Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
British Galleries, Room 125, Edwin and Susan Davies Gallery

Watercolour

1901 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
This watercolour is of the finished dining room in the house of architect and designer Charles Robert Ashbee in Chelsea, London. It was drawn by Ashbee's friend, Fleetwood C. Varley. This sketch was reproduced in the German journal, Kunst und Kunsthandverk, and was possibly drawn especially for that purpose.

Places
This house was designed and built by Ashbee for his family in 1893-1894. The Ancient Magpie and Stump was the name of an old inn which had stood on the same ground. The rooms in the house were the first evidence of Ashbee's talents as an interior designer. The sketch shows the remarkably austere dining room, with its narrow guild trestle table and ladder-back chairs. It was decorated only with a modelled plaster frieze, partly painted by Ashbee's daughter Agnes, and a side-board displaying blue and white porcelain. The house was demolished in 1968.

People
Ashbee founded the Guild of Handicraft in 1888. It was a school and subsequently became a business based on Arts and Crafts principles. It practised woodwork, leatherwork, metalwork and jewellery-making. The guild supplied much of the decoration for this dining room including what were then revolutionary ultra-modern electric light fittings. In 1907 the business failed, mainly because it could not compete with ordinary commercial firms, especially Liberty's in London.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Drawing, pencil and watercolour on paper
Brief description
View of the Dining Room at The Ancient Magpie and Stump, 37, Cheyne Walk, London, attributed to Fleetwood C. Varley, London, ca. 1901
Physical description
View of the dining room at the Ancient Magpie and Stump, 37, Cheyne Walk, London - austere pale room, with a frieze depicting animals including a peacock and deer. There is a sideboard containing blue and white porcelain, a long trestle table and several ladder-back chairs.
Dimensions
  • Height: 51cm
  • Width: 65.4cm
Dimensions checked: Measured; 20/01/1999 by kl supporting paper size 50.9 x 65.4cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
numerous notes indicating the sending of the drawing in 1903 to the Stuttgart architectural publisher Julius Hoffmann (inscribed on back)
Gallery label
British Galleries: C.R. Ashbee designed this house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London for his family in 1893-1894. It was named after an old inn which had stood on the same ground. The house was a model of the Arts and Crafts style, as this drawing shows. Much of the decoration, including what were then revolutionary electric light fittings, was supplied by the Guild of Handicraft which Ashbee founded in 1898.(27/03/2003)
Object history
Reproduced in 'Kunst und Kunsthandwerk', (Vienna), 1901, vol. 4, p.464.
Probably painted by Fleetwood C. Varley (born in 1863, died in 1942).
Historical context
The Magpie and Stump, which was demolished in 1968, was built by Ashbee in 1893-4 on the site of an old pub of the same name. Chiefly intended as a home for his mother and sisters, but also containing his architectural office, the rooms in the house were the first evidence of Ashbee's talents as an interior designer as well as a much publicised demonstration of the work of his Guild of Handicraft. The remarkably austere dining room, with its narrow Guild trestle table and ladderback chairs, was decorated only with a modelled plaster frieze, partly painted by his daughter Agnes, and a sideboard of blue and white porcelain. The lighting, by contrast, was ultra-modern electric, in Guild fittings.

[Michael Snodin, 'British Design at Home', p.83]
Subjects depicted
Associations
Summary
Object Type
This watercolour is of the finished dining room in the house of architect and designer Charles Robert Ashbee in Chelsea, London. It was drawn by Ashbee's friend, Fleetwood C. Varley. This sketch was reproduced in the German journal, Kunst und Kunsthandverk, and was possibly drawn especially for that purpose.

Places
This house was designed and built by Ashbee for his family in 1893-1894. The Ancient Magpie and Stump was the name of an old inn which had stood on the same ground. The rooms in the house were the first evidence of Ashbee's talents as an interior designer. The sketch shows the remarkably austere dining room, with its narrow guild trestle table and ladder-back chairs. It was decorated only with a modelled plaster frieze, partly painted by Ashbee's daughter Agnes, and a side-board displaying blue and white porcelain. The house was demolished in 1968.

People
Ashbee founded the Guild of Handicraft in 1888. It was a school and subsequently became a business based on Arts and Crafts principles. It practised woodwork, leatherwork, metalwork and jewellery-making. The guild supplied much of the decoration for this dining room including what were then revolutionary ultra-modern electric light fittings. In 1907 the business failed, mainly because it could not compete with ordinary commercial firms, especially Liberty's in London.
Bibliographic references
  • Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1990
  • Crawford, Alan. C.R. Ashbee : architect, designer & romantic socialist. New Haven: London: Yale University Press, 1985. 499pp, illus. ISBN: 0300034679. p. 303
Collection
Accession number
E.1903-1990

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Record createdFebruary 11, 2000
Record URL
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