This authoritative book is the most detailed account to date of the Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland. Arts and Crafts ideas appeared there from the 1860s, but not until after 1890 did they emerge from artistic circles and rise to popularity among the wider public. The heyday of the movement occurred between 1890 and 1914, a time when Scotland’s art schools energetically promoted new design and the Scottish Home Industries Association campaigned to revive rural crafts. Across the country the movement influenced the look of domestic and church buildings, as well as the stained glass, metalwork, textiles, and other furnishings that adorned them. Art schools, workshops, and associations helped shape the Arts and Crafts style, as did individuals such as Ann Macbeth, W. R. Lethaby, Robert Lorimer, M. H. Baillie Scott, Douglas Strachan, Phoebe Traquair, and James Cromar Watt, among other well-known and previously overlooked figures. These architects, artists, and designers together contributed to the expansion and evolution of the movement both within and beyond Scotland’s borders.

The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland: A History

Arts & Photography

Carruthers, Annette

History & Criticism

Paul Mellon Centre

An authoritative and insightful study, surveying the life and work of “the greatest of the English artist-craftsmen” This study of the renowned designer-maker Ernest Gimson (1864–1919) combines biography with analysis of his work as an architect and designer of furniture, metalwork, plaster decoration, embroidery, and more. It also examines Gimson’s significance within the Arts and Crafts Movement, tracing the full arc of his creative career, ideas, and legacy. Gimson worked in London in the 1880s, joining the circle around William Morris at the Art Workers’ Guild and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. He later moved to the Cotswolds, where he opened workshops and established a reputation for distinctive style and superb quality. Gimson’s work influences designers today and speaks directly to ongoing debates about the role of craft in the modern world; this book will be the standard reference for years to come.

Ernest Gimson: Arts & Crafts Designer and Architect

Greensted, Mary

Roscoe, Barley

Yale University Press

The life and work of Edward Barnsley (1900-1987) has carried through to the present day the Arts and Crafts tradition in which he grew up. His father, Sidney Barnsley, was one of the major figures of the movement, and directly influenced by William Morris. Edward continued his work as a furniture designer, struggling to earn a living as a craftsman and convince others of the value of such a life. In the lean times of the Depression the workshop came near to closure, but it survived to adapt to a new age. Economic necessity forced the introduction of machine-tools alongside the old skills of handwork and the understanding that went with them. This was a difficult compromise for Barnsley, but helped to foster a new individuality and elegance in his designs of the post-war period. From the war years to the 1960s Barnsley was active in campaigns to secure the future of the crafts through the formation of the Crafts Centre and later the Crafts Council of Great Britain. During this time he was also an influential teacher at Loughborough College. His copious correspondence casts new light on the history of the twentieth-century craft organizations and the debates around the tangled issues of the crafts, design, industry and education. Barnsley lived to see personal recognition and the craft revival of recent decades. His workshop in rural Hampshire, from which he and his craftsmen sent out thousands of fine pieces to give daily pleasure to those who live with them, runs on as an Educational Trust, still passing on skills of the highest order to new generations of pupils and apprentices. This authoritative and readable study continues the story of Morris, Gimson and the Barnsleys, Ashbee, and other Victorian pioneers, and complements recent publications on Leach, Cardew, Gill and Russell. It examines the difficulties, and the rewards, of pursuing the Arts and Crafts ideal in the twentieth century. After studying History of Art and then Museum Studies at the University of Manchester, Annette Carruthers worked at Leicestershire Museums, where the collection of Gimson-Barnsley furniture inspired her interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement. This developed further at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museums where she was involved in creating new displays of the rich Arts and Crafts collections.

Edward Barnsley and His Workshop: Arts and Crafts in the Twentieth Century

White Cockade Pub

White Cockade Publishing

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