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An antique dining table by American Arts & Crafts furniture designer William Price was the top selling lot at an auction in Lambertsville, New Jersey, realising $237,500 (£149,600). (more…)
You may not be familiar with A.W Pugin, but to antique specialists he is the genius behind the Gothic Revival movement; architect of the Big Ben clock tower and Palace of Westminster interiors. Now, a new BBC TV documentary has lifted the lid on the short but fascinating life of the man who directly inspired the Arts & Crafts Furniture movement.
March 1st 2012 marks the 200th birthday of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812 – 1852), the Victorian architect whose influence can be seen in everything from railway cottages in Cumbria, to antique desks in the House of Lords. With the benefit of HD television, Pugin’s gilded, painted and richly (more…)
Sworders Decorative Arts & Design sale, held on January 10th in Stansted, Essex, saw high bidding on a number of Art Deco and Arts & Crafts furniture pieces. However, it was an abstract sculpture by Barbara Hepworth (1903-75) which caused the most excitement, realising £250,000 against a £60,000 – 80,000 estimate. (more…)
Cumbrian antique traders are on the alert after a series of raids in which Arts & Crafts Furniture by Robert “Mouseman” Thompson was stolen from churches in North Yorkshire, on the run up to Christmas.
Police feel the items – which included antique (more…)
The Important 20th Century Design Sale, held at Sotheby’s New York on December 15th, raised a record $5.1m in sales. The auction was dominated by modern abstract pieces – many of which remained unsold. However, a collection of traditional Arts & Crafts Furniture by (more…)
Last week, on 15th December, Sotheby’s New York office held an auction of important 20th century design works which netted over $5.1m in sales. One of the highest grossing fine arts and furniture auctions of the year, it included many rare pieces of French (more…)
The Manor Born is a new 4-part BBC TV series charting the renovation of Avebury Manor, a 500-year old National Trust manor house in Wiltshire. Fronted by actress Penelope Keith and Flog It! presenter Paul Martin, every room will be faithfully decorated and (more…)
Cumbrian Victorian Gothic fans had cause to celebrate recently, when two stained glass windows designed by William Burges were returned to their original home of Castell Coch. The windows, which were originally auctioned last year, were purchased on behalf of the castle by Welsh heritage agency Cadw, at a cost of £125,000.
Castell Coch is a masterpiece of (more…)
As the Victorian era progressed, it was machine manufactured rather than hand crafted furniture that catered for the growing middle classes. Increased individual wealth meant that a much larger percentage of the population could now furnish their houses with a range of antique furniture from any period in history that they desired. However, there was also growing dissatisfaction with the quality of some of this new factory made furniture and reformers like A W N Pugin (1812-52) were seeking to revive the honest workmanship of much earlier Gothic furniture.
William Morris (1834-96) also supported Pugin’s thinking and in 1861 began the firm of Morris & Co, and with furniture designers such as (more…)
Victorian buffet sideboards were large and highly decorative and primarily built to showcase a family’s wealth rather than serve food from. However it was particularly the Arts and Crafts movement that set about simplifying the sideboard to something essentially more fit for purpose.
Charles Eastlake’s Reformed Gothic earlier in the 19th century had already disposed of (more…)
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