Back in 2010, we started acquiring inventory for the store we planned to open in early 2011. We lucked upon a local auction house importing English teak pieces, which routinely went at a price we could afford. In the early days of the store, they were our bread and butter. A few were marked G-Plan or Remploy, but most weren't marked at all, and we never identified the majority of them.
As the store grew, our clientele began requesting more Danish pieces. At that same time, more and more people found out about the auction, and the prices they were getting skyrocketed. Even so, the auction house went out of business, so we said goodbye to the English pieces without ever learning much about them.
Recently I was surprised and delighted to run across an article about Frank Guille (1926-1997) and find out that he designed many of the pieces we sold in the early days of Mid2Mod. In the 1940s, Guille trained under Robin Day and John Cole at the Beckenham School of Art. After serving in the Royal Navy, he studied furniture design at the Royal College of Art under Gordon Russell. He received a scholarship in 1950 to travel to Copenhagen to work with Kaare Klint.
Guille set up his on design practice in 1953, boasting clients such as Heal and Sons, West of Scotland and Austinsuite. His strongest body of work was for Kandya, who commissioned him to restyle a stacking chair, which had been designed by Carl Jacobs in 1950. The redesigned Jason chair was so successful that Guille worked with Kandya until 1976. While there, he designed a range of modular Trimma kitchen units of exceptional quality.
From 1960 to 1992, Guille was at the Royal College of Art, first as a lecturer, then as a senior lecturer and finally as head of the Furniture Design department.
From homespunvintagedesign.co.uk
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| Desk for Austinsuite ebay.co.uk - doorfortyfour |
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| Stools vintageretro.co.uk |
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| Record cabinet for Kandya lawsonpark.org |
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| Jason chair ebay.co.uk - lovelyandcompany |
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| Credenza mrbigglesworthy.co.nz |
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| Barstools for Kandya liveauctioneers.com |
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| Console for Austinsuite fearsandkahn.co.uk |
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| Austinsuite sideboard ebay.com - eclectic-rooms-design |
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| Trimma cabinets for Kandya ebay.com - firest4r |
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| Room divider sworder.co.uk |
