Gerrit Th. Rietveld (1888-1964)
Original Zigzag Chairs from the ‘Van Dantzig’ Rietveld House
Design: 1934-1935
Executed: Gerard van de Groenekan, De Bilt, The Netherlands 1970-1971
Planed Elm wood panels 19 mm, constructed with 7 dovetail joints, brass nuts and bolts. Dimensions: 75 x 37.5 x 44.5 cm.
Marked under the base with brandmark:
“H.G.M. G.A. v.d. GROENEKAN, DE BILT NEDERLAND”
Provenance: The heirs of the first owner.
These chairs were specially made, as a set of 3, for the interior of the Rietveld ‘Van Dantzig House’ in Santpoort, The Netherlands.
Dora Mees, the first owner who commissioned these chairs, grew up in a Rietveld house (‘House Mees’, The Hague 1936) and moved to her own Rietveld house ‘ Van Dantzig’ in 1970. She asked Rietveld’s regular cabinetmaker Gerard van de Groenekan, to make her three identical Zigzag chairs to serve as diningchairs in her new home.
Dora Mees worked for Gerrit Rietveld for a while in the late 1930’s. She had the chairs made according to a building method that was common in the 1930’s, with seven dovetailjoints in the back.
At February the 5th 1971 Dora Mees, together with her daughter Martine, personally collected the chairs in De Bilt at Van de Groenekan’s studio.
These three special ZigZag-chairs are photographed by the Japanese Photographer Toshiharu Kitajima in 1972. He did this in commission of ‘Retoria’ a association of photographers around the famous Japanese Photographer Yukio Futagawa (1932-2013) who published a book about houses in Northern Europe in which a chapter is dedicated to the “Van Dantzig House’ and it’s interior.
Later on the three Zigzag chairs from the ‘Van Dantzig House’ are also depicted in various other international publications:
Literature:
Yukio Futagawa, ‘GI Global Interior, Houses in Nothern Europe 2’, 1972-1974, pg. 74-79; Marijke Küper/Wim Quist, ‘Gerrit Th. Rietveld: Casas/Houses’, 2006, pg. 238-239; Kaya Oku, ‘Rietveld: The Architecture of Gerrit Th. Rietveld, 2009, pg. 197.
We sold one of these chairs at the artfair BRAFA in Brussels, the two chairs yet available can be purchased as set or per piece.
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