Over ninety years have passed since the English designer Gerald Summers — creator of the iconic bent plywood armchair — and his partner, Marjorie Butcher, opened their London shop, Makers of Simple Furniture, in 1931. The firm’s earnest proprietors saw themselves as outsiders, but their mission to create simple, functional furniture responsive to the requirements of the modern home placed them squarely in the vanguard.
For a decade, until the firm’s closing in 1940, Simple Furniture produced more than 200 designs, including chairs, chests, cupboards, desks, sideboards, tables, and wardrobes conceived, in Gerald’s words, as “furniture for the concrete age.”
Discover more as authority on Gerald Summers, Martha Deese discusses the work of the iconic English designer.
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