Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) is widely
regarded as one of the greatest British
architects. The scope of his work was enormous,
encompassing a wide variety of styles and
including private residences, garden landscapes,
commercial buildings and war memorials.
After a brief period at the South Kensington
School of Art, (now the Royal College of Art)
Lutyens launched his career at the precociously
early age of 19 with his first country house, built
in his native county of Surrey. Starting with
designs strongly influenced by the Arts and
Crafts movement, he moved on seamlessly to
his own version of High Classicism, described
by Lutyens himself as his “Wrenaissance”.
Lutyens’ style was never derivative and always
bore the mark of his own unique touch.
His genius lay in his ability imaginatively
to adapt traditional architectural styles.
Throughout his career he had the confidence
continually to change direction and
consequently the body of his work reveals a
unique and fascinating degree of eclecticism.
He was a perfectionist and obsessed with detail.
Never was any element of one of his buildings
left to a colleague. He would find time to design
the minutiae of every interior from the fittings
and furnishings to the child’s clock on a nursery
mantelpiece. This same degree of attention was
given to his chimneypieces and the legacy of
his designs for these, as varied in scale and
design as his buildings themselves, represents
an important body of work in its own right.
Lutyens’ chimneypiece designs have a
timeless quality deriving from their robust,
unfussy detailing and well proportioned
architectural form and it is this quality that
renders them so suitable for both period and
contemporary interiors.
Chesney’s is proud to reproduce a collection
of some of Lutyens’ finest designs for
chimneypieces with the blessing of the Lutyens
family and of the Lutyens Trust in a co-operative
endeavour that is the first of its type.
1 The Mercantile Marine Monument,
London 1928. Before the end of
World War I, Lutyens was involved
with the creation of many
monuments to commemorate the
dead, including the Cenotaph.
2 Middleton Park was Lutyens’ last
house, built for the 9th Earl of Jersey
and completed in 1938.
Sir
Edwin
Lutyens
‘…tradition to me consists in our
inherited sense of structural fitness,
the evolution of rhythmic form by
a synthesis of needs and materials…’
The Lutyens
Collection