GEORGE VI TIGER WOOD? DRAWERS

[Lloyd Nightingale]

Hi
I was wondering if anybody knows anything at all about a chest of drawers I have. It is a 4 drawer chest of drawers which I think is made from Tiger Oak or Tiger wood. It also has a stamp on the back GR VI and a coronet symbol with written down the side WI & CO 1941. At first I thought it was WW2 Utility furniture but discovered today that 'Utility Furniture' wasn't introduced until 1942. If anyone can help me out with any info on this lovely piece of furniture it will be greatly appreciated. Here are a couple of pics
Many thanks
Lloyd

[ghopper1924]

Tiger WOOD, OK, not tiger oak. Not familiar with "utility furniture" as it relates to WWII.

Anyway, it's an interesting wood grain. Tiger wood is now being farmed in South America, but in the 1940s it was being over harvested and was in the process of becoming endangered, which it still is in its native Africa.

[mart]

Did some checking on your chest and it seems that it could be a piece of the utility furniture !!  However I think the GR stands for Gordon Russell who was chairman of the committee and one of the designers !!

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=utility%20furniture%20catalogue%20of%201943

The chest does not have the approved stamp ( CC41 ) does it ??  It could be one of the pieces that were submitted for approval prior to production !!  All of the designs had to be approved by the committee !!  The link has some pages from the 1943 catalogue !! 

[ghopper1924]

Amazing. I knew nothing about utility furniture, and now I do. Always something to learn about around here!

[mart]

Neither did I till I searched it !!  Seems some of them,, (there were 4 main designers)  Gordon Russell, Ernest Clench, Herman Lebus and John Gloag,,wanted to go with an Arts & Crafts style and some wanted to go with the more modern Scandinavian designs  !! Since this chest is in an odd  wood for the time  (woods had to be approved too) I am guessing that some submitted designs to the committee hoping for approval with whatever they had on hand !!  The production pieces were all stamped with the CC41 same as the clothing they distributed !!    Most of the furniture was made by small independent mfrs !!
It was an interesting learning experience !!

[Ipcress]

The GR isn't for Gordon Russell, it's part of the Royal cypher with the crown beneath, as Lloyd said in his opening post.

It's almost certainly a piece made for the war department ( there may even have been an arrow where the damaged part before the date is marked )  and probably a very early piece of utility furniture, possibly designed by Russell

The use of this wood probably influenced some of his designs using afrormosia

I'll contact a couple of people i know and send them the images.

[mart]

LOL !!  And where were you earlier Ipcress ??  We have to guess at this stuff !!  When all the articles said that every piece of utility furniture had the CC41 stamp but this one did not,, I assumed it may have been the designers initials !!   Logical,, if not correct !!  Thanks for the correction !!

[ghopper1924]

Excellent guesswork, Mart. I was clueless. A point for you!