Dryad Furniture (1907-1950)
Dryad Furniture
Leicester, Leicestershire; cane & wicker furniture makers, basket weavers (fl.1907-1950s)
Harry Hardy Peach (b.1874-d.1936) was the founder of Dryad Furniture. He first worked as an estate agent in Leicester before setting up as an antiquarian bookseller by 1902. It was through his involvement with Socialist politics and his friendship with Benjamin Fletcher (1868-1951), the Headmaster of the local college of art, that he became interested in design and established Dryad.
In 1906 Peach helped organise an exhibition in the sweated trades in which workers were present to demonstrate their skills; apparently as his eye-sight was fading he was looking for an alternative occupation to books. Fletcher persuaded him that cane furniture was a field in which British makers could compete with continental imports and he could provide the designs whilst Peach dealt with the business side.
Peach started Dryad in 1907 with four men, including Charles and Albert Crampton. Strong shapes, attention to detail and quality with comfort in use led to a successful start by the firm and within a year thirty models were available. By 1913 Dryad had a staff of more than 100 and employed several young designers. Other members of the Crampton family also worked for the firm, including Ernest Walter and Frank Wilfred Rink; For a full biography of the Crampton and Rink family please click here.
Commissions included cane log and work baskets, cane chairs and settees supplied to Edwin Scott-Nicholson for Barn Close, Carlisle, built in 1902 and furnished in the next two decades. From 1913-19 Dryad supplied elegant, tall-backed chairs with cane seats and backs to Roger Fry’s designs for the Omega Workshops. These chairs were generally painted red in imitation of lacquer and sometimes decorated with gold leaf by Omega.
Dryad Cane Works participated in the Arts & Crafts Exhibitions, London, 1910-16. Furniture exhibits included:
1910 – cane chair designed by Joseph Crampton, price £2 10s (cat. no. 367); abundance chair designed by B.J. Fletcher and executed by Walter Marsh, price £4 4s (376); alcove cane chair designed by B.J. Fletcher and executed by T. Truman, price £3 5s (407); cane chair designed by Joseph Crampton, price £3 10s (409) - exhibited by Dryad Cane Works.
1912 – cane workstand, price £2 12s 6d, designed by Arthur Smith, executed by S. Seary and exhibited by Harry H. Peach (cat. no. 24); music stool, price £1 13s 6d, designed by Arthur Smith, exhibited by the Dryad Craftsmen (65); 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); cane chair, price £2 5s, designed by W.H. Stevens, executed by N. Cart (430a); cane chair, price £2 7s 6d, designed H. Hartshorn and executed by T. Rotherham (430b); cane chair, price £1 17s 6d, by T. Rotherham, exhibited by Harry H. Peach (430c). The exhibits in 1912 were listed in the index under Dryad Craftsmen.
1916 – garden basket designed by Frank W. Rink, price 13s 6d (cat. no. 496); hazel and rush chair designed by Arthur Smith, replica price £2 5s (594); guest’s welcome settee designed by H.H. Peach and executed by W. Marsh, price £6 17s 6d (606); guest’s welcome chair in Palemburg and Malacca designed by Frank W. Rink, price £3 15s (cat. no. 609) – exhibited by Dryad Cane Works.
The index of these exhibition catalogues list the address of Dryad Cane Works in Leicester as 13 Great Central Street (1910), 43 St Nicholas Street (1912) and 42 St Nicholas Street (1916).
The company was awarded a Diploma of Honour at the Esposizione internazionale dell'industria e del lavoro, The International Exhibition, Turin in 1911, and a Commemorative Diploma at the British Arts and Crafts Exhibition in Paris in 1914.
In 1912 Peach went into partnership with William Pick and started Dryad Metal Works and small metal objects including jewellery were exhibited in the Arts & Crafts Exhibitions, London, in 1912. In the First World War Peach supplied cane for basket-making to wounded soldiers in a local hospital. This led to the establishment of Dryad Handicrafts, suppliers of materials, and in 1914 Peach was one of a group who launched the Design and Industries Association.
The 1920s & 30s saw increased competition from Lloyd Loom and other cane furniture makers, and Peach concentrated on the supply side of the business and with educational works. The firm supplied cane chairs and other furniture to Gregynog Hall, Powys, in the 1920s. The owners of the hall, Margaret and Gwendoline Davies considered Dryad furniture practical for their intended use of the house as a philanthropic Arts and Crafts community. Dryad chairs were also supplied to the Lygon Arms Hotel, Broadway and an armchair, designed by Fletcher and made by Dryad 1907-20 is illus. Carruthers & Greensted (1994), pp. 107-8. The V&A collections include a ‘Sleepy Hollow’ chair made in 1920 (illustrated below); a Kew chair of 1920-28 (W.27-1984); and two examples of chairs made for Omega (Misc.2:3-1934 - illustrated below & Circ.125-1961).

'Sleepy Hollow’ armchair [W.13:1, 2-1990], 1920. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Dining chair designed by Roger Fry for the Omega Workshop [MISC.2:3-1934], 1913-19. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Sources: Arts & Crafts Exhibition catalogues, 1888-1916; Anscombe, Omega and After (1981); Collins, The Omega Workshops (1984); Kirkham, ‘Willow and Cane Furniture in Austria, Germany and England, c. 1900-14’, Furniture History (1985); Rose, ‘It Must Be Done Now. The Arts and Crafts Exhibition at Burlington House, 1916’, The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present 1850 to the Present (1993); Carruthers & Greensted, Good Citizen’s Furniture (1994); Shen, ‘Philanthropic Furnishing: Gregynog Hall, Powis’, Furniture History (1995); Heal, Sir Ambrose Heal and the Heal Cabinet Factory 1897-1939 (2014); Whittaker, ‘On the Border: Barn Close and the evolution of the Arts and Crafts interior, 1902-1931’, The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present 1850 to the Present (2018).
Occupation
Material
Style