Chairs, Chair Design and Chair Designers
Designer: Michael Thonet
c. 1870
Description: Rocking chair with a dark wooden frame, and cane seat and back.
History: This is a replica of the 1870 design. The rocking chair was relatively unheard of in Europe until Thonet designed this piece.
Museum Collections: (University of Dundee)
The Future Dutch Finance Minister Witteveen in the kids chair Rietveld made for him
By Editor Design.nl / 04-12-2008
The Centraal Museum in Utrecht and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam have jointly acquired the Gerrit Rietveld child-chair designed in 1918 and produced in 1921-22. The piece makes it possible to track Rietveld’s development towards the Red Blue Chair, an icon in Dutch art history, much more closely.
Gerrit Rietveld (Utrecht 1888-1964) is one of the major innovators of 20th century architecture and design. This child-seat is considered a key element in his oeuvre. Its shape and colour scheme precede the famous Red Blue Chair, which was also designed in 1918, but not painted in the well-known colours until 1923.
In 1919, Magazine De Stijl published the design of the child-seat. Rietveld gave an explanation of the colour-scheme (at the time green, light green and red) and the special construction qualities focussing on the experimental wood connections and dowels. He designed the featured seat for the first child of H.J. Schelling who was born in 1918. That chair is now lost.
No other furniture from this crucial period in Rietveld’s development was known to still exist. Then in 2006, a second child-seat appeared at an auction. This chair was made for Hendrikus Johannes Witteveen, the future minister of Finance who was born in 1921. It is almost identical to the chair owned by the Schelling family. Only one picture of the chair, showing Witteveen as a child sitting in it, survives.
Considering the date of 1921, the seat gives us essential information about the development of Rietveld’s use of colour in that period. He was experimenting with primary colours, which is of great importance for research into his early development. Few works from that period can be dated with such precision.
As far as it is known, this child-seat is the only piece of furniture left from this important period. During this time he lets go of the simple, closed shapes of his early works which were inspired by among others Frank Lloyd Wright and Berlage. Spatial quality becomes the essence of his revolutionary designs where he effortlessly connects to the avant-garde movement, De Stijl.
The chair is on display from today in the “125 Great Loves†exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Design.nl
See for a remake this Chair Blog Post
Finally a decent photo of the Bone Chair from the site of the Rotterdam based designer himself…although the site is now under construction. I do hope he forfeits Flash in his new site.
JORIS LAARMAN STUDIO
Le Corbusier LC2 Armchair + LC2 Loveseat + LC2 3-Seater for Euro 2899.00 in stead of Euro 4497.00.
Chromium plating steel-tubular frame Foam material cushions
down padded with black leather cover.
Delivery time approx. 3 – 6 weeks
Via Bauhaus Stars [discontinued, but I wanted some LC2 and LC3 photos…what can you do]
Last edited by Guido J. van den Elshout on November 26, 2011 at 11:47 PM
Thonet S 32 Mart Stam and Marcel Breuer
Via Design Art News.