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“I want to make decent furniture for ordinary people.”
Gordon Russell was a design pioneer—a furniture designer, maker, calligrapher, entrepreneur, educator, and advocate of accessible, well-crafted design. Educated in the Arts and Crafts tradition of the Cotswolds, he believed that good design profoundly impacts people’s lives. His great skill lay in bridging the gap between hand and machine, craft and design, theory and practice, landscape and architecture.
Most people visit Broadway, in the heart of England’s Cotswolds, to wander along its main street of old houses of amber coloured stone and peer in the windows of gift shops. It is very much a tourist trap. But if you happen to wander down a side street past the olde worlde fish ‘n chip shop and continue on to the CO-OP supermarket you will find a little a gem of a museum.
It’s a place that celebrates the work of a very extraordinary man, a man who believed that good design uplifted the spirits, and that everyone should have them uplifted by the everyday things in their homes.
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Gordon Russell’s connection with furniture making and, in particular with the traditional skills of Cotswold makers, began in 1904 when his father moved the family from London and bought The Lygon Arms. Sydney Russell was intent on creating a fine country hotel (which it still is today) and furnishing it with antique pieces restored or mended in his own workshop. At sixteen, Gordon left school and began to learn his own craft and create his own designs alongside skilled artisans in the family workshop.
Then came the Great War. Gordon volunteered and served as an officer in the Worcestershire Regiment. Very remarkably, he survived Passchendaele, Ypres and the Somme and was awarded a military cross. Somehow, he translated the horror of all he must have witnessed into a driving determination to create beautiful work of enduring value.
You will have to forgive the not so good photos. The museum is so small, so filled with exhibits, and there were the inevitable spot lights.
This chest of drawers was commissioned by erstwhile British prime minister, Lloyd George. It is made from a holly tree that had blown down in his garden. The carcase is lined with Honduras mahogany. The handles are made from forged non-rust iron. It was made in 1928.
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Gordon Russell’s belief that everyone should be able to afford good furniture came to the fore during World War Two.
Throughout the war, Gordon played a major public role. Appointed by the government to lead the design panel for manufacturing utility furniture, he faced the challenge of coordinating hundreds of small workshops to produce standard furniture for those who had lost homes to bombing or were newly married. Despite material shortages, Gordon ensured the furniture was well-designed and well-made, with much of it still in use today. For his contributions, Gordon was awarded a CBE. In 1944, he joined Board of Trade discussions to establish a national body promoting higher standards of industrial design, leading to a significant post-war role.
This is where some personal Farrell interest comes in. We have a catalogue utility piece. Once given as a wedding gift to the Farrell parents when they married after the war, it much later lingered under many layers of green paint in their garage. Then Graham decided to give it an overhaul. It was in the Sheinton Street kitchen for years where I overlooked the fact that the drawers and doors no longer shut properly. Then, moving it to The Gables, we found it wouldn’t fit at all in the new kitchen. We started agonising over getting rid of it, (and yes, I know this might be surprising to some) and so I was very pleased when I found it would fit in the main bedroom, where it’s actually quite useful if unlikely. And I’m attached to it even more now that I know something about the man responsible for furnishing the homes of bombed out, impoverished post-war Britons.
If you want to know more about Gordon Russell and see far better photos of his designs, please go to the museum link above. It’s a very excellent website.
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There’s a rather smarter version of our sideboard in V & A collection. It was apparently first made by Heal & Son between 1942-1946. You can see the V & A example:
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O123774/sideboard-heal-and-son/sideboard-heal–son/
#GeometricJanuary Day 26
