J P Cooper and the Arts & Crafts Movement

As an architectural student in London in the 1880s John Paul Cooper was inspired by the new ideas about art, work and society emerging as part of the Arts & Crafts philosophy. Handwork and the idea of learning through doing became central to all his work. During the 1890s Cooper travelled regularly on the continent and in England filling notebooks and sketchbooks with his observations. His companions included fellow-students Alfred Powell and Henry Wilson.

He undertook a series of alterations and extensions to St Margaret Works, Leicester for Messrs Cooper, Corah and Sons in the 1890s and in 1902 built six cottages in North Evington for his father. His first major architectural commission came in 1898 for an Infants School at Whitwick, Leicestershire completed in 1903 and still in use. His own house and studio workshop, Betsom's Hill, was built with cement plaster, split oak boards and a clay-tiled roof as an Arts and Crafts homage to Kentish rural architecture.

Between 1902 and '06 he co-operated with Ernest Gimson on handles to complement and enhance the latter's furniture. Cooper made silver, brass and steel ring handles with decorated back plates to Gimson's design and also designed three styles of elaborate silver drop handles set with semi-precious stones for small boxes and cabinets. He also made the Leicester Freedom Casket, presented to William Wilkins Vincent, twice Mayor of Leicester in 1902-3 and 1910-11.

It was Cooper who first suggested that the members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society should collaborate to display their work in room settings to make a greater impact on visitors and help secure large commissions. This approach was taken up by the Society for the 1916 exhibition when the settings included a nursery by Cooper, and a bedroom by Gimson, May Morris and the Women's Art Workers' Guild.