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Dining chair - Model SP9B

Model SP9B

  • Object:

    Dining chair

  • Place of origin:

    Birmingham, England (made)

  • Date:

    1936 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Practical Equipment Ltd (designer)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Chrome-plated tubular steel and modern leather-cloth upholstery

  • Museum number:

    W.93A-1978

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

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Practical Equipment Ltd. was founded in 1931 by a consortium of steel tube manufacturers. The company emulated continental firms such as Thonet and wished to win the British market for metal furniture. This aim was boosted in their first year by winning the commission to furnish the London headquarters of the BBC in Langham Place.

Apart from a small minority, the British were resistant to what they felt was the cold, mechanical appearance of steel furniture for the home, and it proved more popular in public areas and work places. Manufacturers produced the furniture as a means of marketing steel tube, not for the utopian social concepts associated with European Modernism, the source of many of the designs.

Gareth Williams, 'British Design at Home', p.118

Physical description

Dining armchair, with tubular steel frame, with black upholstered seat, back and arms.

Place of Origin

Birmingham, England (made)

Date

1936 (made)

Artist/maker

Practical Equipment Ltd (designer)

Materials and Techniques

Chrome-plated tubular steel and modern leather-cloth upholstery

Dimensions

Height: 86.3 cm, Width: 54.3 cm, Depth: 54.5 cm

Historical context note

Practical Equipment Ltd was founded in 1931 by a consortium of steel tube manufacturers. The company emulated continental fims such as Thonet and wished to win the British market for metal furniture. This aim was boosted in their first year by winning the commission to furnish the London headquarters of the BBC in Langham Place.

Apart from a small minority, the British were resistant to what they felt was the cold, mechanical appearance of steel furniture for the home and it proved more popular in public areas and work places. Manufacturers produced the furniture as a means of marketing steel tube, not for the utopian social concepts associated with European Modernism, the source of many of the designs.
[Gareth Williams, 'British Design at Home', p.118]

Descriptive line

Dining chairs, Practical Equipment Ltd, Birmingham, 1936

Materials

Tubular steel

Techniques

Plated

Subjects depicted

Chairs

Collection code

FWK

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Qr_O22771
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