Designer Biography

Robert William Edis

Born: 1839

Died: 1927

See items in our stock by Robert William Edis

Edis began his career as an architect in 1861; his preferred style was 'Queen Anne' and he built up a wide and successful practice. His Cantor lectures delivered at the Society of Arts became a manual not unlike Eastlake's Hints; they were entitled Decoration and Furniture of Town Houses (1881), and illustrated by M. B. Adams. He was one of Burges's circle of close friends, and lists him among the pioneers in design reform, with G. E. Street, R. Norman Shaw, Alfred Waterhouse, Philip Webb and E. W. Godwin, with whom he collaborated. He designed furniture for Maple & Co., wallpapers, and tiles for Minton, Hollins & Co. He was concerned with health in the domestic environment and wrote Healthy Furniture and Decoration for the London Health Exhibition in 1884, where furniture to his designs was exhibited by Jackson & Graham.