Vitra Miniature Black Wood. Dimensions: L 6.5 x D 6 cm x H 23.5 cm.
Located in Weil am Rhein in Germany (near the Swiss border), the Vitra Design
Museum is a privately funded museum that showcases the unique design collection
of the Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra. The Vitra Design Museum collection is
one of the most important furniture design collections in the world. It contains
around 7,000 pieces of furniture, more than a thousand lighting pieces,
numerous archives and the inherited series of famous designers such as Charles
& Ray Eames, Verner Panton and Alexander Girard. The Vitra Design
Museum's collection of miniatures, which started more than 20 years ago, is an
illustration of the milestones in the history of design. This collection
encompasses the entire history of industrial furniture from the 1800s to present
day, creating a pathway through time leading to the creation of modern seating,
from historicism and Art Nouveau to Bauhaus and New Objectivity, Radical Design
and Postmodernism to present day. A magnificent collection of emblematic works
is presented to you. These chairs that have taken their place in history all
carry the memories of their times: Materials, shapes, colours… They reveal the
often forgotten dreams of their time, the (sometimes utopian) aspirations of
their designers, but above all to their vision of the world. The chairs are
reproduced on a one-sixth scale and faithfully replicate the original historical
model down to the smallest details in the design, material and colour shade.
This precise detail is also applied to the wooden grain, the reproduction of the
screws and the meticulous methods of handcrafting. These miniatures are not only
valuable collector's items, but are also an educational tool for universities,
design schools and architects. Rolf Fehlbaum, President of Vitra: “We can
deduce and understand an era, its social order, its materials, its techniques
and its taste by observing its chairs. I should point out that no other
everyday object offers such diversity.” This vertical chair was designed by
Charles Rennie Mackintosh for the house carrying the same name: Hill House, in
Helensburg. More precisely, it was designed to be kept in the dining room.
Noteworthy detail: the piece is painted white, so that the tinted wooden
furniture stands out. Mackintosh was the architect that threw out the bases of
Art Nouveau. He believed that the building, the interior design and the
furniture had to be in harmony. After having built Hill House, he designed the
interior architecture and furniture, including the famous chair in 1902. The
rectilinear style and the criss-cross pattern are his trademarks. It certainly
wouldn't have had this slightly curved back if his wife hadn't moderated his
linear impulses. He died in 1928. The design company Cassina took on the
reproduction of his chair and marketed it from 1973, decorating the seat with
dark greens or pale pinks. It is not necessarily easy to integrate a chair
designed specifically for one particular decoration into your own interior
design. Hill House 1 was designed to match the furniture and the building
itself, however Mackintosh's elegance and distinctive design, although it
marked an era, are not totally incompatible with our own. This wooden throne
still fits well in our entrances, on either side of a fireplace or a console
table. A true architectural icon, Hill House 1 is ultimately more of a
sculpture than a functional chair.
