Gerrit Thomas Rietveld Crate Chair Metz & Co, 1940

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Gerrit Thomas Rietveld Crate Chair Metz & Co, 1940

About the Item

Rare early crate chair designed by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld for Metz & Co, Holland, 1940. This specific crate chair was made and produced ca 1940. Originally it was painted in Rietveld's primary colors red and yellow. Unfortunately the chair has been repainted in the 1960s to a sober light grey color. But who can blame the previous owners as Rietveld was a proponent of painting your furniture. This beautiful example has an amazing patina from years of usage but doesn’t have any damages that are unusual for a chair of 75 years old. The chair was checked by a team of specialists and also with our knowledge and comparison with other crate chairs we have seen and had we can define this chair to be 100% original. There are a lot of replica crate chairs and it is a fact that most of the original ones have already disappeared in the fireplace because most of these chairs were made for outside usage. The chairs that were used outdoor could have never survived 70 years of the Dutch rainy, cold and hot climate. In 1934 Rietveld designed a first series of crate furniture, consisting of an armchair, a small bookcase and a small table. These were items for which the appearance was largely dictated by the application of standard lumber size planks for different parts of the furniture. The choice of using standardized industrial products was motivated by Rietveld’s aim to make furniture production more efficient. The furniture is almost completely built from firewood planks with a width of, circa 15 cm. A constantly recurring, distinctive wide chink is left between the planks. Dry joints connect the components with brass screws, which are left visible. At this time this type of wood and construction method was used for packing crates, hence the name of the series. The radically simple crate furniture was heavily criticized by some contemporaries, because of the lack of traditional workmanship. Rietveld defended his designs by saying that traditionally produced furniture was transported in crates to avoid being damaged. It was obvious to him that the packing material was stronger, and therefore better, than its content. After 1935 much more crate furniture followed, including various chairs, tables and stools. After producing them in his own name for a while, the crate furniture was sold by Metz and Co. under the name ‘weekend furniture.’ Because of the simple appearance and the relatively low price they were most suitable for holiday homes. Important literature: Gerrit Rietveld, Ida va Zijl, Phaidon 2010. Gerrit Th. Rietveld 1888-1964, Marijke Küper Ida van Zijl, Centraal Museum 1992. The complete Rietveld furniture, Peter Vöge, 010 publischers Rotterdam 1993.

Creator:
Gerrit Rietveld (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 22.45 in (57 cm)Width: 22.45 in (57 cm)Depth: 29.53 in (75 cm)Seat Height: 10.63 in (27 cm)
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Wood,Lacquered
Place of Origin:
Netherlands
Period:
1940-1949
Date of Manufacture:
1940
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Roosendaal, NL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU111822702452

Shop All Gerrit Rietveld

Gerrit Rietveld

Best known for his Red and Blue chair, a modernist icon created using only two plywood plates and 15 connecting bars, Dutch designer Gerrit Thomas Rietveld trained as a cabinetmaker, and his bold vision for furniture was supported by his expertise in construction and craftsmanship.

Born in Utrecht, Rietveld learned goldsmithing in addition to the cabinetry apprenticeship he had in his carpenter father’s workshop. He studied draftsmanship with architect Piet Klaarhamer at the Utrecht Museum of Applied Arts and opened his own furniture workshop in 1917. In the 1930s, Rietveld began to experiment with then-unusual materials like plywood and aluminum, and he pursued intellectual concepts through his design, even considering a seat as a resting place for the body and the soul.

Designed in 1918, the minimalist Red and Blue chair is widely coveted by collectors and gained admirers in the likes of legendary American sculptor and designer Donald Judd over the years. (Examples of Rietveld’s designs can be found in Judd’s restored home-museum in New York City.) The Red and Blue chair is so stunning in its geometric simplicity that it is one of the most important symbols of the Dutch art and design movement of the early 20th century called De Stijl, of which Rietveld was an important part. De Stijl means “the Style” and was an effort to express utopian values through pure abstraction in design and the use of primary colors.

Another example of Rietveld’s celebrated seating furniture is the Zig-Zag chair, which was commissioned by the Dutch department store Metz & Co. and intended to be mass-produced. The resulting design — to which the rights to manufacture were bought by Cassina in 1971 — is the essence of the De Stijl movement and an example of Rietveld’s experiments with jointless chairs made from a single material, wood. The Zig-Zag chair’s armless, legless, elegant form is pure abstraction, yet it is also sturdy and comfortable.

Later in his career, Rietveld worked more often as an architect, designing buildings in prestigious settings like the Venice Biennale. He was a pioneer in more ways than one: The first building he designed, Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht in 1924, is a radically modern space and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.

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