Newsletter 2010.
Royal Visit
The highlight of the past year was a visit by HRH The Duke of Kent on 4th June 2009 to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of our acquisition of the Chair Collection and its display for study by furniture students interested in the history, design, restoration and manufacture of chairs at the London Metropolitan University. On this special occasion we started our membership scheme of Foundation Friends in order to purchase chairs to fill some gaps in our Study Collection and add some important modern items. Members generously donate by direct debit £50 annually for this purpose and we had a draw for two cases of Veuve Cliquot champagne at the dinner after our 11th Annual Lecture. The winners happened to be two Past Masters of the Furniture Makers’ Company.
There was a good turnout including the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University, the Masters and Clerks of the Upholders’ and Furniture Makers’ Companies, our enthusiastic supporters and a good bunch of descendants of Frederick Parker. Derwent, the furniture manufacturer that now produces Parker Knoll designs, put on an interesting small exhibition of their chairs. The Duke of Kent appeared to be most interested in our chairs and chatted with a good number of our supporters. Trustee Stephanie Marsh and Michael Priest enjoying a joke with HRH The Duke of Kent. The Collection The Frederick Parker Collection at the University has had an eventful year. The archive has been the focus of a lot of attention. Over a year ago we managed to secure funds to make an inventory of it and to purchase the correct conservation grade boxes and storage materials. Steve Gange Moody from Bucks New University, High Wycombe, spent two months last summer listing the archive. Whilst this is not a catalogue, we at least now have an idea of the scope and volume of material it contains. The next step is to develop a catalogue and make the archival material publicly accessible - a considerably lengthy task.
To ensure the chairs are properly cared for, every year the Collection is cleaned by students under the supervision of the conservation staff. The chairs are taken off display, the display shelves cleaned and the chairs dusted and vacuumed, if appropriate, and then re-displayed. This year we took the opportunity to rearrange the display too. The Frederick Parker Collection reference number of each chair has been discreetly marked on the underside to ease stocktaking and increase security.
Dr John Cross, a Trustee and senior lecturer at the University, has been appointed Curator. He and his colleagues are involved in the paperwork and the policy decisions that your Trustees must approve to obtain Museum Status. This is a time consuming task but will be to the long term benefit of the Collection.
Recent Acquisitions
We are delighted to have been able to add some key chairs to broaden the Collection in recent months.
- From the early 20th century we have accepted the kind gift from Jill Anderson of a folding stained beech chair, probably with its original sprung seat beneath later covers, made by Atcraft Ltd of Wembley about 1933. Apart from being an unusual survival, it is of all the more interest to the Collection because the records of the manufacturing company, founded in 1878 in Bethnal Green by Edwin Atkins, are held at London Metropolitan University.(PKC 466)
- Furniture with unrestored painted surfaces is always a rarity to have survived and we are most grateful to Mr and Mrs Godfrey Curtis for donating such a chair, which is also of an unusual X-framed form. Dating from around 1800 and probably British, the beech frame retains a large proportion of its gessoed and painted surface on a black ground, in the manner of Greek ‘Etruscan’ red-figure pottery which were popular in sophisticated circles with people who had seen such things excavated on the Grand Tour or brought to England by the likes of the diplomat Sir William Hamilton. (FPC 467)
- The Trustees have purchased at auction one of the iconic 20th century chairs, a chrome-plated Diamond chair, model 421 LU, designed by the American Harry Bertoia in 1950-2 and manufactured by Knoll Associates from 1953, along with a similar stool. These seem to be early examples of the model and include the original yellow covered cushions, although the foam inside them has perished. (FPC 468-469)
- A more direct Parker Knoll link comes with a Russell Orthopaedic chair (PK 1067), kindly donated by its designer Russell Manoy. The chair was in production by the firm from 1978 to 1993 and its success, as a result of considerable research into lumbar support and posture seating, led to some 250,000 sales. The chair was made in beech in two sizes with various options, the one that we have being stained to walnut effect with a dark brown velvet covering. Russell Manoy has also generously donated his research papers to the Foundation. (FPC 470)
With great sadness I must report that Tom Jourdan, one of the Frederick Parker descendants, a founder member of our Foundation and a Trustee, previously acting as Hon Treasurer, died on 26th May 2010. We shall miss his enthusiasm and experienced advice.
Newsletter Spring 2009.
Last year we had a fire that closed the University from mid-June to mid-September fortunately with no damage to our chairs or archives. The day of the fire, Christie Jackson was spending her last day examining our archives for a master’s degree in USA. We have always known there are magical stories hidden in our archives and we are so pleased to have a scholarly curator spend nearly three weeks searching. She has kindly written the following short note for our news letter and she has also agreed to speak at this year’s annual lecture.
“Ask any ocean liner enthusiast what draws them to a vessel and you will be met with a glint of nostalgia, a reflexive reverence for the design of these mammoth ships. My early days were spent on the shores of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I encountered my first large vessels. Over the years my fascination with ships wandered across the Atlantic to Cunard and its majestic fleet. Today, some years later, I find myself given a rare opportunity to explore this life-long passion as a Lois F. McNeil Fellow at Winterthur Museum in Delaware. My research has focused on the design, decoration, and use of space of onboard ships. As a scholar of material culture, I look to uncover the stories of objects, merging their social history with an understanding of their materials, manufacturing, and form. It is on this quest that I arrived at the Frederick Parker Archive, exploring the rôle that the company played in the fitting out of Cunard’s ships.
My initial days in the Archive were spent sorting through company records, chair models, and sketchbooks. Among the materials, one particular piece of wood caught my attention. It was a sunburst pattern chair back with radiating palm leaves and a centre rosette; I knew it was a piece that Frederick Parker reproduced based on an antique artifact in the company’s collection. Its detailing and historical connection intrigued me. A few days later at the Greenwich Maritime Museum, I spotted that same design used in a Cunard brochure for the Franconia’s (1923) staterooms. To know that Frederick Parker created furniture for Cunard is one thing, but to view their product in its intended environment is another. That one piece begged the question: ‘Why would Cunard, and other liner companies, put so much energy into recreating historic interiors on board its ships, down to the small detail of a back of a chair?’ Frederick Parker is central to a much larger dialogue of how historic design found its way on board vessels, influencing passengers’ experiences and dramatically shaping the interior spaces. In my research, I have tracked umpteen examples of other Frederick Parker products on Cunard vessels, exploring the relationship between the furniture pieces and shipboard design.
One of the more fascinating aspects of the Frederick Parker archives is the inclusion of nearly a hundred auction catalogues, museum collection booklets, and reference books that made up the company’s design library. Parker’s designers used these books heavily. Fifteen volumes include pencil sketches alongside book illustrations, showing a fascinating glimpse at the genesis and development of new Parker designs based on old English prototypes. Book photographs of chairs, sideboards, and tables are sprinkled with Frederick Parker’s own design sketches. Other drawings are more whimsical—a ram’s head doodle sits beside an ‘Adams’ brass candelabra design, while a lively Renaissance gentleman was added to the inside cover of An Introduction to Old English Furniture (1905). These sketches and notations allow us a glimpse at how designers actively recreated and reconceptualised historical forms at the turn of the twentieth-century.
In addition to the many books in Frederick Parker’s design library, company workers also created approximately fifty scrapbooks titled to different design movements including Adams, Jacobean, Elizabethan, Sheraton, Hepplewhite, Queen Anne, Chippendale, French, and Georgian. The scrapbooks draw from Country Life magazines, trade catalogues, and newspaper clippings, reflecting the company’s attention to the latest design trends. The majority of these scrapbooks were created from 1903 to 1915, based on reviewing the dated material in them. Created out of rough-edged brown paper, the scrapbooks also include stacks of cut-out images yet to be glued in, indicating that they were still a work in progress.
As a material culturist, objects fascinate me. Their stories take on greater relevance when we can understand their connection to our past. My work at the Frederick Parker Archive has uncovered a new understanding of the company’s role on board Cunard’s vessels. Furniture pieces like the sunburst pattern chair back are not just a product of Frederick Parker ingenuity and manufacturing; they are also a commentary on period design trends, evolving ocean liner design, and the expectations of the passengers who travelled on these majestic vessels.”
Dr. John Cross with the team at the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design are working hard to achieve Museum Status for the Collection, which will benefit the University and the Collection giving us the opportunity for more public funds and visitors.
Jonathan Arnold
Chairman
Frederick Parker Foundation
A Royal Visit ...
A Royal visit took place on Thursday 4th June 2009 at The Frederick Parker Gallery, at the Sir John Cass Department of Design, Art and Media, at the London Metropolitan University in Commercial Road.
HRH the Duke of Kent visited The Frederick Parker Foundation to celebrate their 10th Anniversary of acquiring the Chair Collection and placing it for study by furniture students interested in the history, design, restoration and manufacture of chairs.
The Duke was introduced by Martin Jourdan to senior members of the University, the Deputy Vice Chancellor Dr Robert Aylett, head of the department Professor Brian Falconbridge, and Dr John Cross a senior lecturer and Trustee of the Foundation.
Derwent Upholstery put on a display of the Parker Knoll products that they are making .Their Managing Director Mr Richard Sowter, and Marketing Manager Michael Storey were introduced.
Jonathan Arnold, Chairman of the Foundation, escorted HRH around the gallery showing him the chairs and introduced him to our many supporters. These included the Masters and Clerks of the Furniture Makers and Upholders Companies, members of the Furniture History Society and Regional Furniture Society, NADFAS, the Trustees and a good number of descendants of Frederick Parker.
Jonathan Arnold in thanking the Duke reminded him that his mother Princess Marina of Kent inspected the Parker Knoll Factory in High Wycombe in the 1950s. He remembers that day well, he was the office boy at the ready with large umbrellas in case of foul weather and for the first time in memory the factory windows were cleaned.
The Trustees very much appreciated HRH the Duke of Kent's visit
Newsletter 2007- No. 8
Students from the HND Furniture Restoration at London Metropolitan University studying chair construction
Our Trustee Dr John Cross and Sue Newton-Short, both senior lecturers in the Conservation Section of the Sir John Cass Department of Art Media and Design at the London Metropolitan University, have been very much involved in developing our Collection of chairs, carvings and the archives over the last year and are still working hard at it.
John and Sue gave an important paper at a conference held at the V& A Museum organized by The 20th Century Furniture Research Group, of the Buckinghamshire and Chiltern University College (BCUC), High Wycombe. This was to explain how the Collection came to its London Metropolitan University home, the work in progress on cataloguing the chairs and carvings, and their plans for the future. This seminar was held on Friday 17th November 2006.
Ed Gregory, Head of Conservation at the University, organised the 10th David Harris Annual Memorial Lecture. It took place on Friday 16th March 2007. The opening address, by Ed, was a review entitled "The last 10 years". One major development has been the arrival of the Frederick Parker Collection and company archive. So it was a trip down memory lane with reminiscences of the initial negotiations, planning and building the purpose-built, environmentally- controlled gallery for the chairs and the acquisition and fitting out of the secure storage facilities for the remainder of the Collection and archive. This was followed by Sue who gave a paper illustrating how the Collections is enhancing the student experience (see photos on the left) and describing the content of the Collection in greater detail, the cataloguing procedure that was taking place and an outline of the work still to do.
Apart from the ongoing task of this major job of cataloguing, the University has, over the last year, been involved in applying, with your Trustees' support, for Museum Accreditation. This is a major step forward, putting extra responsibility on the University to the manner in which they display and manage the Collection. It will no doubt enhance their and our prestige.
A final year student on the BSc Hons. Restoration & Conservation course, Michael Kingsbury, is measuring in great detail our silvered chair (FP ref. no. 23 and illustrated on page 10 of our book "A Selection of Chairs"). He is planning to make an exact replica, and to silver-gild it. Although it will not be upholstered, it is proving to be an important research and educational exercise. Michael plans to apply various finishes for long-term ageing trials.
These events demonstrate the enthusiasm of our University partners in using and promoting the Collection for educational purposes.
As you know, your Trustees worked hard last year and produced our book . I am delighted to report some very good write-ups in the technical, trade and furniture press and it seems to have gone down well with academics, historians and experts on furniture. We also have put our story and activities on the internet. Do have a look on www.frederick-parker-foundation.org .
