No. 9
John Waterer 1892-1977
John Waterer was not born in Northamptonshire but his extraordinary legacies; the Museum of Leathercraft; the Waterer Spiers Collection and the Leather Conservation Centre were moved to Northampton in the early 1970s. Details can be found in the directory on this website.
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He was a prolific and authoritative author, publishing seminal works on leather, all of which are highly recommended to anyone with a passion for this noble material. 'Leather in Life, Art and Industry' published in 1946 (now out of print) by Faber and Faber, is recognised as one of the most elegant, definative works on the subject. He made many broadcasts, and was involved in the first display of Leathercraft on TV for the BBC in 1938.
He was the managing director of S Clark & Co, who made high quality travel goods. With a firm grasp of modern manufacturing and the need to operate in a competitive environment, he was a passionate advocate for the commercial and 'human' need for high quality design in manufacturing. This lead to his election to the Council for Industrial Design in 1944.
John Waterer was not just a leather historian, businessman, author and broadcaster. He was also a practising designer of immense inventiveness. One of his most successful designs was the 'Taycall' case design which adopted the principles of the wardrobe trunk to light, stylish hand luggage for women. The design allowed for six dresses and a dressing gown to be stored 'without creases' in the lid. As the strap line said; "Our ingenious case will definitely TAYCALL you need for a fortnight".
Perhaps is it best to leave the final words to this erudite advocate of the perfect marriage of function and form that can be achieved through working with leather.
"Leather by its nature is closely linked with life and has an appeal both to fabricator and to user which is unlikely to be transcended..."
"There is now some dim appreciation that there exists an alternative to follow-my-leader procession into the bottomless pit of price war; namely the production of consumer goods up to a better standard of design"
"Handcraft and the promotion of aesthetic experience should be regarded as an indispensable basis of education and especially of technical training"
The resources section of this website lists some publications by John Waterer.
John Waterer is pictured here talking to apprentices at Keeble College Oxford. He spoke on 'Why do we work?'
Picture © Joyce Mead from a catalogue of 'Leather in Life, Art and Industry' published by the Museum of Leathercraft, edited by Neil MacGregor ISBN 0 9504182 3 4 - 1992.
www.museumofleathercraft.org
www.leatherconservation.org
