Influenced by the anti-industrialist writings of John Ruskin and William Morris, the designer and writer Charles Robert Ashbee founded in 1888 the Guild and School of Handicraft in London. These workshops produced metalwork and furniture designed by Ashbee in the Arts and Crafts style. In 1902, the Guild of Handicraft moved to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, where Ashbee created an artistic environment intended to evoke the craft guilds of the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, the Guild was not a financial success as it could not compete with larger commercial concerns such as the department store Liberty’s and in 1908 it closed. Ashbee continued to write and design and was an early proponent of the preservation of historic buildings. Ashbee’s silver and furniture—as much Arts and Crafts design—emphasized the nature of the materials and the method of construction of the object. On this small inkwell, the rivets are highlighted rather than hidden in the design. The method of manufacture is used as a decorative motif as opposed to applied or carved ornament, which Ashbee and other Arts and Crafts designers forsook as false.