Page 89 - Demo

87Often, mum and dad would be happily smoking inside while wearing nylon, and there was a reasonable chance they were all sitting on a Tessa lounge suite.On Saturday nights in the 1970s, Australian families gathered around the television to watch the pop hits of the day on%u00a0 Countdown. Often, mum and dad would be happily smoking inside%u00a0 while wearing nylon, and there was a reasonable chance they were all sitting on a%u00a0Tessa lounge suite.German-born furniture maker Fred Lowen had an extraordinary life. He fled the Nazis to England and was subsequently deported to Australia, where he was interned. Years later, after he started making and selling wooden salad bowls, he founded Fler Furniture with Ernest Rodeck. Fler became one of the huge names in Australian postwar modern furniture.His next furniture venture was Twen, named after a German magazine he admired that targeted young, stylish professionals. When international opportunities arose, a European buyer informed him that his beloved Twen had evolved into a pornographic magazine, so he quickly changed the name to Tessa.Manufactured in Melbourne%u2019s outer suburbs, the T21 suite became the most popular of all Fred%u2019s designs. It was available as a two-seater, a single-seater and a swivel chair with a footrest and, to cap o%u00a0 the range, the T21 suite also included glass-top co%u00a0ee tables in two sizes. Glass-top tables were having such a moment in the 1970s that it was rumoured a well-known lanky television star used them for one of his particular fetishes.There was no such caper in our house, where our woollen-covered ensemble sat in the good room on white shagpile carpet, surrounded by cedar-clad walls. It may not have had the size and comfort of today%u2019s lounges, and it was itchy as all get out on hot summer days, but it had a level of sophistication that was enthusiastically embraced by my parents%u2019 generation.The T21 was sold overseas and also made in Germany under licence. Lowen followed it with perhaps his best-looking design, the Model T4, a hammock chair supported by laminated timber. Despite huge acclaim at European furniture fairs, early models su%u00a0ered from poor build quality, with the laminate separating while in transit.With a swag of design awards under his belt, Lowen sold Tessa in the early 1980s. The company remained in business, still manufacturing and restoring, until 2019.Our old Tessa suite got a 1980s makeover when it was reupholstered in a fetching sage green leather, and was still a well-used dog bed until half of it went on Marketplace and the better half went to my friend Ed, who deals in mid-century modern furniture, in the hope of finding a new home for another 50 years.YEAR 1972DESIGNER Fred LowenMANUFACTURER Tessa