Makers, Periods & Styles Library

Edward John Cobbett (1815–1899) was an English painter working in watercolour and oils. He was a pupil of Joseph William Allen and worked in both in London and Addlestone Surrey. He was known for his depiction of children and his idyllic rustic scenes as well as landscape and flower subjects and exhibited at the...

Edwardian Period (1900 – 1910) saw the beginning of the new century reject much of the style of the previous Victorian period. The dark, heavy cluttered look was rejected in favour of lighter and more cheerful design. It was eclectic and drew elements from most previous eras including Georgian, Medieval and Tudor...

Edwards & Roberts became London’s leading cabinet makers and retailers during the second half of the nineteenth century. Founded in 1845 in Wardour Street, by 1892 they occupied more than a dozen buildings in the street. They worked in a variety of styles, both revivalist and modern. They also adapted and...

Emil Busch (1820-1888) was a German optical instrument maker born in Berlin. He took over running the spectacle making business of his uncle, Eduard Duncker in the German town of Rathenow, in 1845 and introduced camera making in 1852. The company invented the wide angle lens ‘Pantoscop’ in 1865 and went on to...

Émile Gallé (1846 – 1904) was a French artist considered to be a major contributor to French Art Nouveau. He worked in glass and his signature style was producing cameo glass using heavy opaque glass carved or etched with plant motifs. He was the son of a furniture and ceramics (faience) maker. He learned...

Empire style was an early 19th century design movement that influenced architecture, furniture and other decorative and visual arts in Europe and America until about 1830. The style takes its name from the First French Empire created by Napoleon I. It corresponded to the Regency style in Britain, the Biedermeier...

Is regarded as the most academic and scholarly general knowledge English language encyclopedia, and is the oldest one still being produced. It is has over 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 writers, including five American presidents and 110 Nobel Prize winners. It originated in Edinburgh in Scotland and was...