Category: famous chair

Die Zeit Armchair by Otto Wagner

Die Zeit Armchair by Otto Wagner
Die Zeit Armchair by Otto Wagner is another chair in the important Wiener Werkstätte auction in NYC coming March 3, 2011:

OTTO WAGNER

Rare armchair, for the dispatch bureau of Die Zeit, Vienna, ca. 1902

Beechwood, nickel-plated metal, aluminum, cord, fabric. 30 3/4 in. (78.1 cm.) high Produced by Jacob & Josef Kohn, Austria. Underside stamped with “J. & J. Kohn/Teschen Austria.”

ESTIMATE $35,000-45,000

via Phillips de Pury & Company.

My view: It seems very similar to the Postsparkasse chair….and already Art Deco.

See for instance the one that was auctioned, but probably held up at Wright in 2006:

Armchair by Otto Wagner for the Vienna Postsparkasse

According to Wright made by:

Thonet
Austria, 1906
stained beech wood, aluminum, upholstery
21.75 w x 23.25 d x 31 h inches

Vienna’s Postparkasse, or Post Office Savings Bank, is Otto Wagner’s most important public commission and a landmark of modern architecture. This project illustrates Wagner’s pioneering use of aluminum as a new and modern material in architecture and design. Produced in a small series exclusively for the board room of the Post Office Savings Bank, this armchair utilizes aluminum both as a durable material for everyday use, and as a detail that fuses the design with overall architectural concept. Signed with manufacturer’s paper label to underside: [Thonet Wien] and stamped: [Thonet].

Otto Wagner Armchair NYC Christies
In 2008 a similar chair fetched $16,250 at Christie’s in a NYC sale.

Two Leather Otto Wagner Armchairs
In London at Christies there was not much interest in two leather upholstered ones in 2007 ($2,559) See Lot.

In 2000 at Christie’s (again NYC) this ebonized with aluminum one fetched $35,250.

Cord versus upholstery vs leather?  Thonet vs J&J Kohn – who, mind you, later acquired the certain parts of the Thonet portfolio? New World loving this chair more than the Old World? Many questions…

Curious what this one will fetch in NYC.

Tolix’ A56 Armchair in Lingerie Campaign

The famous A56 armchair designed by Jean Pauchard in 1934 for Tolix is featured in the luxury lingerie brand Agent Provocateur‘s Spring/Summer-2011 campaign. The face of the newest collection is curvatious beauty Josephine de La Baume, a French actress and singer.

P.S. And just in case the photo above is not enough and you want to see the chair (or is it Josephine that you want to see more of?) in “action”, I suggest you check out the campaign at the AP website for some interesting jiggling gif pictures… I know you want to, so don’t be shy and click away! I won’t tell anyone you did.

Finally: Wall of Designer Chairs at BK City, TU Delft


Chair insiders (should) know that Delft Architecture Faculty (In Dutch Faculteit Bouwkunde, or abbreviated BK for Bouw Kunde) of Delft Technical University (TU Delft) in The Netherlands has a famous collection of designer chairs.

On May 13, 2008 The Delft Architecture Faculty got a lot of egg on its face when its building burnt down. Every newspaper all of a sudden asked whether the chair collection would be lost forever. Luckily that was not the case.

Now the collection has found a permanent exhibition place finally. I’d missed it:

Event: Faculty of Architecture to open permanent exhibition of famous chair collection

05 October 2010 | 16:00 o’clock
location: Faculteit Bouwkunde

Paul Schnabel is to open the new permanent exhibition of TU Delft Faculty of Architecture’s famous chair collection on 5 October. The extensive collection, which is very important from a historical point of view, has now been given a place of honor in the Faculty of Architecture’s new premises in Julianalaan in Delft with financial support from the Sofa Foundation.

Programme opening
16:00 Welcome by Dean Wytze Patijn;
16:10 Sofa’s last trick;
16:20 Opening ceremony conducted by Paul Schnabel;
16:35 Drinks at the exhibition.

But I’ve noticed it via Design.nl.

Kossmann De Jong realized the Wall of Chairs which was facilitated with a grant from the Sofa Foundation.

It seems that the site from the Sofa Foundation Stichting Sofa doesn’t work propely today, but some history can be found at Johannes Niemeijer‘s site. Nowadays the Sofa Foundation seems to be administered by the Prince Bernhard Culture Foundation.

During working days the exhibition is open to the public and without charge. It’s address is

BK City (next to the Library)
Julianalaan 143
Delft.

I might as well pay it a visit soon.

Thonet no. 14 by James Irvine for Muji

Via JeanSnow.net I remembered I had not mentioned here before that Muji had teamed up with the German Thonet factory to produce a Muji interpretation of the no. 14 already in 2008.
The English designer James Irvine, now domiciled in Milan, and also creative director at Thonet, is responsible for the reinterpretation of the bentwood furniture.

Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 17 – with Writing Arm by Garry Knox Bennett

Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 17 - with Writing Arm by Garry Knox Bennett admired by Vladimir Kagan

Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 17 – with Writing Arm by Garry Knox Bennett.

Here Vladimir Kagan admires it at the 2010 Furniture Society Conference. His post about the MIT conference of the Furniture Society inspired me to track GKB down with the amazing discovery that GKB did not make 0ne but a whole series of Seventeen Zig Zag variations which caused me as a Dutchman and a Rietveld fan to publish the entire series of 17 Zig Zag variations.

Garry Knox Bennett featured this variation at the MIT conference of the Furniture Society. Kagan:

A man the size of a Grizzly and the sweetness of a Teddy Bear. In the 60’s, Garry turned pot smoking from a sub-culture into a million dollar enterprise by inventing and producing a better roach clip. Today he is a consummate craftsman: His work is entertaining and adventuresome. Garry has had numerous exhibits and books written about his work. Check him out in a book called “Made In Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett”.

In recent years Garry created 120 chairs, each a work of art: Unique, often whimsical. 52 of them were exhibited in the Bellevue Art Museum in Bellevue, Washington and traveled to five other venues over the next four years. The museum published a catalog in a beautifully illustrated book titled “Call Me Chairmaker”.

Signature of the Rietveld Zig Zag variation 17 by Garry

For the members’ exhibit Garry signed one of these chairs with an original roach clip and a two-dollar bill and the word “perhaps”. To explain this tongue-in-cheek humor, it is tied to an earlier exhibit that was titled Historical Woods: the exhibit’s premise: Woods acquired from historic sites…. The Poplar wood used to make his spin-off of Gerrit Rietveld’s Zig Zag chair came from President Jefferson’s estate, (hence the two-dollar bill with Jefferson’s image on it.) The other corollary was that Jefferson was reputed to have grown hemp on his estate, (ostensibly for making rope and other useful items). Garry suggests “perhaps” with a roach clip)…. Jefferson was an innovator and was credited with having added the writing arm on a Windsor chair, as Garry did to the Z chair.

This closes various loops, although please note:

Garry Knox Bennett will have an extensive survey exhibition of work at the Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA from September 14 – November 30, 2010 with a reception on September 25 and an artist talk on October 23. This will be the largest body of work on exhibit since his 2001 retrospective.