Arts & Crafts Mission School Large English Oak Settee or Settle

English Oak: The most British of woods, that can produce really special results. English oak has been used for hundreds of years to construct everything from sea-going vessels to fine furniture. Although oak grows widely across Europe and North America, craftsmen continue to cherish English oak which grows more slowly than its foreign counterparts giving it strength, durability. Quarter sawn boards are very straight grained and have distinctive growth rings and medullary rays that give a very beautiful effect as well as being renowned for their superior stability and strength

Arts and Crafts Mission School furniture is designed with clean simple elegant lines and panels that accentuate the grain of the wood (often quartersawn oak) and show off the craftsman involved in making them. Founded in America when people were looking for alternatives the excesses of Victorian times and the influx of mass-produced furniture from the Industrial Revolution. Gustav Stickley, L. & J.G. Stickley (Gustav Stickley's brothers) and Charles Limbert are probably the best known makers, with their work all being to a very high standard and is now highly sought after