Summers & Butcher

Inside the interwar British design store that pioneered midcentury modern plywood furniture “It was simple furniture ... and we were makers of it.” In 1931, the English designer Gerald Summers (1899–1967) and his partner, Marjorie Butcher (1909–96), opened their London shop Makers of Simple Furniture. A small company, they produced made-to-order furniture. Until the firm’s closing in 1940, Makers of Simple Furniture produced hundreds of ingenious furniture designs in plywood. Conceived, in Summers’ words, as “furniture for the concrete age,” this singular body of work shaped the notion of the modern interior in Britain. Makers of Simple Furniture tells for the first time the compelling story of the firm and its dedicated proprietors. Drawing on Butcher’s vivid recollections and a wealth of unpublished material—including never-before-seen images, personal correspondence, workshop documents and illustrated specification sheets—the book reveals the magnitude of their achievements and restores a neglected chapter in the history of modern design. This publication is made possible in part by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.