Arts and Crafts — Inspiring a New Generation
Over 100 years ago, the hand-hewn aesthetic of Robert Thompson' furniture found favour amongst proponents of the Arts and Crafts style in its second flowering after the Great War. They saw in Thompson's work the essence of William Morris' philosophy that household furnishings should be both beautiful and useful. Today, the artisanal honesty of Mouseman work continues to resonate with a new generation of architects and interior designers.
Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of the Spanish luxury brand, Loewe, and founder of his eponymous label JW Anderson, has long been a champion of craft and its practitioners. In 2016 he founded the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, an international award celebrating excellence and artistic vision in craftsmanship. The following year saw the launch of his inaugural homeware collection for Loewe - This is Home - at Milan's Salone del Mobile, in which he presented an eclectic mix of craft pieces, described as 'an investigation of novel forms for the interior, articulated through a mix of materials, hands, techniques and cultural references'. Central to the collection was a group of oak objects hand carved by Robert Thompson's artisans in the Kilburn workshop to the specifications of Jonathan and his design team.
This year, to mark his tenth anniversary at the creative helm of Loewe, a special edition book will highlight projects Jonathan has worked on during his tenure.
The chapter covering 2017, showcases the designer's Mouseman collaboration. Simon Thompson Cartwright, great-great-grandson of Robert Thompson, worked closely on the pieces for the collection. He explained, "It was a privilege to collaborate with Jonathan on his inaugural homeware collection, and a delight to have the opportunity to work with an incredibly talented designer who has such a personal interest in, and intuitive understanding of, craft across all media. Loewe is a company which, like our own, is steeped in a rich tradition of skilled workmanship. We feel doubly honoured that the pieces we originally created together are to be showcased in this wonderful commemorative book."
From a remote photo shoot location, high in the Spanish Pyrenees, Jonathan took time out to speak to us for the newsletter about his love of craft and why it is so important to keep artisan skills alive. His interest was sparked as a young boy growing up in Magherafelt in Northern Ireland where his grandfather was a textile designer. He explained: "Watching him at work in the factory, opened my eyes to the printing process and the creativity of making things.
He also introduced me to ceramics through his own collection of very old, very beautiful pottery. The knowledge he passed on has helped me to navigate my way and create projects that give a platform to artisans."
That childhood interest developed and Jonathan now has his own extensive collection of ceramics and other crafts. In his home, alongside pots by Lucy Rie and John Ward, are several early Robert Thompson pieces, including a chunky pair of bookends which have been put to work on his library shelves. For Jonathan, the usefulness of craft objects is a large part of the attraction, "I am a big fan of William Morris. I believe that how something works, as well as how it looks, is important. Loewe bags, for example, yes, they are beautiful luxury items but they must also be functional. It is the key to good design."
He traces his interest in Robert Thompson's work to another passion: early church furniture.
"I love visiting old churches and discovering the ancient, very detailed wood carvings that are tucked away on misericords underneath folding seats. There's often a humour to them, a whimsy, which I also see in Robert Thompson's carved mouse. In my own work in fashion, I try to introduce something with a little bit of humour to soften the edges."
Turning to the 2017 collaboration for This is Home, Jonathan explained that he had long been a fan of Mouseman work and saw parallels between Loewe's humble origins in 1846 as a leathermaking collective and Robert Thompson's Craftsmen's roots.
"Both companies have a rich heritage of master craftsmen whose skills have been passed from one hand to another across the generations." His vision for the collaboration was a playful interpretation of the company's traditional mouse signature on a range of items, crawling up ladders or running around a bowl, "I had this idea of the mice taking over. Like in a field of corn where, at first, you see one mouse and then suddenly hundreds appear." That creative concept was realised beautifully - and with humour - in the collaboration's pièce de resistance: a large oak bowl, hand carved with the Kilburn workshop's distinctive adzed finish. Within it, skittering across the rippling surface, is Jonathan's vision of a horde of small, carved mice chasing their tails.
A video featuring Simon Thomson Cartwright carving the Loewe bowl: "Loewe in conversation with 'The Mouseman'.