Coffee Table Book. A Review of Ercol: Furniture in the Making by Lesley Jackson

Ercol: Furniture in the Making by Lesley Jackson published by Richard Dennis Publications ISBN 978 09553741 97 192pp rrp £25

Looking very at home on my Pebble table, Lesley Jackson's book traces the history of a business started by an immigrant Italian family whose products literally became "part of the furniture" of British society in the years after the Second world War. Lesley Jackson draws on contemporary sources including Lucian Ercolani's own memoir to recount the interesting story of how a combination of clever design, good business sense and paternalistic management style steered Ercol, originally called Furniture Industries Ltd, through difficult times during which other famous names like G Plan disappeared. The fact that the company exists to this day, owned and managed by the same family and still manufacturing a proportion of its furniture in Britain is a testament to the sound principles instilled by the founder. The Ercolani family left Italy in 1898 because of their non-conformist beliefs, membership of the Salvation Army, did not sit well with their Catholic neighbours and it seems like karma that Ercolani's designs for the Windsor range would come to be influenced by another non-conformist group, the Shakers. A visit to the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1923 which had a display of Shaker furniture with its minimalist and functional style left a deep impression and shaped the idealism which inspired not only designs but also the principles by which the Ercol company was run. Success with wartime contracts to supply utility furniture led to the creation of the classic Windsor designs which with their simplicity of form and functionality have retained their popularity for over half a century looking just as good now in a contemporary setting. The book is generously illustrated, modern photos of signature pieces including the love seat and butterfly chair and also fascinating period photography of the shop floor. From the 1920s, Ercolani commissioned professional photographers to document the works and these are brought up to date with a modern sequence of the manufacture of a Quaker dining chair. The illustrations taken for catalogues in the sixties and seventies are a window on the times; did we really have carpets and wallpaper in those colours? A reminder also of how we felt the need to define the territories of that sixties phenomenon the lounge/diner with a room divider. There are also reproductions of the company's identification sheets and lists of dimensions. All a feast for an Ercol enthusiast who wants to identify and date a classic piece, the emphasis is largely on Windsor but Ercol's other ranges are also well covered. I can't imagine a better book on the subject apart perhaps from a limited edition with real elm covers! To buy a copy direct from the publisher's web site follow this LINK

Most Overpriced Pebble Tables

HERE A set of patriotically painted pebbles to appeal to any Noo Yawk hipster. Asking price $1600! You cannot be serious!

Downcycled

The current craze for upcycling, the euphemism for badly painting any old piece of furniture has a lot to answer for. Today's misguided buy at the boot sale is the nest of three pebble tables pictured above. The seller had found them in a shop just after the vendor had committed an atrocity with a paint brush and some chalk paint. He knocked a tenner off his price without even being asked so I thought I would take a punt. Underneath they are dark finish but with the top of the middle one suffering some joint separation and all three having marks on the tops they are candidates for a complete strip, sand and refinish job. I've always been a bit ambivalent about sets of Ercol pebble tables as the smallest one really isn't much use. Prices have shot up since the design was reissued so I had resisted the temptation to add a set to my collection. (That didn't stop me buying an immaculate single large pebble in Golden Dawn last year as we did need a small coffee table for the garden room.) The paint job may be hiding a multitude of sins but hopefully I will end up with set restored in light finish that are in nice enough to use but not valuable enough to worry about.

Windsor chairs in Korea

Undoubtedly the grooviest coffee shop in the world has some rather ercolesque seating. Picture HERE. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

New Book for all Ercol Windsor enthusiasts

Ercol: Furniture in the making. By Lesley Jackson (Richard Dennis £25) I came across a reference to this in House and Garden, I haven't seen a copy yet but looks like a must read for anyone with an interest in Ercol, old and new.

Ercol Windsor on the telly

I've just noticed that a few pieces of light Ercol Windsor have been been making walk on appearances in some TV ads. Bt's broadband services HERE Ribena's new ad HERE And there's a sausage ad, (can't remember the brand) featuring a plank table. Presumably the characters in the BT ad are no longer poor students if they can afford such a big TV and the latest 6 spindle Windsor chair :-)

Why Ercol Windsor?

Since starting this Blog I have been surprised and rather pleased to see the number of daily views that I get and Google Analytics shows that it is often searched for information on Ercol restoration and repair. There is obviously a good deal of interest in old Ercol connected to the fashion for all things retro, (though for me at nearly 60 it's just contemporary furniture and some of mine was bought new by me). That's probably the answer; that Ercol produced some timeless designs in the Windsor range which still look good today without having to be post-ironic like much retro/junk shop furniture. That and sticking to a theme and a process of design evolution rather than coming up with dramatic re-vamps every few years. For us it meant that when we we were able to afford a couple of extra dining chairs years after buying our original dining set the identical model was still available. Ercol themselves have recognised the popularity of some of their classics and have reissued some heritage items in their Ercol Originals Range. Latterly our Ercol collection has been augmented by pieces found on Ebay and this has been one of the great factors behind its continuing popularity. A heck of a lot Windsor was made over the years and much has survived in good condition. Thanks to Ebay most of the more common pieces can be found easily so provided that you don't live on Orkney you shouldn't have to wait long seaching for a particular item. Unusually for interior design items, Ercol furniture has a certain level of bloke appeal. Anyone who grazed their knuckles in school woodwork classes can appreciate the perfect dovetail joints on cabinet corners. Rather than hide joints away, they have been made a feature. Not that these have been made by horny handed old craftsmen chiselling away, Ercol is the product of machines and an assembly line. Engineering in wood. Light finish is the most popular and the fabulous grain on natural coloured pieces goes well with wood floors Wear is particularly unkind to dark finish which polishes through to bare wood after years of elbow contact. It is also easier to refinish in a light colour and many dark pieces have now been stripped or may be revived by painting in bright colours. Even the comparatively unloved dark Old Colonial designs have had a bit of a renaissance by stripping dresser tops and painting drawers and cabinet with Farrow and Ball pastel colour paint. There is no need to be too precious about Ercol Windsor it's not rare or enough to obsess about preservation, it's about well designed and servicale furniture to be used and enjoyed in a family home. Postscript. We recently had a pile of recent house decor magazines passed on and leafing through revealed a lot of Ercol Windsor, if not featured as items then in the background dressing the room. Looks like us Ercol Windsor fans are surfing the Zeitgeist :-)