Chairs, Chair Design and Chair Designers
born and educated in Spain, currently based in London. Zeed was first presented at Tent London 2010. There is a welded steel and wooden version. Zeed is an excellent chair for chair installations. You can also sit on it when it is put upside down.
Another rare early 20ieth century armchair: One by Hans Vollmer. Hans Vollmer was a pupil of Josef Hoffmann at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna in 1898/9
HANS VOLLMER
Very rare armchair, ca. 1901
Oak, leather, brass. 27 5/8 in. (70.2 cm.) high Possibly executed by Prag-Rudniker Korbwarenfabrik, Austria.
ESTIMATE $30,000-40,000
via Phillips de Pury & Company.
Pillips de Pury refers by way of provenance to an auction of Christie’s on 29 October 1997 in London, King Street, where this chair fetched $4,615, just before the big increase of auction results for early 20ieth century furniture. Again interesting to see the result of this chair….
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.â€
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:
According to Wright made by:
Thonet
Austria, 1906
stained beech wood, aluminum, upholstery
21.75 w x 23.25 d x 31 h inchesVienna’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].
In 2008 a similar chair fetched $16,250 at Christie’s in a NYC sale.
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.
Via Twitter I discovered Marc Spagnuolo, the @WoodWhisperer who publishes very nice videos on his site The Wood Wisperer. Here one about how to build your own Windsor Chair from a kit which gives a great insight in the building process. It teaches me there are various models of the Windsor Chair. This one is called a Bow Back Windsor
Photo by Windsor Chair Online
Limu is a chair designed by Milan, Italy based Sandro Lopez for the Elit Collection of Pircher
Via Design Milk.