HALSEY RICARDO: A LIFE IN ARTS AND CRAFTS

Halsey Ricardo’s main claim to fame as an architect is the sumptuous house he built in Kensington for Ernest Debenham, sheathed in peacock-blue and green tiles. He worked in partnership with William De Morgan for ten years from 1888 and designed tile panels painted with landscape views and architectural scenes. A series of these panels were installed on luxury yachts and P&O liners; many of the designs are on the V&A’s collections website.

Ricardo comes across as an attractive character, who survived early bereavements and an austere upbringing by a vicar uncle. He was independent-minded and stubborn, but also amusing and clubbable and became an active member of the Art Workers’ Guild and the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, a popular lecturer and an esteemed teacher at the Central School from 1896.

Ricardo established himself in London in the late 1870s, married the level-headed and financially acute Kate Rendel in 1882, and became a happy family man who worked alone from an office at home. He built numerous family homes and cottages, a distinctive Westminster office (demolished in the 1920s) and the very large Howrah railway station in Calcutta (now Kolkata).

The author is a great-grandson of Ricardo, but as an architect himself brings a critical eye to the built projects. Since this is primarily a biography and architectural history it is perhaps ungrateful to lament the small number of images of objects, but tantalising reference is made to Ricardo painting pottery and designing embroidery patterns for chairs and bags, some of which must survive in the family. It would have been good to see these illustrated. The book does include a good range of designs, photographs, letters with sketches, and a few watercolours of interiors. It is engagingly written and quotes extensively from Ricardo’s correspondence and lectures, painting a vivid picture of a creative life.

Mark Bertram, Lund Humphries, 2025, hb £55

Condensed from a review by Annette Carruthers in DAS Newsletter No. 135