 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(November 2024) |
Ercol is a British furniture manufacturer. It was established by Lucian Ercolani and his sons in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and is now based in Princes Risborough. [1]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(November 2024) |
Ercol is a British furniture manufacturer. It was established by Lucian Ercolani and his sons in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and is now based in Princes Risborough. [1]
The company was founded in 1920 as Furniture Industries by Italian-born Lucian Ercolani (1888–1976), who had trained as a furniture designer at Shoreditch Technical Institute, and made his first piece of furniture in 1907.[ citation needed ] "Ercol" was first registered as a trademark in 1928. [2]
In 1944, Ercol was contracted by the government's Board of Trade to produce 100,000 low-cost Windsor chairs under the Utility Furniture Scheme. [3] Windsor chairs were constructed with a bentwood frame and an arched back supporting delicate spindles, using the steam bending of English elm – a wood previously thought difficult to bend because it distorts.[ citation needed ] This method allowed the chair to be assembled from 14 pre-formed components, and mechanization meant that a chair could be made every 20 seconds.[ citation needed ]
In 1946, Ercol exhibited its bentwood furniture at the "Britain Can Make It" exhibition, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 1947, the first production-line Windsor chair, and other pieces from the range of Windsor furniture, went on sale. Ercol's mass-produced furniture found a good market in post-war Britain, which demanded smaller pieces with simpler lines than their chunky pre-war counterparts. Ercol furniture was exhibited at the 1951 Festival of Britain, as one of the latest styles in furniture design and manufacture.[ citation needed ]
In 2002, Ercol moved to a new facility, purpose built for the company, in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, [4] where it produces furniture made from North American elm and European ash, beech, oak and walnut. The company sources fabrics from mills in Italy and Belgium, offering a choice of over 100 different options for its upholstery. Because Ercol's upholstery is designed with solid wood frames, it is possible to replace worn-out cushions and other components, prolonging the life of the products. Ercol offers a reCover service to supply replacement cushions.[ citation needed ]
Ercol and its employees have been awarded a number of Guild Marks by the Furniture Makers' Company, including:
Ercol partnered with design magazine Wallpaper for an installation at the 2009 London Design Festival – a modern interpretation of the Chair Arch, which was exhibited in the Central Courtyard of the V&A Museum in September 2009.
In May 2023, Grown in Britain, an organization dedicated to safekeeping British forests, partnered with Ercol to launch a line of furniture including the Marino chair and Pebble nest. [9]
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something.
G Plan is a British furniture brand. It began as a pioneering range of furniture in the United Kingdom produced by E Gomme Ltd of High Wycombe. The success of G Plan led to E Gomme becoming one of the UK's largest furniture manufacturers, with profits increasing sixfold between 1952 and 1958 when it was floated as an IPO. Since 2005, G Plan has been a subsidiary of Sofa Brands International.
Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) is a public university in Buckinghamshire, England, with campuses in High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Uxbridge and Great Missenden. The institution dates from 1891, when it was founded as the School of Science and Art, and has since then has variously been known as Wycombe Technical Institute, High Wycombe College of Technology and Art and the Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education. It was a university college from 1999 until 2007, when its application for university status was accepted.
A rocking chair or rocker is a type of chair with two curved bands attached to the bottom of the legs, connecting the legs on each side to each other. The rockers contact the floor at only two points, giving the occupant the ability to rock back and forth by shifting their weight or pushing lightly with their feet. Rocking chairs are most commonly made of wood. Some rocking chairs can fold.
Chairs are known to have existed since Ancient Egypt and have been widespread in the Western world from the Greeks and Romans onwards. They were in common use in China from the twelfth century, and were used by the Aztecs.
Gebrüder Thonet or the Thonet Brothers was a European furniture manufacturer. Three firms descended from the original company remain active today, in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic (TON).
Jeremy Broun is a British furniture designer maker, writer, film maker and musician.
Bentwood objects are made by wetting wood, then bending it and letting it harden into curved shapes and patterns.
Upholstery coil springs are an important part of most modern upholstery. The consumer usually never sees the construction features of an upholstered piece. The overall quality of the materials and construction dictate the comfort level of an upholstered piece and its ability to satisfy the consumer over the long term. A basic upholstered piece may be composed of a frame, springs, foam, cushioning, padding, and textiles.
A Morris chair is an early type of reclining chair. The design was adapted by William Morris's firm, Morris & Company, from a prototype owned by Ephraim Colman in rural Sussex, England. It was first marketed around 1866.
Philip Koomen is a British furniture designer and maker.
Nanna Ditzel was a Danish designer.
Michael Thonet was a German-Austrian cabinet maker, known for the invention of bentwood furniture.
Lucian Randolph Ercolani, was an Italian furniture designer born in St Angelo in Vado Marche Italy later emigrating to London, England with his family. He began his career in furniture manufacture with the Salvation Army joinery department, later joining Frederick Parker. In 1920, Ercolani had joined a furniture-making consortium in High Wycombe, trading as Furniture Industries. The business expanded through acquisition, and government orders during World War II for wooden tent pegs and bentwood chairs ensured its success. In the late-1940s, Ercolani developed his range of mass-produced Ercol furniture, which became a household name in post-war Britain, and which continues today.
Katie Walker is a British furniture designer well known for combining simple components in her work. Her designs combine the function of the object with a sculptural interpretation of its structure. She works with craft and volume manufacturers and produces specific one-off commissions from a variety of materials.
Designers Guild is an international home and lifestyle company with a flagship store and showrooms on Kings Road and Marylebone High Street in London, as well as offices in London, Paris, and Munich.
Multiyork was a privately owned British furniture retailer based in Thetford, Norfolk. The company employed nearly 550 people in its 50 stores across the United Kingdom and its factory and head office in Thetford, where it was a major business. Multiyork was a member of the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers and carried the Manufacturing Guild Mark.
A stool is a raised seat commonly supported by three or four legs, but with neither armrests nor a backrest, and typically built to accommodate one occupant. As some of the earliest forms of seat, stools are sometimes called backless chairs despite how some modern stools have backrests. Folding stools can be collapsed into a flat, compact form typically by rotating the seat in parallel with fold-up legs.
Mark Roger Wilkinson OBE, OLM was an English furniture designer.
