Cm196 Paulin
Vintage 1960s Modern Chairs
Steel
Vintage 1960s Modern Chairs
Steel
Vintage 1960s French Modern Chairs
Metal
People Also Browsed
2010s American Industrial Fireplace Tools and Chimney Pots
Steel
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass, Bronze, Enamel, Nickel
21st Century and Contemporary Spanish Minimalist Side Tables
Marble, Travertine
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Flush Mount
Steel, Brass
2010s Austrian Jugendstil Chandeliers and Pendants
Silk
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and...
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Scandinavian Modern Wall Lights an...
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary French Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and ...
Aluminum, Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile
2010s American End Tables
Wood, Lacquer
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and...
Aluminum, Metal, Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Danish Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Mexican Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile, Wood
2010s South African Minimalist Night Stands
Wood
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Aluminum
Vintage 1930s Czech Art Deco Armchairs
Walnut
Recent Sales
Vintage 1950s French Chairs
Steel
Vintage 1960s French Modern Chairs
Steel
Vintage 1960s French Modern Chairs
Steel
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1960s Modern Dining Room Chairs
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Vintage 1950s Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1950s French Chairs
Cm196 Paulin For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Cm196 Paulin?
Pierre Paulin for sale on 1stDibs
Pierre Paulin introduced a fresh breeze into French furniture design in the 1960s and ’70s, fostering a sleek new Space-Age aesthetic. Along with Olivier Mourgue, Paulin developed chairs, sofas, dining tables and other furnishings with flowing lines and almost surreal naturalistic forms. And his work became such a byword for chic, forward-looking design and emerging technologies that two French presidents commissioned him to create environments in the Élysée Palace in Paris.
Paulin was born in Paris to a family of artists and designers. He initially sought to become a ceramist and sculptor and was studying in the town of Vallauris near the Côte d'Azur — a center for pottery making, where Pablo Picasso spent his postwar summers crafting ceramics — but broke his hand in a fight. He enrolled at the École Camondo, the Paris interior design school. There, Paulin was strongly influenced by the work of Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Arne Jacobsen, as was reflected in his early creations for the manufacturer Thonet-France.
It was at the Dutch firm Artifort, which he joined in 1958, where Paulin blossomed. In a few years, he produced several of his signature designs based on abstract organic shapes. These include the Butterfly chair (1963), which features a tubular steel frame and slung leather, and a group of striking seating pieces made with steel frames covered in polyurethane foam and tight jersey fabric: the Mushroom (1960), Ribbon (1966) and Tongue (1967) chairs. The revered designer not only introduced new construction techniques to Artifort furniture but contributed fresh materials, Pop art colors and dazzling shapes to the mid-century modern era as a whole.
In 1971, the Mobilier National — a department of France’s Ministry of Culture in charge of furnishing top-tier government offices and embassies — commissioned Paulin to redesign President Georges Pompidou’s private apartment in the Élysée Palace. In three years, Paulin transformed the staid rooms into futuristic environments with curved, fabric-clad walls and furnishings such as bookcases made from an arrangement of smoked-glass U shapes, flower-like pedestal chairs and pumpkin-esque loungers.
Ten years later, the Mobilier National called on Paulin again, this time to furnish the private office of President François Mitterand. Paulin responded with an angular, postmodern take on neoclassical furniture, pieces that looked surprisingly at home in the paneled, Savonnerie-carpeted Louis XVI rooms. As those two Élysée Palace projects show, Paulin furniture works well both in a total decor or when used as a counterpoint to traditional pieces. His creations have a unique personality: bright and playful yet sophisticated and suave.
Find vintage Pierre Paulin lounge chairs, armchairs, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Finding the Right chairs for You
Chairs are an indispensable component of your home and office. Can you imagine your life without the vintage, new or antique chairs you love?
With the exception of rocking chairs, the majority of the seating in our homes today — Windsor chairs, chaise longues, wingback chairs — originated in either England or France. Art Nouveau chairs, the style of which also originated in those regions, embraced the inherent magnificence of the natural world with decorative flourishes and refined designs that blended both curved and geometric contour lines. While craftsmanship and styles have evolved in the past century, chairs have had a singular significance in our lives, no matter what your favorite chair looks like.
“The chair is the piece of furniture that is closest to human beings,” said Hans Wegner. The revered Danish cabinetmaker and furniture designer was prolific, having designed nearly 500 chairs over the course of his lifetime. His beloved designs include the Wishbone chair, the wingback Papa Bear chair and many more.
Other designers of Scandinavian modernist chairs introduced new dynamics to this staple with sculptural flowing lines, curvaceous shapes and efficient functionality. The Paimio armchair, Swan chair and Panton chair are vintage works of Finnish and Danish seating that left an indelible mark on the history of good furniture design.
“What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts,” said Ray Eames.
Visionary polymaths Ray and Charles Eames experimented with bent plywood and fiberglass with the goal of producing affordable furniture for a mass market. Like other celebrated mid-century modern furniture designers of elegant low-profile furnishings — among them Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Finn Juhl — the Eameses considered ergonomic support, durability and cost, all of which should be top of mind when shopping for the perfect chair. The mid-century years yielded many popular chairs.
The Eameses introduced numerous icons for manufacturer Herman Miller, such as the Eames lounge chair and ottoman, molded plywood dining chairs the DCM and DCW (which can be artfully mismatched around your dining table) and a wealth of other treasured pieces for the home and office.
A good chair anchors us to a place and can become an object of timeless appeal. Take a seat and browse the rich variety of vintage, new and antique chairs on 1stDibs today.