8th Sep, 2020 10:00

Arts & Crafts and Art Deco - Live Online

 
  Lot 224
 

224

A pair of rare Arts and Crafts oak armchairs

A pair of rare Arts and Crafts oak armchairs,
by C F A Voysey (1857-1941), c.1902, each with leather and studded drop-in seats,
62.5cm wide
54.5cm deep
100.5cm high, seat 42.5cm high (2)

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, was educated at Dulwich College and was a prolific architect- designer within the Arts and Crafts movement. An undistinguished academic at college, Voysey later claimed he became an architect because it was 'the only profession for which one did not need to pass any examinations'. Beginning his career in 1881, he first established himself as a designer of furniture, textiles and wallpapers. Winning his first building commissions in 1890, he quickly earned a reputation of being a master of artistic cottages and modern country houses.

He paid meticulous attention to detail, designing every aspect of a project, down to the door hinges. Voysey regularly exhibited watercolour elevations of his building projects, furniture and decorative designs at the Royal Academy, and is celebrated today as one of the leading British designers of the turn of the 20th century.

The simple design, personified by a heart motif on the back of a chair, is one of Voysey’s best known furniture designs. F C Nielsen, who made other furniture that Voysey designed, made these chairs from 1902, in differing proportions. One telltale detail is the dovetail construction fixing the splat to the frame. Versions of this chair can be seen in major collections around the world with leather and rush drop-in seats.

Voysey had a limited number of designs that he used, but in many of his schemes for interiors, this model appears often - his mantra was for furniture with a ‘sense of proportion and puritanical love of simplicity’.

Few of these chairs have come on the market over the last ten years, the most recent a pair of single chairs without arms, which sold in March this year for £16,500.

No doubt, this pair are the exemplar of the Arts and Crafts tradition and rarer still to be found together after all this time. Examples of this chair can be seen in The Homestead, built for the General Manager of the Essex and Suffolk Equitable Insurance Society, whose offices Voysey designed, and is among his best-preserved domestic masterpieces.

The vendor has been the lucky owner of these for over forty years.

Take advantage of our Sworders Delivery Service. Please see 'Shipping estimate' below.

Sold for £18,000


Condition Report

If further images needed, please contact auctions@sworder.co.uk.


Provenance statement from the vendor '- I have no information as to their original owners. My father was a highly respected antique collector, he had two antique shops in Bath. He had a great eye for high-quality craftsmanship in the design and making of all periods of furniture, which I have inherited from him. I spent much of my childhood and youth in these two shops.


#1
split to the splat panel above and below the heart shape. Right arm - this has been reset - split down the line of the stretcher below. Seat split to the join, webbing replaced. Back rail has some splits to the inner edge. Studwork worn and rusted – three worn. Numbered VI to the edge of seat.


#2


Top right upright rest and restored. Seat faded and loose – later screws into the seat from the underside. Studwork rusted and worn. Some studs are loose. Webbing replaced. Numbered IX to the edge of seat.

 

IN PERSON

To bid in person at auction for the first time please register for a bidding paddle in advance by filling out and submitting a registration form at our front desk. When registering in person we require photo ID, such as a passport or driving licence.

ABSENTEE BIDDING

If you cannot attend the auction in person we can bid on your behalf. You can leave an absentee bid on our website.

The amount you bid should be your maximum bid. We will bid up to that limit for you, and remember you may end up paying less than your limit, depending on other bidding on the day.

You can leave an absentee bid up to half an hour before the start of any sale. Please note when we receive two or more absentee bids for the same amount, the first bid received will be the one taken.

LEAVE COMMISSION BIDS ONLINE

If you would like to leave a commission bid on our website you can do so up until 30 minutes before the sale starts. Leaving a commission bid through sworder.co.uk is free for all registered clients. Thereafter you may register bank card details under your account in order to bid live. Click here to register an account.

BID LIVE ON sworder.co.uk

You can bid live at our auctions from the comfort of your home or office using bidding platform Sworders Live.  It is easy to register and you can watch the auction live as it happens.  A 'Bid Live' button will appear on the auction on our website homepage when a sale is live; simply click the button to sign in or register with your card details. There is no additional charge for this service. 

For further instructions on registering to bid live, please click here.

TELEPHONE BIDDING

If you would like to bid by telephone please contact our team prior to the auction with your details of the lots you are interested in and your full name, address, telephone number(s) and email address. Once our team have entered your bid request you will receive an email confirmation. We will contact you during the sale and one of our team will bid live with you over the phone.

Please note that we normally offer this service for lots with an estimate of £500 or higher and all telephone bid requests must be received by close of business the day before the auction.

Auction: Arts & Crafts and Art Deco - Live Online, 8th Sep, 2020

The Arts & Crafts and Art Deco sale is shaping up to be one of the most interesting sales within our 20th Century Design department this year.

Fresh to the open market is a collection of Stanley Webb-Davies furniture commissioned in the 1930s, one of Great Britain's premier makers of Arts and Crafts furniture. A pair of chairs, by the architect and designer C F A Voysey, comes to us from a private collection and are a very exciting inclusion; they feature the designer's signature heart-shaped backs, following his ‘sense of proportion and puritanical love of simplicity’. Also included by Voysey is a rare example of his architectural clock in oak, the dial inlaid with pewter letters 'Tempus Fugit'. Works by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson, John Makepeace Workshop and Liberty of London are a few of the designers included in the sale.

Within the Art Deco category is a fine figure of the ‘Dancer of Karpurthala’ by the genius of the period Demetre Chiparus (1886-1947), created in bronze and ivory, placed on a marble and onyx plinth this comes from a private collection. Further Art Deco figures, furniture and lighting, including an iconic table lamp by Tiffany, complete the sale.

Viewing

VIEWING BY APPOINTMENT 

Due to current social distancing restrictions, we will be offering viewing by appointment only.  One hour time slots will be available from:

Friday 4 September, 9am - 5pm;

Saturday 5 September, 10am - 4pm;

Sunday 6 September, 10am - 4pm;

Monday 7 September, 9am - 5pm  

Book Appointment

View all lots in this sale

Sorry, we cannot calculate a pre-sale automated shipping cost due to the items weight/size.

Should you be successful in buying this item, a specific shipping estimate can be requested after the sale by using the link in your invoice email; this also includes requests for international delivery.

If you would like further information about shipping and collection please see here.

Buying a pre-loved, antique, or vintage item not only provides you with unique style and value for money but it also helps to reduce landfill, and the annual emissions of an antique or vintage piece can be as little as one sixteenth of those of its new equivalent!

Sworders is proud to be supporting the work of Antiques are Green - the movement that was founded in 2009 to promote “a greener future created from the past”. Read their fascinating carbon footprint study of a Georgian chest of drawers versus a modern equivalent here

 

Antiques are Green

 

Request A Valuation

Here at Sworders, we are happy to offer a free online valuation service. Please fill out the form and press the 'Submit' button below.

To help us with your valuation please attach clear photographs of the item where possible. You can submit up to 5.

Approximate dimensions are also useful. Expect to hear from the appropriate valuer as soon as possible.

Images

Drag and drop .jpg images here to upload, or click here to select images.