Design Moment Tessa.
Quality workmanship and pioneering design produced a factory-full of modern classics, writes Chris Pearson.
Furniture designer Fred Lowen (above, left, with one of his craftsmen) made his name fronting the trailblazing furniture company Fler, selling the company in 1966 and becoming one of its employees. But in 1968, ‘Puppet on a String’ hit the charts and the song’s sentiments had him yearning to be his own boss again. Lowen launched Twen with his brother, Howard Lindsey, the name alluding to their 20-something target market. A mere 18 months later, in March 1970, their T1 sling-style armchair with detachable armrests won the first Dunhill Industrial Design Award from the Industrial Design Council of Australia.
The judges praised it for its “aesthetic appeal, originality, production economy and ease of maintenance”.
Renamed Tessa, after the daughter of a friend, the company soon became a household name, pioneering a ScandiPacific style, typified by hammock seats and surfboard armrests on svelte mid-century timber frames. Within 18 months, Tessa was exporting to Europe and the Pacific.
Lowen was on a roll. His innovative T4, a sling seat on sleigh legs, wowed punters at the Cologne Furniture Fair in 1971. Then in 1974, he debuted the classic T8. Both were handcrafted by Tessa in various veneers and cushion styles for nearly five decades, until this year when the company, falling victim to cheap Chinese imports, closed its doors.
Fritz Lowenstein was born in Upper Silesia, then part of Germany, in 1919. With
the rise of the Nazis, he fled to Australia in 1940 aboard the troopship, the Dunera.
He spent the next few months in internment camps, where, fortuitously, he met fellow emigré Ernest Rodeck. After his release, Lowenstein shortened his name to Lowen and began making hand-turned wooden bowls and plates. Lowen and Rodeck joined forces, opening a small workshop – known as Fler – in Richmond, Victoria, in 1945.
Impressed by Lowen’s craftsmanship,
Fred Ward, a designer at Myer Emporium, urged Lowen to diversify into chairs. But the real breakthrough came when architect Robin Boyd invited them to partner with him in a 1958 housing project. By the 1960s, Fler had factories in all states.
Refined and slender, Fler pieces “represent the entire Swedish way of living – plain lines, no unnecessary ornaments, light timbers,” said Lowen. Tessa overlaid this with a South Seas aesthetic, such as the T4, inspired by Lowen’s hammock aboard the Dunera.
In 1981, Lowen won the Advance Australia Award for Outstanding Contribution to Furniture Design and was admitted to the Order of Australia in 1987 for his services to furniture design and manufacture.
Justin Blaha, Tessa administration manager from 1995, saw its fortunes come and go. About 10 years ago, classic styles were made cheaply with new names in Chinese factories, while handcrafted items were still made locally. But unfavourable exchange rates saw margins from the former diminish and signalled Tessa’s demise.
WHAT IT MEANS TO US
While Tessa is highly collectable, Fler, particularly the SC55 and SC58 armchairs and the Narvik range, is perhaps more so because of its rarity. “Lowen was passionate about design. His work was unique, different and timeless, with a high degree of workmanship,” says Blaha, who cherishes his T4 lounge suite and two T8 swivel chairs. But his T4 chair is his favourite. “I sit in it every night.” The fascination continues – Blaha’s daughter just refurbished a T4 she found on Gumtree.