Gerald Summers By Jessica Whittaker At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Gerald Summers is one of the unsung heroes of furniture design and arts. He was born in 1899, the youngest of five children and grew up travelling all over the world in Tangiers, Morocco and Madrid. His father being a Presbyterian missionary enrolled him and his two brothers in a Christian institution –The Eltham College. He was eight, back then.

Summers’ study program included carpentry and he was excellent at it. He passed a preliminary examination in Cambridge later. Although there is no record of his exact grades, nobody ever bothers about it. His work in the field of furniture design is his report card. There are many writers who today talk about his works and his underrated status not doing justice to his true abilities.

He first was an apprentice at Ruston, Proctor and Co (Ltd) as an autodidact. He then fought in the army during the First World War and returned home to work as a labourer. He married Marjorie Amy Butcher who also became his business partner. When he was engaged, he decided to gift her something and made a dressing table and a wardrobe for her. What he made propelled his future career. His wife urged him to stand up on his own feet.

After months of saving and making ends meet, in 1929, he started his own firm with his wife who is now the co-founder of his company, called Makers of Simple Furniture. His company name well suited the nature of his products - Simple and handy, practical and modern. In 1933, P. Morton Shand –The editor of Architectural Review arranged for an exhibition at Fortnum and Mason’s department store in London to mainly show off the collections of Alvar Aalto, Summers’ designs were also present and needless to say, received many approving nods from people. This was a very positive thing to happen to his company and the business kicked off.

Today his Bent Plywood Armchair and High Backend Chair are two of his best recognized works. Only 120 such armchairs were made. His work was, by many, mistaken to be one of Alvar Aalto’s. However a close examination of it reveals that the plywood is made up of one distinct sheet, bent. It later came to be recognized as biomorphic and organic as this armchair is seamless, continuous and swept back.

His firm had to finally close when World War Two took place; plywood was strictly reserved for stringent uses as it was used a lot in the army. Obviously, the government of UK placed restraints on plywood import. The factory had to close in 1939. Summers never went back to designing furniture after that. He opened up a small factory that made ball bearings.

In the United Kingdom, Summers’ furniture is still appreciated by many architecture lovers and people mostly prefer his designs to the metallic ones that were used by his modernist contemporaries. Arguably, he is one of the best furniture makers who gave the world many of its impressive designs. Due to an illness, he passed away in 1967. But his ideas live on.

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