Not currently on display at the V&A

Leather Panel

1893-1894 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This leather panel is part of a set originally designed and made as wall coverings for the staircase hall in the Magpie and Stump. When put together the panels show a design of magpies with foliage, echoing the name of the house. The architect and designer, C.R. Ashbee designed and built this house on Chelsea Embankment in 1893-4 for himself, his mother and his sisters. The leather was modelled by Bill Hardiman, a member of the Guild of Handicraft, founded in Mile End, London by Ashbee in 1888. Members of the Guild lived and worked together on metalwork, jewellery, furniture and books. Hardiman, who joined the Guild in 1890 and left in 1906, became the chief modeller for metalwork but also worked on leather panels for upholstery and for wall coverings.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Leather, embossed and gilded
Brief description
Leather panel, from the Magpie and Stump, designed by Charles Robert Ashbee, made by Bill Hardiman, Essex House (Mile End), 1893-1894
Physical description
The panel may have been intended to be used vertically. This would give a design with a main stem in the bottom left dividing into smaller stems, one supporting a briar rose flower head in the centre of the upper section, and the others curving around this flower head and ending with two leafy sprays in the lower right hand area of the panel. The briar rose has a circular centre with six lobe-like petals which extend over an outer ring of twisted bands with small leaves at intervals. There is another smaller flower head with pointed petals to the left of the large flower head. On the left of the base of the main stem springs another flower head in profile on a stem with three coiling leaves below the flower head.
Dimensions
  • Height: 660mm
  • Width: 475mm
Measured from object
Style
Credit line
Given by Messrs Wates Ltd
Object history
This is part of a set of leather panels, made by Bill Hardiman of the Guild of Handicraft for the staircase hall of the Magpie and Stump. C.R. Ashbee, who founded the Guild, designed and built this house on Chelsea Embankment for himself, his mother and sisters, in 1893-4. The panels were stitched together to cover the back wall of the hall, against which the first flight of the staircase was placed, and the complete design shows magpies with foliage and flower heads.

In 1966 the Museum was given the opportunity to remove the leather panels from the house before it was demolished.
Subject depicted
Summary
This leather panel is part of a set originally designed and made as wall coverings for the staircase hall in the Magpie and Stump. When put together the panels show a design of magpies with foliage, echoing the name of the house. The architect and designer, C.R. Ashbee designed and built this house on Chelsea Embankment in 1893-4 for himself, his mother and his sisters. The leather was modelled by Bill Hardiman, a member of the Guild of Handicraft, founded in Mile End, London by Ashbee in 1888. Members of the Guild lived and worked together on metalwork, jewellery, furniture and books. Hardiman, who joined the Guild in 1890 and left in 1906, became the chief modeller for metalwork but also worked on leather panels for upholstery and for wall coverings.
Collection
Accession number
W.12-2008

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Record createdFebruary 28, 2008
Record URL
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