Design Moment: Lloyd Loom chair, c.1917

What image pops into your mind when you hear that a chair is made from paper? Something experimental, maybe even architecturally avant garde?

Most likely the first mental image isn’t a Lloyd Loom chair – that pleasantly shaped, reassuringly solid, appealing old-fashioned chair .

In 1917 Marshall B Lloyd, an American, invented a technique of wrapping paper around wire which was then woven – on a loom – into a durable material. Combined with a beechwood frame, it made furniture far more cheaply than the laborious process of weaving cane.

A few years later Lloyd sold the patent to English company W Lusty & Sons, a prolific and inventive manufacturer, and by the early 1930s buyers could choose from more than 400 Lusty Lloyd Loom designs that ranged from Moses baskets for newborns to laundry baskets and bed headboards, to a range of chairs.

By then a Lusty Lloyd Loom chair was a familiar sight, in many colours, in homes, tea rooms and on the decks of ships, blending a sort of glamour with utilitarianism.

The Lusty Lloyd Loom company survived bombing of its vast factory during the second World War, but there were many turbulent years for the business until 2008 when the Lusty Furniture Company, backed by private investors, emerged.

In addition to reproducing some of the original designs, it offers new ones, all produced in Indonesia. Several other manufacturers also produce Lloyd Loom chairs, usually in the Far East.

It’s still possible to pick up vintage Lloyd Loom in junk shops or house clearance auctions – and it’s a poor car boot sale that doesn’t have at least one person selling a slightly rickety Lloyd Loom laundry basket, usually painted green or pink, with gold corners.