Object Literature
This piece was part of the late Peter Wood’s estate (b.1925), who was an eminent stage director, directing Harold Pinter’s first play The Birthday Party in 1958, he also worked with Tom Stoppard on many occasions and was friends with David Hockney and Dame Elizabeth Frink. His collection of art and antiques was displayed in a monastic barn, he lovingly restored in Batcombe, Somerset.
The original hand painted numbering to the paint-work is wondrous and it is almost certain that the piece was an ecclesiastical one, and, essentially a pew at the time of its creation, being one of many, it would have been painted with a number for the congregation. There is the possibility that the bench was painted after its removal from the church but the paint is certainly of the same period. Indeed, it is rare and unusual to find a gothic revival piece with paint that is of the same period, with 95% of pieces of this type surviving in oak.
A very decorative, desirable and attractive piece of furniture, fresh to the market, and of which you won’t see the like of again.