Gerald Summers & Marjorie Butcher: Makers of Simple Furniture: 1931–1940

$80.00 at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

by Martha Deese (Author), Gerald Summers (Artist), Marjorie Butcher (Artist) In 1931, the English designer Gerald Summers (1899–1967) and his partner, Marjorie Butcher (1909–96), opened their London shop Makers of Simple Furniture. A small company, they produced made-to-order furniture in limited quantities. Until the firm’s closing in 1940, Makers of Simple Furniture produced hundreds of ingenious furniture designs in plywood. Conceived, in Summers’ words, as “furniture for the concrete age,” this singular…