Upholstered Plywood Bench
Gerald Summers, 1930s

Description:

An upholstered plywood bench designed by British Modernist, Gerald Summers and manufactured by his company, Makers of Simple Furniture (1931-1940). 

A seemingly simple design that belies a much more complex exploration into the material potential of birch plywood. This upholstered bench was designed by Gerald Summers during the brief life of his company, Makers of Simple Furniture, which began in 1931 and ended in 1940 as the rationing of plywood was introduced during the Second World War. 

In 1934, Simple Furniture released their first brochure. In fashionable Gills Sans type, the black and white brochure was part-poem, part-manifesto. Part of the unusually spaced text read:

"ah there you have it   let's keep them functional 

shaped for purpose   pleasant to feel   looking quiet

with guts   cheerful" [1]

Gerald had worked as an engineer before the First World War, and after 1914 began to formulate ideas of plywood furniture. During this interwar period and the early years of Simple Furniture, Gerald's designs embodied an underlying appetite for modernity; a new necessity for modern furniture, for modern homes in which people would live modern lives. "Furniture for the Concrete Age" was how Simple Furniture was branded by Summers in the 1933 December issue of 'Design for Today', quite deliberately evoking images of the one of Britain's first reinforced concrete structures, Wells Coates' Lawn Road Flats, also known as the Isokon Building. [2]

Like concrete, plywood was a modern material and one Gerald fully embraced. Beneath a simple box construction, this upholstered bench consists of two sheets of plywood, formed round a half circle to create two semi-circular legs, a design feature used frequently in Summers' designs, such as this dining table. The bench embodies Simple Furniture's unique expression of functionality; an economy of means with a quiet monumentality, something 'shaped for purpose' but that is crucially 'cheerful'. 

References:

1. Deese, M. (2024) 'Gerald Summers and Marjory Butcher: Makers of Simple Furniture , 1931-1940'. p.49.
2. Ibid. p.42. 

Specifications:

Height: 54cm

Width: 41cm

Length: 93cm