Arts and Crafts Peter Waals

1 arts , crafts

1.1 cabinet maker
1.2 workshop owner , designer
1.3 teacher

arts , crafts

born in hague jan van der waals , lena alida maria loorij, peter waals nephew of nobel prize-winning physicist johannes diderik van der waals. trained cabinet maker in native netherlands, waals spent 3 years working in brussels, berlin , vienna before moving london introduced ernest gimson in 1901.

cabinet maker

gimson had set small workshop in cirencester, gloucestershire, , @ daneway house @ sapperton, making furniture, turned chairs, , metalwork own designs. waals offered position of foreman/manager , chief cabinet maker , accepted, spending rest of life in cotswolds. furniture , craft work produced workshop under day-to-day supervision of waals regarded supreme achievement of arts , crafts movement of period , represented in principal collections of decorative arts in britain , united states of america. architectural historian nikolaus pevsner called gimson greatest of english artist-craftsmen.

workshop owner , designer

norman jewson

after gimson s death in 1919 peter waals continued run daneway workshops. end of year canvassing potential clients in own name on daneway headed paper following year able set own workshop @ halliday s mill of alfred james, @ foot of cowcombe hill in nearby village of chalford, employing many of gimson s skilled craftsmen including designer norman jewson. chalford more practical location workshop sapperton, since close railway station , had more accessible roads.

christ church, chalford

many examples of own work, , produced other craftsmen in workshop, can found in christ church there. include organ gallery, chancel screen , lectern, of designed jewson. cover of font, lifts , descends means of counterbalance in roof space, carved 1 of waals craftsmen, owen scrubey.

from 1920 1937 workshop produced high quality furniture waals , jewson s designs , trained apprentices in arts , crafts tradition. apprenticeship @ chalford workshop waals lasted 5 6 years, , apprentices on trial 3 months without pay. 1 such apprentice new age thinker sir george trevelyan died in bed made there. furniture produced during period features in exhibitions , catalogues of leading art houses , auction rooms.

teacher

rutland hall

in 1935 waals invited act consultant in design @ loughborough college main centre training of handicraft teachers in england. there, waals instructed students in approach , high standards of craftsmanship required in making of furniture had been established ernest gimson , barnsley brothers in sapperton. designed furniture hazlerigg hall other fittings throughout college, , these built students. college part of loughborough university, , furniture design drawings peter waals deposited in university archives.

peter waals died in may 1937, , lies buried in churchyard @ chalford. disastrous fire in workshops in 1938 ended widow s attempts continue production there.