Description
This is a super cool mid century smoked glass tulip table & 6 chairs designed by Maurice Burke for Arkana in the 1960s. Comes in a funky rare colour combination of black chairs with lemon seat pads on aluminium ‘star’ bases. The chairs, as well as being swivel style, are the ‘self-returning’ swivel type so ‘spring’ back to their original orientation when swivelled. A rare table combination too of smoked glass top on aluminium base.
Arkana furniture seems to have been made originally in Dundee or Falkirk. The pieces they are best known for are the tulip ranges which are 1960s and 70s versions of the designs of Eero Saarinen for Knoll in the mid 1950s . The tulip and star ranges are mainly seen in white, the tables with laminate tops and metal bases, but sometimes also the more expensive and stylish ones in rosewood on aluminium bases. At some point in the mid to late 1960s Arkana was taken over by Christie Tyler, who by that stage already owned Avalon Furniture, and production of Arkana pieces subsequently moved from Scotland to Bath. Christie Tyler were a successful upholstery manufacturer who, in the 1960s, started to take over furniture makers such as Avalon, Bath Cabinet Makers and Arkana. They seem to have had major problems around 1985 and closed Avalon at this time, BCM and Arkana having gone prior to that, in the late 1970s. Christie Tyler went bankrupt in 2005. Unfortunately Christie Tyler’s history is typical of British furniture and upholstery manufacture with various takeovers, closures and financial problems. Some brand names still survive but now have little to do with their original roots.
There are a couple of very small ‘nibbles’ to the edge of the table top but the set is in super overall condition. The seat pads and covers will obviously show a little of their use but are in good shape and definitely good to use.
Table – H73cm x W121cm x D121cm
