What is this chair?
May 25, 2013 11:18 AM
What is this chair?
My wife, a huge fan of design magazines, doesn't recognize it. She thinks it might be handmade, but it looks too industrial for that. No marks on the chair, either. What is it?
What is the source of the pictures, or if you took them, the chair?
posted by yohko at 11:35 AM on May 25, 2013
posted by yohko at 11:35 AM on May 25, 2013
I took the pictures in my living room. The chair came from a sale at a prop house.
By "handmade," I meant to convey "one-off crafted by an artisan" rather than "one of a line of identical items manufactured for a furniture design company." I tend to think it is the latter.
posted by musofire at 11:38 AM on May 25, 2013
By "handmade," I meant to convey "one-off crafted by an artisan" rather than "one of a line of identical items manufactured for a furniture design company." I tend to think it is the latter.
posted by musofire at 11:38 AM on May 25, 2013
It looks a lot like a shop class experiment to me.
I'm pretty sure it's not an Important Designer Chair.
Is there any kind of maker's mark on it, and if so what does it say, what does it look like, etc?
posted by Sara C. at 11:55 AM on May 25, 2013
I'm pretty sure it's not an Important Designer Chair.
Is there any kind of maker's mark on it, and if so what does it say, what does it look like, etc?
posted by Sara C. at 11:55 AM on May 25, 2013
It's interesting and all, I would like to have it. But I've seen similarly shaped chairs at student design shows on campus, so I don't think it's necessarily something from a design company. If it was at a prop house, it seems likely that it's a one-off.
posted by donnagirl at 12:04 PM on May 25, 2013
posted by donnagirl at 12:04 PM on May 25, 2013
Yeah, I'm thinking design class project. My sister has a BFA in fine arts and one of her foundation-year projects was to make a chair.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:27 PM on May 25, 2013
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:27 PM on May 25, 2013
As a concept it looks to me like a Charles Rohlfs chair. Not by him, but perhaps inspired.
posted by sbutler at 1:08 PM on May 25, 2013
posted by sbutler at 1:08 PM on May 25, 2013
The chair came from a sale at a prop house.
Prop houses are chock full of things one-off crafted by an artisan. You'd need some specialized skills and some expensive tools to make something like that, but it's nothing someone into metalworking couldn't make in their garage or at a university art department, AFAIK from the pictures so far.
I can't entirely tell if it's welded, can you post some closeups of the places the metal joins, the bottom of the seat, and of the bottom back leg?
posted by yohko at 1:26 PM on May 25, 2013
Prop houses are chock full of things one-off crafted by an artisan. You'd need some specialized skills and some expensive tools to make something like that, but it's nothing someone into metalworking couldn't make in their garage or at a university art department, AFAIK from the pictures so far.
I can't entirely tell if it's welded, can you post some closeups of the places the metal joins, the bottom of the seat, and of the bottom back leg?
posted by yohko at 1:26 PM on May 25, 2013
Looks more Memphis inspired to me. Or a home made version of Rietveld.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:27 PM on May 25, 2013
posted by Ideefixe at 1:27 PM on May 25, 2013
Was also thinking Rietveld-inspired, in the same trajectory as De Stijl furniture.
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 1:39 PM on May 25, 2013
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 1:39 PM on May 25, 2013
Here are some details:
Bottom of chair, with wheels.
Wheels.
Back of the chair, where the seat meets the frame. Note that the chair is on its back, so I can take a picture of it.
Back of the chair, from behind the chair, where the backrest is (invisibly) welded to the frame.
I couldn't find any obvious welds, i.e. places where
posted by musofire at 3:26 PM on May 25, 2013
Bottom of chair, with wheels.
Wheels.
Back of the chair, where the seat meets the frame. Note that the chair is on its back, so I can take a picture of it.
Back of the chair, from behind the chair, where the backrest is (invisibly) welded to the frame.
I couldn't find any obvious welds, i.e. places where
posted by musofire at 3:26 PM on May 25, 2013
Looks like it was inspired by Bohlin's concrete chair to me.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 4:23 PM on May 25, 2013
posted by Admiral Haddock at 4:23 PM on May 25, 2013
Looking at the more detailed pictures, I'd this was brazed rather than welded. Those little brass colored areas where things are joined are the brazing rod, which is melted to hold the larger metal pieces together.
Both the bolts and the wheels look a little out of place on this piece to me, which makes me think it's not something designed for mass production. The wheels have kind of a cheap plasticy look to them, and don't seem to be something that would have been chosen for something that would sell in a price range that I would expect to see this for sale at.
The bolts are in an area that's pretty visible to people shopping for a chair, and I think they don't go with the lines on the rest of the chair. A manufacturer would likely have picked something else or at the least used capped bolt heads, the screw thread ends of bolts like this is usually hidden on all but the cheapest furniture.
The bolts would be very hard for an audience to see if the chair was used on a prop onstage. Parts of things the audience doesn't see are usually put together in a more expedient way. This was made either to be a prop a performer wheeled around, or part of the set onstage that isn't handled, and the wheels used for quick set changes.
It's a fabulous chair, and I'm now contemplating the uses of chairs with wheels on the rear legs.
posted by yohko at 8:23 PM on May 26, 2013
Both the bolts and the wheels look a little out of place on this piece to me, which makes me think it's not something designed for mass production. The wheels have kind of a cheap plasticy look to them, and don't seem to be something that would have been chosen for something that would sell in a price range that I would expect to see this for sale at.
The bolts are in an area that's pretty visible to people shopping for a chair, and I think they don't go with the lines on the rest of the chair. A manufacturer would likely have picked something else or at the least used capped bolt heads, the screw thread ends of bolts like this is usually hidden on all but the cheapest furniture.
The bolts would be very hard for an audience to see if the chair was used on a prop onstage. Parts of things the audience doesn't see are usually put together in a more expedient way. This was made either to be a prop a performer wheeled around, or part of the set onstage that isn't handled, and the wheels used for quick set changes.
It's a fabulous chair, and I'm now contemplating the uses of chairs with wheels on the rear legs.
posted by yohko at 8:23 PM on May 26, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
Not sure what the reasoning process is here. Obviously, it would be "handmade" (not that a lot of furniture in design magazines isn't!) by the process of welding.
posted by yohko at 11:33 AM on May 25, 2013