I was just looking at the Design Museum website when i noticed that the Robin Day chair listed as "Armchair for the Royal Festival Hall, 1951" is different to the one listed as the Royal Festival Hall Lounge chair (1951) in Lesley Jackson's book on Robin and Lucienne Day.
The chair pictured on the Design Museum website (pic 1) with it's moulded ply back joined to the seat is listed in a 1961 Hille catalog as the "700 armchair" , supposedly replacing the "658 moulded lounge chair" (pic 2) which was based on the original "Royal Festival Hall Lounge chair" (1951).
So did the Design Museum of London get it wrong or is Jackson in need of a design history lesson? Be interested to know your thoughts.
Which one is the real Robin Day "Royal Festival Hall Lounge chair" (1951)?
Really looking forward to the DVD release of "Contemporary Days: Robin and Lucienne Day Design the UK". More info on the film can be found at http://www.designonscreen.org/special-events/robin-and-lucienne-day-premeire/
simple
i think it is a simple matter that Day designed more than one chair for the RFH, and one of these may be the orchestra chair though the upholstery is not vinyl i'll admit?
Orchestra chair, 1950, Kingfisher Furniture Ltd for the Royal Festival Hall, painted tubular steel frame, plywood back and seat with vinyl upholstery
661 side chair, 1951, Hille & Co. for the Royal Festival Hall, cherrywood-faced, moulded plywood shell onto painted tubular steel frame
Lounge chair, 1950, Hille & Co. for the Royal Festival Hall, rosewood-veneered, moulded plywood back and arm rests onto copper-plated steel rod frame
stuff
Austerity to Affluence shows your second image as "copper plated steel rod frame,upholstered in woven wool, designed for use in the RFH, exhibited 9th Milan Triennale 1951 and V&A 1981, chair removed when RFH was refitted in 1962.
I remember seeing at least two versions of these chairs at RFH architect Peter Moro's house in Blackheath, London where I visited him shortly before his demise. Also Phaidon's book on RFH has early photos that may show where the different chairs were used. Will hunt down my copy and get back to you.
The festival of Britain chairs.
In the 2 books I have it lists the Festival of Britain (FOB) chairs made by Day as you state Shipwright. In Lesley's book, the orchestra chair is a basic steel rod chair, the 661 small chair is a dining chair with a moulded ply back, and the FOB Lounge chair has a moulded back floating on 3 copper plated steel rods.
Apparently the original moulded lounge chair used at the FOB had copper plated steel rod, but it was never put into commercial production. Instead, from what i can gather, it looks like Hille produced a similar version without copper plating which was called the 658 moulded lounge chair ( pic2).
I have one of these chairs, but my version has no back cushion, and I have read that it was a version produced for the export market (see photo). Someone told me that Hille discontinued the 658 chair because of it's expense and lack of stability and later replaced it with the 700 chair
(featured on the design museum website).
They are all great chairs but it would be good to know if anyone out there has access to any of the original 1950's catalogues, etc, so we can solve this mystery.
BTW thanks for your help Shipwright.
this one please ignore the repeats
final chair
http://www.ribapix.com/image.php?i=86211&r=2&t=4&x=1&ref=RIBA42755
Looks like The Design Museum of London has got it wrong
Hey Shipwright, thanks for posting these great pics from the FOB. Can you please tell me the source of the images. Not only do they clearly show the version of the moulded lounge chair used at the FOB, I think it shows that the Design Museum need to update their website.
The close-up image of the moulded lounge chair is a bonus because it answers a question i had about the screws used to hold the back in place.
I want to restore my chair as faithfully as possible to the original.
Thanks so much for all your hard work.
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com