Arts and Crafts Pioneers: The Hobby Horse Men and Their Century Guild

Surveying for the first time the Century Guild of Artists (CGA) and its influential periodical, the Century Guild Hobby Horse, this original publication asserts the significance of the CGA in the development of the Arts and Crafts movement and its modernist successors. Founded by the architect Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and his 18-year-old assistant Herbert Percy Horne (afterwards joined by the artist and poet Selwyn Image), the three men were driven by the ambition to answer John Ruskin’s radical call to regenerate art and society. Motivated by the concept of ’the Unity of Art, ’ the CGA embraced a spectrum of arts which included architecture, painting, sculpture, metalwork, textiles, and stained glass. It also reached out to music and literature, aiming to educate its public in practical form. Skilfully weaving chronology with the impressive artistic achievements of the collective, the authors also draw out the lively personalities of each of the protagonists and their wider circle. For anyone fascinated by the Arts and Crafts movement, this is essential reading.

Stuart Evans was an Independent scholar and research degree supervisor. He had a long career at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, where he helped develop the research degree programme. His published research focused on late nineteenth-/early twentieth-century furnishings, architecture and town planning, particularly in relation to the Century Guild of Artists. Jean Liddiard taught at Central Saint Martin’s for several years, followed by roles at the Imperial War Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery. She is now an independent lecturer, writer and curator. She is the author of The Half-Used Life: Isaac Rosenberg Poet and Painter 1890- 1918, and has published several editions of Rosenberg’s work.