Research report based on Ernest Gimson and his cabinetry work.

1. Technological University of Dublin
Dublin School of Architecture
Bachelor of Technology
In
Timber Product Technology
I declare that the work contained in this submission is my own work and has not
been taken from the work of others save to the extent that such work has been
cited within the text of this submission.
Student Signature: __________________
Date: ____________________
Course Code: TU732
Academic Year: 2021/2022
Semester: 1
Module Title: Applied Materials and Finishing
Lecturer: Aidan Ryan
Year: 2021
Student’s Name:
Daniel Cash
Student ID Number:
C19720711

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Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................1
Designer ..................................................................................................................................................2
Original artefact ......................................................................................................................................5
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................i
Image citations....................................................................................................................................... iii

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Introduction
As part of the capstone brief of the Applied Materials, Finishing and Reproduction module, a research
report is to be carried out on the designer and artefact that our final projects are to be based on. The
following report outlines a brief history on the craftsperson chosen which will include their influences,
timber preferences, style in which they designed in and will explore the manufacturing methods
involved in creating an artefact that our final project is based on. The brief stated that a full
reproduction, modern interpretation, or modern reproduction of the artefact must be carried out. As
well as expanding on what the craftsperson’s preferred timbers used, all the materials used in the
original artefact will be expanded on. For the capstone project, I chose to do a modern interpretation
of the artefact shown below in figure 1, taking inspiration not only from that specific artefact but from
other work carried out by the designer also.
Figure 1. Cabinet on stand, by Ernest Gimson. Image courtesy of ArtFund.org.

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Designer
The designer behind the artefact shown in figure 1 was Ernest Gimson. Gimson was born in Leicester,
England in 1864. He was an architect, furniture designer, plasterer, and business owner whose designs
were rooted in the arts and crafts movement and someone who took inspiration from William Morris.
Over a span of almost 40 years, he developed his love of designing and creating by firstly, studying as
an architect where he practiced freehand sketching and draughting, to then expressing his creativity
through plaster work. Through multiple meetings with William Morris, he began to appreciate the
fundamentals of the arts and crafts movement, and not only designed timber furniture pieces but
expanded out into metalwork, plasterwork and even fabrics. Through his love of designing furniture
and his belief that to create good quality furniture, the designer is just as important as the cabinet
maker behind the piece, he set up his own cabinet making company, which at the time emphasised
using best cabinet making practices rather than sacrificing quality of workmanship for time.
In Ernest Gimson, Arts & Crafts Designer and Architect (Carruthers, Greensted, & Roscoe, Ernest
Gimson, Arts & Crafts Designer and Architect, 2019), Carruthers et al. tell how Gimson was born into
a wealthy family. His father and uncle were co-founders of Gimson and Co., an engineering firm based
in Leicester. At the age of 16, Gimson left school and began working under Isaac Barradale as an
architect. Around the same time, he enrolled in Leicester School of Art which emphasized the use of
freehand drawing, landscape painting and architectural drawing. Gimson quickly excelled at
architecture, and in 1884 was awarded a silver medal for the design of a suburban house for a South
Kensington National Training Course competition.
The Leicester Museums Website (Leicester Museums Website, 2021) tells us about Gimson moving to
London and of working with J.D. Sedding. In 1886 he left Leicester for London. With a recommendation
from William Morris, he soon found work as an architect with J.D. Sedding, the co-founder of the Art
Worker’s Guild. This was an unpaid role, and it was expected that his time here would also be spent
studying and travelling. Sedding often
encouraged his employees to learn
practical skills as well as practising at
architecture. During his time with
Sedding, Gimson travelled to countries
like Italy and France where he admired all
the architecture but also made detailed
sketches of the buildings. An example
these sketches is shown in figure 2, it is a Figure 2. Sketch of a panel inside St. Mark's cathedral by Gimson. Image
courtesy of Cheltenham Museum.

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sketch of a panel inside St. Mark’s cathedral in Venice. This sketch later went on to influence his design
of a letter cabinet and can be seen on display at the Cheltenham Museum.
Around 1890, Gimson first started to learn practical skills. Having already been designing furniture,
this was the start of Gimson learning how to craft a material into an item that he himself designed.
Early designs like the elm and yew Windsor style chair or a mahogany writing cabinet, figure 3, that
Gimson designed and entered in Arts and Crafts Exhibitions, were not made by himself. The chair for
example was made by a J. Britnell and the cabinet wasmade by Augustus H. Mason with the marquetry
by C. Smith, but both of which were by Gimson as they were his designs. In 1890, he began working
part time for a firm in London, Whitcombe and Priestly, where he worked with other craftsmen to
learn the trade, but he was also paying the firm to rent
workshop space where he could work on his own
designs (Greensted, Ernest Gimson as a Designer,
2002). The plasterwork was the first time Gimson could
show work which he would have designed and crafted
himself. His love for furniture design continued to grow
and over the next few years and he would also make
several entries to these exhibitions of his plasterwork,
furniture, and embroidery. Through his entries at these
exhibitions, he struck up friendships with other
craftsmen such as Sidney Barnsley, Stephen Webb, and
W. R. Lethaby. In 1891, they would all become joint
founders of Kenton and Co. A company which was “to
supply furniture of good design and the best
workmanship” (Carruthers, Greensted, & Roscoe,
Ernest Gimson, Arts & Crafts Designer and Architect,
2019), and all without the use of so called “modern machinery”. A company which would regard the
designer just as important as the craftsman making the piece. Many of the pieces designed by Gimson
for Kenton and Co. still exist today. Figure 3 shows, a mahogany writing cabinet which was designed
by Gimson during this period. One of the more striking pieces designed by Gimson for Kenton and Co.
is another writing desk made from macassar ebony and has detailed palm, orange, and ebony
marquetry doors. The piece is on display still in Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and an image of it is shown
below in figure 4.
Kenton and Co. was not a long-lived venture however, and after just 16 months in business, the
founders decided to voluntarily give up on the business. An inexperience in pricing jobs and unable to
Figure 3. Mahogany writing cabinet designed by
Gimson for Kenton and Co. Image courtesy of V&A
Museum.

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compete with the other companies without the use of
machinery meant that it just wasn’t profitable enough
to be a sustainable business.
In 1893, Gimson moved on from London and moved the
the Cotswolds (The Leicester Museums Website , 2021).
Over the next 10 years he continued to work as an
architect, but he also spent a considerable amount of
time practicing his craft skills through plasterwork,
embroidery and furniture making. In 1901, Gimson went
into business with Ernest Barnsley. They opened a
workshop in Daneway House in Sapperton and
employed several talented cabinet makers to build the
furniture that they designed. In 1903 however, the partnership broke up and Gimson took over the
business himself. Gimson would spend the rest of his days here in Sapperton, designing furniture that
would be made in one of his 3 workshops. He had one workshop for lathe work, one for metalwork
and the main workshop for cabinet making. An example of how Gimson combined his plasterwork and
furniture designs is shown in figure 5. It shows a cabinet on a stand designed by Gimson in 1902 and
made at Daneway house. The four centre panels are sculpted from a type of plaster and then gilded
over to give them the metallic look. From the Sapperton
workshops, many of the pieces that Gimson designed were
for churches, but he also designed furniture for company
stock or was commissioned (Carruthers, Ernest Gimson
(1864-1919), 2021). Most of the furniture he designed in
this period was made from walnut, oak, mahogany and
contained decorative inlays of macassar ebony, holly, and
mother of pearl. Up until his death in 1919, Gimson
continued working as an architect but also ran the three
workshops. Many of his pieces would be featured in Arts &
Crafts exhibitions in London or Leicester. Today, some of his
pieces can still be seen in museums across England and
France.
Figure 4. Writing cabinet on display in Musée d’Orsay,
Paris. Image courtesy of Musee-orsay.
Figure 5. Cabinet on a stand. Image courtesy of
V&A Museum.

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Original artefact
The original artefact, shown in figure one, was designed by Gimson sometime between 1902 and 1905
at the workshop at Daneway House. As described by The Wilson Cheltenham Art Gallery (The Wilson
Cheltenham Art Gallery , 2021), the cabinet sits on top of a mahogany base, with two drawers. The
drawer fronts display a grain pattern that suggest they were both cut from the same plank. The doors
of the cabinet have a diamond patterned mahogany veneer on the front and a rosewood circular
veneer on the inside. Although hard to see in figure one, the doors also include a solid moulding
planted on their face, each with a gouged pattern carved into them. The cabinet contains 16 individual
drawers, each being veneered at the front also with rosewood. In Ernest Gimson, Arts & Crafts
Designer and Architect (Carruthers, Greensted, & Roscoe, Ernest Gimson, Arts & Crafts Designer and
Architect, 2019), it is suggested that the substrate material for these veneers was usually either oak
or mahogany. The metal handles on the lower drawers were designed by Gimson and most likely made
in his metalwork shop in Sapperton. The cabinet sits at approximately 1240mm high with a width of
940mm and a depth of 410mm.
As this was a piece designed by Gimson, who was an influential designer of the Arts & Crafts era, it
can be assumed that the piece was made using traditional joinery techniques. When speaking about
the typical construction of Gimson’s furniture, Mary Greensted of The Cheltenham Art Gallery and
Museum is quoted as saying:
“Chests, cabinets, and sideboards of frame-and-panel construction were put together using
beautifully cut dovetails, through tenons, and pinned joints that were exposed as part of the design,
reflecting the arts and crafts dedication to honesty is manufactured using traditional joinery
techniques and as little metal fasteners as needed.” (Greensted, Ernest Gimson as a designer, 2021)
As I am producing a modern interpretation of his designs, I intend to use dominos for the internal
joinery of the shelving. Obviously the loose tenon joint isn’t a modern jointing technique but modern
tools like the festool domino make the process much simpler and faster. In keeping with Gimson’s and
the arts & crafts style, exposed joinery will be evident on both the base of the unit and the carcass of
the unit itself. Exposed through tenons will join the aprons with the legs, whilst stopped dovetails will
be used to join the carcass sides to the carcass top.
Although it is not mentioned in any of the remaining documents about his work, it can be assumed
that the type of adhesive that was used is a hide glue. As Ernest Joyce explains in The Technique of
Furniture Making (Joyce, 1997), modern plastic glues that we use today were not first used until the

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1930’s. The type of glues typically used were hide glues, which consisted of animal hides or bones
which were boiled in water, or casein glue which was made from milk curds and only needed the
addition of cold water. Hide glue probably would have been preferred over the casein glue as the
casein glue would stain any timber that contained high levels of tannic acid, which Gimson used a lot
of like walnut and oak. The hide glue would need to be heated up slightly and pressure applied to the
pieces before the adhesive start to gel.
The types of timber used in the artefact shown are very typical of both the arts & crafts movement as
well as Gimson himself. Furniture was often made with readily available wood such as oak, walnut and
any other native timbers to England. Often, timbers were chosen for their attractive grain pattern and
when it came to finishing them, the natural qualities of the materials were deemed a suitable enough
finish. Oak was sometimes left bare, just being finished with a very sharp plane according to Harry
Davoll (Davoll, 1959). Other times Gimson would suggest staining or limewash oak. Other finishes used
included French polishing pieces which were rubbed down to a dull surface and a coating of wax then
being applied

9. i
Bibliography
Burton , M. (2000). Veneering, A foundation Course . New York: Sterling Publishing Co. .
Carruthers, A. (2021, November 1). Ernest Gimson (1864-1919). Retrieved from British and Irish
Furniture Makers Online: https://bifmo.history.ac.uk/entry/gimson-ernest-1864-1919
Carruthers, A., Greensted, M., & Roscoe, B. (2019). Ernest Gimson, Arts & Crafts Designer and
Architect. London: Yale University Press.
Carruthers, A., Greensted, M., & Roscoe, B. (2019). Ernest Gimson, Arts & Crafts Designer and
Architect. London: Yale University Press.
Carruthers, A., Greensted, M., & Roscoe, B. (2019). Ernest Gimson, Arts & Crafts Designer and
Architect. London: Yale University Press.
Carruthers, A., Greensted, M., & Roscoe, B. (2019). Ernest Gimson, Arts & Crafts Designer and
Architect. London: Yale University Press.
Davoll, H. (1959, May 20). Blind Man's Gate. (J. Gregory, Interviewer)
Greensted, M. (2002). Ernest Gimson as a Designer. Magazine Antiques, 161(6), 82-91. Retrieved
October 19, 2021, from
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=asu&AN=5038
94510&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Greensted, M. (2021, November 2). Ernest Gimson as a designer. Retrieved from Index Articles:
https://indexarticles.com/home-garden/magazine-antiques/ernest-gimson-as-a-designer-2/
Joyce, E. (1997). The Technique of Furniture Making. In The Technique of Furniture Making (pp. 73-
80). London: B.T. Batsford Limited.
Leicester Museums Website. (2021, October 20). Ernest Gimson and The Arts & Crafts Movement in
Leicester. Retrieved from Leicester Museums Website:
https://gimson.leicester.gov.uk/ernest-gimson/gimson-and-the-arts-crafts-
movement/moving-to-london/
The Leicester Museums Website . (2021, November 1). Moving to the Cotswolds. Retrieved from The
Leicester Museums Website : https://gimson.leicester.gov.uk/ernest-gimson/moving-to-the-
cotswolds/

10. ii
The Wilson Cheltenham Art Gallery . (2021, November 1). Retrieved from The Wilson Cheltenham Art
Gallery : https://agmlib.cheltenham.gov.uk/Details/collect/20747

11. iii
Image citations
Fig. 1 - https://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/9868/cabinet
Fig 2 - https://www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk/collection/ernest-gimsons-sketchbook-1889/
Fig 3 - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O53303/cabinet-on-stand-gimson-ernest-william/
Fig 4 - https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres/cabinet-19385
Fig 5 - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O118838/cabinet-on-stand-gimson/