Pre-War Isokon "Long Chair" by Marcel Breuer

The London-based "Isokon" group was at the center of the Modernism movement in pre-war Britain; their club, the Isobar, a favorite hang-out for artists and intellectuals. Isokon's head designers included Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, the ex-Bauhaus refugees.



The "Long Chair" was perhaps the most highly developed of all the plywood designs supplied to Isokon by Breuer. It's form recalls a reclining nude by Henry Moore (one of the regulars at the Isobar), while the patina on this example is every bit that of fine sculpture.



This chair is a rare pre-war example, made by Isokon. (This design was also produced in the 1960s, by Knoll.)