Desk CM141 by Pierre Paulin for Thonet, France, circa 1950

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Desk CM141 by Pierre Paulin for Thonet, France, circa 1950

About the Item

Beautiful desk model "CM141" designed by Pierre Paulin, manufactured by Thonet in France, circa 1950. This iconic piece is one of Paulin's most recognized pieces. It has a black metal base and a black laminated wooden top. The drawer unit is made from beautiful quality beechwood and contains two drawers: One with a lock and one with a handle. The desk is marked "Thonet" at the bottom. This hard-to-find desk has an outstanding minimalistic design that would make a beautiful addition to any modern interior or office room. In good condition with minor wear consistent with age and use, preserving a beautiful patina. Pierre Paulin (1927-2009) was a French designer who embraced complexity. Admired and exhibited all-over the world, he was an architect of the imaginary, an unwitting creator of fashion, an unpredictable and pioneering spirit. For the past 60 years, Pierre Paulin has had a major impact on our everyday enviroment through shapes as sweet as memories, seats as braced as sculptures, spaces as undulant as sand dunes, and objects whose innovative style shape our daily life without our knowing it. His uncle Georges Paulin was a part-time automobile designer and invented the mechanical retractible hardtop. He was later executed by the Nazi's in 1941 as a hero of the French Resistance. After failing his Baccalauréat, Pierre trained to become a ceramist in Vallaurius on the French Rivera and then as a stone-carver in Burgundy. Soon after, he injured his right arm in a fight, ending his dreams as a sculptor but attend the Ecole Camondo in Paris. He had a stint with the Gascoin company in Le Havre where he gained an interest in Scandinavian and Japanese design. He was famed for his innovative work with Artifort in the 1960s and interior design in the 1970s. At the time, his chair designs were considered very modern and unique and kick started the successes of his designs among the younger population. Even today, his pieces are still being made and are sought after at auctions. Pierre Paulin had his debut exhibition at the Salon des arts ménagers in 1953. Afterwards, his would appear on the cover of the magazine La Maison Française. A year later he would be employed by the Thonet company and began experimenting with stretching swimwear materials over traditionally made chairs. Around 4 years later he would join the Maastricht-based Dutch manufacturers Artifort. Working at Artifort he would become famous worldwide with his Mushroom chair (1960). At his time working for Artifort, Paulin quoted "It represented the first full expression of my abilities. I considered the manufacture of chairs to be rather Primitive and I was trying to think up new processes" he said in 2008, he worked with foams and rubbers from Italy all worked around a light metallic frame. He would then use a new stretch material over the chair. His designs were focused on applied design rather than focusing on form with comfort as his chair's starting-point. The combination of these materials made Paulin's chair designs made rounder and comfortable shapes that are still being used in chairs today. During the 1970s and 1980s he was invited to decorate and furnish several important places for important people. He redecorated the living, dining, smoking and exhibition rooms of the Elysée's private apartments for Pompidou in 1971. In 1983 he furnished the office of François Mitterrand. In 1979 he launched his own consultancy and worked for Calor, Ericsson, Renault, Saviem, Tefal, Thomson and Airbus.

Creator:
Pierre Paulin (Designer),Thonet (Manufacturer)
Dimensions:
Height: 28.35 in (72 cm)Width: 50.79 in (129 cm)Depth: 23.63 in (60 cm)
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Beech,Lacquer,Laminate,Metal,Wood
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
1950-1959
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1950
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Amsterdam, NL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU103985592973

Shop All Pierre Paulin

Pierre Paulin

Pierre Paulin introduced a fresh breeze into French furniture design in the 1960s and ’70s, fostering a sleek new space-age aesthetic. Along with Olivier Mourgue, Paulin developed furnishings with flowing lines and almost surreal naturalistic forms. And his work became such a byword for chic, forward-looking design and emerging technologies that two French presidents commissioned him to create environments in the Élysée Palace in Paris.

Paulin was born in Paris to a family of artists and designers. He initially sought to become a ceramist and sculptor and was studying in the town of Vallauris near the Côte d'Azur — a center for pottery making, where Pablo Picasso spent his postwar summers crafting ceramics — but broke his hand in a fight. He enrolled at the École Camondo, the Paris interior design school. There, Paulin was strongly influenced by the work of Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Arne Jacobsen, as was reflected in his early creations for the manufacturer Thonet-France. It was at the Dutch firm Artifort, which he joined in 1958, where Paulin blossomed. In a few years, he produced several of his signature designs based on abstract organic shapes. These include the Butterfly chair (1963), which features a tubular steel frame and slung leather, and a group of striking seating pieces made with steel frames covered in polyurethane foam and tight jersey fabric: the Mushroom (1960), Ribbon (1966) and Tongue (1967) chairs.

In 1971, the Mobilier National — a department of France’s Ministry of Culture in charge of furnishing top-tier government offices and embassies — commissioned Paulin to redesign President Georges Pompidou’s private apartment in the Élysée Palace. In three years, Paulin transformed the staid rooms into futuristic environments with curved, fabric-clad walls and furnishings such as bookcases made from an arrangement of smoked-glass U shapes, flower-like pedestal chairs and pumpkin-esque loungers. Ten years later, the Mobilier National called on Paulin again, this time to furnish the private office of President François Mitterand. Paulin responded with an angular, postmodern take on neoclassical furniture, pieces that looked surprisingly at home in the paneled, Savonnerie-carpeted Louis XVI rooms. As those two Élysée Palace projects show, Paulin furniture works well both in a total decor or when used as a counterpoint to traditional pieces. You will see on 1stDibs that Pierre Paulin’s creations have a unique personality: bright and playful yet sophisticated and suave.