Edward has quietly gone about his business for the last 13 years. Living close to Bath with his wife and young daughter, Olive, who is now two, he savours the days he spends in Sherborne, where he opens the doors of his atelier to the public. Edward is a Dorset boy and spent much of his childhood in the villages close to Dorchester, where he went to school. His early days, spent largely outdoors, have much to answer for. “I remember, even at the age of 8, my bedroom was colour-coordinated and everything had its place. I used to ask my mum to buy different paint colours just for me and I always had an eye for arranging things I’d found on the beach.” As a teen, Edward visited Kettles Yard in Cambridge and was fascinated by ex-Tate gallery curator Jim Ede’s collection of abstract and modern pieces from the mid twentieth century, including works by Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, and Alfred Wallis. The arrangements of found objects including, stone, wood and vernacular furniture inspired Edward to continue his accumulation of materials from country walks and coastal visits. Further inspiration was to be found in the kitchens, outbuildings and servants quarters of country homes. “I was drawn far more to the visual stories of old lichen covered bricks and peeling paint than the austere, heavily polished portraits to be found upstairs.” Edward didn’t head to art school, as one might have expected. Instead, at 19, he decided to go travelling and spent a year exploring Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Inevitably, on his return he was broke, but fortunately his friend, Guy Schwinge (now a partner at Dukes Auctioneers), introduced him to Simon Dodge, who was after someone to work in his shop in Sherborne. “I got to know the restorer who worked in the shed at the back of the shop,” says Edward. “I used to spend my lunch hour with him and he began to teach me furniture restoration.
Soon I was starting to buy stuff at auction myself and doing them up in my spare time. Then Simon let me sell them in his shop and that got me interested in this business.” After 18 months, the itch to move on came and Edward headed to London. He took on a range of jobs including landscape gardener and estate agent before settling for a course in product and furniture design at High Wycombe Furniture College. After just a couple of years, Edward found himself back in Sherborne. “I worked at Charterhouse Auctioneers for a while,” he explains, “where I would buy bits and pieces of furniture and do them up, just like I had done before. In January 2004, when I was 28, I opened my own shop, here.” “At first I literally had four or five pieces of furniture at a time in the front, then someone in the trade would come and buy the lot and the shop would be empty,” laughs Edward. “But luckily my mother lent me some money. I was able ditch my Ford Escort, buy a van and extend the shop – that was when I really got into it.” At the back of the showroom is his workshop – all whitewashed walls, crackling log-burner and music turned up – where Edward works on his furniture restoration. “I am not really a salesman,” he says. “People come in and I will say, ‘hi,’ but really I just let them wander round.” We muse on why it is people still feel the need to touch and see, despite the many possibilities of shopping on the Internet. “A lot of people come in here and run their hand along a table or cupboard – they like to touch furniture in the flesh – and it is what they feel that makes them buy a certain piece,” says Edward. So what draws him to a certain piece of furniture? “Well, of course, I do think about my market – but often I get excited because it is a great thing, often a one-off, and I have got to have it. Each piece of furniture is individual – that is why it is so interesting. I am never > www.sherbornetimes.co.uk | 47