TheByte

Centurion

^^
Oh snap. That's a whole lot of money for non one-off piece. I guess she's really big.

Today I paid a visit to a local design museum which I have never visited. Guess what I found there? A Protus chair!! It's gorgeous in real life, and the same goes for the cabinet also designed by a famous designer.

Rob

^^Hey that is so cool you got to see them IRL Hassan -- they are so much better when you see them.

The chair is called Proust -- named after the French philosopher Marcel Proust

I love that Ettore Sottsass cupboard -- it is called "Casablanca" and the light on the floor is called "Tahiti" -- they are fantastic objects.

Centurion

^^
Yeah. It is a bit special having the object before you in real life. Especially if you have been bombarded with pictures of them on the net

BTW, are these objects protected by international copy right laws of wouldn't I get into trouble if I decided to start selling cheap knock offs.

Rob

Well they are getting pretty old now -- the Proust chair is from 1978 and the Sottsass cabinet is from 1981 -- I think they are still protected by copyright

Even if they were knocked off, I don't think they would sell very well ....the originals didn't

Actually Luw, the Proust chair is being reproduced (with permission) by the famous Italian furniture maker Cappellini -- but the colours are not as bright and garish as the original Studio Alchymia version. I guess you could say it is toned down, more "commercially viable". Naturally, the original ones will always be more collectible and desirable.

Here is the Cappellini reproduction version -- it does not have the same impact for me -- it has almost become tasteful


....and the original version from 1978. ....like the one you saw.

Rob

The Costes chair (below) was designed in 1983/84 by Philippe Stark for the Café Costes in Paris. There are tons of knock offs on the international market.

The original Costes chair is still in production though, it is made in Italy by Driade. The Café Costes closed in 1994.



The furniture by Le Corbusier is knocked off all over the place. It was originally made in France by Thonet Frères in the 1920s -- originals cost well over $100,000 today -- but the Italian manufacturer Cassina got the international rights to reproduce it in the late 1960s, they still make it today but it is quite expensive -- whereas, there are dozens of other manufacturers making it for much cheaper.



The same thing is also happening with some of the furniture designed by the Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann in the early years of the 20th century. The Austrian furniture maker Wittmann Möbelwerkstätten has the international rights to reproduce it, but there are lots of copies being made.


Cassina also hold the rights to reproduce furniture by Charles Rennie Mackintosh -- but there are several other companies reproducing Mackintosh chairs now -- there have been lawsuits in the past, but I think Cassina have now given up fighting.

The chair below is an authorized reproduction (Cassina) of the high backed chair from 1897 by Charles Rennie Mackintosh -- it costs around 1,500 euros. An original one will cost over $750,000 US ...if you can find one available for sale.


Some of these cheaper copies are very good quality, the Italian company Alivar makes many copies of famous 20th century furniture pieces.

Alivar: Museum collection

Centurion

Huh, so Cappellini is reproducing a version which barely is identical to the original. What a waste. Never in a millions years would I pay a hefty sum for a wannabe replica of Mendini's spectacle.

I'm familiar with Cassina, the red&blue chair I saw was bought from them. The chair is a typical piece of art which could be reproduced easily since it's more or less made out of straight pieces of wood. It looks amazing in real life and can't be appreciated in front of the computer screen. I sure there are many non-wealthy art lovers like me, who would love to be able to admire this piece of work in our own homes.

Thonet Frères' chair is something I've seen in pictures earlier. I love it, it looks very relaxing, like a therapy chair. I can imagine myself laying in enjoying Whitney Houston' s "greatest love of all" track playing from a high fidelity stereo(NAD amplifier with B&W speakers), while rain is drizzling at my windows. *getting carried away in my dreams*

Goin' nuts:






Michal Pazitny
Carbon fiber chair.

Rob

I agree.

Yeah, Rietveld's red and blue chair is fantastic -- it is a De Stijl sculpture more than a piece of furniture. I like his Zig Zag (Zick Zack) chair too.

He he.

Gebrüder Thonet (Thonet Brothers) is a very old company. They were famous for the bentwood furniture and had factories all over Europe and in America too. Their French subsidiary Thonet Frères (Thonet Brothers) specialized in tubular steel furniture. The massive company was broken up just before World War two. The American factory became independent and the Eastern European (Poland) factories were confiscated by the Communists and continue to produce bentwood furniture today.

The only remaining Thonet factories after WW2 in Western Europe were the Gebrüder Thonet Vienna and Gebrüder Thonet in Frankenberg, Germany. Today, Thonet Vienna is owned by the Italian company Poltrona Frau. The German Thonet is the only Thonet company which is still run by members of the Thonet family. The American Thonet company also still exists, but is totally unrelated to the European companies.

Great .....do you have more info about this chair Hassan?

The Emperor

I want this!!!



We’ve seen automotive parts transformed into various everyday objects in the past, but turning used car and bike parts, tools and other recycled metal components into Alien themed furniture is a new one for us. Though skilfully handcrafted, we must say that we find Alien furniture a bit eerie –to say the least. Then again, if little Johnny doesn’t eat his food you could always threaten him with the Alien chair…

Centurion

^^
What in the world??? Very cool and creative although all the bits and pieces could have been shaped into something more............um..... humane.

I wanted to know more about it too but reached a dead end when I entered the designer's website which is under construction:

James Design

The Emperor

Luw, i have 2 Alien tattoos on my body... I guess that explains my obsession with biomechanics, H. Geiger and one and only Alien.