An Arts & Crafts Cotswold School English Oak Dining Table by White Rose Studio post 1990. A beautifully made table to a very pleasingly simple but elegant design of remarkably modern form but retaining true Arts & Crafts character. Octagonal tables are far more sociable that typical rectangular ones, allowing everyone to see and talk to each other, and more flexible in terms of seating numbers and positions. Featuring:

• Well figured quarter-sawn English Oak (quarter-sawing is a way of sawing oak to produce boards with superior strength which also reveals decorative 'medullary rays' in its grain).

• Octagonal top made out of just five continuous pieces of very well figured quarter-sawn solid timber with button screwed fixing and hand chamfered edges.

• Crucifix base with sledge feet.

• Traditional blind tenons.

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Height 740mm (2 feet 5 inches) [A standard height for a dining table].

• Overall Diameter 1220mm (4 feet).

post 1990.

Carved Yorkshire Rose motif on the base.

Excellent clean condition with tight joints and good finish. If you wish to have further specific photographs or talk to us for a more detailed condition report then please do not hesitate to contact us.

A high quality cabinet maker who was based in Melmerby.

The most British of woods, that can produce really special results. English oak has been used for hundreds of years to construct everything from sea-going vessels to fine furniture. Although oak grows widely across Europe and North America, craftsmen continue to cherish English oak which grows more slowly than its foreign counterparts giving it strength, durability. Quarter sawn boards are very straight grained and have distinctive growth rings and medullary rays that give a very beautiful effect as well as being renowned for their superior stability and strength.

The Cotswold School was a development of the Arts and Craft Movement started largely by Ernest Gimson and the brothers Sidney and Ernest Barnsley. The furniture is instantly recognisable with its simple lines, attention to the finest of details, and use of beautiful materials. Cotswold School designs were crafted from local materials using traditional tools and techniques and with decorative details derived largely from utilitarian elements: exposed joinery, unusual panels, interesting pulls and latches crafted either from wood or from metal using traditional smithing techniques, and close attention to form as well as to wood grain and pattern. Where decorative details were added they generally took the form of traditional embellishment such as exposed joints, chamfered edges and chip carved edge details. The style was embraced and developed by other designers and craftsmen including Gordon Russell, Stanley Webb Davies in Cumbria, Sid Barnsley's son Edward, Arthur Romney Green in Hampshire, Robin Nance in St Ives and Ambrose Heal are a handful of such men out of many. The best developed their own style within the established tradition.