Scottish Furniture, 1500-1914, about to be published by National Museums Scotland is the first comprehensive narrative account of furniture-making in Scotland. In this lecture, the book’s author, Stephen Jackson, will guide us through the evolving landscape of Scottish furniture-making with particular reference to national and regional characteristics. 

Based in Edinburgh, Stephen is editor of the Regional Furniture Society’s annual journal. Graduating from Cambridge in 1993, his career with furniture started in London at the Geffrye Museum, now the Museum of the Home. He wrote a MPhil with David Jones at St Andrews before becoming a curator at Middlesex University and then at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He joined National Museums Scotland in 1999 and the new book is the culmination of many years of research during which he travelled extensively to study furniture in the wild.    

To attend this on-line talk, please apply to the RFS Events organiser by 15th June at events.rfs@gmail.com. You will then be sent a link shortly before the event. 

This visit is an exclusive RFS event, whilst the previously listed Symposium is not. 

We will meet for coffee in the café of the Parkinson Building, where Mark Westgarth, Associate Professor in Art History & Museum Studies at the University, will talk to us about the library of mainly British furniture books and manuscripts dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, created by the antiques dealer John Victor Bedford (1941-2019) and gifted to the University of Leeds. Mark is lead curator of the exhibition, which runs until 21 December 2024.

We then travel by public transport to Temple Newsam Museum, which has a cafe for lunching.  Adam Toole, Curator of and Furniture and Decorative Art will show us some of  the vernacular furniture acquired by Christopher Gilbert, the museum curator and founding member of the RFS who was based at Temple Newsam for his entire working life. The day finishes at 16:30

Cost of the day £10, (refreshments not included) A booking form is available to print from here. 

A unique expression of the Arts & Crafts movement .

In 1899 Frank and Florence Dickinson got engaged and began designing their home in leafy Surrey. It was a long engagement since Frank was unprepared to marry until he had built their dream home.  He left school at the age of 13 and worked for most of his life as a draftsman for Doultons Pottery in Lambeth.  When he met Florence, he was living in crowded accommodation with his family in Paddington.  He became a follower of William Morris and John Ruskin and the house was created to reflect their ideals.

Frank studied books on construction and borrowing £300 built Little Holland House himself with the help of his brother and a friend. He went to night school to learn metalwork and furniture making.  Florence was a talented embroiderer and seamstress. Virtually everything in the house was made by one or other of them over a period of sixty years. They raised a family at Little Holland House, Frank encouraging his son in furniture making. Their well-crafted pieces show the influence of Charles Voysey.  The house remains exactly as it was left on the death of Frank in 1971 and the departure of Florence a year later, when it was bought by Sutton Council and opened to the public. 

To join this visit please book on-line: sutton.events.mylibrary.digital  or dial Sutton Library: 020 8770 4740.  Visits are available for limited numbers at half-hour intervals 11-17:00.  Some members are booked for 11:00, so I suggest aiming for a similar time . If you do book please contact Jeremy Bate, events organiser so that he has an idea of who will be visiting. 

Little Holland House , 40 Beeches Avenue Carshalton, Surrey.  There is free parking on the road and the house is a 5 minute  walk from Carshalton Beeches station ( 44 minutes from Victoria )