Antique Marcel Breuer Furniture

Add this search to my Auction Advisor™ Alerts

Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) was Hungarian born architect and furniture designer who studied and later taught at the Bauhuas, Weimer. From 1928 through 1937 he lived and worked at architectural firms he cofounded throughout Europe, then moved to the United States in 1937 where he taught at Harvard University’s School of Design until 1946. Like other designers of his time, Breuer’s designs were inspired by the new architecture style of the 20th century and by the changing needs and demands of business and domestic life. Breuer used simple, geometric shapes and new building materials to create highly functional furniture, made of modular parts without adornment, so that they could be easily mass produced by machines.

Breuer was the first to use tubular steel to make furniture, an idea he claims to have gotten while looking at the curved handlebars of his bicycle. Tubular steel was first used on one of his most famous designs, the Wassily Chair, also known as the Model B3 Chair, which he designed while teaching at Bauhuas. The chair is made of steel frames that were welded together to form the legs, armrests, seat frame and back frame. Sheets of fabric were stretched between the frames to create the seat, back rest and armrests of the chair. The European manufacturer Thornet produced the Model B3 in the late 1920’s, with the option of folding and non-folding versions, with either black, white or wire-mesh fabric.

A few years later, in 1928, Breuer designed the Cesca Chair, which combined tubular steel with hardwood and natural caning, both traditional furniture materials. The Cesca (named after his daughter) was made from a single piece tubular steel that was bent to form the frame of the chair. The seat and backrest were formed from two bent wood frames, filled with natural caning; the caning was attached to wooden frames instead of directly attached to the metal to prevent the user from sitting on cold metal. Aesthetically the Cesca successfully combines new and old materials to produce a lightweight, space-saving piece of furniture. Also, the chair is functionally very comfortable. The Cesca Chair was mass produced has been produced since its introduction, and abundant in offices today. Later reproductions of the Cesca added armrests and sometimes use leather instead of caning.

Auction highlights of Breuer furniture include an antique Thornet made Wassily/Model B3 Chair that sold for €9,500 at Quittenbaum Kunstauktionen GmbH of München, Germany on 20 June 2009. During World War II Thonet went out of business and as a result Model B3/Wassily Chairs produced by Thornet are very rare.