AN EARLY LAMINATED PLYWOOD AND LEATHER COVERED 'LONG CHAIR'

細節
AN EARLY LAMINATED PLYWOOD AND LEATHER COVERED 'LONG CHAIR'
DESIGNED BY MARCEL BREUER IN 1935/6, MANUFACTURED BY ISOKON CIRCA 1936

Each arm formed from a single piece of laminated plywood, the base curving up to support the seat and inset with supporting plywood panel, the plywood seat with original padded pale grey leather covering.
28 1/8in. (71.5cm.) high; 55 7/8in. (142cm.) length; 24in. (61cm.) wide
來源
F.R.S. Yorke, thence by descent to the present owner.

拍品專文

Breuer began corresponding with the English modernist architect F.R.S. Yorke in 1934, exploring the possibility of forming an architectural partnership together. Because of the difficult and unfavourable political climate in Germany, Breuer was anxious to emigrate to England as soon as possible, and his admission would have been greatly faciliated by a professional partnership in the UK. Breuer arrived in England in October 1935, and his partnership with Yorke lasted until 1937. Their joint projects were relatively few in number, and those executed were mainly houses for private clients, but also included the Temporary Exhibition House at the Royal Agricultural Show, Bristol, 1936. They also produced a competition project (never executed) entitled "A Garden City of the Future".
Breuer may have realised even before his arrival in England that he would be unable to earn sufficient income from architectural work alone, and Breuer's alliance with Jack Pritchard's Isokon Furniture Company also begun in late 1935, was soon to supersede his partnership with Yorke.
The form of the plywood seat, cut with extending "ears" at the head and foot end, and slotting into the laminated frame to effect attachment, is indicative of a very early date of production for the present chair. (See: Christopher Wilk. Marcel Breuer. Furniture and Interiors, 1981, p.131). The inset plywood panels below the end of the present chair are believed to be a more or less contemporary modification designed to alleviate the stress pressures on this part of the chair which were experienced in all the earliest models of the Isokon production.
It is reasonable to assume that the present chair was acquired by Yorke during his professional partnership with Breuer, possibly even whilst Breuer was still refining the Long Chair with Pritchard at Isokon. This would certainly accord with the inference drawn from the construction of the chair that the manufacture dates from circa 1936.