PHILIP WEBB FOR MORRIS & CO: AN OAK CENTRE TABLE, with a rectangular top above a stepped moul

PHILIP WEBB FOR MORRIS & CO: AN OAK CENTRE TABLE, with a rectangular top above a stepped moulded border on turned splayed legs with cross stretchers and a moulded stretcher with four turned uprights on plinth bases with castors, 29" high x 71" wide. Philip Webb (1831-1915) was chief furniture designer for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co, and Morris and Co. A life long friend and colleague of William Morris`s the two met as young men in the Oxford office of George Street`s architectural practice. It was on the strength of Morris commissioning Webb to design a home for himself and his new wife that Webb set up his own practice. The house was the Arts and Crafts masterpiece the Red House, and Webb became a highly successful architect and Morris went on to establish the leading art furnishers of the time. This table relates to a design first produced during the early years of the business when furniture on this scale will have been made to fulfil a specific commission or architectural interior. This table shows Webb`s interest in medieval furniture, his furniture designs demonstrate a solidity and architectural presence with features drawn from his knowledge of early furniture from around the world. An example of the design can be seen in the long drawing room at Kelmscott House where Morris lived from 1878. See William Morris, His Life, Work and Friends by Philip Henderson. A further larger variant example, 96 3/4in long, was sold at auction in London in May 2000. An example of this table is illustrated on p159 of `William Morris` the catalogue edited by L.Parry to accompany the Victoria and Albert museums 1996 exhibition `Willliam Morris 1834-1896`. In this publication it is described as being designed by Philip Webb. However this table is also recorded as a `Joiners Table` by George Jack who may have reintroduced the design at some point after Webb`s retirement in 1890, if this is the case it might best be seen as a collaboration between the two designers. See Illustration