Alan George Peters
OBE (17 January 1933 – 11 October 2009) was a British
furniture designer maker and one of the very few direct links with the
Arts and Crafts Movement, having apprenticed to
Edward Barnsley. He set up his own workshop in the Sixties. He is well known for his book ''Cabinetmaking - a professional approach'' (re-published in 2009) and his revision (for the fourth edition) of Ernest Joyce's ''The Technique of Furniture Making''.
In 1990 he was awarded the
OBE for his services to
furniture and in 1998 he moved to
Minehead in
West Somerset
West Somerset was a local government district in the English county of Somerset. The council covered a largely rural area, with a population of 34,900 in an area of ; it was the least populous non- unitary district in England. According to f ...
. He was a main exponent of the seventies
British Craft Revival. His work is rooted in tradition and shows a deep understanding and respect for his material wood. In 2009 fellow furniture designer maker
Jeremy Broun
Jeremy Broun is a British furniture designer maker, writer, film maker and musician.
His Caterpillar Rocking Chair in 1984 was described as, 'visually stunning, a good combination of colour, structure and practicality... and has the advantage of ...
made a film and wrote a book called "Alan Peters - The Makers' Maker". To a generation of British woodworkers in the seventies and eighties he is considered to be the greatest British furniture designer maker. He died on 11 October 2009 aged 76.
He is known for his particularly elegant furniture work, such as an adzed, fan-like table and a tabletop with a bowl carved into it. Although his work was influenced by Japanese woodworking, he rejected
Japanese tools
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspo ...
after experimenting with them. He is famed among other woodworkers and furniture makers for his use of the No. 7 plane - a particularly large and heavy one - for nearly everything.
Since 2010 The Alan Peters Award for Excellence has been run as an annual award, established by Jason Heap, a designer maker and director of The Celebration of Craftsmanship and Design exhibitions. The award open to furniture makers under 30 years of age was set up to continue the important legacy of Alan Peters.
References
External links
Alan Peters- Daily Telegraph obituary
British furniture designers
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
1933 births
2009 deaths
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