46/1973-8

Collection

Furniture

Brief description

Chair of tub form made from walnut-faced plywood and beech varnished to imitate walnut, with sprung pale green leather upholstery, made in London c.1939.

Object name

chair

Object number

46/1973-8

Location

On Display

Production date

c.1939 (manufactured)

Production place

Shoreditch (manufactured)

Period

Twentieth century (1900-1999)

Material

leather
walnut veneer
metal
cotton
plywood
hessian

Technique

upholstered
veneered

Physical description

Tub-shaped chair with a walnut-faced plywood back. The back of the seat is curved and stepped at the top. The seat frails are made from beech. It has four legs, made from beechwood with walnut-coloured varnish, with streaks to imitate the wood grain. The front two legs are curved on the outer edge and taper to the floor; the back two are splayed outwards. The seat and back are upholstered, the seat being sprung, and both are covered with pale green leather, with piping where the leather meets the legs. The upholstery is not original, the chair having been re-upholstered in 1987, following the original as seen on chairs 46/1973-9, -10 and -11.

Dimensions

Height: 85cm
Width: 51cm
Depth: 58cm

Website keywords

seating

Label

Caption for Exploring 20th Century London website:
This chair was made in London's East End in the late 1930s. From the 1830s until the 1980s Shoreditch and the surrounding areas were the heart of a very active furniture manufacturing industry. The years leading up to the First World War were the heyday of the trade with many small businesses occupying a warren of small workshops. Later, mechanisation lead to firms expanding and moving to larger premises further north and east, along the Lea Valley. The East End furniture trade was also well known for the number of Jewish and other immigrant populations employed in it. The chair has been reupholstered copying the original upholstery.