Hopmi Folding chair
Hopmi /U.M.S. Utrecht, The Netherlands 1932.
Bent and welded steel with special patented joints called “Torpedo” nuts, plywood and beach. The frame, seat, arm- and backrests with the original monochrome paint. Marked “Hopmi” with a small transfer underneath the seat. Dim.: 56 x 46/55 x 90,5 cm
From 1932 – 1934 a small locks- and Bicycle parts factory called Hopmi worked together with the furniture manufacturer U.M.S. in the city of Utrecht, making modern tubular furniture. One of the main characteristics of this furniture was a special joint called the “Torpedo”- nut ,with which the furniture could be taken apart in small particles.
The Dutch architect and designer Gerrit Th. Rietveld made two designs for Hopmi, a folding chair for the cinema Vreeburg in Utrecht and a dining chair. In 1932 the Rietveld folding chair was also used in a new Remonstrant church at the Diepenbrockstraat in Amsterdam. For this occasion the chair was adapted with a more curved (ergonomic) seat, arm- and backrest. We don’t know if and in what way Rietveld was involved in these adaptions. The chairs in our collection is the adapted version from the Amsterdam church in its original condition.
Provenance:
Remonstrant Church, Diepenbrockstraat Amsterdam, 1932
Private Dutch Collector 2001
Literature:
Hopmi furniture catalogue,Hopmi Utrecht 1934, p11.
Ida van Zijl – R.Dettingmeijer – M.T.van Thoor, Rietvelds Universum, Nai publicers 2010 Rotterdam, p.139-153.
We sold one of the three identical folding chairs from our collection earlier-on to the heirs of the architect H.F. Mertens, who was one of the designers working for Hopmi in the nineteen thirties.
Price on request
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