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c. 1970 – Pair of Lacquered Beech and Cognac Leather Lounge Chairs – France/Italy
€3,620
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Product description
A unique duo
Some works are not immediately obvious. Their visual density, their formal silence, their refusal to give in too easily to logic - not because they are extravagant, but because they resist classification. Too sculptural to be simply functional, too silent to be talkative, these armchairs demand a slower gaze, a moment of suspension.
Nothing here is gratuitous, nothing is taken for granted. Swollen, almost totemic armrests, an unusual balance between brutality and warmth, and that constant tension between primitive lines and architectural mastery. A rare language, somewhere between the sun-drenched vigor of Mediterranean architectural furniture and the muted precision of understated auteur design.
Everything suggests that this is a singular creation - perhaps Italian, more likely French - born between influences, between decades, and far from the noise of mass production.
The frame, sculptural and assertive, is crafted from solid beechwood, lacquered in deep black. It embraces a frank, deliberately expressive materiality: every line is intentional, every volume resolved. The result is a rare graphic presence, where brutalist clarity converses subtly with a more southern, almost vernacular vocabulary.
Then comes the unexpected accord: a glowing fawn leather, remarkably well-preserved, whose warmth softens the severity of the structure — ember and ash in a single gesture.
Rare they are — but with a quiet, almost elusive rarity. No mention in editorial catalogues, no trace in documented sales, no known precedent in the major design archives: a set utterly absent from a market otherwise quick to record and classify.
There is no maker’s stamp either. Yet this typographic silence feels intentional — not an omission, but the mark of an atelier practice. A creation shaped outside industrial circuits, where authorship resides not in a name but in the integrity of form and material.
Their invisibility in traditional channels suggests another path: that of a private commission, of a production limited to just a few pieces, made for a particular space, a specific intention. These are not chairs once displayed in showrooms, but pieces quietly encountered — behind a heavy wooden door, in an interior conceived as a discreet manifesto of taste.
Some works do not circulate. They don't seek attention, only recognition. These chairs are in that category. They speak to those who know how to look, who don't need a label to feel the intelligence of a line or the tension of a form. Nothing here is ostentatious - everything is measured, calm and confident.
To their formal clarity is added the certainty of a singular gesture: no edition, no replica, no echo. They exist only as they are - in their exact material, their specific patina, their precise wear. Objects of a single place, a single moment, a single hand.
This duo is not designed to blend into an ensemble - it defines its own territory. It suggests a certain relationship to time, to materials, to creation. It says something about the gaze of the person who will make room for it.
It's not a pair to be collected. They are a presence to be embraced. Irrevocably.
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Dimensions (cm): 73 (H) x 83 (W) x 72 (D) x 42 (seat height)
Weight (each): 15 kg
Origin & Period: France, circa 1970–74 (full technical report available upon request)
Condition: Excellent overall condition – authentic patina, sound and stable structure (minor superficial lacquer losses of moderate severity), original upholstery beautifully preserved.
Condition: Excellent overall condition – authentic patina, sound and stable structure (minor superficial lacquer losses of moderate severity), original upholstery beautifully preserved.
Condition: Excellent overall condition – authentic patina, sound and stable structure (minor superficial lacquer losses of moderate severity), original upholstery beautifully preserved.
Specifications
ConditionVery goodColorsBrown, BlackMaterialWood, LeatherNumber of items2Height73 cmWidth83 cmDepth72 cmSeat height42 cmSigns of usageDents, Scratches
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About this seller
Saint-Martin-Lestra, FranceOn Whoppah since November 2024 • 3 sales