Gardiner, Harry (1904-1929)
Gardiner, Harry
Sapperton, Gloucestershire; metal worker (fl.c.1904-1929)
Harry Gardiner was taken on as an assistant or apprentice at the Bucknell/Gimson smithy workshops in Sapperton about 1904. He was credited as the maker of handles on two pieces of Gimson designed furniture displayed at the 1906 Arts and Crafts Exhibition in London including a writing cabinet (cat. 269) made by Geoffrey Lupton. Two steel sconces and a fender by him for sale at the 1910 Arts and Crafts Exhibition. In about 1912 the metal workshop was moved within Sapperton, probably to the Daneway outbuildings, and he continued to be employed by Gimson, who paid the running costs, supplied the tools, designed the work and negotiated with potential clients. Gardiner appeared in Gimson’s job book for the last time on 30 April 1915.
Harry Gardiner's work on Gimson-designed furniture, which was exhibited at the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, London, 1906-1916 included:
1906 – writing cabinet in English walnut, executed by G.H. Lupton, with handles by Gardiner, price £15 10s (cat. no. 269); writing cabinet, executed by H. Davoll, metalwork by Gardiner, price £30 (280)
1916 – cupboard with drawers in English walnut, executed by F. Gardiner, handles by H. Gardiner, lent by Allan Tangye Esq (458d); sideboard in English walnut, executed by P. Van der Waals, handles by H. Gardiner, lent by C. Maresco Pearce, Esq. (458oo)
After the First World War Gardiner took up a position teaching metalwork in Birmingham and was then appointed to a senior position at the new smithy and metal workshop at Broadway which Gordon Russell had set up about 1922. As well as furniture fittings the smithy also started making freestanding objects in forged metal. Its earliest designs from 1923 included four fire-dogs and a sconce. However, the Russell smithy only remained open until 1929, when Russell & Sons decided to move towards more modernist designs and batch production. There is a painting in oils by Sir William Rothenstein titled ‘Cotswold Craftsmen, Far Oakridge’ which shows Harry Davoll, Harry Gardiner, Fred Gardiner, Alfred Bucknell and Tom Hunt, c.1920 (illus. Comino(1980), p. 202).
Sources: Comino, Gimson and the Barnsleys ‘Wonderful furniture of a commplace kind’ (1980); Carruthers, Greensted, Roscoe, Ernest Gimson. Arts & Crafts Designer and Architect (2019); review of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition catalogues, 1888-1916.
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