Category: furniture design architectural ceramics products product for hoem retail design

Lloyd Loom Barnes armchair   

The Lloyd Loom process was invented in 1917 by the American Marshall B. Lloyd, who twisted kraft paper round a metal wire, placed the paper threads on a loom and wove them into what was to become the traditional Lloyd Loom fabric. Lloyd Loom chairs quickly became very popular in the United States and in 1921, Marshall B. Lloyd sold his patent to an English manufacturer, which used Lloyd Loom in an original manner to create a collection of typical English furniture. Lloyd Loom was soon all the rage in Europe. At the height of its popularity, in the 1930s, Lloyd Loom furniture could be found in hotels, restaurants and tea rooms, as well as aboard a Zeppelin, cruise ships and ocean-going liners. When the factory in England was bombed at the end of the Second World War, the production of Lloyd Loom chairs came to a halt in Europe.

Lloyd Loom of Spalding furniture is still manufactured in the traditional way in their Lincolnshire Factory. Kraft paper is twisted round a metal wire, forming paper threads that are woven into mats. This ‘upholstery’ is then attached to a beech wood frame, many companies use inferior woods such as rattan and employ, labour from the far east – currently Lloyd Loom of Spalding are the only remaining British Manufacturer of Lloyd Loom and remain true in their designs to the original practices of Marshall B. Lloyd, other popular European manufacturers of Lloyd Loom include Neptune and Vincent Sheppard.