England in the middle of the 19th century. This is the Victorian Age, the age of Queen Victoria (1819-1901), a vast world-spanning colonial empire, industrial revolution, flourishing economy. And it is also the Victorian style: opulence, excessive ornamentation, exotic materials, an often tasteless recourse to Baroque, Rococo, to Chippendale's furniture design. More appearance than reality, more ornament than utilitarian object. A lot of "kitsch, decoration and mass-produced goods of poor quality" would probably be said today, because the demand for interior decoration was met by machine production.
In contrast, the British "Arts and Crafts movement", which had a great influence internationally on art and design after 1900, turned to Fin de Siècle, Art Nouveau, Modern Style.
Ernest William Gimson is considered one of its main representatives. He was born in 1864 in Leicester, a city marked by industrial upheaval. Gimson's father was the owner of a machine factory, but at the same time he was committed to improving the social conditions of his workers and as a free thinker in the "Secular Society," a club in the tradition of the early socialists Thomas Paine and Robert Owen.At a Secular Society event in 1884, the young Gimson met William Morris (1834-1896), a pioneer thinker of the Arts and Crafts movement who became Gimson's most important mentor. The Arts and Craft movement's critique was directed as much against the industrial production of overly ornate domestic objects, houses, or bridges as it was against the social conditions of alienation that accompanied it. Instead, they wanted to revive and bring together "Arts" and "Crafts." High-quality craftsmanship, a return to local materials and woods, joint design, planning and execution of the objects were just as much part of the program as the view of the use, the function: houses should be inhabited, eaten at tables, sat comfortably on armchairs - and that's exactly how they wanted to plan them.
Gimson became an architect in London, before he made in 1893 with colleagues the then unusual decision to open the new "workshop" ("workshop", not architect's office, the name was program) in the picturesque Cotswolds, the countryside near Cheltenham and Bristol, which is also the hunting ground of Inspector Barneby. Life was cheap there; there were traditional building trades and good craftsmen - and London, Birmingham and Leicester and their wealthy clientele were nevertheless easily accessible.
The furniture of the Gimson workshop is therefore usually referred to in Great Britain as Cotswolds Style or Tradition, in German as "Landhausstil". At Ernest Gimson, they were handmade, were made of solid wood and revealed their construction ("open construction"), so that, for example, tine and tenon joints were not hidden with decorative trim. Decorative elements were used with great restraint. Gimson's furniture exudes such a clear beauty that it is not surprising that Gimson not only influenced the interior design of the 20th and 21st centuries, but that original sketches and furniture designs or plain copies of individual pieces of furniture from the Gimson workshop are sought-after collectors' items.
×
Passionate Customer Service
_-_(MeisterDrucke-558078).jpg "Sideboard with Plate Stand by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-558078).jpg)
_(see_also_283796_-_(MeisterDrucke-592573).jpg "Cabinet, c.1902 by Ernest William Gimson")
_(see_also_283796_-_(MeisterDrucke-592573).jpg)
_(see_also_283797_-_(MeisterDrucke-592572).jpg "Cabinet, c.1902 by Ernest William Gimson")
_(see_also_283797_-_(MeisterDrucke-592572).jpg)
.jpg "Sideboard by Ernest William Gimson")
.jpg)
.jpg "Design for a Dining Table in English Oak, Darkened, with a Hayrake Stretcher, 2nd October 1908 by Ernest William Gimson")
.jpg)
.jpg "Design for Ebony Lectern inlaid with Bone & Silver for St. Andrews Church, Roker by Ernest William Gimson")
.jpg)
.jpg "Design for Stationery Box in Macassar Ebony inlaid with Mother of Pearl by Ernest William Gimson")
.jpg)
.jpg "Design for Reading Desk in Brown Ebony, inlaid with Silver and Mother of Pearl by Ernest William Gimson")
.jpg)
.jpg "Door Handle, c.1905-15 by Ernest William Gimson")
.jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-327781).jpg "Pair of Fire-Dogs, made by Alfred Bucknall, 1904 by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-327781).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-558087).jpg "Armchair, Designed in 1903, Made in Peter Waals Workshop by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-558087).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-594940).jpg "Garden Elevation of Cottage, Sapperton, 14th June 1902 by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-594940).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-583379).jpg "Design for Settle in English Oak by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-583379).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-594942).jpg "Pair of Cottages at Kelmscott for Miss May Morris, c.1915 by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-594942).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-583374).jpg "Designs for Iron Latches and Bolts by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-583374).jpg)
.jpg "Designs for China Racks, Sideboards and Dressers in English Oak by Ernest William Gimson")
.jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-545716).jpg "Box, c.1905 by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-545716).jpg)
.jpg "Addition to Cotswold Farm, Gloucestershire by Ernest William Gimson")
.jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-980361).jpg "A choir stall, early 20th century by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-980361).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-583372).jpg "Design for Sanctuary Chair by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-583372).jpg)
_(detail)_-_(MeisterDrucke-585387).jpg "Firedog Depicting a Squirrel (detail) by Ernest William Gimson")
_(detail)_-_(MeisterDrucke-585387).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-900729).jpg "View, Plan and Detail of House by Ernest William Gimson")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-900729).jpg)
 - (MeisterDrucke-647670).jpg "Embroidery by Ernest William Gimson")
 - (MeisterDrucke-647670).jpg)
.jpg "A study of part of the floor at Canterbury Cathedral by Ernest William Gimson")
.jpg)
+43 4257 29415
support@meisterdrucke.com
Mo-Do: 7:00 - 16:00 | Fr: 7:00 - 13:00
