Wassily B3 lounge chair by Marcel Breuer in brown for Knoll, 1960s
View Similar Items
Wassily B3 lounge chair by Marcel Breuer in brown for Knoll, 1960s
About the Item
- Creator:Marcel Breuer (Designer),Knoll (Manufacturer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 25.6 in (65 cm)Width: 26.38 in (67 cm)Depth: 31.11 in (79 cm)Seat Height: 14.97 in (38 cm)
- Style:Bauhaus (In the Style Of)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1960
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. The chair is in beautiful condition.
- Seller Location:Zevenaar, NL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU9519237451952
Wassily Lounge Chair
Inspired by bicycle handlebars, the Wassily chair is one of Marcel Breuer’s (1902–81) greatest achievements. Even though the tubular metal chair looked like an artifact from the future when the Hungarian-American designer and architect conceived it in 1925, Breuer could not have foreseen the significant impact that this would have on modern design.
From 1920–28, Breuer studied and then taught at the Bauhaus school of design, where he found a kindred spirit in Walter Gropius, who invited Breuer back as junior master of the carpentry workshop. After less than a year in his new role, Breuer produced his revolutionary chair, which is among the first furniture designs to feature bent tubular steel.
Breuer called the Wassily his “most extreme work” because the pared-down design didn’t look comfortable. It’s true: Take an everyday club chair — the Wassily’s technical name was the model B3 club chair — and toss the cushions and you’d have something like Breuer’s design. The lightweight and mass-produced tubular-steel handlebars of the maker’s bicycle made him wonder if he could achieve something similar with bent-steel furniture.
The resulting mid-1920s-era chair, the seat of which was made of a durable canvas developed by Bauhaus student Margaretha Reichardt, was named the Wassily after painter and fellow Bauhaus colleague Vasily “Wassily” Kandinsky expressed admiration for the piece. Today, Knoll manufactures the Wassily chair.
Marcel Breuer
The architect and designer Marcel Breuer was one the 20th century’s most influential and innovative adherents of modernism. A member of the Bauhaus faculty, Breuer — like such colleagues as the architects Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and the artists and art theoreticians László Moholy-Nagy and Josef Albers — left Europe in the 1930s to champion the new design philosophy and its practice in the United States.
Born in Hungary, Breuer became a Bauhaus student in 1920 and quickly impressed Gropius, the German school’s founder, with his aptitude for furniture design. His early work was influenced by the minimalist Dutch design movement De Stijl — in particular the work of architect Gerrit Rietveld. In 1925, while he was head of the Bauhaus furniture workshop, Breuer realized his signature innovation: the use of lightweight tubular-steel frames for chairs, tables and sofas — a technique soon adopted by Mies and others. Breuer’s attention gradually shifted from design to architecture, and, at the urging of Gropius, he joined his mentor in 1937 on the faculty of Harvard and in an architectural practice.
In the 1940s, Breuer opened his own architectural office, and there his style evolved from geometric, glass-walled structures toward a kind of hybrid architecture — seen in numerous Breuer houses in New England — that pairs bases of local fieldstone with sleek, wood-framed modernist upper floors. In his later, larger commissions, Breuer worked chiefly with reinforced concrete and stone, as seen in his best-known design, the brutalist inverted ziggurat built in New York in 1966 as the home of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Breuer’s most famous furniture pieces are those made of tubular steel, which include the Wassily chair — named after Wassily Kandinsky and recognizable for its leather-strap seating supports — and the caned Cesca chair. Breuer also made several notable designs in molded plywood, including a chaise and nesting table for the British firm Isokon and a student furniture suite commissioned in 1938 for a dormitory at Bryn Mawr College. Whether in metal or wood, Breuer’s design objects are elegant and adaptable examples of classic modernist design — useful and appropriate in any environment.
Find vintage Marcel Breuer seating, storage cabinets and lighting on 1stDibs.
- Geoffrey Harcourt Artifort lounge chair green leather, 1960By Geoffrey D. Harcourt, ArtifortLocated in Zevenaar, NLRarely seen lounge swivel chair in a rust beautiful green leather upholstery, design by Geoffrey Harcourt for Artifort Netherlands, 1960’s. The chair features free hanging armrests a...Category
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Dutch Martin Visser Osaka burgundy leather lounge chair by 't Spectrum, 1964By Martin VisserLocated in Zevenaar, NLIntroducing the epitome of timeless elegance – the Vintage Martin Visser Leather Osaka Lounge Chair, a true masterpiece from the iconic 't Spectrum ...Category
Mid-20th Century Dutch Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsSteel
- Bauhaus cantilever dining chairs with arms loopin black leather by FasemBy Fasem International, Marcel Breuer, Mart StamLocated in Zevenaar, NLSet 5 "S34" Mart Stam tubular frame chairs, Fasem Italy How timeless something can be! This design by Mart Stam is originally from the 1920s and completely modern untill today. Thes...Category
20th Century Italian Bauhaus Chairs
MaterialsSteel, Chrome
- Cassina Revers chairs, Andrea Branzi, 5 available in brown, 1993By Andrea Branzi, CassinaLocated in Zevenaar, NLBeautiful 'Revers' dining armchairs by Andrea Branzi for Cassina featuring Brown beechwood arms sculpted in ribbon attaching to aluminum frames with matching seats. Signed with Cassi...Category
1990s Italian Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Brutalist ceramic floorlight, 1960sLocated in Zevenaar, NLLarge ceramic floorlight. 100 cm high, diameter 52 cm. A true masterpiece of brutalism. This perfectly proportioned large ceramic floor lamp measures roughly 100 cm in height and h...Category
Vintage 1960s German Brutalist Floor Lamps
MaterialsCeramic, Blown Glass
- Etnic xxl brutalist vase, 1960sLocated in Zevenaar, NLLarge geometric ethnic ceramic floorvase, height 52 cm. This piece of pottery has no stamp, only a number referring to the height. Heritage unknown. Its a real eyecatcher, but also g...Category
Vintage 1960s European Mid-Century Modern Vases
MaterialsClay, Paint
- Knoll Wassily B3 Armchair By Marcel Breuer For Gavina 1960By Knoll, Marcel BreuerLocated in Los Angeles, CAntroducing the Knoll Wassily B3 Armchair by Marcel Breuer for Gavina - A Modern Classic from 1960 The Knoll Wassily B3 Armchair, designed by the visiona...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Bauhaus Lounge Chairs
MaterialsStainless Steel, Chrome
- Marcel Breuer Wassily Lounge Chair signed Knoll StudioBy Knoll, Marcel BreuerLocated in Vilnius, LTVintage Wassily lounge chair, designed by Marcel Breuer, circa 1925. Manufacture date 2003 by Knoll Studio. Stamped Knoll Studio on the frame and labeled. In black leather, chromed s...Category
Early 2000s Italian Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsChrome
- Knoll International Wassily Chair Design by Marcel Breuer Brown Saddle LeatherBy Knoll, Marcel BreuerLocated in Munich, BavariaThis Wassily chair, in chromed tubular steel and brown leather, was designed by Marcel Breuer and produced by Knoll International. Knoll International production with the Wassily st...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Bauhaus Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Knoll International Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer Black LeatherBy Knoll, Marcel BreuerLocated in Munich, BavariaThis Wassily chair, in chromed tubular steel and black leather, was designed by Marcel Breuer and produced by Knoll International. Knoll International production with the Marcel Breu...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Bauhaus Lounge Chairs
MaterialsStainless Steel, Chrome
- Knoll International Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer Black LeatherBy Knoll, Marcel BreuerLocated in Munich, BavariaThis Wassily chair, in chromed tubular steel and black leather, was designed by Marcel Breuer and produced by Knoll International. Knoll International production with the Marcel Breu...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Bauhaus Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome, Stainless Steel
- Gavina Wassily Chair B3 Design by Marcel Breuer Dark Brown Saddle LeatherBy Gavina, Marcel BreuerLocated in Munich, BavariaThis Wassily chair, in chromed tubular steel and dark brown leather, was designed by Marcel Breuer and produced by Gavina. from 1965 -1969 was this chair in production. So this is ...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Bauhaus Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome, Stainless Steel