Hybrid Tubulär Steel Furniture
Aithough until 1929 Marcel Breuer’s tubulär
Steel furniture was manufactured almost ex-
clusively by Standard Möbel GmbH, the tubu
lär Steel cantilever chair B 32 was produced
by Gebrüder Thonet. 1 This model-which is
now better known under the name “Cesca” 2 -
advanced to become a modern classic, not
least because Breuer made use of the typical
caned seat of the well-established bentwood
chairs, thus making its design especially in
tune with “the product ränge and the tradi-
tion of the furniture manufacturer Gebrüder
Thonet": Considered “that Wiener Geflecht
[Viennese caning] had become just as much
a hallmark of the famous Gebrüder Thonet
coffee house chairs as bentwood was,” then
Breuer's concept for this chair obviously lay
in a “symbiosis of references to the technical-
ly Contemporary as well as the historically
established.’’ 3 The concept of connecting the
cold and chrome-gleaming tubulär Steel
frames with other-warmer and haptically more
pleasant-materials set a precedent: As one
of the first Alvar Aalto-who was as convinced
of the technical and constructive rationality
of tubulär Steel chairs as he was of the re-
siliency that made free-floating sitting possi-
ble 4 -combined a u-shaped tubulär Steel frame
with a resilient molded plywood seat and
backrest, creating such a “hybrid" chair. 4 In
the early 1930s, a similar model was created
with B 247, also at Thonet in Frankenberg,
but unlike Aalto’s chair, here the plywood seat
is mounted on a bentwood frame. The curved
back is bolted, as an independent element, to
the frame.
1 The original version of this model is usually dated 1928/29.
However, archival proof for this has not been found. For more on
this discussion see: Werner Möller / Otakar Mäöel, Ein Stuhl macht
Geschichte, Munich / Dessau 1992, 29, Note. 54.
2 As an abbreviation of the name of Marcel Breuer's daughter
Francesca. Cf. Eckart Bergmann, Marcel Breuers Freischwinger
B 32/64, Detmold 1997.
3 Cf. Möller/Mäöel 1992, 29.
4 Sebastian Hackenschmidt, “Frei Schwingen. Stühle als Material
experiment,” in: Exhib. Cat. Vienna 2006: Frei Schwingen, 31-68:
34 ff.
5 Marcel Breuer and Gunnar Asplund provided the “templates" for
this. Cf. Göran Schildt, “Aalto's first modern furniture," in: the same,
Alvar Aalto, The decisive years, New York 1986, 33-39.
Freischwingender Stuhl, Modell 23 Cantilever Chair, Model 23
Entwurf Design: Alvar Aalto, Finnland Finland, 1929/30
Ausführung Execution: Oy Huonekalu-ja Rakennustyötehdas AB, Turku, 1930er
Jahre 1930s; Stahlrohr, Sperrholz, Leder Tubulär Steel, plywood, leather;
Privatsammlung Private Collection
Freischwinger Cantilever Chair B 247
Entwurf und Ausführung Design and execution: Gebr. Thonet AG, Frankenberg,
um ca. 1932; Buche, massiv und gebogen, Stahlrohr, Sperrholz Beech, solid and
bent, tubulär Steel, plywood; Sammlung Collection Mantz
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