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.
Marcel Breuer B21 Thonet Bauhaus Tubular Steel Typewriter Table
By Marcel Breuer
Located in Sharon, CT
Important early piece (1928) of Breuer's revolutionary tubular furniture.
Steel
$2,593
H 72.05 in W 45.67 in D 23.63 in
Bauhaus Chromed Tubular Steel Wardrobe by Hynek Gottwald, 1940s
By Hynek Gottwald
Located in Żory, PL
This Bauhaus-style wardrobe was designed by Hynek Gottwald and produced in Czechoslovakia in the 1940s. It features two doors, an internal clothes rail, and a shelf. The wardrobe sta...
Steel
$7,484Sale Price|20% Off
H 30.71 in W 68.9 in D 35.44 in
Bauhaus Desk by Mücke-Melder, Steeltubes and Oak Veneer, Czechia circa 1935
By Marcel Breuer, Mücke & Melder
Located in Regensburg, DE
Beautiful, large modernist Bauhaus Steeltube Desk by Mücke-Melder, Czechia circa 1935. Oak solid wood and veneer. Chrome-plated, polished tubular steel frame with original patina. Left and right each 4 long drawers. By locking the top drawer all 4 drawers are locked. Very functional with much storage space and very good legroom. The desk can also be used as a 'partners desk' and be worked on from two sides. In the style of Marcel Breuer’s steel tube desks...
Steel
$2,880Sale Price|20% Off
H 31 in W 44 in D 25 in
Deco Bauhaus chrome 3 drawer desk by Wolfgang Hoffmann Desk for Howell
By Wolfgang Hoffmann, Howell
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Deco Bauhaus chrome 3 drawer desk by Wolfgang Hoffmann Desk for Howell. Bent chrome tube structure with 3 drawers. Good vintage condition for its age shows wear and use to chrome and...
Chrome
Modernist Desk in Solid Wood 40s / 50s Bauhaus Style Vintage
Located in Ternay, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
French desk from the 40s / 50s in modernist Bauhaus style. Structure of the desk in veneered and solid Rio rosewood with a triple tubular base in chromed steel quite rare. The desk i...
Chrome
$532Sale Price|23% Off
H 24.02 in W 45.28 in D 10.24 in
Bauhaus Chrome-Plated Tubular Steel Étagère / Flower Stand, 1930s
Located in Lucenec, SK
Chrome-plated tubular steel étagère made in the 1930s with glass shelves. Chrome plating is in original condition.
Steel, Chrome
$18,900
H 64.25 in W 106.625 in D 25.875 in
Marcel Breuer Attribution, Sideboard, Cherry, Glass, Germany, 1925
By Marcel Breuer
Located in High Point, NC
A cherry-veneered wood and glass cabinet or sideboard attributed to Marcel Breuer. Present cabinet was produced for the apartment of Fred Forbát, Zehlendorf, Berlin, Germany, c. 1925...
Glass, Cherry
$3,500
H 27.96 in W 27.56 in D 18.51 in
Contemporary Tubular Steel Sideboard Czech Functionalism Bauhaus
Located in Wien, AT
This sideboard with a construction of polished stainless steel and oak veneered plywood is made to order by Tschechisches Wohndesign. Delivery time if not in stock 4-6 weeks. 1 piec...
Stainless Steel
$800Sale Price|20% Off
H 31.5 in W 42 in D 22 in
Mid Century English Chippendale Style Walnut Kneehole Typewriter Writing Desk
Located in Dayton, OH
1940s American writing desk in Georgian / Chippendale Styling. Features a matchbook walnut frame with a typewriter drawer flanked by six dovetailed drawers with colonial brass bale ...
Walnut
$4,263Sale Price|20% Off
H 29.53 in W 43.31 in D 21.66 in
Pierre Paulin “CM178” Desk for Thonet – 1950s, France
By Pierre Paulin, Thonet
Located in SOTTEVILLE-LÈS-ROUEN, FR
A rare “CM178” desk designed by Pierre Paulin for Thonet in the 1950s. A refined example of French mid-century design, this desk features a black lacquered tubular metal frame and a ...
Steel
$8,052
H 30.32 in W 63 in D 26.78 in
Bauhaus Tubular Steel Desk by André Lurçat, Manufactured by Thonet, circa. 1935
By André Lurcat
Located in Berlin, DE
Bauhaus tubular steel desk designed by André Lurçat and probably manufactured by Thonet. Chrome plated tubular steel, stained oak veneer, circa 1930.
Metal, Chrome
$8,052
H 70.87 in W 46.46 in D 22.84 in
Exceptional Thonet Bauhaus wardrobe , luxury mahogany edition by Thonet
By Hermann John Hagemann
Located in Berlin, DE
This rare and exceptionally well-preserved Bauhaus wardrobe was designed by architect and furniture designer John Hageman for Thonet-Mundus and produced in the company’s renowned Fra...
Steel, Chrome
$6,631
H 30.32 in W 57.09 in D 29.53 in
Modernist Tubular Steel Desk with 2 Chests of Drawers, Chromed Metal, Oak Veneer
Located in Berlin, DE
Modernist tubular steel desk with two chests of drawers, chrome plated metal, oak veneer, circa. 1935.
Metal, Chrome
Sold
H 29.25 in W 50 in D 24.75 in
Marcel Breuer Desk Designed for James E. Rhoads Hall at Bryn Mawr College
By Marcel Breuer
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Marcel Breuer desk designed for James E. Rhoads Residence Hall at the Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. The birch desk, circa the late 1930's, USA, features a bent plywood leg on on...
Birch, Plywood
Sold
H 27.96 in W 25.99 in D 61.42 in
Isokon T3 Dinning Table Breuer with Pritchard and Gropius 1/3 Made
By Marcel Breuer
Located in London, GB
Isokon dinning table 1 out of 4 Long version model in 157cm x 66 cm x 72 cm made in collaboration with Breuer, Gropius and Jack Pritchard. T section leg housed into the ply with a...
Plywood
Marcel Breuer Custom Desk
By Marcel Breuer
Located in Chicago, IL
Marcel Breuer custom desk, acquired by Rufus Stillman, who built three separate Breuer Houses after seeing Breuer’s "House in the Garden” the year before f...
Walnut
Sold
H 31 in W 57 in D 29.5 in
Restored Bauhaus Black Lacquered Wood Desk with Chrome Steel by Marcel Breuer
By Thonet, Marcel Breuer
Located in Almelo, NL
Restored German Art Deco black lacquered wood desk with chrome steel designed by Marcel Breuer His friends and family affectionately called him Lajkó, but the rest of us know him ...
Chrome
Rare and Important Marcel Breuer Bauhaus Desk for Thonet, 1930s
By Marcel Breuer
Located in Buffalo, NY
Designed by the Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer in 1935, this desk shows very well the functional Design of the Bauhaus School. The desk in ash with visible wood texture was produced...
Chrome, Nickel