Marcel Breuer Wassily Chair, Knoll Associates, Tri-colored Hide, Italy, 2000s
About the Item
- Creator:Marcel Breuer (Designer),Knoll (Maker)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 29 in (73.66 cm)Width: 31 in (78.74 cm)Depth: 27 in (68.58 cm)Seat Height: 16.5 in (41.91 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:2000s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Good vintage condition. All original. Some age appropriate signs of use possible.
- Seller Location:Brooklyn, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU4190339458782
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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Brooklyn, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 1 day of delivery.
- Florence Knoll Lounge Chair, Knoll International, Cream White, USA.By Florence Knoll, KnollLocated in Brooklyn, NYFlorence Knoll Lounge Chair by Florence Knoll, 1954. Warmed through color and texture, the Florence Knoll Lounge Chair is a scaled-down translation of the rhythm and proportions of ...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsTextile
- The Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen, Blue, Denmark, 1958, 2000s.By Arne Jacobsen, Fritz HansenLocated in Brooklyn, NYThe Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen, Blue, Denmark, 1958, 2000s. Scalamandre ocelot throw cushion in main image is for display purposes only and is NOT included with cha...Category
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsAluminum, Stainless Steel
- The Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen, Red, Denmark, 1958, 2000s.By Arne Jacobsen, Fritz HansenLocated in Brooklyn, NYThe Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen, Blue, Denmark, 1958, 2000s. Scalamandre dragon pillow in main photo is for display purposes only and is NOT included with chair. T...Category
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsAluminum, Stainless Steel
- Warren Platner Grey Leather Easy Chair and Ottoman Set of Three, Knoll, 1966By Warren Platner, KnollLocated in Brooklyn, NYWarren platner grey leather easy chair and ottoman set of three, Knoll, 1966. Knoll Models 1705L and 1705Y. Please see last image for proper dimensions. Warren Platner for Knoll gr...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsStainless Steel, Nickel
- Warren Platner Gray Leather 1705 Easy Chair and Ottoman Set of Two, Knoll, 1966By Warren Platner, KnollLocated in Brooklyn, NYWarren platner gray leather easy chair and ottoman set of two, Knoll, 1966. Knoll Models 1705L and 1705Y. See final two images for proper dimensions...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsStainless Steel, Nickel
- Warren Platner 1705Y Easy Ottoman, Gray Leather and Nickel, Knoll, 1966By Warren Platner, KnollLocated in Brooklyn, NYWarren Platner 1705Y Easy Ottoman, Gray Leather and Nickel, Knoll, 1966 Custom gray leather (original); original nickel finish. Ottoman retains original clear acrylic feet. The maste...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsStainless Steel, Nickel
- Marcel Breuer Wassily lounge chair for KnollBy Marcel BreuerLocated in Los Angeles, CAThe iconic Wassily chair by Marcel Breuer for Knoll. Originally known as the model B3 chair, this monumental piece of Mid Century Design was first conceived a...Category
Late 20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Knoll International Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer Black LeatherBy Marcel Breuer, KnollLocated 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
- 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
- Marcel Breuer Knoll “Wassily” Brown Leather and Chrome ChairBy Knoll, Marcel BreuerLocated in Indianapolis, INA vintage brown leather and chrome Wassily chair designed by Hungarian architect and furniture designer Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) for Knoll. Composed of a tubular chrome frame with b...Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Marcel Breuer Knoll “Wassily” Brown Leather and Chrome ChairBy Knoll, Marcel BreuerLocated in Indianapolis, INA vintage brown leather and chrome Wassily chair designed by Hungarian architect and furniture designer Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) for Knoll. Composed of a tubular chrome frame with b...Category
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Knoll International Wassily Chair Design by Marcel Breuer Brown Saddle LeatherBy Marcel Breuer, KnollLocated 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