London Furniture

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 September 1916, Page 3

London Furniture

LM'ERESTIXG PROG RESS AND DEVELOPMENT. (From London Times' Wycombc Correspondent.) Few industrial centres in the country have experienced greater progress and development in lust half-century than High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, proverbially associated with the production of chairs a.rid furniture. Formerly the town was known the world over as a centre where cheap chairs, of the oldfashioned Windsor pattern, were made, and the euphemistic term "cheap and nasty" was applied to them by Lord Randolph Churchill. Not unnaturally, this language was strongly resented by the producers, who claimed that their chairs were moderate in price, serviceable and good-looking. By dint of perseverance and energy the manufacturers gradually improved the output of their goods and, alive to the requirements of their own country and of other nations in al' parts of the world, they made a bo'd bid for a legitimate share of the highest class of chairs and furniture. With this object in view they specialized in reproduction of all the best models of furniture of different periods— Elizabethan, .Thieobean, Wil7ia.ni and 'Ma>ry, Queen Anne, and Georgian, the befit models of the latter being those of Chippendale, Sheraton, and Hepplcwhite. IXTRpiXJCTIOX OF MACHINERY. The systematic introduction of machinery in the last 20 yci.irs has revolutionized the industry in every department, and to-day Wycombe is recognised as a leading place in which types of the best furniture and upholstery are made, special lines including sideboards, wooden bedsteads, bureaux, etc. Tn recent years there has been an extraordinary run on reproductions of the Jacobean period, and even to-day. in ' spite of the war, these attractive J models are finding la ready sale. Loca' products find their way into all parts, notalbly South Africa, South America. <fco. For many years the Americans had a monopoly of special lir.es in office and library chairs; but of up-to-date machinery has enabled the local .manufacturers to hold their own as competitors. At the present time our American cousins have a great partiality for English reproductions, and there is no difficulty in obtaining repeat orders of sufficient dimensions to keep local factories continuously employed for periods of three months. Wycombe has a population to-day of about 22,000. and there are 100 factories. the largest of which find employment for from 300 to 500 hands each. English timber—principally beech and elm—is bought standing in the fine woodis for which the counties of Rucks. Berks and Oxon are noted; it is cut and 1 carted in logs to the factories, and sawn into logs b.v quiek-cu'tfcing riiachinery. Although in recent times the supplies of 'foreign timber have 1 been difficult to obtain in considerable 1 bulk, and notwithstanding the fact i that great inroads have Ibeen into the home-grown raw material. * there are still ample supplies to be drawn upon for yenrs to come. The husbanding of stocks of well-seasoned English oak, English walnut, mahogany, American walnut, figured American oak. satinwood and the like enable ; tihe manufacturers to keep pace with the demands' made upon them for the 1 higher-class goods. i CAPTURING AUSTRIAN TRADE. Manufacturers are buoyed up with i confidence as to the future, and they < are keenly alert in regard to the advantages of the latest improvements in >, machinery, and the old style "rule of thumb" has given way to the most approved and up-to-date .methods of carrying on business. At the instance* of the Board of Trade, local makers of chairs and furniture have 1 applied themselves with zeal and energy since the war broke out to the manufacture of substitutes for the Austrian ben'twood type of chairs, which were familiar in rcstl.vurants, tearooms and other public buildings. Th:s branch of the trade is distinctly successful and encouraging, and many thousands of these chairs have been turned out locally. This substitute has undoubtedly come to stay, and it is a clear case of capturing the Austrian trade. Since the war broke out the manufacturers in Wycombe have made upwards rf 200.000 chairs, including »m immense number of "improved Windsors." for the Government ,l>epartinents: and there are substantial War Office contracts on hand at'the present moment. The Government demands also comprise invalids' furniture, such •is self-propelling ■wheeled eliairs, bed tables and easy chairs for convalescent soldiers, and huge quantities of chairs j for training camps, barracks and mili- , tnry field hospitals. , The cheap and medium class furniture trade has up till now experienced to ( the full the truth of Mr Lloyd George's j prophecy that we should have during the war a period of unexampled prosperity. ' The local output has been hampered by the shortnge of men— from, Wycombe it is ■estimated Miat 2000 men have joined the colours-but the manufacturers have turned their attention to the possibility of employing ( women in certain departments to which they have not been hitherto admitted. In pre-war times the only parts which women played were in regard to the maKng of rush and cane seats of chairs, while .some were seamstresses in upholstery departments of factories. Women are being employed with a fair amount of success land make exceptionally good polishers.