This is the fifth part of our series on the experts' experts, in which we spoke to two dozen members of the Country Life Top 100 about the artisans, dealers and writers whose work and wisdom have played a huge part in their careers. The previous instalments saw them name the greatest craftspeople working in Britain, the best design books, the best antique dealers in the country and the best art dealers in Britain.
As a garden designer, there are three extraordinary outdoor furniture-makers that spring to mind: Gaze Burvill (www.gazeburvill.com), Munder-Skiles (www.munder-skiles.com) and Home & Garden Ironwork (www.homeandgardenironwork.co.uk). Their products are sensationally functional and beautiful to look at.
Butter Wakefield
I love the Skipping Stone table by sculptor-furniture-maker Christopher Kurtz (www.christopherkurtz.net) for its shape and patina. He works hardwood into forms that will only get better with age.
Kit Kemp
I admire Sir Edwin Lutyens’s grand-daughter Candia Lutyens (www.lutyens-furniture.com) for pieces that have a distinctively Lutyens flavour.
Christian Fleming, Fleming Architects
Radial Marshcourt table designed by Lutyens Furniture and Lighting.
So many great makers out there, so I have chosen one who is local to me in Herefordshire as visiting the workshop when pieces are being made is important. John Nethercott (www.johnnethercott.co.uk) is gifted in the making and finishing of furniture, as well as panelling. He is happiest working in styles pre-1700!
Edward Bulmer
Bruce Hodgson, founder of Artichoke (www.artichoke.co.uk), gets my vote. So many high-end Furniture makers now only work with veneers, but it takes a real craftsman such as Bruce to work with natural timbers and to understand the complexities of how wood from different parts of the tree looks and behaves.
Hugh Petter, Adam Architecture
Jerome Shorter (www.jeromeshorter.co.uk) has fantastic upholstery skills, does beautiful restoration and has a line of new, traditionally upholstered furniture.
Tom Turner
Make sure that outdoor Furniture is beautiful, as well as comfortable. The Daybed Company (www.thedaybedcompany.co.uk) sells inviting, handmade and comfortable daybeds and Gaze Burvill makes probably the best benches available (www.gazeburvill.com).
James Alexander-Sinclair
‘Inviting and comfortable’: A handmade bench from the Daybed Company.
Max Rollitt (www.maxrollitt.com) made a beautiful table with a sycamore top and painted legs for the new orangery at Bruern Abbey in Oxfordshire.
Angela Collins, Angela Collins Garden Design
The Chelsea garden seat by Chatsworth Carpenters (www.chatsworth.org) looks great in both West Sussex and West Coast Barbados. For interior furniture, I am watching Guy Tobin (www.guytobin.co.uk) closely. His taste in antiques is superb and he is currently releasing some of his own pieces.
Mungo Adam-Smith, Ian Adam-Smith Architects
John Makepeace (www.johnmakepeacefurniture.com) produces exquisite bespoke Furniture and Saint John Architectural Interiors (saintjohninteriors.co.uk) creates the highest-quality architectural joinery.
Tom Balch, Rose of Jericho
George Smith’s (www.georgesmith.com) bespoke upholstered furniture is second to none: superb craftsmanship, classic silhouettes that never date and truly brilliant customer service — everything you want when you’re creating investment pieces designed to be loved for generations.
Sean Symington
The team at George Smith employs traditional craft skills to a range of upholstered furniture in classic and contemporary styles.
Robert Lynch (@rlynchandson) is tough to beat if you want a vernacular piece with some real craft chops. He is also superb at finishing pieces to impart a sense of antiquity, which is where so many other makers fall short. My friend Jake Phipps (www.jakephipps.com) is a brilliant Furniture designer and maker for those with more avant-garde taste, and he now also takes commissions for more traditional pieces.
Rupert Cunningham, Ben Pentreath Studio
Rupert Bevan’s (www.rupertbevan.com) level of finish and detail is phenomenal and Rupert himself is a joy.
James Thurstan Waterworth, Thurstan
Munder-Skiles (www.munder-skiles.com) makes outdoor furniture with beautiful detail that not only looks good, but is also long lasting and comfortable.
Alasdair Cameron, Cameron
Alfred Newall (www.alfrednewall.com) and Joss Stoddart (jossstoddart.com) are both highly recommended makers.
Isabella Worsley
East Sussex-based furniture-maker Alfred Newall started his career at Plain English.
Clive Payne (www.clivepayne.com) is a furniture-maker and restorer who knows his job inside out.
Rupert Golby
I love Soane Britain’s (www.soane.com) championing of UK craftspeople, encouraging the use of waning skillsets to make sure they survive.
Bunny Turner, Turner Pocock
For fine, contemporary Furniture and cabinetry, Aisthésis (www.aisthesis.com) in Paris creates unique pieces, using materials such as parchment, mica, mother-of-pearl, horn, bone and shagreen.
Guy Oliver, Oliver Laws
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The trench coat did not originate in the trenches, says Amie Elizabeth White, but it was greatly influenced by the World Wars, and was sported by a host of film and TV stars.
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