Barcelona Chairs - Vintage and Historic

A retailer or reproduction Barcelon Chairs published this post:

I am constantly amazed to receive enquiries from those interested in purchasing a Barcelona Chair but concerned about the authenticity of the chairs we sell.  Again and again i am asked "Is it original?"

The subject of 'authenticity' is more complex than modern manufacturers would like to suggest.

We try to explain that with the exception of  Thonet…(which is the worlds only ongoing marque extant- from a   period actually predating that of the great modern classics). No other furniture design can claim such a pure and unaltered descent. In fact no other design anywhere  remains so absolutely  true to its  original.

The Thonet family designed and continues to own the rights to the original bent wood café chair.  They have never sold the rights to anyone else, and they continue to manufacture the chair in a manner not unlike that used 150 years ago. For them to claim that these chairs are ‘original’ is fair in my opinion.  It is made by the original manufacturer, in the original manner, and the revenue goes to the family that still owns the design copyright.

The Barcelona Chair was manufactured by several manufacturers before the design was sold to Knoll.  It was sold to Knoll by Mies Van Der Rohe, who some would say was not even the designer of the chair (Lily Reich is more likely to be the designer).   Since Knoll bought the rights to reproduce it, they have moved from one manufacturer to another many times, and have modified the manufacturing technique, the materials and even the dimensions and other specifications many times over.

The ‘right to reproduce’ this item is ‘just that’ – permission to create a reproduction.  It can not possibly be regarded as an ‘original’.

There are original Barcelona Chairs out there, as mentioned elsewhere in this blog. They are very rare collectable items made in the 1930's, 40’s and early 1950s perhaps. Structurally they are very different from todays Knoll chairs. They are built in many parts which fit together like an oversized jigsaw puzzle. The leather was probably pig skin (as it was for the chairs originally built for the Barcelona Pavilion in 1929), but commonly they have been reupholstered subsequently with bovine leather.

In short, those claiming to sell the original might offer a stamp of authenticity impressed onto the frame of their particular offering; a serial number, logo or signature, but this hardly guarantees the approval of the original designer much less any similarity to the original pieces created by the designer(s).  Such inscriptions might prove to be a good marketing tool, but they offer the furniture buyer little more than a warrantee by an unrelated organization…. Much the same as any other manufacturer would offer.

Modern manufacturing techniques and materials are very different from those available to the original designer.  (having improved greatly in most cases).  Today’s manufacturers therefore are compelled by price pressures and quality requirements to update the materials and techniques used in the creation of even the oldest designs.

This deviation is not a bad thing as modern methodology can bring benefits, however if the materials and manufacturing techniques change materially, how original can one of these modern reproductions be?   Anthony 2/24/2010

A 40 year old Steelform Barcelona Chair, Looking for all the world like a modern Knoll.

Note the seemless front and top corners on the cusions.

The top of the back cushion ends a little higher than the top of the back of the frame. (a common element of many chairs even today)

The tilt of the seet is a little less exagerated than the knoll perhaps, but this is often considered excessive and many manufacturers reduce this angel out of preference.

I'm told by a gentleman named Carlos, that Mies brought 6 chairs from Germany to America when he emigrated here just before the second world war.

If this is true, they predate any relationship with Knoll, and were no doubt made in Europe probably at the behest of Mies himself.

Technically these are the only true original Barcelona chairs.. all others are by definition reproductions of these original 6.

These chairs have several identifying marks.

The frame comes appart in 5 pieces

The leather is pig skin

The foam inside the cushions is rubber made by and baring the moulded stamp and ink stamp of the Italian 'Pirelli' company (who make tires today)

Made between 1930 and 1949

They have no 'Mies Signature on the frame' - this is a much later addition by Knoll.