The Best of British furniture

Tag : Furniture Fabric

Bring it home
I am no little Englander, but sometimes one does have to championthe best of British. When, four years ago, Established & Sonsarrived on the scene, part of the brouhaha surrounding the launchwas down to the fact that all its products (such as the JasperMorrison Crate Series chair, below right, £517) are made inBritain. As Tamara Caspersz, one of the company’s fourco-directors, explains: “Where we can, we will continue touse, embrace and develop the best specialist facilities in the UK.We are a British design company and this remains our unique sellingpoint.” This was, and still is, no mean achievement:Britain’s furniture-manufacturing base has been declining atwarp speed.
If you want to source the home-made, you have to do your homework.There are a handful of companies clinging on for dear life to the“made in Britain” tag, and the quality of the piecesthey produce is testament to the undervalued skills we have in thiscountry. Sean Sutcliffe, the managing director and co-founder (withSir Terence Conran) of the furniture workshop Benchmark, agrees:“British furniture has a glorious legacy that dates back tothe 17th century. Sadly, British manufacturing is petering out,which is why we are now running an apprentice training scheme totrain woodworkers in traditional cabinet-making.” The problemis these skills come at a price that can’t compete with thelikes of China — Benchmark’s Rose dressing table,above, by Kay & Stemmer, costs £3,950 — but Britishmade these days is more about quality than quantity.
establishedandsons.com ; benchmark-furniture.com
Bright Young Things
Roll up, roll up! It’s show time. Graduate show time to beprecise, and if you want to do a bit of talent-spotting, you coulddo no better than to head to the New Designers exhibition at theBusiness Design Centre in London. The broadest of these shows,it’s a great way to get an overview of what the future holds.Work by more than 4,000 students covers every area from textiles totheatre design, fashion to furniture, product design tophotography.
Don’t miss the One Year On spin-off, curated this year byThorsten van Elten (the man who brought the world the Welly vaseand Pigeon light), which showcases the work of graduates who havemade it past the prototype stage and got some of their work intoproduction. It’s where you will see GuadalupeVelazquez’s fabulous, overscaled, graphic pendant lamps (MossLight, above, £480; occenca.com), inspired by his childhoodin Mexico and adulthood in Blighty.
Part 1: July 3-6; Part 2: July 10-13. newdesigners.com
Made in Britain
1 Wesley-Barrell is still a family-owned company, now run by threesisters. A bit of an under-the-radar gem, it produces itsupholstered furniture, from sketch to end product, in itsOxfordshire workshop. Voltaire chair, from £900 (plus 2metres of fabric); wesley-barrell.co.uk .
2 David Linley has given a lifeline to some of the country’smost skilled woodworkers by using several small family-runbusinesses to craft his made-to-measure statement pieces, such asthis limited-edition Time table. Only 20 have been made, whichexplains the eye-watering price. £19,500; davidlinley.com .
3 George Smith’s Newcastle factory made the upholsteredfurniture for Shoreditch House, and its name is synonymous withclassic yet cool designs that will last a lifetime. Brewsterchaise, £3,395 (plus 9 metres of fabric); georgesmith.co.uk .
4 Ercol is enjoying a renaissance, thanks in part to the championingof its classic designs by the quintessentially English designerMargaret Howell. Originals nest of tables, £495; ercol.com .