ERNEST GIMSON

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ERNEST GIMSON HIS LIFE & WORK

1924 Limited Edition of 550 Copies

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Ernest Gimson, 1864-1919, an English furniture designer and architect and one of the most influential designers of the Arts and Crafts movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Gimson began his studies in architecture at the art school in Leicester, where his chief teachers and own elected prophets, were William Morris, John Ruskin, Auberon Herbert & Herbert Spencer. This was followed, in 1886, by a move to London where he made friends with the Barnsley brothers, the beginning of a long standing and successful relationship. A few years later he became a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which had been founded by William Morris and Philip Webb several years before.

In 1893 Gimson and the Barnsley brothers moved to Pinbury Park near Sapperton in Gloucestershire, here they had workshops in which their arts & crafts designs were implemented in both furniture design and architecture.

Ernest Gimson: His Life and Work was written by W. R. Leathaby, A. H. Powell and F. L. Griggs. A biography of Gimson written in 3 parts by each author: London Days, Gloucestershire Days and His Work, respectively; The text is illustrated with woodcut illustrations by Powell & Griggs. The 60 collotype plates show examples of his works: Architectural designs for houses and cottages in Leicestershire, his own house in Sapperton, a window of Walpole church and a screen for Crockham church, the hall at Beadales School, cottages in Kelmscott and a war memorial in Fairford. Furniture designs for cabinet-work made at the Daneway House Workshops, Gimson made his first chairs him-self using a pole lathe and later by his apprentices under the foreman Peter Waals, examples include designs for dressers, lecterns, tables and chairs amongst others. Metalwork designs for fire-dogs, candle sconces, wrought-iron latches, bolts and handles, altar candlesticks, weather cocks in brass and an alter cross in wrought-iron. Plasterwork designs for two ceilings and a room interior. In addition to these there are also examples of his other works: a carved mantle-piece in stone, designs for embroidered wall hangings, a sampler in cross-stitch and a design for a bookbinding.

ERNEST GIMSON HIS LIFE & WORK

This New Facsimile, Printed 2006
Limited Edition of 250 Copies
Card Covers
Size: 21 x 30cm

£48.50

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This is a facsimile edition of the original 1924 edition, published by the Shakespeare Head Press of Stratford-Upon-Avon, limited edition of 500 copies. A beautifully presented facsimile reproduction of the original edition, the original now being very scarce due to a limited printing.