Vintage Ercol furniture

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Vintage Ercol Furniture
Ercol's vintage designs still keeping up with the
times! High quality craftsmanship is clearly
visible at first glance of each Ercol piece and
often it has survived over fifty years of use and
wear but still looks fabulous! Vintage Ercol
furniture is functional and sturdy whilst
remaining stylish. It's curved lines and edges
in beech and elm make it easily recognisable and
the blonde finish especially complements modern
interiors. The firm was founded by Italian
desgner Lucian Ercolani in 1920 and in the early
days his designs changed dramatically. However,
the Ercol Windsor chair has remained in
production since the 1950s when its Windsor range
was first introduced as a contemporary
interpretation of the original, bentwood and
stickback, Windsor theme. For your chance to win
an Ercol product please visit our facebook page
here where we frequently run giveaway
competitions. You can browse early Lucian
Ercolani designed furniture in Ercol's 1933
catalogue here. Browse the original Windsor range
catologue here.
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Post wartime Ercol really got going Due to the
huge amount of post-war rebuilding in the 1940s,
there was large demand for new furniture, but
also a huge shortage of raw materials. The
British Government set up the Utility Furniture
Scheme and Committee to ensure that the few
valuable materials that were available were used
sensibly and responsibly. The Committee approved
a number of designs for the Utility Furniture
Catalogue which would make affordable furniture
available to newlyweds and those who had been
bombed out in World War II. The furniture
featuring in the catalogue would be well
designed, sturdy and built to last. In 1944, the
Board of Trade approached Ercol with a contract
to manufacture 100,000 windsor kitchen chairs at
low cost. In order to mass produce at the rate
that was required, Ercol needed to adapt existing
machinery to speed up the production process,
and invented a system for steaming timber which
was hugely successful. The Chiltern Hills has
been at the centre of British furniture making
for generations. Elm and beech were readily
available in the forests of Buckinghamshire and
provide beautiful grain patterns and patina for
this mid century furniture. Interestingly elm
had been cast aside by most furniture makers as
it was prone to warp and bend, something that
Ercolani decided could work to his advantage if
correctly kiln dried with circulating steam.
Using this steam bending process, Ercol were
able to produce 2000 chairs each week. We are
always pleased to present Vintage Ercol furniture
for sale knowing that it will stand the test of
time.