Inlaid with floral design (the Guild's insignia) on drawers and centre back; stamped The Guild of Handicraft Ltd. / Essex House/Bow E. and numbered 13855

The Guild of Handicraft was set up by C R Ashbee in 1888 in the East End of London an area of poverty and high unemployment. He trained craftsmen to work in the Guild making metalwork, leatherwork, silver, jewellery and furniture mainly to Ashbee's own designs. Early pieces were rough and amateurish but construction and finishes were soon refined. In 1898 the Guild made furniture for the Darmstadt Palace of the Grand Duke of Hesse to designs by H. M. Baillie Scott. The workshops moved to the Cotswolds in 1901 but could not survive commercial pressures and fierce competition and closed in 1907.