Gerrit Rietveld Utrecht chairs Metz & Co 1961

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld
Utrecht 1888 – 1964
Architect, furniture designer

One of the few actual comfortable chairs designed by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld for Metz en Co, 1936. This chair is special because it's the first upholstered chair designed by Rietveld. This was produced and purchased at Metz & Co, the wooden frame was built by Gerard van den Groenekan and the upholstery was done by Dhr. Staphorst, upholsterer for Metz & Co. These chairs were purchased in a set of 4 with Metz & Co by landscape architect Dhr Vallen. These examples were bought in Amsterdam in 1961 before they moved to Maastricht. They had a dark green fabric that was nearly completely gone underneath the previous upholstery, the color was probably picked by the first owner because he was a landscape architect and therefore he liked the nature green color. They were reupholstered in new fabric by Kvadrat (Divina), the fabric is 98% close to what was originally on it so we tried to preserve the authenticity of the chairs. The complete inside of the chairs was kept original, the chair was filled with horse hair and therefore was still intact after all these years. The old spring seat and jute webbing which is characteristic for the chairs by Metz & Co was kept original. So the chairs are restored with full preservation of authenticity.

Provenance: This set was ordered in a set of 4 by landscape architect Dhr Vallen by Metz & Co in 1961. The chair were ordered in dark green fabric that’s why we choose this fabric again.

Important literature: Gerrit Th. Rietveld 1888-1964, Marijke Küper Ida van Zijl, Centraal Museum 1992
The complete Rietveld furniture, Peter Vöge, 010 publischers Rotterdam 1993
Gerrit Rietveld, Ida va Zijl, Phaidon 2010