Four Marcel Breuer 'Cesca' Chairs for Gavina
View Similar Items
Four Marcel Breuer 'Cesca' Chairs for Gavina
About the Item
- Creator:Marcel Breuer (Designer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 29.53 in (75 cm)Width: 17.72 in (45 cm)Depth: 20.87 in (53 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 2
- Materials and Techniques:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1970
- Condition:
- Seller Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU6402230406302
Cesca Chair
Ubiquitous but never boring, the Cesca chair has defined casual elegance in the dining room since 1928. Designed by Marcel Breuer (1902–81) for the Austrian furniture maker Gebrüder Thonet, the original Cesca chair combines natural beechwood caning and modern tubular steel for a sensibility that celebrates both handicraft and industrialization. It’s a paragon of Bauhaus design, embodying the school’s “truth to materials” philosophy and adhering to the movement’s emphasis on mass production. In fact, the Cesca chair was the first-ever tubular steel frame chair with a caned seat to be mass produced — a breakthrough for furniture design.
Breuer got his start in architecture after dropping out of the painting program at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He began apprenticing with a Viennese architect and went on to join the Bauhaus movement in 1921, when he was just 19 years old, eventually becoming a master carpenter at the German arts school. While there, Breuer designed furniture for Sommerfeld House in Berlin, industrialist Adolf Sommerfeld’s private residence, which was conceived by architects Walter Gropius (the Bauhaus school’s founder) and Adolf Meyer. Not long afterward, Breuer’s experiments with tubular steel would yield his Wassily chair, named for his friend, painter and Bauhaus professor Wassily Kandinsky, as well as the Cesca.
Originally called the B32, Breuer renamed the chair in honor of his daughter, Francesca, when Italian manufacturer Gavina began producing it in the early 1960s. Knoll introduced the chair when it acquired Gavina in 1968 and continues to manufacture it today.
And while the Cesca chair’s silhouette has remained the same throughout the decades, Breuer himself later made minor modifications, including the implementation of a shallower curve to the back and the addition of a second piece of steel for the frame to account for both comfort and durability. With the Cesca’s cantilevered construction, Breuer’s design transcended that of the traditional four-legged dining chair, pushing the boundaries of what “everyday” could mean in furniture.
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.
- 'S32' Cesca Chairs by Marcel Breuer and GavinaBy Marcel BreuerLocated in London, EnglandHeight: 78cm Width: 46cm Depth: 56cm Seat Height: 46cm Designer: Marcel Breuer Manufacturer: Gavina, Italy Date: 1970s Materials: Beech, steel, cane Description: Manufactured for Gavina and made from chromed metal, wood, rattan. Manufacturing label present. Restored by Golborne 44...Category
Vintage 1970s European Chairs
MaterialsSteel, Chrome
$1,747 / item - Olive Canvas Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer, SignedBy Marcel BreuerLocated in London, EnglandThe Wassily Chair, also known as the Model B3 chair, is a famous and iconic piece of modern furniture design. It was designed by Marcel Breuer in 192...Category
Vintage 1930s Italian Organic Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel, Chrome
- Anebo Tak Chair by Borek Sipek for DriadeBy B. SipekLocated in London, EnglandChair 'Anebo Tak', 1987, H. 82 x 50.5 x 48 cm. Made by Borek Sipek for Driade, Milan. Sheet metal, painted turquoise, copper and brass, woode...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Chairs
MaterialsMetal, Brass, Copper
- Tapiolina Chairs in Ash Wood by Ilmari Tapiovaara for Fratelli MontinaBy Ilmari TapiovaaraLocated in London, EnglandIlmari Tapiovaara (1914-1999) was a renowned Finnish designer and architect known for his significant contributions to the fields of furniture and industrial design. He played a crucial role in shaping the modern design landscape in Finland and gained international recognition for his work. Early in his career, Tapiovaara worked alongside the celebrated Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto. This collaboration greatly influenced his design sensibilities and helped him establish a strong foundation in modernist design principles. Tapiovaara is often associated with the "Finnish Modern" design movement, which aimed to create functional and aesthetically pleasing everyday objects for the Finnish population. He believed that good design should be accessible to everyone. His designs often incorporated natural materials, simplicity, and functionality. Tapiolina chairs in ash wood by Ilmari Tapiovaara for Fratelli Montina...Category
Vintage 1970s Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Metal Cafe ChairLocated in London, EnglandAn Art Nouveau French ice cream parlor chair is a unique and charming piece of furniture that embodies the elegant and decorative style of the Art Nouveau movement, particularly popu...Category
Antique Early 1900s French Organic Modern Chairs
MaterialsSteel
$1,580 - Gösta Jonsson Easy ChairBy Gösta JonssonLocated in London, EnglandGösta Jonsson easy chair Produced in Jönköping, Sweden.Category
Vintage 1940s Scandinavian Scandinavian Modern Chairs
MaterialsLeather, Sheepskin, Beech
$7,487
- Cesca chair by Marcel Breuer for Gavina 1960sBy Gavina, Marcel BreuerLocated in Padova, ITIn the Cesca chair by Marcel Lajos Breuer for Gavina you can find the top of Made in Italy quality. This work by the austrian designer presents a m...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Marcel Breuer for Gavina Set of Four Cesca Chairs, Italy 1970sBy Marcel Breuer, GavinaLocated in Naples, ITGroup of four chairs Mod. Cesca by Marcel Lajos Breuer for Gavina - Italy - with original label. Walnut backrest, chromed steel tubular frame and Vienna straw. Breuer's Cesca chair h...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Marcel Breuer, set of Four Cesca Chairs for Gavina. Italy 1960sBy Gavina, Marcel BreuerLocated in Catania, CTFour Cesca chairs designed by Marcel Breuer and produced in Italy by Gavina during the 60s. Very good vintage condition with normal trace of age and use. Slight oxidation on the chro...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Set of 2 Chairs Cesca, Marcel Breuer, Gavina, 1970By Gavina, Marcel BreuerLocated in Milano, LombardiaSet of 2 Chairs Cesca, Marcel Breuer, Gavina, 1970. The Set of 2 Cesca Chairs, designed by Marcel Breuer in 1970 for Gavina, epitomizes modernist elegan...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Marcel Breuer Cesca Chair for Gavina Wood Metal Crome, 1980, ItalyBy Marcel BreuerLocated in Milano, ITMarcel Breuer Cesca chair for Gavina wood metal crome, 1980, Italy.Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Other Chairs
MaterialsWood
- Set of 4 Original Cesca Chairs, by Marcel Breuer for Gavina, ItalyBy Gavina, Marcel BreuerLocated in Padova, ITOriginal Cesca chair by Marcel Lajos Breuer for Gavina - Italy - with original label. Back lowered walnut wood - crome tubolari steel frame - Vienn...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsSteel