About this lot

Description

Betty Joel (1894-1985), a Token Works walnut side cabinet, 1935,
with two drawers above a pair of cupboard doors with adjustable shelves within, tiered rounded shelves to one end, token works label to rear 81.5 x 137 x 42cm

Footnote: Despite the unfortunate brevity of her career - active only between 1927 and 1938 - the enormous design legacy left by British furniture, textile and interior designer, Betty Joel, is testament to both her talent and her fearlessness. Born Mary Stewart Lockhart in Hong Kong in 1896 to art collector and British colonial officer, Sir James Haldane Stewart Lockhart, and his wife, Edith, Joel spent her childhood and early twenties in China. Betty, as she was known from a young age, met her future husband, David Joel, in Ceylon and shortly after World War I, the pair left the East to settle in Portsmouth. In 1921, despairing at having to adapt old furniture to suit the requirements of her modern home, Betty decided, despite her lack of any formal training, to establish her own design business with her husband. Trading under 'Betty Joel Ltd.', Betty’s early designs were informed by the expertise of local artisans and typically used teak or oak in their manufacture. The popularity of these early designs, which were known as “token furniture” and were retailed through the Joel’s shops in London, secured Betty’s reputation as a serious designer and earned a number of prestigious commissions from clients, including Sir Winston Churchill and Lord and Lady Mountbatten. In 1939, however, David and Betty divorced, and whilst the business would continue to operate under 'David Joel Ltd.', Betty retired and would not work again. Creating her own brand of Modernism, tempered by the restrained aesthetics of the East, Betty’s designs can be characterised by their curvilinear forms, traditional construction methods, and exotic wood veneers.

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