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Utility furniture was furniture produced in the United Kingdom during and directly after World War II. The furniture was produced under a government scheme which was designed to cope with raw material shortages and rationing of their usage. Introduced in 1942, the Utility Furniture Scheme continued into post-war austerity and lasted until 1952.[ citation needed ]
By 1941, there was a lack of timber suitable for furniture making.[ citation needed ] This, combined with losses caused by bombing and the establishment of many new households, had created a severe furniture shortage.
The Utility Furniture Advisory Committee was set up in 1942 in order to assure that the available resources were used efficiently. It drew on expertise from Gordon Russell, Edwin Clinch, Herman Lebus and John Gloag. Among the committee's other members was Charles Jenkinson, a Leeds vicar and social reformer. [1]
New furniture was rationed and was restricted to newlyweds and people who had been bombed, under the "Domestic Furniture (Control of Manufacture and Supply (No 2)) Order 1942" operative from 1 November 1942.
The same logo was used for utility furniture as for the utility clothing scheme: two capital 'C's and the figure 41, for "Controlled Commodity 1941" (which soon became known as "the two cheeses").
The committee produced approved designs that were published in the Utility Furniture Catalogue of 1943. The aim was to ensure the production of strong, well-designed furniture which made efficient use of timber. The Arts and Crafts movement influenced the designs, which were considered to be simplistic due to their lack of decoration (which was contrary to the popular taste of the immediate pre-war period). Furniture based on these designs was constructed by about 700 firms around the country, with quality varying between manufacturers.[ citation needed ]
The committee was reformed as the Utility Design Panel in 1943 with Gordon Russell as chairman. [2] In 1946 the panel unveiled three new furniture ranges (Cotswold, Chiltern and Cockaigne), intending to display their post-war design ethos at the "Britain Can Make It" exhibition.
The panel were believers in the aesthetic quality of their designs. However, demand for ornamentation arose, and there were instances of black market utility furniture with added decoration.[ citation needed ] Design rules were relaxed in 1948 and the "Diversified" range, which drew from contemporary Scandinavian designs, was announced. However, the tide of public taste was against it and the panel was wound down. The scheme was officially closed in 1952, the same year that furniture rationing ceased.
The Eastlake movement was a nineteenth-century architectural and household design reform movement started by British architect and writer Charles Eastlake (1836–1906). The movement is generally considered part of the late Victorian period in terms of broad antique furniture designations. In architecture the Eastlake style or Eastlake architecture is part of the Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture.
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time. There are many forms of rationing, although rationing by price is most prevalent.
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.
Frederick James Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, was an English businessman and politician who served as chairman of the Conservative Party from 1946 to 1955.
Rationing was introduced temporarily by the British government several times during the 20th century, during and immediately after a war.
The term "home front" covers the activities of the civilians in a nation at war. World War II was a total war; homeland production became even more invaluable to both the Allied and Axis powers. Life on the home front during World War II was a significant part of the war effort for all participants and had a major impact on the outcome of the war. Governments became involved with new issues such as rationing, manpower allocation, home defense, evacuation in the face of air raids, and response to occupation by an enemy power. The morale and psychology of the people responded to leadership and propaganda. Typically women were mobilized to an unprecedented degree.
The most characteristic North American fashion trend from the 1930s to 1945 was attention at the shoulder, with butterfly sleeves and banjo sleeves, and exaggerated shoulder pads for both men and women by the 1940s. The period also saw the first widespread use of man-made fibers, especially rayon for dresses and viscose for linings and lingerie, and synthetic nylon stockings. The zipper became widely used. These essentially U.S. developments were echoed, in varying degrees, in Britain and Europe. Suntans became fashionable in the early 1930s, along with travel to the resorts along the Mediterranean, in the Bahamas, and on the east coast of Florida where one can acquire a tan, leading to new categories of clothes: white dinner jackets for men and beach pajamas, halter tops, and bare midriffs for women.
Enid Crystal Dorothy Marx, RDI, was an English painter and designer, best known for her industrial textile designs for the London Transport Board and the Utility furniture Scheme. Marx was the first female engraver to be designated as a Royal Designer for Industry.
Prefabs were a major part of the delivery plan to address the United Kingdom's post–Second World War housing shortage. They were envisaged by war-time prime minister Winston Churchill in March 1944, and legally outlined in the Housing Act 1944.
Elizabeth Denby was an English social housing expert and consultant.
The CC41 Utility logo was a British Board of Trade requirement that appeared on footwear, utility furniture, textiles, and utility clothing for just over ten years from 1941. CC41 designated that the item met the government's austerity regulations.
The Utility Clothing Scheme was a rationing scheme introduced in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. In response to the shortage of clothing materials and labour due to wartime austerity, the Board of Trade sponsored the creation of ranges of "utility clothing" meeting tight regulations regarding the amount of material and labour allowed to be used in their construction. Utility clothing, and later utility furniture, was marked with the CC41 tag. In spite of its austere specifications, utility clothing designs were commissioned from leading fashion designers including Hardy Amies, Norman Hartnell and other members of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers.
Karen Clemmensen was a Danish architect and designer. The firm she set up with her husband Ebbe designed both traditional and more modern Functionalist buildings. Often inspired by Japanese and American trends, their work includes Kildeskovshallen in Gentofte and LO-skolen in Helsingør.
The Wartime Prices and Trade Board is a former Canadian government agency, established on September 3, 1939, by the Mackenzie King government, under the authority of the War Measures Act, in the Department of Labour responsible for price controls and inflation control.
The War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artistic record of Britain throughout the war. This was achieved both by appointing official war artists, on full-time or temporary contracts and by acquiring artworks from other artists. When the committee was dissolved in December 1945 its collection consisted of 5,570 works of art produced by over four hundred artists. This collection was then distributed to museums and institutions in Britain and around the world, with over half of the collection, some 3,000 works, going to the Imperial War Museum.
Olav Haug was a Norwegian furniture designer and master craftsman whose furniture designs demonstrated a deep understanding of woodwork and quality craftsmanship. His designs won him awards and production orders from numerous governmental and publics institutions, yet he remains a relatively unknown figure in the Norwegian mid-century design landscape.
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one person's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.
Paul Follot was a French designer of luxury furniture and decorative art objects before World War I. He was one of the leaders of the Art Deco movement, and had huge influence in France and elsewhere.After the war he became head of the Pomone decorative art workshop of Le Bon Marché department store, making affordable but still elegant and high-quality work.
Charles Jenkinson was a Church of England clergyman, housing reformer, and Leeds councillor.
Kurth Kiln was established by the Forests Commission Victoria in 1941 on a site about 7 km north of Gembrook on the Tomahawk Creek.
