Bent ply side chair, Remploy Ltd, c.1950s
Found in a skip ten years ago, this discarded bent ply chair has become a favourite piece in my small, though select, collection of British post-war furniture. Manufactured by Remploy, this piece represents the silent footsoldiers of British design in the post-war years. Remploy produced essentially utilitarian furniture, with a basic in-house team, working with standard techniques to manufacture tables, chairs and storage solutions for use within the home and industrial marketplace. Its simple form follows the principles of Artek and Isokon, whilst allowing it a no-fuss, almost non-design, aesthetic – to simply exist as a useful item of furniture in and of itself. The survival of this one chair has allowed age and history to show how much a disregarded piece of furniture can, almost despite itself, become a thing of (albeit utilitarian) beauty.
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