xanthe Weir is the founder of Lair who specialises in 20th century and post war furniture and design. Peter Powell of The Thrie Estaits sells a wonderful selection of antiques, collectables and objets d’art.

NAMON GASTON ANDREW HOLMES EDWARD TEASDALE THE THRIE ESTAITS LAIR

NAMON GASTON Namon Gaston has been designing and making furniture from his Edinburgh based Studio since 2005. His career has merged both disciplines of design and craftsmanship.

Namon graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2001 with a First Class Honours Degree in Furniture Design. He then sought experience working alongside leading design houses in London where he tuned his abilities in a professional design environment. Building on this knowledge, Namon continued his development as an apprentice cabinetmaker in rural Scotland, honouring the traditional craftsmanship to which he is rooted. Namon continues to work diversely, designing for commercial production as well as the bespoke manufacture of private commissions. His award winning furniture has become synonymous for its high quality, honest design and rich understanding for the materials with which he works. “During my career as a furniture designer and maker I have specialised in seating.

To me the chair has been a template for some of the most iconic designs of the 20th Century, and continues to be a source of inspiration. It is an object that identifies with the times, the environment and the user. Influenced by the work of mid century Scandinavian designers, I strive to create designs which are elegant yet unassuming, whilst maintaining the essential requirements of practicality and comfort.�

Namon Gaston, 2016.

Oxbow Chair Available as an armchair and a side chair, the Oxbow has a refined classic aesthetic with an unrivalled level of comfort.

Profiles within the frame house the leather slings of the seat and back elements, captured by internal lengths of dowel. The leather upholstery, made from traditional oak bark tanned Swedish hide will mould over time, developing a rich patina with maturity.

Oxbow Armchair Natural European oak with oak bark tanned Swedish leather seat and back slings H80 x W61 x D50 cms ÂŁ1,750

Oxbow Side Chair Natural European oak with oak bark tanned Swedish leather seat and back slings H80 x W61 x D50 cms ÂŁ1,450

Wu Bench Natural European oak with a vegetable tanned leather seat pad (available to commission) H72.5 x W125 x D48 cms ÂŁ4,250

Wu Bench An elegant hallway bench constructed from European oak.

The design features steam bent back supports and a vegetable tanned leather seat pad. The bench has four identical legs, of which the back two are rotated from the centre point of the upper support to offer improved ergonomics.

The Wu Bench has been awarded the ‘Production Furniture’ category at the 2012 Wood Awards and received the 2012 Visual Arts Scotland award for Applied Arts.

Wu Bench Fumed European oak with a vegetable tanned black leather seat pad H72.5 x W125 x D48 cms £4,250

ANDREW HOLMES

While Andrew Holmes’ work fits in with today’s environmental concerns and the obvious benefits of recycling, his influence forty years ago were artists who used found materials for their intrinsic qualities. His materials are carefully chosen for their colour, provenance and relevance to the piece being constructed.

Moving to Stoke on Trent in 1974, Andrew Holmes found a cornucopia of material in the slum clearance areas where nineteenth century workers houses were being demolished.

He uses the inherent qualities of this material to make assemblages and constructions - totems and cupboards which were warm memorials to the past.

His pieces always invite involvement from the spectator with their opening doors, drawers and unfolding parts. This led to work with a more functional purpose, firstly clock cases and then practical pieces of furniture. Andrew Holmes’ early work was domestically-sized and constructed in wood with some metal elements.

However, he was interested in using other found building materials in his work and in the 1980’s and 90’s he undertook some exterior publicly-funded landscaped constructions in and around Stoke on Trent, in bricks, tiles and stone.

Brickwork Chest 2011 Chest made from found natural coloured wood with panels made from printed wooden boxes and crates H61 x W125 x D54 cms ÂŁ3,900

Brick & Tile Sideboard 2015 Found, painted and natural wood from a church organ, domestic doors, farm fencing, oak door frame and galvanised steel drain pipe H101 x W154 x D43 cms ÂŁ4,950

Brick & Tile Sideboard, 2015 (detail)

Xanthe Weir moved to Edinburgh in Autumn 2013 after many years in London working for fashion brands, most recently Paul Smith.

Her interest and passion for mid 20th century furniture began about 10 years ago and she has been a collector since. Always interested in design and craftsmanship many of her favourite pieces are almost sculptural where the relationship between fashion, and form fuses into one. Xanthe’s eye is completely personal and it has to be able to work in her own home before she could buy it. The excitement of uncovering something that has been neglected and seeing it restored and revitalised to its full glory has been becoming an addiction, hence the launch of Lair…her house can’t take any more furniture.

“Lair is an antidote to everything that’s cheap and mass-produced and fake. We don’t sell replicas. Our hallmark is authenticity. That’s because we respect not just the designers but the craftsmen who first created these beautiful pieces of furniture.”

Xanthe Weir, 2016.

Xanthe Weir in Lair, Edinburgh, 2016 Photo: Douglas Gibb

An Edinburgh New Town interior, featuring furniture from Lair, 2016

Italian Vitrine Brass and Glass Coffee Table H43 x L130 x W70 cms £1,800

“Our hallmark is authenticity. That’s because we respect not just the designers but the craftsmen who first created these beautiful pieces of furniture.”

Xanthe Weir, 2016.

Romeo Rega Italian Chrome & Brass Console Table H75 x W40 x L140 cms £1,350

Willy Rizzo Cocktail Trolley Polished Steel cocktail trolley with 4 glass shelves, 3 bottle holders detail & chrome feet H61 x D43.5 x L82 cms ÂŁ1,400

Designed by Kai Kristiansen for Feldballes Mobelfrik in the 1960’s. This desk features four drawers with Kristiansen’s distinctive circular pulls. It has a bookshelf back and a hidden bar. A tambour door scrolls to reveal a rotating bar lined in its original starburst etched glass. Above the bar is a pull-out rotating circular drawer. The desk is kidney shaped and can be placed in the middle of any room or office.

Kai Kristiansen for Feldballes Mobelfrik Model 54 Teak Boomerang Desk H76 x L137 x D71 cms ÂŁ2,500

Thorn Table Lamps Italian brass and Murano glass with black linen shades H105 x Diameter 44 cms (inclusive of shade) ÂŁ2,250 (sold as a pair) Florence Knoll for Knoll Associates of NYC Rosewood sideboard with sliding doors and the original black leather pullhandles, presented on a chrome frame with a sycamore interior and shelves H66 x L183 x W46 cms ÂŁ3,950

EDWARD TEASDALE Edward Teasdale appeared on the UK craft scene in the 1980’s at a time when ‘creative salvage’, ‘recycling’, and wider environmental issues were having a strong influence on design theory and practice. His forms and construction make common reference to a rationale of both formality and utility while the individuality of each piece comes from interplay of scale, proportion and sculptural detail. In contrast to his pared down and refined approach to design, the wood selected; processes used; and the finishes created do not aim for the perfectly controlled appearance of machine production but accentuate much of the rawness and weathering of the reclaimed natural material used. Teasdale received a National Diploma in Design (Furniture/Interior) in 1965 from Newcastle-upon-Tyne College of Art and a Master of Arts (Art and Design Education) from Manchester Polytechnic in 1984.

“I am drawn to exploring the creative use of reclaimed materials to realise practical and aesthetic ideas. As well as using discarded timber from my locality, I have to use it in conjunction with new timber to realise my ideas. New wood can be obtained any shape and size whereas useable recycled material is more difficult to obtain and invariably found in quite small sizes. These things significantly affect the character of the work. The plain weathered wood collected from the coastal and rural landscape has a neutral visual consistency but the salvaged painted wood is a waste product of urban renewal and varies a great deal in visual character. Collecting and responding to the latter material is a new situation every time and involves a more conscious image building process; making each coloured piece of furniture more unexpected and unrepeatable.” Edward Teasdale, 2014.

Edward Teasdale in his studio, Cumbria

Chest-Seat-Table 2015 Found painted wood and lime wood H50 x D37 x L132 cms £2,900

Peter Powell is the founder of The Thrie Estaits which has been situated on Dundas Street, Edinburgh for over forty years. It is a specialist shop dealing in period objects and furniture for contemporary interiors.

Peter says that The Thrie Estaits mostly gives pleasure to the stressed people going to and from the dentist!

The Scottish Gallery is delighted to work alongside The Thrie Estaits for the exhibition Furniture Focus that will enhance the gallery space with some carefully chosen curiosities this June. All works will be for sale.

Peter Powell within The Thrie Estaits, Dundas Street, Edinburgh, 2016

Oak Foot Warmer Side front to hold charcoal, Dutch late 17th Century H20 x W25 x D23cms £425

Exterior of The Thrie Estaits, Dundas Street, Edinburgh, 2016

Oak Desk (or Bible Box) English, late 17th Century H30 x W67 x D39cms £475

Giltwood and Gesso Pier Glass Mirror In the manner of William Trotter Scottish George III restored.

Prov. Dunrobin Estate, Sutherland. Rescused from castle fire (1915) when it’s partner was lost H131 x W56cms £3,450

Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition FURNITURE FOCUS 1 - 25 June 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.

Wu Bench (detail), Namon Gaston Fumed European oak with a vegetable tanned black leather seat pad