Prototype 'Weissenhof - MR 20' armchair –

Lot: 94

Prototype 'Weissenhof - MR 20' armchair

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Prototype 'Weissenhof - MR 20' armchair, 1927. H. 78.5 x 52.5 x 83 cm; tube D. 2.9 cm. Made by Berliner Metallgewerbe Josef Müller, Berlin. Tubular steel, nickel-plated, screwed, black leather.

Leather professionally restored. Provenance: Estate of Prof. Tilmann Buddensieg.

Originally, the chair had been in the property of sculptor and Bauhaus teacher Paul-Rudolf Henning, where Mies van der Rohe had sojourned when he came to Berlin in 1927. The first experiments for the chair are said to have taken place in the basement of his house. Henning kept this prototype because he liked its slightly more delicate proportions. The tubular steel is stouter (29 mm) and the nickel-plating of lesser quality by comparison with the serial production pieces. The chair is composed of only two screwed elements, the tube of the frame and the armrests.

>> Literature

Hammer Price: 8,000 €

112A -
10. December 2013 at

Literature:

Tilmann Buddensieg, Berlin 1900-1933, no. 1; cf. Sotheby's, Auktion 25. 10. 1991, 'Bauhaus, Wiener Werkstätte and other Important 20th Century Design', lot 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 'Weissenhof - MR 20' armchair

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