The Old Cinema

Manpower. Not much of it left these days if you ask me. Industry in the western world is disappearing, leaving behind all of its tools of the trade, quite literally. In the early part of the 20th century, factory labor was abundant and therefore multitudes of steel pieces of furniture were created: tanker desks, pigeon holes, storage units, etc. Even medical and dental offices had heavy steel storage units.

     The Old Cinema regularly carries all types of industrial furniture from all over Europe and the United States, and most of it is unmarked with no makers label. However, there are times when we do get some pieces in that were made by a specific design firm for industrial and commercial purposes. I present to you three industrial items that carry important makers labels on them, and each have a story to tell, even if it's a small one.



First we have a late 1950s desk by Dutch company Ahrend-Oda, a steelworks which began in the 1930s and specialised in making ovens. The company still exists, however its furniture is now very conservative and uninspiring.  The desk looks very much like it belonged in a factory somewhere, and it may well have been used in one, however, its described as a 'Directors' desk which leads me to belive it was used in a corporate office. Ours has been stripped and professionally repainted and looks stunning in person. Its all about details, and the aluminium 'horseshoe' feet really set it off.




And finally, we have a single pedestal desk by Art Metal. I did a search for this companies history, and they are no longer in business. I dont have much history on them, but I think they were at their peak between the 1930s and 50s.  Their name is so idealistic and shows that they were trying to create artwork out of a piece of office furniture. As far as I know, this company imported to the United States as well.



Although this extrordinarlily rare steel roll top desk isn't for sale in our shop, it too, was made by Art Metal and is located in the United States. I found it to be too cool not to post.


I hope you found this post to be inspiring and informative, and you should also know that we just got another shipment of cool steel pigeon hole shelving, trolleys and industrial racks to go along with your designer industrial goods.