‘CESCA’ OR ‘S32’ CHAIR BY MARCEL BREUER

This 1920s design classic is back in vogue – and its timeless simplicity belies a complex history

At the grand old age of 93, Marcel Breuer’s ‘Cesca’ or ‘S32’ chair is enjoying a new surge in popularity. Recently, we’ve spotted this Bauhaus icon in a number of stylish houses, prompting us to delve deeper into its history. This, it turns out, is more complicated than its easy good looks suggest.

Let’s begin by defining why the 1928 design has such lasting appeal. One of its manufacturers, Knoll – yes, there are two; more of which later – describes it as ‘effortlessly contemporary’, both in its contrast of industrial metal with natural wood and wicker, and in its strong, yet light cantilevered form. It’s a chair you can put in any room and marvel as it gels with its surroundings. No wonder it’s still so popular and one of the most copied ideas in 20th-century design.

Hungarian-born Breuer was a leading light of the Bauhaus movement, which saw humble tubular steel elevated to a material of high style. His Eureka moment apparently came when, as a young man, he realised that the metal handlebars of his bicycle – which he deemed perfect because they were functional and never required alteration – could inspire a futuristic new breed of furniture. Polished metal with its ‘shiny and impeccable lines’ seemed to him ‘symbolic of our modern technology’.

Breuer’s tubular steel designs made him an international star and prompted breathless tributes, among them that of J Stewart Johnson, Curator of the Museum of Modern Art’s department of architecture and design in the 1980s. ‘Breuer simply changed the course of 20th-century furniture,’ he enthused. ‘He started it all and made everything happen.’ One might also say that Breuer was working at a time of unbridled creativity, when others in the Modernist melting pot were also presenting radical new ideas. It’s one of the enduring mysteries of design history that at the same time Breuer was reimagining his bicycle handlebars, Mies van der Rohe and Mart Stam were also getting in on the act with furniture inspired by gas and automobile pipes. Great minds think alike – but it led to a bitter copyright battle. Read on to find out more…