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  Nigel Coates, Rare, Early and Iconic Genie stool 1988

  NIGEL COATES  (b. 1949)  England
  BRANSON COATES ARCHITECTURE  London

  “Genie” stool  1988

  Carved and sandblasted solid ash seat on twisted mild steel legs

  Marks: NIGEL COATES  GENIE STOOL
  Illustrated: 1000 chairs, Charlotte & Peter Fiell (Cologne: Taschen Verlag, 1997), p. 615.

  H: 26: x D: 13 1/2″

  Price: $9,500

   

  British architect and designer. He studied at Nottingham University and the Architectural Association, London, where he graduated in 1974 and subsequently taught until 1989. In 1983 he formed the group NATO (Narrative Architecture Today) with a group of former students and began to practice independently; two years later he went into partnership with Doug Branson (b 1951). Coates became known for his fluid and lively graphic style and the overt theatricality of his designs. His proposals for the redevelopment of London, involving sophisticated allegories of popular culture, were shown in two exhibitions: ArkAlbion (1984), with drawings of new development areas such as County Hall and the Isle of Dogs, and Ecstacity (1992), with computer simulations and video clips. In the renovation (1980) of his own flat in London he juxtaposed the original, ornate late 19th-century interior with ‘found’ furniture and decorative objects. The publication of this project brought Coates to the attention of Japanese clients who were seeking fashionable Western designers, and he carried out several projects in Japan that became increasingly theatrical: in Tokyo the Metropole Restaurant (1985) evokes a European café, while the Parco Café Bongo (1986) juxtaposes classical English furniture with an imitation aeroplane wing mounted on the ceiling; and the Arca di Noè (1988), Sapporo, is an eclectic mixture of classical motifs and a concrete boat. Coates’s radical approach was dissipated in later British works, such as a series of London shops: one for Katharine Hamnett in Sloane Street (1988) has a shop front formed of aquaria, and one for Jigsaw in Knightsbridge (1992) has its shop front formed of a two-storey copper column in the shape of a phallus. In 1992 he began designing an extension to the Geffrye Museum, London.
  Coates was an influential teacher at the Architectural Association from 78- 86, and has lectured extensively abroad. In 1995 he was appointed Professor of Architectural Design at the Royal College of Art and now divides his time equally between the college and his office. Nigel Coates furniture is represented in the Modern Furniture Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

  “I go for architecture that overlays and enhances. By blending observation and wit with reason, I want my work to generate a sense of the unexpected, and the seemingly spontaneous.”

   

   

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  Liberty & Co. / Leonard Wyburd Egyptian Revival Four-Legged Mahogany Thebes Stool c. 1890-95

  Leonard Wyburd UK
  Liberty & Company London

  Four-legged Thebes stool circa 1890-95.

  Mahogany, woven wicker seat, turned details.

  Comparable Liberty stools illustrated: Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930 (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux and Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1994), pp. 465-66.

  H: 15 3/4″ x D: 15″ x W: 15″

  One of the driving influences of the Aesthetic Movement of the late 19th century was an informed interest in authentic ancient designs inspired by recent archaeological discoveries.  Both the three- and four-legged Thebes stool were inspired by actual furniture and wall paintings unearthed from royal tombs in the ancient Egyptian city for which they are named.  Leonard Wyburd, who was one of the principal designers for Liberty, patented his designs for the Thebes stools in 1884. Liberty & Co. continued to make the popular stools into the early 1900’s.

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  Wilhelm Schmidt / Prag Rudnicker Vienna Secession / Arts & Crafts stool c. 1902

  WILHELM SCHMIDT (b. 1880) Austria
  PRAG-RUDNICKER KORBWAREN-FABRIKATION Austria

  Vienna arts & crafts stool c. 1902

  Oak, rattan

  Illustrated: Das Interieure III “Wiener Kunst im Hause Exhibition”, Wien, 1902, p. 169; Prag-Rudnicker Korbwaren-Fabrikation Catalog, 1902/1903, No. 508. Korbmöbel, Eva B. Ottillinger (Salzburg: Residenz Verlag, 1990) p. 106, illus. no. 99, Moderne Vergangenheit Wien 1800-1900 (Vienna: Künstlerhaus, 1981) p. 271;

  H: 19 1/2″ x W: 19″ x D: 17 5/8″

  Price: $4,800

  Wilhelm Schmidt was one of a number of avant-garde designers, along with M.H. Baillie Scott, Peter Behrens, and Henry van de Velde, who incorporated the traditional material of rattan, or wicker, into their furniture designs during the early part of the century. For this stool, the Viennese designer used rattan in the much same way that a furniture maker of his day would have used upholstery on seating furniture. It provides a supportive, yet yielding and therefore comfortable seat.

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  Werner Schmidt Folding Triangle Chair “Falt-Stuhl” 1993

  WERNER SCHMIDT (b. 1953)  Switzerland.

  Folding triangle chair, 1993.

  Dark brown laminate Plywood, hinges.

  Signed:  Werner Schmidt, 8/10, ‘93 (script signature in white permanent marker)

  For related folding table by Schmidt see illustration: Aluminum by Design, Sarah Nichols et al. (Pittsburgh, PA:  Carnegie Museum of Art, 2000) p. 57.

  Open dimension: H: 31 5/8” x  W: 28” x D: 20”
  Closed dimension: H: 31 5/8” x W 22 1/2”