ERNEST GIMSON, FOR THE LEA COTTAGE, ULVERSCROFT, ENGLAND, CIRCA 1898

Ernest Gimson, (b. 1864 ) was one of the younger generation of British architects and designers who came under the influence of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement at an early age. By the 1890s he decided to exchange a comfortable professional life in the city for a more precarious adventure of pursuing his career in a remote rural setting, and pursuaded two of his contemporaries, Ernest and Sidney Barnsley, to move to the Cotswolds and set up shop with him. Gimson's architectural endeavors were less important to him than his furniture, plaster and metalwork designs, but he did design Lea Cottage for his brother, Mentor (the original plans for which are in the collection of the Cheltenham Museum). The present wardrobe was housed in the cottage until approximately two years ago, and it exemplifies Gimson's work with its honest simplicity, solid form, functional proportions, emphasis on line and chip-carving around the apron.