Peter Waals
Encyclopedia
Peter Waals also known as Peter van der Waals, was a Dutch cabinet maker associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.
, Holland in 1870 Peter Waals was the nephew of the Nobel Prize
-winning physicist Johannes Diderik van der Waals
. Trained as a cabinet maker in his native Holland Waals spent three years working in Brussels
, Berlin
and Vienna
before moving to London
where he was introduced to Ernest Gimson
in 1901.
, Gloucestershire
, and then at Daneway House at Sapperton
, making furniture, turned chairs, and metalwork to his own designs. Waals was offered the position of foreman/manager and chief cabinet maker and accepted, spending the rest of his life in the Cotswolds
.
The furniture and craft work produced by the workshop under the day-to-day supervision of Waals is regarded as a supreme achievement of the Arts and Crafts movement
of its period and is well represented in the principal collections of the decorative arts in Britain and the United States of America. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner
called Gimson "the greatest of the English artist-craftsmen."
After Gimson's death in 1919 Peter Waals continued to run the Daneway Workshops. By the end of the year he was canvassing potential clients in his own name on Daneway headed paper The following year he was able to set up his own workshop at Halliday's Mill, at the foot of Cowcombe Hill in the nearby village of Chalford
, employing many of Gimson's skilled craftsmen including designer Norman Jewson
.
Chalford was a more practical location for a workshop than Sapperton, since it was close to a railway station and had more accessible roads.
Many examples of his own work, and that produced by other craftsmen in his workshop, can be found in Christ Church there.
They include the organ gallery, the chancel screen and the lectern, all of which were designed by Jewson. The cover of the font
, which lifts and descends by means of a counterbalance in the roof space, was carved by one of Waals' craftsmen, Owen Scrubey.
From 1920 to 1937 the workshop produced high quality furniture to Waals' and Jewson's designs and also trained apprentices in the Arts and Crafts tradition.
An apprenticeship at the Chalford workshop with Waals lasted from five to six years, and apprentices were on trial for three months without pay.
One such apprentice was New Age
thinker Sir George Trevelyan
who died in the bed he made there.
Furniture produced during this period now features in exhibitions and catalogues of leading art houses and auction rooms.
In 1935 Waals was invited to act as consultant in design at Loughborough College which was the main centre for the training of handicraft teachers in England. There, Waals instructed students in the approach and high standards of craftsmanship required in the making of furniture that had been established by Ernest Gimson and the Barnsley brothers
in Sapperton. He also designed all the furniture for Hazelrigg Hall as well as other fittings throughout the college, and these were built by his students. The college is now part of
Loughborough University
, and furniture design drawings by Peter Waals are deposited in the University Archives.
Peter Waals died in May 1937, and lies buried in the churchyard at Chalford. A disastrous fire in his workshops in 1938 ended his widow's attempts to continue production there.
Arts and Crafts
Born in The HagueThe Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Holland in 1870 Peter Waals was the nephew of the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winning physicist Johannes Diderik van der Waals
Johannes Diderik van der Waals
Johannes Diderik van der Waals was a Dutch theoretical physicist and thermodynamicist famous for his work on an equation of state for gases and liquids....
. Trained as a cabinet maker in his native Holland Waals spent three years working in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
before moving to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
where he was introduced to Ernest Gimson
Ernest Gimson
Ernest William Gimson was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers"...
in 1901.
Cabinet maker
Gimson had set up a small workshop in CirencesterCirencester
Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...
, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, and then at Daneway House at Sapperton
Sapperton
Sapperton may refer to:*Sapperton, Derbyshire, England*Sapperton, Gloucestershire, England**Sapperton Tunnel **Sapperton Canal Tunnel*Sapperton, Lincolnshire, England*Sapperton, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada...
, making furniture, turned chairs, and metalwork to his own designs. Waals was offered the position of foreman/manager and chief cabinet maker and accepted, spending the rest of his life in the Cotswolds
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
.
The furniture and craft work produced by the workshop under the day-to-day supervision of Waals is regarded as a supreme achievement of the Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
of its period and is well represented in the principal collections of the decorative arts in Britain and the United States of America. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
called Gimson "the greatest of the English artist-craftsmen."
Workshop owner and designer
Chalford
Chalford is a village in the Frome Valley of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. It is about 8 km upstream of Stroud. It gives its name to Chalford parish, which covers the villages of Chalford, Chalford Hill, France Lynch, Bussage and Brownshill, spread over 2 mi² of the...
, employing many of Gimson's skilled craftsmen including designer Norman Jewson
Norman Jewson
Norman Jewson was an English architect-craftsman of the Arts and Crafts movement, who practiced in the Cotswolds. He was a distinguished, younger member of the group which had settled in Sapperton, Gloucestershire, a feudal village in rural southwest England, under the influence of Ernest Gimson...
.
Chalford was a more practical location for a workshop than Sapperton, since it was close to a railway station and had more accessible roads.
They include the organ gallery, the chancel screen and the lectern, all of which were designed by Jewson. The cover of the font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
, which lifts and descends by means of a counterbalance in the roof space, was carved by one of Waals' craftsmen, Owen Scrubey.
From 1920 to 1937 the workshop produced high quality furniture to Waals' and Jewson's designs and also trained apprentices in the Arts and Crafts tradition.
An apprenticeship at the Chalford workshop with Waals lasted from five to six years, and apprentices were on trial for three months without pay.
One such apprentice was New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
thinker Sir George Trevelyan
Sir George Trevelyan, 4th Baronet
Sir George Lowthian Trevelyan 4th Baronet, , an educational pioneer, a founding father of the New Age movement. After listening to a lecture by Dr Walter Stein, a student of Rudolf Steiner in 1942, he turned from being agnostic to new age spiritual thinker, and even studied anthroposophy in the...
who died in the bed he made there.
Furniture produced during this period now features in exhibitions and catalogues of leading art houses and auction rooms.
Teacher
Barnsley brothers
Ernest and Sidney Barnsley were Arts and Crafts movement furniture designers and makers associated with Ernest Gimson. In the early 20th century they had workshops at Sapperton, Gloucestershire....
in Sapperton. He also designed all the furniture for Hazelrigg Hall as well as other fittings throughout the college, and these were built by his students. The college is now part of
Loughborough University
Loughborough University
Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...
, and furniture design drawings by Peter Waals are deposited in the University Archives.
Peter Waals died in May 1937, and lies buried in the churchyard at Chalford. A disastrous fire in his workshops in 1938 ended his widow's attempts to continue production there.
See also
- Artnet
- Invaluable
- Millinery Works Gallery
- Alexander, R. The Furniture and Joinery of Peter Waals, Alcuin Press, Chipping Campden, 1930