John Paul Cooper: Designer And Craftsman Of The Arts & Crafts Movement

N Natasha Kuzmanovic

Editions

Review

John Paul Cooper is here celebrated as one of the greatest artist/craftsmen of the Arts & Crafts Movement.

What he actually did was to make objects.  These he crafted in an extraordinary range of materials, and a glance through these excellent photographs shows the wide spectrum of an astonishing body of work: bowls, boxes, buckles, brooches and brushes; caskets, coffers and crosses; frames and fonts; plaques, pendants and puzzles; swords, scabbards, seals and spoons.

What distinguishes these often surprisingly sturdy artefacts, and raises Cooper from the level of craftsman to artist, is their supreme quality.

The biographical details reveal a true disciple of William Morris.

Born in Leicester, he abandoned careers as writer and architect (working in London for J D Sedding and coincidentally hard by Morris & Co) and almost by chance studied metal working.  Here this dedicated and reticent man found his true vocation. - review by Stewart Grimshaw