Focusing on design ingenuity, Modern British Furniture pinpoints the most inventive British designers and companies from 1945 to the present - from early postwar pioneers such as Ernest Race, Robin Day and Robert Heritage, to iconoclastic figures such as Peter Murdoch, William Plunkett and Max Clendinning, to today's global superstars led by Tom Dixon, Ron Arad and Jasper Morrison. Exploring the free-spirited and resourceful character of British design, this is a story of entrepreneurs who spearheaded their own companies - Lucian Ercolani at Ercol, Terence Conran at Habitat and Rodney Kinsman at OMK, among others - and the creative alliances between impassioned individuals and enlightened manufacturers, such as Frank Guille at Kandya. The book also looks at collaborations with international companies and foreignborn designers, such as El Ultimo Grito, who have adopted the UK as their base and injected further variety and spice into British furniture design.--

- British Furniture 1820 to 1920 - The Luxury Market is the major work in its field, a stunning achievement and a landmark publication - The first book to properly assess the work of British Furniture makers through the 19th century, among them great names such as Gillows, Maples, Hollands and Morris & Co - In over 600 pages, all lavishly illustrated, the author creates the new and definitive work on this subject - Christopher Payne, a former director of Sotheby's, is an independent furniture historian and well-known author who has appeared on the BBC Antiques Roadshow - for over 30 years British Furniture 1820 to 1920 is the first book on the subject for several decades and the only book ever published to span the century from 1820 through to 1920. It creates a continuum to underline the importance of the late Recency style favoured by George IV, moving through to the first two decades of the 20th century, with a host of ever-changing styles and fashions. Payne illustrates the importance of the revival styles and copies: a fundamental part of the furniture trade that has often previously been ignored. Many of the makers' names are familiar to furniture collectors, such as Gillows, Hollands, Collinson & Lock, Morris & Co. and Maples. However, the importance of others, such as Baldock, Blake, Trollope, Hindley & Wilkinson, Hamptons or Lenygon & Morant - as well as a host of provincial makers - is explained. British Furniture 1820 to 1920 - The Luxury Market is a landmark publication and arguably the first book to properly assess British furniture design through the whole of the Victorian era. It goes further than any book has attempted before by filling in important research particular for the latter half of the century. It shows that what is often termed simply, and once pejoratively, as 'Victorian' is often of an earlier date, commencing in the revered Regency period of the 1820s. Christopher Payne considers each decade, adding important new research and building a huge archive of text and images. The book contains in excess of 1000 color photographs and also an important compendium of makers names and details.

The Making of the Modern British Home explores the impact of the modern suburban semi-detached house on British family life during the 1920s and 1930s - focusing primarily on working-class households who moved from cramped inner-urban accommodation to new suburban council or owner-occupied housing estates. Migration to suburbia is shown to have initiated a dramatic transformation in lifestyles - from a `traditional' working-class mode of living, based around long-established tightly-knit urban communities, to a recognisably `modern' mode, centred around the home, the nuclear family, and building a better future for the next generation. This process had far-reaching impacts on family life, entailing a change in household priorities to meet the higher costs of suburban living, which in turn impacted on many aspects of household behaviour, including family size. This volume also constitutes a general history of the development of both owner-occupied and municipal suburban housing estates in interwar Britain, including the evolution of housing policy; the housing development process; housing and estate design, lay-outs, and architectural features; marketing owner-occupation and consumer durables to a mass market; furnishing the new suburban home; making ends meet; suburban gardens; social filtering and conflict on the new estates; and problems of 'mis-selling' and 'Jerry building'. Peter Scott integrates the social history of the interwar suburbs with their economic, business, marketing, and architectural/planning histories, demonstrating how these elements interacted to produce a new model of working-class lifestyles and 'respectability' which marked a fundamental break with pre-1914 working-class urban communities.

British culture is marked by indelible icons—red double-decker buses, large oak wardrobes, and the compact sleekness of the Mini. But British industrial and product design have long lived in the shadows of architecture and fashion. Cheryl Buckley here delves into the history of British design culture, and in doing so uniquely tracks the evolution of the British national identity. Designing Modern Britain demonstrates how interior design, ceramics, textiles, and furniture craft of the twentieth century contain numerous hallmark examples of British design. The book explores topics connected to the British design aesthetic, including the spread of international modernism, the eco-conscious designs of the 1980s and 1990s, and the influence of celebrity product designers and their labels. Buckley also investigates popular nostalgia in recent times, considering how museum and gallery exhibitions have been instrumental in reimagining Britain’s past and how the heritage industry has fueled a growing trend among designers of employing images of British culture in their work. A thoughtful look at the aesthetic heritage of a nation that has left its footprint around the globe, Designing Modern Britain will be a valuable text for students and professionals in design.

Examines the key features and different styles of Liberty's furniture design.

Furniture Design is a comprehensive guide and resource for students and furniture designers. As well as discussing pioneering contemporary and historical designs, it also provides substantive answers to designers’ questions about function, materials, manufacture and sustainability, integrating guidance on all of these subjects – particularly material and manufacturing properties, in one accessible and structured volume. Many leading contemporary furniture designers from around the world are included, with case studies carefully selected to highlight the importance of both material and manufacture-led design processes. The book is also intended to provide an insight into furniture design for those considering a university education in product and industrial design.

A comprehensive retrospective of furniture design in the past 150 years. 900 illustrations