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Table of Contents: Volume 1: 1250-1700
Is there a Welsh style? An examination of the way Welsh furniture has been studied. The cultural region of Wales. The development of the chair.
Establishing provenance: research methods, combining artefactual and documentary evidence. The central role of the craftsman: timber, construction and trade organization. A study of different social levels: Gwydir Castle and Gelli farmhouse.
The Medieval Court, manuscripts and bardic praise. Elementary furniture types; elaborate church screens; great turned chairs; chests, cradles, tables and buffets. The elusive Harri ap Gruffydd’s cupboard.
The Court of Rhys ap Thomas. A native style of heraldic and polychromed furniture and panelling. Advanced Renaissance tastes and Continental influences: standing bedsteads, court cupboards and drawleaf tables. A productive group of Pembrokeshire carvers.
Gentry patronage of 17th century craftsmen. Domestic developments and probate inventories. Fine carving and turning, and the ‘Cromwellian’ taste. Widespread production and even export of furniture. The distinctive cwpwrdd deuddarn and cwpwrdd tridarn and the emergence of the ‘Welsh dresser’.
Volume 2: 1700-1950
The proliferation and diversity of regional types: chests and cupboards for storage and display; joined and stick chairs and tables; dressers and longcase clocks. Design and decoration: flowing inlay, fretwork and panelling. The community of craftsmen. Diverging values: nonconformity, desks and preachers chairs.
Estate craftsmen, the rural community and the archetypal farmhouse interior. Travellers accounts and artists impressions. Cross-influences: cabinet-makers, joiners and village wheelwrights. The diaries, notebooks and sketchbooks of furniture makers.
Pride in the industrial home. Large-scale production alongside the persistence of local preferences. The Arts and Crafts Movement, Eisteddfod chairs, and nostalgia for a rural past. The international antiques trade.
Some Welsh light on the development of furniture. Continuity and change: influences from outside with development and innovation from within. The evolution of the dresser to its present position as the epitome of the Welsh tradition. Author Biography: Richard Bebb was born in 1948 in Cwmparc in the Rhondda Valley, and spent most of his childhood in Devon and Cornwall. After graduating in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics, in 1970 he returned to Wales with his wife Lynne, settling in Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire. There he began a career as an antiques dealer specializing in Welsh furniture and by the late 1980’s was widely recognized as an authority on the subject, regularly contributing articles to local periodicals and the main antiques magazines. By 1990 a realization of certain inadequacies in the current literature had led to an ambition to produce something more substantial. In 1994 Welsh Country Furniture was published in the Shire Album series; intended as a taster, it took a further thirteen years to complete the present volumes which are far greater in scope than originally envisaged. The research and writing has been almost a full-time occupation for much of this time - alongside the necessary (but equally enjoyable) full-time occupation as a dealer, which provided not only the means and continual access to the material, but contact with many individuals willing to share invaluable insights and information. Richard Bebb is a member of the British Antiques Dealers’ Association, Furniture History Society and Regional Furniture Society, and acts as a consultant to public institutions and private collectors. Further Information: The result of 16 years of fresh research, this book attempts to explain furniture history to those who have an interest in all things Welsh, and Welsh culture and history to those interested in furniture. The subject is dealt with chronologically, and uses numerous detailed case studies. The accepted view which sees “country” or “provincial” furniture as essentially derivative is challenged; an alternative approach is recommended which recognizes the central part played by craftsmen and suggests that development and innovation can take place in areas far removed from metropolitan centres.
The text is fully illustrated in colour with over 1500 plates (including some showing fixed woodwork, contemporary interior paintings and craftsmen’s inscriptions). Principally of pieces which have not previously been published, most were taken specially for this project. In recognition of the importance of this work, many were provided by National Museum Wales and The National Library of Wales as well as other national and local bodies. Private owners were also generous in allowing the use of their collections.
This title is certain to become a classic reference book, providing essential reading for historians in many fields; craftsmen and those involved in furniture design and the decorative arts; antiques dealers, owners and collectors; and all those with an interest in Welsh culture.
Excerpt from the Foreword, by Dr Eurwyn Wiliam Director of Collections & Research and Deputy Director General Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales:
'Richard Bebb's work is a tour de force, and its breadth is astonishing. The statistics alone are impressive: 825 pages and over 1,500 illustrations - mostly commissioned specifically - and sixteen years of study. The time-scale studied is wider than the norm; by 450 years, and the story is brought up to 1950. But all this would have been meaningless if the author did not have a tale to tell. Rest assured, he does, for not only has he examined personally thousands of pieces of furniture and hundreds of documents, but he has created from it all a record worthy of his labours. This is not just the history of furniture, but of society in the round, and Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales is delighted to be associated with it.'
Contact Publisher:
Saer Books Ltd
31-33 Bridge St
Kidwelly
Carmarthenshire
SA17 4UU
Tel: 01554 890328
Email: info@welshfurniture.com
Website: www.welshfurniture.com |
