ASHBEE, Charles Robert

(b. 1863 Isleworth, d. 1942 Godden Green, Kent)

English architect, interior designer, silversmith, and art theoretician. He was an influential designer, writer, and leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In 1888, he founded the Guild and School of Handicraft at Toynbee Hall in the East End of London. In 1891, he moved the school and guild to Essex House in Mile End, London, and in 1902 it moved out of London to Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds, where it remained until its bankruptcy in 1908. He also founded the School of Arts and Crafts (1904-14).

As an architect, Ashbee built with a view to simplicity and function, concentrating mainly on the detached family house, where the building and its interior formed a homogenous unit.

Ashbee took an interest in the problems of art in the industrial age and published many books and essays on this subject.

Cabinet

The inspiration for this cabinet was the Spanish vargueño, a writing cabinet on a stand. A typical vargueño had a plain exterior that opened up to reveal a rich interior fitted with leather tooled with gold foil. The English designer Charles Robert Ashbee particularly admired this contrast and used it to great effect in designs for a number of fall-front writing cabinets. In this type of cabinet, the hinged front flap opens or ‘falls’ to form a horizontal writing surface.

This cabinet appeared in an exhibition of 1906 organised by the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, to which Ashbee belonged.

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Covered Soup Tureen and Ladle

The picture shows a punch bowl with lid, and a ladle. The ladle handle is of silver, ivory and jadeite. Ashbee chose to work with a few simple elements, such as plain hammered silver, coloured stones set sparingly and fluent wirework. He produced a remarkable variety of designs, which had a wide and enduring appeal.

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Porringer

In the later 1890s, Ashbee designed some marvellously assured silver tableware, including dishes and decanters; he chose to work with a few simple elements, such as plain hammered silver, coloured stones set sparingly and fluent wirework. He produced a remarkable variety of designs, which had a wide and enduring appeal.

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