In this context, innovation may be a hidden product. It would be found in the marriage of the designer's problem-solving and how a manufacturer's investment could be made to work technologically, when applied to the best materials for the job. Jack Pritchard's work through his laminates and plywood company, Isokon, in the mid-thirties in London, typifies this development -- with Marcel Breuer as one of his designers.

In Britain, since 1945, and before that, of course, it has been possible to buy such furniture. Examples, are Robin Day's and Ernest Race's work for the Festival of Britain, 1951, that went on into continued production for a new, office contract, and domestic market.

By Morce Ambler

The objective for The 20th Century Design Collection is acquiring furniture that was innovative in materials and technology. In tandem with this has been the re-assessment of the modernist objective: that assembly-line economies in the making of furniture would enable consumers to buy into series' production.