WASSILI (1889-1972) AND HANS LUCKHARDT (1890-1954)
WASSILI (1889-1972) AND HANS LUCKHARDT (1890-1954)

AN EBONIZED WOOD AND CHROMED-METAL CHAIR MODEL NO. ST14, DESIGNED 1929

Details
WASSILI (1889-1972) AND HANS LUCKHARDT (1890-1954)
An Ebonized Wood and Chromed-Metal Chair Model no. ST14, designed 1929
manufactured by Thonet, circa 1931
34½ in. (87.6 cm.) high
Provenance
With Barry Friedman Ltd., New York.
Christie's New York, 12 June 1993, lot 339.

Lot Essay

cf. K.-J. Sembach et al., Möbeldesign des 20. Jahrhunderts, Cologne, 1991, p. 177.
D. Ostergard, ed., Bentwood and Metal Furniture: 1850-1946, New York, 1987, pp. 294-295, no. 85.

The Luckhardt brothers had been influential members of the postwar Expressionist movement in German architecture. However, by the mid 1920s, they adopted a more rational approach to design using a system of standardization and new materials. The present chair reflects this ideological shift with its minimal streamlined form. When Eckhard Muthesius designed the modernist palace of the Maharaja of Indore between 1931-33, he chose the Luckhardt chair to furnish the ballroom and theater.
The chair was first exhibited by the Luckhardt brothers in a model home, the Desta House at the Bau-Ausstellung in Berlin, 1931, and appeared in the Desta sales catalogue of April 1930. In 1933, Desta went into liquidation and Thonet Brothers took over all Desta sales. However, the design was never published in the Thonet catalogues.

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