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FABULOUS


Mass manufactured with the intention of being affordable as well as beautiful, mid-century pieces – from sideboards to armchairs – are now in demand


Jennie Buist Brown T


hese days take a trip to any large furniture store and you will almost certainly encounter items inspired by the designs of the 1950s: sideboards and tables with


skinny tapered legs, Ercol-style coffee tables and armchairs are the height of fashion. But whilst these new items are often quite well made, nothing beats furnishing your home with the original pieces.


In my book, the joy of owning an original always outstrips owning a reproduction. And it’s worth noting that even new chairs designed by famous mid-century names such as Eames, Arne Jacobsen and Hans Wenger are made slightly differently to the original, often with bigger and slightly thicker elements. Also a new chair will not have the beautiful patina of an original chair. And thinking ahead, the


re-sale value will always be better on an original piece and therefore a better investment. So what’s the appeal of mid-century


furniture? I think the answer is that this furniture is both practical and aesthetic. Practically speaking, vintage pieces of furniture are good for small spaces with their compact proportions and slim and elegant frames, whilst aesthetically the pieces tend to be very sculptural with stunning silhouettes – furniture as art. For the last 15 or so years auction prices


have remained high for mid-century design classics. For example, a pair of rosewood chairs by Danish designer Finn Juhl that would have sold for a few thousand pounds in the 1990s would now fetch around £75,000. But don’t panic. Mass manufactured with


the intention of being affordable as well as beautiful, there are still plenty mid-century pieces to buy at reasonable prices. In the 1950s, wartime restrictions on manufacturing were fi nally lifted and designers began using new processes such as bent plywood, which had been used for leg splints and aircraft components, to create their furniture – the bent plywood on the back of an Eames chair is one example of this.


People had been starved of new designs


for more than 10 years and were more than ready for something innovative and different. Today you can pick up designs by great British makers such as G-Plan, Ercol, Stag, Hille and Archie Shine, which are not only stylish but also highly collectable. Last year, Britain in the Fifties, an exhibition at the art gallery in Compton Verney, Warwickshire, showcased more than 150 objects ranging from an original Vespa scooter to the 1958 watercolour illustrations for the 1958 Ladybird book Shopping with Mother. The exhibition also explored how time-saving kitchen appliances changed the home forever. After the war the government pledged to build 300,000 new homes, which designers rushed to fi ll with affordable mass-produced furniture and new technology. Stainless steel tableware became popular – look out for items designed by Robert Welch under the name Old Hall. Welch had visited Copenhagen whilst a student at the Royal College of Art to research his thesis and was infl uenced by the designs he saw there. His coffee pots and toast racks are now highly collectable.


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