A rare armchair, designed 1934

Details

GERALD SUMMERS (1899–1967)
A rare armchair, designed 1934
manufactured by Makers of Simple Furniture, UK, cut and bent sheet of birch-laminated plywood
30 1/8 high x 23 7/8 wide x 35 ½ in. deep (76.5 x 60.5 x 90.2 cm.)

Provenance

Wilfred Randolph Brown, The Chase, Great Sutton, circa 1935;
Private Collection;
Bonhams, Knightsbridge, 19 October 2011, lot 108;
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Literature

Other examples of this model illustrated:
Art et Décoration, 1934, p. 59;
Design for Today, June 1934, p. 222;
Architectural Review, December 1935, p. 19;
F. MacCarthy, All things bright and beautiful: design in Britain 1830 to today, London, 1972, n.p.;
D.E. Ostergard (ed.), Bent Wood and Metal Furniture: 1850-1946, exh. cat, The American Federation of Art, New York, 1987, p. 158, fig. 5-65;
M. Deese, 'Gerald Summer and Makers of Simple Furniture', Journal of Design History, vol. 5, no. 3, 1992, p. 184;
A. von Vegesack, et al., (eds), 100 Masterpieces from the Vitra Design Museum Collection, exh. cat., Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 1996, pp. 110-11;
Modern Britain 1929-1939, exh. cat., London, 1999, p. 91;
C. Wilk, Plywood, A Material Story, exh. cat., Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2017, p. 155.

Special notice

This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

Lot Essay

The portfolio of furnishings created by the visionary British designer Gerald Summers, for his short-lived company Makers of Simple Furniture, is punctuated by works that expressed a resolutely inquisitive aesthetic matched only rigorous technical expertise. Cut and folded from a single sheet of birch plywood and dispensing with any extraneous fixings, the chair remains unsurpassed as an example of furniture sculpted from a single medium. Catering to an elite London-based market, and despite critical acclaim, it is acknowledged that production costs were high and that very few examples were in fact sold. Benefitting from full provenance, the present example is rare to retain the majority of its original bone-white tinted lacquer.

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