Vintage view

ORIGINAL, quality retro furniture from the 1950s right through to the 1970s has remained wildly popular for the past decade, pushing prices up and cheap pretensions right along with them.

If it’s open framed, too young to be Edwardian and sporting a splay leg, any second hand dealer worth their van, will slap ‘retro’ glamour on the ticket. There are a few names to conjure with in vintage wood pieces that remain affordable, largely down to being high street buys that lack the rarity to poke them into four figures. For branded authentic articles, (and there are plenty of sturdy no-name Danes littering up the back halls of auction rooms), G-plan is a well respected and highly available between here and the UK.

E Gomme Ltd was founded in Wiltshire in 1898 as upholstery manufacturers by Ebenezer Gomme. His grandson Donald, sensing the need for a name to fathom the restless new spirit of television and startling fashions, vouched for the new handle ‘G-plan’ from 1953.