The Arts And Crafts Home

Wendy Hitchmough

Editions

Review

The Arts and Crafts movement was not simply a design ethos but a philosophy, whereby the architecture, interior design, furniture, furnishings and artefacts were considered as an artistic entity.  Architects such as Philip Webb, Voysey (this author’s monograph on him, C F A Voysey pbk £22.95,  is a classic of its kind) and the Greene brothers in California, produced environments in which everything was arranged in accordance with a refined understanding of the home as a complete work of art.

In this well-researched book, Wendy Hitchmough considers, room by room, from the entrance hall, via the drawing room with its ingle-nook and window bay, to the bedrooms and bathrooms, a selection of the most interesting houses of the movement in England and America.  This method makes for a highly original view of the subject and there is a considerable amount of previously unpublished material, well photographed and laid out to emphasise the enduring qualities of lightness, simplicity, comfort and convenience which are the hallmarks of the style - review by Stewart Grimshaw