C.F.A. Voysey Arts & Crafts Designs Boxed Notecards

Early in his career, before completing any of the architectural designs that would win him a measure of glory, Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (English, 1857–1941) designed wallpaper and textiles. Later, after he had built the great country houses and cottages endowed with (in his own words) “Repose, Cheerfulness, [and] Simplicity,” he was obliged to return to more modest projects to make a living. And throughout his career he moved constantly between work on houses, furniture, light fixtures, and other sorts of domestic designs. The breadth of his ability was in keeping with the Arts and Crafts ethic of William Morris, who felt that design ought to be all-encompassing, as well as the nascent philosophy of industrial design, with its resistance to all unnecessary ornament. The designs in this selection suggest that he sought simplicity in his houses so that he might decorate their walls and tables all the more gaily with flowers and sailing boats.