Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Christie's Amsterdam, June 7, 1988, lot 407

Petra Timmer, Metz & Co, de creatieve jaren, Rotterdam, 1995, p. 123, no. 169

Overall very good original condition. It appears that this chair was overapainted very long ago. With some chips to the gray paint which reveal a light green tone underneath. The painted surface with some minor chips and losses at the edges of the chair, as seen in the catalogue illustration. The paint is applied slightly unevenly and the painted surface with imperfections throughout. The reverse of the top edge of the backrest with some evidence of drips. The corners at the top of the backrest with losses exposing the natural wood color. The underside of the chair is not painted and with three nail heads exposed. With a fourth hole to the underside appears to be lacking hardware. A wonderful example of Rietveld’s exploration of the Zig Zag chair form.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The Zig-Zag chair is one of Rietveld's most iconic and renowned furniture designs. As Kuper and Van Zijl stated: "within the oeuvre of Rietveld the Zig-Zag chair is the purest example of the synthesis between form, function and construction." Rietveld was fond of the design and included the chair in many of his interiors. He described the chair as "a partition which leaves the space intact. It is not a chair, but a constructive folly. I used to call it little zig zag." Folly or not, the Zig-Zag was the result of years of experimenting. In fact, the Zig-Zag chair's construction of four wooden segments was only a compromise. The version offered here comes much closer to what Rietveld was really looking for: the one-piece chair.

Rietveld's fascination with the concept of a chair realized from a single sheet of material became apparent as early as 1927, when he introduced his groundbreaking Birza chair, made out of a single piece of fiberboard. A year later, Rietveld presented his Beugelchair at an international exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was the first modernist chair using the seating-shell principle, which would be further developed by designers such as Aalto, Saarinen and Eames.

In the early 1930s, Rietveld made several sketches of a chair of undulating form. After attempts to execute the design in fiber, triplex board and tubular steel, Rietveld settled on the concept of the now classic Zig-Zag chair composed of four wooden segments.  The model would be made by Gerard van de Groenekan as well as by Metz & Co. in numerous shapes, woods and colours over the next few decades.

In 1938, on the occasion of the opening of a new furniture showroom in Amsterdam, several designers were challenged by Metz & Co. to create a new line of plywood furniture. For Rietveld, this was a perfect opportunity to make another attempt at a one-piece Zig-Zag chair.

The result, as seen in the present lot, presented at the 1938 Metz & Co exhibition Het Nieuwe Meubel (The New Furniture), comes closest to the purity of his earlier sketches, yet technically is still not a one-piece chair.  Rietveld restorer Jurjen Creman recently discovered that the chair is composed of two thick multiplex strips, which are 'sandwiched' between two single sheets of bent plywood.  Although concealed, the seat and backrest are hollow.  In the accompanying Metz & Co. brochure, a photograph shows two of these chairs, lacquered in a light shade. To date, only two chairs of this design are known to exist: the present lot and a similar chair lacquered in pale green in the collection of the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam.

Drs. Rob Driessen