Chair of the Month: August 2024

Chair of the Month for August is this upholstered ‘Toledo’ Chair made by Parker Knoll in about 1951.

Unusually, it has a metal frame which has been made to look like wood. This was because of because of timber shortages following the Second World War.  

Parker Knoll were formed when Frederick Parker, who had been making furniture since 1898, went into partnership with Willi Knoll in 1929. Parker had been one of the first High Wycombe factories to make upholstered furniture. Knoll had invented a new form of sprung furniture with a coiled steel wire on both the seat and the back. Parker Knoll quickly became a household name. Production moved out of High Wycombe in the 1990s.

You can see this chair in Wycombe Museum’s newly refurbished chair galleries, which are now fully open.