The furniture designs of C.F.A. Voysey, part 2: 1898-1906

This, the second of three papers devoted to Voysey’s furniture designs, constitutes the first detailed study of this important aspect of Voysey’s design oeuvre. As Voysey produced more than two-hundred-and-fifty individual designs for furniture across his long career, and only a small group of pieces are well-known through reproduction, a conscious decision has been made to illustrate the papers with items that have never been reproduced elsewhere giving the reader a greater awareness of the vast scope and ambition of this important aspect of his work. During the late 1890s and early 1900s Voysey’s small architectural practice was at its zenith seeing him create designs for thirty-four executed houses and a further thirty-five that were to remain unbuilt. Remarkably, rather than lessening his output of designs for furniture, during the period in question, Voysey was at his most active in this field. Voysey’s first realised ‘complete interior’ (where he designed all elements) was executed in 1898 and the period also saw the arrival of his most well-known and iconic designs for chairs, cabinets and sideboards. The paper documents these and explores the traditional, antique furniture of the Georgian period that Voysey considered the progenitors of his own design vocabulary which he characterised as: “a sense of proportion and puritanical love of simplicity”.