Cotswold School oak bookcase

With single plank sides and exposed dovetails

Chestnut back and and adjustable shelves

Raised on square chamfered legs with a chamfered arched apron construction

Double opening glazed doors with oak pull handles

Designed by Peter Waals

Made in the workshops of Peter Waals

Circa 1930

Height 153cm. Width 107cm Depth 38cm

Peter Waals (1870-1937) was born in Holland and spent there years working in Brussels, Berlin and Vienna before moving to England in 1901 where he began working for Ernest Gimson at Sapperton in the Cotswolds. The furniture and craft work produced by the workshop under the day-to-day supervision of Waals is regarded as a supreme achievement of the Arts & Crafts Movement.

Waals took over the workshop in 1919, following Gimson’s death but within a year he established his own workshops in a more practical location at Chalford closer to rail and road networks. Waals employed many of Gibsons’s skilled craftsmen, including Norman Jewson. From 1920 - 1937 the workshops were renowned for producing high quality furniture.