Rietveld's carpenter's tools

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A PRIVATE COLLECTION OF RIETVELD DESIGNS In the year 1966 the present owner of the following lots (382-394) moved into the same building as where Gerard van de Groenekan. Architect and designer Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was born in Utrecht in 1888. He was trained in the furniture workshop from his father and at the silver factory of C.J. Begeer. He attended evening lectures at the Kunstindustrieel Onderwijs der Vereeniging van het Utrechts van Kunstnijverheid in Utrecht and of architect P.J.C. Klaarhamer and was ready in 1917 to open his own furniture workshop. His personal assistant and executor was Gerard A. van de Groenekan, who took over the workshop in 1924. Rietveld's designs were praised by many. In 1923 Walter Gropius was very enthousiastic about his designs for children's toys. Although they were not showed at the Bauhaus exhibition that Gropius worked on, he wrote praising words about htem in a letter to architect J.J.P. Oud. A few months later, in October 1923, Rietveld sent a letter to Oud with a sketch for a children's wheelbarrow. The prototype was most likely designed around that time for Hans Oud, son of the architect. The wheelbarrow, the rumbling cart and the children's chairs designed by Rietveld are the ultimate proof of his sense of form-and colour composition. Early copies of these models are extremely rare but also post-war examples are scarce (Lots 391-392). Another outstanding example of Rietveld's craftmanship is seen in the Steltman-chair. It was designed in 1963-1965 for the The Hague jeweller Steltman, together with a complete interior. Steltman was well experienced in inviting artists to redecorate his shop's interior. In 1920 and 1933 the Amsterdam sculptor Hildo Krop designed an interior with rosewood furniture and sculptural openwork window screens. Rietveld's plain white lacquered showcases and assymetrical chairs must have come as quite a shock to the jeweller's customers. (Lot 383) The following lots (Lots 382-394) were manufactured by Gerard van de Groenekan between 1966-1970 for the present owner, who then lived in the building at the Utrechtseweg 315 in De Bilt where Van de Groenekan had his workshop Het Goede Meubel.

Details

Rietveld's carpenter's tools
A wooden crate containing twenty wooden planes and one iron example, two pairs of pincers, two cross-beams, one compass-saw and an additional saw-blade, a metal levelling-instrument, one file, three chisels, one measuring-instrument and one small piercer
The crate: 44cm. high x 76,5cm wide x 48cm. deep

Special notice

Christie's charges a Buyer's premium calculated at 23.205% of the hammer price for each lot with a value up to €110,000. If the hammer price of a lot exceeds €110,000 then the premium for the lot is calculated at 23.205% of the first €110,000 plus 11.9% of any amount in excess of €110,000. Buyer's Premium is calculated on this basis for each lot individually.

Lot Essay

The present tools belonged to Gerrit Th. Rietveld who gave them to his carpenter Gerard. A. van de Groenekan in 1924/1925. On his turn Van de Groenekan gave these tools to the present owner, accompanied by a handwritten statement indicating the amount of instruments and their provenance. Also five photographs showing the tools are included, signed by Van de Groenekan.

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