This is a stunning vintage midcentury original vintage Ercol coffee table, available to buy in the From Britain with Love shop. Original white paint finish on legs with solid elm wooden top in great condition with no scratches or marks.
The perfect piece for adding some midcentury modern style to your home.
We love the curved lines and edges – unmistakably Ercol in design. We also love the combination of wood grain and white paint.
Ercol history
Originally from Italy, Lucian Ercolani came to London in 1894 and went to study at Shoreditch College of Furniture. He then set up his own furniture factory, Ercol, in High Wycombe in 1920. His goal was to make furniture that was well designed and made in a good working environment by craftsmen who took pride in their work.
The company exhibited at the ‘Britain can Make it’ exhibition at the V&A in 1946 and again at the Festival of Britain in 1951, where it represented the latest style and fashion in furniture design and manufacture.
Taking classic designs, Ercol gave them a lighter touch, by using pale woods and slender, tapered legs. New techniques such as steam-bending wood, so that it wouldn’t warp, allowed them to create new shapes – such as the flowing lines of the brand’s iconic Butterfly chair.
Margaret Howell collaboration
Despite its status as a modern design classic, the Butterfly chair never sold in huge quantities and even went out of production in the 1980s. Then in 2000, the British fashion designer Margaret Howell asked if Ercol would make her a few Butterfly chairs for her shops. The chairs sold and sold.
“Thanks to Margaret, sales of the Butterfly started creeping up again and so we put it back into production,” says Edward Tadros, Ercolani’s grandson and Ercol Chairman. “I think it has lasted this long because not only is it very comfortable but it’s very simple and very pretty. It was a revolutionary design at the time. It had the classic Windsor base but the seat was in bent ply and that curve was new”.
Apart from the Butterfly chair, the firm’s other iconic designs include the Windsor coffee table (as above), Stacking chairs, Plank dining table, Love Seat bench and Trio nest of three small pebble-shaped tables.
If you ever come across an original vintage Ercol coffee table my advice: snap it up!
No Comments