The architect Charles Robert Ashbee was a leading figure in the Arts & Crafts movement in Britain, and is best known as a designer, architect, and social reformer.
He was particularly associated with promoting craftsmanship and community-based artistic work and also had considerable influence in Europe particularly with the Wiener Werkstatte in Vienna.
He founded the Guild of Handicraft in 1888 and created most of its furniture designs. It was in about 1900 that he began designing chairs which are characteristically simple in form, typically composed of solid elements softened by some curved feature.
