Brynmawr Furniture

Welsh furniture company (active 1930–1940)
Brynmawr Furniture Makers Ltd was a furniture manufacturing company set up in the midst of the Great Depression in the United Kingdom as part of the Brynmawr Experiment in Brynmawr, Wales. Following the General Strike in 1926, Brynmawr had been particularly badly affected and was left with high levels of unemployment. Brynmawr Furniture Makers factory was set up as part of Quaker led effort to tackle the issues starting in 1929. It was known for well made utilitarian designs but closed in 1940.

A small group of Quakers arrived in Brynmawr in 1928 9 intending to provide relief supplies and encourage social work. The group was led by Peter Scott, who began developing ways to encourage industries and employment. These were at first incorporated as Brynmawr and Clydach Valleys Ltd and included knitting, Welsh tweed, boot making and furniture making in a former boot factory. The chair was required to be made from oak grown in Wales and made by Welsh Craftsmen. A small committee of experts representing the Society and the 1938 Eisteddfod chosen to work alongside the Brynmawr Furniture Makers to be responsible for the design. The chair, fashioned in oak, with the seat and the central slat of the back in natural hide. In keeping with the traditions of Brynmawr furniture, ornamentation was restrained and sparse, limited to the reeding of the arm uprights where the fingers rest. The leather at the back of the chair bore a coloured representation of the Arms of Wales in red and gold as registered at the College of Heralds. Below this was the inscription Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Frenhinol Cymru, Caerdydd, 1938. The top rail of the back was incised behind Anrheg y Cardiff Naturalists' Society (Gift of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society).

Importing materials became difficult after the onset of World War II and the demand for high quality furniture rapidly declined forcing the Brynmawr Furniture Company to close its doors for the last time in 1940.