Neville Neal Arts & Crafts Cotswold School English Ash Rocking Chair with Rush Seat

Neville Neal: Neville Neal joined Edward Gardiner as a pupil in 1939, making chairs to Ernest Gimson designs, following the tradition of Philip Clissett. After Gardiner's death in 1958, he established workshop in Stockton, continuing the use tools, techniques and patterns original used by Gimson. Materials are English woodland timber and rushes (most commonly ash) which creates light, strong and lasting chairs, with an honest unassuming natural beauty

Ash: Ash is a straight grained and very tough timber, characterised by a wide colour range from the whites of the outer layers to the dark olive brown of the heart wood. This colour variation can be used to create a striking visual effect

The Cotswold School was a development of the Arts and Craft Movement started largely by Ernest Gimson and the brothers Sidney and Ernest Barnsley. The furniture is instantly recognisable with its simple lines, attention to the finest of details, and use of beautiful materials. Cotswold School designs were crafted from local materials using traditional tools and techniques and with decorative details derived largely from utilitarian elements: exposed joinery, unusual panels, interesting pulls and latches crafted either from wood or from metal using traditional smithing techniques, and close attention to form as well as to wood grain and pattern. Where decorative details were added they generally took the form of traditional embellishment of the sort; the long chamfers, chip carved edge detailsThe style was embraced and developed by other designers and craftsmen including Gordon Russell, Stanley Webb Davies in Cumbria, Sid Barnsley's son Edward and Arthur Romney Green in Hampshire and Robin Nance in St Ives and Ambrose Heal are a handful of such men out of many. The best developed their own style within the established tradition