An Arts & Crafts Cotswold School English Oak Wardrobe by Brynmawr Furniture Company c. 1930. One of the very striking “Paul Matt” designs, with both hanging and drawer space. Featuring:

• Very 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).

• Two doors with stepped raised panels containing a hanging rail on one side and a shelf and 5 sliding trays on the other.

• Stepped raised panels on the sides.

• Feature brynmawr shaped handles.

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Height 1800mm (5 feet 10 3/4 inches).

• Overall Width 1220mm (4 feet).

• Overall Depth 560mm (1 foot 10 inches).

c. 1930.

An instantly recognisable Brynmawr design. Brynmawr Furniture Makers Ltd label inside the door.

Good condition with good colour, smoothly sliding drawers and clean overall, A couple of chips at the back corners and the shoe rails and keys are not present. A few minor marks and dints discoverable upon close inspection, as expected with an item that has been in use for nearly a century. 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.

Brynmawr Furniture Company: An Arts and Crafts furniture making company founded by Quakers in Wales as part of the 'The Brynmawr Experiment', designed to revive Brynmawr's economic depression and accompanying mass unemployment. Most items were made to private commissions. Known for high quality workmanship and materials and clean modern designs.

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.