Mies van der Rohe MR20 Rattan Dining Chairs Set of Eight Circa 1960s

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Mies van der Rohe MR20 Rattan Dining Chairs Set of Eight Circa 1960s

About the Item

Mies van der Rohe MR20 rattan dining chairs Circa 1960s Magnificent set of eight mid century Ludwig Mies van der Rohe MR20 cantilever rattan dining chairs with arms circa 1960s, the chairs were purchased by the original vendor from Harrods in the mid 1960s, a truly wonderful set of dining chairs in good original condition with excellent patina, reserve now. The MR Collection represents some of the earliest steel furniture designs by Mies van der Rohe. The material choice was inspired by fellow Bauhaus master Marcel Breuer, while the forms are thought to be modern derivatives of 19th century iron rocking chairs. The origins of the bent-steel cantilevered chair are somewhat murky, but generally three names come up in the discussion. Marcel Breuer is widely credited with pioneering the exploration of the material, Mart Stam seems to be the first to conceive a “chair without back legs”, and Mies van der Rohe is remembered as the one who made it beautiful. It is believed that Mart Stam described his idea—a continuous loop of steel (he used a thinner gauge gas pipe in the earliest versions) with a cantilevered seat—at a meeting of the Werkbund in 1926. In attendance were Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe, both of whom were inspired to design cantilever chairs of their own in the coming months. Mies replaced the right angles on the front legs with a graceful curve which had the advantage of increasing elasticity while preventing material fatigue. Mies first showed the MR 10 and MR20 at the Stuttgart Weissenhof Estate — a seminal Werkbund exhibition, which first brought modernist works to the public, with buildings designed by Peter Behrens, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and others. Over the next five years, Mies would develop an entire series of tubular steel designs now presented by Knoll as the MR Collection. Summery: Mid Century Modern Creator: Mies van der Rohe MR20 Chrome Rattan Cantilever Chairs Set of Eight Original Retailer: Harrods Bauhaus design One Owner Date of Manufacture: 1960s Investment Practical & beautiful Condition: The chairs are in offered excellent original condition, the rattan work is original with signs of use and minor splits and breaks as to be expected trough 60 years of use, minor splash marks on some chairs but overall the chairs are all in very good clean condition, the chrome work is in good condition with no pitting or losses but does have minor tarnish marks showing age, no weakness to frames, no makers stamp, the chairs precede Knoll stamping the frames which started in the late 1980s. Dimensions: Width: 20” / 52cm Depth: 27.25” / 69cm Height: 31” / 79cm Seat height: 17.5” / 44cm Arm Height: 27.25” / 69cm.

Creator:
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 31 in (78.74 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)Depth: 27 in (68.58 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 8
Style:
Bauhaus (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Rattan
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
Mid-20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1960s
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. The chairs are in offered excellent original condition, the rattan work is original with signs of use and minor splits and breaks as to be expected trough 60 years of use, minor splash marks on some chairs but overall the chairs are all in very good.
Seller Location:
Longdon, GB
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1832324771782

Shop All Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Architect, furniture designer and educator, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a central figure in the advancement and promotion of modernist design and architectural theory and practice. Like Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, he was a hugely influential presence in the field, who shaped the course of 20th-century architecture both through his buildings and his teaching of rationalist design principles.

Born in the medieval German city of Aachen, Mies found an interest in architecture as a boy while working for his father, a master stonemason. He had no formal education as an architect, but learned his skills as an apprentice to the designer Bruno Paul, and as a staffer in the office the proto-modernist architect and designer Peter Behrens. Following World War I, Mies rose to prominence in his field amid the liberal atmosphere of the Weimar Republic. His reputation was secured by his work on the German Pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona (commonly referred to as the Barcelona Pavilion) — which Mies codesigned with Lilly Reich, his creative and romantic partner — a radically simple, poetic, open-plan building pared down to its architectural essentials. Mies would go on to direct the Bauhaus from 1930 until 1933, when Nazi-government interference forced the closure of the progressive art and design school. Later that decade, he made his way to Chicago, where he remained for the rest of his career as a practicing architect and a dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Mies’s famed dictum “less is more” grew from his belief that architecture both guides and expresses the spirit of the times, and he envisioned the 20th century as open-minded, logical, transparent and liberated by technology. His best-known buildings — residences such as the Villa Tugendhat in Czechoslovakia and the Farnsworth House in rural Illinois; skyscrapers like the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive apartment towers in Chicago and the Seagram Building in New York — reflect that philosophy. As do the most famous furniture designs authored by him or codesigned with Reich.

Pieces designed by Mies and Reich such as the Barcelona chair (the authorized version is produced by Knoll today), stools and daybed, or the cantilevered Brno chairs, deliver a maximum of comfort and support from a minimum of materials: their “lavishness” derives from the precision with which they are engineered and constructed. For the collector, the allure of Mies’s furniture is at once practical and idealistic. Useful and functional, his works embody the highest aspirations of modernism.

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