of elongated rectangular form, comprising of six slots for toast, resting on five silver bun feet with an elegant interwoven twisted wire handle, the two end plates decorated with stylised fish en repoussé, with three cabochon chrysoprase bubbles drifting upwards from their mouths.
Length: 14.5cm
Height: 12.5cm
The Guild of Handicraft was established by Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942) in 1888. It was designed as a cooperative of craftsmen and women based on the organisation of a medieval guild. The key principle was to liberate the working man from a life of pure subsistence, removing the need to undertake dehumanizing, monotonous and unhealthy work.
Ashbee believed that work should be intrinsically good, providing skills, a community and a sense of purpose. It was crucial that workers should not be separated from the products of their labour. The touch of their hand and the unique decisions they make when crafting an object should bring their work a unique beauty.
The Guild became famous not only as an extraordinary social experiment, but also for the beautiful and distinctive designs they created, especially in silver. The instantly recognizable tendrilous designs which Ashbee conceived have become poster pieces for the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, each one crafted by hand by one of The Guild’s silversmiths (many of whom would become notable in their own right).
The Guild of Handicraft moved from Essex House on the Mile End Road in London to the medieval town of Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds in 1902. This toast rack would have been made at the Silk Mill workshop in Chipping Campden. Although Ashbee’s Guild closed in 1907, extraordinarily the work benches and tools used to create this piece remain in situ to this day.