Crampton, Henry, Charles, Albert H. & Joseph and Frank W. Rink  

Leicester, Leicestershire; basket weavers, cane & wicker furniture makers (fl.1871-1939)

Renowned for their work for Dryad, cane and wicker furniture makers in Leicester.  

Henry Crampton (b. 1846, Boston, Leicestershire) was recorded as a basket weaver from 1871. He married Maria and they had a large family including Charles (b. 1874), Albert Henry (b. 1882) and Joseph (b. 1887), all of whom entered the basket weaving and later cane furniture making trade. One of Henry and Maria’s daughters, Maria Jarman (b. 1868), married Julius Gustav Wilhelm Rink (b.1859) in 1885 and they had two sons before their deaths in 1889. Ernest Walter Rink (b. 1886) then lived his maternal grandparents, in Leicester (1891) and Frank Wilfred Rink (b. 1888) was listed living with Edward & Eliza Hurst, in Thurmaston, Leicestershire, as a boarder in 1891ar and by 1901 they had adopted him. The 1911 census shows Frank W. living with his brother, Ernest, who was now married. The brothers were recorded as cane furniture makers. 

Henry Crampton (b. 1846- d.1926)

Henry had moved to Nottingham by 1901, when he was recorded as a foreman, basket weaver, and in 1911 he was boarding with the fellow basket weaver, Arthur Grogan, in Nottingham. In 1903 Henry travelled to Boston, USA on SS Ivernia.    

Charles Crampton (b. 1874- d.1958)

Crampton was an experienced basket maker who helped Benjamin Fletcher (Head of Leicester School of Art and Design) in producing cane furniture at the Dryad Works. Census records show Charles as ‘an artistic cane furniture maker’ (1901) and ‘foreman, basket maker’ (1911), and as an instructor of handicrafts in Leicester (1939).

An obituary in The Nottingham Evening News, 6 March 1958, notes that he was ‘an authority on cane work and was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Basket Makers to make a work-basket which was given to Princess Mary as a wedding present’ [1922]. He was a past President of the British Match Box Label and Booklet Society and had over 15,000 in his collection.

Albert Henry Crampton (b. 1882)

A.H. Crampton was recorded in 1901 as a basket maker, and also worked for Dryad. In 1908 he reputedly established a rival firm, Casdons, at Castle Donington, which copied Dryad’s products. Wrights Directory of Leicester, 1911 records him as a manager. The 1932 census lists him as a printer working foreman. 

Joseph Crampton (b.1887-d.1965)

Joseph followed his brothers, Charles and Alfred H., into the cane furniture making trade (1911 census) and seems to have produced designs for Dryad Cane Works.  The 1939 census records him as ‘Hosiery Warehouse Order Clerk, Skilled Cane Furniture Maker’. 

Frank W. Rink (b.1888-d.1956)

Rink worked as a cane furniture maker/designer for Dryad, probably with his brother Ernest, and the 1939 census listed him as foreman, cane furniture maker, living in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire. 

The work of Joseph and Albert Henry Crampton and Frank W. Rink for Dryad Furniture was shown at the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, London, 1910-16; these exhibits include:

1910 – cane chair designed by Joseph Crampton, price £2 10s (cat. no. 367); cane chair designed by Joseph Crampton, price £3 10s (409); - exhibited by Dryad Cane Works

1912 –waste-paper basket, price 7s 6d, designed by A.H. Crampton, made by J. Howitt and exhibited by Harry H. Peach, Dryad Craftsmen (cat. no. 157).

1916 – garden basket designed by Frank W. Rink, price 13s 6d (cat. no. 496); guest’s welcome chair in Palemburg and Malacca designed by Frank W. Rink, price £3 15s(cat. no. 609) – exhibited by Dryad Cane Works.

Sources: Arts & Crafts Exhibition catalogues, 1888-1916; Carruthers & Greensted, Good Citizen’s Furniture (1994); Kirkham, ‘Willow and Cane Furniture in Austria, Germany and England, c.1900-14’, Furniture History (1985).