Prototype MR 20 Chair

Lot: 28

Around 1927
H. 79.7 x 52.2 x 84.5 cm, tube D. 2.8 cm. Tubular steel, nickel-plated, screwed; black leather, cord.

Provenance: Prof. Dr. Tilmann Buddensieg purchased this prototype from art dealer Rolf Gartner, Berlin. It was sold into a private collection in the event of Quittenbaum's first Bauhaus auction; the owners decided to put the chair up for auction again. The original owner was sculptor and Bauhaus teacher Paul-Rudolf Henning, in whose house Ludwig Mies van der Rohe used to live in Berlin from 1927. It is said that he made the first attempts at this cantilever chair in the cellar of the house. Henning kept these prototypes as he preferred their somewhat smaller proportions. The girth of the tubular steel is wider (29 mm), the nickel-plating rather poorly in comparison to the serial production. It is presumed that a bicycle frame was used. A copy of the letter stating the facts written by Prof. Dr. Tilmann Buddensieg from the year 1999 can be shown.

Leather replaced.

>> Literature

Hammer Price: 8,000 €

145A - 100 Years of Bauhaus
25. June 2019 at 5:00 PM CEST

Literature:

Tilmann Buddensieg, Berlin 1900 - 1933, New York, Berlin 1987, fig. Nr. 1; cf. Sotheby's, Auction 25. 10. 1991, 'Bauhaus, Wiener Werkstätte and other Important 20th Century Design', cat. no. 161.

The items can be viewed and inspected prior to the auction; they all are, without exception, used and of a certain age. Their actual state of preservation is - corresponding to their age and their used state - not being referred to expressly in the catalogue and on the internet, but is agreed specification (cf. Conditions of sale, art. 4). The auction house cannot be held liable for malfunction or nonfunction of electrical devices. Condition reports can be forwarded on demand. They serve as a better survey on the item's condition based on the auctioneer's assessment.
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Prototype MR 20 Chair

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