If you visit the London Design Museum’s new permanent collection exhibition “Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things” you will be treated to a most rare and wonderful piece of British modernist furniture, an object labelled simply: “Table for display of trousers”

Created in 1936 by the English architect Joseph Emberton for Simpsons of Piccadilly, it is not only an object as unique in form as in function, but an object which brought us very much to mind of a fantastic collection of long lost furniture design classics from the same year.

A collection for which the likes of Joseph Emberton could in all fairness be given co-author rights to.

In 1936 the British humorist and illustrator W. Heath Robinson and the author K. R. G. Browne published “How to live in Flat” – their satirical response to the changing domestic trends of the period, the arrival of European Modernism in the UK and, in effect, the development of a financially stable British middle class.

Readers of a riper vintage will no doubt know W. Heath Robinson as the inventor of a multitudinous collection of fantasy machines: indeed his name is a byword for contrived contraptions of every genre.
K. R. G. Browne is probably known only to fans of obscure 1930s British musical comedies. Assuming such persons can still be found.

From "How to live in Flat" by W. Heath Robinson and K. R. G. Browne “, Duckworth and Co London 1976 (Image Reproduced by kind permission of Pollinger Limited and the Estate of Mrs J C Robinson)

Whereas any reference to “How to Live in a Flat” is generally a reference to W. Heath Robinson’s sketches and devices; in the book itself text and illustration are equal partners, and compliment one another perfectly.

The real joy of K. R. G. Browne’s text is how fresh it still reads. When you read a construction such as,

“Nothing in this imperfect world is perfect – except asparagus and a certain pre-War whisky, now almost unobtainable. Every rose has its thorn, every income its tax…”

or

“… the dwelling place of the future is the Flat – so called because it usually is, and to distinguish it from the maisonette, which isn’t.”

it’s hard to imagine that eight decades have passed since such crisp, unapologetic humour was penned.

And one can delve into “How to Live in Flat” at Will, or indeed Bob or Harald, and be guaranteed to discover such a gem.

Admittedly, if, like us, you are prone to reading the book in one sitting, the constant repetition of asides and snippets can become a touch repetitive and make the good Mr Browne appear like a pony who failed to learn a second trick.

And so read it slowly. Savour it. Chapter for chapter.
As we say, the text has held up spiffingly for these last 80 years; we don’t suspect it will suddenly age.

From "How to live in Flat" by W. Heath Robinson and K. R. G. Browne “, Duckworth and Co London 1976 (Image Reproduced by kind permission of Pollinger Limited and the Estate of Mrs J C Robinson)

Just as relevant and likely to out-live all of us is W. Heath Robinson’s look at contemporary living and for all contemporary furniture, fixtures and fittings.

Looking at his sketches for devices such as a Chromium Shaving Chair, a Rabbitarium or his solutions for where to store the spare bed in the cramped confines of a flat, it’s impossible to tell if W. Heath Robinson really was negatively inclined towards the advancements of the day; or if he just had an enviable talent for identifying and exploiting the social comedy in the changes.

But then we don’t suppose it really matters.

For what he has left us is a collection of objects that are not only a delightful parody of his time; but a collection which through the utter impracticability and impossibility of the objects combined with their visual splendour is also a near perfect parody on our modern blog driven design world with its post-production money shots and fantasy concept pieces.

Its also a nice parody of Pop Art, Post-Modernism, YBA or most any architecture, design or art movement since the war. Or as the cartoon on page 1 so beautifully confirms, there is “Nothing new under the sun”

And beyond the design context, the sketches themselves are small artistic masterpieces with their fine mix of wry observation, social comment but for all social caricature – points are extended and twisted out of proportion and context to ingenious effect.

Yet despite the books universal, enduring and indeed endearing appeal, it is all but impossible to find.

Even though it was re-issued in 1976, these days aside from collectors items that cost about as much as the ubiquitous Mr Simpson was probably obliged to pay in annual rent for a flat in 1936, it is a work that is almost impossible to either purchase or borrow.

Sadly.

Because in it are contained more truths about design, architecture and their supporting industries than you are likely to read in any other text.

It is to be hoped that in the not to distant future some responsible publisher helps restore the work to its rightful place.

In a chromium bookcase. In a flat.

From "How to live in Flat" by W. Heath Robinson and K. R. G. Browne “, Duckworth and Co London 1976 (Image Reproduced by kind permission of Pollinger Limited and the Estate of Mrs J C Robinson)

"Table for display of trousers" by Joseph Emberton for Simpsons of Piccadilly. As seen at Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things, Design Museum London

At the same time as he was developing the Ant Chair, Arne Jacobsen created a one-off range of office furniture that arguably represents the first tangible evidence of his move away from the natural materials and traditional handicrafts of his pre-war furniture and onto the mixed media, industrial products that have ultimately come to define his work. And so can truly be considered great lost furniture design classics.

Not least because they really are lost!

In 1951/52 – the records are a little unclear here – Arne Jacobsen was commissioned by the Copenhagen based shipping company Burmeister & Wain to produce a gift for the American Scandinavian Society and designed a desk, coffee table and side chair group.

The highlight of which is without question the desk. Quite aside from its reduced down simplicity there are two features of the desk that, for us, elevate it above the masses of desks available before or since.

Firstly there is the typewriter holder. A device that swivels through 90 degrees meaning that it can either sit in line with the desk – so out of the way. Or be pulled round next to you to be used. Which is just gorgeous. And of course although designed for a typewriter, these days it is perfect for laptop or tablet; thus making the desk just as relevant and functional today as it was then.

And secondly the drawers. Not just the fact that they are there, but much more the simple yet ingenious decision to attach them to the frame with chrome-plated tubes thus giving the whole structure a lightness that a more conventional solution would never have achieved.

The whole composition is just a joy to behold.

The desk created by Arne Jacobsen for the American Scandinavian Society (photo: source unknown....)

A further fascinating aspect of the project is the potential role of a young Verner Panton.

From 1950-1952 Verner Panton worked in Jacobsen’s studio and one of his jobs was developing early prototypes for the Ant Chair. In their monumental Jacobsen biography Carsten Thau and Kjeld Vindum write “Panton, who through PH’s [Poul Henningsen] friendship with the boss had been given a  job in the office began to create a range of steel wire prototypes that quickly grew to a sprightly collection standing on a box next to his desk”¹

Could one of these prototypes have then mutated into the American Scandinavian Society chair?

We certainly know that Jacobsen wanted the Ant to be three legged chair, and so be extrapolation Panton must have been told to devise prototypes with 3 legs.

While the unmissable, irrefutable formal parallels to Verner Panton’s own 1955 Bachelor Chair would tend to imply that if Verner Panton wasn’t personally behind the American Scandinavian Society chair, he greatly influenced it. Or was greatly influenced by it.

That is the great unknown.

We believe, but cannot prove, that Verner Panton was largely responsible for the chair.

In contrast the desk and coffee table are pure early 1950s Arne Jacobsen.

The group was made, once and once only, by the Copenhagen cabinet makers Rud. Rasmussen and formed part of a series of gifts from numerous companies to the American Scandinavian Society to celebrate their move to new offices in New York.

American Scandinavian Society records show that Burmeister & Wain donated furniture for the publications office, without noting any details of the items.

Or, more importantly, what subsequently became of them.

For in the intervening 60 years desk, chair and coffee table have vanished without trace……….

1. “Arne Jacobsen” by Carsten Thau and Kjeld Vindum. Danish Architectural Press, Copenhagen 2002

Lost Furniture Design Classics: Office Furniture by Arne Jacobsen for the American Scandinavian Society (Photo from"Arne Jacobsen" by Carsten Thau and Kjeld Vindum.)

And the chair. For us more Verner Panton than Arne Jacobsen..... (Photo from"Arne Jacobsen" by Carsten Thau and Kjeld Vindum.)

Back in January we published a post looking at IMM Cologne 1962 and setting that year’s exhibition in the context of what we could all expect at IMM Cologne 2012.

Amongst the material we read and reviewed in preparing the post the page that made the biggest impression on us was an advert for Sesam-Bar by Oeseder Möbel-Industrie: a small corner unit containing a rotating interior compartment with bookshelves on the front and a mini-bar on the back.

The name coming of course from “Open Sesame”: He who knows the secret, receives the treasure!

Lost Furniture Design Classics Sesam-Bar by Oeseder Möbel-Industrie (Foto: LWL)

Sesam-Bar is an object that cries out to be adored.

Quite apart from its truly exquisite form and the fact that the bar section contains insulated holders to help keep pre-chilled bottles cold and has a mirrored rear wall – which makes it look like you’ve got even more booze than you really do – we love the intrinsic social history in the the piece.

Released onto the market in the late 1950s, Sesam-Bar was a response to the increasing number of televisions appearing in private homes in Germany at that time and the need for low, space-saving units on which to place them. In 1956 a version was released with the turntable on the top so that the television could be turned. Then came the ingenious idea to put the turntable inside and so provide space to store bottles for when you invited friends an neighbours round for a drink – for lest we forget, the early 1960s was the start of home entertaining as something everyone did and not the sole preserve of the landed gentry. Inviting the neighbours in for a gin fizz and salted peanut of an evening being the precursor to the dinner parties of the 1970s.

However whereas people drank “hard liquor” in the 1960s, having it on display in your home was still the sole reserve of the wealthy and the arrogant. As a normal working family you wouldn’t have had your schnapps and brandy on public display.

Sesam-Bar by Oeseder Möbel-Industrie. Hide the Pernod, the Vicar is coming!!

It could send out the wrong impression to visitors, particularly older visitors of a more religious conservative persuasion.

And so most families stored their alcohol in a unit somewhere.

Hiding it in a secret compartment behind books is of course akin to not admitting you have a drinking problem. Or as Simon and Garfunkel so nearly put it “Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes / Put it in your living room corner unit on the revolving shelf behind the books”

And we just adore that. Not least because it beautifully underlines that insecurity we’ve all felt of enjoying ourselves while at the same time feeling that because one is enjoying oneself one must be doing something wrong. Something forbidden.

Then there’s the fact that with all the secret drawers and tricks with mirrors Sesam-Bar by Oeseder Möbel-Industrie is the perfect piece of office furniture for a Jame Bond villain to hide the vodka so that 007 can’t enjoy a sneaky martini.

Regardless of how it was used Sesam-Bar was a product that obviously caught the West German public’s imagination and allegedly sold over 500,000 units.¹

Half a million!

We have the figure from the Osnabrücker Zeitung and although that isn’t a publication that we traditionally turn to for designer furniture fact checking, we don’t doubt the colleagues as the number was quoted in relation to a 2007 exhibition in Gütersloh which featured Sesam-Bar.

And now?

Again according to the Osnabrücker Zeitung, the rise of the purpose built home entertainment units in the late 60s quickly put paid to Sesam-Bar, plus we can well imagine that on account of the general change in styles and attitudes in the late sixties and early seventies coupled with the rise of colourful, plastic furniture, a classic wood product like Sesam-Bar would rapidly fall out of favour.

Oeseder Möbel-Industrie have certainly long since stopped producing Sesam-Bar and the object has now completely vanished.

Search for images of Sesam-Bar on Google and you’ll be confronted with page after page of seed based snack bars. Something that presumably wasn’t a problem in 1962 when the consumption of sesame seeds was largely reserved for budgies.

And a search for Sesambar, Sesam-Bar or Oeseder Möbel-Industrie on the world’s most popular online auction platform returns: 3-2-1-ZERO, Nothing, Nada!

Half a million sold in little over half a decade: and now Sesam-Bar has vanished without trace.

An absolute travesty.

And a genuine lost furniture design classic.

1. http://www.noz.de/lokales/14167897/einrichtungsklassiker-der-endfuenfziger Accessed 06.08.2012

The history of furniture design is strewn with works that briefly graced the public stage before vanishing without the honour of a curtain call.

Crawl through the cellar of any major furniture producer and you’ll find them; the perfectly mummified remains of genuine design classics that failed to transform their creative majesty into hard cash.

Such as the so-called “Girard Group” by Alexander Girard.

Although best known for his textile and wallpaper designs Alexander Girard wasn’t averse to turning his hand to furniture design.

In addition to assisting Charles and Ray Eames with the creation of the La Fonda Armchair for the restaurant of the same name, Girard also created a wonderful collection of furniture for the lounges of Braniff Airlines. A partnership we wrote about in a previous post. Pastel coloured fuselages and all.

And from his Braniff lounge furniture the seating is the obvious highpoint.

Very much of their time, yet quite unlike anything George Nelson, Charles Eames or any of Alexander Girard’s other colleagues were creating, the “Girard Group” seating is defined by a wonderful low-level, flowing form. Technically they are linear and quadratic; you’d never guess by looking at them though.

Constructed from plywood and urethane foam with cast aluminium legs and back-supports, the chairs were upholstered in Herman Miller fabrics and available in pretty much any combination of colours and material types.

While not necessarily something we’d particularly want to spend a whole evening sitting watching telly in, for an airport lounge, hotel lobby or other public seating area they look pretty much perfect.

The tables don’t rock our boat quite as much. A little too restrained, don’t really look fully thought through. Look a little too much like a necessary, unloved afterthought.

But the seating…..

Although publicly released by Herman Miller in 1967, just two years later the “Girard Group” was discontinued. Simply being too expensive for the market.

Sadly. For they are truly the most delightful objects.

Lost Furniture Design Classics: A sofa from the Girard Group by Alexander Girard for Herman Miller (Photo © Herman Miller Archive)

And an armchair from the same collection (Photo © Herman Miller Archive)