That reference to Deane and Woodward in my last entry set me thinking.

I said in that post that they were architects in the Pugin style.
I am not alone in referring to them as such: Frederick O'Dwyer in his tome on the two men – The Architecture of Deane and Woodward, Cork University Press 1997 – does so regularly.

But when you look at Mr. Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin's dates 1812-1852, those of Sir James Deane 1828-1899 and of Benjamin Woodward 1816-1861, it begs the question as to who was in who's style, as they were effectively contemporaries.

And then, when you look at who built what and where, it becomes an even more intriguing question.

Pugin was responsible for the interior of the Palace of Westminster or, as it is better known, the Houses of Parliament in London, which was re-built, in its current incarnation following the fire of 1834 by Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) although their appears to be divided opinion as to the extent of Barry's input in the first instance
And, here in Ireland, Killarney Cathedral is a Pugin building. (Interestingly, Deane, who was in the process of building University College Cork at the time, was appointed to build Killarney Lunatic Asylum, for which Woodward also produced a design).
Pugin is also responsible for various other buildings in Ireland, many of then ecclesiastic and in Co. Wexford.

Meanwhile, or rather simultaneously, Deane and Woodward were busy entering competitions for, and erecting, many iconic buildings in the UK, especially in Oxford and London.

I can well imagine that Pugin and or Deane and Woodward scholars, and architectural historians, might take issue with some of these broad observations.

But it is intentionally a broad brush that I am seeking to wield.

I am suggesting that, in terms of creativity, the middle and latter part of the nineteenth century was a phenomenon.

If you think of Deane and Woodward, you think of Pugin. And if you think Deane and Woodward and Pugin (which is were this rambling thought-process starts) you may think, as already mentioned, of Sir Charles Barry and of John Ruskin 1819-1900 and William Morris 1834-1896 and countless others who were not only in commercial competition, but also, many of them, in direct communication, one with the other and, on occasions, in cooperation.

And those thoughts might lead you to recall Ernest Gimson 1864-1919, Charles Voysey 1857-1941, E.W Godwin 1833-1886 and Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882, the poet, painter and illustrator who also designed furniture.
And thoughts of such men might cause you to recall the entire Arts and Crafts Movement and Burne-Jones 1833-1898, Holman Hunt 1827-1910 and the Pre-Raphaelites. Thoughts of these men and movements might cause you to consider the phenomenon that was (and remains) Liberty of London founded by Arthur Lasenby Liberty in the 1870's. And the thought of Liberty's should bring to mind William Moorcfroft 1872-1954, the Fulham Pottery and Charles Rene Mackintosh 1868-1928 and then the whole international movement that was Art Nouveau.

And, because I am me, thoughts of all these men cause me to recall my wood-carver friend from Wexford, James O'Keeffe 1850-1923. (James O'Keeffe 1850-1923......... 04.02.10)

And the bulk of this creativity took place between 1850 and 1920 with its crescendo between 1870 and 1900.

I have focused only on the areas of my own interest.
The mind boggles if you stop to consider what was happening in other areas of the arts: so I won't.

I have decided that it would be too big a task to upload images of examples of the work of those to whom I have referred.
(And, were I have to done so, I remain uncertain as whether there would be copyright issues attaching to taking images from other's publications, without their leave, and putting them up on the web.
I really must check this out – or can somebody advise me?)

But I have in my possession a number of items from this period which I will show you.

The Sussex Chair made by Morris & Co. c. !870-80.
With what degree of accuracy I don't know, but its design has been attributed to the painter Ford Madox Brown 1821-1893.

I bought this chair, which I always knew and referred to as a 'William Morris Chair', sometime in the mid 1960's.

But I can add my own twist to this.

Some short time later I bought this chair.
And guess where I bought it? - At auction in Sussex.

Now I defy anybody to tell me that these chairs are not only related but are closely related.

I'm satisfied that the chair I bought at auction is the older chair.

So, who was the designer?
In my view this wonderful, simple country chair (from Sussex?) influenced the design of the Morris or Madox Brown Chair.

And that will be the subject of another entry because it is not only their similarity, but how each of them is constructed, that fascinates me.

When I was a child - I guess about ten - I knew that my mother liked green, and a very particular green, as a colour.

I remember buying these candle-sticks for her, in a shop in Camberley, Surrey as a Christmas present.

I can't remember the details.

Had she pointed me in their direction?
She must have provided the funds for their purchase.
I couldn't have had an eye for their date but I assume that, in the mid 1950's minor Arts and Crafts artifacts such as these, will have had little more than second-hand value.

Anyway, I guess I must have liked them then and I surely love them now - and all their associations.

The underside of one of the sticks, showing the simplicity of their manufacture and no maker's marks.

And from my mother I inherited this wonderful vase made by the Fulham Pottery, into which pottery her father had introduced electricity. - Oh! god there's yet another..............

During my time in Belfast, in the late 1960's I acquired this Pre-Raphealite, pokerwork panel.

The poem reads:

Calm are her eyes
on the approach
ing close

Doom
towards
whose
darknes
all our
whole
world
goes.

Well?

... and on its back this practice work.

... and in or around the same time I came by this little lustre mug (I'm afraid there was a pair but one is no more).

...and this is the mark on its base: about which I know nothing. Does anybody?

And my very great friend, Noel Ludlow who, sadly, is no longer with us, gave me this piece of Moorcraft in 1979.
Yes, he was very generous - in all ways - and, though I saw little of him in the later years, I miss him.

And this is the mark on its base.

I've enjoyed the re-engagement with these things!