A PAIR OF PAINTED TUBULAR STEEL AND CANE 'MR534' ARMCHAIRS, CIRCA 1934

Mies van der Rohe originally designed the MR20 armchair - or MR534 as it was called after Thonet took over the production in 1932 - for The Dwelling (Die Wohnung), an exhibition of low-cost public housing at the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart in 1927. The chair could be ordered with a nickel or chrome-plated finish of the tubular steel, or alternatively with the much rarer colored lacquer finish of the present chair. The MR20 has since become a modern classic and is considered by many to be the most successful design of all cantilevered chairs.