Arts & Crafts Cotswold School oak refectory table

with chamfered detailing and no-screw construction

6 - 8 seater

After a design By Peter Waals

Made by Fred Gardiner

Cotswold School

Circa 1950

Height 76cm. Lengthy 214cm. Depth 91cm

The table is made using construction details used by Peter Waals, this entails sliding the top on to the base using a dovetail joint the width of the top making it very stable and simple to the eye, no blocks and no screws, a very skilful task. Its very rare to find furniture stamped by Gardiner.

FRED GARDINER (1890-1963)

Gardiner was the son of a builder and was born at Water Lane in Gloucestershire. He trained with Ernest Gimson at Daneway

In 1919 he went to work for Peter de Waals at Chalford until the workshop closed and then took up building. During the Second World War he joined Tylers of Thrupp to make gliders, and afterwards set up his own workshop at Cotswold Cottage, Oakridge, where he made furniture as well as working as the village undertaker. His son, Philip, worked with him post 1947.

PETER WAALS (1870-1937)

Peter Waals trained as a cabinet maker in The Hague, Holland. He spent three years working in Brussels, Berlin and Vienna before moving to London. In 1901 he joined Ernest Gimson and Ernest Barnsley in Cirencester. He became foreman of the furniture workshops at Daneway, near Sapperton. Waals had extremely high standards and a good eye for choosing timber.

After Gimson’s death in 1919, Waals established his own workshop in the village of Chalford, making domestic pieces.