Lounge Chair B306 by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand

Lounge Chair B306 by Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret), his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand

Estimate Euro 50,000 – 70,000 ($70,367 – $98,514)
Price Realized Euro 121,000 ($171,807)

Sale 1000, Les Collections du Chateau de Gourdon, 29 – 31 March 2011, Paris, France

An adjustable ‘B306’ chaise longue, with chromed tubular steel frame and black-painted pressed and folded steel platform, by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, with woven-wool textile seat covering, produced by Thonet Frères, Paris, 1930.

Illustrating Le Corbusier’s conviction that furnishings should be ‘machines for living’, the chaise was one of several influential designs conceived 1928-1929 by Le Corbusier, his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand. The present example is an early version, dating to around early 1930 when the design was first retailed, as evidenced by the raised rear support legs which conform to the April 1929 patent drawings accepted by Thonet. Shortly after serial manufacture commenced, the rear legs were reduced in height to correspond to those at the front. An apparently identical example, also with raised rear legs and hand-woven textile covering, is in the collection of the Vitra Design Museum, Weil-am-Rhein, Germany. An example of the revised design, with all legs of equal height, was presented by Charlotte Perriand at the UAM exhibition of July 1930.

via Christie’s.