Tag: Pierre Jeanneret

Selling Out Chandigarh (02) – Kangaroo Chair by Pierre Jeanneret

Kangaroo Chair by Pierre Jeanneret

Jeanneret-lounge-chair-1960

Selling Out Chandigarh (2)

I started this series about the Selling Out of Chandigarh Furniture in March (time flies) with this post: Selling out Chandigarh (01) – Introduction. I came across more posts adressing the issue and would like to share some with you:

Midcenturia (the second photo is theirs) devoted a long post on the subject with some nice photos of the process of building Chandigarh. In a comment somebody pointed to a satirical post of Mondo Blog giving rise to some heated debate. Some would call it the “looting” of Chandigarh. The same people behind the Indian adventure (as they call it) were part of stripping some African countries from Jean Prouvé furniture that was sold in auctions all over the place for ginormous amounts: In one of the comments I found these wise words:

You know, this isn’t all. Chandigar’s been getting picked clean of its Le Corbusier furniture, fixtures–and manhole covers for years now.

The part where pickers bribe petty bureaucrats to look the other way while they load their offices and guest houses into a truck makes me angry; but the part where pickers save or salvage the same furniture from garbage bins and government surplus sales makes me want to thank them. The part where some random Chandigarhian is walking home drunk and falls into an open manhole because some dealer wants to make a fast EUR 18,000 at Artcurial, well…

Why post now?

The direct reason for this post was I visited Vienna in February and visited the Dorotheum building while there was another auction on display (Their 2012 Leap Day auction).

“Kangaroo” chair or “Chauffeuse” or more simple: Lounge Chair

Thereafter I rummaged around on their site a bit and found this Chandigarh chair.

I believe it is one of the neater furniture designs for Chandigarh.

I’m royally amazed each time I see a piece of the reasonably raw Chandigarh furniture fetch a high bid at an auction.

designed by Pierre Jeanneret for the Administrative Buildings in Chandigarh, c. 1955, teak, Indian rosewood, woven cane, height 60 cm, width 55 cm, depth 63 cm. (DR) Provenance: Administrative Buildings, Chandigarh, India. Lit.: E. Touchaleaume, G. Moreau, Le Corbusier. Pierre Jeanneret. L’Aventure indienne, Paris 2010, p. 570 (PJ-SI-59-A).

Specialist: Dr. Gerti Draxler
estimate EUR 15.000,- to 20.000,- (USD 21.500,- to 28.500,-)

Auction Date: 22.11.2011 – 17:00
Location: Palais Dorotheum
Public Viewing: 12.11. – 22.11.2011
Category: Design
realized price* EUR 15.180,- *USD 21.500,-

Via Dorotheum.

Selling out Chandigarh (01) – Introduction

Selling out Chandigarh (01)-Introduction

On March, 31, 2011, I was witnessing a Sale by Wright in Chicago online in real time. I saw many Chandigarh items of furniture from Le Corbusier (Chosen name for Charles Edouard Jaenneret) and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, labeled “Chandigarh”, but couldn’t place Chandigarh until I stumbled on an article in the Design Observer.

The Background

India and Pakistan were split up in 1947 and India lost Lahore, the capital of the Punjab, to Pakistan.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, commissioned Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret) to build an entirely new city “free from the fetters of the past.” which became Chandigarh. Le Corbusier commissioned his cousin Pierre Jeanneret for interior design and he designed thousands of pieces of furniture for the government buildings and private residences of Chandigarh.

Some inhabitants of the city are not over enthusiastic with the design, because concrete and the Indian heat didn’t fit well together.

Chandigarh seems unattended and not well kept. Between 1999 and 2008 Indian officials have simply thrown out as garbage or sold via local auctions many pieces of the original furniture.

It appears that many pieces were collected by the Frenchman Eric Touchaleaume.
He wrote a book about this Indian Adventure. Auctionhouses gladly refer to this book as proof of the provenance…
Earlier he had retrieved Jean Prouvé furniture from Congo Brazaville. Read this interesting interview with him in the Guardian in February 2008.

The Controversy

The furniture pieces are sold through various auction houses all over the world for exorbitant prices.

For instance Phillis De Pury: April 7, 2010 Sale from Lot 83: The 4 cross armchairs were SOLD AT £67,250 while the ESTIMATE was £30,000-45,000…

It is clear that with such prices a controversy is born: Are the auction houses accessory to looting or merely doing their job? The same sort of controversy that occurs when a ship sunken a long time ago, is recovered and the cargo (for instance precious china) is auctioned.

We at Chair Blog don’t want to take a position for or against, but simply register what is happening.

Now it is time to publish this post as end of March 2012 again there are many pieces at an auction. This time Wright.

See also:

From time to time we will report more on the subject.

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

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

Five Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret & Charlotte Periand Tubular Swivel Chairs

Le Corbusier 7

Five Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret & Charlotte Periand Tubular Swivel Chairs
DESIGNED 1928

At Christie’s