STANLEY WEBB DAVIES (BRITISH 1894–1978)
ARTS & CRAFTS ARMCHAIR, 1936
Estimate: £600 - £800
Auction: 19 March 2025 from 10:00 GMT
Description
incised artist's mark and craftsman's mark, oak, with drop-in leather seat
Dimensions
87cm high, 53cm wide, 44cm deep (34 ¼in high, 21in wide, 17 ¼in deep)
Footnote
Stanley Webb Davies belonged to the generation of designers whose principles echoed those of the Arts & Crafts visionaries William Morris and John Ruskin.
He was opposed to industrialisation, instead placing the craftsman at the centre of production and believing the physical exertion of the making process benefited both the individual and by extension the society within which they lived. All his pieces are incised both with the SWD monogram and a craftsman’s mark, forever preserving the work of the cabinet maker and their link to each item.
Davies developed a love of woodwork whilst at school, a passion intensified by his time in France during the First World War building huts for refugees. On his return to England, he worked for three years in Romney Green’s workshop before establishing his own business at Windemere in 1923.
The influence of Romney Green and the broader Cotswold School is discernible in Davies’ designs: largely English timber, and decoration provided by constructional details, chamfering or at most a simple inlay.
During its nearly forty years of production, the Windemere workshop employed between three and seven staff, building domestic, ecclesiastical, presentation and even office furniture. These pieces were largely completed as commissions, and it seems the firm was never particularly financially successful.