Liberty’s Furniture1875-1915

The Birth of Modern Interior Design

Daryl Bennett

Contents

Acknowledgements 6

Introduction 7

1 The Long Tradition: A Taste for the Exotic 10

2 The House Beautiful 38

3 Liberty: The Enchanted Cave 60

4 Art Furniture 88

5 The Growth of an Influence 154

6 The End of an Era 214

7 The Later Years 244

8 Collecting Liberty Furniture 292

Brief Chronology 320

Liberty & Co. Catalogues at the National Art Library 321

A Selection of Mottoes used on Furniture by Liberty & Co. 322

Bibliography 323

Index 325

One recurring theme in the evolution of Arts andCrafts imagery, certainly for Liberty, was the image ofa lady in a flowing gown looking out into the gardenof a medieval castle, or poised delicately against abackground of stained glass and red roses. These imagesin painting, tapestry and embroidery somehow appearto be a symbol of nostalgia, suggestive of a sense of loss

46

2. The House Beautiful

2.13. J.W. Waterhouse, RA. The Missal, 1902; The charm of leadedglass depicted here in the perfect setting. Art Journal, 1909

2.14. ‘Spring’, stencilled and painted panel from a Liberty & Co.hall robe; 41 x 14cm. See also pl. 6.57.

or longing which was perhaps also driven by a reactionto the horrors of the industrialised Victorian society.They were also a symbol of the long love affair of themiddle classes with ‘Olde England’. It was a themewhich had gained strength since the early days whenMorris and painters of the Pre-RaphaeliteBrotherhood joined forces, and it continued throughto the work of Waterhouse in the twentieth century;even in 1905, Liberty was still featuring beautiful andwistful ladies in their Dress and Decoration catalogue.

47

2. The House Beautiful

2.15. Liberty & Co. Dress and Decoration catalogue, 1905.‘Dorothy’ is shown in a seventeenth-century house dress of Tyriansilk in a room featuring stylised rose decoration in leaded glass,fabric and wall-stencilling.

2.16. Liberty & Co. mahogany cabinet with leaded glass bullions;enamel label; approx. h. 104cm, w. 69cm, d. 52cm.

Courtesy Studio 1 Antiques

2.17. Liberty & Co. small mahogany sideboard with leaded glass;applied label; w. 133cm, h. 128cm.

Courtesy Woolley and Wallis

In the library, a traditional note is struck by the stouttable very much in the style of Phillip Webb, but thebuilt in bookshelves are particularly interesting withthe little Hobbit-like leaded glass corner cabinet, thelong strap hinges, and the gently arched arcades onshelves supported by turned bulbous columns. Thereis a reference in the text to the use of mottoes: ‘Quaintand appropriate legends from Chaucer and other EarlyEnglish Poets decorate the frieze of the bookcase andthe result combines successfully the dignity of theGothic style with the comfort and conveniencedemanded by modern requirements.’35

Curiously, the library illustration, which also appearsin later versions of the Handbook does not show theselegends, though there are mottoes in the later designsfor a library shown in the Handbooks from 1895 and1890. Another Wyburd feature which seems to suggest

the development of the Arts and Crafts style, is thedecoration on the fire hood which featured a Vikinglong ship with a prow in the shape of a sea monster;this may be the first version of the design whichappears in Wyburd’s work in later years. It is particularlyinteresting to see the corner cupboard in this sketch(which was repeated in later versions of theHandbook). The design with curved sides whichenclose the shelf seems much like an early version ofthe library cabinet in the Liberty Inexpensive Furniturecatalogue of 1906.

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4. Art Furniture

4.55. Liberty & Co. Handbook of Sketches, 1895. The LibraryGothic first shown in the 1890 Handbook as a library designedby Liberty & Co. The sketch is initialled CH/0 for Carl Hentschelan engraver of sketches for printing; see note 44.

Quaint Legends in the Library

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4. Art Furniture

4.56. A rare Liberty & Co. oak corner cabinet with leaded glassand hand-beaten copper hinges; possibly part of a library orfireplace fitting; h. 60cm, d. 44cm. Lock stamped Liberty & Co.

4.57. Liberty & Co. oak corner bookcase c.1907 with a Liberty& Co. ivorine label; h. 199cm, d. 61cm.

The handbooks feature several styles of ingle-nook: theEnglish Renaissance Dining Room, with an arcadedshelf and rather classical columns; the End of DiningRoom Jacobean (reproduced from Handbook 3),where almost half the room is devoted to the dramaticingle (note that there are Wyburd initials on thisdrawing); and the Hall and Staircase Jacobean featuringa motto, leaded lights, tiny armoured and glazedcupboards with cosy settles either side (see pls. 4.85,4.86 and 4.87).

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4. Art Furniture

4.89. Liberty & Co. mahogany ‘Shakespeare’ chair with inlaiddesign and ivorine label. Courtesy Christies

4.90. Liberty & Co. oak chair. Courtesy Patch Rogers

4.91. (opposite, top) Liberty & Co. Handbook of Sketches, 1895.The Library Dutch in robust neo Gothic style with theintroduction of heart-pierced decoration and the motto ‘Readingmaketh a full man & writing an exact man’.

4.92. (opposite, bottom) Liberty & Co. Handbook of Sketches,1900. ‘Drawing Room Recent Developments’ p. 53. Watercolour;a drawing of this mantel with beak-like hood, appears in theLiberty & Co. stock book dated 31/5/0 no. 8567. Note also thespear-like piercing to the table – a design used later in theCompton newspaper stand (see pl. 6.23).

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4. Art Furniture

Growth of the market

Liberty certainly seemed to have the ability to tune intoand to amplify trends in taste. However, to understandthe growth of the Liberty furnishing empire, it is usefulto bear in mind the increasing population of London,and the significant growth of the middle classes – thosewith administrative, professional or managerial positions– and the increase in house building, particularly fromthe turn of the century onwards. In terms of simpleeconomics, the growth of the middle classes meant anincrease in the number of potential customers forLiberty & Co., either as visitors to the shop or as mailorder buyers. There was also an expansion in the marketfor furnishing, as thousands of new homes were builtand furniture became a fashionable necessity for a widersocial group. In London, demand from the more affluentwas catered for by large department stores – furnisherssuch as Harrods, Hamptons, Heal’s, Maples, Warings andLiberty, who each had very active advertising and

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5. The Growth of an Influence

5.17. Liberty & Co. oak cabinet. Westminster City Archive

5.18. S.J. Warings advert for fumed oak furniture.The House, May 1899

5.19. (opposite, top) Liberty & Co. oak cabinet with leaded glass.Courtesy Christie’s

5.20. (opposite, bottom) J.S. Henry feature; the Rembrandt.Furnishing and Decoration and The Furniture Gazette, 1897

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5. The Growth of an Influence

marketing. In addition there were the large cabinetmakers and furnishers – companies such as Messrs Khan,Harris Lebus, Oetzmann’s, and many smaller specialistfurniture makers including J.S. Henry, Shapland andPetter, Morris and Co., and J.P. White (who made upBaillie Scott designs) all competing for trade. It isinteresting to note that the J.S. Henry sideboard in theRembrandt suite illustrated is remarkably similar to onepictured in the Liberty archive at Westminster, and maywell have been inspired by it (see Ch. 8).

As home decoration became an artistic activity, it wasnot uncommon to see ‘the latest fashion’ in furniture,and even wallpaper from companies such as Jeffery &Co. and Essex & Co., being advertised art journals

motto (pl. 5.76) which is discussed below (a versionwithout the motto has also been observed). The recentdiscovery of a pair of oak cabinets matching thesideboard (pl. 5.78), reinforces the assertion that specialpieces were made; they were possibly commissionedfrom Liberty & Co. but not shown in catalogues of theday. This creates an exciting prospect for collectors.

It is particularly interesting to read thecontemporary commentary on these pieces in the ArtJournal (see pp. 178 and 179) in terms of the emphasison the severity and simplicity of their design.Compared to designs such as the Athelstan wardrobe,the construction of these pieces is actually quite

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5. The Growth of an Influence

5.75. Liberty & Co. oak sideboard (no. 9338). The name isindecipherable, but there appears to be a carved motto.

Westminster City Archive

5.76. Liberty & Co. oak sideboard with carved motto. A reallysuperb piece in original condition, part of a complete dining roomset; ivorine label. Private collection

5.77. Detail of the Liberty & Co. cabinet showing the glass bullions.

complex, and the intricate decoration in carving,metalwork and leaded glass is very far removed from‘simplicity’. One imagines the writer, initiallyinfluenced by the doctrines of Voysey urgingsimplicity, to take the view that ‘modern’ furniture, ifexciting and attractive, was ‘simple’ no matter howcomplicated it might have been to make.

An Artistic Lavatory? 1897

An article in the Cabinet Maker in 1897 consideredseveral furniture makers but gave Liberty a firm pat onthe back. Looking across several similar businesses inthe London market of the day the author notes: ‘Thelast decade has also been a marvellous period for theproduction of knick-knacks. Indeed the trade haslargely wandered from the serious and the solid, andgone over to the fanciful and flimsy.’38

Wylie and Lochead were commended for their‘pretty apartment’ consisting of a Sheraton diningroom, ‘so restful and homely with its rich mahogany’.Story and Triggs also won favour with their ‘humbleand familiar kitchen chair’, and their fire screen in‘dainty mahogany with its drawn silk wings’. Thereviewer then draws attention to the fact that ‘anotherstyle of furniture has arisen for which the word‘Quaint’ seems to be the only safe and proper name. Ithas of course grown out of the square and sensibleideas which Eastlake and Talbert advocated twentyyears ago.’ Commending the trend for ‘fresh forms andshapings new’, he praises a new ‘quaint’ set of artisticfurniture by Messrs Bartholomew and Fletcher ‘stainedgreen or a blackish brown ... and remarkably

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5. The Growth of an Influence

5.78. Liberty & Co. pair of oak cabinets with stamped locks andLiberty label; h: 198cm, w: 87cm, d: 52cm. Private collection

ISBN 978 1 85149 689 1

9 781851 496891

58950

£45.00/$89.50