The Design and Industries Association recently announced its willingness to organise special displays at shops and stores with a view to drawing together from all departments the best-designed articles there available. The intention is in this way to provide a direct link between manufacturer, distributor and public, and to attract new custom to the firm in question by drawing attention to the excellence of its wares, while fostering designconsciousness without and within the store.
The first firm to accept this offer was Messrs. Bowman Bros, of High Street, Camden Town, London, N.W.I., house furnishers. The resultant exhibition is now open on the first floor of their premises. A committee of four executives was formed, consisting of Mr. John Gray, F.R.I.B.A., Mr. L. H. Bucknell, F.R.I.B.A., Mr. Milner Gray and Mrs. C. Tomrley, to choose furniture, fabrics, pottery and glass, and carpets and household equipment respectively.
This exhibition has been a most interesting and successful experiment, largely owing to the whole-hearted and unstinting co-operation of Messrs. Bowman Bros., and in particular Mr. Sawtell, Buyer of the Furniture Department. The committee met several times as a whole, but the work of co-ordinating the efforts of each member rested with the administration of Bowman’s. Each selector made a provisional choice early in the proceedings, to enable goods that were out of stock to be ordered in, but it soon became apparent that the work of planning each of the five furnished rooms in detail, and of adapting certain elements to suit the whole, was going to be fairly heavy, and Mr. John Gray and Mr. Bucknell, whose functions dovetailed considerably in any case, co-operated to some extent in the detailed work necessary.
The exhibition consists of a series of ten displays in eight large bays and two small. Five of the large bays have been arranged as completely furnished rooms, a dining room, a living room, two bedrooms and a bachelor’s unit room. The purpose of the selectors was to produce rooms as nearly complete, ready and suitable for human occupation as is possible in an exhibition, and to avoid the arid appearance of the display-en-suite if possible. Only those who visit the exhibition with homeplanning in mind will be able to say for certain how far this object has been attained. The rules laid down that the committee must do their work without recourse to sources of supply not normally used by the firm, but there was nothing to suggest that adaptations of existing designs might not
be made, since a very large proportion of Messrs. Bowman’s furniture trade consists of “ specials,” designed to suit the requirements of individual rooms, and to exploit a variety of woods.
In addition to the complete rooms, individual displays of fabrics, pottery, glass, carpets, and household equipment have been arranged, and one of the small bays has been equipped as an office for use during the exhibition.
Mr. John Gray and Mr. Bucknell between them decided the general colouring of the suite of rooms, which was to be a pinkish-cream for all the walls, and the same varnished for the ceilings, with the exception of a large and a small end room. The larger has semi-glossy oil paint in bands progressively lighter from floor to ceiling, from burnt-biscuit- brown to cream, and a ceiling of glossy emerald green. As a bachelor’s room—sex unspecified— it was felt that this room called for a brisk, bold treatment embodying a reasonable degree of serviceableness. Accordingly all the furniture is of oak, stained black and half-polished. The divan bed can be adapted as a couch during the day, and the dining table folds away, thus giving the maximum elasticity to the room. The chairs, both very “ easy,” and the divan are covered in a strong woollen material, beige checked with bright blue and emerald green.
For the cabinet-work the excellent series of unitfurniture which Messrs. Bowman have developed offered itself, with the opportunities which it gives for redesigning and adaptation in addition to its already great flexibility. Besides the various general utility pieces, there exist also a number of special designs, such as a bureau-cum-dressing- chest, the top of which lifts to disclose a mirror and a shelf for brushes, etc., and the front of which falls, forming a writing surface faced by useful pigeon-holes. This has been used in the bachelor’s room. There are also such pieces as a man’s dressing chest having a small two-door cupboard on top with a mirror inside, a writing flap portion fitted in one piece with a small bookcase unit, several excellent dressing tables, notably one with a long but much wider mirror than usual, a knee-hole desk with a leather top and rounded end, a box dressing stool, and excellent round table with tub-backed chairs to match, upholstered in hide, all of which have some claim to distinction, either for utility or style or both. All of these are obtainable in natural oak, black-stained oak, walnut, waxed mahogany, sycamore and certain banded and quartered effects of each. The varying prices of these woods, and the possibility
Two of the rooms in Bowman’s Exhibition. The carpet in the dining room was designed by Marian [Marion] Dorn, and costs £25 10s. The furniture in this room is all walnut, the chairs are upholstered in green washable hide. The unit bedroom is in natural waxed oak with dark bases and macassar inlaid handles
of additional designs and special fittings, make for a considerable range of prices. This is borne out by the two contrasting bedrooms in the exhibition. One is furnished in cherry-mahogany banded with sycamore, and includes several pieces adapted to fit the shape of the room, notably a corner treatment and a bed-fitment. To this the decor is appropriate—the whole of the bed wall, and the adjacent portion of the side walls, are draped with a very rich vertically- striped tapestry, the carpet is cream-coloured, and it is further proposed at the time of going to press to floodlight the drapery from behind the bed. The oak unit bedroom, far simpler in treatment, has only one extravagance, the large rug. Since a special size was required in any case, a deep-coloured abstract design by Mr. McKnight Kauffer, carried out in Wilton pile, was chosen.
For the dining-room walnut furniture assembled as far as possible into continuous fitments has been employed, giving a certain architectural severity to the room which is borne out by the use of the round table and chairs mentioned above. In the living-room, however, it was decided to adopt a more fluid treatment, and individual pieces have been chosen. The large settee has, however, fitment ends. As it is impossible to describe the rooms in detail it must suffice to say that the various furnishing treatments have been combined by Mr. Bucknell with hangings and soft furnishings in a way which is worth seeing as a departure from that prevailing manner which is rapidly becoming a convention.
The remaining large bays are devoted to displays of fabrics, carpets and household equipment respectively. The fabrics are most impressively arranged in a semi-circle, hanging from floor to ceiling. They have been chosen principally from this season’s new designs, at a large range of prices. Some of the cheaper materials are excellent. In the carpet display, as elsewhere, it has been sought to show the less as well as the more expensive wares. Here there seems to be a particularly noticeable cleavage between the lower and higher grades, since the quality of the colours used is altogether different. The china and glass is arranged in one of the smaller rooms, and should materially help those who are distracted in their choosing by overwhelming variety.
Patronage will be the final test of the success of this exhibition, but that it is an achievement in the matter of co-operation there is no doubt, and as such as well as for its merits, it is hoped that it will encourage other firms to do likewise.
