Lawson 
 Park 
 Farm 

Abstract:

A wooden chair with red velvet upholstered seat

Provenance:

Marked on the underside of the seat. Purchased from Help the Aged Furniture warehouse in Kendal for Lawson Park in 2006.

Personal history/nominator:

Purchased by Adam Sutherland because of (rather than despite of) the alterations.

Adaptions/renovations:

A previous owner had adapted the chair in an attempt to age it and make it look more like a Victorian chair. The heavy mahogany varnish and red velvet seat with brocade edging have been retained and restored. The illustrations shows the chair before being re-upholstered.

Why it's in the Collection:

With its individual history, this chair seems to reflect a certain comment on modernism, and an expression of a 2000’s approach, a 'choice culture' that draws and mixes multiple periods, cultures and aesthetics. The conversion of a ‘modern’ design classic into an faux historical piece seems entirely conceptual as it would surely have been much easier and convincing to buy a cheap older styled chair. Because of it’s unoriginal state and its potential for re-evaluation as an art piece within the context of this Collection, the value is in what the chair offers in terms of cultural history rather than any intrinsic worth.

The designer, also an architect, upheld ideas of social relevance and community service that also impact on the meaning of this composite work. These ideas are common components of the modernist ideals. In this chair these ideals are superseded, by the crass so-called expression of the individual; the key component in the real death and reinterpretation of the arts social agenda.

About the Designer/Maker:

Eric Lyons was principally an architect, most famous for his work for SPAN, the innovative housing developer of the 1950’s.

Lyons was born in 1912. His father was a toy designer. He worked for T.P. Bennett and from 1938 for architects Gropius and Fry. During the Second World War Lyons worked for Harry Weedon designing factories and hostels. After the War he resumed his practice. The housing scheme he devised in 1948 in Twickenham demonstrated how the landscaping of the common space could provide a visual link between the built elements. This was a theme that continued through his work, working as architect and landscape architect.
During the 1940’s Lyons designed the best-selling Tecta range for the furniture manufacturer Packet.

By the early 1960’s Lyons had designed housing schemes for SPAN at Blackheath, Beckenham, Twickenham, Teddington, Putney and Cambridge. Eric Lyons and Partners had also been involved in the design of high-density housing estates for local authorities in London and Southampton. Lyons approach was all embracing. He believed that the architect should provide a service to society. Lyons was convinced that residents’ societies helped engender a sense of belonging and community. Lyons performed the function of ‘architectural generalist’ taking an active involvement in the design, town planning and landscaping requirements of the SPAN housing schemes. Many of the schemes remain popular places to live to this day.

About the Manufacturer:

The Packet Furniture Company, based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk (UK), were celebrated, leading manufacturers of low cost design in the post war era employing important designers of the time such as Lyons and G A Jenkins.

In 1946 the Victoria and Albert Museum curated the “Britain Can Make it” exhibition to celebrate the launch of the first permanent gallery within the Museum that focused on “the greatest works of English decorative art” and included several Packet designs.

Lyons designed many pieces for Packet including a series of flat pack tables and chairs.

Bibliography & Further information

SPAN

T.P. Bennett

Gropius and Fry (an interesting essay on The Arrival Of Modernism)

Harry Weedon

Interesting portrait of Lyons