4 Mid Century Modern Maurice Burke Model 115 Tulip Star Shell Dining Chairs

Description

Four original mid century Burke Inc. tulip shell chairs featuring the iconic star design in white with pink vinyl cushions. Made in Dallas Texas. Model 115 of the Star Trek series.

Burke Inc. (1959 - 1963)
Maurice’s first successful solo venture, Burke Inc. quickly became a leading player in the North American furniture market. Many of Maurice’s best designs started here, including the prolific Star Collection.

Arkana (1963 - 1974)
After relocating to Europe, Arkana became the epicenter of the Burke’s design efforts, featuring refined Star and Chelsea ranges from Maurice, and with Duncan joining in 1970 to premiere his own iconic Orbita Collection.

Macrima (1973 - 1974)
Tragically short lived, Macrima was forced to close amid the OPEC crisis of 1973. However, limited runs of Duncan’s Series 21 Stool, and Maurice’s final Mushroom iteration make it a hidden gem worth exploring.

Maurice was born Maurice Bourque on November 21st, 1921 in Springside Saskatchewan. Coming from a French Canadian family that traced its roots back to the early Acadian settlements of the Maritimes, he was the sole survivor of five sons, along with a single sister, Cecile. His father ran the local General Store, but as the 30’s arrived, the Depression brought the majority of the community to bankruptcy alongside the Bourque’s family business.

The family relocated to Montreal Quebec, and Maurice secured a stable position working as a personal secretary for the President of the Canadian National Railway. However, when Canada joined the British Empire’s war on Germany in 1939, he joined the Canadian Army and shipped off early to Britain. There he would join the nascent Canadian Tank Corps, becoming an early tank commander. But a serious injury during training led to him leaving the Tank Corps.

However, he would remain in service throughout the war as part of the Canadian Auxiliary Services Entertainment Units, utilizing his administrative skills to help organize shows and revues for Canadian soldiers in Britain. By the end of the war, Maurice had attained the rank of Major, and was ready to return to the Americas to start a new adventure in a very different field.

Post War Success
Maurice returned to Canada briefly in 1946 with his newly married wife, Felicity. However, shortly after she gave birth to their first son Duncan in Toronto the next year, Maurice became fascinated with the world of furniture production and design. Finding relatively few options in Canada, the family relocated stateside to Los Angeles, California, where Maurice joined the Hermann Miller as a salesman in 1950. Working alongside early mid-century designers including Harry Bertoia and Ray Eames soon inspired Maurice to try his own venture under the name Felmore, with a store in Pacific Palisades. However, this first company’s generally wooden and uninspired offerings would prove a flop, and while a second son Jeff joined the family in 1951, Maurice would remain under the radar; working as a humble salesman and mid-level manager for several companies until he was ready to launch his next - much more daring - venture.

That venture would necessitate another move, this time to Dallas Texas in 1958, initially as a salesman for London Lamps and Madison Woodworking. But in 1959 he was ready to premiere his next company: Burke Inc. and their initial range of space aged pedestal furniture. This time, Maurice’s space age designs were a hit; though the success had a double edge when Knoll Furniture took him to court over alleged infringement of their design: Eero Saarinen’s now-famous Tulip chair. While the case was settled quickly and relatively peacefully, Maurice would have to change his base from a rounded pedestal to an X shaped one. But this change would ultimately prove beneficial, and gave the collection it’s equally distinct look and namesake: the Star Collection, which became the mainstay of the company’s success. By the 1960’s, Burke Inc. had showrooms in every major American city, and iterations on the Star collection such as the Lundquist, Estaban, and Bjorgensen series, as well as purpose built office furniture, public seating, barstools, gave Burke Inc. a full catalogue for every potential need.

But Maurice was an entrepreneur first and foremost, and something about the pressures of success of Burke Inc and it’s intensifying demands on his time prompted him to sell the company in 1963 to Brunswick, who were particularly interested in his return-spring swivel seating for their own lines of public seating and bowling alley furniture. Thus Burke Inc. would continue under several different names and owners, while Maurice’s next project would take him back across the Atlantic.

European Reinvention
After the sale of Burke Inc., Maurice quickly moved to set up a new business in the United Kingdom, in part due to its incentives for new businesses in the north. Arkana would open the same year as the family relocated in 1963, but by 1965 Maurice was out of the day-to-day running of the company in favour of focusing on design. Alongside his initial Mushroom collection, the Chelsea campaign style chairs, and European versions of his previous designs were managed along with existing licences through his Bjorgensen SA design firm.

Meanwhile, the family would become based primarily in Switzerland, though due to having interests across both the English Channel and Atlantic ocean, the Burkes were very much an ‘international’ family. By 1968 Arkana had been acquired by Christie Tyler and merged with Bath Cabinet Makers and Avalon as Arkana Limited. Nearly simultaneously, Vecta Contract was established in 1969 as a direct successor to Maurice’s original company Burke Inc, and continued to manufacture both his old catalogue of designs as well as new iterations from Arkana under license in the US. By 1970, Duncan had joined Arkana and Bjorgensen, assisting both with technical and design work on Maurice’s next batch of designs, and adding his own Orbita/Zermatt range to Arkana and Vecta’s catalogues.

Unfortunately, this was also the prelude to a series of misfortunes that would begin with Maurice’s next venture.

Troubles, Trials, and Last Adventures
In the run up to 1973, Maurice had been scouting out a location for a new production facility for a third company: Macrima, who would focus exclusively on his latest iteration of plastic molded furniture, the M1 and M2 ranges. Alongside Duncan’s Ministool design, the now French-based company would be a dedicated furniture company beginning with dining sets similar to Burke Inc.’s original start. But the sudden and unexpected oil crisis set off by OPEC after the Yom Kippur War saw production costs soar into non-viability, and by 1974 Macrima was officially dead.

Worse however, was that Maurice was ill with cancer. And after the collapse of Macrima, he would essentially disappear into a semi-retirement as he sought treatment; managing his existing designs through Bjorgensen. Fortunately this was enough to grant him time to find an effective course of treatments, and by the end of the decade, Maurice was recovered enough for two more entrepreneurial adventures.

The first of these was Burke / Alpha. Founded in 1980, it would be his last venture into furniture with a combination of new chair designs by Maurice and accompanying tables designed by others. Unfortunately, this last round of designs proved his least popular, and the company ceased operations in 1983. The next company however, would be a very different beast from his previous furniture exploits: Nature’s Best Health Products. Founded in Tunbridge Wells, England in 1982, and sold to Guinness in 1985, Nature’s Best would serve as Maurice’s final exit from business, and settlement into a now full retirement.


Personal Life
After retiring in 1985, the family initially remained in Europe before settling in Canada in the 1990’s. Maurice remained a craftsman through and through, and in retirement made both fountain sculptures and hand carved doors for his newly built home in Kingston Ontario. He also enjoyed boating and fishing along the shores of Lake Ontario.

Maurice married Felicity Owen in 1946, right after the end of World War 2. The couple had two sons, Duncan and Jeff, and between them 3 grandchildren.

Maurice died on August 26th, 2013, his wife surviving him until she too passed away on September 4th, 2016.

Condition

Good vintage condition, wear and distressing commensurate with age and use, some chipping to enamel, marking.

Dimensions

20" x 21" x 31"h, seat 19"