Featherston Chairs

Grant Featherston is a name inextricably linked with the Australian furniture industry and with innovation and creativity in furniture design.

He is one of the few ‘name’ designers Australia has produced. Grant led the innovations in furniture design in Australia during the fifties and sixties, exploring new ideas and new technologies: formed plywood, blow- moulded plastic and structural and soft foams. His name was closely associated with the success of leading Australian furniture companies and became well-known to the Australian public. His Talking chair for the Australian Pavilion at Expo ’67, Montreal, Canada, gained the attention of Australians and the world.

Unfortunately the pioneering design work of Grant Featherston and his contemporaries is not being continued today. Instead, with a few exceptions, we have anonymous designs from anonymous designers. Those wanting flair or excitement look to the importers’ showrooms.

With the Australian dollar’s current low exchange rate the way is wide open for the furniture industry ‘to take on the world’. The potential for design in the furniture industry that Grant Featherston demonstrated twenty and thirty years ago is even greater today.

The Design Board congratulates the National Gallery of Victoria on its initiative in mounting this exhibition of one of Australia’s finest designers. It is pleased to have been able to provide financial assistance to the project. I trust this exhibition will not only remind us of past achievements, but also provide an example and inspiration for others to follow.

Sourced from: Terrance Lane & John Holt, Featherston Chairs, National Gallery of Victoria, 1988, p. 5