Edward William Godwin attributed. Probably made by William Watt. An Anglo-Japanese bronze gong, striker and stand.

Edward William Godwin attributed. Probably made by William Watt. An Anglo-Japanese bronze gong, striker and stand.

The oak frame takes its form from Japanese torii gates of shinto shrines, a recurring source of inspiration in Godwin’s Anglo-Japanese furniture designs.

The design reflects Godwin’s pioneering Japanese forms into the domestic vocabulary of late Victorian Britain. Torii-derived forms became an important feature of his furniture, demonstrating the wider influence of Japanese art and design on the Aesthetic Movement. I know of three, in private collections.

For a comparable version see Susan Weber Soros, The Secular Furniture of E.W. Godwin, Yale University Press, 1999, Pg. 245, Pl. 408. See Christie’s, London ‘important 20th Century Design’, 26th May 2005, Sale no. 7130, lot 52