According to the legend, the Dutch designer Marcel Breuer has created his arm-chair of metal tubes in honour of his “Bauhaus” colleague, namely Russian painter Wasiliy Kandinskiy. However, de facto everything was other way round.
The prototype of this model was a bicycle, designed in 1925 and initially called B3. Breuer was interested in new technology of metal tubes flexion, which was used at frames creation, and he decided to implement it to furniture manufacturing. Regarding Kandinskiy, he was aware of the arm-chair, saw it and even often used it, as Breuer created the personal copy of this item for the painter. However, this chair gained the name Wassily many years on, in the middle of the XX century, after Italian brand called Gavina commercialized it. A legend of the friendship among two geniuses as well as features of construction of the arm-chair did the trick then. The arm-chair’s shape is no less groundbreaking than the works of Kandinskiy. Breuer cut off all unnecessary items and turned this volumetric thing into plexus of thin lines. The more laconic the item is, the harder it is to manufacture it, as every defect strikes the eye immediately. Various producers of simulations are caught at this exact feature. Knoll is the only company, which is officially allowed to produce Wassily arm-chair. It bought Gavina brand as far back as 1968, together with the rights to manufacture Breuer`s fabulous model.
1. The parameters of the genuine Wassily arm-chair are as follows: height 73 sm, width 79 sm, depth 68.5 sm.
2. There aren’t any angles in the frame of chromized steel, all of them are softly rounded and look pretty the same. It is necessary to mention that not all of producers are able to provide such level of quality. There shouldn’t be any spot welds visible.
3. Cover plugs on metal tubes are performed of metal and not the black plastic, which is a hallmark of imitations. However, the screws must be of black colour.
4. There is a Knoll logo and Marcel Breuer`s autograph imprinted on the metal foundation. The latter may be duplicated on the leather arm-chair’s back as well.
5. Leather of conservative tinctures was used for Wassily arm-chair until recently, namely black, white, brown as well as black-and-white fell. More recently, Knoll professionals decided to diversify the assortment and now produce this model in leather of bright tinctures. At the same time, currently the produces don’t manufacture textile Wassily arm-chairs.
Photo Gallery: Wassily arm-chair, designed by Marcel Breuer
