Grey polypropylene stacking chair, Mark II Chair designed by Robin Day.
Identifier
FPF417
Title
Grey polypropylene stacking chair, Mark II Chair designed by Robin Day.
Date
Designed 1964, manufactured 1990-2000.
Description
A grey polypropylene stacking chair with tubular steel legs, Mark II Chair designed by Robin Day, manufactured by Hille International.
Full Description
This charcoal grey polypropylene stacking chair with grey enamelled tubular steel legs was designed in 1964 by Robin Day OBE (1915-2010) for S. Hille & Co., London (from 1972, Hille International). The seat is made by injecting hot molten plastic under pressure into a cooled split mould (injection-moulding). This version may be made of recycled polypropylene, called polyspex, introduced in 1990. The innovative rolled-over edge gives the chair structural stability whilst allowing some flexibility. Four bosses are integrally moulded on the underside of the seat and the tubular steel leg frame is screwed into these with self-tapping screws. This method proved very successful and was subsequently copied by other manufacturers.
The first version of the polypropylene chair, Mark 1, popularly known as the ‘Polyprop’ chair, was launched in May 1963 and was remodelled in 1964 with a wider seat to become the Polypropylene Mark II Chair. Robin Day recognised the potential of polypropylene for mass-produced furniture manufacture – the material was stronger, lighter, more flexible and resilient than moulded plywood or glass-fibre. This thermoplastic, invented in 1954 by the Italian Nobel Prize winner, Guilio Natta, becomes soft and malleable when heated. Although the initial cost of the moulds was expensive, the polypropylene shells could be made quickly and were cost effective, their economy deriving from the fact that 4,000 seats a week were produced from a single mould. The Frederick Parker Collection includes a pair of fibreglass patterns used in the development of the Mark II chair, see FPF496.
The polypropylene chair is one of the most commercially successful British furniture designs of the 1960s, with the Mark II winning a Design Centre Award in 1965. It was elegant, comfortable, ergonomic, hard-wearing and stackable; it proved ideal for utilitarian environments such as the stadium for the Mexico Olympics in 1968, where 38,000 seats were fitted. Over 14 million have been sold, it and it remains in production to the present day. The chair was originally available in charcoal grey, light grey and flame red, and further colours were added thereafter. The FPF Collection owns a second Mark II chair, FPF410, which is in green, and another chair designed by Day, FPF486.
Born in High Wycombe, Robin Day studied at the Royal College of Art in London from 1934-38 where he met his future wife, Lucienne, the renowned fabric designer. The pair represented the progressive spirit of post-war British design; Day’s lifetime ambition was ‘designing things that most people can afford’. In 1949, Day and fellow-designer, Clive Latimer, won a competition organised by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to design low-cost furniture, with their entry for a modular storage system made of tapered plywood and tubular aluminium. A direct result was Day being employed initially as a director, and later as design consultant, of S. Hille & Co. Ltd., an association that endured for 20 years and helped to make Hille one of the Britain’s most progressive furniture manufacturers.
There are different colourway versions of the polypropylene chairs dated 1963 in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (CIRC.15-1966, CIRC.15A-1966, CIRC.15B-1966).
The first version of the polypropylene chair, Mark 1, popularly known as the ‘Polyprop’ chair, was launched in May 1963 and was remodelled in 1964 with a wider seat to become the Polypropylene Mark II Chair. Robin Day recognised the potential of polypropylene for mass-produced furniture manufacture – the material was stronger, lighter, more flexible and resilient than moulded plywood or glass-fibre. This thermoplastic, invented in 1954 by the Italian Nobel Prize winner, Guilio Natta, becomes soft and malleable when heated. Although the initial cost of the moulds was expensive, the polypropylene shells could be made quickly and were cost effective, their economy deriving from the fact that 4,000 seats a week were produced from a single mould. The Frederick Parker Collection includes a pair of fibreglass patterns used in the development of the Mark II chair, see FPF496.
The polypropylene chair is one of the most commercially successful British furniture designs of the 1960s, with the Mark II winning a Design Centre Award in 1965. It was elegant, comfortable, ergonomic, hard-wearing and stackable; it proved ideal for utilitarian environments such as the stadium for the Mexico Olympics in 1968, where 38,000 seats were fitted. Over 14 million have been sold, it and it remains in production to the present day. The chair was originally available in charcoal grey, light grey and flame red, and further colours were added thereafter. The FPF Collection owns a second Mark II chair, FPF410, which is in green, and another chair designed by Day, FPF486.
Born in High Wycombe, Robin Day studied at the Royal College of Art in London from 1934-38 where he met his future wife, Lucienne, the renowned fabric designer. The pair represented the progressive spirit of post-war British design; Day’s lifetime ambition was ‘designing things that most people can afford’. In 1949, Day and fellow-designer, Clive Latimer, won a competition organised by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to design low-cost furniture, with their entry for a modular storage system made of tapered plywood and tubular aluminium. A direct result was Day being employed initially as a director, and later as design consultant, of S. Hille & Co. Ltd., an association that endured for 20 years and helped to make Hille one of the Britain’s most progressive furniture manufacturers.
There are different colourway versions of the polypropylene chairs dated 1963 in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (CIRC.15-1966, CIRC.15A-1966, CIRC.15B-1966).
Condition
Good.
Materials
Polypropylene or possibly polyspex.
Steel.
Steel.
Physical Dimensions
H. 75
W. 51
D. 48
W. 51
D. 48
Provenance
Two chairs, FPF410 and FPF417, were donated by Robin Day/Hille to the Frederick Parker Foundation in 2002.
Notes
L. Jackson, Modern British Furniture Design Since 1945, London, 2013, p. 173.
L. Jackson, Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers of Contemporary Design, London, 2001, p. 120.
L. Jackson, Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers of Contemporary Design, London, 2001, p. 120.
