Armchair

A prolific designer of silver, jewelry and furniture, Charles Robert Ashbee was a leader of the late-19th- and early-20th-century English Arts and Crafts Movement.   True to the Movement's principles, this chair combines aesthetic simplicity with fine craftsmanship.  The Movement stressed the use of motifs drawn from medieval elements, such as the X-shaped frame adapted from English chairs of the 1600s, and ornament derived from nature, such as the three swirling flowers on the tooled leather back.  The Guild of Handicraft, a cooperative group of craft workers founded by Ashbee, fulfilled one of the Movement's ideals: establishing a communal guild devoted to the revival of traditional handicrafts.