'Numero IV' lounge suite by Grant and Mary Featherston
Object No. 2012/125/1
One of the new wave of Australian designers to emerge in the immediate post-war years, Grant Featherston (1922-1995) designed his first chair in 1947. In the early 1950s he developed the now famous 'Contour' range of chairs. First launched in 1951, the 'Contour' was an immediate success; its innovative plywood shell formed using a process that Featherston developed himself in the absence of suitable plywood bending technology locally. In 1957 Featherston was appointed consultant designer to Aristoc Industries, a Melbourne manufacturer of metal furniture. This highly fruitful collaboration resulted in the production of a variety of chairs including the 'Mitzi' (1957), 'Scape' (1960), the 'Expo 67 talking chair', the 'Stem' chair (1969) and the Numero / Charlton range (1973-74). In 1966 Featherston formed a partnership with his wife Mary Featherston (nee Curry, born England 1943), an interior designer who had studied at RMIT. Their 'Expo 67' chair, with its polystyrene shell, was only the beginning of a run of chairs that, in the spirit of the times, explored the limitless possibilities of plastics in the creation of innovative seating forms. The rotation-moulded, polyethylene 'Stem' chair took 18 months to reach production stage and was one of the most technologically sophisticated chairs ever made in Australia. Similarly, with the invention of polyurethane foam by Uniroyal (now Bridgestone), Grant and Mary Featherston saw the opportunity to design lounge chairs in keeping with the era and echoing expensive European ranges. The innovative designs by the Featherstons helped expand the technological capabilities of local furniture manufacturers at a time when their viability was constantly under threat from foreign imports. The Featherstons' efforts to keep the local industry competitive while supplying the market with chairs that were technologically and stylistically equal to overseas examples resulted in an important body of work that has significantly enriched Australia's design history. Paul Donnelly, Curator, 2012
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Summary
Object Statement
Lounge suite, 'Numero IV', chairs (5) and ottomans (2), polyurethane foam / ABS plastic / wool, designed by Grant and Mary Featherston, made by Uniroyal Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1973-1974
Physical Description
Modular lounge suite comprising five chairs and two ottomans in squared-off polyurethane foam with depressed seat, covered in lime green wool.
DIMENSIONS
Height
610 mm
Width
775 mm
Depth
775 mm
PRODUCTION
Notes
The lounge suite was designed by Grant and Mary Featherston and made by Uniroyal Pty Ltd (now Bridgestone), in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1973-1974. Part of the success of Grant (later joined by Mary) Featherston was the ingenious use of materials that compensated for a lack of industrial processes in Australia. In tune with their awareness of technology, the Featherstons embraced new materials and by the late 1960s were producing furniture in fibreglass, ABS and steel, in addition to wood. By 1973 the Featherstons designed their first modular lounge using polyurethane foam which was new to the market. 'Numero IV' was a tremendous success for the Featherstons and also Uniroyal, makers of the foam. Variations on the 'Numero IV' followed with 'Numero V', 'Numero VI' and the 'Charlton'. The Powerhouse has an example of the later Charlton (see 92/1748) modular corner suite. In terms of Numero IV's manufacture, Terence Lane (1988) notes, 'Each unit was cast in an aluminium mould as a single block of foam, fitted with a removable cover and mounted on an ABS plastic disk base - the only rigid component.'
HISTORY
Notes
The Featherston name is one of the most recognised names in Australian furniture since the 1950s. The contour chair range designed during the 1950s dominated interior design magazines of the day and Featherston furniture continued its success in later decades by embracing developments in technology that suited forms appropriate to the aesthetics and life-style of any given period. As Terence Lane observes, 'His [and later Mary's] furniture is also a mirror of taste and fashion... the increasing informality of life in the 1960s and 1970s - the era of the Bean Bag and modular furniture - found its reflection in the Obo chair and Numero suites (Lane 1988: 9).' In the mid 1970s, newly-married Ina and Rob Peady bought, at great expense, this lounge new, and to compliment it also acquired 'groovy' patterned green wall paper. An example of this wallpaper is included with the acquisition (see 2012/125/2). Ina Peady notes, '...alas, we do not have any photographs of the suite with the wallpaper from the house in Temora in the 70s. In those days we took [35mm photographic] slides, and they got thrown out years ago in a move. I remember travelling to Newcastle to purchase the suite from a then renowned furniture store there, and bringing it home in our navy blue Ford Falcon station wagon with trailer attached; a price of approximately $629 sticks in my mind. Big, big money in the 70s for a newly married couple putting together their dream home' (Ina Peady May 2012). Reference: Lane, Terrence (1988), 'Featherston Chairs', National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
SOURCE
Credit Line
Purchased 2012
Acquisition Date
23 October 2012
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