Welcome to the ercol catalogue archive. Here you will find ercol catalogues from nearly every decade since the 1920s when ercol was founded. Please click on each catalogue to open up a digital version. If you have an old piece of ercol furniture that you wish to identify, then here is the ideal place to look. The catalogues also provide a fascinating insight into changes over the decades in style and the way we live. Beneath the catalogue archive you will also see that we have uploaded some other publications that we think you'll enjoy - like books of photos from the 1920s of our old factory, photos of the transition from the old to the new factory, and an old press leaflet from the 1960s full of interesting press articles. 2013 View in Flipbook 2003 View in Flipbook 1993 View in Flipbook 1985 View in Flipbook 1978 View in Flipbook 1965 View in Flipbook 1956 View in Flipbook 1933 View in Flipbook New and Old Factories View in Flipbook
Furniture Industries c.1920s View in Flipbook Walter Skull & Son c.1920s View in Flipbook What the Press Says View in FlipbookErcolIconic British furniture brand Ercol is known for its blend of quality craftsmanship and stylish design. Since 1920, this family business has produced hand-crafted chairs and tables that stand the test of time. Founded in 1920 by Italian Lucian Ercolani, British based Ercol design and make furniture that marries modern style and traditional craft. Having created a number of iconic designs, this family owned business continues to produce expertly crafted furniture that follows the principles first laid down nearly a century ago. From inviting beds to practical storage pieces, wake up to beautiful design every morning with our serene selection of bedroom furniture. Looking to the heritage of British craft, Lucian Ercolani’s Originals range mixes traditional handmade furniture with mid-century form. Price : Lowest To Highest
Price : Highest To Lowest Originals Stacking Chair Coloured Finish Black Romana Extending Dining Table Svelto AV Unit Dead Matt Oak & Walnut byRuth Wassermann & Lisa SandallforErcol Svelto Storage Cabinet Dead Matt Oak & Walnut Originals Chairmakers Rocking Chair Originals Plank Dining Table Dead Matt Elm & Beech Svelto Lamp Table Dead Matt Oak Romana Small Sideboard 3 Drawer Dead Matt Oak Originals Loveseat Natural Finish Originals Nest of Tables Originals Loveseat Dead Matt Walnut & Beech Flow Chair Dead Matt Price : Highest To LowestHome › Dining › Dining Chairs Our dining chairs come in a range of styles, timbers, fabrics and leathers so you can be sure to find the ones that suit your style. Artisan padded back dining chair Bosco padded back dining chair Available in the UK through Heals Romana padded back dining chair Romana cantilevered dining chair Exclusive to John Lewis
Shalstone Dining arm chair Teramo Alia dining chair Windsor Penn classic chair Windsor Penn classic armchair Windsor Penn padded back chair Windsor Penn padded back armchairHome › Ranges › Originals The ercol Originals are pieces of timeless and classic design that never date or show their age. It is furniture that is as relevant and as functional now as it was when it was created in the 1950s and 1960s. This furniture was designed by ercol’s founder, Lucian Ercolani, who drew for his inspiration on the time proven local design and craft in the Chiltern Hills around where he lived and built his first factory in 1920 in High Wycombe. The chairs are simple evolutions of the classic Windsor chair. Lucian Ercolani was responding to a Board of Trade contract in 1943 when he first worked on adapting the country Windsor chair into a production friendly design. The simple definition of a Windsor chair is that the back and legs are attached to the seat.
This definition gives the designer great room to select different themes and create huge variety. These dining chairs were made in the countryside by “bodgers” for many centuries before Lucian took on the idea in the middle of the 20th century. Using the strength of beech and the beauty of elm he carried this definition on into a huge variety of dining, kitchen, and school chairs and then extended the idiom into the low easy chair range epitomised by the 206 armchair and the studio couch. Lucian was prolific in putting his mind to huge variety. The soft curves of the bows were the inspiration for the soft curves of the table tops with their softly thumb-moulded edges. The beauty of the colour and the grain of the elm took Lucian on to use elm for the tables and cabinets of the Originals and the following Windsor range. The Originals are achieving a position in the pantheon of classic designs of the 20th century, designs still relevant and new to those who meet them for the first time in the 21st century.
They have become a much sought after British classic. Products in this range walnut nest of tables Lucian R Ercolani, or the "Old Man" as he is affectionately known in the company, founded ercol in 1920. Born in Italy in 1888, Lucian's family moved to London in the 1890s. There he went to night school at the Shoreditch Technical Institute where he studied drawing, design and the theory and construction of furniture. In 1907 he made his first piece of furniture - a musical cabinet, inlaid with mother of pearl. Years later the company tracked this down and we still have it to this day. The Old Man designed the company's products for many years. The Windsor range remains one of our most popular ranges over half a century after it was first launched in its original guise, whilst a few years ago we reintroduced some of Lucian's classic designs, which now form the ercol Originals. Ercol is the name of a British furniture manufacturer. The firm dates back to 1920, when it was established in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, as Furniture Industries by Lucian Ercolani (1888–1976).
In 1944, Ercol was contracted by the government Board of Trade to produce 100,000 low-cost Windsor chairs – chairs with a bentwood frame and an arched back supporting delicate spindles. For the order to be a commercial success, Ercol perfected the steam bending of wood in large quantities. The wood selected was English elm – a wood previously thought impossible to bend because it distorted. Ercol's innovation meant the chair could be assembled from fourteen pre-formed components, and mechanisation meant that a chair could be made every twenty seconds. In 1946, Ercol exhibited its bentwood furniture at the Britain Can Make It exhibition, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 1947, the first production-line Windsor chair, and other pieces from the range of Windsor furniture, went on sale. Ercol's mass-produced furniture found a ready market in post-war Britain, which demanded smaller pieces with simpler lines than their chunky pre-war counterparts. Ercol furniture was exhibited at the 1951 Festival of Britain, as it represented the latest style and fashion in furniture design and manufacture.
In 2002 Ercol moved to a new purpose-built facility in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, where it produces furniture made from North American elm and European ash, beech, oak and walnut from naturally regenerative forests. This facility has won a number of awards for its architecture, design and environmental features. The building's heat and hot water is provided from wood waste, whilst the company does not use solvent-based stains and lacquers, instead using the more environmentally friendly water-based versions. Ercol sources its fabrics from mills in Italy and Belgium, and offers a choice of over 100 different fabrics on its upholstery. Ercol upholstery, with its solid wood frames, can generally have the cushions replaced when they wear out, prolonging the life of the suite. It offers a reCover service to supply replacement cushions. Ercol's ranges of upholstery, dining, cabinet and occasional furniture are on sale through a network of retailers in the UK, Europe, Japan and Korea and directly to other territories, whilst a range of ex-display and factory seconds are available from its factory outlet in Princes Risborough.
Ercol's Gina recliner was the first piece of domestic furniture to be awarded the Ergonomics Excellence award by FIRA, the UK furniture industry's independent furniture test house. In 2008 Ercol launched two bedroom ranges - Savona and Paladina - taking it back into the bedroom. Ercol has been awarded the Manufacturing Guildmark by the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers in recognition of its commitment to design and to quality of manufacture. Ercol's Treviso range was shortlisted for the annual Wood Awards held in the autumn of 2009. In 2010 Ercol was awarded two Design Guild Marks by the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers out of only twenty issued for the year. The Design Guild Mark is issued by Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers – the industry’s guild. The guild mark is awarded “for excellence in the design of furniture. It will mark and reward the work of the finest designers working in Britain.” The first award was in recognition of the designs of the company’s founder, Lucian Ercolani, embodied in the Originals range.
The Originals are a small collection of pieces reissued from Ercol's back catalogue. The Old Man, as he is affectionately known within the company, trained as a furniture designer at Shoreditch Technical Institute, making his first piece of furniture in 1907. The Originals collection reflected a break from the heavy, ornate pre-war styles towards a new clean lined, simple elegance. They were first launched in the late 1950s. The second award was for Matthew Hilton with the Treviso desk. It shares a similar clean lined simplicity with the Originals, whilst it has a striking modern feel, with its signature sloping front legs and drawer fronts. Matthew was named British Designer of the year by Elle Decoration in 2008. Born in 1957, he studied at Portsmouth College of Art and then at Kingston Polytechnic. In 1985 he set up the Matthew Hilton Design Studio to work with a number of renowned manufacturers and retailers, including Ercol. As well as its presence in UK retailers' stores, and its own showroom at its Princes Risborough facility, Ercol attends a number of trade and consumer exhibitions and holds a number of events at its showroom.
In 2009 Ercol will be exhibiting at the design show Trent London which is open to the public and in January 2010 at the national trade show at the NEC, Birmingham Interiors Birmingham. Ercol partnered design magazine Wallpaper for one of the major installations at the 2009 London Design Festival - a modern interpretation of the Chair Arch, to be given pride of place in the Central Courtyard of the V&A Museum in September 2009. In Victorian times towns would mark a particularly special occasion, such as the visit of a VIP, with an arch adorned with the town's main commodity. The arch would then form the centre of festivities. In 1877 High Wycombe, famous for its chair manufacturing, built a chair arch for the visit of Queen Victoria to Disraeli at his home, Hughenden Manor. The idea originated with the Town Council, who deputised it to one of their members, Walter Skull, to organise through the Chair Manufacturers Association. Just over fifty years later his company, Walter Skull & Son, would become part of Ercol.