Dr. Bernard ('Bill') Cotton undertakes research, writes and lectures on the
history and design of Britain's Country, or Regional Furniture
Traditions - vernacular furniture made for the homes of working
people. His work over the past thirty years has taken him throughout
Britain where his first hand research, photographing furniture in its
traditional settings, and recording the social history of its use and
manufacture has allowed him to travel abroad to countries where the
British settled, including Canada, the United States of America,
Australia, and New Zealand, where he has been involved in fieldwork
projects interpreting, from a British perspective, furniture made
there . During the recent past, his field work in Britain has included
furniture studies in such widely diverse places, as the Lake District
and Leicestershire in England, and the Shetland Isles, Orkney, and on
the deserted island of Stroma in the far north of Scotland.
He has published regularly in his field, and is the author of the
widely influential book, The English Regional Chair (Antique
Collectors Club 1991) which revealed for the first time in England,
that regional designs of chairs could be identified to an area, and
often to a maker. His new major work, Scottish Vernacular
Furniture,
which looks at all kinds of furniture, from regional dressers to local
chair designs, is
to be published by Thames and Hudson in 2008, and this too will
advance the ways in which vernacular furniture is identified and
related to its social context, including the significance of
architecture, diet, and the available materials.
Ian King working with Dr.
Cotton in Uxbridge Library making templates of a maker provenanced
chair by Robert Prior of Uxbridge to compare it with a similar but
unstamped chair.
In recognition of his contribution to producing new research in his
field, he was appointed Visiting Professor of Furniture at Brunel
University (Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, High Wycombe)
and at Southampton Institute where he taught students of
conservation/restoration, as well as the evaluation and history of
furniture. Dr. Cotton is both the ex Founder-Chairman and President of
the Regional Furniture Society, a learned body which is committed to
promoting interest and research in vernacular furniture history.
See www.regionalfurnituresociety.com
Dr. Cotton is a consultant to Christies South Kensington Furniture
Department, where he enjoys examining and writing about oak and
country furniture. Extracts from his published and unpublished
research is regularly included and updated on the web site. See Furniture in
Focus.
Gerry Cotton, Simon Green
(Christies) and James Forsyth working with Dr. Cotton to examine and
compare a labeled chair by John Pitt of Slough, circa 1750 on left,
with a similar but larger chair of the same regional origin and date.
He has also had a long connection with the National Association of
Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS) where he lectured widely
both in Britain and abroad; and advising their Church Recording groups
in their evaluation of church furniture and woodwork. He has
recognised expertise in teaching courses in the identification and use
of native timbers used in British furniture, and has taught this to
college and professional development groups. He has strong links to
the Geffrye Museum which houses the Cotton Collection of English vernacular
chairs. Click here for more information on the Cotton
Collection.
Gerry
Cotton working with Bill Cotton taking detailed measurements and
other data from 17th century back stools from the North
West of England, to identify groups made in the same workshops or
tradition, using statistical analysis to examine similarities and
differences in the constructional codes.
Dr. Bernard Cotton