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DEVON FURNITURE-MAKER SELECTED FOR TOP HONOURS
The fact that so much is now marketed as being ‘bespoke’ which might previously have been merely ‘personalised’ is a source of great misery for furniture-maker James Morley whose work really is custom-made to individual order. So it is with gleeful delight that this 40 year old artisan can report two recent testimonials that help to differentiate his work from The Rest!
First off is the Bespoke Guild Mark that James’ Archway Table has just been awarded from the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers in London. Only ten guild marks are awarded each year and, as the Guild Notes state, ‘Every designer and maker whose name is here can justifiably claim to be one of the best furniture craftsmen in Britain... They are not only masters of their craft but their pride in what they do makes them very approachable people’.
Secondly, James’ work has been showcased in the coffee table tome ‘Bespoke’ written by Betty Norbury and published by Stobart Davies earlier this month. Betty has directed the White Knight Gallery in Cheltenham for 20 years and has curated numerous exhibitions of designer-made fine furniture so is ideally qualified to write this book highlighting today’s ‘best’ makers of contemporary fine furniture.
‘I am delighted by both occurrences’ admits James; ‘there are few things in life that are truly ‘bespoke’, but this kind of furniture-making is one of them. The Archway table, for instance, was made for a client who had a particular gap in his Georgian dining room that he wanted filled, he loved curves but his wife favoured angles, both wanted wood and ‘contemporary’ but neither wanted ‘modern’ – I could only have designed such a successful piece of furniture by having seen their house and spent enough time in their company to get through the formal briefing and down to the real nitty gritty. That’s not the kind of service you get from ‘personalisation’!’