By Pierre Jeanneret
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Webbed teak daybed by Pierre Jeanneret from the Chandigarh furniture program, circa 1955–1956. A long reclining platform, rectangular cane back and contemporary dark shearling pad with cylindrical bolster are combined in a visibly articulated timber frame.
Jeanneret’s furniture formed part of the larger architectural project of Chandigarh, the new city developed in post-independence India. Alongside desks, chairs and storage furniture, his daybeds addressed the quieter activities of rest and informal seating. Their generous horizontal surfaces were supported by a practical timber framework made with local craftsmen. The design gives an everyday furnishing the clarity of a small architectural structure, with its proportions, visible joints and open spaces establishing a close relationship between useful construction and sculptural form.
The head uprights carry the open cane back, while the webbed support remains exposed around the seat rails beneath the removable pad. Visible bolts connect the broad timber members, making the practical assembly legible. The cane grid forms a light vertical screen at one end of the otherwise continuous horizontal platform.
A photographed head upright is painted “P.E.C/13(H).” P.E.C is consistent with Punjab Engineering College, whose campus moved to Chandigarh in 1953. The accompanying characters preserve an institutional inventory designation on the frame itself. This lettering gives the daybed a specific college association and remains visible beside the bolt heads and aged teak surface.
The vintage teak retains variations in grain, color and surface wear, with softened edges and individual traces of use visible in the photographs. These details give the woodwork its material character and preserve the sense of a furnishing made for daily life in institutional or residential interiors. The timber has been refinished. The present upholstery is a later treatment of the vintage structure.
For a related webbed Chandigarh daybed...
Category
1950s Indian Vintage Teak Daybeds