The furniture designs of C.F.A. Voysey, part 3: 1906-1934

As with his architecture and pattern design, Voysey’s designs for furniture are highly recognisable and acknowledged as important in the field of furniture design history with examples being found in major design museums both in the UK and internationally. Sadly, no in-depth study of the evolution of this important aspect of his practice had previously been undertaken. The scale and ambition of this survey necessitated publication in three instalments and, as certain pieces of Voysey’s furniture are well-known through frequent reproduction, illustrations were carefully chosen to show pieces that have not been published before, thus greatly expanding the reader’s awareness of this important aspect of the architect’s work. This, the third and final paper focuses on the years when his long career was in decline but commences with the years around 1906-08 when he was arguably at his busiest in the field of furniture design. It explores Voysey’s innermost thoughts on design and manufacture through extracts from previously unpublished letters between himself and his friend, the furniture maker Arthur Simpson of Kendal. The reasons behind Voysey’s retreat, late in his career, into an overtly Gothic idiom for his furniture are also explored and addressed. The paper concludes with a survey of Voysey’s relationship with commercial manufacturers and attempts to clarify which examples were designed by Voysey or, as is more usually the case, plagiarised from his published designs.