Arts & Crafts furniture is furniture made under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement, which flourished in Britain from about the 1860s to the 1920s. Inspired by the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris, it valued honest construction, good native timbers and the skill of the individual craftsman over machine-made ornament.
Typical pieces are made of solid oak, sometimes elm, walnut or ash, with simple forms, visible joints such as through-tenons and dovetails, and hand-made metal fittings in copper, brass or iron. Morris & Co. produced rush-seated Sussex chairs, while designers including Ernest Gimson, the Barnsley brothers, C. F. A. Voysey and Ambrose Heal produced furniture of great refinement, and the Cotswold School continued the tradition well into the twentieth century. Commercial firms such as Liberty, Shapland & Petter and Wylie & Lochhead made attractive pieces for a wider market, and in America Gustav Stickley developed a related style. Collectors look for quality of construction, original finish and hardware, and documented designers or makers, and well-made pieces sit easily in both period cottages and modern homes.
