GERRIT THOMAS RIETVELD (1888-1964)

According to Vöge's 1993 monograph, only four or five examples of this design are in existence, one of which is an aluminium and steel prototype. The chair was reputedly designed for the headquarters of the Tomado Company in Dordrecht, however amongst surviving examples there is a difference of palette, with another example finished in a deep red lacquer outlined in white. This characteristically reductive design appears to owe its genesis to an un-illustrated plywood chair, composed of three elements, which is recorded in a March 1946 review in De Groene Amsterdammer. In terms of design, construction and date, the 'Danish' chair interprets and responds to the recent experiments in moulded plywood developed by Charles & Ray Eames in California, 1945. In 1952 the design was exhibited to unsympathetic reviews in Denmark, upon which further experimental manufacture was ceased.