Design Agenda: The Collection of Michael Maharam
Design Agenda: The Collection of Michael Maharam
Gerrit Rietveld
Steltman Chair (Right)
Auction Closed
October 15, 05:11 PM GMT
Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Gerrit Rietveld
Steltman Chair (Right)
designed 1963, executed circa 1965-1970
executed by Gerard van de Groenekan, The Netherlands
painted oak
branded H.G.M./G.A. v.d. GROENEKAN/DE BILT NEDERLAND
27⅛ x 19 x 17⅜ in. (69 x 48.2 x 43.6 cm)
Private Collection, Germany
Sotheby's New York, June 19, 2007, lot 192
Private Collection, Amsterdam, 2015
Gerrit Rietveld: A Centenary Exhibition, exh. cat., Barry Friedman Ltd., New York, 1988, p. 60
Marijke Kuper and Ida van Zijl, The Complete Works of Gerrit Rietveld, Utrecht, 1992, pp. 332 and 341, no. 646
Peter Vöge, The Complete Rietveld Furniture, Rotterdam, 1993, p. 166, no. 371
Ida van Zijl, Gerrit Rietveld, London, 2012, p. 191
Sotheby’s would like to thank Rob Driessen and Jurjen Creman for their assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.
This design was originally created for the Steltman Jewellery Shop in the The Hague, and was conceived as both left- and right-hand versions that could be associated to create a single seating element. A remarkable design in which positive and negative space occupy equal resonance, the “Steltman” chair must be regarded as a masterpiece, and was the last chair designed by Rietveld before his death the following year. The two chairs originally created for the jewellery store were upholstered in white leather, and are now lost. According to Tjerd Deelstra, a former pupil of Rietveld at the Delft Technical University, the architect had informed him that the lightly transparent cream stain utilized on this and other designs, was selected out of appreciation for the salt-bleached driftwood to be found nearby on the beaches of The Hague.
- S. A.