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FEATHERSTON 

Thomas & Hudson 

GEOFF ISAAC 

THE AGE OF STEEL | 3

14 | FEATHERSTON 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

In North America, plywood was about to take centre stage in the world 

of design. In 1940, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, 

announced a competition now commonly referred to as the Organic 

Design in Home Furniture competition. Charles Eames and Eero 

Saarinen, who were both employed as instructors at the Cranbrook 

Academy at the time, decided to enter in partnership. Both designers 

were keen to investigate the possibilities of moulding plywood into 

chairs using compound curves. They hoped, thereby, to move beyond 

the one-directional bent furniture of Alvar Alto, Marcel Breuer and 

others, into a new technical realm — shaping plywood simultaneously 

into one-piece two-directional curvilinear forms. 

Alvar Alto had, in fact, displayed a prototype chair, incorporating 

compound moulded plywood, as far back as 1932. Walter Gropius 

designed the A1 chair in 1936 featuring a single compound moulded 

component designed to form both the back and rear legs. Gropius even 

got as far as applying for patents for the production process. However, 

both chairs encountered problems upon entering the production 

process and both projects were abandoned. 48 Although Saarinen 

and Eames could not claim to have discovered the potential for 

incorporating plywood compound curves in furniture, they could still 

be first to successfully get a design into production. 

The six chairs and associated furniture developed for the competition 

famously triumphed, and the two designers took home six of the eight 

prizes awarded to Americans in March 1941 (there was a separate 

competition for international designers). 

The exhibition of winning entries opened in September 1941, and the 

chairs caused a sensation. It is likely that copies of the catalogue from 

the show (with a print run of 10,500) made it over to Australia at the 

time. Certainly, copies of Arts and Architecture from December 1941, 

with a double-page spread on the competition, would have come to 

the attention of people interested in design internationally. 

As part of the prize MOMA rather bravely (or strangely) for a museum, 

committed itself to taking the winning entries into production. 

However, while the Eames/Saarinen entries gave the impression 

they were at an advanced stage of readiness to enter production (an 

impression doubtlessly enhanced through the supply of detailed 

drawings and model chairs photographed in model houses, to give 

the viewer the impression they were looking at the actual product) 

the reality was somewhat different. Eames developed his technique to 

bend plywood by layering veneers in an especially constructed mould 

— using an airbag to force the thin wooden sheets into the curves 

and using steam to produce the heat needed to set adhesives. The 

resultant shells were not much more than a crude proof of concept, 

demonstrating the ability to create compound curves from a single 

Opposite: (Fig. 21) Profile of the Relaxation chair. 

38 | FEATHERSTON THE EARLY YEARS | 39

A secret of the Contour’s comfort is that the ‘back is bent so that the 

lower portion at least therefore is concave forwardly’, 94 increasing 

the chair’s ability to mimic the natural curves of the body. Additional 

comfort was provided by applying a thin padding beneath the 

buttoned-down upholstery. Rubber was used for the seat and 

horsehair and wadding for the back. 

The tapered legs are splayed and fitted to two diagonally-crossed struts 

that support the shell and enhance the floating effect. This dramatically 

innovative solution was immediately noticed by the homemaker press 

with Joan Leyser’s review in Home Beautiful commenting: 

It is the relationship of this shell to the under-structure which gives 

the whole chair its quiet elegance. 95 

A variety of timbers were used for the legs, including Tasmanian Oak 

and Victorian Ash, with Silky Oak being the most common. From 

1952, production of Contours moved from Featherston’s factory in 

Collingwood to Emerson Bros, in South Melbourne. 

Designed to flex as seated guests shifted position, the chairs caused 

a few startled responses when they first appeared. As Featherston 

himself noted, ‘Some people might almost think they are about 

to collapse when they sit on the chair. But by flexing with almost 

every position — as a chair should — it makes sitting quite a new 

experience.’ 96 

In December 1952, the R160 (fig. 43-45) won the Design of the Month 

award by the Society of Interior Designers and is the most commonly 

found (and mostly widely sought-after) Featherston chair. 97 

It is still made under licence by Gordon Mather Industries in Melbourne 

and was the first model to appear in the recent wave of Chinese copies. 

Left and overleaf: (Figs. 43-45) The R160 was the most popular model in the 

Contour range and remains the most commonly found. Their ‘sculpturistic’ 

design ensures they look appealing from any angle. 

64 | FEATHERSTON THE CONTOUR RANGE | 65

68 | FEATHERSTON THE CONTOUR RANGE | 69

TELEVISION SERIES 1953 

Television arrived in Australia relatively late, in 1956. Suddenly living 

rooms had to be re-orientated, as Australians became more interested 

in studying a small flickering screen rather than looking at what was 

outside their windows, as people had done for centuries before. 

Grant Featherston was ideally placed to take advantage of this 

opportunity and, in a stroke of marketing genius, he fully capitalised on 

it by producing a group of Contour models named Television chairs, 

released in 1953. 

These new models were specifically designed for continuous hours of 

sitting in front of a television set and their lightness made them ideally 

suited to being easily repositioned around the room when not being 

used for viewing. 

The Television models were unveiled at an exhibition at the Federal 

Hotel, which drew a rather tongue-in-cheek response from one reviewer: 

The Television ‘Space Suite’ which intrigued us, has a square hole at 

the bottom of the back of each chair. This has obvious advantages, not 

the least being that having tired of one’s guest it is possible to boot them 

out of your house without even asking them to stand up. 107 

By adding holes to the range, the chairs gained an illusion of lightness 

and could help make rooms look bigger, particularly relevant for 

the increasing number of consumers living in small apartments. 

The hole was also claimed to facilitate wider freedom of movement, 

accommodating shifting positions and creating a more comfortable 

seating experience. Eames used holes in his furniture, as well. As far 

back as 1940, the Conservation and Relaxation chairs, submitted for 

the MOMA competition in New York, featured similar apertures in their 

backs and could well have provided Featherston with the inspiration 

for this innovation in the Contour range. 

The Television series included the BS211H two-seater sofa (fig. 74) 

which sold for £44/2/-, the B210H hair chair (fig. 81) at £29/14/6. Despite 

the timely launch of the Television series furniture sales struggled 

when television was launched as consumers gave priority to buying a 

receiver. 108 

Left and Opposite: (Figs. 71-72) The B230. Images courtesy Leonard Joel. 

Above: (Fig. 73) According to the homemaker press of the day, the Curl-up 

chair allowed ladies ‘to dangle legs comfortably without looking ungainly’. 



As the shortages caused by World War II eased, Australia 

entered a period of prosperity. Featherston found he was less restricted 

by the availability of material and began to move beyond wood to 

incorporate other materials into his creations. As the decade progressed, 

Featherston looked for ways to expand his business and decided to 

vertically integrate, opening Australia’s first trade, retail showroom, to 

get direct access to the burgeoning interior design industry. 

CANE METAL CHAIR 1954 

The Cane Metal chair (figs. 102–105) was the result of a commission 

from the famous Melbourne architect, Roy Grounds and his wife 

Betty, for their new Toorak home. At almost the same time 

Terence Conran designed the C4 chair, featuring a steel rod 

frame and cane seat woven onto the frame. 123 

The British design is more angular than the Australian creation 

and is noted to highlight the popularity of these materials at 

that time rather than imply plagiarism in either direction. 

Featherston’s steel frame and cane chair was put into 

production in 1955 by E & F Industries and remained in 

production until the early 1960s. Quite an achievement 

for this first major design not made from wood. 

Above/opposite: (Figs. 104-105) The Cane Metal chair was designed specifically 

for Melbourne architect, Roy Grounds and his wife for their new house in Toorak. 

In this production model the back has been reinforced with the addition of a cross 

member, not seen in the original version. This was typical of Featherston’s approach 

to manufacturing with continuous improvements made to basic models as 

production continued to improve durability or reduce production costs. 



53 ELASTIC EASY CHAIR 

The 53 Elastic Easy chair (Figs. 108–111) represents a significant 

departure from the Contour range, the plywood frame was replaced 

with a flexible metal frame, slung with two-inch (5 cm), Italian rubber 

webbing under the upholstery. The seat cushion is suspended on 

tension springs, arranged in a ring. The cover was designed to be 

removable for cleaning. The Elastic Easy Chair was designed for 

relaxation as Featherston explained: 

The conception of this chair began with an idea of a chair which 

would form a flexible shell or enclosing shape for the human body, 

giving comfort, support and relaxation. 

It is large, body-supporting, utterly comfortable — and space 

saving, since it has only twenty per cent of the cubic dimensions 

of a conventional easy chair. 

The ‘Elastic Chair’ is designed to be crawled into — curledup-in 

— snuggled into – with complete comfort in any position. 129 

Replacing plywood to form the shell of the chair offered a clear 

advantage, as observed by Boyd for his review in The Age: 

This (combination of elastic and foam) retains the light form-fitting 

lines of all modern furniture but allows the chair rather than your form to 

bend if the two don’t happen to coincide at all times. 130 

In 1959, Pierre Paulin’s Mushroom chair received much critical acclaim 

for its pioneering construction. The Mushroom was a development 

of an earlier design, the Crapaud (Toad), with rubber replacing 

woven webbing, the wood of the frame was replaced with steel and 

the horsehair padding with Pirelli rubber foam. Featherston was 

experimenting with exactly the same production techniques nearly 

half a decade before the Mushroom was released. While Paulin’s design 

has been credited as revolutionising chair construction Featherston’s 

innovations for the Elastic Easy Chair went unnoticed. 131 Perhaps 

Featherston’s mistake was to retain wooden legs for the Elastic Easy 

Chair, which gave the design a more traditional appearance but masked 

the innovative construction techniques developed to bring this chair 

to the market. In any event, given its comparative rarity, it appears 

that the Elastic Easy Chair failed to inspire the market and 

certainly did not attract any media coverage acknowledging 

the significance of the manufacturing process. 

The Elastic Easy Chair was launched with the 51 Easy Chair 

together with a matching set of side units, designed to provide flexible 

storage solutions. The range was manufactured by E & F Industries Pty Ltd. 

The E53 was released at £25/6/- and required 3 2/3 yards (3.4 m) of fabric. 132 

Although not as rare as the 51, the 53 Elastic Easy chair still commands 

prices of over $10,000. 

Centre, below and overleaf: (Figs. 108-111) The E53 represented another 

significant departure for Featherston, with plywood replaced in the sides of this 

model by rubber webbing hung off a metal frame. Springs attached to a ring 

provided support for the seat under the cushion. Designed for modern living the 

covers could be removed for cleaning. 


BEYOND WOOD | 123

MITZI 1957 

One of Featherston’s first challenges at Aristoc was to get the Mitzi to 

market. This nesting or stackable chair, aimed at the conference hall 

and public assembly venues, ‘had been on the drawing board for some 

time’. 156 The result cannot, therefore, be claimed as a pure Featherston 

design however, there are several signature elements which illustrate 

the designer’s involvement in this project. 

The ‘floating’ illusion was enhanced, by raising the seat above the cross 

struts supporting the legs, using thin steel rods or pins to support the 

seat. The supports were hidden away from the usual lines of view, a 

technique that would be returned to many times with future Aristoc 

models. The legs were tapered — down to just ½ inch (1 cm) in some 

places and the back raised away from the seat to assist in emphasising 

lightness. Legs are usually found in black but were available in a range 

of five stove enamelled colours plus white. Both the seat and the back 

of the chair were slightly contoured and the plywood padded with 

polyurethane foam to provide comfort. 

The back was difficult to upholster, as fabrics of the day lacked stretch, 

so achieving a snug fit across the back was a challenge. The curved seat 

also caused problems for the upholsterer seeking to achieve uniform 

thickness at the edge. The problem was resolved by applying garden 

hose pipe around the edge of the ply to allow a smooth and consistent 

finish to the edge of the seat to be achieved with limited effort — 

a technique Featherston had developed to solve similar problems for 

the Cone and E51 chairs two years earlier. 

Howard acknowledges the important contribution Featherston made in 

getting the Mitzi to market: 

One of the first things we did with Grant was the Mitzi. Part of the 

glamour and sophistication of Mitzi was the tailored tube legs; they were 

unique as there was no other similar item on the market. Aristoc produced a 

machine to taper the tubes. We took 7 /8 inch (2.2 cm) round (16 SWG) tubing 

which we tapered and designed a special foot to encompass the base of it. 157 

The brass-plated ferrules and feet, developed for the Mitzi, were to 

become a regular feature among the Aristoc models. These clever 

innovations allowed the weight, transported down the finely tapered legs, 

to be dissipated, effectively minimising indentations on floor coverings. 

The Saturn extendable dining table, with larger tapered steel legs, was 

also produced to complement the chairs. As with the chairs the top of 

the table appears to float off the base with thin metal rods supporting 

the top, again recessed from view to enhance the floating illusion 

for the casual viewer. The table featured a cleverly designed middle 

section that could be removed, and shorter feet, stored clipped to the 

underside of the midsection, could be screwed into the base allowing 

the extension to double as a coffee table when not in use. This made 

the dining setting ideal for apartment dwellers or others suffering from a 

lack of space. 

A range of four stools — 18’ (46 cm), 21’ (53 cm), 25’ (64 cm) and 29’ 

(74 cm) high; all with the same top of 12’ (30 cm) x14’ (36 cm) were 

introduced to the Mitzi range. 

To the casual observer today the Mitzi probably looks a little dull and 

ordinary, but when it was released it was, quite rightly, recognised as 

innovative and even glamorous. 

In a 

promotional pamphlet, 

produced in 1967 (fig. 147), Aristoc 

claimed that the Mitzi was, ‘the 

first chair to incorporate tapered 

steel legs, contoured upholstery 

and stove enamel finish’. 

The result was spectacularly 

successful. Despite being 

primarily il designed d for public venues (they can be 

stacked four high), the Mitzi became popular in the domestic market, 

undoubtedly assisted by the reasonably competitive price or about 

£10, plus fabric. 158 Sales quickly exceeded 300 per week, and became 

Aristoc’s top seller to date. Within 10 years it was claimed that 160,000 

Mitzi chairs had been produced, 159 with another report claiming that 

250,000 units had been sold by June 1967. 160 

An insight into the sophisticated appeal of the Mitzi is given by the 

fact they were selected to grace the top (20th) floor, 400 seat dining 

room of the new, glass-curtain-walled ICI headquarters (fig. 149). ICI 

House, designed by (Sir) Osborn McCutcheon (of Bates, Smart and 

McCutcheon), was Melbourne’s first skyscraper (now known as Orica 

House and on the Victorian Heritage Register). When in 1958 they 

moved in, ICI was an enormous manufacturing company with a strong 

commitment to modern design. The British-based company actively 

sought relationships with innovative designers to help create markets 

for their ‘new synthetic materials, such as Perspex, new synthetic fibres 

such as terylene, and new synthetic pigments used in paint, printing 

inks and dyes’. 161 Around the world ICI advertised in design and fashion 

magazines and directly supported selected designers to promote their 

products. ICI’s endorsement of the Mitzi, by using them to crown its new 

Australian headquarters, represented a significant achievement. 

Opposite page, left: (Fig.145) Detail of the seat of the Mitzi – revealing how the floating effect is achieved. Opposite page, right: (Fig.146) Featherston was always in 

search of solutions to improve the line of his designs. One of the secrets of the Mitzi, and the Delma that followed, was the development of innovative solutions to avoid 

having to attach the back of the chair by screwing through the frame. This shot reveals how this was achieved for the Mitzi. Many manufacturers copied Featherston 

designs but often failed to invest in the solutions needed to achieve the elegance of the original. This page, top: (Fig.147) The Mitzi dining suite, styled and photographed 

by Featherston for a promotional brochure. Featherston’s contribution to the production of high quality sales-material was key to Aristoc’s success. This page, inset: 

(Fig.148) Mitzi stools featured on the cover of Australian Home Beautiful. 



Opposite: (Fig. 155) The Pagodaline series, as featured in the April 1967 edition of 

Australian Home Beautiful, nearly 10 years after it was designed. 

Above: (Fig. 156) In the Pagodaline series the harsh, geometric steel frame is 

softened with the addition of shaped kauri-wood arms. As usual, Featherston 

minimised the support for the arms to enhance the illusion of floating off the frame. 


The innovation here was to develop a frame that required only one 

cross-rail (or strut) to hold the two sides of the frame together. This 

developed new territory for Featherston to explore, in his ongoing 

search to create designs with an impression of lightness and 

spaciousness, to enhance the floating effect. 

The strength of steel was used to create thin tapering legs at the front. 

At the rear the legs taper to the floor but also extended upward and 

are again elegantly tapered to support the backrest. The backrest 

itself is held away from the support, whilst in profile the cantilevered 

seat floats away from the back legs and extends over the front legs, 

successfully enhancing the effect of floating in space. 

This page and opposite: (Figs. 162-163) Scape dining chair, designed to appeal 

from any angle. 

176 | FEATHERSTON THE AGE OF STEEL | 177

The tapered legs were quite a technological achievement and Gordon 

Mather (who still makes Scape chairs under licence) reports that a 

quarter of a century after the Scape was designed, it was a struggle to 

find a contractor who could replicate the look. 

Not too many people can do the tapered steel legs. It is all about the 

tooling you can only taper to a certain length and then design the tool so 

you can taper on the other end. 170 

Aristoc rose to the challenge and created their own tools to develop the 

double-tapered legs. 

The advantages of the single strut are most apparent when the chair is 

compared with its predecessors the TY and RE. 

The frames are usually found in matt black although they were 

available in a ‘selected range of stove enamelled colours’. 171 

Both dining (1960) and lounge (March 1961) chairs were produced with 

two versions of the lounge chair available (with and without arms). The 

Scape lounge chair was released at £26 and required three yards (2.7m) 

of fabric. 172 

The lounge chairs in particular achieve a beautiful sculptural form, with 

the shape of the metal-framed plywood back and seat clearly inspired 

by petals, these chairs are attractive from any angle. 

The Scape series was also extended to an extendable dining table, a 

round dining table and side units but the series was not commercially 

successful at the time according to Ian Howard. 

Vinyl was at its height of popularity and many Scapes were produced 

with brightly coloured coverings. Today vinyl is considered by many 

people to be an inferior product but during the 1960s it enjoyed 

huge popularity in Australia, with the authors of The Australian Room 

observing: 

Those buying Porsches in Australia [in the 1960s] could choose between 

leather or vinyl for upholstery. Vinyl, with its added prestige, cost more. 173 

Australia’s love affair with vinyl was destined to last throughout the 

decade with the May 1970 edition of Plastics News reporting: 

Vinyl was first introduced to Australia about 20 years ago in a small 

range of colours. It now has about 50 per cent of the market for lounge 

suites, and a higher share of the overall furniture market because of its 

dominance in kitchen and dining areas. 174 

Below left: (Fig. 164) Scape lounge chair with arms. Below right and opposite: 

(Figs. 165-167) Scape lounge chair without arms. Featherston’s determination 

to create chairs with the appeal of sculptures, designs that look good from any 

angle, is clearly demonstrated in these images. 

178 | FEATHERSTON

In 1966, things were going well for Aristoc, reporting net profits of 

$120,000, up 46 per cent on the previous year, and the factory was 

finally connected to mains sewerage! A 15,000 square foot (1400 m 2 ) 

leasehold factory was established in Auburn (Sydney), to service the 

NSW market more efficiently. Licensees in Queensland (Carricks), West 

Australia (Jason Industries and then Davstoc Furniture Pty Ltd from 

1967), New Zealand and Fiji were manufacturing Aristoc chairs from 

components shipped from Melbourne. 190 

Although ultimately meeting with only limited success, Aristoc 

attempted to establish export markets in the region, concentrating 

efforts in Malaysia, Japan and Singapore. The tyranny of distance, 

prohibitive transportation costs and relatively high, local labor costs, 

restricted Aristoc’s ability to compete in developing markets, where 

demand was very limited. However, this was of little concern at the 

time, the company was growing strongly and remained profitable. 

While Featherston Interiors continued to service the retail market, and 

provide interior design services for smaller clients, Aristoc serviced large 

contracts direct. Aristoc proved itself to be a formidable competitor, 

quickly taking the lion’s share of the high-volume market. Aristoc chairs 

were installed at the Melbourne Planetarium (fig. 187); conference 

centres (including the Dallas Brooks Centre (fig. 185); airports – 

Tullamarine (Melbourne) and Mascot (Sydney) (fig. 188); stadiums and 

sporting venues (including Mooney Valley Racecourse), university lecture 

theatres in Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne including all the main 

lecture theatres in Melbourne and Monash universities (figs. 183-184)— 

where the seating remains until this day. 

Despite the constant innovation, nothing had been found to replace 

plywood and it was again used as the main component of the back 

and seat. However, the Varna marked the end of Featherston’s 20-year 

relationship with plywood, as this was to be the last time the material 

was incorporated into a production design. Thaisheen vinyl from ICI 

(designed to imitate the sheen of handloomed Thai silk), was the 

preferred choice for covering and was available in a range of colours. 

The Varna was released as a series (briefly using the name Cameo), with 

chairs (costing $40.40 each) and a round dining-table with a matching 

pedestal base and a traditional oblong table with satin chrome tube 

steel legs, which could be unscrewed for ease of transportation. 189 The 

tables were the recipient of a Good Design award. 

As with the Floating chair, safety concerns over chairs with only four 

feet (as opposed to a more stable five) have doubtlessly contributed to 

the fact that not many Varnas appear to have survived. 

Aristoc was awarded the shield for having the best display at the 1966 

Ideal Home Show at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. 190 

Most significantly, in late 1966 Aristoc purchased 50 per cent of Herman 

Miller (Australia), from Kerby Furniture, and set about manufacturing 

and distributing ‘what many people claim as the finest contemporary 

furniture in the world today’. 191 

This acquisition gave Howard the opportunity to visit the Herman Miller 

factory (where he found the Australian flag flying to celebrate his arrival) 

and make copious notes on every aspect of production together with 

the business and sales processes. Howard attempted to interest Herman 

Miller in the Tierstack system and even the possibility of Featherston 

creating a design for the modern design giant was discussed. In short, 

Aristoc was flying high, and the best was yet to come. 

Opposite: (Fig. 181) The Varna. 

Above: (Fig. 182) An advertisement for the Varna series (with chairs available in 

eight colours). Featherston was the photographer and set designer and would 

have spent hours meticulously arranging every detail for this shot. 



EXPO OPENS 

The Montreal Expo opened on 27 April 1967 and Harold Holt, the Prime 

Minister, went to Canada to open the Australian Pavilion (fig. 204). 

Ian Howard also went to Montreal for the opening, as part of a 

13-country round the world trip to find export markets. Howard had 

stopped off in Japan to represent the Australian Exhibitors’ Association 

at the Australian Trade Display at Osaka and at the Seventh Tokyo 

International Fair. 209 

This was significant as it was the first Australian Trade display to be 

held in Japan. Howard had been invited to lead the delegation by the 

Minster for Trade and Industry, John McEwen. 

Entrance to the Australian Pavilion was by way of a ramp covered 

with a charcoal green carpet. On entering the main exhibition space, 

automatic shoe cleaners wiped the soles of the attendee’s feet, in an 

effort to protect, the totally impractical, off-white carpet that covered 

the floor and extended up the walls of the exhibition space. At the top 

of the ramp, around 20,000 visitors every day were confronted with 

the spectacle of a huge open space, with acres of the off-white carpet 

matched by white woollen drapes framing two glass curtain walls. The 

floor was covered, but not crowded, with the Talking chairs, loosely 

arranged in groups to align with the topics featured in the Exhibition. 

Above: (Fig. 204) The Prime Minister, Harold Holt, was among the first to experience 

the delights of the Talking chair at the opening of the Australian Pavilion. 

Below: (Fig. 205) Four stewardesses in their bright orange outfits proudly 

modelling the Talking chairs in their new home at the Australian Pavilion. 

The interior of the Australian Pavilion, featured full height glass walls and totally 

impractical white-wool carpet. Image courtesy National Archive of Australia. 

212 | FEATHERSTON THE TALK OF THE TOWNS | 213

The Featherstons would have been aware of the phenomenal success 

of Robin Day’s Polypropylene chair, designed in 1963 and produced 

under licence locally by Furniture Makers of Australia. Day’s chair 

become an instant hit and sold literally millions of copies worldwide 

and still in production at the time of writing. Although in no way 

visually similar to the Stem, the Polypropylene chair was living proof 

that the market was prepared to embrace plastic-seating solutions. 

It was a long wait before the Featherstons got the chance to 

experiment with these new materials and found the production knowhow 

to respond to these inspirations. It then took a further 18 months 

to develop the Stem. 

According to Mary this was primarily Grant’s project. Following the 

release of the Stem in an interview for The Australian, Grant claimed: 

I was trying to find a way of using the minimum amount of materials 

to get from the base on the floor to the seat. The shape had to be 

sympathetic and complementary to the human form—and I wanted to 

use a technique where the structure and the shape were indivisible. 256 

The search for economy in design was driven by the desire to deliver 

a fashionable item at a budget price. It was primarily aimed at a 

younger audience, perhaps establishing a home for a first time and 

on a tight budget. 

Featherston loved a challenge, and the opportunity to experiment in 

both new material and new production techniques would doubtlessly 

have excited him. 

According to Mary Featherston, ‘Grant built cardboard models (little 

and big and full-size forms) that were used to make drawings which 

were then used to make the aluminium mould. That’s the process. 

Then it was quite tricky working out the connection between the inner 

supporting metal column and the seat shell.’ 257 

The double shell of the Stem chair seat was rotationally moulded in 

polyethylene in one piece; the polyethylene powder rotated at speed in 

two planes and heated so that the powder melts as it spins into place 

in the mould. It was a very expensive production process, requiring 

tools to be made from high-grade steel to exacting standards. It was 

also important to get the thickness correct—providing enough strength 

while remaining thin enough for the plastic to set in the mould quickly. 

‘People would not normally expect to sit on material 1/8 inch (0.3 cm) 

thick,’ Featherston claimed. 258 

The seat is connected to the injection-moulded ABS plastic base with 

a steel rod, providing rotation and increasing strength. Reflecting 

the properties of ABS plastic, the base has a slightly shinier finish 

compared with the polyethylene seat. Ian Howard claims the difference 

in finish was not foreseen and was a significant contributor to the 

ultimate commercial failure of the design. 

Right: (Fig. 224) The Stem – publicity shot styled and taken by Grant

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