Featherston

The first book to celebrate the life and work of Australian designer Grant Featherston, best known for his Contour chairs and creator of hundreds of mid-century designs.

This is the first book to celebrate the life and work of Grant Featherston (1922–1995), the Melbourne-based industrial designer best-known for his Contour chairs. This collection was designed and developed in the early 1950s and remains highly sought after by mid-century modern collectors in Australia and overseas – often fetching $10,000 or more at auction.

Featherston, later joined by his second wife, Mary, designed hundreds of chairs over the next thirty years; however, this astonishing Australian industrial design partnership has gone largely uncelebrated until now. Featherston focuses on the chairs produced between 1947 and 1975 and presents a new biography of the designer, drawn from archival research and interviews with his peers. It is extensively illustrated with over 250 beautiful photographs and includes a selection from the previously unpublished personal archive of Ian Howard, the former Managing Director of Melbourne-based manufacturer Aristoc.

Contents List

Preface • Introduction • 1. The Early Years • 2. The Contour Range • 3. Beyond Wood 4. The Age of Steel: The Aristoc Years • 5. The Talk of the Towns • 6. The Search for an Australian Style • 7. Into the Space Age: The Future is Plastic • 8. One Night Seats 9. Age of the Beanbag • 10. Revival and Legacy

List of Contributors

Nic Bailey