Arthur Simpson. An imaginatively designed superior quality 1/4 sawn oak Arts and Crafts sideboard

Private Collection. Not for sale.

We are holding this for our AWS Simpson exhibition that we will be showcasing in the autumn of 2024.

An imaginatively designed superior quality 1/4 sawn oak Arts and Crafts sideboard made by Arthur W Simpson of Kendal one of the most important Master Craftsman from the Arts and Crafts Movement. A leading carver and designer of domestic and ecclesiastical furniture at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the 20th century. He was born in Highgate Kendal on December 7th 1857 in the heart of England's Lake District. During his childhood he was constantly in trouble with his father for poaching a pocket knife and cutting sticks from a willow tree in his garden. As a child he loathed school and no sooner than his mother had dropped him at school, that he'd made his escape. He was always carving objects for friends and for favours and even took projects to bed with him thus waking up with his bed sheets filled with wood carvings. At the age of fourteen Simpson was convinced he wanted to become a carver and was apprenticed to Robert Rigg a new cabinet making company who had recently opened, but the work he was given was not much in the line of wood carving and when he had to make a coffin and was persuaded to help put the body into it he vowed to leave at the next opportunity. He then heard that Gillows of Lancaster were looking for an apprentice carver where he went for an interview and gained the job. He started work on Monday the 4th of October 1875 where he stayed learning his trade for just under four years. While at Gillows he made friends with William Murry a deaf mute who worked at the same bench as Simpson whom he learned to communicate with on his fingers and learnt a great deal about cabinet making from this excellent draughtsman and shared many long walks together in their spare time. In September 1879 he left Gillows to pursue more skills and went to Leicester gaining employment with Samuel Barfield a "Master Carver" himself whom employed around thirty carvers where he stayed for fifteen months and resided with his Uncle Thomas and his Auntie Lizzie Seddon. He worked in many parts of the country before settling momentarily back in Kendal, where he opened for business in 1881 at 22a Highgate. Kendal. A short lived experiment where he came into debt to the sum of £30 over a twelve month period and decided that Kendal wasn't the best place for a carver to be and on advice went to London to find work where he was employed by Osmonds. At Osmonds he felt the work they gave him would not teach him much and continued looking for work traipsing from workshop to workshop until he gained employment with William Aumonier's in Tottenham Court Road and here he met a very skilful carver called Mackie and learnt a great deal from him in the short period of five month's that he worked for Aumoniers. (He was let go due to work waning at Aumoniers). Simpson was known to love walking almost as much as he loved to work with wood and it was at this point in his life after he had been made redundant at Aumoniers that he decided to walk 252 miles home to Kendall to be the best man for his cousins wedding held on the 31st of August 1882. After the wedding he set off in search of more work where he gained employment in Altringham with H. Faulkner Armitage although little is known of his work there it seems he stayed in Altringham until sometime in 1885 when he returned to Kendal. From 1885 he taught in local villages and from 1886 he taught classes at the Keswick School of Industrial Art while doing carving for church interiors. Also in 1886 Simpson employed his first employee 'Tom Dixon' on April 9th and therefore it must be at this point that the beginnings of what would later become "The Handicrafts" evolved although the name "The Handicrafts" wouldn't be introduced until the end of Queen Victoria's reign. In the summer of 1887 he became engaged to Jane Davidson while on holiday in the Isle of Man and they were married in March 1888. In this year he was also employing a number of craftsmen all involved with church and domestic interiors, carving and making furniture. The workshops were originally at Berry's Yard in Kendal but later moved to Queen Katherine Buildings in the Christmas of 1896. "The Handicrafts" was still not actually coined until 1901 when a new showroom was opened in Windermere and it was this showroom which was originally named as "The Handicrafts", the company name which would continue until the company's end in 1951 was not transferred to the workshops at Queen Katherine Buildings until 1906. Arthur Simpson made furniture to the designs of C.F.A.Voysey for interiors of houses he designed. Voysey was one of the most influential Architect/Designers of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was always impeccably dressed a fastidious man often wearing a flamboyant Liberty cravat. Simpson and Voysey became great friends to the point that Voysey designed Simpson's family home. A small unpretentious house named Littleholme. Voysey was a very stern man and many including the Simpson family stood in awe of him, but Simpson whom had a very strong will, "stood in Awe of no man". Arthur Simpson's carved much of the interior for Blackwell designed by M.H.Ballie Scott. Blackwell is one of the most important Arts and Crafts houses still in tact. A beautiful property over looking Lake Windermere. Simpson did the internal woodwork from skirting to staircases, carved panelling, doors, exposed beamwork and some furniture. The house is a monument to Ballie Scott's designs and Simpson's work. Blackwell is open to the public and holds regular exhibitions throughout the year, it is a superb example still with its original period interior and probably the most important and complete example from the Arts and Crafts Movement in England today. Arthur Simpson was a genius with wood his precision engineering is so perfect in his work that I believe he is one of the greatest furniture makers of all time. Throughout this sideboard Simpson has carved 57 exceptional flowers, even the handles are carved rosettes and your fingers feel so natural and at home with this very unusual design as you pull a drawer open or pull down the draw bridge doors at each side giving more flat surface area to serve from, both exceptional design details. The door fronts are also bordered with subtle tiny rosette detailing within it and flowing foliage carving to the edges of the front and side aprons. From a plan view the front and back legs are sculptured to a curved angular shape which is accentuated at each corner of the top serving area where there is a subtle bow to the centre front making room for the pine-apple shaped support below. It's twin stretchers which come together at 45 degrees with exposed through tenons are a complicated affair that he has made look simple. The raised back with central enclosure specifically designed to display a particular family heirloom, the enclosure, which imitates in some respects the entrance to a Grand Manor House, with an inscription 'M' and the date for 1917 carved into a scrolled background. To the back a raised low shelf steps up from the serving area with plate grooves for display leaving a generous proportion of serving area to serve from. A superior commissioned example from a genius master craftsman. This piece was designed and made by Simpson because all the other craftsmen who worked at The Handicrafts were serving in the 1st world war leaving only Arthur and his foreman working at The Handicrafts. Personal collection.