Marcel Breuer. Wassily chairs for Knoll

MARCEL BREUER (Hungary, 1902 - United States, 1981) for KNOLL.
Pair of "Wassily" chairs, design 1925.
Chrome-plated tubular steel frame, seat, backrest and armrests upholstered in black leather.
Made in the Knoll studio.
In need of restoration. Metal structure correct. The chrome plating shows rust and leather with considerable damage.
Measurements: 74/42 cm (height) x 79 x 70 cm.

The Wassily chair, also known as Model B3, was the first tubular chair on the market, produced and marketed initially between 1926 and 1929 by the Austrian firm Thonet until World War II, when the firm ceased production. It is a large armchair with a light, sober and functional structure, based on chromed steel tubes that intertwine to support the upholstered elements (seat, backrest and armrests).
Marcel Breuer was a Hungarian architect and designer, one of the main masters of the Modern Movement, very interested in modular construction and simple forms. He studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar at the time when it was directed by Walter Gropius, and later he would take charge of the furniture workshop of this school. There he designed the B3 chair, later known as the Wassily chair, made in 1925, the first tubular steel chair in history, which combined the flexible conditions of this material with its ease of large-scale industrial production. Breuer would continue at the Bauhaus until 1928, when he settled in Berlin to devote himself to architecture. However, with the rise of Nazism he had to leave Germany, because of his Jewish origin, and moved first to England in 1933, and later to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, from 1937. Today his furniture designs are part of the most important collections in the world, including the MoMA in New York and the Victoria & Albert in London.