Original Art Deco Cloud Lounge Suite by Epstein – price on application

Iconic Cloud Lounge Suite by Epstein in leather with walnut banding. Excellent condition. From a collection of Art Deco furniture at the 3000 sq.ft. Showroom and Warehouse in Marsh Green, Edenbridge, Kent 01959 561234

The quality of the furniture produced by the Epstein brothers of London’s East End is recognised as among the finest in the British Art Deco style – both in terms of design and production. Dr Roger Shuff, a research historian who has worked with The Design Gallery for 20 years, is one of the UK’s leading experts on the firm and explains:

Morris (also known as Solomon) Epstein (1870-1940), a Russian immigrant cabinet maker arrived in London’s East End in 1890, and subsequently married Katie Fellner (1882-1960) in 1901. Their children included six sons born in the early years of the twentieth century: Reuben (1902-1965); Isaac – known as Sidney (1904-1974); David (1906-1972); Harry (1909-1996); Louis – also known as Lewis or Lou (1911-1986) and Michael – also known as Myer (1915-1999). During the 1920s all six brothers followed their father into the furniture trade as cabinet makers and joined the firm M Epstein & Sons at 1 Gun Street, London, E1. Morris retired in 1929 and his young sons – most notably Harry and Louis – went on to design and produce some of the most innovative furniture of the Art Deco period, trading as furniture makers, wholesalers and retailers under a variety of business names both individually and in partnership with one another.

Their style reflected the avant-garde influences of the Paris 1925 ‘Art Deco’ exhibition, seen in their use of curvilinear forms and rich veneers. These traits blended, almost unconsciously, with a certain grandeur and scale that derived from their family’s Russian background, and found expression in designs that were also in tune with the Modernist ethos emanating from continental Europe. The styling of the iconic ‘Cloud’ dining, lounge and salon suites, for instance, conveyed that sense of sunshine, fresh air and exercise that was promoted as the key to a healthy mind and body, and as an antidote to any lingering shadows of the horrors of the First World War.

Furniture in this ‘Art Deco’ style was produced from the 1930s until at least the 1950s, alongside the Georgian and other reproduction pieces that Morris Epstein had excelled in as a cabinet maker. Finished to high standards, many pieces were custom-made in veneers of burr maple, sycamore or walnut. After World War II, several of the Epstein brothers, including Harry & Lou, David and Michael, and Sidney had showrooms in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin. A conservative, and singularly British, Art Deco style became the Epstein trademark.

Art Deco pieces from before World War II were not signed. From the 1950s, a small number of Epstein pieces in the Art Deco/Modern style were labelled ‘H. & L. Epstein Ltd’, by a company owned by Harry and Louis; others were marked ‘Epstein & Goldman’, a firm of which Sidney Epstein was a partner. While many pieces of Art Deco are often described as “Epstein”, The Design Gallery’s extensive stock, knowledge and documentary material has enabled definite attributions to fluted, demi-lune cocktail cabinets, “cloud” lounge and dining suites and certain U-base designs.