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Edward Gardiner. An English Cotswold School early oak ladder back rush seat armchair.
These ladder back chairs are steeped in history, their design has evolved from a long line of English chair makers going back to the late 17thC and 18thC.
Edward Gardiner was encouraged to take up chair making by Ernest Gimson who in turn was encouraged by Philip Clissett. Clissett had been making traditional ladder back chairs from as early as 1838, those skills passed down to him becoming a famous master craftsman of his own generation because of his fortuitous connection with the Arts and Crafts Movement and its call to honest handmade goods. He was discovered by Ernest Gimson who spent a few weeks with Clissett in C1890 to learn the art of chair making which Gimson in turn passed onto Edward Gardiner and encouraged him in around 1904. Gardiner then developed his own art and style of chair making in the traditional way. Always handmade usually from Ash making them quite tactile, extremely strong and durable, yet very lightweight and therefore easy to move around. This traditional way English ladderbacks were made is where the original Shaker furniture-making tradition came from. Ann Lee and her husband Abraham Stanley, the very first 'Shaker Quakers' to emigrate from the UK to Colonial America in 1774 bought the essence of what Clissett and his forefathers stood for.
Clissett was once described by Alfred Powell as resembling, ‘what the old aristocratic poor used to be’...
