POA
Philip Webb for Morris and Co A rare and Important Arts & Crafts Walnut sideboard/dresser, with arched top and pillar supports, a centre upper shelf set back with plate rack grooves and one single and one double fronted drawer with brass handles and three cupboards below .
Literature :
An original drawing for a smaller version of this sideboard is in the collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Christopher Menz, Morris & Co., Art Gallery of South Australia, exhibition catalogue, 2003, p. 85). Further examples appear in Truth, Beauty and Design: Victorian, Edwardian and Later Decorative Art, Fischer Fine Art, exhibition catalogue, 1986, p. 40; Adrian Tilbrook, John Andrews, Arts and Crafts Furniture, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2005, p. 51; Linda Parry, William Morris, London, 1996, p. 248; Jill Lever, Architects' Designs for Furniture, London, 1982, p. 87; and Sheila Kirk, Philip Webb, Pioneer of Arts & Crafts Architecture, Chichester, 2005, p. 53.
Provenance :
Sir Henry Howse, given as a wedding present in 1881, thence by descent.
Catalogue notes
Sir Henry Howse (1841-1914) was a senior surgeon at Guy's hospital and was given this piece of Morris & Co furniture by his colleagues as a wedding present in 1881. He was knighted in 1902 in the Coronation Honours, commemorating the Coronation of Edward VII for services to medicine.