Designer Biography

Thomas Edward Collcutt

Born: 1840

Died: 1924

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Collcutt was born in Oxford, and after articles with R. E. Armstrong and work in the firm of Miles & Murgatroyd he became an assistant to G. E. Street. His contemporaries in Street's office, R. Norman Shaw and W. E. Nesfield, were pioneers of the Queen Anne movement; his fellow designer for the firm of Collinson & Lock, for whom he began working in 1870 - commencing with luxurious new premises - was E. W. Godwin. The 1871 catalogue published by Collinson & Lock, Sketches for Artistic Furniture, consisted chiefly of his designs, although J. Moyr Smith drew the plates and may have contributed some of the designs. Collcutt's ebonized 'Art' furniture shown in Philadelphia in 1876 contributed to the fashion for the style in the United States, and at the Paris 1878 Exhibition he designed a house and contents on the 'Street of Nations'. Collcutt also designed for Gillow's and Jackson & Graham, and a number of his designs were published in Building News. His architectural career was successful, encompassing notably the Renaissance-style Imperial Institute in South Kensington (now demolished except for the tower).