Gerrit Th. Rietveld (1888-1964)
Crate Desk from the series ‘Krat-Meubels’, 1935
Solid pine planks mounted with wood joints and iron screws.
Dimensions: 60 x 70 x 100 cm./ 23,6 x 27,5 x 39,4 Inch.
Executed by: The Dutch avant-garde warehouse ‘Metz&Co.’ under Rietveld’s control, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ca. 1938.
In 1934 Rietveld designed a Crate-Chair, together with a cupboard and a low table; the small desk was added to the series a year later. Rietveld described his ‘Crate Furniture’ as being made according to the “free carpentry method, which goes straight for its purpose”. The avant-garde department store Metz & Co began selling ‘Crate Furniture’ in 1935. It was presented in a separate folder as ‘Weekend Furniture’ for second homes or student dorms.
Original folders, crate-furniture, warehouse Metz & Co, second half of the 1930s
This desk was owned by graphic designer Otto Heinrich Treumann (1919-2001) and illustrator Jettie Olivier (1918-2003). Both studied in the second half of the 1930s at the renowned NK (Dutch art-school named ‘New Art-School’) founded by the Dutch artist Paul Citroen. A fellow student, friend, and interior designer, Benno Premsela, captured Jettie in a drawing sitting at the ‘Crate-Desk’, in the living room of their apartment on the Vossiusstraat in Amsterdam.
This drawing and a photo from the late 1930s show that Jette Olivier had a bigger top put onto the small desk, probably to extend her working spot. There are no traces of extra nails, glue or screws with which the extra large top could have been attached, so it was probably just resting on top of the original desk top.
Benno Premsela, late 1930s, fragment of a larger drawing, depicting Jettie Olivier at the ‘Crate-Desk’, in the living room of the apartment where she and Otto Treumann lived, on the Vossiusstraat in Amsterdam. Family archive B. treumann.
Jettie Olivier at the ‘Crate-Desk’, in the living room of the apartment on the Vossiusstraat in Amsterdam, family archive B. Treumann.
Provenance
Otto Heinrich Treumann and Jettie Olivier, Amsterdam-Weesp ca 1938 – 2001; Babette Treumann, Amsterdam 2001-2025.
Literature
Marijke Küper, Ida van Zijl, Gerrit Th. Rietveld, The Complete Works, Centraal Museum Utrecht 1992, p. 155-156, cat.no. 208.
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