Cherrill Scheer FCSD FRSA FInstSMM honoured with inaugural Stanley Wharton Award

Liveryman Cherrill Scheer FCSD FRSA FInstSMM has been awarded the inaugural Stanley Wharton Award for her exemplary services to the UK furnishing industry by The Furniture Makers’ Company, the City of London livery company and charity for the furnishing industry.

The award is a new prize that lauds and celebrates the contribution a member has made to the sector with the awardee chosen by the incumbent Master of The Furniture Makers’ Company. It is named after the Company’s first Master, Stanley Wharton, a director of Maples, who led the then Furniture Makers’ Guild from 1951 to 1954.

Cherrill, who has been a member for nearly 20 years, was selected to receive the prize by Immediate Past Master Dids Macdonald OBE in 2020, but due to the pandemic had been unable to be formally presented with the award in the past livery year.

David Woodward, Master of The Furniture Makers’ Company, presented Cherrill with the award during a special lunch at Furniture Makers’ Hall, London on Tuesday 27 July 2021.

Dids Macdonald OBE, Immediate Past Master, said: “Our first Master, Maples director Stanley Wharton and other leading pioneers of their day were the architects of what is now a progressive livery that, nearly seven decades later, represents all that is excellent about the UK furniture and furnishings industry.

“Leading lights need to be recognised and Cherrill Scheer’s contribution, over many decades, as the doyenne of the office furniture world, selling 40 million units of the Hille Polypropylene chair, the iconic 1963 classic, is seismic. Hille – 75 years of British Furniture was published for the V&A exhibition in 1981 and, because of Cherrill’s forward-thinking global design strategy, has achieved a significant international reach. Her tireless support of the Design Guild Mark has helped it to become recognised as one of the very highest standards in the design of furnishings for volume production today.

“Her work and motivation around the publication of a book commissioned by Lesley Jackson and launched at the V&A to commemorate Modern British Furniture since 1945 cannot go without acknowledgement. The publication has subsequently inspired thousands of school children who have received the book.

“Cherrill is quite remarkable and richly deserves the Stanley Wharton Award in recognition of her extraordinary career.”

Cherrill Scheer said: “I feel overwhelmed to see my peers recognise my contribution to The Furniture Makers’ Company. My drive has always been to encourage good design, design education and innovation within the furniture and furnishings industry.

 “I was born into a family of furniture manufacturers who received many awards for design and their great contribution to the industry. Since joining the Hille Group, much of my professional life has been spent encouraging young designers and promoting the furniture industry and design education. I am delighted to have been able to pursue these aims with the success of the Design Guild Mark and the production of the book, with the V&A, on ‘Modern British Furniture since 1945’.”