Lot 108
C.F.A. VOYSEY (1857-1941) (DESIGNER), ARTHUR W. SIMPSON (1857-1922) (ATTRIBUTED MAKER)
ARTS & CRAFTS MIRROR, CIRCA 1906
Auction: DESIGN Since 1860
Description
oak, glass, patinated brass
Dimensions
58cm wide, 55.5cm high, 19.3cm deep
Provenance
oak, glass, patinated brass
Footnote
Exhibited: 1. C.F.A. Voysey: architect and designer 1857-1941, Brighton Art Gallery & Museum, 11th July-3rd September 1978; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 8th January - 12th February 1979; Glasgow City Art Gallery, 5th April - 27th May 1979, exhibit no. C7
2. From Arts and Crafts to the Bauhaus, Bröhan-Museum, Berlin, 24th January - 5th May 2019, exhibit no. 27
Literature: Decorative Kunst, volume I, 1897, p. 258
The Artist, volume XXVI, 1899, p. 178
The Studio, volume XVIII, 1899, p. 45
Livingston, K., Max Donnelly, M., Parry, L. C.F.A. Voysey, Arts and Crafts designer V&A 2016, p. 178
Note: Original drawings for this mirror in the RIBA collections are dated 1906 and 1908 (versions with one and two knobs on each drawer) and include examples with mouldings around the drawers, as in the current lot, which have a RIBA reference SB116/VOY [392]. The current mirror matches the example illustrated in the bedroom of Holly Mount, a house designed by Voysey in Buckinghamshire, and photographed in 1907. Contemporary photographs in The Studio and Decorative Kunst show examples of mirrors in other styles made in the 1890's.
E. H. Brooks was a partner at stockbroker Chase, Henderson and Tennant whose City of London office had been previously occupied by the Essex & Suffolk Equitable Insurance Company in New Broad Street and which had retained the fixtures and fittings made by Voysey in the early 1900's. When loose Voysey furnishings were stripped out of the premises in the 1960's, Brooks found suitable homes for as many as possible. Recipients included Charles and Lavinia Handley-Read, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the William Morris Gallery. The Victorian Society received a side table and the mirror being sold in this lot.