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Object Timeline

-0001	We photographed this object. We photographed this object.
1926	Work on this object began.
1927	Work on this object ended.
2007	We acquired this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We exhibited this object.
2013	This was an Object of the Day.
2015	We photographed this object.
2024	You found it!

B5 Side Chair

This is a side chair. It is dated 1926–27 and we acquired it in 2007. Its medium is bent chrome-plated tubular steel, eisengarn (parafin treated cotton canvas). It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

The tubular steel chair is one of the most emblematic pieces of modernist furniture. While a number of designers created subsequent versions, including Mies van der Rohe, the original tubular steel chair was created by Marcel Breuer in 1926.
In 1921, a 26-year-old Breuer was one of the first apprentices in the Bauhaus furniture workshop. By 1924, he was its head. Before he left the Bauhaus in 1928, Breuer also designed a number of important interiors, including the personal homes of a number of other Bauhaus masters like Walter Gropius and László Maholy-Nagy (B5 chairs were used in Maholy-Nagy’s dining room). Breuer experimented for some time before discovering a successful method for bending extruded, industrial steel tubes into chair forms. In 1926, Breuer was awarded patents for seven tubular steel furniture designs. The following year, Breuer and a colleague established the furniture company Standard-Möbel specifically to manufacture and sell tubular steel pieces to a wider public. The B5 chair was one of the models sold in the company’s initial line. Due to financial reasons, Standard-Möbel was sold to the Austrian furniture company Thonet in 1928.
The B5 chair under discussion dates from the short-lived Standard-Möbel era and, as such, represents an extremely rare and early example of this form. Because the B5 was later overshadowed by the more popular B3 model (commonly known as the “Wassily”) its production was more limited.

This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled The B5 Chair.

It is credited Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.

Cantilevered chair with a frame made of bent, chromium-plated tubular steel. Instead of separate legs, the chair is held upright by the L-shaped tube connected by a supporting U-shaped base in one continuous piece. The flat, rectangular back and separate thick, square seat are upholstered with brown leather; the latter appearing to float in between the tubes, save for the thin metal anchors in the back. The matching flat, rectanglar back and armrests wrap around the frame.

Armchair from the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building Armchair, 1931
chromium-plated steel, leather upholstery, oak.
Gift of George R. Kravis II.
2015-41-9

Sculptural chair with a wooden frame made out of birch and ash. The frame is angular and forms mirrored c-shapes on each side. It is assembled with steel tacks. Below the straight wooden armrests are thin wooden slats. There are two horizontal components at the bottom of the chair. These horizontal pieces are the only portions that touch the floor. It extends slightly past the backrest, providing support and preventing the chair from toppling over. The chair has a streamlined composition with a frame in a light brown color and a seat in brown. The bottom part of the seat and the middle side portions of the backrest are the only parts attached to the angular frame. The rest is left in the open space, creating the illusion that the seat is floating. The seat is covered in Naugahyde, a plastic-coated composite knit fabric. The seat and backrest are attached at an angle and slightly dips a couple of inches below the armrests.

Airline Chair
birch, ash, naugahyde, steel tacks.
Gift of George R. Kravis II.
2018-22-28

B3 Chair
chrome-plated tubular steel, canvas.
Gift of Gary Laredo.
1956-10-1-a,b

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 84 x 47 x 62.5 cm (33 1/16 x 18 1/2 x 24 5/8 in.)

Cite this object as

B5 Side Chair; Germany; bent chrome-plated tubular steel, eisengarn (parafin treated cotton canvas); H x W x D: 84 x 47 x 62.5 cm (33 1/16 x 18 1/2 x 24 5/8 in.); Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund; 2007-9-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Looking Forward/ Looking Back: Recent Acquisitions in 20th- and 21st-Century Design.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2DTX2/
Accession Number 2007-9-1
Object ID 18710395