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.

A nationwide advertising campaign, together with the G-plan gallery in Hanover Square in London, showcased real rooms illustrating how bright, shiny young couples could assemble their G-plan collection over the years. The design flair, comfort and quality of G-plan were recognised from the start and despite the sale of the brand into new hands in the 1980s, furniture from the 60s and 70s has persevered as minor classics in post war design.

The early G-plan, the Brandon range, although not as sexy as later imaginings are well made with plenty of mid-century presence in dark tola wood or African mahogany. The hysteria for Danish forms influenced G-plan’s own line in extreme forms in sideboards, chairs, sofas, tables and shelving from 1962. It’s these pieces, designed by Ib Kofod-Larsen, that are most sought after today. With perfectly matched teak veneers, smoothed sculptural corners and recessed handles, G-plan was not cheap, but it was aimed at the ordinary middle-class buyer with aspirations to the more expensive ranges of Younger and Archie Shine.

The G-plan catalogue covered the entire house and bedroom sets in good condition are still as usable today, as they were half a century ago. Fresco, launched in 1967 is G-plan cabinetmaking riding high, and if you spot smile-shaped handles in a crowded junk shop or an Astro coffee table with its triangular launch pad of legs, don’t turn away. Cheaper and less popular Limba bedroom furniture is like Marmite. Love it, hate it — you just can’t ignore it, and its floating top and corporate ugliness has a following.

Older G-plan will have a stamp in ink or a gold label, while pieces from the late 60’s will carry a square red label, (if it has survived). If unsure of branding, take a shot with your digital device, and compare to named pieces online. Designer Wayne Hemingway MBE has reinterpreted some of G-plan’s most iconic seating as heirlooms for tomorrow and are marketed through John Lewis in the Vintage G-plan collection. www.johnlewis.co.uk.