Miniature Chairs 1

This collection includes miniature reproductions of some of the most famous pieces of furniture of the 20th century, 1:12 scale.

1. Red Blue chair, 1917
Designer: Gerrit Rietveld

At a time when the monochrome palette of furniture designers such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Scotland and Josef Hoffmann in Austria was considered to be startlingly innovative, the introduction of the primary coloured Red Blue Chair in 1921 by the Dutch architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888–1964) caused a sensation. Conceived as an abstract composition of surfaces and lines in space, this chair is Rietveld’s three-dimensional vision of the minimalist paintings of Piet Mondrian, a fellow member of the De Stijl movement.

Rietveld intended the chair for mass-production and it is made from standard lengths of wood, which require little skill to construct. Originally finished in natural wood, it was painted in then-radical bright by Rietveld in 1921.

The chair currently resides at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA.

2. Lounge Chair Wood, 1945
Designer: Ray Eames

The chair was designed sing technology for molding plywood that the Eames developed before and during the Second World War. However, production of the initially designed chairs was postponed due to production difficulties. Created in 1945, the chairs were produced in 1946–1957.

3. Pastilli, 1968
Designer: Iiro Aarnio

This chair is also known as the Gyro or Pastil chair. The Pastilli Chair received the American Industrial Design-Award in 1968 and can be found in numerous museum collections. The Pastilli can be used both indoors and outdoors, and it even floats on water!

The Pastilli chair gives a new, extraordinary idea of what a rocking chair is. It is amazing how comfortable one can sit a in such a shiny, oversized “sweetie” slightly turning and rocking side-, back- and forwards.

4. Panton, 1967
Designer: Verner Panton

Danish designer Verner Panton spent many years thinking about how to produce a plastic chair moulded in one piece. Together with Vitra, he came up with the first prototypes in the 1960s and Panton Chair went into series production as of 1967. Unlike the cheaper Panton Chair Standard in solid plastic, Panton Chair Classic is made of rigid expanded plastic and has a lacquered surface.

Panton received numerous awards all around the world and is now part of many famous museum collections. Its emotional shape has become a landmark in the history of the 20th century design.

5. Dining side chair with wood base, 1950
Designers: Charles and Ray Eames

This side chair is a contemporary version of the legendary Fibreglass Chair. It was produced in collaboration with Zenith Plastics for the Museum of Modern Art in New York’s Low-Cost Furniture design competition and was the first industrially manufactured plastic chair.

In 1950 Charles and Ray Eames for the first time in the history of furniture design combined the advantages of fiberglass and strong plastic and created a comfortable chair adapted to the shape of a human body.

In April 2010, Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan saw a version of this chair with soft seat and back. today the chairs are made of a more ecologically supportable material, recyclable polypropylene. While the materials have evolved, the comfort of these chairs has not changed.

6. LC 2, 1928
Designer: Le Corbusier

Few would protest that Le Corbusier, Charles Edouard Jenneret, is one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. He articulated provocative ideas, created revolutionary designs and demonstrated a strong, if utopian, sense of purpose to meet the needs of a democratic society dominated by the technology. He combined a passion for classical Greek architecture and an attraction to the modern machine.

Le Corbusier co-designed a system of furniture with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. The tubular steel furniture, like the LC 2 chair, projected a new rationalist aesthetic that came to epitomize the International Style.

7. Barcelona, 1929
Designer: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Roher, a German-American architect and designer, creator of the first steel and glass skyscrapers, designed the Barcelona chair exclusively designed for the German Pavilion, that country’s entry for the International Exposition of 1929, which was hosted by Barcelona, Spain. Many would agree that today it is the most recognizable piece of classic modern furniture.

8. Tulip, 1957
Designer: Iiro Saarinen

In the 1950s, architect and designer Eero Saarinen set forth a goal, to create new meaning and visual appeal to chairs and tables, through sculpting concepts and techniques. The Tulip Chair, originally designed as part of his famous Pedestal collection in 1956 was truly a functional work of art. It featured a sculptural continuous seat and back which rested on a curved tapered base that became a key character trait of the pedestal series. This inspired commercial-grade reproduction features a fiberglass seat and base, and a removable upholstered fabric seat for added comfort.

The chair is often considered “space age” for its futuristic use of curves and artificial materials. The design was popularized by its use on the original Star Trek television series.

9. Heart Cone Chair, 1959
Designer: Verner Panton

A variant on the Cone Chair, designed one year later and baptized Heart Cone because of its heart-shaped outline. The Heart Cone Chair has large, projecting wings reminiscent of Mickey Mouse’s ears that could also, however, be interpreted as a contemporary take on the classic wing chair.