Ashbee, C(harles) R(obert) 1863-1942

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ASHBEE, C(harles) R(obert) 1863-1942

PERSONAL: Born 1863, in Isleworth, England; died, 1942, in Sevenoaks, England; son of Henry Spencer Ashbee (a merchant and author). Education: Attended Wellington College and King's College.

CAREER: Bodley & Gerner, apprentice; architect. Founder, Guild and School of Handicraft, London, 1888, and Essex House Press.

WRITINGS:

From Whitechapel to Camelot, Guild and School of Handicraft (London, England), 1892.

A Few Chapters in Workshop Reconstruction and Citizenship, Essex House Press (London, England), 1894.

The Trinity Hospital in Mile End: An Object Lesson in National History, Guild and School of Handicraft (London, England), 1896.

The Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on Goldsmithing and Sculpture, E. Arnold (London, England), 1898.

An Endeavor towards the Teaching of John Ruskin and William Morris, E. Arnold (London, England), 1901.

American Sheaves and English Seed Corn: Being a Series of Addresses Mainly Delivered in the United States, E. Arnold (London, England), 1901.

A Bibliography of the Essex House Press, with Notes on the Designs, Blocks, Cuts, Bindings, etc., from the Year 1898 to 1904, Essex House Press (Campden, Gloucestershire, England), 1904.

Conradin: A Philosophical Ballad, Essex House Press, (Campden, Gloucestershire, England), 1908.

Craftmanship in Competitive Industry, Essex House Press (Campden, Gloucestershire, England), 1908.

Modern English Silverwork: An Essay, Essex House Press (Campden, Gloucestershire, England), 1909, reprinted by B. Wienreb (London, England), 1974.

The Private Press: A Study in Idealism, Essex House Press (Campden, Gloucestershire, England), 1909.

Should We Stop Teaching Art, B. T. Batsford (London, England), 1911.

Where the Great City Stands: A Study in the New Civics, Essex House Press (London, England), 1917.

Caricature, Chapman and Hall (London, England), 1928.

Kingfisher out of Egypt: A Dialogue in an English Garden, H. Milford Oxford University Press (London, England), 1934.

Lyrics of the Nile, H. Milford Oxford University Press (London, England), 1938.

EDITOR

The Manual of the Guild and School of Handicraft, Cassell (London, England), 1892.

The Survey of London: Being the First Volume of the Register of the Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Great London, containing the Parish of Bromley-by-Bow, P. S. King (London, England), 1900.

A Book of Cottages and Little Houses, Essex House Press (Campden, Gloucestershire, England), 1906.

Jerusalem, 1918-1920, Being the Records of the Pro-Jerusalem Council during the Period of the British Military Administration, J. Murray, for the Council of the Pro-Jerusalem Society (London, England), 1921.

Jerusalem, 1920-1922; Being the Records of the Pro-Jerusalem Council during the First Two Years of the Civil Administration, Council of the Pro-Jerusalem Society (London, England), 1924.

Peckover, the Abbotscourt Papers, 1904-1931, Astolat Press (London, England), 1932.

SIDELIGHTS: Although trained as an architect, C. R. Ashbee was better known as a designer of furniture, cabinetry, and metalwork which included jewelry and silverware. He also created leatherwork and was founder of the Essex House Press, for which he bound and printed books. Ashbee's name is strongly connected with the English Arts and Crafts movement due to having founded the Guild and the School of Handicraft.

Ashbee took advantage of his college training and designed several buildings, most of them private homes including a cluster located in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, on the riverfront in London. Another group of homes designed by Ashbee are located in Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire.

In Chelsea, Ashbee took pains to create a village atmosphere in the city by, for one, varying the heights of adjoining buildings. He also made sure that the windows in one building were not duplicated in the next. The rooflines and dormer windows from one house to the next never matched one another, giving the illusions that the houses had been built at different times.

Ashbee took an interest in historical architecture and in 1900 became involved in the founding of the British preservation movement. He was disturbed by the demolition of the Old Palace of James I at Bromley-by-Bow, and shortly afterward he created a watch committee whose purpose it was to list all the historical buildings in London. His work with this committee led to the publication of The Survey of London: Being the First Volume of the Register of the Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Great London, containing the Parish of Bromley-by-Bow.

In 1901 Ashbee wrote An Endeavor towards the Teaching of John Ruskin and William Morris. The book concerns the philosophy of two men who were equally involved in art, literature, and politics and who would greatly influence the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain. In an attempt to sum up the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts movement, Oscar Wilde, as printed in his Essays and Lectures, wrote "People often talk as if there was an opposition between what is beautiful and what is useful. There is no opposition to beauty except ugliness: all things are either beautiful or ugly, and utility will be always on the side of the beautiful thing." Ruskin and Morris were proponents of this philosophy, and while in college Ashbee was influenced by their philosophy and found a way to express it in his work.

Ruskin and Morris were also proponents of socialism, another philosophy that affected Ashbee, influencing his decision to apprentice with George Frederick Bodley, who was known as a Ruskinian Gothic revivalist. While an apprentice, Ashbee lived in London's East End, home of several settlements of working-class people. It was here that Ashbee gave lectures on Ruskin's social philosophy and began the Guild and School of Handicrafts.

In 1902, when Ashbee moved the Guild and his publishing company to Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, his involvement in architecture consisted mostly of restoring old buildings and homes, creating additions, and building new structures to match the historical setting. According to Alan Crawford in the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, Ashbee's "conservative aim was to fit in with Campden's stone-built vernacular; the old work was carefully repaired, and the new was kept modest and unpretentious."

In 1974 Ashbee's 1909 workModern English Silver-work: An Essay was reissued with introductory essays by Shirley Bury and Alan Crawford. When Ashbee first wrote the book he was embittered by the financial collapse of his Guild and School of Handicraft and wrote the book mostly as a justification of his work. In reviewing the new edition of the book, Charles Oman, writing for Burlington Magazine, found that these additional essays "add greatly to the value of the work since the one provided by Ashbee is a mere diatribe very deficient in facts." Crawford's essay provides a brief biography of Ashbee, while Bury's offers "an intimate account of the working of the Guild of Handicraft."