Oak writing desk with broad, flat cornice supported by four uprights, between which (but not connected to) is a carcase, comprising an enclosed upper section with a door, containing a shelf, above an open lower section containing three pigeon holes. The writing surface is a hinged plank folding outward from the front of the open section of the carcase, supported on two integral sliders. The uprights surrounding the carcase are continuous with the legs below the level of the writing surface. There are stretchers to the right, left and rear of the desk. The front of the door has three decorative copper hinges, the upper and lower being identical, and the centre being the full width of the door, pierced to represent a pastoral scene of a family group walking in the countryside.
Place of Origin
England, Great Britain (made)
Date
1896 (designed)
Artist/maker
C. F. A. Voysey, born 1857 - died 1941 (designer)
Reynolds, W. B., born 1855 - died 1935 (metal-worker)
Materials and Techniques
Unstained, unvarnished oak, with copper panel, hinges and fittings
Dimensions
Height: 167.6 cm, Width: 101.5 cm, Depth: 86.7 cm writing surface open, Depth: 67.3 cm writing surface closed
Object history note
Designed by C.F.A. Voysey in 1896 and presumably made as part of a commission to furnish the home of William and Haydee Ward-Higgs at 23 Queensborough Terrace, Bayswater, London in 1898. Maker unknown. Inherited by Mrs Joan Bottard, the Ward-Higgs's daughter, and sold by her to the V&A.
Descriptive line
Voysey writing desk, design 1896, made for W.Ward-Higgs, oak with copper mounts
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Floud, Peter. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts. London: HMSO, 1952. 152p., p100
E.B.S. Some Recent Designs by Mr Voysey. The Studio. 1896, vol. 7, pp.209-218, ill.
The illustration of the cabinet on page 217 differs from the cabinet as constructed. In the drawing the upper and lower hinges are elongated across the width of the door (on the cabinet they are foreshortened). The drawing does not show the drop-down writing surface as built. There is a stretcher between the front legs on the drawing which is not present on the cabinet as constructed. There are no stretchers indicated on the design drawing, in which the cabinet is also stained green. The drawing suggests a dark surface behind a brass panel, possibly to indicate the 'blood red' leather on the design drawing (E.274-1913). This detail was not applied to the cabinet as built.
'But one thing is sure, that Mr. Voysey's furniture does not take kindly to its commercially produced relatives. To introduce objects - whether a dainty piece of colour like the painted clock, a simple and useful article like the writing-cabinet, the most refined and charming buffet, or a larger piece like the sideboard or the cottage piano (all illustrated here) - among modern cabinet work and upholstery is to introduce a discordant element.'
'Designers and Their Work. 1. -Mr. C.F.A. Voysey'. The Furnisher, Jan 1900, vol.1, pp.107-112, ill.
Photographs of 23 Queensborough Terrace
Hellman, Louis. 'Voysey in Wonderland', Building Design. 28 September 1973, no.169, pp.18-21, ill.
Illustration of design for central hinge.
Wilk, Christopher (ed.). Western Furniture 1350 to the present day, London: Philip Wilson and the V&A Museum, 1996, pp.180-181, ill.
'Voysey was not a cabinet-maker himself, unlike his more purist Arts and Crafts contemporaries, and he employed a variety of commercial firms to produce his furniture. Although the maker of this desk has not been identified, an inscription on the design indicates that the metal fittings were undertaken by the architect and metal-worker William Bainbridge Reynolds. Designs for other furniture for the Ward-Higgs's indicate they were intended to be made by the cabinet-makers F. Coote and F.C. Nielsen.'
Page, Marian. Charles F. A. Voysey. In: Art & Antiques, ed. Nineteenth Century Furniture. Innovation, Revival and Reform. New York: Billboard Publications, 1982. pp. 84-89, ill. ISBN 0-8230-8004-8
Illustrated. Caption: 'The desk, below, is gracefully ornamented with functional brass strap hinges pierced with a pastoral scene.'
Durant, Stuart. The Decorative Designs of C.F.A. Voysey, Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 1990. 96pp. Ill. ISBN 0-7188-2800-3.
p21. Illustration of a 'Design for a fretted metal panel for a staircase in a house in Hans Road, Knightsbridge, designed by Voysey, for Archibald Grove in 1891-2.' The panel depicts a group of four people, two men and two women, similarly dressed to the figures shown on the cabinet, progressing from left to right.
p.44. Illustration of a design for a workbox, c1893. The decoration depicts a man and women dressed similarly to those on the cabinet.
'The box was exhibited at the Arts and Crafts exhibition of 1893. It was of inlaid sycamore. The male figure - sketching - may well be Voysey himself; the female figure - knitting?