On his return to Britain from the far east, Bernard Leach sets up a pottery studio in St Ives

A fashionable new style, Art Deco, derives its name from a Paris exhibition called the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs Industriels et Modernes

English potter Michael Cardew sets up a studio at Winchcombe, in Gloucestershire

28-year old Staffordshire potter Clarice Cliff launches a range of highly coloured geometric designs that she calls Bizarre Ware

Marcel Breuer, working at the Bauhaus, designs the classic version of his tubular-steel cantilever chair their homesr

Mies van der Rohe designs his famous Barcelona Chair for the German pavilion at the Barcelona World Fair

Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli introduces a successful new line for women in the form of the padded shoulder

The Spanish Civil War causes the Basque designer Cristobal Balenciaga to move his business to Paris, capital of the fashion world

Finnish designer Alvar Aalto develops a bent plywood three-legged stool, specifically designed for stacking

English potter Bernard Leach publishes an influential manual, A Potter's Book

Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen design an 'organic chair' for mass production in moulded plywood and aluminium

Working as an official war artist, Henry Moore creates an iconic series of drawings of Londoners sleeping at night in underground stations

A painting by Graham Sutherland, commissioned for Winston Churchill's 80th birthday, does not meet with the full approval of the sitter or his wife

The husband-and-wife team Charles and Ray Eames design a much copied lounge chair and footstool, made of moulded plywood with padded leather cushions

Coventry's new cathedral is inaugurated, enhanced by a wide range of work by leading British artists

British fashion designer Mary Quant launches the miniskirt