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Design, toys, and films: Unveiling the creativity of Richard Loncraine

Design, toys, and films: Unveiling the creativity of Richard Loncraine

Filmmaker Richard Loncraine has earned acclaim for his work in film, television and commercials, but what he got up to before his film career makes for fascinating stuff and had a significant influence on my teenage design sensibilities. As I researched this piece, I realised just how much my life has paralleled his. Like Loncraine, I studied at art college in Cheltenham and then Central School of Art (just as Central had merged with St Martins), following a similar path a few decades later. I also owned many of his products without realising they came from the same creative mind.
 
Now, Loncraine’s early work as a designer and creator of inventive toys and sculptures is celebrated in a new book, Loncraine Broxton, Innovations and Executive Toys, which brings together the huge range of their imaginative creations. And for our readers, we have a copy of this fantastic book to give away—read on to find out how you can win!
 
Since the 1980s, Richard Loncraine has successfully alternated directing films and directing television productions, covering a wide spectrum from episodes of Dennis Potter (1980) and Band of Brothers (1991) to Brimstone & Treacle (1982), period comedy The Missionary (1982), Richard III (1995), The Gathering Storm (2002) and Wimbledon (2004).
 
Before his cinematic successes, he studied at art college in Stroud, then sculpture at art college in Cheltenham and Central School of Art, before attending the Royal College of Art Film School. Along with his art-school friend Peter Broxton, Richard formed the company Loncraine Broxton in the late 1960s. They specialised in designing sculptures and desk-top toys, drawing on Richard’s background in kinetic sculpture, concrete poetry, and the experimental art scene of 1960s London. Their products, full of creativity and wit, became iconic in the burgeoning UK gift market.
 
The Birth of Ballrace
Ballrace designed by Richard Loncraine in 1967 and produced by Loncraine Broxton

Against the backdrop of ‘Swinging London’ they ran their design company above a rag and bone shop in Lots Road, Chelsea. In 1967, their first design was Ballrace, a stylish, desk-top chrome version of Newton’s Cradle, which quickly became the defining executive toy of the 1970s and 1980s.

Packaged in a clear acetate box with Newton’s Third Law of Motion printed in four languages on the lid, it had modern appeal and soon became a must-have for high-flying business people. By Christmas 1967, Ballrace was selling at Harrods’ trend-setting Way In department and was a fixture in London’s up-market gift shops and interior design showrooms.

loncraine broxton
Loncraine Broxton “office” in Lots Road, Chelsea (1969) – looking remarkably like a scene from Blow Up.

Interestingly, to avoid the hefty 33.3% Purchase Tax on luxury goods, Ballrace was cleverly marketed as a “scientific toy”. While other versions of Newton’s Cradle existed, it was Loncraine’s elegant design—taking inspiration from Bauhaus-period furniture by Marcel Breuer—that truly captured the imagination.

 

Ballrace on screen

Ballrace, a stylish chrome version of Newton’s cradle on Henry Winkler's desk in Night Shift
Ballrace by Loncraine Broxton on Henry Winkler’s desk in Night Shift

Loncraine Broxton’s Ballrace transcended the gift market to become a regular feature on film and TV sets. It’s been used as a relaxing diversion on the desks of characters such as Chuck Lumley (Henry Winkler) in Night Shift.

Other Newton’s Cradles have also appeared in the hands of film legends, from Dustin Hoffman’s character in Straw Dogs and Deputy White House Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) in The West Wing, to Paul Newman’s Sidney J. Mussburger in The Hudsucker Proxy, and even villains like Magneto in X-Men and the Kryptonians in Superman II.

Rob Lowe as Deputy White House Communications Director Sam Seaborn in The West Wing, with Newton's Cradle on his desk
Rob Lowe as Deputy White House Communications Director Sam Seaborn in The West Wing, with Newton’s cradle on his desk

Ballrace, by Loncraine Broxton, a stylish chrome version of Newton's cradle, on the desk of Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) in The Hudsucker Proxy
A stylish chrome version of Newton’s cradle, on the desk of Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) in The Hudsucker Proxy. The screen-used Newton’s cradle from Hudsucker Proxy came up for auction in 2022.
Dustin Hoffman's role in Straw Dogs
Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs

From toys to film props

Loncraine Broxton’s design work also attracted the attention of filmmakers. Director John Schlesinger, famous for Midnight Cowboy (1969), asked the duo to create sculptures and props for his film Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), the story of a free-spirited young bisexual artist, starring Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson. 

LB John Schlesinger directing Sunday Bloody Sunday Photo by Michael Childers
John Schlesinger directing Sunday Bloody Sunday featuring sculpture by Loncraine Broxton. Photo by Michael Childers

Their creations for the film included a garden sculpture of slender glass tubes pulsing with coloured fluids and a Richard Nixon jukebox. Loncraine Broxton’s playful yet sophisticated vision also graced the Habitat showroom in Old Brompton Road, featured in a night scene in the film, with their Spring Stools and kinetic sculptures of clear acrylic columns containing chromed spheres moving in clear fluid.

  • loncraine broxton book

    Loncraine Broxton Innovations and Executive Toys

    Designer: Richard Loncraine

    If Loncraine Broxton’s designs captured your imagination as much as it did ours, you’ll be pleased to learn of new book Loncraine Broxton Innovations and Executive Toys, which brings together a huge range of their inventive products, with commentary by Richard Loncraine and Peter Broxton, telling the story of how they spent three decades devising unlikely ideas for products to amuse and delight. 

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Nixon Jukebox in Sunday Bloody Sunday
Nixon Jukebox in Sunday Bloody Sunday

A playful design legacy

From elegant kinetic sculptures and indoor games to whimsical creations like a giant match concealing a cigarette lighter, a pen disguised as a red mullet fish, and a double-sized deck chair, Loncraine Broxton had a unique ability to blend sophistication with playfulness.

loncraine broxton puzzles
Desk toys, puzzles and indoor games by Loncraine Broxton

Their liquid puzzles, such as the Mercury Maze, and witty home products became fixtures in homes—mine included. As a teenager, I spent hours playing with Mindbenders puzzles, and breakfast was served from their quirky Spring Egg Cups having no awareness then that the same minds connected all these objects. Their products characterised the mood of the 1980s, from stocking fillers to coveted design pieces.

Gladys Goose lamp photo shoot on Westminster Bridge, early 1980s
Gladys Goose lamp photo shoot on Westminster Bridge, early 1980s

Years later, their designs were still part of my life. At Form®, our London design and branding studio, we proudly displayed the Gladys Goose lamp, for which it turns out, Loncraine Broxton was the UK distributor. A memorable promotional photo for the lamp was created entirely in camera, well before Photoshop, on Westminster Bridge in front of Big Ben with dramatic rain effects and power supplied by their Winnebago mobile-home parked at the roadside.

Spring egg cups 1969
Spring Egg Cups (1969) from Loncraine Broxton

The technical Oscar

Richard Loncraine’s creativity didn’t stop with product design or filmmaking. His invention of the first remote camera head earned him a technical Oscar, an industry-standard innovation used worldwide today.

A new chapter: The book

If their work has captured your imagination as much as it did mine, you’ll be excited to hear about the book Loncraine Broxton Innovations and Executive Toys out on 30th October. This beautifully compiled volume brings together three decades of their playful and inventive designs, with commentary from both Richard Loncraine and Peter Broxton, telling the fascinating story behind their whimsical yet ingenious creations.

Win the book!

To celebrate this launch, we’re offering a chance to win a copy of the book! Enter here by 15th November 2024 for a chance to bring this inspiring design history into your own home.


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