Front leg for a settle
- Place of origin:
London, England (probably, made)
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
Jack, George Washington Henry, born 1855 - died 1932 (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Credit Line:
Presented by a Body of Subscribers through the Art Fund.
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
Furniture, room 133, case BY9, shelf WALL
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George Jack originally designed and made this carving to form the leg of a large oak settle. The carving of the shepherd and his dog was probably intended to be placed just below the armrest, with the lower part forming the leg of the settle. Five detailed drawings for the settle, which date from c.1892, and are in the collection of the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, reveal that on the other side of the settle, a carving of a milkmaid with her pail was planned. However, the settle was never completed.
The style of this carving reflects the inspiration of Philip Webb, the architect who designed furniture for Morris & Co., and for whom Jack had become a full-time assistant in 1882. It was also inspired by medieval carvings which Jack had studied and drawn in places such as Winchester Cathedral. Jack's early ambition was to be a painter, and he usually worked from detailed designs, developing the ability to see how his pencil or charcoal drawings could be transferred into a solid form.
Jack recalled that the wood came from an old house at Tewkesbury, and that it was full of cracks which were filled up with slips of oak. It was exhibited at the 1896 Arts and Crafts Exhibition, which provided a showcase for Jack's talents as a carver and as a furniture designer for Morris & Co. The carving bears an incomplete label for 24 Station Road, Church End, Finchley, where Jack and his family moved in March 1902.
In 1904 Jack began to teach at the Royal School of Woodcarving in South Kensington on the invitation of W. R. Lethaby, and he taught at several venues, retiring from the RCA in 1924. It was then that a number of his friends, including Lethaby, raised a subscription to purchase the carving from Jack, and presented it to the museum through the Art Fund. Jack's supporters believed that 'now his work at the Royal College of Art is done, and its students no longer have his presence and help, it seems a fitting moment to place this work of his where they, and others too, may see it.'
Physical description
Oak leg of a settle with carving of shepherd and sheepdog. The man wears a Tam o'Shanter hat, a type of hat worn in Scotland, and named after the Robert Burns poem of that name (written in 1790). His companion, which looks up at him obediently, is probably a Border Collie, a herding dog, denoting that his master is a shepherd. The shepherd strides towards the wind, suggesting that he is out in windswept terrain, and his cape billows around and presses against his body in the wind. He holds his hat with this left hand, and crook in his right hand. Below are carvings of a large flowering plant.
Place of Origin
London, England (probably, made)
Date
ca.1892 (made)
Artist/maker
Jack, George Washington Henry, born 1855 - died 1932 (maker)
Materials and Techniques
Carved oak
Marks and inscriptions
[...] 4 Station Road [Cr]ouch End Finchley
Dimensions
Height: 79 cm, Width: 12.5 cm at widest, Depth: 24 cm Maximum
Object history note
A body of subscribers through the National Art Collections Fund presented this leg of a settle to the Museum to mark George Jack's retirement as teacher of wood carving at the Royal College of Art, 1901-1924.
Extract from a letter of Professor Lethaby to Mr F. A. White, May 28, 1924:
'Of the carving itself I need say nothing except that it was done some 25 or 30 years ago & thus actually represents the Philip Webb period. Mr. Jack was an assistant of Philip Webb from about 1880 to 1900. He became the designer to the Morris firm of furniture, & practised wood carving as a personal & original art. I look upon him as one of our ablest artist-craftsmen - or artist of any sort.'
Descriptive line
Front leg for a settle, oak, carved with a shepherd and his dog, by George Jack, English about 1892.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Jack, George, 'Wood Carving: Design and Workmanship' (John Hogg, London, 1903), p. 302 Fig. XV, where captioned as 'Leg of a Settle, carved in English Oak.' Gaimster, Amy 'George Jack 1855-1935: Architect and Designer-Craftsman' (Exhibition catalogue, William Morris Gallery, 2006) ISBN 0 9552950 0 9, 978 0 9552950 0 3
Exhibition History
George Jack 1855-1931: Architect and Designer-Craftsman (William Morris Gallery 01/01/2004-29/07/2006)
Labels and date
Front leg for a settle
About 1892
Carved by George Jack (1855–1931)
England (London)
Oak
Presented by a Body of Subscribers through the Art Fund
Museum no. W.112-1924
George Jack claimed that the ‘invigorating resistance’ of oak made it ‘beyond all others, the carver’s wood’.
The oak for this carving was previously a beam in an old house. The cracks had to be filled with slips of wood before work began. Jack was also a furniture designer and based his carvings on detailed drawings. [01/12/2012]
Materials
Oak
Techniques
Hand carved
Subjects depicted
Shepherd; Sheep dog
Categories
Woodwork
Collection code
FWK
