This might be called the 'arty' end of the Arts and Crafts Movement. It was a reaction to the flamboyant ornamentations loved by the Victorians. From the 1840's a new purity of design was championed by Pugin and Owen Jones, and in the 1860's the ideal of Art for Art's Sake was taken up by the culturally aware. The Movement drew on diverse sources, from Japanese and Chinese to Queen Anne and traditional metalwork. Walter Crane summarised it well in 1889, “plain materials and surfaces are infinitely preferable to inorganic or inappropriate ornament”. The simple lines, and fan shaped motif on the nursing chair are entirely Aesthetic. Alas the original fabric covering was in poor order.
