The British firm of F & C Osler were the leading makers of chandeliers and lighting during the nineteenth century. They also made some of the most spectacular glass furniture the world has seen.
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She was the leading British furniture designer and maker in the 1920s and ’30s, yet just before the outbreak of WWII Betty Joel walked away, never to work in the industry again. Why? Clive Stewart-Lockhart, who also happens to be her great-nephew, sheds some light.
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A designer, architect, painter and photographer, Eileen Gray was 94 before her pioneering work was formally recognised. Today one of her chairs could cost you millions. Make that many millions…
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When Siegfried Bing (also known as Samuel) opened his shop, La Maison De L’Art Nouveau in Paris in 1895, he could never have envisioned the enormous impact it would have in the world of fine arts. Or could he? Delving into the secret world of the so-called ‘father of art nouveau’…
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Imagine the nobility and wealthy clients visiting a shop’s showroom especially to marvel over the design of a new piece of furniture. Yet that is exactly what happened with the Jupe table…I
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Waxing is a superb way to preserve and enhance the beauty of timber. Whilst it does require a little care and patience to apply in the first instance, it’s easy to maintain and repair if needed.
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Exotic woods in furniture became highly popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries due to a new-found accessibility to the unfamiliar and rare, which was extremely desirable to the upper echelons of society. This issue: amboyna, harewood, tulipwood and thuya.
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Exotic woods in furniture became highly popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries due to a new-found accessibility to the unfamiliar and rare, which was extremely desirable to the upper echelons of society. This issue: ebony, zebrawood, snakewood and kingwood.
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Practical and at the same time splendid, ormolu displays the glamour of gold without the enormous expense, despite being a luxury art form.
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Exotic woods in furniture became highly popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries due to a new-found accessibility to the unfamiliar and rare, which was extremely desirable to the upper echelons of society. This issue: coromandel, rosewood, satinwood and birds eye maple.
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In 1931, English designer Gerald Summers and his wife Marjorie Butcher opened their furniture shop in London. Highly successful during their decade of trading, for the ninety or so years since their work has been pretty much ignored. Until now, that is.
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Maud Golley was a self-taught wood carver from remote Wedge Island, with no connection to the Adelaide School of Design where she is feted. Her works exist only in private collections, yet a powerful mythology has grown up around her.
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One of the most prolific of the Australian decorative wood carvers was Robert Wilhelm Prenzel (1866-1941), who migrated to Melbourne from Prussia in November 1888. Throughout the Federation period and into the 1930s, Prenzel created a harmonious blend of images of native flora and fauna with the international Art Nouveau style.
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The British brand of G Plan evokes a sense of sophisticated design and craftsmanship, manifest in pieces that a generation of homemakers aspired to owning. These enduring qualities that so appealed to customers in the 1950s and ’60s still makes G Plan pieces stand out to today’s aspiring mid century collectors.
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Louis XIII, XIV, XV, XVI… these four kings dominated close on two centuries, so if the piece of furniture you’re looking at is made of exotic wood, ormolu mounted and richly inlaid, it will probably be a Louis something or other – but which one?
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Father and son team Abraham and David Roentgen became Europe’s most celebrated cabinet-makers in the 18th century, courting royalty and creating the world’s most expensive piece of furniture.
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Designer furniture from the 1030s to the 1960s has become increasingly collectable over recent decades. While many have heard of the famed duo Charles and Ray Eames – considered by aficianados to be the most influential designers of the century – there are other mid-century furniture designers whose stars are firmly on the rise.
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The age-old impulse to be attractive or fashionable informs and animates much of the dressing table’s design history.
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Innovative and iconic, Parker Furniture was at the forefront of Australian interior design for nearly half a century, bringing modernist style to homes across the country and making mid century design available to all.
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In the spring of 2017, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London devoted an exhibition to the life and work of John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911), celebrating his contribution to Indian arts and crafts and to the enrichment of the Museum’s collections. During his career he organised 28 international exhibitions from Glasgow and Calcutta to Melbourne.
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Demands on floor space. An outdated design aesthetic. The wrong colour, in a design theme where everything is beige and white. These are the travails of ‘brown furniture’, if the reporting trend is to be believed – because there is change in the air…
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Every day, gorgeous items from the Australiana Fund collection are sat on, used, looked at or held, because whilst it might be the collective showcase for one of the most interesting collections in the nation, it’s also a working collection.
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In 1920, a young Italian immigrant founded one of the UK’s most successful furniture design companies – despite the fact that he had left school with only rudimentary English and no design experience.
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When we started buying in Sweden all those years ago, it was a virtually untouched source. Today is very different-Swedish Art Deco and mid century design has exploded onto the world scene of collectors, interior designers and people wanting beautiful, unique pieces for their home. Over the last five years we’ve seen a huge demand.
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First published early this year in Sweden, the book Please Be Seated: Historic Chairs and the Tales They Tell by Gun Bjerkander Handberg has been so well received it’s already been translated into English. We’ve chosen to present the stories of three of the chairs from the group of short stories.
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At the time of the introduction of the dressing case at the end of the 18th century, it was perfectly normal for wealthy travellers to have whole banks of suitcases accompanying them on even modest trips. The more luxurious the luggage, the more important the traveller, and this extended to the dressing case which gradually became more opulent in order to better display their owners’ wealth.
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What are we really talking about when we use the term ‘French provincial’? It describes French furniture made in the style of the more formal Parisian designs that were produced for the aristocracy and wealthy, but with a less fussy and more rustic ambience – a combination of design styles that have been popular for more than 200 years.
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Morris Furniture fitted out many of London’s prestigious hotels including The Mayfair, Grosvenor House, Strand Palace and Regent Palace… it was a thriving mid-century operation.
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George Nelson is credited as being instrumental in bringing European modernism to the United States of America, but Australia’s connections to the European modern movement also emerged in the pre- and post-WWII period.
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Most areas of the antiques trade have fallen victim to fakes at one time or another, but some have been more faked than others…
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If you’re ever lucky enough to visit a stately home in the UK, the chances are quite high that somewhere in the furnishings there might be a reference to Mouseman. It’s not his real name – he was born Robert Thompson in North Yorkshire in 1876 – but it’s the carved mouse that made him famous.
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As far as renowned furniture designers go, Fred Ward is up there with the best of the best of the Australians. So why isn’t he a household name?
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Australian designer Edmund Rosenstengel produced furniture recognised for its elaborate carving and inlay and extensive use of Queensland timbers.
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It was a true test of skill to scale down an item of furniture and produce an exact miniature. The detail often involved more work than the original. But what exactly was the reason?
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“Australian Modern is making a comeback, with collectors looking to the best of 1950s decoration as blue-chip investments.” – ABR, June 2007
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Readers of a certain vintage will remember The Two Ronnies, and the chair in which Ronnie Corbett sat as he told his long, long, long and rambling stories. Well, it wasn’t just any old chair; it was the work of mid-century British firm Merrow Associates.
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When Art Deco furniture was all the rage in Britain in the 1930s, it seems safe to say that the owners of many of the stylish homes in which it was displayed had no idea that some of their furniture emerged from quite humble origins at the Epstein factory in London’s East End.
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There are those pieces so striking and rare that they’re more than merely furniture: beautiful in form, exquisite in detail and a true work of art.
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Carnival floats, novelty face masks yes, but paper furniture? Ivor Hughes examines the oriental origins and inspiration for a practical and popular Victorian furniture-making process.
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The ancient craft of intarsia – the making of decorative and pictorial mosaics by the inlay of precious and exotic material into or onto a groundwork of solid wood – was the inspiration for the development of marquetry.
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He was a key figure in the 18th century Grecian revival and his high quality wares featured ‘a constant supply of every kind of fashionable Furniture,’ but unless you’re a furniture specialist you probably haven’t heard of George Oakley.
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Thomas Chippendale’s home town of Otley, Harewood House and Leeds City Museum (both nearby) are among many celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Chippendale. Ivor Hughes previews the lead exhibition.
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In late 2015, in the small rural town of Westbury in northern Tasmania, an exhibition of more than 200 woodcarvings by ‘Nellie’ Payne was staged. This display of her rare skill in woodcarving and design confirmed her status as one of Australia’s most remarkable women.
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He was already a much admired and awarded artist in glass when Emile Gallé decided to venture into furniture – primarily to design something upon which to display said glass.
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Sam Maloof was an American furniture designer who believed so strongly in his principles that he turned down multi-million dollar offers to mass-produce his designs and instead worked by hand from his home workshop.
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Ivor Hughes visited a living and working tribute to one of the masters of English furniture.
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Britain’s longest-running furniture company has remained largely unknown for a century. Here we reveal one of the most important designer-makers in British history.
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