Mirror, ca. 1897

Oak, glass, brass
Manufactured by Arthur Simpson of Kendal, UK
h. 55,2 cm -w. 57 cm -d. 17,8 cm

MARKS : 'Mirror designed by C.F.A. Voysey' inscribed on paper label inside right drawer - 'The Victorian Society', on the back.

PROVENANCE : Collection of Mr. E. H. Brooks, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, UK - Donated to the Victorian Society, London, before 1978 - Deacessioned by the Victorian Society, early 2010's - Paul Reeves, London - Oscar Graf Gallery, Paris, 2015 - Private collection, Surrey, UK, until 2020.

SIMILAR PIECES : Crab Tree Farm Foundation, Illinois, USA.

NOTE : Although the original drawings for this mirror, owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum, are dated 1906 and 1908 (versions with one and two knobs on each drawer), several contemporary photographs illustrated in The Studio and Decorative Kunst show that some examples were already made by 1897-1898. Our mirror is very similar to the one illustrated in The Studio in November 1899 and identical to the one used for the bedroom at Holly Mount, a house designed by Voysey in Buckinghamshire in 1905.

EXHIBITED : 'C.F.A. Voysey : architect and designer 1857-1941', at the Art Gallery and Museum, Brighton, from 11th July to 3rd September 1978, the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, from 8th January to 12th February 1979, and the Glasgow City Art Gallery, from 5th April to 27th May 1979 (lent under number C7) - 'From Arts and Crafts to the Bauhaus', at the Bröhan-Museum, Berlin, from 24th January to 5th May 2019 (lent under number 27).

LITERATURE : 'Decorative Kunst', volume I, 1897, page 258 - 'The Artist', volume XXVI, 1899, page 178 - 'The Studio', volume XVIII, 1899, page 45 - Karen Livingston, Max Donnelly and Linda Parry, 'C.F.A. Voysey, Arts and Crafts designer', 2016, page 178 - Tobias Hoffmann, 'Von Arts and Crafts zum Bauhaus', Berlin, 2019, page 62 - Voysey also designed a few variants, with different heights and numbers of drawers : John Andrews, 'Arts and Crafts Furniture', London, 2005, page 138, plate 146.