Liberty & Co. – Arts and Crafts High Back Rush Seat Armchair

Oak armchair by Liberty & Co., Arts and Crafts movement, c.1900, tall ladder-back form with shaped rails and a newly laid rush seat.

This oak armchair, produced by Liberty & Co. during the Arts and Crafts movement c.1900, reflects the firm’s revival of vernacular furniture design rooted in the English country tradition. The form is tall and commanding, with four graduated back rails of shaped ladder profile rising between slender uprights that extend well above the crest.

The arms are plain and slightly bowed, joining the uprights with soft curvature, while the square-section legs are united by multiple stretchers, the front one ring-turned for strength and detail. The seat is newly laid in natural rush, woven in the traditional pattern associated with Liberty’s early twentieth-century workshop production.

Such ladder-back chairs epitomise the Arts and Crafts admiration for functional honesty and craftsmanship derived from rural precedent.