British designer Max Lamb is deeply concerned with the transformation of materials and known for creating beautifully crafted pieces that have traditional processes at their core.

The contemporary chairs at Chatsworth are each made from a single piece of cedar, measuring six by eight inches in cross-section. Lamb cut the beams on a band saw and put them together again like a puzzle ensuring no wood was wasted in the process.
 
His new work for the State Drawing Room is driven by research into the woodcarving in the room: lime wood trophies by Samuel Watson, and two coronation thrones by Catherine Naish, one of few female master carvers known from the eighteenth century.

Lamb offers ‘a polite nod of respect’ to these precursors. Instead of skilful ornamentation, though, he emphasises the potential contained in every piece of wood. 

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Images of Max Lamb in his studio courtesy of the artist and Salon 94 Design. © Max Lamb

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