RICHARD LLEWELLYN RATHBONE (1864-1939)
RARE ARTS & CRAFTS WALL SCONCE, CIRCA 1900
copper and brass, stamped RATHBONE/ LIVERPOOL
44cm x 34.5cm
Note: A relative of W. A. S. Benson, Richard Llewellyn Benson Rathbone was also the cousin of Harold Rathbone, Head of the Della Robbia Pottery in Birkenhead. He initially trained in metalwork with Benson, whose design aesthetic can be seen in this scarce sconce, before setting up his own workshop in 1908. In keeping with the Arts & Crafts aesthetic, Rathbone’s work proved popular and he is known to have produced metalwork designs for Mackmurdo, Heywood Sumner and C.F.A. Voysey. Rathbone also taught metalwork classes at Liverpool University, where Harold Stabler later joined him in 1903. By 1905 he moved to London to take a position as Head of the Art School at the John Cass Institute.