Gerrit Th. Rietveld, 'Albatros' Chair and Table

Gerrit Th. Rietveld (1888-1964)

Albatroschair, 1951
A. van Laar, 1951.

Solid pine, screwed together with steel screws, some covered with putty
Hight : 79 cm.
Width: 59 cm.
Dept. : 58 cm.

In 1951 Rietveld designed a small holiday cottage, commissioned by the “Albatros” company from Amsterdam and ‘De Vries Robbe’ a steel construction company from Gorinchem. Six were built in Markelo and three in Eerbeek, small villages in the Netherlands. Rietveld managed to house a family with a maximum of six children in a cottage measuring 5,5 x 6,5 m. He designed the furniture for outdoor and indoor use. It was a refined version of the crate models from the 1930s. The main difference with the “normal” crate chairs is the curved seat and back, that according to a notation on the drawing were to  be sawn from 8 cm thick planks.

The table was especially designed for the holiday cottages to be used as an occasional table outdoors, indoors it could be combined with a folding-table mounted to the wall, creating a dining table of 2 m. length.

27 copies were made of the Albatross chairs and 9 copies of the table and because most have been lost after the demolition of the houses in 1972, these furniture rarely appear on the market. The furniture was made in commission of Rietveld by A.van Laar the contractor that builded the houses.

Provenance:
Holiday camp Coldenhove, Eerbeek, The Netherlands (1951-1972)
Fam. Van Breda, former employee holiday camp Coldenhove (1972-2010)

Literature:
Peter Voge, The complete Rietveld furniture, Amsterdam 1993, p.147, fig.311-312
Rietveld Vormgever van het allerdaagse, door Margje van Vugt
Met Rietveld op vakantie, door stichting Arch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The table and one of our two chairs were sold at the art fair PAN Amsterdam 2018.
The other chair is sold to a private collector in 2019.

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