bavarikon4UDescription
The architect and designer Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) himself described his B3 club chair made of tubular steel in 1927 as "most extreme in its external appearance as well as in its material expression". Contrary to his assumption that the design would bring him much criticism because of its revolutionary design, his steel club chair became an icon of Bauhaus design over the years.
Allegedly, Breuer got the idea for the armchair while looking at his bicycle handlebars. However, as a carpenter, he initially lacked the necessary technical knowledge to build furniture out of tubular steel. With the help of a locksmith from the Junkers aircraft works in Dessau, he probably produced the first prototype in 1925.
However, the armchair did not go into volume production at the Bauhaus, but at Standard-Möbel, a company Breuer founded in Berlin especially for this purpose, which was later taken over by the Thonet company. The tubular steel chair was produced in various versions, but the number of copies remained small for a long time. It was not until a re-edition by the Italian company Gavina in 1962, in the context of which the name "Wassily" was also created, that it achieved its status as a design classic.
"Die Neue Sammlung" was able to acquire two very early models of the club chair in 1996. In addition to this version in black, with backrest without final tubular steel bracket, there is also a "Wassily" with light brown upholstery and tubular steel bracket to reinforce the backrest (inv. no. 131/96) in the collection.