Raised Spirits
15 October 2020
Design in the 1950s.
Emily Tobin
Emily Tobin joined House & Garden ten years ago and has been there ever since. She was arts and features editor until last year when she launched and became creative director of The Calico Club - the magazine's cultural events programme. She currently hosts weekly online talks on all things design.
Original Papa Bear chair designed by Hans Wegner for AP Stolen, Denmark.
‘If the Sixties was the time Britain threw off the shackles of grim, post-war austerity then the Fifties was the decade we began picking the lock’ wrote Terence Conran in his foreword to Fifties House. The 1950s was a vital time in the evolution of the nation’s taste but the influence was hard to see until a decade later and harder still to understand without the context of the preceding ten years. At first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking it was all grey concrete and po-faced functionality but the 1950s promised a better quality of life - all for the price of a three piece suite, a fitted carpet and a television set. ‘The post-war period prompted a new consideration of how we could and should live’ explains David Tatham of The Modern Warehouse. ‘Engineering and technical capabilities improved to aid the great recovery and this filtered down to furniture and product design’.
World War II meant unprecedented intervention into everyday life. With rationing in place and factory space and labour freed up for war production the national mindset was ‘make do and mend’. In 1942 the Utility Furniture Scheme was introduced in order to cope with raw material shortages - the designs were basic, robust and ensured efficient use of timber. In reality this meant copious amounts of dark-stained furniture with a rustic bent (ranges included ‘Cotswold’ and ‘Chilterns’). Though the programme opened the door for modernism in this country it wasn’t particularly popular with the public so when restrictions were lifted in 1952 there was a collective sigh of relief swiftly followed by an explosion of fresh, new styles of furniture design. With wood rationed, designers found ways to incorporate alternative materials, like aluminium or steel. During the 1950s Robin Day developed an extensive collection of designs for Hille ranging from utilitarian stacking chairs and tables, bed settees and desks. The emphasis was on low-cost, high-tech, mass produced furniture. Indeed, today one of Day’s stacking chairs will only set you back £49. In Europe Gio Ponti, Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, Jean Prouve and Charlotte Perriand were among those also exploring intuitive, clean-lined proportions while Charles and Ray Eames were gaining global recognition from the US with their experimentation into new technologies, which David points out, ‘were often developed for military use’.
Jacqueline Groag (1892 – 1984), ‘Traffic Light’, 1953, Roller Printed Rayon, 55 x 84 cm, David Whitehead Ltd.
Regeneration in the wake of war saw a boom in house building and a new approach to architecture - mass produced steel and concrete were favoured by architects as they were quick to construct and relatively cheap. It was during the 1950s that open plan living became popular for the first time, fitted kitchens made their debut and smaller homes required compact furniture. As Robin Day told a journalist in 1955: ‘What one needs...is to see over and under one’s furniture’. People had purchasing power not seen since before the outbreak of war and televisions, washing machines and refrigerators were fast becoming standard items in every home. A rebellion against nostalgia, historicism and ornament was underway but really it was the 1951 Festival of Britain that propelled forward this new era of design. Herbert Morrison, a Labour MP, described it as ‘the British showing themselves to themselves, and to the world’. The goal was to raise the spirits of a nation still in the grip of austerity and rationing but vitally the festival also acted as a catalyst for a bold new aesthetic. Robin Day and Ernest Race made striking contributions with their plastic and metal furniture while Lucienne Day’s radical textile designs marked a decisive departure from the hangover of nineteenth century ornamentation. Though Calyx, her most celebrated design, drew on plant forms it was staunchly non figurative and couldn’t be further from the floral motifs that dominated the first half of the century. Another distinctive development was the representation of atomic structures to create patterns for ceramics, fabrics and wallpapers. Starbursts and crystal motifs were favoured for their repetitive symmetry and natural beauty. Textiles showcasing atom arrangements of substances such as boric acid, insulin and haemoglobin proved an unexpected hit. And then there was colour: bold, forward-thinking colour. Throughout the Fifties, House & Garden created its own range of paint in shades of Persimmon, Citron, Bitter Green and Cantaloupe, no doubt partly to showcase the latest developments in colour printing. In an article written in 1958 the magazine gave a short shift ‘to that inimitably British colour combination of seaweed and mud’ and as the decade drew to a close the foundations were laid for the new wave of bright, modern interiors that would come to encapsulate the Swinging Sixties.
Edward Bawden, R.A (1903 – 1989), ‘Night and Day’, 1956, Hand Printed Woodcut Textile Panel, 113 x 54 cm. Provenance: Warner Fabrics.
Today's popularity for 1950s design shows no sign of dwindling. In March this year, as the pandemic took hold and the economic outlook became increasingly grim, Sotheby's in New York set a new record with its highest figure ever recorded for a 20th-century design sale: a cool $4 million. A pair of Charlotte Perriand stools whipped passed their estimate of 6000-8000 USD and sold for 13750 USD while two Jean Prouve armchairs fetched an extraordinary 175000 USD.
The 1950s was a watershed era filled with talented designers who pioneered a new aesthetic landscape. Together they bid good riddance to the drab wartime years and celebrated a new dawn for design worldwide.
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