A small ebony and macassar desk top cabinet by Peter Waals with painted decoration by Louise Powell

A small ebony and macassar desk top cabinet by Peter Waals with painted decoration by Louise Powell, rectangular section, with shallow domed top, twin, hinged ebony doors set with macassar panels painted with simple foliate band and central red flower wreath, opening to nine small drawers all with painted white and red flower panels, the interior of the doors profusely painted with red flowers, on sleigh feet, one drawer with paper label No.L92 in the catalogue of C.H. St J.Hornby, 46cm. wide, 34cm. high, 26cm. deep.

Provenance

Charles Harold St John Hornby (1867-1946), Chantmarle House, Dorset and thence by descent.

St John Hornby, as he was widely known, was both a successful businessman and a private printer. Educated at Harrow and New College, Oxford, Hornby rowed, as stroke, for the University boat in 1890 and the following year travelled the world with his College friend W.F.D. (Freddy) Smith, Later Lord Hambledon. Smith asked Hornby to join him on the board of his family firm, W.H. Smith & Son, and the firm remained dominant in their industry and survived the First World War under his guidance. Hornby's main passions, outside his work, were the Ashendene Press, his private press, initially based in Hertfordshire but subsequently in Shelley House on the Chelsea Embankment. Hornby had met Emery Walker and Sydney Cockerell (then William Morris' secretary at the Kelmscott Press) in 1900 and they encouraged Hornby to have the typefaces, 'Subiaco' and 'Ptolemy', specifically designed for the press. Ashendene went on to produce many highly regarded and limited books.

In 1919, Hornby bought Chantmarle in Dorset, a fine but remodelled house that had started life out as a Manor House for the monks of Milton Abbey in the 13th century. It was here that Hornby commissioned the Barnsleys, Powells and Waals to furnish his new house, and an article in Country Life of July 7th 1950 shows a number of pieces of furniture by both Ernest and Sidney Barnsley as well as a set of plates by the Powells illustrating aspects of Hornby's life and interests. The same article also states 'The products of the Gimson-Barnsley school are little heard of today, but by breaking with traditional forms and concentrating on simplicity of design, fine finish and beautiful woods, they anticipated in their hand-made pieces several of the ideals of later designers who have accepted the aid of the machine'. The three pieces offered here, exemplify this sentiment perfectly.