Designer Biography

Charles Locke Eastlake

Born: 1836

Died: 1906

See items in our stock by Charles Locke Eastlake

Born in Plymouth, Eastlake was virtually adopted by his uncle Charles Lock Eastlake, painter and a director of the National Gallery in London. He studied architecture under Philip Hardwick, but his career was spent mainly in journalism and as secretary to the Institute of British Architects. His seminal Hints on Household Taste (1868), was originally conceived as magazine articles. Included in the book are designs by Eastlake himself for furniture and wallpapers; the frontispiece shows his design for a cabinet which was exhibited by Heaton, Butler & Bayne in Paris in 1867, and was probably made by the Art Furniture Co., for whom he supplied designs in the 1860s. In later editions he shows furniture to his designs made by Jackson & Graham, and metalwork by Benham & Froud. He also designed fabrics for Cowlishaw, Nicol & Co. and wallpapers for Jeffrey & Co. Jewellery by Eastlake was shown by Howell, James & Co. at the London exhibitions of 1871 and 1872. His most ambitious work was the History of the Gothic Revival in England (1872).