Full Description
The intriguing life story of a designer who mastered the revolutionary cast aluminum process to produce world-class art, although working in near anonymity in the same factory for 50 years.
A rare 1947 catalogue of modern furniture using a revolutionary cast aluminum process reveals the splendid art of James Leonard and a rich, complex story of conflict between design and industry. John Leonard's Project X successfully launched a flood of striking chairs and desks into British and American schools, but his most beautiful design, the X202 "Armchair" remains unknown. By contrast, the paired "Student Chair," the X200, sold over a million copies, the most successful chair in British history. The central mystery of the chairs' contrasting fates involves his boss's dismissal as 'unfit' at the peak of success, the revolutionary WWII Mosquito fighter/bomber, obsession with a winning racecar, mysterious double lives, a financial scandal, and the eternal battle between art and business. As Wyeth details Leonard's double life and the unprecedented achievement of Project X, he reveals James Leonard to be a singularly talented designer.
A fascinating tale of discovery that will intrigue the everyday reader as much as design historians and specialists.
Contents
Foreword and Introduction
Art & Industry
1. The Art: of James Leonard: against all odds
2. The Industry: The factory and James Leonard
3. Johnny Appleton and John Leonard
4. The X202: The best chair in the world?
Battles
5. The politics of design: The Society of Industrial Artists and James Leonard.
6. Fielding's Folly: The Mosquito and Geoffrey De Havilland
7. Drawing the Dead Horse: Aluminum as a risky choice of material.
8. Project X: Conception and planning
9. Deep Midwinter: 1947
Project X
10. Aluminum Furniture catalogue (1947/8)
11. The X200 chair: Most successful chair in British history
12. The X301 Master's desk
13. The X103 stacking table
14. X+: The X100 desk and other desks
Design: Britain and the World
15. Pugin to Summers: Leonard and furniture design in Britain 1840-1947
16. Im-Prouve: Leonard and Appleton meet Prouvé, and the X103 copy
17. Aalto: pushing bent plywood to the limits
18. Project X meets the World: Ponti and Domus 1948
Downs & Ups
19. Not-the-X202: The wooden arm battle, the Appleton scandal, and the 1967 Composite PL80 chairs.
20. The Mystery of James Leonard: Two lives
21. Seven mysteries solved.
Addendum
Making a masterpiece: The X202 reborn
Notes
Bibliography
Index
