The Dryad® Rattan Collection

The Dryad archive has been influential in the development of Soane’s own rattan collections, both the designs themselves which bear the Dryad name and the techniques used to make them, thanks to the brilliant craftsmen re-employed by Soane who had been making the Dryad pieces for decades. Dryad was founded in 1907 by Harry Peach and Benjamin Fletcher, and Lulu Lytle cites the visual balance and scale of Fletcher’s tables and chairs as a great influence as well as his insistence that the craftsmen should be guided by the material itself when designing in rattan, with endless experimentation being integral to the process.