The High Wycombe region has a strong furniture heritage and a unique selection of photographs and printed material relating to the industry has been made available online today via the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS).

Front cover of Ercol Catalogue 1969. High Wycombe Furniture Archive, Bucks New University.

The High Wycombe Furniture Archive is part of the Research Centre for Furniture at Bucks New University in High Wycombe and incorporates visual material primarily from Ercol Furniture Ltd and E Gomme Ltd, including the famous G-Plan range, which saw the exciting designs of Donald Gomme, Ib Kofod Larsen, and Lesley Dandy, amongst others.

Page from 1956 G-Plan furniture catalogue showing a bedroom setting, High Wycombe Furniture Archive, Bucks New University.

The images presented on VADS represent just a taster of the vast archive which comprises over 16,000 visual materials and accompanying technical papers relating to the design and manufacture of locally-produced furniture, which were previously gathering dust in various company vaults or in danger of being lost altogether.

Print of a design by Ib Kofod-Larsen of: Sideboard. Drawing No. 177, High Wycombe Furniture Archive, Bucks New University.

The online highlights from the archive join other related British furniture research resources that are available on VADS, such as the Frederick Parker Chair Collection and the Design Council Slide Collection and Design Council Archive.

To view highlights from the High Wycombe Furniture Archive on VADS, visit: http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/HWEFA

To view more images from the archive, visit:
http://hwfurniturearchive.bucks.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/viewHome

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