HAROLD STABLER (1872-1945) (DESIGNER) RICHARD LLEWELLYN BENSON RATHBONE (1864-1939) (MAKER) RARE ARTS & CRAFTS CENTRE LIGHT, CIRCA 1904 patinated copper, glass (103cm wide, 88cm high approx.) Footnote: Note: Harold Stabler initially trained in woodwork and stone-carving before being appointed Head of Metalwork at the Keswick School of Industrial Arts in 1898. After a short time there and later at Liverpool University, he moved to London in 1907 where he was Head of the John Cass Institute’s Art School until 1937. Stabler worked with a number of materials, including enamels, metalwork, glass and ceramics, producing designs for mass-production which had a notable influence on the development of modern English design of the 1920s and 30s. He exhibited extensively at The Art Worker’s Guild and in 1936 he was one of the first to be appointed a Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts. A relative of W. A. S. Benson, Richard Llewellyn Benson Rathbone was also the cousin of Harold Rathbone, Head of the Della Robbia Pottery in Birkenhead. He initially trained in metalwork with Benson, before setting up his own workshop in 1908. In keeping with the Arts & Crafts aesthetic, Rathbone’s work proved popular and he is known to have produced metalwork designs for Mackmurdo, Heywood Summner and C.F.A. Voysey. Rathbone also taught metalwork classes at Liverpool University, where he was later joined by Harold Stabler in 1903. By 1905 he moved to London to take a position as Head of the Art School at the John Cass Institute.