An Arts & Crafts Cotswold School English Oak Dining Table to a classic Edward Barnsley Design, made by Alan 'Acornman' Grainger (Ex-Mouseman) . A very elegant and well proportioned design by Edward Barnsley, made by the top Yorkshire maker in English Oak. Featuring:

• Rectangular top with curved edges made out of just four continuous pieces of very well figured quarter-sawn solid timber with button screwed fixing

• Wishbone legs joined with traditional blind tenons secured with hand made pegs

• Curved stretcher with exposed tenons

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Length 1830mm (6 feet)

• Overall Width 900mm (2 feet 11 1/4 inches)

• Overall Height 730mm (2 feet 4 1/2 inches) [A standard height for a dining table]

Post 1970

This design is shown on page 119, figure 57 in 'Edward Barnsley and his Workshop: Arts and Crafts in the Twentieth Century' by Annette Carruthers, White Cockade Publishing, 1992. It is shown as design W63 in Hand-Made Furniture Designs, Rural Industries Bureau, London. Alan Grainger's inset finely carved signature acorn motif on the stretcher

Very good condition with excellent rich colour and grain and height tight joints. Some light marks and a few short scratch marks on the top. . If you wish to have further specific photographs or talk to us for a more detailed condition report then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Acorn Industries was started by George Grainger, a former Robert "Mouseman' Thompson craftsman, in the mid-30s. He trained his son Alan (and Derek 'Lizardman' Slater) who then took over and developed the business. Renowned for high quality pieces, all hand made, usually from English oak and bearing the acorn mark

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

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 such as exposed joints, chamfered edges and chip carved edge details. The style was embraced and developed by other designers and craftsmen including Gordon Russell, Stanley Webb Davies in Cumbria, Sid Barnsley's son Edward, Arthur Romney Green in Hampshire, 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.