Design moment: Model C chair, c.1962

From its inception in 1959, Coras Trachtála, the export board, voiced its concern about the design deficit in Irish manufacturing, and the lack of Irish designers. The State body’s ongoing attempt to break into export markets showed clearly that while the skills in ceramics, furniture making and textiles were very much alive in the country, the sort of products being produced were perceived as old-fashioned.

The grand plan to establish the Kilkenny Design Workshops (1963) would come soon after, but to address the immediate problem a scheme was established to bring in design consultants from abroad who could work with small indigenous Irish manufacturers. Royal College of Art graduate Arthur Edwards (1930-2009) was one of these. He arrived in Navan to work for John Hogg & Co, bringing his design education and his experience of working with UK contemporary furniture maker White & Newton – itself a company heavily inspired by Scandinavian design.

At Hogg – later renamed Crannac – he designed contemporary chairs, tables and sideboards which were well received at the export board's many expos in London and New York. The 1969 issue of Coras Trachtála's Export magazine noted in a feature on the Irish furniture industry that "The Crannac 'Model C' chair has been a seminal influence on Irish furniture production".

Looking at it now, the most remarkable thing about the Model C chair is not that it kicked off a new era of Irish design but that it shows that, for a brief time, Ireland produced commercially viable contemporary furniture.