An Arts & Crafts Cotswold School English Oak dining table and matching benches. A very decorative set with the figuring on the table top and chip carving making it really stand out. Featuring:

• Solid English Oak (excerpt the tops of the benches.

• Rectangular table top made out of just two continuous pieces of very well figured oak.

• Curved trestle ends joined with single stretchers secured by keyed tenons.

• Very nicely done hand carved chip carving on the edges.

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Table Length 1530mm (5 feet).

• Overall Table Width 690mm (2 feet 3 inches).

• Overall Table Height 670mm (2 feet 2 1/4 inches).

• Overall Bench Length 1240mm (4 feet and 3/4 of an inch).

• Overall Bench Width 330mm (1 foot and 3/4 of an inch).

• Overall Bench Height 440mm (1 foot 5 1/4 inches) [A standard height for a dining chair].

c.1940.

Very good condition with good colour and clean finish. Contraction gaps in the trestle ends and at one end of the table top. A few small knocks and marks at the edges. 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.

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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.