News-Antique.com - Jun 17,2007 - ORIGINS & HISTORY OF THE ARTS & CRAFTS MOVEMENT IN AUSTRALIA
The Arts and Crafts movement originated in England (in the United Kingdom ) in the mid 1800s as a reaction against the mass-produced goods of the Industrial Revolution and the intricate and elaborate art forms of the popular Victorian style of art, architecture, furniture and design. The movement embraced a philosophy of handmade products and established a preference for simple forms and unadorned designs.
The English pioneers of the Arts and Crafts movement, such as writer and designer William Morris and ceramicist William De Morgan , rebelled against the Industrial Revolution's mass production processes being used to create furnishings and architecture. They aspired to the handcrafted processes of medieval artisans. They believed that the work of skilled craftspeople should be respected and highly valued. They developed workshops and companies to produce their furnishings in their own style.
In England , furniture, jewellery, household items, ceramics, hand-decorated wallpapers and textiles, gardens and even entire houses were produced in the Arts and Crafts style.
The Arts and Crafts Movement in Australia
The Arts and Crafts movement spread internationally. It was significant in the United States of America and came to Australia towards the end of the 19th century.
Australian designers learned about the Arts and Crafts style from retail catalogues and art journals from England , such as Art Journal and The Studio. They also had access to American magazines displaying the style, such as Gustav Stickley's The Craftsman .
They were inspired by what they saw to create their own works in a similar style.
Arts and Crafts furniture in Australia . From 1900 to 1920, Australian furniture makers embraced the Arts and Crafts style. The designs featured strong lines with solid construction. Often joins and fixings were large and prominent and were the only embellishments on a piece.
Christobel Francis Rojo in Melbourne and Beard Watson Ltd in Sydney were highly regarded for the wooden Arts and Crafts furniture they produced during this period.
Use of Australian timbers
As is still common in Australian furniture, manufacturers of Arts and Craft furniture in Australia used European timbers, such as English Oak and Pine, as well as Australian hardwoods such as Blackwood , Queensland Maple, Mountain Ash, Silky Oak and Queensland Walnut.
Sometimes the Australian timbers were stained to imitate European timbers, but often they were used in their natural state. Used naturally, Australian timbers display unique characteristics in grain patterns and colour variations and they provided a distinctive touch to the Arts and Crafts pieces manufactured in Australia .
Arts and Crafts architecture in Australia
Architecture was an important factor of the Arts and Crafts movement in England , where distinctive houses were built in the Arts and Crafts style, including William Morris's The Red House , built by Phillip Webb in 1859.
The Arts and Crafts Movement had an influence on the architecture of Australia from the late 1800s, where the style of building was adapted to the Australian