Chaise, Mallet-Stevens, 1928 – Vitra Miniature Design Museum

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Vitra Miniature of the Miniature Collection, Vitra Design Museum. The comparatively small chair was probably intended less for private use and more for mass seating for restaurants and cafes. The similarity with the simple structure of Viennese bent-wood furniture which was likewise preferred for such venues in the 1930s, both intimates the purpose for which the chair was meant and alludes to its creator having been Mallet-Stevens, who was also inspired by other designs by renowned Viennese architect Josef Hoffmann. Two of the chair’s features are noteworthy: firstly, it can be stacked thanks to the fact that the rear legs are set at the sides (a principle developed in the 1920s and widely used in the 1930s), and secondly the precise allocation of colour, limited to the black frame and the red seat, emphasizing the interaction of structure and function.