Gebroeders van der Stroom
Traditionally Culemborg and surroundings have been known as the centre of the Dutch furniture industry. Already in the eighteenth century there were a lot of craftsmen making wooden chairs on a very small scale. In that period, this was a very labour intensive craft, for they had only the most simple manual tools at their disposal. In those days, in the year 1791 to be more precisely, "Mrs van der Stroom persuaded the guild to take on her son Jieles as a chair-maker" (1). This provided the basis for what later would develop in the furniture factory Gebroeders van der Stroom. Now probably the oldest furniture factory in The Netherlands. Jieles' love for the chair-makers' craft has been passed on from generation to generation.
And ever since, the company has remained loyal to the old principles of quality. At first, the factory was little more than a modest workshop. At the beginning of the twentieth century all the chairs were completely made by hand and furnished with a bulrush-seat (2).
The weaving of these bulrush seats took up a lot of hours but would only pay 9 cent per seat. Consequently, a full qualified apprentice earned only five guilders a week, so every furniture maker had to pull out all the stops in order to survive. Only after the leadership of Nicolaas van der Stroom, who had been standing behind the workbench most of his life, the factory experienced a prosperous period of growth. He was the first to introduce electricity in the furniture industry of Culemborg in 1923.
Around that same time the chairs were furnished with upholstery. This was an enormous breakthrough in the field of seating comfort. In 1937 Gebroeders van der Stroom received national fame with a chair exclusively (3) made for Princess Juliana and Prince Bernard, presented as a gift at their wedding.
Meanwhile, attracted by the many furniture makers in Culemborg, also the Rotterdam company had settled here. This progressive company had many successes with its collection of tubular steel furniture. At the end of the seventies, Gispen decided to concentrate on the design of office furniture only.
A few years later, Gebroeders van der Stroom acquired the exclusive rights to produce under license some of Gispen's successful designs.