Jack Pritchard
Encyclopedia
John Craven Pritchard (Hampstead
, London
, 8 June 1899 – Blythburgh
, Suffolk
, 27 April 1992) was a British furniture
designer
, who was very influential between the First and Second World Wars. His work is exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum
and the Museum of London
.
His daughter Jennifer and her husband Colin Jones designed Jack and Molly’s house “Isokon” in Dunwich Road, Blythburgh
, although it was controversially called 8 Angel Lane, where they moved to in retirement after living for many years in his famous Lawn Road Flats.
Jack’s business established in London, 1931 where he worked with some of the finest furniture designs. His most famous products being the Long Chair
designed by Marcel Breuer
, 1936 and the Penguin
Donkey designed for Pritchard's friend Allen Lane
by Egon Riss, 1939 both of which are still in production and made using shaped multi-ply (plywood) construction.
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 8 June 1899 – Blythburgh
Blythburgh
Blythburgh is a small English village in an area known as the Sandlings, part of the Suffolk heritage coast. Located close to an area of flooded marshland and mud-flats, in 2007 its population was estimated to be 300. Blythburgh is best known for its church, Holy Trinity, internationally known as...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, 27 April 1992) was a British furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
, who was very influential between the First and Second World Wars. His work is exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
and the Museum of London
Museum of London
The Museum of London documents the history of London from the Prehistoric to the present day. The museum is located close to the Barbican Centre, as part of the striking Barbican complex of buildings created in the 1960s and 70s as an innovative approach to re-development within a bomb damaged...
.
Life
In 1924 he married Rosemary (Molly) Cooke born 1900 - died 1985; they had two sons Jonathan and Jeremy born in 1926 and 1928. Jack also had a daughter Jennifer with Beatrix Tudor Hart.His daughter Jennifer and her husband Colin Jones designed Jack and Molly’s house “Isokon” in Dunwich Road, Blythburgh
Blythburgh
Blythburgh is a small English village in an area known as the Sandlings, part of the Suffolk heritage coast. Located close to an area of flooded marshland and mud-flats, in 2007 its population was estimated to be 300. Blythburgh is best known for its church, Holy Trinity, internationally known as...
, although it was controversially called 8 Angel Lane, where they moved to in retirement after living for many years in his famous Lawn Road Flats.
Designs
The house was named after IsokonIsokon
The London-based Isokon firm was founded in 1929 to design and construct modernist houses and flats, and subsequently furniture and fittings for them...
Jack’s business established in London, 1931 where he worked with some of the finest furniture designs. His most famous products being the Long Chair
Isokon Long Chair
The Isokon Long Chair is a chair designed by Marcel Breuer for the Isokon company in 1935-36. The chair is considered one of the most important pieces of furniture to emerge from the inter-war modern movement and it is in the permanent collections of several internationally renowned museums...
designed by Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
, 1936 and the Penguin
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
Donkey designed for Pritchard's friend Allen Lane
Allen Lane
Sir Allen Lane was a British publisher who founded Penguin Books, bringing high quality paperback fiction and non-fiction to the mass market.-Early life and family:...
by Egon Riss, 1939 both of which are still in production and made using shaped multi-ply (plywood) construction.