Pair of Marcel Breuer for Stendig Chrome Frame with Leather Wassily Chairs
View Similar Items
Pair of Marcel Breuer for Stendig Chrome Frame with Leather Wassily Chairs
About the Item
- Creator:Marcel Breuer (Designer),Stendig Co. (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 28.5 in (72.39 cm)Width: 30.75 in (78.11 cm)Depth: 25.5 in (64.77 cm)Seat Height: 16.5 in (41.91 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 2
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:Mid-20th Century
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Chrome is excellent . Nominal age shown on the leather .
- Seller Location:Ferndale, MI
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU848214404211
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.
Stendig Co.
Stendig Co. played a pivotal role in introducing modern European furniture to the American market, thanks to the business acumen of founder Charles Stendig.
Around 1950, the Brooklyn, New York–born Stendig (b. 1924) worked for Raymor, a purveyor of modern china and accessories that is best known for distributing designer Russel Wright’s American Modern line of ceramics. While at Raymor, Stendig focused on the company’s less popular pieces that were made in Italy and Scandinavia, recognizing their potential for the American market. In 1955, he left the company and decided to establish Stendig Co.
That year, a chance encounter with a Finnish trade representative led him to furniture company Asko — one of the largest companies operating in Scandinavia. Asko invited him and Joseph Carreiro, a professor at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), to help refine their designs. At Asko’s production facility in Finland, Stendig met several renowned Finnish designers such as Ilmari Tapiovaara, Tapio Wirkkala and Eero Aarnio, the iconic Ball chair creator. Stendig’s trip there was a success, and Stendig Co. began importing Finnish furniture to the United States.
In 1956, the first Stendig Co. showroom opened in Manhattan. A year later, during a trip to Zurich, Stendig came across a Bauhaus–inspired furniture store featuring pieces by Swiss designers Kurt Thut, Hans Eichenberger and Robert Haussmann, the store’s co-owner. Following a meeting with Haussmann, Stendig became the retailer’s exclusive U.S. distributor.
Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, Stendig Co. imported and sold furniture from influential European designers, including Swiss designer Bruno Rey, Italian architect and industrial designer Vico Magistretti and Hungarian-American architect and designer Marcel Breuer, creator of the Wassily lounge chair.
By the late 1960s, Stendig Co. moved its headquarters to an expansive space on Manhattan’s East Side and opened showrooms in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, each home to the company’s striking collection of mid-century European armchairs, sofas, dining room chairs, coffee tables and other furnishings. Stendig’s founder was by then representing Italian manufacturers Poltronova and Gufram and bringing revolutionary works of Italian Radical design to American shores.
In 1971, Charles Stendig sold the company to Burlington Industries. He retired in 1976. Today Stendig’s European imports are coveted by interior designers and vintage furniture collectors, and he will be forever known as the man who introduced modern European design to the United States.
Find a range of vintage Stendig Co. furniture on 1stDibs.
- Large Chrome Frame Bertoia Knoll Diamond Chair with Ottoman in Red Cato TextileBy Harry Bertoia, KnollLocated in Ferndale, MIHarry Bertoia joined Florence and Husband Hans Knolls Company after leaving Charles Eames and Herman Miller. Florence Knoll Eames and Bertoia had all been schoolmates and collaborators in the early years of Cranbrook. On joining Knoll Bertoia was given free reign for a chair design. Being as much a sculptor as a designer he came up with the wire series. This chair being the large diamond chair. Set in wrought iron frame and attached by way of rubber mounts allowing a rocking action. With the ottoman and all recently covered in Knoll Cato fabric.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Harry Bertoia for Knoll Large Chrome Diamond ChairBy Harry Bertoia, KnollLocated in Ferndale, MIHarry Bertoias concept of woven welded steel wire was to present a chair appearing lighter than air. This is the large diamond chair from his wire ser...Category
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel, Chrome
- Pair of Pipsin Saarinen Swanson Wrought Iron Frame Chairs with Canvas Sling SeatLocated in Ferndale, MIPair of lounge chairs from the Ficks Reed Sol - Air line. Designed be husband wife team of Pipsin Saarinen and Robert Swanson. Black powder coated wroug...Category
Mid-20th Century Lounge Chairs
MaterialsWrought Iron
- Set of Four Ward Bennet Ash Frame Chairs Black Leather UpholsteryBy Ward Bennett, Brickel AssociatesLocated in Ferndale, MISet of four ash frame chairs upholstered in black leather. Designed by Ward Bennet for Brickel Associates. Condition is superb.Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsLeather, Ash
$2,800 Sale Price / set56% Off - Pair of Early Production Florence Knoll for Knoll Lounge ChairsBy Florence Knoll, KnollLocated in Ferndale, MIPair of Florence Knoll lounge chairs on maple legs. Early 1950s production. Recently covered in a Knoll Pullman chenille style textile .Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMaple
- Pair Katavolos Littell Kelley for Laverne button tufted leather lounge chairsBy Douglas Kelly, Ross Littell and William Katavolos, Laverne InternationalLocated in Ferndale, MIClassic pair of original lounge chairs designed by William Katavolos, Ross Littell and Douglas Kelley for Laverne International from the Architectural Group One line of 1952. Archit...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Mid Century Bauhaus Pair of Wassily Chairs by Marcel Breur Gavina StendigBy Stendig Co.Located in Port Jervis, NYHigh quality pair of Wassily chairs designed by Marcel Breur in 1926 Germany. Thick saddle leather and one inch chrome tubing comprise these chairs. In very good vintage condition wi...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Pair of Signed Marcel Breuer Wassily Lounge Chairs Stendig Made in Italy 1960sBy Stendig Co., Marcel BreuerLocated in Philadelphia, PADesigned by Bauhaus legend Marcel Breuer, these iconic chairs were made by the collaborative efforts of Stendig and Gavina during the mid to late 1960s. Stendig was not always just a...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Bauhaus Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel, Chrome
- Pair of Early Wassily Chairs by Marcel Breuer for Knoll, Leather and ChromeBy Knoll, Marcel BreuerLocated in Buffalo, NYMarcel Breuer's 1925 design is a widely recognized masterpiece of modern furniture, having long ago achieved iconic status. This pair of Wassily chairs date to the 1960s. The chrome...Category
Vintage 1960s American Bauhaus Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Pair Marcel Breuer Chrome Metal And Leather Wassily Style Lounge ChairsBy Marcel Breuer, KnollLocated in Germantown, MDA Pair Marcel Brewer Chrome Metal And Leather Wassily Style Lounge Chairs. Very comfortable and in great shape.Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal, Chrome
- "Wassily" Club Chairs B3 Designed by Marcel Breuer Set of Two Chrome & LeatherBy Marcel BreuerLocated in Bloomfield Hills, MIWassily Club Chair by Marcel Breuer designed in 1925 - 26 for Knoll also known as the Model B3 chair. Breuer designed this chair while he was the head of the cabinet-making workshop ...Category
Mid-20th Century German Mid-Century Modern Club Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Marcel Breuer Knoll “Wassily” Brown Leather and Chrome ChairBy Knoll, Marcel BreuerLocated in Indianapolis, INA vintage brown leather and chrome Wassily chair designed by Hungarian architect and furniture designer Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) for Knoll. Composed of a tubular chrome frame with b...Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome