Domestic Furniture

Following the First World War, Gordon Russell returned determined not only to create for future generations work of quality, but also "decent furniture for ordinary people".
He embarked on designing groups of dining room and bedroom furniture,
and individual pieces for living room areas.
Gordon Russell did not have the same fear of the the Arts & Crafts
Movement - he always felt that if he were to achieve his objective,
the machine must play its part alongside handwork.
By the mid twenties the firm was making a wide range of domestic
furniture. The Weston dining room was particularly significant as
apart from hand assembly, it was entirely machine made and proved very
popular.
The same philosophy continued into the thirties, although by now, with
the move to modernism, Gordon Russell had stopped designing.
In the post war years furniture for the home continued to be important
to the firm, although it became increasingly difficult to sell
quality, as many of the smaller specialist retailers succumbed to the
larger groups.
The dilemma at that time was the every increasing demand and success
of the firm`s furniture in the specifier markets, where design and
quality were recognised.
This led eventually to the firm reluctantly deciding to give up
producing domestic furniture, and to turn entirely to the contract
market.