An Arts & Crafts Cotswold School English Oak Coffee Table by William Birch C. 1920. A lovely item and a very distinctive and stylish form, with good figuring on the top. Featuring:

• Rectangular top with curved corners made out of just two continuous pieces of very well figured quarter-sawn solid timber.

• Solid English Oak throughout.

• Very well figured quarter-sawn English Oak (quarter-sawing is a way of sawing oak to produce boards with superior strength which also reveals decorative 'medullary rays' in its grain.).

• Ring turned legs.

• Traditional blind tenons secured with pegs.

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Length 890mm (2 feet 11 inches).

• Overall Width 460mm (1 foot 6 inches).

• Overall Height 460mm (1 foot 6 inches).

c. 1920

A very distinctive William Birch Design.

Very good condition with tight joints, excellent rich colour and grain. If you wish to have further specific photographs or talk to us for a more detailed condition report then please do not hesitate to contact us.

William Birch: William Birch Of High Wycombe was an Arts and Crafts furniture designer who specialised in chair making. He pioneered the development of Arts and Crafts furniture locally, and employed well-known designers such as E.G. Punnett, George Walton and Whitehead, adhering to core Arts and Crafts concepts, such as quarter-sawn hardwoods, exposed joints and vernacular craftsmanship, at affordable prices. He was a major supplier of furniture for Liberty and Co. and Goodyer's of Regent Street

The most British of woods, that can produce really special results. English oak has been used for hundreds of years to construct everything from sea-going vessels to fine furniture. Although oak grows widely across Europe and North America, craftsmen continue to cherish English oak which grows more slowly than its foreign counterparts giving it strength, durability. Quarter sawn boards are very straight grained and have distinctive growth rings and medullary rays that give a very beautiful effect as well as being renowned for their superior stability and strength

The Cotswold School was a development of the Arts and Craft Movement started largely by Ernest Gimson and the brothers Sidney and Ernest Barnsley. The furniture is instantly recognisable with its simple lines, attention to the finest of details, and use of beautiful materials. Cotswold School designs were crafted from local materials using traditional tools and techniques and with decorative details derived largely from utilitarian elements: exposed joinery, unusual panels, interesting pulls and latches crafted either from wood or from metal using traditional smithing techniques, and close attention to form as well as to wood grain and pattern. Where decorative details were added they generally took the form of traditional embellishment such as exposed joints, chamfered edges and chip carved edge details. The style was embraced and developed by other designers and craftsmen including Gordon Russell, Stanley Webb Davies in Cumbria, Sid Barnsley's son Edward, Arthur Romney Green in Hampshire, Robin Nance in St Ives and Ambrose Heal are a handful of such men out of many. The best developed their own style within the established tradition.