C.F.A. VOYSEY (1857-1941)
RARE FIRE SURROUND, CIRCA 1905
cast iron
122cm high, 168.3cm wide, 19.5cm deep
Literature: Thomas Elsley Ltd., Catalogue of Designs by C. F. A. Voysey, Architect, no.330, where this example is illustrated as a line drawing.Voysey C.F.A. Reason as a basis of art, 1906 p.24.Note: Voysey's fireplace designs exhibit a startlingly modern simplicity, in contrast to the 'distracting' ornament which had typified the Victorian hearth. If simplicity pervaded Voysey's approach, it was enlivened with familiar motifs which he used elsewhere, in this instance the heart and the perched bird. Writing in 1906 he asked his readers to “consider the average fireplace in the average home and count the number of different materials and colours of which it is composed. Is it conducive to restfulness and quiet reflection? Or is this whirl-wind of countless sensations needed to drown out our sober thought? Are bustle and discord necessary to our home life?"