--- title: Canadian Mid-Century Modern Furniture | Redbird Furniture description: Canadian mid-century modern furniture was designed and built in Ontario towns like Kitchener, Hanover, and Stratford. Here are the makers behind it. image: https://www.madebyredbird.com/hubfs/Canadian-Mid-Century-Modern-Furniture.jpg --- [Go Back Up](https://www.madebyredbird.com/journal/canadian-mid-century-modern-furniture#top) [Skip to Content](https://www.madebyredbird.com/journal/canadian-mid-century-modern-furniture#body) [![Redbird Furniture](https://www.madebyredbird.com/hubfs/Redbird%20Logos%20v4.svg "Redbird Furniture")](https://www.madebyredbird.com/) Toggle Menu - [Custom Commission](https://www.madebyredbird.com/custom-furniture-commission) - [Signature Series](https://www.madebyredbird.com/signature-series) - [Walnut Dining Tables](https://www.madebyredbird.com/walnut-dining-tables-metal-base) - [The Journal](https://www.madebyredbird.com/journal) - [About Redbird](https://www.madebyredbird.com/about-redbird) - [Contact Us](https://www.madebyredbird.com/contact-us) # Canadian Mid-Century Modern Furniture: The Ontario Makers Behind It Written by: Kevin ![](https://www.madebyredbird.com/hubfs/Canadian-Mid-Century-Modern-Furniture.jpg) Share article [mailto:?subject=Canadian%20Mid-Century%20Modern%20Furniture%20%7C%20Redbird%20Furniture&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.madebyredbird.com%2Fjournal%2Fcanadian-mid-century-modern-furniture](mailto:?subject=Canadian%20Mid-Century%20Modern%20Furniture%20%7C%20Redbird%20Furniture&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.madebyredbird.com%2Fjournal%2Fcanadian-mid-century-modern-furniture) In 1954, a Canadian design council surveyed furniture buyers and found that only 8 percent chose modern dining room furniture. Eighty-two percent still preferred traditional styles. So the modern look we now take for granted was, at first, a hard sell here. What people call Canadian mid-century modern furniture was not only imported from Denmark or the United States. Much of it was designed and built in Ontario towns, and in Quebec, by companies and designers whose names are easy to miss. Who made mid-century modern furniture in Canada? Firms in Kitchener, Hanover, Stratford, and Collingwood, designers in Toronto and Montreal, and a federal council that kept pushing the style until it won. That is the short answer. Here is the longer one. ## Was there really a Canadian mid-century modern? Yes, and more of it than most people assume. The style had a push behind it. The National Industrial Design Council was set up in the late 1940s to promote Canadian design through competitions and a design centre in Ottawa. After the Industrial Design Act of 1961 it became the National Design Council. It was disbanded in 1985. The principles were the same here as anywhere: clean lines, honest materials, function first. If you want a plain account of [what mid-century modern furniture actually means](https://www.madebyredbird.com/journal/what-is-mid-century-modern-furniture), that definition travels. What changed was where the furniture was made. ## Why did Canadians resist modern furniture at first? Because tradition was comfortable, and modern was new. That 1954 result, 8 percent modern against 82 percent traditional, is worth sitting with. It came from a conference run by the design council itself, as recorded in Rachel Gotlieb and Cora Golden’s history [Design in Canada](https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/download/17962/22023?inline=1). The council’s job was to close that gap. Competitions, awards, and exhibitions slowly made the case. By the end of the decade, modern Canadian pieces were being shown in Milan and Brussels. The taste caught up. It just took a push. ## Where was Canadian mid-century modern furniture made? Mostly in a band of Ontario towns that had been building furniture for a century. Furniture making in the province is old. The [first Canadian furniture company](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/furniture-industry) was established in Berlin, now Kitchener, in 1830. Gibbard Furniture was founded in Napanee in 1835 and is widely described as Canada’s oldest furniture maker. By the mid-1900s, the makers people now collect were working in those same towns. Deilcraft was the furniture division of Dominion Electrohome Industries in Kitchener. The name dates to about 1937, and in 1965 the division opened a 400,000 square foot plant in the city. It closed in the late 1980s. Knechtel Furniture ran in Hanover for well over a century. Daniel Knechtel began making furniture there in 1866 and built his first factory in 1874. After a [fire in 1900 the works were rebuilt](https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/en/plaques/daniel-knechtel-1843-1936), and the company lasted until 1983. Kaufman Furniture worked in Collingwood, taking the Kaufman name in 1948. It was sold to Krug in 2000, and the plant closed in 2005. There was a whole furniture belt here. Southampton, Chesley, Walkerton, Wiarton, Kincardine, and Hanover made up a cluster across Bruce and Grey counties, strongest from roughly 1890 to 1937. This is the part a national retailer cannot copy. The towns are real, and you can drive to most of them in a morning. ## Who designed it? A handful of designers did the work that still turns up in galleries. Jan Kuypers was chief designer at Imperial Furniture in Stratford from 1951 to 1958. He worked chiefly in birch, and his designs won 25 council awards between 1953 and 1955. They were shown at the 1954 Milan Triennale and the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. Russell Spanner designed furniture in Toronto for his family’s company, Spanner Products, mostly in the 1950s. His plywood Ruspan Originals line is the one collectors look for. Jacques Guillon designed the Cord Chair in 1952, with a seat of parachute cord strung across a laminated plywood frame. It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Julien Hébert, often called the father of modern design in Quebec, showed his Contour lounge chair at the 1954 Milan Triennale. He later designed the symbol for Expo 67. ## Shopping for a vintage Canadian piece? Check the underside. If you are hunting for an original, start by turning the piece over. Makers have long put their marks in the quiet places: drawer bottoms, the back of a case, the underside of a top. That is where a Deilcraft or Knechtel label is most likely to survive. Paper labels are fragile, though, so a missing label proves nothing. Judge the piece first, by its joinery, materials, and proportion, and treat the label as a bonus. ## What this tradition means for a maker in Uxbridge I think about this more than I expected to. Uxbridge sits an hour or two from most of those furniture towns. The tradition I work in was not invented in Copenhagen. It was built down the road, in places like Kitchener and Stratford, by people solving the same problems I do. I build solid walnut and white oak furniture at Redbird in Uxbridge, Ontario. The pieces are modern, but the lineage is local, and I like knowing [where the studio sits in that line of work](https://www.madebyredbird.com/about-redbird). That is also why I am wary of filing any of this under vintage and leaving it there. The ideas held up. [A piece designed in that tradition](https://www.madebyredbird.com/signature-series) can still be built today, for the room it will actually live in. Where [Canadian mid-century modern sits in the market now](https://www.madebyredbird.com/journal/mid-century-modern-furniture-canada) is a separate question from who made it first. Both are worth knowing, and the broader [mid-century modern furniture](https://www.madebyredbird.com/learn/mid-century-modern-furniture) story ties them together. The history is not a sales pitch. It is context I happen to live inside. ## FAQ **Who made mid-century modern furniture in Canada?** Companies and designers across Ontario and Quebec. Firms like Deilcraft in Kitchener, Knechtel in Hanover, and Imperial in Stratford built it, while designers such as Jan Kuypers, Russell Spanner, Jacques Guillon, and Julien Hébert shaped it. Much of it was made in Ontario furniture towns, not imported. **Where was Deilcraft furniture made?** In Kitchener, Ontario. Deilcraft was the furniture division of Dominion Electrohome Industries, and in 1965 it opened a large plant in the city. The division ran from about 1937 until the late 1980s. **Is Knechtel furniture Canadian?** Yes. Knechtel Furniture was made in Hanover, Ontario, where Daniel Knechtel began building furniture in 1866. The company operated for well over a century and closed in 1983. **What is the oldest furniture company in Canada?** Gibbard Furniture, founded in Napanee, Ontario in 1835, is widely described as Canada’s oldest. The first Canadian furniture company is recorded even earlier, in Berlin, now Kitchener, in 1830. **Where is the maker’s label on vintage Canadian furniture?** Usually in a hidden spot: a drawer bottom, the back of a case, or the underside of a top. Paper labels are fragile, so a missing one does not mean the piece is not genuine. Judge it by joinery, materials, and proportion first. ### Bring a piece of Redbird Furniture into your home. It all starts with a conversation [Get Started](https://www.madebyredbird.com) ![](https://www.madebyredbird.com/hubfs/Kevin-Author-Picture.jpg) [mailto:](mailto:) ###### Kevin Kevin is the maker behind Redbird Furniture. After years spent building companies, he turned his focus toward working with his hands and creating objects with purpose. He builds furniture with intention, with care for materials, proportion, and longevity. The Redbird Journal documents the space, process, and thinking behind the work. 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