Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Steph Uiterwaal, Utrecht
Thence by descent
Christie's Amsterdam, May 21, 1986, lot 402
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Daniele Baroni, The Furniture of Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Woodbury, NY, 1977, pp. 116-119
Gerrit Rietveld:  A Centenary Exhibition, Craftsman and Visionary, exh. cat., Barry Friedman Gallery, New York, 1988, p. 45
Marijke Küper and Ida van Zijl, Gerrit Th. Rietveld, Utrecht, 1992, pp. 117-118
Peter Vöge, The Complete Rietveld Furniture, Rotterdam, 1993, pp. 74-75
Luca Dosi Delfini, The Furniture Collection, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2004, p. 305
Ida van Zijl, Gerrit Rietveld, London, 2010, pp. 85, 92 and 99
Marie-Thérèse van Thoor, Ida van Zijl, Rob Dettingmeijer, eds., Rietveld's Universum, Rotterdam, 2010, pp. 139-144

Overall in very good original condition. The chairs show some minor edge nicks, surface scratches and rubbing to the black-painted finish, consistent with age. The black plywood seats with some minor evidence of warping. With some minor losses to the black paint over the nail heads fastening the wooden seats to the frames. The front screw of one chair at the lower seat edge to the proper right side has separated from seat. With minor losses to the wood and paint around the original hole for the fastener to the seat panel. This chair also showing outward bowing to the lower edge of the wooden seat which likely caused the separation. The frames possible with some minor areas of restoration to the painted surface. Overall these chairs are in very good condition and show the considerable care of the present owners.
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 success of the first modern tubular steel chairs, designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925-1926, stimulated various Dutch architects and designers to experiment with this new material. Until the mid-1920s, Gerrit Rietveld had almost exclusively worked in wood. His first attempt at a metal chair probably was the easy chair he designed circa 1926 for the Maarssen physician Dr. A.M. Hartog. Composed of metal tubing, the straight four-legged form of the frame was still based on woodwork construction, using T-sockets instead of wooden joints. With his beugelstoel, conceived in 1927, Rietveld for the first time made use of the pliancy of metal rod to make a continuous form. The frame consisted of two metal braces (hence the name beugelstoel, meaning brace chair) which were connected by a single sheet of fibreboard that was attached to the frame with small nuts and bolts. The visual quality of the undulating lines of frame and seating shell reveals Rietveld's ambition to make a one-piece chair. In 1928 Rietveld presented the chair at 'Der Stuhl', 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 the Eames's.

In 1931, the beugelstoel was taken into production by Metz & Co, the exclusive Amsterdam department store selling furniture and textiles by avant-garde architects and designers, produced in the company's own workshop. Whilst Rietveld made the first examples of the chair with a solid rod frame and a fibre seat, Metz applied a tubular steel frame and a plywood seating shell. The tubing was covered in aluminium paint, which Rietveld preferred over chromium or nickle plate, whilst the seating shell was available in various colours. It is assumed that the production of the beugel model was limited to a few hundred examples. Rietveld's zigzag chairs and crate chairs produced by Metz & Co from ca. 1934 onwards were considerably more successful.

The set of beugelstoelen chairs here offered was owned by sculptor Steph Uiterwaal (1889-1960), a long-time friend of Rietveld. Steph and his younger brother Jo (1897-1972) were trained as sculptors in various apprenticeships, while following evening classes of drawing and sculpting in Utrecht. Here they studied under later De Stijl member Willem van Leusden (1886-1947), who circa 1920 invited the Uiterwaal brothers to become members of his private drawing club of local artists. When Gerrit Rietveld joined the club somewhat later, he soon befriended Steph and Jo Uiterwaal, sons of cabinet makers just like himself. The Uiterwaal brothers became strongly influenced by the Cubist tendencies of both Rietveld and Van Leusden; Steph was soon nicknamed 'the Utrecht Archipenko'.

--Rob Driessen, Amsterdam