Marcel Breuer, England, 1935

Long Chair. Manufactured by Isokon Furniture Company, London, 1935–1939. Plywood.

After Breuer fled Nazi Germany, he settled in London, where he designed a seminal series of plywood furniture for Isokon, the firm founded by Jack Pritchard. Influenced heavily by Aalto, the Long Chair featured a bent ply seat manufactured by the firm Venesta in Estonia, which was shipped to London and united with its wooden arms assembled from recycled packing crates and other scraps. The present one, like many, was originally upholstered by Isokon, but probably lost its tacked cushion when the collecting market for the chair started to develop in the 1980s. It was the most successful design for Isokon, and today more than a dozen examples are in museums.

LC1297