The ‘column of drawers’ is a free-standing storage unit. It consists of a stack of drawers that pivot from a central steel spine, which runs through the whole unit. Each drawer is made from thin and narrow veneers, which are bent and stacked on a coloured acrylic (plastic) drawer bottom. The acrylic contrasts with the natural colour of the wood and creates dashes of bright colour when the drawers are opened. Although the materials used are not particularly rare or valuable, each element of the unit was carefully chosen. The painstaking task of working it by hand into this novel form took many hours. John Makepeace (born 1939), who designed this column of drawers, started to produce expensive luxury furniture in the 1960s. The pieces were handmade and specially commissioned. The V&A purchased the column of drawers in 1978, at a time when John Makepeace was selling pieces to British museums. He was then celebrated as the leading British designer of craft furniture. Although identified as a furniture maker, Makepeace gave up working at the bench relatively early in his career in order to concentrate on design. Members of his studio probably made this column of drawers at Parnham House in Dorset, where he ran a furniture-making school from 1977-2000.