African Tribal Nupe stool Nigeria, early to mid 20th Century
NUPE TRIBE, Nigeria
Nupe stool, Nigeria early to mid 20th Century
Hand carved and decorated wood with a rich developed brown black patina.
This finely hand carved African stool was created by the Nupe tribe of Nigeria. The stool is carved from one piece of wood with intricate refined geometric patterns carved into the top and has seven tapered legs.
Marcel Wanders, One Morning They Woke Up, mosaic table/stool 2004
MARCEL WANDERS (1963-) The Netherlands
“One morning they woke up” mosaic occasional table or stool 2004
Gilt and lively colored glass mosaic, fiberglass body
H: 13″ x D: 17″
Price: $18,500
Marcel Wanders (1963) grew up in Boxtel, the Netherlands, and graduated at the School of the Arts Arnhem in 1988 with a cum laude certificate. He is now an independent industrial product designer operating out of Amsterdam where he has his own studio, Marcel Wanders studio. Marcel continues to work on diverse products and projects for Cappellini, Mandarina Duck, Magis, Droog Design and Moooi amongst others. For the latter he is associated as creative director. Marcel also co-operates in other design-related projects, such as the Vitra Summer Workshop where he was project leader for the second time. Also he was a juror for various prizes like the Rotterdam Design Prize (for which his own products were nominated several times) and the Kho Liang Ie prize. He lectured at SFMoMA, Limn the Design Academy and has taught at various design academies in the Netherlands. Marcel won the Rotterdam Design Prize (public prize) for the Knotted Chair, and received several other awards including the George Nelson Award (Interiors magazine) and Alterpoint Design Award 2000. In the 2001, Marcel has been nominated in the category ‘designer of the year’ in WIRED magazine’s 2001 wired rave awards. Designs of Marcel Wanders have been selected for the most important design collections and exhibitions in the world, like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Central Museum in Utrecht, and various Droog Design exhibitions. In the book ‘Wanders Wonders, design for a new age’ (1999) which accompanied a solo exhibition in Museum ‘t Kruithuis in Den Bosch, the most important products are shown, from the Knotted Chair to the Shadows lamps and from the Nomad Carpet to the Eggvase. Works of Marcel have been published in all leading design magazines.
Sori Yanagi / Tendo Co. Ltd. / Japanese Crafts “Butterfly” Stool c.1956
Sori Yanagi (1915-2012), Japan
Tendo Co. Ltd., Japan
Butterfly stool, 1956.
Bleached rosewood veneer on plywood with brass.
H: 15” x W: 16 ½” x D: 12”
Price: $4,900
This model can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
The Japanese designer Sori Yanagi is best known for his 1956 Butterfly Stool. It is both elegant and utterly simple: two curved pieces of molded plywood are held together through compression and tension by a single brass rod. The stool’s graceful shape recalls a butterfly’s wings, and has also been compared to the form of torii, the traditional Shinto shrine gates. He loved traditional Japanese crafts and was dedicated to the modernist principles of simplicity, practicality and tactility that are associated with Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, and Le Corbusier.”
Yanagi, who studied architecture and art at Tokyo’s Academy of Fine Art, was inspired by the work of Le Corbusier and by the designer Charlotte Perriand, with whom he worked in the early 1940s, while she was in Tokyo as the arts and crafts adviser to the Japanese Board of Trade. But perhaps the most indelible influence on Yanagi was that of his father, Soetsu Yanagi, who led the “mingei” movement, which celebrated Japanese folk craft and the beauty of everyday objects, and who founded the Nihon Mingeikan (or Japanese Folk Crafts Museum) in Tokyo. Yanagi fils, who was named director of the museum in 1977, succinctly described his design aesthetic in a 2002 interview in The Japan Times: “I try to create things that we human beings feel are useful in our daily lives. During the process, beauty is born naturally.” Throughout his life, Sori Yanagi was inspired by what he called “anonymous design” — he cited the Jeep and a baseball glove as two examples — and he in turn inspired younger designers, like Naoto Fukasawa, Tom Dixon and Jasper Morrison.
Josef Hoffmann / J. & J. Kohn Vienna Secession Stool c.1907
JOSEF HOFFMANN (1870-1956) Austria
JACOB & JOSEF KOHN Vienna
Stool c. 1907
Mahogany-stained beech with upholstery fabric (new) designed by Josef Hoffmann by Backhausen, Vienna
Illustrated: Jacob & Josef Kohn 1916 catalogue (reprint), p. 37, Model no. 728/s; Klassiker des Modernen Möbeldesign, Dorothee Müller (Munich: Keysersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1980) illus. 85, p. 110: Jacob & Josef Kohn catalogue (reprint in Moderne Vergangenheit Wien 1800-1900 (Vienna: Künstlerhaus, 1981) p. 63; 1909 Jacob & Josef Kohn catalogue (reprint) in Bent Wood and Metal Furniture: 1850- 1946, Derek E. Ostergard, ed. (New York: The American Ferderation of Arts, 1987) p. 107.
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.
Grosfeld House New York (attr.) Modern / Art Deco Lucite Stool c. 1940
Grosfeld House New York
Lucite stool circa 1940.
Cylindrical lucite base stool with gold lucite wrap like connecting elements, silk upholstery.
H: 16 1/4″ x W: 13 1/2″ x D: 16 1/2″
Grosfeld House Furniture Company manufactured some iconic designs of the twentieth century. Some of the great designers that work for the company were Vladimir Kagan and Lorin Jackson. They produced some of the earliest chairs using Lucite starting in the 1930’s and through the Post War Era.
Liberty & Co. / Leonard Wyburd Egyptian Revival Four-Legged Oak Thebes Stool c. 1890-1895
Leonard Wyburd UK
Liberty & Company London
Four-legged Thebes stool circa 1890-95. Oak with highly figured grain, concave slat seat, turned details.
Marks: 4 (impressed on underside)
This design was registered by Liberty & Co. in 1884.
Related Liberty & Co. stools illustrated: Liberty’s 1875-1975 : An Exhibition to Mark the Firm’s Centenary (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1975) p. 35, illustr. C1, Liberty Design, 1874-1914 , Barbara Morris (London: Octopus Publishing Group:, 1989) p. 103; 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″ x D: 17″ x W: 17″
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.
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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