Lot: 23

Marcel Breuer
'ti 1a' wooden-slat chair, 1924

H. 92.2 x 56.1 x 58.4 cm; Slats: 2.5 x 5.4 cm; Square edge: 3.9 x 4 cm. Made at Bauhaus Weimar, 1924/25. Cherry wood slats, grey textile cover. Marked: 2 labels: property R. Probst, 5.

First version with legs made of square-edged wood. Provenance: Dresden art trade, before that private collection Dresden (estate of an elderly lady), before that Rudolf Probst (labels on the underside of the chair). As early as 1922, while still a student, Breuer worked on the first version of the slatted chair, probably inspired by Rietveld's zigzag chair from 1918 and other furniture designs by the De Stijl movement. With the simplest means (wooden slats, joined together vertically on a square floor plan and covered with strips of fabric), he creates a piece of furniture that is both light and stable and meets ergonomic needs. The chair is described in "Neue Arbeit der Bauhauswerkstätten", 1925, p. 29: "The elastic and sloping seat supports the entire thigh. The back is thus also held angular and elastic, with two straps that only hold the shoulder blades and lower back - thus, the flat parts of the back, but let the sensitive backbone free.“ Neue Arbeiten der Bauhauswerkstätten, reprint 1981, p. 28f. "From the summer of 1924 to March 1925 alone, 262 children's chairs and 32 children's tables were produced. In the same period, 26 slatted chairs were produced." (Droste / Ludewig, Marcel Breuer Design, Cologne 1992, p. 11).

>> Literature

Hammer Price: 110,000 €

157A - Bauhaus 102
29. June 2021 at 3:00 PM CET

Literature:

Droste / Ludewig, Marcel Breuer Design, Cologne 1992, p. 6-8, p. 35, p. 46/47; Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung coll. cat., Berlin 1987, p. 90 (text).