EDGAR WOOD (1860-1935)
ARTS & CRAFTS ARMOIRE, CIRCA 1896-8
oak, with copper fittings
153cm wide, 226cm high excluding finials, 66cm deep
Note: Born in Middleton, near Manchester in 1860, the architect, artist and draftsman Edgar Wood was a prominent member of the Arts & Crafts Movement. He gained a national and international reputation, and his work was widely published in publications such as The British Architect, The Studio Magazine, Dekorative Kunst and Moderne Bauformen. Wood rejected large-scale commercial practice and worked with a small number of assistants designing furniture, stained glass, sculpture, metal, and plasterwork as well as buildings. Many commissions were from friends and family in Middleton, Huddersfield and Hale, Cheshire. Influenced by the artistic and socialist writings of William Morris, he saw himself as an artisan serving the people of these localities. He was a founder of the Northern Art Workers' Guild, set up by Walter Crane in 1896, one of the major provincial societies within the Arts and Crafts Movement and was president of the Manchester Society of Architects from 1911–12.