Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

 THE FURNITURE TRADE 2Ö2 FURNITURE DESIGNERS AT WORK AT MESSRS. WAR1NG’S STUDIO.^' "" r I the question, “ How is modern fur- A niture produced?” no single answer is possible ; for the furniture trade is a trade of contrasts, and a description of the way in which one piece of furniture has been macle might be wholly inaccurate as applied to another which, in appearance, is not very dissimilar. In the furniture trade eighteenth century methods of production and twentieth century methods co-exist in a manner that is almost unique. It is quite possible that your drawing-room may contain a chair or cabinet that has been the object of the careful, almost loving, attention for a considerable time of two or three highly skilled craftsmen, working with hand tools only in a small workshop, while your dining-room contains a sideboard that has been turned out in a few hours in a gieat steam factory in which the modern principle of the division of labour has been carried to the utmost possible limit, and the duties of the workmen have been chiefly confined to “feeding” the various machines marvels of mechanical ingenuity —which have automatically performed nearly every part of the work, from the cutting up of the rough timber to the final decorative touches. Undoubtedly the present day ten- dency in this as in other trades is for machinery to displace hand labour, though it may be regarded as certain that hand work must always play an important part in an industry which has an artistic as well as a commercial and utilitarian side. To think - otherwise would be to despair of the artistic progress of the nation. I here are few parts of the country where furniture making is not carried on to a greater or less extent, but, like so many other trades, it tends to concentrate in a few special localities. The London centre of the trade is Curtain Road, E.C., and the adjoining s reets, which are largely given up to show- rooms and factories, though the quantity of furniture actually made in the locality is ess than it was some years ago, as many manufacturers have removed their works to various outlying districts. Of late years too, quite a little colony of furniture makers as sprung up in Berners Street, W. In I ottenham Court Road there is an astonish- ing congregation of retail shops, a circum- stance which makes the thoroughfare very attractive to engaged couples, but very little ot the furniture shown is made here Of provincial centres the most important and