Chairs, Chair Design and Chair Designers
Wittheld at a recent auction of Quittenbaum in Munich, Germany, but for sale at the estimated minimum € 14,000.
A very interesting comfy looking chair. According to Quittenbaum made by a Viennese manufacturer, Fiedrich Otto Schmidt after a design probably by Hampton & Sons, London, and used by Adolf Loos.
Erich Dieckmann. Armchair, past 1931. H. 64 x 60 x 90 cm. Made by Cebaso, Ohrdruf (attributed). Nickel-plated tubular steel, stained beech, black fabric.
Dieckmann is among the most important designers of the Bauhaus and his tubular steel furniture takes a special position in the context of European tubular steel design of the pre-war era. “The fundamental construction principle of this design follows the closed ‘Two line’ system. Seat – backframe and pedestal have been built of a closed line each.” Cf. exhib. cat. Erich Dieckmann, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 1990, S. 107, pl. 29 and p.177.
Fabric discoloured. Original iron yarn fabric existing. The model had been manufactured by Metz & Co. in the 1930s too. Both executions differentiate only marginally.
For sale at Quittenbaum estimated at € 12000 – 15000, but withheld.
In 2009 I visited the impressive solo exhibition of Ron Arad in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. I made many photo’s, but not until this year I found some time to prepare them for use on this blog.
The Rocking Chair, lacking the curved feet of traditional rockers, relies on its name to indicate its function. Made of bent tubular steel, it creates a different, somewhat scissor-like rocking movement. It was this mechanical idea, rather than an aesthetic quality, that Arad intended as the meaning of the chair, and he has indeed denied that it is at all stylish. This chair holds special significance as his first proper work of design—or, rather, the first time he was aware that he was designing. It signals his earliest venture beyond the readymade and toward design that did not rely on salvaged or repurposed materials. The final version of the Rocking Chair is sleeker than the original, which was conceived as another Kee Klamp construction (and determined too risky for unsuspecting fingers). One Off made several hundred of these chairs.
Text: MoMa
We whish all our readers a Merry Christmas with this Christmas tree of chairs that a friend jus sent me. The photo is by Nils Sager and the location Amman-Hofer-Platz in Interlaken, Switserland.
Very eco conscious a Christmas tree of chairs, as there are too many chairs in the world already and each and every day more chairs are produced and there are not trees enough around.
2017 is the third year the Chair Christmas tree being construed in Interlaken. The installation is an idea of Barbara Kiener of the Kulturgarage. First they erect a steel construction like the ones used for real Christmastrees…however they fill it with tons of pebbles to keep the structure stable enough for a tree of 6 meter hight and 3 meter wide.
One of the newer designs by Ron for Moroso (2015).
Matrizia is instead a sofa-sculpture, an upholstered furniture item which acts as the ideal midway point between design skill and craft talent.
The idea came about by accident, after seeing mattresses dumped in the street when walking in town, a sight which captured the boundless imagination of Ron Arad and triggered an imaginary operation of salvage and decontextualisation.
Matrizia was thus born by modelling and recovering a mattress so as to create a comfortable and innovative seat, while the name is a witty combination of the word “mattress” with “Patrizia”
Via Ron Arad . Com