Pair Of Matteo Grassi Occasional Desk Visitor 2 Dining Bauhaus Chrome Leather Mart Stam Marcel Breuer Two S34 Chairs

A truly beautiful pair of Matteo Grassi chairs. It is difficulty to convey the sheer quality of a Matteo Grassi chair by way of pictures but do let me assure you these are the crème de la crème. Just in from Rome and in A1 condition.

Once you stand in the presence of these chairs you can very quickly see and feel why there are so many imitations of these original licensed and branded chairs. The internet is awash with millions of replicas and fakes , some not too bad for a tighter budget but many are quite shocking. Read on for further guidance on what to look for.

HISTORY OF THE S34?

These chairs are the first cantilever chairs in furniture history. They were used for the first time in 1927 in the Weissenhof-Siedlung in Stuttgart. Starting in 1925, Mart Stam experimented with gas pipes that he connected with flanges and developed the principle of cantilevering chairs that no longer rest on four legs. He thus created a construction principle that became an important building block in the history of modern furniture design with its formal reservation. In the beginning, Stam was not yet focused on the flexing effect of the bent tubular steel; rather, he was interested in the clear form, which perfectly fit in with the modern buildings of the time.

WHO IS MART STAM?

Mart Stam (Martinus Adrianus Stam), Dutch architect, designer and urban planner, was born in Purmerend, the Netherlands in 1899, to a progressive family. A leading figure of the Modern Movement and urban planning theories, he is one of the most important contemporary architects, a pioneer of modern furniture design.

After completing his studies in Amsterdam, he began working in architecture studies before moving to Berlin in Germany in 1922.

After working with the German architects Hans Poelzig and Max Taut, he moved to Zurich where, together with Hans Schmidt, Alfred Roth and El Lissitzky, leading exponent of the Russian Avant-garde, he founded the ABC group, which was echoed by the homonymous ABC Beitrage zum Bauen magazine that praised a rigorous functionalism and took inspiration from the Soviet proclamations of the 1920s.In Switzerland where he works in Karl Moser's studio.

In 1926 he declined the offer of Walter Gropius to join the Bauhaus school and shortly thereafter began working on the project of the Van Nelle Factory, in Rotterdam, a coffee and tea factory, a "manifest work" of a new functionalist trend in the Modern movement. Still considered among the best examples of industrial architecture of the early modernism, it has recently been renovated.

In the following years he moved back to Germany and, called by Mies van der Rohe, participated in the famous exhibition "Die Wohnung" of 1927 organized by the Deutscher Werkbund in the Weissenhof district of Stuttgart.
Once the group of architects of the Bauhaus was known, Mart Stam became a guest lecturer in the renowned Bauhaus school in Dessau, where he taught Elementary Theory of Construction and Urban Planning from 1928 to 1930.

Since 1928 Stam has been an honorary member of the Bauhaus, to which he makes a significant artistic contribution in the field of furniture design. He teaches at the Bauhaus school and is the founder of CIAM (International Congress of Modern Architecture, 1928-1959).

However, Stam's interest is more directed towards the design of residential buildings (famous row houses in the Weissenhof district in Stuttgart) and urban planning of cities. In this field, from 1930 to 1934, he worked in Russia, Rotterdam and for the rebuilding of Dresden after the Second World War. He returned to Amsterdam where he worked as an architect until 1948.

Stam, despite being one of the key personalities for the evolution of contemporary design, his name appears less than his colleagues in the same years as Le Curbusier, Gropius or Mies van der Rohe. Partly because of his career, less prolific from a design point of view and more focused on teaching, partly because of his grumpy character and his positions, political and aesthetic, considered extremist.

In 1939 he took over the direction of the Amsterdam School of Artistic Crafts; in 1950 he became director of the Higher Institute of Applied Arts in Berlin-Weissensee.

In 1953 he returned to Amsterdam and then, with his second wife Olga Heller, emigrated to Switzerland in 1977 where he retired from public life.

Mart Stam died in Zurich in 1986.

WHAT IS BAUHAUS?

Bauhaus is a German artistic movement which lasted from 1919-1933. Its goal was to merge all artistic mediums into one unified approach, that of combining an individual’s artistry with mass production and function. Bauhaus design is often abstract, angular, and geometric, with little ornamentation.

WHO IS MATTEO GRASSI?

Matteo Grassi founded in 1880, is an Italian furniture manufacturer, characterized by their eclectic and angular designs. Combining mid-century Modernism, 1960s-era futuristic design, and the geometric forms of Bauhaus, Matteo Grassi's line of Minimalist pieces includes a wide variety of seating and functional furniture, such as chaise lounges, stools, armchairs, sofas, tables, and modular seating cubes.

WHY ARE THESE CHAIRS REASSURINGLY EXPENSIVE?

1) These chairs are licensed and branded chairs. Not knock offs.

2) The seat and seat back are constructed and hand stitched using real leather hide from cows. The vast majority of chairs on line are poor quality leather , many are pig leather and lots are reconstituted leather ( a bit like turkey twizzlers and chicken nuggets). This very thick, bullet proof leather hide is the best of the best and gets better with age. It’s thick , super luxurious and very comfortable.

3) The frames are seriously heavy. This is thick gauge, heavy duty super shiny real chrome. When you or your guest draws one of these chairs out it absolutely confirms , dare i say “ firmly states” this is an item of supreme quality. Many chairs are shiny silver not real chrome, there is a very big difference.

4) They are in A1 condition. No stitches missing, no rips, no tears, no wobbles, no pitting , no rust , no nasties. Absolutely A1 , these are 5 star chairs.

5) The colour and patina is simply beautiful and is the very best we have seen for a long time.

6) Just look at them.

FREE DELIVERY TO WEST LONDON. OTHER LOCATIONS PLEASE ASK.
14 DAY NO QUIBBLE RETURN POLICY.

Condition report:

A1 - 5 Stars.

Additional dimensions information:

Seat height 45cm