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113-510: The earliest cottage gardens were more practical than today's, with emphasis on vegetables and herbs, fruit trees, perhaps a beehive, and even livestock. Flowers, used to fill spaces, gradually became more dominant. The traditional cottage garden was usually enclosed, perhaps with a rose-bowered gateway. Flowers common to early cottage gardens included traditional florists' flowers such as primroses and violets , along with flowers with household use such as calendula and various herbs . Others were

226-625: A charge in heraldry , for example the coat of arms of the Earl of Rosebery . Italy chose a fuchsia primrose as the symbol of its 2020 COVID-19 vaccination campaign. The primrose is on one side of Austria's 5 euro cent coin . Primrose Yellow exists in some paint and color systems and is named after this flower. The primrose occurs frequently in Romantic poetry , and has been celebrated, among others, by poets such as Keats , Wordsworth , Wilde , Goldsmith and Chaucer . In common parlance,

339-410: A "true society", where neither luxuries nor cheap trash were made, machinery could be improved and used to reduce the hours of labor. The cultural historian Fiona McCarthy said of Morris that "unlike later zealots like Gandhi , William Morris had no practical objections to the use of machinery per se so long as the machines produced the quality he needed." Morris insisted that the artist should be

452-477: A community of craftsmen called the Guild of Handicraft in east London, later moving to Chipping Campden . Those adherents who were not socialists, such as Alfred Hoare Powell , advocated a more humane and personal relationship between employer and employee. Lewis Foreman Day was another successful and influential Arts and Crafts designer who was not a socialist, despite his long friendship with Crane. In Britain,

565-530: A cottage garden was a place where "the plants grow in a jumble, flowering shrubs mingled with Roses, herbaceous plants with bulbous subjects, climbers scrambling over hedges, seedlings coming up wherever they have chosen to sow themselves". The cottage garden ideal was also spread by artists such as water-colourist Helen Allingham (1848–1926). Another influence was Margery Fish (1892–1969), whose garden survives at East Lambrook Manor . The cottage garden in France

678-488: A cottage-garden mainstay—along with modern disease-resistant varieties that retain traditional attributes. Informal climbing plants, whether traditional or modern hybrids, are also common, as are the self-sowing annuals and freely spreading perennials favoured in traditional cottagers' gardens. Cottage gardens, which emerged in Elizabethan times, appear to have originated as a local source for herbs and fruits. One theory

791-483: A craftsman-designer working by hand and advocated a society of free craftspeople, such as he believed had existed during the Middle Ages. "Because craftsmen took pleasure in their work", he wrote, "the Middle Ages was a period of greatness in the art of the common people. ... The treasures in our museums now are only the common utensils used in households of that age, when hundreds of medieval churches – each one

904-507: A democratic art, and by the end of the 19th century, Arts and Crafts design in houses and domestic interiors was the dominant style in Britain, copied in products made by conventional industrial methods. The spread of Arts and Crafts ideas during the late 19th and early 20th centuries resulted in the establishment of many associations and craft communities, although Morris had little to do with them because of his preoccupation with socialism at

1017-522: A grass prairie scheme (in the American midwest) and California chaparral cottage gardens. While the classic cottage garden is built around a cottage , many cottage-style gardens are created around houses and even estates such as Hidcote Manor , with its more intimate "garden rooms". The cottage garden design is based more on principles than formulae: it has an informal look, with a seemingly casual mixture of flowers, herbs, and vegetables often packed into

1130-494: A lack of interest in easel painting as such. On his side, Ruskin dissented firmly from the idea that became Arts-and-Crafts orthodoxy, that decoration should be flat and should not represent three-dimensional forms. William Morris (1834–1896) was the towering figure in late 19th-century design and the main influence on the Arts and Crafts movement. The aesthetic and social vision of the movement grew out of ideas that he developed in

1243-709: A leader in the Gothic Revival in architecture . For example, he advocated truth to material, structure, and function, as did the Arts and Crafts artists. Pugin articulated the tendency of social critics to compare the faults of modern society with the Middle Ages, such as the sprawling growth of cities and the treatment of the poor – a tendency that became routine with Ruskin, Morris, and the Arts and Crafts movement. His book Contrasts (1836) drew examples of bad modern buildings and town planning in contrast with good medieval examples, and his biographer Rosemary Hill notes that he "reached conclusions, almost in passing, about

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1356-407: A masterpiece – were built by unsophisticated peasants." Medieval art was the model for much of Arts and Crafts design, and medieval life, literature and building was idealized by the movement. Morris's followers also had differing views about machinery and the factory system. For example, C. R. Ashbee , a central figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, said in 1888, that, "We do not reject

1469-533: A mix of other vegetables plus some culinary and medicinal herbs. John Claudius Loudon wrote extensively on cottage gardens in his book An Encyclopædia of Gardening (1822) and in Gardener's Magazine from 1826. In 1838 he wrote "I seldom observe any thing in a cottage garden but potatoes, cabbages, beans, and French beans; in a few instances onions and parsneps , and very seldom a few peas". An 1865 issue of The Farmer's Magazine noted that in " Ireland and much of

1582-413: A more casual—and less formal—look and feel to a cottage garden. Pots, ornaments, and furniture also use natural looking materials with traditional finishes—everything is chosen to give the impression of an old-fashioned country garden. Until the late 19th century, cottage gardens mainly grew vegetables for household consumption. Typically half the garden would be used for cultivating potatoes and half for

1695-403: A natural motif made to look as real as possible, whereas these writers advocated flat and simplified natural motifs. Redgrave insisted that "style" demanded sound construction before ornamentation, and a proper awareness of the quality of materials used. " Utility must have precedence over ornamentation." However, the design reformers of the mid-19th century did not go as far as the designers of

1808-495: A powerful denunciation of modern industrialism to which Arts and Crafts designers returned again and again. Distrust for the machine lay behind the many little workshops that turned their backs on the industrial world around 1900, using preindustrial techniques to create what they called 'crafts.' — Alan Crawford, " W. A. S. Benson , Machinery, and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain" William Morris shared Ruskin's critique of industrial society and at one time or another attacked

1921-445: A small area. In spite of their appearances, cottage gardens have a design and formality that help give them their grace and charm. Due to space limitations, they are often in small rectangular plots, with practical functioning paths and hedges or fences. The plants, layout, and materials are chosen to give the impression of casualness and a country feel. Modern cottage gardens frequently use local flowers and materials, rather than those of

2034-446: A superior ovary which later forms a capsule opening by valves to release the small black seeds. The flowers are hermaphrodite but heterostylous ; individual plants bear either pin flowers ( longuistylous flower: with the capita of the style prominent) or thrum flowers ( brevistylous flower: with the stamens prominent). Fertilisation can only take place between pin and thrum flowers. Pin-to-pin and thrum-to-thrum pollination

2147-412: Is a development of the early 20th century. Monet 's garden at Giverny is a prominent example, a sprawling garden full of varied plantings, rich colors, and water gardens. In modern times, the term 'cottage garden' is used to describe any number of informal garden styles, using design and plants very different from their traditional English cottage garden origins. Examples include regional variations using

2260-601: Is common on motorway verges and railway embankments where human intervention is restricted. To prevent excessive damage to the species, picking of primroses or the removal of primrose plants from the wild is illegal in many countries, e.g. the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 . Most (90%) individuals are heterostylous, the minority monostylous. The flowers of the species are visited by a variety of insects, such as butterflies ( Lepidoptera ), Hymenoptera , beetles ( Coleoptera ) and Diptera . Which visitors pollinate plants

2373-437: Is found mainly by streams, under bushes, in orchards and clear, moist deciduous forests. Occasionally it also appears in meadows. In Central Europe plants thrive best on nutrient-rich, but lime-poor, humus-rich, loose and often stony loam soils in winter-mild situations. In more populated areas it has sometimes suffered from over-collection and theft so that few natural displays of primroses in abundance can now be found. However it

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2486-510: Is gradually attenuated towards the base and unevenly toothed. The single stem, extremely short, is hidden in the centre of the leaf rosette . Blooming in early spring in the Northern Hemisphere (February–April), the delicately scented flowers are 2–4 cm in diameter, borne singly on short slender stems. They are typically pale yellow, though white or pink forms are often seen in nature. The flowers are actinomorphic with

2599-865: Is increased by seed and division . The throat is usually coloured rich yellow. Primrose breeding of named coloured varieties became popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Numerous cultivars have been selected for garden planting, often derived from subsp. sibthorpii or hybrids between the subspecies; these and other garden hybrids are available in a wide range of colours, including white, yellow and red, or brown and red in all gradations as well as dark red, pink, purple, dark brown and dark blue, and with an extended flowering season. The term Polyanthus , or Primula polyantha , refers to various tall-stemmed and multi-coloured strains of P. vulgaris × P. veris hybrids . Though perennial, they may be short-lived and are typically grown from seed or from young plants as biennials . The following have received

2712-486: Is ineffective. Three subspecies are accepted by some sources: Plants of the World Online accepts only one subspecies in addition to the nominate subsp. vulgaris : The primrose is distinguished from other species of Primula by its pale yellow (in the nominate subspecies) flowers produced singly on long flower stalks which are covered in rather shaggy hairs. The flowers open flat rather than concave as in

2825-431: Is not fully established. However, good pollinators are said to be bumblebees and hairy flies of the genus Bombylius . However, the most common visitors to the flowers are small beetles of the genus Meligethes – often there are up to 12 or more pollen -covered individuals in a single flower. The beetles also fly from flower to flower and, at least theoretically, are well suited as pollinators. Primrose flowers, and

2938-463: Is that they arose out of the Black Death of the 1340s, when the death of so many laborers made land available for small cottages with personal gardens. According to the late 19th-century legend of origin, these gardens were originally created by the workers that lived in the cottages of the villages, to provide them with food and herbs, with flowers planted in for decoration. Helen Leach analysed

3051-458: Is the full and fat "cabbage rose" made famous by Dutch masters in their 17th-century paintings. These very fragrant shrub roses grow 5 ft tall and wide, with a floppy habit that is aided by training on an arch or pillar. The centifolia roses have produced many descendants that are also cottage garden favorites, including varieties of moss rose (roses with attractive 'mossy' growth on their flower stalks and flower buds). Unlike most modern hybrids,

3164-561: The Art Nouveau movement. Others consider that it is the incarnation of Art Nouveau in England. Others consider Art and Crafts to be in opposition to Art Nouveau. Arts and Crafts indeed criticized Art Nouveau for its use of industrial materials such as iron. And as for Art Nouveau artists, the Arts and Crafts utopia was intrinsically contradictory: "the paradoxical confinement of the Arts & Crafts movement in an artisanal practice

3277-679: The Baptism of Christ in Paisley Abbey , (c. 1880). His followers included Stephen Adam and his son of the same name. The Glasgow-born designer and theorist Christopher Dresser (1834–1904) was one of the first, and most important, independent designers, a pivotal figure in the Aesthetic Movement and a major contributor to the allied Anglo-Japanese movement. The movement had an "extraordinary flowering" in Scotland where it

3390-674: The British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiated in reaction against the perceived impoverishment of the decorative arts and the conditions in which they were produced, the movement flourished in Europe and North America between about 1880 and 1920. Some consider that it is the root of the Modern Style , a British expression of what later came to be called

3503-573: The British Isles , Denmark , northern Germany , the Netherlands , Belgium and France to southern Portugal in the south and the tip of North Africa in Algeria . To the east, the range extends through the southern European peninsulas to the Crimea , Balkans , Syria , Turkey , and Armenia . In appropriate conditions, P. vulgaris can cover the ground in open woods and shaded hedgerows. It

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3616-586: The Century Guild , a partnership of designers including Selwyn Image , Herbert Horne , Clement Heaton and Benjamin Creswick . In 1884, the Art Workers Guild was initiated by five young architects, William Lethaby , Edward Prior , Ernest Newton , Mervyn Macartney and Gerald C. Horsley , with the goal of bringing together fine and applied arts and raising the status of the latter. It

3729-459: The Cotswolds . The guild's work is characterised by plain surfaces of hammered silver, flowing wirework and colored stones in simple settings. Ashbee designed jewellery and silver tableware. The guild flourished at Chipping Camden but did not prosper and was liquidated in 1908. Some craftsmen stayed, contributing to the tradition of modern craftsmanship in the area. C.F.A. Voysey (1857–1941)

3842-477: The Highlands of Scotland , potatoes are the only thing grown in the cottage-garden". Modern cottage garden plants are typically flowers chosen for their old-fashioned and informal appeal. Many modern day gardeners use heirloom or 'old-fashioned' plants and varieties—even though these may not have been authentic or traditional cottage garden plants. In addition, there are modern varieties of flowers that fit into

3955-643: The Irish National War Memorial Gardens in Dublin) and Frederick 'Pa' Hicks ( Malahide Castle estate buildings and round tower). Irish Celtic motifs were popular with the movement in silvercraft, carpet design, book illustrations, and hand-carved furniture. In continental Europe, the revival and preservation of national styles was an important motive of Arts and Crafts designers; for example, in Germany, after unification in 1871 under

4068-493: The Royal Horticultural Society 's Award of Garden Merit : Both flowers and leaves are edible, the flavour ranging between mild lettuce and more bitter salad greens. The leaves can be cooked in soup but preferably with other plants because they are sometimes a little strong. The leaves can also be used for tea, and the young flowers can be made into primrose wine. In the past the whole plant and especially

4181-581: The family Primulaceae , native to Eurasia. The common name is primrose , or occasionally common primrose or English primrose to distinguish it from other Primula species referred to as primroses. Primula vulgaris is a perennial growing 10–30 centimetres (4–12 inches) tall, with a basal rosette of leaves which are more-or-less evergreen in favoured habitats. The leaves are 5–25 cm (2–10 in) long and 2–6 cm (1– 2 + 1 ⁄ 2  in) broad, often heavily wrinkled, with an irregularly crenate to dentate margin. The leaf blade

4294-525: The 1850s with the Birmingham Set – a group of students at the University of Oxford including Edward Burne-Jones , who combined a love of Romantic literature with a commitment to social reform. John William Mackail notes that "Carlyle's Past and Present stood alongside of [Ruskin's] Modern Painters as inspired and absolute truth." The medievalism of Malory 's Morte d'Arthur set

4407-491: The 1920s as the Mingei movement. It stood for traditional craftsmanship, and often used medieval , romantic , or folk styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform and was anti-industrial in its orientation. It had a strong influence on the arts in Europe until it was displaced by Modernism in the 1930s, and its influence continued among craft makers, designers, and town planners long afterwards. The term

4520-595: The Arts and Crafts Movement brought new appreciation to their work. Horace W Elliot, an English gallerist, visited the Ewenny Pottery (which dated back to the 17th century) in 1885, to both find local pieces and encourage a style compatible with the movement. The pieces he brought back to London for the next twenty years revivified interest in Welsh pottery work. A key promoter of the Arts and Crafts movement in Wales

4633-469: The Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland were in the stained glass revival of the 1850s, pioneered by James Ballantine (1806–1877). His major works included the great west window of Dunfermline Abbey and the scheme for St. Giles Cathedral , Edinburgh. In Glasgow it was pioneered by Daniel Cottier (1838–1891), who had probably studied with Ballantine, and was directly influenced by William Morris , Ford Madox Brown and John Ruskin . His key works included

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4746-454: The Arts and Crafts movement. They were more concerned with ornamentation than construction, they had an incomplete understanding of methods of manufacture, and they did not criticise industrial methods as such. By contrast, the Arts and Crafts movement was as much a movement of social reform as design reform, and its leading practitioners did not separate the two. Some of the ideas of the movement were anticipated by Augustus Pugin (1812–1852),

4859-523: The Arts and Crafts philosophy was perpetuated among British craft workers in the 1950s and 1960s, long after the demise of the Arts and Crafts movement and at the high tide of Modernism. British Utility furniture of the 1940s also derived from Arts and Crafts principles. One of its main promoters, Gordon Russell , chairman of the Utility Furniture Design Panel, was imbued with Arts and Crafts ideas. He manufactured furniture in

4972-515: The British leisured class. Alexander Pope was an early proponent of less formal gardens, calling in a 1713 article for gardens with the "amiable simplicity of unadorned nature". Other writers in the 18th century who encouraged less formal, and more natural, gardens included Joseph Addison and Lord Shaftesbury . The evolution of cottage gardens can be followed in the issues of The Cottage Gardener (1848–61), edited by George William Johnson , where

5085-608: The Cotswold Hills, a region of Arts and Crafts furniture-making since Ashbee, and he was a member of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. William Morris's biographer, Fiona MacCarthy , detected the Arts and Crafts philosophy even behind the Festival of Britain (1951), the work of the designer Terence Conran (1931–2020) and the founding of the British Crafts Council in the 1970s. The beginnings of

5198-764: The Flower Garden (1908) is still in print today. Robinson and Jekyll were part of the Arts and Crafts Movement , a broader movement in art, architecture, and crafts during the late 19th century which advocated a return to the informal planting style derived as much from the Romantic tradition as from the actual English cottage garden. The Arts and Crafts Exhibition of 1888 began a movement toward an idealised natural country garden style. The garden designs of Robinson and Jekyll were often associated with Arts and Crafts style houses. Both were influenced by William Morris , one of

5311-625: The ancient Apothecary's rose ( R. gallica 'Officinalis'), whose magenta flowers were preserved solely for their fragrance. Another old fragrant cottage garden rose is the Damask rose , which is still grown in Europe for use in perfumes. Cultivated forms of this grow 4 to 6 ft or higher, with gently arching canes that help give an informal look to a garden. Even taller generally are the Alba roses, which are not always white, and which bloom well even in partial shade. The Provence rose or Rosa centifolia

5424-550: The artistic side Ruskin was influenced by his contemporary Viollet le Duc whom he taught to all of his pupils. In a letter to one of his pupils Ruskin writes : "There is only one book of any value and that is the Dictionnary of Viollet le Duc. Everyone should learn French". And according to some Ruskin's influence on Arts and Crafts was supplanted in 1860 by that of Viollet le Duc. His followers favoured craft production over industrial manufacture and were concerned about

5537-509: The assertion of national pride and the striving for independence, and, whereas for Arts and Crafts practitioners in Britain the ideal style was to be found in the medieval, in central Europe it was sought in remote peasant villages. Widely exhibited in Europe, the Arts and Crafts style's simplicity inspired designers like Henry van de Velde and styles such as Art Nouveau , the Dutch De Stijl group, Vienna Secession , and eventually

5650-506: The case of Primula veris , the cowslip. A pink form is widely seen, growing amongst the much more common yellow forms; this may be a genetic variant rather than a garden escape. Occasional red forms are more likely to be naturalised from garden varieties. The scientific name Primula is a diminutive of the Latin primus , "prime", alluding to the fact that this flower is among the first to appear in spring. The vernacular name has

5763-465: The catalogues of their exhibitions. Peter Floud, writing in the 1950s, said that "The founders of the Society ... never executed their own designs, but invariably turned them over to commercial firms." The idea that the designer should be the maker and the maker the designer derived "not from Morris or early Arts and Crafts teaching, but rather from the second-generation elaboration doctrine worked out in

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5876-625: The control of an old guard, was withdrawing from commerce and collaboration with manufacturers into purist handwork and what Tania Harrod describes as "decommoditisation" Its rejection of a commercial role has been seen as a turning point in its fortunes. Nikolaus Pevsner in his book Pioneers of Modern Design presents the Arts and Crafts movement as design radicals who influenced the modern movement, but failed to change and were eventually superseded by it. The British artist potter Bernard Leach brought to England many ideas he had developed in Japan with

5989-518: The cottage garden esthetic began to emigrate to America. In the early 20th century the term "cottage garden" might be applied even to as large and sophisticated a garden as Hidcote Manor , which Vita Sackville-West described as "a cottage garden on the most glorified scale" but where the colour harmonies were carefully contrived and controlled, as in the famous "Red Borders". Sackville-West had taken similar models for her own "cottage garden", one of many "garden rooms" at Sissinghurst Castle —her idea of

6102-493: The cottage garden look. For example, modern roses developed by David Austin have been chosen for cottage gardens because of their old-fashioned look (multi-petaled form and rosette-shaped flowers) and fragrance—combined with modern virtues of hardiness, repeat blooming, and disease-resistance. Modern cottage gardens often use native plants and those adapted to the local climate, rather than trying to force traditional English plants to grow in an incompatible environment—though many of

6215-605: The decorative arts, including furniture and woodwork, stained glass, leatherwork, lacemaking, embroidery, rug making and weaving, jewelry and metalwork, enameling and ceramics. By 1910, there was a fashion for "Arts and Crafts" and all things hand-made. There was a proliferation of amateur handicrafts of variable quality and of incompetent imitators who caused the public to regard Arts and Crafts as "something less, instead of more, competent and fit for purpose than an ordinary mass produced article." The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society held eleven exhibitions between 1888 and 1916. By

6328-415: The designer was a matter for debate and disagreement. Not all Arts and Crafts artists carried out every stage in the making of goods themselves, and it was only in the twentieth century that that became essential to the definition of craftsmanship. Although Morris was famous for getting hands-on experience himself of many crafts (including weaving, dying, printing, calligraphy and embroidery), he did not regard

6441-672: The discipline of large scale color schemes, there is the simplicity of harmonious color combinations between neighbouring plants. The overall appearance can be of "a vegetable garden that has been taken over by flowers." The method of planting closely packed plants was supposed to reduce the amount of weeding and watering required. But some features, such as planted stone paths, turf pathways, or clipped hedges overgrown with wayward vines, still need well-timed maintenance. Paths, arbors, and fences use traditional or antique looking materials. Wooden fences and gates, paths covered with locally made bricks or stone, and arbors using natural materials all give

6554-438: The emphasis is squarely on the "florist's flowers", carnations and auriculas in fancy varieties that were originally cultivated as a highly competitive blue-collar hobby. William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll helped to popularise less formal gardens in their many books and magazine articles. Robinson's The Wild Garden , published in 1870, contained in the first edition an essay on "The Garden of British Wild Flowers", which

6667-598: The encouragement of the Bund für Heimatschutz (1897) and the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk founded in 1898 by Karl Schmidt; and in Hungary Károly Kós revived the vernacular style of Transylvanian building. In central Europe, where several diverse nationalities lived under powerful empires (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia), the discovery of the vernacular was associated with

6780-406: The estate at Great Tew , Oxfordshire , where farm workers were provided with cottages that had architectural quality set in a smallholding or large garden—about an acre—where they could grow food and keep pigs and chickens. Authentic gardens of the yeoman cottager would have included a beehive and livestock, and frequently a pig and sty, along with a well. The peasant cottager of medieval times

6893-527: The esthetics of the Arts and Crafts movement. The Arts and Crafts movement emerged from the attempt to reform design and decoration in mid-19th century Britain. It was a reaction against a perceived decline in standards that the reformers associated with machinery and factory production. Their critique was sharpened by the items that they saw in the Great Exhibition of 1851 , which they considered to be excessively ornate , artificial, and ignorant of

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7006-446: The exhibits." Owen Jones, for example, complained that "the architect, the upholsterer, the paper-stainer, the weaver, the calico-printer, and the potter" produced "novelty without beauty, or beauty without intelligence." From these criticisms of manufactured goods emerged several publications that set out what the writers considered to be the correct principles of design. Richard Redgrave's Supplementary Report on Design (1852) analysed

7119-409: The first decade of [the twentieth] century by men such as W. R. Lethaby ". Many of the Arts and Crafts movement designers were socialists , including Morris, T. J. Cobden Sanderson , Walter Crane , C.R. Ashbee , Philip Webb , Charles Faulkner , and A. H. Mackmurdo . In the early 1880s, Morris was spending more of his time on promoting socialism than on designing and making. Ashbee established

7232-580: The first time one can measure a bit the change that has happened in the last twenty years". The society still exists as the Society of Designer Craftsmen. In 1888, C.R. Ashbee , a major late practitioner of the style in England, founded the Guild and School of Handicraft in the East End of London. The guild was a craft co-operative modelled on the medieval guilds and intended to give working men satisfaction in their craftsmanship. Skilled craftsmen, working on

7345-492: The flowers of related members of the Primulaceae are often removed from their stalks and scattered on the ground by green finches apparently consuming the ovaries and nectaries. The seeds have an elaiosome and are spread by ants ( myrmecochory ). The wild primrose is a staple of cottage garden plantings, and is widely available as seeds or young plants. It grows best in moist but well-drained soil in light shade. It

7458-605: The flowers were used for making wine. The fast-growing Elderberry , in addition to creating a hedge, provided berries for food and wine, with the flowers being fried in batter or made into lotions and ointments. The wood had many uses, including toys, pegs, skewers, and fishing poles. Holly was another hedge plant, useful because it quickly spread and self-seeded. Privet was also a convenient and fast-growing hedge. Over time, more ornamental and less utilitarian plants became popular cottage garden hedges, including laurel , lilac , snowberry , japonica , and others. Popular flowers in

7571-413: The historical origins of the romanticised cottage garden, subjecting the garden style to rigorous historical analysis, along with the ornamental potager and the herb garden . She concluded that their origins were less in workingmen's gardens in the 19th century and more in the leisured classes' discovery of simple hardy plants, in part through the writings of John Claudius Loudon . Loudon helped to design

7684-448: The importance of craftsmanship and tradition in architecture that it would take the rest of the century and the combined efforts of Ruskin and Morris to work out in detail." She describes the spare furnishings which he specified for a building in 1841, "rush chairs, oak tables", as "the Arts and Crafts interior in embryo." The Arts and Crafts philosophy was derived in large measure from John Ruskin 's social criticism, deeply influenced by

7797-611: The introduction of China roses (derived from Rosa chinensis ) late in the 18th century, many hybrids were introduced that had the remontant (repeat-blooming) nature of the China roses, but maintained the informal old rose shape and flower. These included the Bourbon rose and the Noisette rose , which were added to the rose repertoire of the cottage garden, and, more recently, hybrid "English" roses introduced by David Austin . Many of

7910-462: The largest group of traditional cottage garden flowers—those with a long cottage garden history include hollyhocks , carnations , sweet williams , marguerites , marigolds , lilies , peonies , tulips , crocus , daisies , foxglove , monkshood , lavender , campanulas , Solomon's seal , evening primrose , lily-of-the-valley , primrose , cowslips , and many varieties of roses . Today herbs are typically thought of as culinary plants, but in

8023-476: The leaders of the Arts and Crafts Movement—Robinson quoted Morris's views condemning carpet bedding ; Jekyll shared Morris's mystical view of nature and drew on the floral designs in his textiles for her gardening style. When Morris built his Red House in Kent, it influenced new ideas in architecture and gardening—the "old-fashioned" garden suddenly became a fashion accessory among the British artistic middle class, and

8136-478: The loss of traditional skills, but they were more troubled by the effects of the factory system than by machinery itself. William Morris's idea of "handicraft" was essentially work without any division of labour rather than work without any sort of machinery. Morris admired Ruskin's The Seven Lamps of Architecture and The Stones of Venice and had read Modern Painters , but he did not share Ruskin's admiration for J. M. W. Turner and his writings on art indicate

8249-404: The machine, we welcome it. But we would desire to see it mastered." After unsuccessfully pitting his Guild and School of Handicraft guild against modern methods of manufacture, he acknowledged that "Modern civilisation rests on machinery", but he continued to criticise the deleterious effects of what he called "mechanism", saying that "the production of certain mechanical commodities is as bad for

8362-418: The modern cottage garden, including Clematis armandii , Clematis chrysocoma , and Clematis flammula . Popular honeysuckles for cottage gardens include Japanese honeysuckle and Lonicera tragophylla . In the traditional cottage garden, hedges served as fences on the perimeter to keep out marauding livestock and for privacy, along with other practical uses. Hawthorn leaves made a tasty snack or tea, while

8475-400: The modern factory, the use of machinery, the division of labor, capitalism and the loss of traditional craft methods. But his attitude to machinery was inconsistent. He said at one point that production by machinery was "altogether an evil", but at others times, he was willing to commission work from manufacturers who were able to meet his standards with the aid of machines. Morris said that in

8588-490: The movement was associated with dress reform , ruralism , the garden city movement and the folk-song revival . All were linked, in some degree, by the ideal of "the Simple Life". In continental Europe the movement was associated with the preservation of national traditions in building, the applied arts, domestic design and costume. Morris's designs quickly became popular, attracting interest when his company's work

8701-645: The movement, was formed with Walter Crane as president, holding its first exhibition in the New Gallery , London, in November 1888. It was the first show of contemporary decorative arts in London since the Grosvenor Gallery 's Winter Exhibition of 1881. Morris & Co. was well represented in the exhibition with furniture, fabrics, carpets and embroideries. Edward Burne-Jones observed, "here for

8814-793: The nation's cultural development, a visual counterpart to the literary revival of the same time and was a publication of Irish nationalism. The Arts and Crafts use of stained glass was popular in Ireland, with Harry Clarke the best-known artist and also with Evie Hone . The architecture of the style is represented by the Honan Chapel (1916) in Cork city in the grounds of University College Cork . Other architects practicing in Ireland included Sir Edwin Lutyens (Heywood House in Co. Laois, Lambay Island and

8927-436: The national health as is the production of slave-grown cane or child-sweated wares." William Arthur Smith Benson , on the other hand, had no qualms about adapting the Arts and Crafts style to metalwork produced under industrial conditions. (See quotation box.) Morris and his followers believed the division of labour on which modern industry depended was undesirable, but the extent to which every design should be carried out by

9040-486: The old favorites thrive in cottage gardens throughout the world. Cottage gardens are always associated with roses: shrub roses, climbing roses, and old garden roses with lush foliage, in contrast to the gangly modern hybrid tea roses. Old cottage garden roses include cultivated forms of Rosa gallica , which form dense mounded shrubs 3–4 ft high and wide, with pale pink to purple flowers—with single form to full double form blooms. They are also very fragrant, and include

9153-555: The old roses had cultivars that grew very long canes, which could be tied to trellises or against walls. These older varieties are called "ramblers", rather than "climbers". Climbing plants in the traditional cottage garden included European honeysuckle ( Lonicera periclymenum ) and Traveller's Joy ( Clematis vitalba ). The modern cottage garden includes many Clematis hybrids that have the old appeal, with sparse foliage that allows them to grow through roses and trees, and along fences and arbors. There are also many Clematis species used in

9266-441: The older roses bloom on the previous year's wood, so they aren't pruned back severely each year. Also as they don't bloom continuously, they can share their branches with later-flowering climbers such as Clematis vines, which use the rose branches for support. A rose in the cottage garden is not segregated with other roses, with bare earth or mulch underneath', but is casually blended with other flowers, vines, and groundcover. With

9379-693: The outbreak of war in 1914 it was in decline and faced a crisis. Its 1912 exhibition had been a financial failure. While designers in continental Europe were making innovations in design and alliances with industry through initiatives such as the Deutsche Werkbund and new initiatives were being taken in Britain by the Omega Workshops and the Design in Industries Association , the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, now under

9492-473: The phrase "the primrose path" implies the thoughtless pursuit of pleasure, especially when it is seen to bring disastrous consequences. The original allusion is a reference in Shakespeare 's Hamlet to "the primrose path of dalliance". Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in

9605-505: The principles of Ruskin and Morris, were to produce hand-crafted goods and manage a school for apprentices. The idea was greeted with enthusiasm by almost everyone except Morris, who was by now involved with promoting socialism and thought Ashbee's scheme trivial. From 1888 to 1902 the guild prospered, employing about 50 men. In 1902 Ashbee relocated the guild out of London to begin an experimental community in Chipping Campden in

9718-529: The principles of design and ornament and pleaded for "more logic in the application of decoration." Other works followed in a similar vein, such as Wyatt's Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century (1853), Gottfried Semper 's Wissenschaft, Industrie und Kunst ("Science, Industry and Art") (1852), Ralph Wornum 's Analysis of Ornament (1856), Redgrave's Manual of Design (1876), and Jones's Grammar of Ornament (1856). The Grammar of Ornament

9831-540: The qualities of the materials used. Art historian Nikolaus Pevsner writes that the exhibits showed "ignorance of that basic need in creating patterns, the integrity of the surface", as well as displaying "vulgarity in detail". Design reform began with Exhibition organizers Henry Cole (1808–1882), Owen Jones (1809–1874), Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820–1877), and Richard Redgrave (1804–1888), all of whom deprecated excessive ornament and impractical or badly-made things. The organizers were "unanimous in their condemnation of

9944-456: The richly scented old-fashioned roses that bloomed once a year, and simple flowers like daisies . In time, cottage-garden sections were added to some large estate gardens as well. Modern cottage gardens include countless regional and personal variations and embrace plant materials, such as ornamental grasses or native plants not seen in the rural gardens of cottagers. Traditional roses, with their full fragrance and lush foliage, continue to be

10057-524: The root were considered to have analgesic , anti- spasmodic , diuretic and expectorant properties. It contains small amounts of saponins , and was given for colds. P. vulgaris foliage contains significant amounts of vitamin C. The primrose was Benjamin Disraeli 's favourite flower; Primrose Day and the Primrose League were given their names in honour of this. Primroses also appear as

10170-464: The same meaning: primrose derives from a late Latin form prima rosa , consisting of prima , "first" (feminine), and rosa , "rose". The Latin specific epithet vulgaris means "common", in the sense of "widespread". The native range of P. vulgaris encompasses western and southern Europe . In the north, the distribution area extends from central Norway near the Faroe Islands via

10283-400: The separation of design and execution was not only inevitable in the modern world, but also that only that sort of specialisation allowed the best in design and the best in making. Few of the founders of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society insisted that the designer should also be the maker, although they considered it important that the maker should be credited, which was the practice in

10396-452: The separation of designer and executant in his factory as problematic. Walter Crane, a close political associate of Morris's, took an unsympathetic view of the division of labour on both moral and artistic grounds, and strongly advocated that designing and making should come from the same hand. Lewis Foreman Day, a friend and contemporary of Crane's, as unstinting as Crane in his admiration of Morris, disagreed strongly with Crane. He thought that

10509-409: The social critic Yanagi Soetsu about the moral and social value of simple crafts; both were enthusiastic readers of Ruskin. Leach was an active propagandist for these ideas, which struck a chord with practitioners of the crafts in the inter-war years, and he expounded them in A Potter's Book , published in 1940, which denounced industrial society in terms as vehement as those of Ruskin and Morris. Thus

10622-434: The standard for their early style. In Burne-Jones' words, they intended to "wage Holy warfare against the age". Morris began experimenting with various crafts and designing furniture and interiors. He was personally involved in manufacture as well as design, which was the hallmark of the Arts and Crafts movement. Ruskin had argued that the separation of the intellectual act of design from the manual act of physical creation

10735-604: The time. A hundred and thirty Arts and Crafts organisations were formed in Britain, most between 1895 and 1905. In 1881, Eglantyne Louisa Jebb , Mary Fraser Tytler and others initiated the Home Arts and Industries Association to encourage the working classes, especially those in rural areas, to take up handicrafts under supervision, not for profit, but in order to provide them with useful occupations and to improve their taste. By 1889 it had 450 classes, 1,000 teachers and 5,000 students. In 1882, architect A.H.Mackmurdo formed

10848-655: The traditional cottage garden included florist's flowers which were grown by enthusiasts—such as violets, pinks, and primroses—and those grown with a more practical purpose. For example, the calendula , grown today almost entirely for its bright orange flowers, was primarily valued for eating, for adding color to butter and cheese, for adding smoothness to soups and stews, and for all kinds of healing salves and preparations. Like many old cottage garden annuals and herbs, it freely self-sowed, making it easier to grow and share. Other popular cottage garden annuals included violets , pansies , stocks , and mignonette . Perennials were

10961-458: The traditional cottage garden they were considered to be any plant with household uses. Herbs were used for medicine, toiletries, and cleaning products. Scented herbs would be spread on the floor along with rushes to cover odors. Some herbs were used for dyeing fabrics. Traditional cottage garden herbs included sage , thyme , southernwood , wormwood , catmint , feverfew , lungwort , soapwort , hyssop , sweet woodruff , and lavender. Fruit in

11074-419: The traditional cottage garden would have included an apple and a pear , for cider and perry , gooseberries and raspberries. The modern cottage garden includes many varieties of ornamental fruit and nut trees, such as crabapple and hazel , along with non-traditional trees like dogwood . Primula vulgaris Primula vulgaris , the common primrose , is a species of flowering plant in

11187-489: The traditional cottage garden. What they share with the tradition is the unstudied look, the use of every square inch, and a rich variety of flowers, herbs, and vegetables. The cottage garden is designed to appear artless, rather than contrived or pretentious. Instead of artistic curves, or grand geometry, there is an artfully designed irregularity. Borders can go right up to the house, lawns are replaced with tufts of grass or flowers, and beds can be as wide as needed. Instead of

11300-835: The vernacular or domestic traditions of the British countryside. Some were deliberately left unfinished in order to display the beauty of the materials and the work of the craftsman, thus creating a rustic appearance. Morris strove to unite all the arts within the decoration of the home, emphasizing nature and simplicity of form. Unlike their counterparts in the United States, most Arts and Crafts practitioners in Britain had strong, slightly incoherent, negative feelings about machinery. They thought of 'the craftsman' as free, creative, and working with his hands, 'the machine' as soulless, repetitive, and inhuman. These contrasting images derive in part from John Ruskin's (1819–1900) The Stones of Venice , an architectural history of Venice that contains

11413-543: The work of Thomas Carlyle . Ruskin related the moral and social health of a nation to the qualities of its architecture and to the nature of its work. Ruskin considered the sort of mechanized production and division of labour that had been created in the industrial revolution to be "servile labour", and he thought that a healthy and moral society required independent workers who designed the things that they made. He believed factory-made works to be "dishonest," and that handwork and craftsmanship merged dignity with labour. On

11526-583: Was Owen Morgan Edwards . Edwards was a reforming politician dedicated to renewing Welsh pride by exposing its people to their own language and history. For Edwards, "There is nothing that Wales requires more than an education in the arts and crafts." – though Edwards was more inclined to resurrecting Welsh Nationalism than admiring glazes or rustic integrity. In architecture, Clough Williams-Ellis sought to renew interest in ancient building, reviving "rammed earth" or pisé construction in Britain. The movement spread to Ireland, representing an important time for

11639-556: Was an Arts and Crafts architect who also designed fabrics, tiles, ceramics, furniture and metalwork. His style combined simplicity with sophistication. His wallpapers and textiles, featuring stylised bird and plant forms in bold outlines with flat colors, were used widely. Morris's thought influenced the distributism of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc . By the end of the nineteenth century, Arts and Crafts ideals had influenced architecture, painting, sculpture, graphics, illustration, book making and photography, domestic design and

11752-556: Was both socially and aesthetically damaging. Morris further developed this idea, insisting that no work should be carried out in his workshops before he had personally mastered the appropriate techniques and materials, arguing that "without dignified, creative human occupation people became disconnected from life". In 1861, Morris began making furniture and decorative objects commercially, modelling his designs on medieval styles and using bold forms and strong colours. His patterns were based on flora and fauna, and his products were inspired by

11865-464: Was completely out of step with the evolution of the status of the artist-decorator, but also with the democratic will of an art 'for the people and by the people' proclaimed by William Morris". For example, while Henry van de Velde understood the social discourse of Arts and Crafts, he was not an unconditional disciple of the movement and ended up turning away from it, considering it as anachronistic and tinged with quixotism . In Japan, it emerged in

11978-512: Was concerned, Arts and Crafts was a revivalist campaign. But in Wales, at least until World War I , a genuine craft tradition still existed. Local materials, stone or clay, continued to be used as a matter of course. Scotland become known in the Arts and Crafts movement for its stained glass; Wales would become known for its pottery. By the mid 19th century, the heavy, salt glazes used for generations by local craftsmen had gone out of fashion, not least as mass-produced ceramics undercut prices. But

12091-463: Was directed originally by George Blackall Simonds . By 1890 the Guild had 150 members, representing the increasing number of practitioners of the Arts and Crafts style. It still exists. The London department store Liberty & Co. , founded in 1875, was a prominent retailer of goods in the style and of the " artistic dress " favoured by followers of the Arts and Crafts movement. In 1887 the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society , which gave its name to

12204-417: Was eliminated from later editions. In his The English Flower Garden , illustrated with cottage gardens from Somerset, Kent and Surrey, he remarked, "One lesson of these little gardens, that are so pretty, is that one can get good effects from simple materials." From the 1890s his lifelong friend Jekyll applied cottage garden principles to more structured designs in even quite large country houses. Her Colour in

12317-629: Was exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. Much of this work is directly inspired from the Dictionnaire of Viollet le Duc. Most of Morris & Co's early work was for churches and Morris won important interior design commissions at St James's Palace and the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). Later his work became popular with the middle and upper classes, despite his wish to create

12430-503: Was first used by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson at a meeting of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1887, although the principles and style on which it was based had been developing in England for at least 20 years. It was inspired by the ideas of historian Thomas Carlyle , art critic John Ruskin , and designer William Morris . In Scotland, it is associated with key figures such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh . Viollet le Duc's books on nature and Gothique art also play an essential part in

12543-594: Was more interested in meat than flowers, with herbs grown for medicinal use and cooking, rather than for their beauty. By Elizabethan times there was more prosperity, and thus more room to grow flowers. Even the early cottage garden flowers typically had their practical use—violets were spread on the floor (for their pleasant scent and keeping out vermin); calendulas and primroses were both attractive and used in cooking. Others, such as sweet william and hollyhocks , were grown entirely for their beauty. The "naturalness" of informal design began to be noticed and developed by

12656-433: Was particularly influential, liberally distributed as a student prize and running into nine reprints by 1910. Jones declared that ornament "must be secondary to the thing decorated", that there must be "fitness in the ornament to the thing ornamented", and that wallpapers and carpets must not have any patterns "suggestive of anything but a level or plain". A fabric or wallpaper in the Great Exhibition might be decorated with

12769-637: Was represented by the development of the ' Glasgow Style ' which was based on the talent of the Glasgow School of Art . Celtic revival took hold here, and motifs such as the Glasgow rose became popularised. Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928) and the Glasgow School of Art were to influence others worldwide. The situation in Wales was different from elsewhere in the UK. Insofar as craftsmanship

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