It was somewhere outside Barstow when Alan
wrote:

When did they last make reasonably priced furniture from real wood?

1920's After that there was plywood commonly available and the
"reasonably priced" (ie cheap) stuff inevitably used it.

There's some lovely build-quality mass-market solid timber stuff from
the '50s, but it was at the higher end of popular, not the brightly
coloured mainstream. It's also very '50s Scandiwegian in style,
inevitably teak, and the style is something of an acquired taste
("Tage Frid plays Esquivel").

Even these days, Nathan are building ugly-as-sin "hutches" that look
just like contiplank, but they're technically very well-made solid
timber, and their signature stopped chamfering is straight out of '20s
Gimson. Then there's Darrell Peart, who is some sort of chair-making
god http://furnituremaker.com/Rocking_Chair.htm

I spent yesterday doing a flat clearance where an old lady had died
and left behind a lifetime's collected furniture. A huge number of
wardrobes and dressers from the '20s to '50s. "CWS Enfield plywood"
was certainly in evidence, but so was a '30s sideboard with solid
walnut slab doors an inch thick.

Sadly the woodworm had beaten me to it. We got three useful pieces
out of the flat, two truckloads for the tip (mainly upholstery) and a
Volvoful that went into either my timber racks or the firewood pile.