C.F.A. VOYSEY (1857-1941) (DESIGNER), ARTHUR W. SIMPSON (1857-1922) (ATTRIBUTED MAKER) ARTS & CRAFTS

C.F.A. VOYSEY (1857-1941) (DESIGNER), ARTHUR W. SIMPSON (1857-1922) (ATTRIBUTED MAKER) ARTS & CRAFTS MIRROR, CIRCA 1906 oak, glass, patinated brass (58cm wide, 55.5cm high, 19.3cm deep) Provenance: The Essex & Suffolk Equitable Insurance Company, Capel House, New Broad Street, London (for whom made) E. H. Brooks Esq. The Victorian Society Private Collection Exhibited: 1. C.F.A. Voysey: architect and designer 1857-1941, Brighton Art Gallery & Museum, 11th July-3rd September 1978; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 8th January - 12th February 1979; Glasgow City Art Gallery, 5th April - 27th May 1979, exhibit no. C7 2. From Arts and Crafts to the Bauhaus, Bröhan-Museum, Berlin, 24th January - 5th May 2019, exhibit no. 27 Literature: Decorative Kunst, volume I, 1897, p. 258 The Artist, volume XXVI, 1899, p. 178 The Studio, volume XVIII, 1899, p. 45 Livingston, K., Max Donnelly, M., Parry, L. C.F.A. Voysey, Arts and Crafts designer V&A 2016, p. 178 Note: This mirror formed part of the furnishings designed for the offices of The Essex & Suffolk Equitable Insurance Company commissioned from Voysey in 1906 by General Manager Sydney Claridge-Turner. Voysey also designed 'The Homestead' and Frinton-on-Sea for Turner in 1905 and the mirror may have first been used there. The insurance company offices were taken over by stockbroker Chase, Henderson and Tennant who retained the furnishings and fittings. When some Voysey furnishings were stripped out of the premises in the 1960s, one of the partners, E.H. Brooks, found suitable homes for as many pieces as possible. Recipients included Charles and Lavinia Handley-Read, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the William Morris Gallery. The Victorian Society received a side table and the mirror being sold in this lot. Original drawings for this mirror in the RIBA collections are dated 1906 and 1908 (versions with one and two knobs on each drawer) and include examples with mouldings around the drawers, as in the current lot, which has a RIBA reference SB116/VOY [392]. This mirror matches another example illustrated in the bedroom of Holly Mount, a house designed by Voysey in Buckinghamshire, and photographed in 1907. Contemporary photographs in The Studio and Decorative Kunst show examples of mirrors in other styles made in the 1890s.