An Arts & Crafts Cotswold School English Oak Desk by Peter Waals 1940. An Arts & Crafts Cotswold School English Oak desk designed by Peter Waals and made under his supervision by final year students at Loughborough College Arts and Crafts Cabinetmaker’s training course made in around 1935. A nice item to a Peter Waals design, intended to allow the makers to demonstrate their fine cabinetmaking skills. The items were then used in the student accommodation at Hazelrigg Hall. Featuring:

• Solid English Oak

• Rectangular top made out of just two continuous pieces of oak

• 1 long and 2 short drawers (made with single plank fronts solid drawer carcasses joined with hand-cut lap and through dovetails)

• Chamfered legs

• Exposed dovetails and tenons

• Octagonal oak handles

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Width 1170mm (3 feet 10 inches)

• Overall Depth 600mm (1 foot 11 1/2 inches)

• Overall Height 770mm (2 feet 6 1/4 inches)

1940

A very well known design.

Good condition with even colour and clean finish. . 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.

Peter Waals (Ex-Gimson): A Dutch born cabinet maker associated with the Arts and Crafts movement, who was foreman and chief cabinet maker at Ernest Gimson's Daneway House workshop at Sapperton. After Gimson's death in 1919 he continued to run the Daneway Workshops. Considered by many to be the finest cabinet maker of the 20th century

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.