Barnes, Albert (1900-1937)
Barnes, Albert
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire; carver, inlayer, designer (fl.1900-37)
Albert Barnes’s father worked for Cox’s furniture makers in High Wycombe and Albert attended Mr Haddow’s Middle School, Oxford Road, High Wycombe, followed by the Technical Institute in the town. He continued to Birkbeck School of Art, London, where he won the King’s prize for ‘drawing common objects from memory’. He had two brothers, both designers in High Wycombe; one worked for Tom’s bedding firm, and the other, Lawrence J Barnes, as chief designer from 1929 at E Gomme Ltd.
Albert first worked as a carver and inlayer with W Birch Ltd. In 1900 he became foreman woodcarver with Frederick Parker and Sons Ltd and then with W Bartlett and Sons. In 1903 he joined Goodearl Bros of Mendy Street initially as a carver and subsequently as a designer. He worked there until 1937 being promoted to manager, representative on the Board of Directors and finally as Chairman of the Company, during which time the company acquired the High Wycombe Timber Co. which was renamed as the Bridge Street Saw Mills.
In the 1930s he held the position of Chairman and then President of the High Wycombe and District Furniture Manufacturers Federation and he was a member of the Design and Industries Association. Barnes embraced new developments in materials and machinery for mass-production. He was best known for his designs of Windsor chairs and the Camber range of furniture; the latter which featured machine generated decorative features.
Sources: Worden, ‘Industrial Craft and Tradition: Albert E Barnes and the High Wycombe Furniture Industry’, The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present (1993); Bland, Take a Seat. The Story of Parker Knoll 1834-1994 (1995).