A Younger Ltd

About A Younger Ltd

A Younger Ltd was a high quality British furniture manufacturer that led style and contemporary taste in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Younger furniture was low volume, well made and aimed at the top end of the market. Younger was amongst the first firms to make Scandinavian style furniture in the fifties and one of the first manufacturers to abandon the style in search of something more original in the late sixties.

As early as January 1955 Younger marketed their first teak dining suite, Moselle. Two years later, they introduced Volany, a new range of teak furniture which they sold for a further ten years. Younger's top designer was John Herbert, the firm's design director. He won three awards from the Furniture Makers' Guild in 1960 for a sideboard and two tables. All three were similar to contemporary Scandinavian furniture. The sideboard was constructed from solid afromosia, an African wood of similar colour and appearance to teak; manufacturers often used it to complement teak, because it was easier to work. John Herbert veneered the drawers in teak and completed the design with simple, round, wooden handles. The first of the two tables combined teak and rosewood veneers, a combination that was to become very popular later in the 'sixties, the other was made in solid afromosia. In the mid sixties, John Herbert moved away from teak when he designed a new dining set in African walnut for Younger. The firm was indicating a move away from popular taste and pioneering a new direction in furniture.

By 1967, teak was so popular that John Nickson, Managing Director of A Younger Ltd, commented: "instead of finding it difficult to purchase a teak dining set - as it was twelve years ago - the problem now is to find anything else!"

From: retrowow.co.uk