Edward Gardiner. Set of nine English ladder back dining chairs

Edward Gardiner. Set of nine English ladder-back dining chairs. Chairs made by Edward Gardiner are rarely signed, but every chair is signed ED Gardiner (see sample images attached).

It is extremely rare to find a set nine let alone signed which will only appreciate more over time.

These ladder-back chairs are steeped in history, their design has evolved from a long line of English vernacular chair makers going back to the late 17th and 18th century.

Edward Gardiner was encouraged to take up chair-making by Ernest Gimson who in turn was encouraged by Philip Clissett. Clissett had been making traditional ladder-back chairs from as early as 1838, those skills were passed down to him thus becoming a famous master craftsman of his own generation, but also because of his connection with Ernest Gimson a leading figure in The Arts & Crafts Movement, and it's call to honest handmade goods. Clissett was discovered by Ernest Gimson in 1890 where he set about to learn from Clissett the art of chair making which Gimson in turn passed onto Edward Gardiner in 1904. Gardiner then developed his own art and style of chair always handmade making them quite tactile, extremely strong and durable, yet very lightweight and therefore easy to move around. Below is an excerpt on Gardiner from The Furniture History Society online source.

Gardiner, Edward. Daneway, Gloucestershire and Leamington, Warwickshire; chair maker (fl.1903-d.1958)

Edward Gardiner was a self-taught chairmaker who worked for much of his career for Ernest Gimson. By 1903 Gimson was unable to fulfil orders for the turned chairs which he made himself at Pinbury, and after unsuccessful attempts at sub-contracting the work, he turned to the Daneway timber merchant and mill owner, Edward Gardiner snr., about placing a lathe in his sawmill. Gardiner’s son, Edward H. G., began teaching himself joinery and woodturning and also learned from talking to the woodworker and blacksmith, William Bucknell, as well as the wood turners at Workman Brothers at Woodchester, near Stroud. Gardiner then set up workshops with Gimson as a partner, each man taking 10 per cent of the profits. Gimson provided the designs, the earliest of which were dated August and September 1903.

Examples of Gardiner's chairs, designed and exhibited by Ernest Gimson, at the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, London, in 1906 and 1910.

In 1913 Gimson’s direct involvement with chair-making ended as the chair makers, including Edward Gardiner, moved to Cubbington, near Leamington. However, Gimson continued to recommend them for ‘chairs for chapels that want something a little more Christian than the sweated High Wycombe industries can produce’. Indeed, Gimson praised Gardiner in a letter to the architect, Robert Weir Schultz, dated 28 October 1913 when he wrote: ‘My chairmakers have left Daneway Mill & gone to Cubbington, near Leamington where they have all provision for bending, steaming & drying wood. There couldn’t be a better chairmaker than Edward Gardiner.

Gardiner continued working into his seventies and died in 1958.

Each chair is gently knocked apart, joints cleaned, glued, reassembled and clamped overnight then set aside for a few days while the glue fully cures. They are then cleaned and waxed and sent off to my traditional rush seat specialist to lay the new rush.

Measurements of Side Chairs:
Height: 110cm / 43.31" Inches
Width: 48cm / 18.90" Inches
Depth: 41cm / 16.14" Inches