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This is arguably the most detailed study ever made of any branch of British furniture. It covers in considerable depth, on a region by region basis, the work of hundreds of craftsmen, spread throughout the country, working in the general tradition of the area but superimposed with their own individual design ‘signatures’.
Employing a remarkable combination of talents, the author has examined thousands of regional chairs, researched local archives, conducted field studies, collected anecdotal evidence and used computers to relate the evolution of known types and makes. The result is a living account of the development of countless styles of chairs from all over England and the way of life of the craftsmen who produced them.
This authoritative book has revolutionised the collecting and the study of vernacular furniture. It is quoted in auction catalogues and consulted avidly by collectors as hundreds of new makers’ names emerge from the blanket anonymity of ‘Windsor’, ‘ladder back’, ‘spindle back’, and other generalisations. It is a key standard work of reference, encyclopaedic in its breadth of information and illustration.
The Author
Dr Bernard (Bill) Cotton is a researcher and lecturer specialising in the history of regional furniture traditions. He is Visiting Professor of Furniture at Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education, High Wycombe, and Visiting Professor of Furniture History at Southampton Institute of Higher Education.
His research takes him to all parts of Britain and abroad, particularly North America, where he is involved with field work projects, recording furniture in traditional settings and evaluating its social history. Following two years of field research in the fishing communities of Newfoundland he has recently produced an exhibition of furniture from that country, with examples showing its antecedents in the British traditions. The exhibition has travelled to major museums throughout Canada, 1995-1997, and was funded by the Canadian and Newfoundland Governments.
When he is not getting to know furniture he is to be found fly-fishing for brown trout on the River CoIn, near to his home in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds. |
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