Chairs E-Book

Quin Scala

• Herausgeber: IMM Lifestyle Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Seitenzahl: 149

Beschreibung

"Chairs: 20th-Century Classics" features more than 95 of the most desirable, influential and iconic designs from the last century. Part of a series featuring Collectables and Lighting, this book is beautifully illustrated and provides key information to the reader, whether he or she be a collector or just someone with an interest in design and interiors. Organized by decade each entry comprises: a double-page spread, featuring a short essay on the classic under discussion and a photograph of that object; top tips on what to look out for when considering a purchase; a price guide in UK sterling and US dollars; and, essential websites for further information. "Chairs" will provide all the information you need to make an informed decision when investing in a piece of classic design, whether it be an original Arne Jacobsen Ant, a Harry Bertoia sculpted Bird Lounge Chair, Alvar Aalto's superbly constructed 41 Paimio or an iconic Eames piece such as La Chaise. This gorgeous book is essential for anyone interested in industrial design, interiors or 20th-century furniture.

Leseprobe

Chairs

20th-Century Classics

Chairs

20th-Century Classics

Chairs: 20th-Century Classics showcases almost 100 of the most desirable and iconic objects in this area. This is by no means meant to be a directory of 20th-century chairs – we leave that to other people and other books – but is rather a personal selection of those chairs, stools and chaises longues that we feel are most desirable, influential, inspirational and, quite simply, are first among equals.

Chairs mixes museum classics – items featured in such places as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Design Museum or Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London – with pieces that are relatively easy to purchase. It provides, we hope, useful insight into a wealth of beautiful and inspiring 20th-century design classics.

For ease of use this book is arranged chronologically within 10 colour-coded sections, each representing a decade. In some cases the exact year of creation has been surprisingly difficult to pinpoint as sources vary; in such instances we have chosen to cite the date used in the most credible sources available. Each entry features a beautiful photograph, often kindly supplied by the manufacturer or designer, an informative and lively essay putting the object and designer in context, some top tips on what to look out for and at least one website relating to the chair under discussion.

We hope this book introduces you to some of the best 20th-century chairs – including items that can be found on your doorstep – and to the extraordinary men and women who created them, such as Marcel Breuer, Arne Jacobsen, Robin Day, Charles and Ray Eames, Hans J.Wegner, Joe Colombo, Ron Arad and Eileen Gray.

Finally, we would like to thank Aruna Vasudevan, our Publisher, for commissioning this book and for her insight and advice in selecting the entries; Colin Hall, the designer; Susannah Jayes, the picture editor – and the many manufacturers and industrial designers who have provided much needed advice and information.

– Fletcher Sibthorp and Scala Quin

Contents

Foreword

1900–09

High Back Chair for Miss Cranston’s Tea Rooms (1900), Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Stuhl Chair (Model 209; 1904), August Thonet

Sitzmaschine (c.1905), Josef Hoffmann

1910s

Faaborg Chair (1914), Kaare Klint

Red/Blue Chair (1917–18), Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

1920s

B3 (Wassily Chair; 1925–6), Marcel Breuer

Cantilever Chair (S33; 1925-6), Mart Stam

Transat Chair (1927), Eileen Gray

Chaise Longue LC4 (1928), Le Corbusier/Jeanneret/Perriand

B32 (1928), Marcel Breuer

LC2 (Grand Confort) Club Chair (1928), Le Corbusier/Jeanneret/Perriand

Bibendum Chair (1929), Eileen Gray

Barcelona Chair (1929), Mies van der Rohe/Reich

Brno Chair (MR50; 1929–30), Mies van der Rohe/Reich

1930s

Cité Lounge Chair (1930), Jean Prouvé

The Grasshopper (1931), Bruno Mathsson

41 Paimio (1931–2), Alvar Aalto

Model No. 31 (Cantilever Chair; 1931–2), Alvar Aalto

Model No. 60 (Stacking Stool; 1932–3), Alvar Aalto

Armchair (1933–4), Gerald Summers

Zig–Zag Chair (1934), Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Eva Chair (1934), Bruno Mathsson

Isokon Long Chair (1935), Marcel Breuer

1940s

Pelikan (1940), Finn Juhl

NV-45 (1945), Finn Juhl

Moulded Plywood Chairs (1945–6), Charles and Ray Eames

Womb Chair (1947–8), Eero Saarinen

La Chaise (1948), Charles and Ray Eames

LAR, DAR and RAR (1948–50), Charles and Ray Eames

Round Chair (The Chair; 1949), Hans J. Wegner

Chieftain Chair (1949), Finn Juhl

Wishbone Chair (1949), Hans J. Wegner

The Colonial Chair (PJ149; 1949), Ole Wanscher

Folding Chair (JH512; 1949), Hans J. Wegner

1950s

Ax Chair (1950), Hvidt and Mølgaard-Nielson

Hunting Chair (1950), Børge Mogensen

Flag Halyard (PP205; 1950), Hans J. Wegner

DSX, DSW and DSR (1950), Charles and Ray Eames

Teddy Bear Chair (PP19; 1950), Hans J. Wegner

Antelope Chair (1950–1), Ernest Race

Lady Chair (1951) Marco Zanuso

Ant (Model 3100; 1951–2), Arne Jacobsen

Sawhorse Easy Chair (CH28; 1952), Hans J. Wegner

Cow Horn Chair (1952), Hans J. Wegner

Bird Chair and Ottoman (1952) Harry Bertoia

Diamond Chair (1952–3), Harry Bertoia

Valet Chair (PP250; 1953), Hans J. Wegner

Antony Chair (Model 356; 1954), Jean Prouvé

Butterfly Stool (1954), Sori Yanagi

Coconut Chair (1955), George Nelson

Model 3107 (Series 7; 1955), Arne Jacobsen

Tulip Chair (Model 150; 1955–6), Eero Saarinen

PK22 (1956), Poul Kjærholm

Model 670 and Model 671 (Lounge Chair and Ottoman; 1956), Charles and Ray Eames

Superleggera 699 (1957), Gio Ponti

Mezzadro (1957), Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni

Egg Chair (1957), Arne Jacobsen

Egg (1957), Nanna Ditzel

Swan Chair (1957), Arne Jacobsen

Cherner Chair (1958), Norman Cherner

MAA (Swag Leg Chair; 1958), George Nelson

PK31 Armchair (1958), Poul Kjærholm

Cone Chair (1958), Verner Panton

Drop Chair (1958) Arne Jacobsen

Spanish Chair (Model 2226; 1958), Børge Mogensen

1960s

Ox Chair (1960), Hans J. Wegner

PK9 (1960), Poul Kjærholm

Corona Chair (1961–2), Poul M.Volther

Polyprop (1962–3), Robin Day

Scimitar Chair (1963), Fabricius and Kastholm

Shell Chair (CH07; 1963), Hans J. Wegner

Lounge Chair (1963), Grete Jalk

Djinn Chaise Longue (1963–4), Olivier Mourgue

Karuselli Chair (1964), Yrjö Kukkapuro

Elda Chair (1964) Joe Colombo

Ribbon Chair (1965), Pierre Paulin

Ball (Globe) Chair (1966) Eero Aarnio

PK24 Chaise Longue (Hammock; 1967), Poul Kjærholm

Panton Stacking Chair (1968), Verner Panton

Bubble Chair (1968), Eero Aarnio

Soft Pad (1969), Charles and Ray Eames

1970s

Birillo (1970–1), Joe Colombo

Easy Edges Series (1971–2) Frank O. Gehry

1980s

Wink Lounge Chair (1980) Toshiyuki Kita

Rover Chair (1981), Ron Arad

Seconda 602 (1982), Mario Botta

The Circle Chair (PP130; 1986), Hans J. Wegner

Lockheed Lounge (1986), Marc Newson

How High the Moon (1986), Shiro Kuramata

Thinking Man’s Chair (1986), Jasper Morrison

S Chair (1988), Tom Dixon

1990s

Power Play Club Chair (1991), Frank O. Gehry

Louis 20 Chair (1991), Philippe Starck

Balzac Armchair and Ottoman (1991), Matthew Hilton

Bird Chaise Longue (1991), Tom Dlxon

Low Pad (1999), Jasper Morrison

Notes on Designers

Index

Acknowledgements

1900

High Back Chair for Miss Cranston’s Tea Rooms

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh produced some of the most innovative designs of the early 20th century. This is one of his best-known chairs.

Mackintosh, his wife, Margaret Macdonald, and sister- and brother-in-law Frances Macdonald and James Herbert MacNair, were leading exponents of the Glasgow Style, which became so influential at the turn of the 20th century. Mackintosh was exalted for his striking, rectilinear designs, which drew on Japanese aesthetics and utilized natural materials. Mackintosh was commissioned by Miss Catherine Cranston in about 1896 to design some murals for one of her tea rooms. This high-backed chair sat in 205 Ingram Street. It is an elongated version of an earlier dining chair that had a single pierced square in the central back splats. The High Back Chair has three extra pierced squares at the top of each of the central back splats. The original chairs were stained dark brown oak to contrast with the airy interiors, but the original design shows that they were intended to be stained green.

Items to look out for

Original chairs are rare. They can be seen in museums globally.

Top Tips

Freud Ltd makes this chair to the original specifications in solid European oak, with removable seat pads covered in unbleached calico. A chair costs about £450 (US $750).

Websites

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Societywww.crmsociety.com

Freud Ltdwww.freud.eu

1904

Stuhl Chair (Model 209)

August Thonet

The celebrated architect Le Corbusier used the model 209 chair, better known as the Wiener Stuhl Chair, in many of his buildings. He called it a piece of great ‘nobility’.

Architect August Thonet designed the Stuhl Chair in 1904. It has been praised by designers and the public since then. Its minimalist simplicity and elegance are typical of the Viennese Gebrüder Thonet company’s designs. It still manufactures the chair today.

Like the father of all bentwood chairs, Model No. 214 (also known as the ‘Vienna Coffee House Chair’) which was designed by Gebrüder Thonet founder Michael Thonet in the 1850s, the Stuhl Chair is made up of six pieces. Its genius rests in the back piece and back legs of the steamed bentwood, which are moulded almost sculpturally from one piece of solid beechwood.

Paying tribute to August Thonet’s Stuhl Chair, acclaimed French architect and industrial designer Le Corbusier declared, ‘Never has anything been created more elegant and better in its conception, more precise in its execution, and more excellently functional’.

Items to look out for

The original chair has a back section and back legs made from one piece of solid moulded beech.

Top Tips

Reproductions are available in several colours with different styles of seat. Plywood seat £459 (US $709); cane seat £486 (US $761); perforated plywood seat £470 (US $736); upholstered seat and back, fabric £619 (US $970); upholstered seat and back, leather £747 (US $1,174).

Websites

TwentyTwentyonewww.twentytwentyone.com

c.1905

Sitzmaschine

Josef Hoffmann

Found in leading design collections around the world, Josef Hoffmann’s Sitzmaschine (‘machine for sitting’) was originally designed for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium in Vienna.

Josef Hoffmann was a great admirer of Charles Rennie Mackintosh; he believed that Mackintosh’s work was both forward-thinking and beautifully crafted. Architect Hoffmann helped found the influential Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna, which was influenced by the English Arts and Crafts Movement. As one of the first commissions for the Werkstätte, Hoffmann undertook to design the exterior and furnishings of the Purkersdorf Sanatorium in Vienna. His ‘Sitzmaschine’ pays more than a nod to Philip Webb’s Arts and Crafts Morris Chair (1866). It also illustrates how innovations in construction techniques were filtering through to commercial design. The reclining chair’s exposed and streamlined form is made up of bent-beechwood curves and a back panel of sycamore pierced with open geometric grids. The rows of knobs on the adjustable back combine both functional and decorative elements that are typical of the Viennese Werkstätte style.

Items to look out for

The original chairs are hard to find but one came up at Christie’s recently and sold for £15,151 (US $23,750).

Top Tips

J & J Kohn produced several different versions of the Sitzmaschine, some with cushioned seat and backrest, until 1916.

Be careful to check listings carefully. Vitra makes a miniature version of the chair for about £200 (US $313) – considerably less than the auction price listed above.

Websites

MoMAwww.moma.org

1914

Faaborg Chair

Kaare Klint

Danish architect Kaare Klint produced many famous and influential designs. He received international recognition for the Faaborg Chair.

Kaare Klint is, for many people, the true father of Danish design. In 1924, Klint was one of the driving forces in the founding of the Furniture School at Copenhagen’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where he also taught such creative geniuses as Poul Kjærholm. He believed in thoroughly researching any project that he undertook so that it would be designed to best fit the task for which it was meant, while also being beautifully crafted and attractive to look at. The Faaborg Chair was conceived in 1914 as part of the commission that he and mentor Calle Peterson undertook to design the furniture and fittings for the Faaborg Museum. The brief – to create a light and easy chair that could be placed by visitors in front of any painting they wanted to look at – was fully met. Drawing on classical lines, the Faaborg Chair has a curved back that was originally produced in French rattan, as was the seat. From 1964 onwards, it was made with a fixed seat cushion.

Items to look out for

The original chair was produced with a French rattan seat and back.

A modern mahogany or European cherry version with an oxhide seat can cost £3,939 (US $6,352).

Top Tips

Rud Rasmussen has manufactured the chair since 1931.

If you buy a chair with a fixed cushioned seat in Niger leather, oxhide or fabric, it will have been made after 1964.

Websites

Rud Rasmussenwww.rudrasmussen.com

1917–18

Red/Blue Chair

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

While a member of the Amsterdam-based De Stijl group, which included artist Piet Mondrian, Gerrit Thomas Rietveld produced the acclaimed Red/Blue Chair.

Dutch architect and furniture maker Gerrit Thomas Rietveld first developed the design for an unpainted armchair based on geometric principlesin 1917–18. The design was the prototype for what would become – in its painted form – the Red/Blue Chair and it was a realization of the Amsterdam-based De Stijl movement’s principles. Rietveld sought to create spiritual harmony through the merging of geometry and primary colours. The Red/Blue Chair was one of the first examples of the application of this philosophy in a three-dimensional form. Rietveld originally painted it in grey, black and white, but after seeing fellow De Stijl member Piet Mondrian’s abstract red, blue, yellow and black paintings he repainted it in those colours. Rietveld intended it to be produced for the mass market and so kept the design simple. The chair created a sensation when it was first shown and it has since become an iconic piece of 20th-century design.

Items to look out for

This chair is in major design collections, such as MoMA.

The chair was intended for mass production so the original pieces of wood were standard lumber lengths for the time.

Top Tips

Cassina makes a stained beech version for about £1,660 (US $2,602). A maple self-assembly kit, supplied with the original design and Gorilla Glue is also available for £65 (US $149).

Websites

Cassinawww.cassina.com

See also

Zig-Zag Chair, p50

1925–6

B3 (Wassily Chair)

Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer developed the B3 Chair while he was head of the carpentry workshop at the celebrated Bauhaus. The chair is more popularly known as the ‘Wassily Chair’.

The seamless tubular steel of the Adler bicycle that Marcel Breuer rode around Dessau in Germany inspired him to develop a range of furniture from the same material. That wish, combined with the desire to design a chair supported by a single base – a cantilever chair – led to the B3. Both functional and comfortable, Breuer’s chair was also stylish and modern. The original was made for just a few years before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. However, in the consumer boom following the war, well-designed, mass-market furniture was in demand and the B3 was manufactured by Gavina in Bologna, Italy, and distributed through Stendig. Now marketed as the ‘Wassily Chair’(artist Wassily Kandinsky received an early prototype made of canvas (or wire-mesh) fabric straps with a bent nickelled-steel frame), the straps were replaced by black leather and the frame made of chrome-plated steel. In 1968, Knoll bought Gavina and the ‘Wassily’ name, but the design patent had expired.

Items to look out for

Original B3 models, made of canvas straps and nickelled steel, are rare.

A ‘licensed product’ will have the Knoll stamp.

Top Tips

More modern versions are made of leather and chrome-plated steel.

Gavina-produced Wassily Chairs still exist but most chairs are Knoll-produced (£1,250/US $2,000). Cheaper versions can be found for about £310 (US $500).

Websites

Knollwww.knoll.com

See also

B32 p29

1925–6

Cantilever Chair (S33)

Mart Stam

If the courts are to be believed, the race to design a cantilever chair was lost by Marcel Breuer to Dutch architect Mart Stam, who designed the S33 in the mid-1920s.

Mart Stam, like Breuer, was experimenting with tubular steel in his designs in the 1920s. In 1925, he is believed to have devised a chair without any back legs. It relied on a single twisted piece of steel pipe to counterbalance the weight of the person sitting on it. The chair, the S33, was only produced in 1927 in Stuttgart’s Weissenhof-Siedlung, but Stam’s design is considered to be the first workable manifestation of a cantilever chair, a concept that would revolutionize 20th-century furniture design. Perhaps forseeing this, Stam and Breuer went to court between 1926 and 1932 over the matter of copyright – which Stam eventually won.

The S33 comprises a tubular steel form with a saddle-leather seat and back. Stam developed his design by experimenting with gas pipes connected with flanges. He initially concentrated on the clarity of form rather than on the chair’s flexibility, something which led critics to comment that the S33 was both rigid and uncomfortable.

Items to look out for

The earliest form of Stam’s chair had a horizontal bar between the front legs. This was replaced by supports under the seat.

Top Tips

Thonet manufactures the S33, based on Stam’s original design, in classic leather and with a meshed back. It retails at about £225 (US $352).

S34 – the version with armrests is also available.

Websites

Thonetwww.thonet.de

1927

Transat Chair

Eileen Gray

Anglo–Irish designer Eileen Gray was a pioneer of the modernist movement. She designed the Transat (‘Transatlantic’) Chair for the E-1027 villa near Monaco.

A successful female designer working in a world dominated by men such as Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray is often underrated both as a designer and architect (although she wasn’t formally trained as the latter). Gray gained a great reputation as a lacquer artist in London and Paris and was also one of the first designers to experiment with tubular steel in furniture. In the 1920s and ‘30s she collaborated on a number of projects with her sometime lover Romanian architect Jean Badovici. Gray designed her two most famous chairs – the Transat and Bibendum – for E-1027, the house that she and Badovici built in Roquebrune near Monaco.

Said to be inspired by ocean liner deckchairs, the Transat comprised a suspended panel of cushioned leather topped by a pivoting headrest on a sycamore frame with exposed chrome-plated mounts. It was many years before the Transat could be commercially produced and there were several early prototypes.

Items to look out for

A maple