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V&A Museum Furniture Gallery

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If you are interested in furniture design (like I am)  you will be please to hear  that the V&A museum in London is to open a dedicated furniture gallery in December, complete with touch screen information panels – a first for the museum.Being designed by Scottish practice NORD Architecture, the space will house some 200 furniture pieces, all previously on display but dotted around the museum.According to the designers, one of the greatest challenges of the project was finding a suitable design backdrop to the furniture collection, which spans hundreds of years of history. Its solution is for the exhibits to follow a linear chronological order of European, American and Asian furniture from the Middle Ages to the present day, will be set against a subdued colour scheme.

Some of my  favorite furniture pieces that will be featured:

Egon Riss and Isokon, 1939

Penguin Donkey bookcase

The Penguin Donkey Bookcase by Egon Riss and Isokon, 1939, probably the most forward-thinking British furniture manufacturer of the 1930s (what a perfect design!)

Charles Eames Storage Unit

Contemporary Charles Eames Storage Unit from the Fifties

One of Charles Eames many well known designs(absolutely love him!).

Desk by Breuer Marcel

Desk made in 1935-1936 (made) by Breuer Marce

Made in the 1930 but would but would feel at home in any contemporary home.

Around the outer museum wall, separate displays will describe technical aspects regarding furniture production and design, as well as construction techniques such as digital manufacture, gilding and carving.

FX Magazine 13/11/12

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SKYFALL WITH JAMES & BOND & 007

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Coinciding with the release of the new Bond film this instant classic Aero Metal furniture range was inspired by the World War II streamlined Spitfire fighter planes. Fit for James Bond – the Aero range is perfect for that bachelor pad interior. These pieces are effortlessly cool and stylish, and ultimately masculine.

Finished with patch worked polished aluminium panels the 007 Aero five shelf unit is the place to store those all-important books and secret weapons.

metal bookshelf aero bokshelf

007 Aero Bookshelf

Inspired by streamlined World War II fighter planes, JAMES Aviator wing coffee table also features a polished aluminium patchwork exterior accented with steel screws. This aerodynamic table is built around a solid hardwood frame and has 2 canvas-lined shelves offer ample storage in your stylish James Bond inspired interior.

metal coffee table, wing coffee table ,aero coffee table

James Aero Metal Wing Coffee Table

The BOND Aero Egg Chair is the daddy of historical reference with a contemporary temperament. The result is an original and modern chair not only fit for Mr Evil, it will bring that cool sophisticated look to any living room. Patch work panels of polished aluminium wrap our chair’s silhouette, the deeply cupped seat and padded arms are upholstered in supple dark ,aged leather, making this chair exceptionally comfortable. Adjustable seat height and lumbar support can be adapted to each evil genius. Designed and crafted to be at home – both indoors, outdoors (and in the secret lair), The BOND Metal Aero Egg Chair provides style and grace, enhancing the characteristic your room. This is the chair to make the guys jealous with.

Egg Chair, Metal Egg Chair, Designer armchair, Swivel armchair

BOND Aero Swivel Egg Chair

The Bond Aero chair: designed for your pleasure.

 

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ANGLEPOISE …..may make you draw………… ?

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As a school girl, I had a lot of homework to do. I had my own desk at home with a table lamp on it so I could do my work in the evenings. It was a very “flexible lamp” enabling me to turn and twist it to illuminate the area needed. Little did I know that the lamp on my desk was an Anglepoise lamp, a lamp designed by George Cawardine in 1932. Cawardine  has designed the aluminium lamp to have flexibility in positioning and that would stay in the required position in which it was put. The Anglepoise lamp directs light much as a human arm would position the source of lighting to illuminate its purpose. Cawardine (a car designer) has developed a system of jointed metal rods and springs attached at one end to a heavy base, (see our CRIMSON or BLANC table lamps), and at the other a shaded light bulb. First this lamp was used mainly in working environments like workshops, doctors surgeries etc .

Part of the charm of the Anglepoise is its anthropomorphic design, most famously celebrated in Pixar Animations, but not everyone has viewed the design so benignly. In 1949 BBC’s Michael Standing  issued an edict banning its use in the belief that a man working with light from only an Anglepoise lamp would harbour(wait for it!) illicit thoughts and consequently produce degenerate material (pornography to you and me).

Thank goodness , now we know it is NOT TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!

red anglepoise lamp

Red Anglepoise Desk Lamp

The simplicity of the lamp mechanism and balancing system and the development in engineering and production techniques has made the lamp extremely flexible. Modern design features have been added to it ensuring that the Anglepoise lamp whether a table lamp or giant floor lamp (see TURK or FLORA) available in bright colours, has become  a “new classic” to be found  in countless offices and now also in our homes.

 

 

 

(base on The Genius of Design by Penny Sparke, “Articulated Lamps”)

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