Five brands fusing contemporary design with heritage techniques
Hand-crafted items in our homes connect us to stories and memories, as well as the artisans who make them, says Adele Cardani. The following brands represent a modern take on precious skills passed down from generation to generation
During my undergraduate studies, I took an anthropology class in which each student was asked to investigate the lifecycle of a meaningful item. I chose a coffee ring-stained, 18th-century Chippendale chest of drawers that belongs to my mother, discovering that the walnut dresser has been in her family since 1805, and that she is in the ninth generation to own it. In a way, its two missing knobs, askew keyhole cover and creaky drawers (which now require a gentle lift to pull out) keep us physically linked to our family’s past, even as the memories of the places we used to live or the people the dresser once belonged to pale.
Deborah Pocock, CEO at the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust – an organisation dedicated to the training of talented, aspiring craftspeople with the goal of sustaining their vital skills – says: “The best interiors reflect the interests, loves and experiences of the owner, so the addition of meaningful, handcrafted items, imbued with stories as well as beauty, plays a significant role in our emotional investment in, and connection to, our homes.”
Pocock continues: “There has been a resurgence of interest in craft in recent years for good reason. Many are reacting against our modern-day, screen-filled lives by turning to tactile, handmade items to reconnect with their senses and appreciate slower-paced work. In creating handcrafted objects for interiors, makers are often honouring centuries-old skills, while adding their own distinctive imprint or personality to produce truly unique pieces. They bring together a sense of place and history, adding a layer of interest and appeal to functional ‘things’ to enhance a space. They tell stories, engaging with viewers to bring heart and soul to interiors.”
Rather than simply preserving craft, regarding the resulting furnishings as decorative arts to be viewed but never touched, we should continue to bring them into our daily lives. Combining honest material with clarity of construction and artistic prowess, here are five brands that fuse contemporary design with time-honoured techniques to craft homeware for today’s interiors.
Burleigh Pottery
If you enjoy a stack of fluffy pancakes with creme fraiche and blueberries at Chiltern Firehouse or sit down for afternoon tea at Dean Street Townhouse, one of Soho House’s London restaurants, your fare will be served respectively on Burleigh’s Blue Asiatic Pheasants plates and in Black Calico teacups. Burleigh’s fine earthenware has been handcrafted in a town called Burslem, in Stoke-on-Trent, since 1851. Its potters turn raw malleable clay into vibrant ceramics adorned with English country-garden florals and fanciful oriental motifs, using skills that have been passed down through generations of craftspeople who worked in the very same hallowed halls.
The craft, which takes five years to master, involves engraving patterns onto copper rollers, which are then printed onto thin tissue and applied by hand to each vessel. The craftsperson rubs it down with a brush and soft soap, pressing the design into the pottery and softening the tissue which is then washed off. The ink is oil-based and water-resistant, allowing it to remain when the tissue is washed away. There are now just 12 craftspeople in the world who have this precise skill – and they are all makers at Burleigh.
Jim Norman, Burleigh’s managing director, tells me that while previously “luxury” has been synonymous with extravagance and great expense, the brand is disrupting this landscape by reframing luxury from indulgence and excess to provenance, authenticity, and quality. He explains: “‘All made here’ is a phrase that I’ve often heard when visitors to our factory ask where Burleigh is actually made. It seems consumers have become suspicious about both the origin and quality of the products they buy. We welcome visitors to join us at Middleport Pottery, where every single piece of Burleigh has been made for over 130 years, to see why traditional craft skills remain invaluable.”
Brintons
Brintons is one of the country’s oldest carpet manufacturers, with its goods adorning some of the world’s most distinguished buildings. The brand has been supplying carpets to the Royal Household since 1958 and was one of the very first companies to be granted a royal warrant during the Queen’s reign. Making heritage design relevant for modern interiors, this spring, Brintons has launched its Agnella by Brintons collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum. The 18-piece edit of rugs has been developed from historical textiles and wallpapers found in the V&A’s extensive archive – ranging from Fijian tapa cloths to Art Deco prints. On its journey to a customer, each rug passes through 60 pairs of experienced hands, beginning with the selection of raw wool, and concluding with hand-finishing and inspection by eye – twice.
de Gournay
To cover a room in de Gournay’s glorious hand-painted wallpaper is a luxury for any interior designer. The brand’s signature lush garden scenes, filled with whimsical oriental birds and flowering plum blossom trees, are based on the Chinoiserie papers that graced the walls of Europe’s grandest 17th- and 18th-century houses. The average de Gournay panel is 90cm wide and 2.5m high, taking around 150 hours for six artists to produce. Most designs require about 20 panels, meaning a full order can take anywhere between three and six months to complete.
The brand’s founder, Claud Cecil Gurney, tells me: the way “that they are painted by hand gives our wallpapers what the Chinese would call ‘spirit-resonance’ – a lasting impression of the artist who painted them. If we started printing designs, none of our clients would wish to purchase our products as they would become lifeless.” Each finished panel is a bespoke work of fine art that can be removed from walls and then re-hung in other rooms if desired, allowing for them to be regarded as heirlooms of the future.
LSA International
Glassblowing is another meticulous craft that requires six to eight years for an individual to master, demanding a great deal of coordination, perpetual movement and intuitive timing to create each coupe, vase or lantern by hand. Glassblowers work in teams, and it can take up to eight people to construct any given vessel. London-based glassware design studio LSA International brings traditional eastern European craft to modern audiences (at prices that won’t break the bank) with vessels that are meticulously mouth-blown by Polish artisans.
The delicacy of thin champagne flute rims and stems, for example, can only be achieved through this process. For elegant evening soirees, LSA offers exquisite stemmed pieces, and for day-to-day dining, you can choose from sleek highball glasses and tumblers with a lattice texture (think the mouth-blown Dapple Collection with its undulating surface which refracts light, creating an effect reminiscent of dappled sunlight across the earth).
Craven Dunnill Jackfield
Ceramics are some of the oldest (and hardiest) objects humans have ever crafted. Ceramic tiles can be seen as existing purely within the domestic realm, or as small but mighty pieces of art. The oldest surviving purpose-built tile factory in the world, Craven Dunnill Jackfield, has joined forces with self-proclaimed colour and pattern-obsessed Edinburgh maker Frances Priest to craft bespoke tile murals. One of which is The Tiled Corridor – a commission for the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, an NHS hospital specialising in mental health. A love letter to Victoriana (the golden era of decorative tile use), the installation stretches 14m along a light-infused entrance way, with the glaze palette of 2,800 individual glossy tiles alternating from ochre-yellow to teal.
The overall pattern has no repeats and few straight edges, giving the feeling that there is always something new to discover as you keep walking. A thoughtfully designed environment has the extraordinary power to positively impact people at their most vulnerable. This collaboration is just one example of how craftspeople infuse positivity into the public and private spaces they touch, providing comfort, reassurance and even inspiration to those who need it most.
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