00s Friedrich Hill ‘wibber’ design fauteuil for Leolux
Leolux has become a leading brand name over the years. Sometime in 1934s the Zuid Nederlandse Clubmeubel fabriek (ZNC) in Blerick, the Netherlands, made seating furniture and, above all, it was a furniture upholstery, but in which production was increasingly professionalised. A local neighbor and craftsman (Valk) mainly made wooden hulls for the ZNC factory where ZNC upholstered the hulls. Due to the sales successes of the ZNC, both companies grew up kind of equally until Valk only produced for its neighbor, who then took over the production company to become able to produce completely in-house. The factory carried 2 brand names for their furniture. “ZV” and “Leolux”. The brothers Jan and Ton Sanders further professionalized the company and in 1972 the brand name Leolux also became the company name.
Because Leolux mainly relied on quality furniture with solid beech wood framework from its own (Valk) factory, things got a bit more difficult in the 1960s. The switch from the wooden hull factory to modern steel, teak, etc. was more difficult for ZNC due to its internal interweaving. For example, the thin lines, metal, teak, etc., meant that De Ster brought a different design to the market in the Netherlands, which made them very successful during the 1960s. As a result, Leolux had to look externally for partners in metal, etc. And they did. In those years, cooperation was sought with Belgian and German partners in production and designers from whom Leolux actually bought licenses for their designs. This is also the case with the striking “unexpected” shaped triangular design of model 628 designed by Friedrich Hill, which entered the collection at the end of 1961. Characteristic 1960s, steel base with wide comfortable padded triangular cushions on a non visible inner frame. In 2002, the model 628 was put back on the drawing board in-house at Leolux and brought modernized back on the market under the model name “Wibber”. This is originally a 1960s design.