I was curious to know what all of you thought about the work of Cees Braakman? I recently came across a credenza of his in a shop and was shocked by its design, which seemed to be well ahead of its time of 1955. Do any of you own any of his pieces? How rare/common are his pieces in the United States? Thank you!
His designs for Pastoe (he...
His designs for Pastoe (he was the son of the firm owners I believe) were mainly distributed in Holland and to a lesser degree, Belgium.
His early designs were very much inspired by the work of Charles and Ray Eames. I believe he visited several exhibitions of their work in the states.
Later on the modular nature and idea became very aparent in his furniture, with names like: 'made to measure-series' etc.
Pastoe developed their later designs on this same theme, with obvious and pure 'boxy' designs.
We own three pieces in teak, all from the japanese series: two highboards and one secretaire.
Braakman's Japanese series
is wonderful, especially the sideboards. It would seem that the Japanese think so too; quite a lot of pieces seem to have been exported to Japan in recent years. In Holland and Beligum the Japanese series is getting harder to find.
Here is some more on Braakman http://www.deconet.com/decopedia/designer/150/Cees_Braakman#
I'm really starting to like...
I'm really starting to like his work!
The credenza I saw was part of the Japanese line for Pastoe.
I noticed that the handles were made of plastic. Did he use plastic on most of his pieces?
About a year ago I also saw a chair designed by Braakman which was obviously inspired by the Eames LCW/DCW.
The quaity of the chair was considerably better than any LCW/DCW of the same vintage. He perfected the joints and shocks and to me, it seemed much more refined and robust than the eames counterparts.
I picked up the large...
I picked up the large sideboard a couple of weeks ago with some sun damage to the top veneer, described in a thread. I just saw Wright's putting one up for auction on the 29th. Being from Belgium I actually saw one for the first time at a dealer in LA a couple of years ago. I guess they weren't so common in Belgium and sold most in Holland. These days Pastoe is trying to climb back up from making characterless stuff in the past decades. I particularly like the Vincent Van Duysen "Totem". the Braakman wire chairs have been put back in production as well at about half the cost of Knoll's Bertoia wire chairs.
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