Death of Derbyshire sculptor and designer leaves legacy of art admired all around the world

Roger Pearson, died at the age of 74 following a short illness, leaving his wife Pat and children Georgina and Paul to reflect on the legacy of a man driven by equal passions for his family and work, and who lived quietly away from the bright lights and brushes with royalty in his earlier career.

Paul, who followed in his dad’s footsteps by establishing Leonide Interiors, on Spa Road in Chesterfield, said: “The officials at the funeral thought we were talking about four different people. When you put all his achievements down, you’d never believe one person would have time to do it all.”

Born in Rotherham, interiors ran in Roger’s blood. His grandfather had received an OBE for designing kitchens on the famous warship HMS Ark Royal.

Roger’s innate creative talents were apparent early on but his development was all self-taught and he never received any formal artistic training.

Paul said: “He was always into inventing things and making things. He was a musician playing soul and Motown on the club circuit all over the country and he made his own guitar.

“He made a few things for friends, and that got him into plasterwork, making ornamental fireplaces and cornices, and realised he could do it for money which grew into an interiors business. After he outsourced a couple of marble fireplaces, he realised they weren’t coming back the way he wanted, so he decided to try his hand at that.”

He added: “He was a very intelligent man, and whatever he went into became an obsession. He’d read all the books and then do it better than anyone else.

“He’d lock himself away with a block of stone and come out with a masterpiece. He was an absolute genius.”

By the mid-’80s, and now living in Chesterfield, Roger had sold his business to focus full-time on sculpture, and his work was in demand among elite client circles.

Paul said: “It started with work for one or two wealthy families, and then word spread through interior designers and architects until there were requests coming from all over the world.”

The King of Saudi Arabia, the Queen of Norway, and dignitaries from Moscow were just a few of those whose properties were furnished with Roger’s work, and there was a bronze statue commemorating Bob Geldof’s role in the Live Aid charity campaign.

Paul said: “He did sculpture commissions but he focused more on commodities like fire surrounds, because there would always be work there.

“No one was doing anything as big or grand as he was, and he had the creativity to do anything at all, whether that was recreating other styles or replacing precious stolen pieces. If somebody said something couldn’t be done, he made it happen.

“I remember once we shipped some pieces to an Italian customer. They are very good at this kind of carving and proud of their craft. They couldn’t believe an Englishman had produced something so good.”

He added: “I think he enjoyed the glamorous side of it at first, it was quite a flamboyant world, but he became more reserved later on.

“He was reasonably young for what he’d achieved. He created hundreds of jobs and set up showrooms all over the country. For most people who achieve big things through art, its only after they pass away and then it becomes valuable.

“He started the plaster fire surround and cornice boom in the late ‘70s, and made hundreds of moulds in the early ‘80s. These designs have been copied so many times that most of the plaster design work you see today is his.”

Among Roger’s other notable works were a playable guitar made from solid marble, and a ‘peace exhibition’ of sculptures inspired by the famous “Non-Violence” or “Knotted Gun” artwork first produced in New York by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd after the murder of John Lennon.

The sculpture bug caught Paul at a young age too, and he would spend long days in his dad’s workshop before leaving school and joining the enterprise full-time.

Paul said: “Even though I’m in a different line of work now, I’m a sculptor by trade. I lived, ate and breathed it until I was in my ‘30s. But his work ethic is the biggest thing I’ve taken from him.

“I’ve never met anybody with as much drive as he had. He’d regularly work 18-hour days and think nothing of it.”

He added: “He must have been the only man you’d ever see running in the town centre. You’d probably think he’d pinched something, but he just had so much energy and would say, ‘Why walk when you can run and get there twice as quick. He was just a lovely person. He loved his family, hard work and his home and that was it.”

In his later years, surrounded by grandchildren, Roger returned to his musical roots by developing high-end cabinets for audio speakers which he hoped to turn into a new commercial venture.

The speakers are silent now and, as they pick up the pieces following Roger’s death, his family are considering how they might further honour his life.

Paul said: “We’ve got a couple of really large chimney pieces in our showroom, but I’ve been talking to my mum about how it would be nice to exhibit his work properly somewhere.

“Today it’s all done in China with water jets and laser-cutters. There’s really nobody doing this kind of thing now. It seems a shame to hide it away.”

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