Cane furniture was still seen as a novelty in early twentieth-century Britain. It was partly to counteract this that Dryad cane furniture was given names, such as ‘Jolly Friar’, ‘Virgin’s Bower’, and ‘Daydream’, redolent of a romantic English past. Peach also ran an effective advertising and publicity machine working closely with retail stores, magazines and exhibitions. Furniture was available by mail order and even supplied overseas to Japan, USA and South America. By 1911 the firm employed over 50 workers. The following year it moved to large new premises in St Nicholas Street, Leicester. The success of Dryad encouraged rivals, such as the well-established Leicester firm of W T Ellmore, to imitate its approach and new businesses, including Casdons of Castle Donnington, Harrison & Sons of Grantham and Angrave of Thurmaston, to set up in competition.
William Pick, a former pupil of Fletcher’s at Leicester School of Art set up the art metalwork firm of Collins & Co. in Leicester. The firm had a policy of employing professional designers. In 1912 Pick went into partnership with Peach to take advantage of the latter’s business acumen. The company took the name of Dryad Metal Works and a Dryad logo was introduced to create a joint identity for the two firms. The logo, featuring a dryad or nymph entwined in the trunk and branches of a tree, was probably designed by the illustrator and stained-glass artist, Paul Woodroffe.
Production of cane furniture was halted during the First World War. Instead Dryad produced shell, gun and balloon baskets and aircraft nose cones for Vickers-Armstrong and the War Office. George Hackett was taken on as business manager in 1919 but pre-war production levels were never regained. An American company, Lloyd Loom, developed imitation cane work made of twisted paper woven on mechanised looms and strengthened with steel wires in the warp. The dishonesty of the material – it gave the impression of being cane when it wasn’t and was not nearly as hardwearing as cane – was an anathema to Peach’s Arts and Crafts ideals. He was not interested in acquiring the UK manufacturing rights; these were taken by the firm of Lusty and Son in 1922 and the cheap and cheerful Lloyd Loom pieces swamped the market. Dryad furniture continued in production and developed into the contract market for hospitals (they produced a range of invalid furniture), cafés, restaurants and cruise liners.
