I am new to this today. I dont understand how this article can be described as "Vanity" and is likely to be deleted ? It is a well considered, articulate, informative, factually correct and unique ! I am a professional writer and published author ! Please advise . I have tried getting in touch with an adminstrator.


A History of Designer Makers by Jeremy Broun


‘Art for everyone’ – William Morris. Circa 1895 ‘Why are we all doing this ! ’ – Barnaby Scott (founder of DMOU in 2003).

The vitality of designer makers in Britain today has its roots in the English Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th Century and in a sense also shares much of the energy of Art Nouveau. I say this because there was then and is now a clear reaction to the order of the day, expressed in diverse individual artistic expression. Some have argued that the diversity of Art Nouveau became so contradictory that it led to its demise. It was a brief and exciting period of artisan craftsmanship and sheer artistry in a range of materials across several countries. The current British movement of designer makers appears to be longer lasting and perhaps because underpinning the diversity there is a common theme of practical functionality, very much the English tradition. An essential conservatism one might say !

The values of the Arts & Crafts were mainly fitness for purpose, an honest use of material and a joy of craftsmanship at a time when the worker was being robbed of his pride by the advent of the machine. Its main exponent William Morris cried ‘Let us be masters of machines and not their slaves’. He may have been a mediaeval revivalist but not a Luddite ! The contemporary Designer Maker movement certainly embraces the machine as a vital part of economic survival and could arguably lead the way forward. It is the way the hand and machine is used on a scale which is miniscule compared to mass production that gives the work of the designer maker its character and significance. The term ‘designer maker’ evolved from ‘designer craftsman’ in the late Nineteen Seventies during a period that has been called the British Furniture Craft Revival (alongside the other craft disciplines). The word ‘craftsman’ was beginning to be devalued in popular culture with its obvious sexist connotation. Unlike Studio Pottery, Furniture lacked a single philosophical base and was more fragmented. I think many would agree is about the most difficult craft to establish and sustain not least because of its isolation. The demise of apprenticeships being replaced by a new breed of graduate furniture makers emerging from institutions such as The Royal College of Art in the Seventies formed a loose group of independent makers brought together at exhibitions and through the developing craft media. A handful of trained designers were turning their backs on the prospects of a career in an unimaginative and hidebound mass production industry to set up “cottage” workshops. David Colwell of “Trannon” was a typical example. Martin Grierson was an Industrial designer in the Fifties and set up his workshop in the mid Seventies. Alan Peters was one of the very few with direct links with the Arts and Crafts Movement having apprenticed to Edward Barnsley he then established his workshops in the Sixties. The Barnsley Workshop survives today and still offers apprenticeships. Again I draw comparison with Art Nouveau whose name was derived from a shop in Paris belonging to Siegfried Bing at the end of the 19th Century. The main catalyst of the Designer maker movement, in my opinion, was briefly the Prestcote Gallery in Oxfordshire – a meeting of the country’s leading craft furniture makers ranging from the honoured Sir Edward Barnsley (in his latter years) to the “Star Wars” furniture of Fred Baier a freshman of the RCA. I remember well because I was priviliged to be amongst this small group of makers. Happening around that time was the formation of the Crafts Council (which grew from the Crafts Advisory Committee) as a Public funding body, its media outlet Crafts magazine and the emergence of John Makepeace ‘the finest furniture maker since Chippendale’ ! So in effect all these forces interacted and were arguably a collective catalyst. Why do I single out the Prestcote Gallery ? Firstly it was a private enterprise founded on a passion for furniture by its owner Ann Hartree a musician. Some of the funding came from her friend Ann Crossland, from the Diaries of her husband MP Richard Crossland. (Another paradox - one could be provocative and say the money came indirectly from the power of Government but the initiative was private/individual and history tells us that true revolution comes from the ground !) Prestcote appeared briefly in the late Seventies, drew both makers and public and then suddenly disappeared (just like Art Nouveau !). But the seeds had been sown. It was an exciting showcase drawing furniture makers out of their isolation to pitch their skills against each other ! There were even fierce debates during the exhibitions sparked by one particularly verbose maker, a far cry from the silent and well mannered exhibitions of today ! One felt something exciting was really happening and the magazines an newspapers kept their pens on the pulse.

I believe that Prestcote, in its brief appearance, gave momentum to a movement and throughout the Eighties this small group of furniture makers, perhaps a dozen or twenty strong shared the same exhibition platform throughout the land. Peter Collinette, editor of “The Woodworker” magazine called us “The Gang of 84” and in that particular year it was reported in ‘World of Interiors’ magazine that there were no less than three major exhibitions (Camden Art Centre, the London Coffee Information Centre and Katherine House Gallery in Marlborough). I recall a spectacular barley twist limed oak and slate top table by John Makepeace and another interesting spiral stack laminated coffee table by Johhny Hawkes. I had never met Toby Winteringham but was familiar with his work at these exhibitions. 1984 was a zenith for furniture and perhaps laid a transition marker between the Craft Revival period and the present movement.

Paradoxically while the country seemed to go quiet and most of the magazines throughout the Nineties went retro and the words ‘heritage’ and ‘tradition’ were flogged to death, a gradual explosion from what was formerly a handful of contemporary workshops seem to emerge which some say now totals between 300 and 400 nationwide. At the end of the Seventies John Makepeace had moved his workshop from Farnborough Barn in Oxfordshire to a Stately Home in Dorset where he set up his famous Parnham School for furniture makers. Mix in with that a litte Royal blood in the form of student nephew to the Queen and inevitable media attention together with some fairly high asking prices for furniture and Furniture making was becoming a recognized feature of the cultural landscape and an attractive lifestyle choice.

In the 70's and 80's, Rycotewood College in Oxfordshire under the forward thinking stewardship of Chris Simpson an ex RCA graduate, flourished as a prominent college for training designer makers and many of the visiting tutors and advisors were leading practitioners such as John Coleman, Ashley Cartwright, Rupert Williamson, Neil Henderson and Andrew Varah.

The harvest of fresh young graduates emerging from Parnham House and Rycotewood in particular in the Eighties and Nineties formed the backbone of the current movement. This is not to belittle the growing number of independent workshops established by self taught furniture makers, perhaps gleaning the tricks of the trade from the specialist magazines emerging also and from the exhibitions. The auction houses began to play their part with Sotheby's taking the lead at the First Sale of Contemporary British Crafts in 1980. All the furniture sold. I saw my own work come under the hammer and indeed it was an unprecedented event for living artist craftsmen.

But the growth of furniture makers was not evenly matched by an expansion of retail outlets – mainly craft galleries. One in particular held the British flag flying since the early Eighties is Artizana Furniture in Cheshire run by Iraqi-Americans Jemila and Ramez Ghazoul. The Celebration of Craftsmanship exhibitions by Betty Norbury, wife of the renowned wood sculptor Ian, became an important annual national event and the biggest selling exhibition for promoting furniture craftsmen from the early Nineties.

What’s in a name ? In the bigger picture of what is currently called ‘The Age of Convergence and Globalism it is obviously the job of future historians to decide what they call this present movement in British Furniture making and design. In my recent lecture Furniture Today I have argued that the past thirty years or so has seen a “Golden Age of Furniture Design and Craftsmanship" whereby 'the best work', to quote Alan Peters OBE, 'is equal to if not better than any previous era’. So let’s say this is a working title for the convenience of promoting the craft from within which curiously is vastly unrecognised from outside. Even our heir to the Throne when sitting on one of my chairs in the Eighties, remarked ‘I didn’t realize this sort of thing was going on in Britain’.

The creation of an Internet forum DMOU has allowed a unique opportunity for UK furniture makers to exercise a unique democracy in exchanging ideas as well as hardware associated with the craft. This is mostly the brainchild of a talented self-taught furniture maker Barnaby Scott of Waywood Furniture whose first Internet posting was in February 2003. In it he outlined a loose template for encouraging other furniture makers to join in. One of his questions was ‘Why are we all doing this !’ I suppose if you ask a mountaineer why he battles against the odds to climb to the highest peaks he might point his finger at the mountain and say ‘because it exists’.