70s Frederick Scott ‘supporto’ chair for Hille International

The Hille furniture company was started in the East End of London in 1906 by Salamon Hille, a Russian emigrant, to renovate and reproduce eighteenth century furniture. The focus of the business was very much quality rather than large volumes, employing skilled craftsmen and gaining customers such as Hamptons, a well known furniture store, amongst others. By the 1930’s the company had established an international reputation supplying products all over the world. Salamon’s daughter, Ray, subsequently joined and worked with the company to produce furniture to original designs. In 1932, Salamon retired and Ray took over the reigns of the business with Hille becoming a Limited company that year under her leadership. In the war the company had many struggles because of the destruction of the factory and their stores. The company survived by timber expertise that was used by musea to restore damage furnitures. But also this period led to overseas expansion and export of Hille products. In 1950 Hille moved to premises in Hainault but almost immediately the 1951 financial crisis hit resulting in the factory having to move to an old brewery in Watford. The company recovered and in 1961 Ray Hille’s second daughter Cherill Scheer joining Hille, adding a new generation to Hille’s management. Her work drove Hille’s marketing, most notably the promotion of the original Polyside chair in 1963, to campaigns which subsequently led to the sale of millions of units in the years that followed. It was Leslie Julius, in 1949, who made contact with designer Robin Day. In addition to designing nearly all of Hille’s products for the next twenty years, Day also took over the visual end of Hille’s business designing letterheads, forms, vehicle livery, and the Hille logo which with a few variations has been used for 60 years. He was also responsible for graphics, brochures, showroom designs and exhibition stands. Robin Day will of course be most famously remembered for his best selling product, the Polypropylene chair. The first of which was the polyside chair in 1963.

There is no doubt that Robin Day had the highest profile of all off the well known Hille designers but their scholarship scheme which was set up in 1967 and their willingness to work with designers to offer prototyping and small production runs brought other dividends. One of which was the work with Fred Scott which brought about the launch of his folding chair in 1974 and most notably the Supporto office chair in 1979. As with the polychairs, Supporto had and still has global appeal which resulted in further export sales for Hille. Supporto is still in production today ! Described at it’s inception as ‘an office chair designed to cut through the hierarchy of seating at the office’, the award-winning System Supporto Task Chair has three versions – High Wide Back, Low Wide Back and Narrow Back – each engineered to maximise support and allow free movement. Combining Supporto’s trademark simplicity of design to strict ergonomic principles with contemporary styling and unrivalled durability, each version of the Task Chair is height adjustable with adjustable backs and optional arms.

This “high wide back’ Supporto is in good condition consistent with age and use.