E W Godwin. A highly important Anglo-Japanese sidetable.

A highly important Anglo-Japanese sidetable designed by E.W.Godwin. This side table is the most important side table he ever designed and is made exactly to Godwin's original design from his own sketchpads held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Godwin was without question the leading exponent of the Anglo-Japanese Movement. Godwin captured the whole ethos of Japanese furniture designm and function, his disbandment of clumsy or over ornate detailing and his lean toward line and form in a purely Japanese style was quite remarkable particularly that he never actually visited Japan. He drew part of his inspiration from two volumes of Hokusai's Manga. A collection of sketches on Japanese life, from which he gained his knowledge of Japanese wood construction and carefully studying original pieces on display at a number of museums. At the same time he couldn't have failed to have been aware of the massive influx of Japanese items that were pouring in from the ships docking in Bristol from the far East in the 1850's and 60's which gave rise to The Anglo-Japanese Style that spread through Europe at this time. There are two tables of similar design, both with metal adorments and metal sabots, one of which is in The Modern Museum of New York and one in the Ellen Terry museum in Smallhythe Place, in Kent. Circa 1872. Made by Collinson and Lock.