TH Brown - Chair Maker
Located in Mile End South, T.H.B. Chairs produced a range of chairs including its ‘Norway Fireside Chair’, the ‘Ladderback’ dining room chair and its best seller, the ‘Comfy’ utility chair, "the all-purpose chair for everywhere".
By the mid-1950s the company was producing 100,000 chairs annually, with sales in 5 states and the Northern Territory and T.H.B. Chairs was the largest chair manufacturer in the southern hemisphere.
TH Brown Chair Maker - Local History Industry
Thomas Howard Brown was born at Telowie (about 20 kilometres north of Port Pirie) on 20 September 1889. Always a willing worker, Thomas Brown began working at nights on the wharves while still at St Mark’s Private School, Port Pirie. Later he and his brother James (known as Jim) learnt the craft of chair making at W.J. Pimlott’s of Port Pirie.
In 1910, Brown received his first commission, a contract from the South Australian Railways to make the narrow board pieces of the serrated wooden valances (decorative displays) which hung from the eaves of the inward and outward goods sheds at the Mile End railyards. Brown was paid 1 shilling and ½ pence per board and turned out nearly 40,000 at a rate of 60 per hour on a band saw which he bought on time payment. The valances remained for many years, an elegant memorial to Brown.
In January 1912, Brown began chair making, in his own words, "in a corrugated iron shed in a backyard in Carrington Street, Adelaide". Brown liked to remember that he started out as "a young man who had £2 14s to his name and spent £2 10s of it on a vertical spindle for chair making".
For many years the company held this original spindle as a cherished museum piece. Brown’s brother Jim soon joined him in the business, which became known as Brown Brothers Wholesale Chair Manufacturers from 1915 and Brown Brothers Wholesale Furniture Manufacturers from 1928. The company began supplying chairs to furniture and department stores around Adelaide.
In late 1925, Brown Brothers moved the business to a 1.9 acre/0.8 hectare site they bought in August for £750 at Rosslyn Street, Hiltonia (later known as Hilton and from the mid-1940s as Mile End South).
The Rosslyn Street factory covered approximately 300 feet by 100 feet (0.69 acres/0.28 hectares) and was made of wood and iron with jarrah flooring throughout.
Brown was attracted to the site both by its close proximity to the Mile End railyards – vital in transporting products to the company’s country and later interstate markets – and by West Torrens Council’s policy of developing the area for industrialisation. Laurence Shegog (1888-1964) was foreman of the factory for many years.
Brown Brothers thrived at Hilton, becoming respected Australia-wide for the outstanding quality and superb style of its products.
The company specialised in making chairs and settees of oak, blackwood, Manchurian oak and maple. Each year from 1912, Brown Brothers increased its output such that by the late 1920s it was producing 4,000 chairs per month. By this time the company employed 30 workers and had a capital value of £15,000. In March 1930 Brown Brothers opened a retail outlet, Brown’s Limited, at 66-68 Hindley Street, Adelaide.
After Brown’s death, T.H. Brown and Sons, now operated by sons Napier and Peter, continued to thrive and remained one of Australia's most respected furniture manufacturers.
Napier Brown became especially active in the running of the furniture industry’s affairs, serving for long periods in the 1950s and 1960s as president of the Wholesale Furniture Manufacturers’ Association of South Australia and the Australian Council of Furniture Manufacturers. In January 1979 Brown was awarded membership of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service to the furniture industry.
From the late 1950s the company broadened its output, moving over the next 20 years into the manufacture of bar stools, coffee tables, dining tables and lounge suites. Peter Brown was a prime mover in the change, developing a reputation as a highly innovative designer; he is today recognised as one of Australia's foremost Mid Century Modern (MCM) furniture designers.