A Pair of Mid-Century Teak & Ebonised Meredew Bedside Tables c.1950-60

Origin: English
Period: Mid-20thC
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1950-60
Width: 16.75”
Depth: 12”
Height: 21.5” (each)

The British made pair of Meredew bedside or side tables, each with brass drop handles, the tops in teak and the tapering slender legs and stretchers being ebonised, each surviving from the third quarter of twentieth century England.

The tables are in ready to go order with some light marks to the legs and some aged staining to the tops as photographed. The drawers glide smoothly and the handles are original.

Meredew began in Islington in the nineteenth century, alongside Hard & Austin who supplied mirrors for overmantels and sideboards made by Daniel Meredew. Frederick Hard took over the Meredew cabinet-making business and, when he decided to expand, moved the firm to a purpose-built factory in Dunhams Lane, Letchworth in 1914. Hard was attracted by the ideals of the new Garden City and brought around fifty London families with him. The factory expanded over the years, employing 177 by 1938. Gio Ponti, Dior, Giacometti were all absorbed influences transferring to mainstream interior design.

The firm took on its first staff designer after the war; Alphons Loebenstein, a 57 year old German emigree whose ideas revolutionised the company. Loebenstein persuaded Fred Hard to abandon Meredew's traditional designs for a range of modern unit furniture. Between 1950 and 1965 the company's turnover increased around 40 times and staff numbers rose from 150 to almost 1500, with factories in Bradford and Pontefract as well as Letchworth, and a design team ('Planning Unit') in London. The firm merged with the BondWorth Group in 1969 and was later acquired by Stag of Nottingham. Meredew finally closed in 1990.

Slick, sexy, stylish.