Ernest Gimson Tables

Early Arts & Crafts Wishbone Cotswold School refectory dining table in oak 3 plank top Square through-tenon jointed legs with Wishbone stretcher Maker: Sidney Barnsley Designer: Ernest Gimson Pinbury Workshop 1898 Ernest Gimson was born in Leicester, in 1864. He was articled to the Leicester architect, Isaac Barradale, and worked at his offices on Grey Friars between 1881 and 1885. Aged 19, he attended a lecture on 'Art and Socialism' at the Leicester Secular Society given by the leader of the Arts and Crafts revival in Victorian England, William Morris, and, greatly inspired, talked with him until two in the morning, after the lecture. Two years later, aged 21, Gimson had both architectural experience and a first class result from classes at Leicester School of Art. He moved to London to gain wider experience, and William Morris wrote him letters of recommendation. The first architectural practice he approached was John Dando Sedding, where he was taken on, and stayed for two years. From Sedding, Gimson derived his interest in craft techniques, the stress on textures and surfaces, naturalistic detail of flowers, leaves and animals, always drawn from life, the close involvement of the architect in the simple processes of building and in the supervision of a team of craftsmen employed direct. Seddings offices were next door to the showrooms of Morris & Co., providing opportunity to see first hand the first flourishing of Arts and Crafts design. He met Ernest Barnsley...