Too funny Spanky. Someone must be dumping those on the national market!
I found the first one in about the same shape, and clear lacquered beech. I thought that it would look far better ebonized, and was was excited to try the ebonization process you described, so inked, waxed, and re-wove the seat. (You are definitely on point, they are a breath of fresh air after a Yugo folding chair. The seat is so dainty, so it can be a little tight at times during weaving, though)
Then a few days ago, my wife returns home with the exact same chair in black lacquer! Now I have a pair of them, in the most unlikely of ways!
With the black cleaned up, and fresh cord, they really are delightful little chairs.
Today's birthday gift for my wife is the Alan Chan Tea Matter melodic tea strainer for Alessi. She already has the Tea Matter canisters courtesy of Mom and Dad. Everyday is a celebration in this house... This is good.
minimoma congratulations on the new to you Braun "Made in West Germany" bookshelf speakers. Smalls are good.
An amazing coffee table/stand which I'm driving myself buggy trying to ID. I will also drive myself mad trying to achieve a good object placement on this, I plan on using mostly plants but it's slow going. I have some great AP planters but they are all too large to put on this, so I'm pulling out the small to medium planters. Came from a house we bought many beautiful objects from, but I had to keep this one for myself.
Leif and Zephyr, I just dug a little deeper and found that the Gio Ponti-style chair that I got was made for Otto Gerdau in Italy---mine has the label but most of it is torn off and all that's left is "in Italy". But it's the one---I think maybe the only version that has the turned balls on the front leg ends.
eta: one more google search--confirmation that it's the Charivari model! The first example I clicked on had all the info incised on the inside of the front stretcher. Woo!
eta: GAH--make that Spinetto, not Charivari, but I found it by googling Otto Gerdau Charivari chair. Whew.
http://patriciasroom.com/blog/2-news/11-whats-in-a-name
Spanky, first off, nice work. You got further down the path than I did. But I am still not sure I follow what you found. The Spinetto chair is by Chiavari as far as I can tell. Which our chairs match, except the Spinetto seems to have an even lighter design to it, and it lacks the ball feet. Then at the end you posted the link to Gerdau, which thoroughly confused me. Although it does have me thinking that this Gerdau character could have contracted fake Ponti designs and passed them off in the US!
BTW, what is eta?
On a more definite note, I always heard about side of the road finds .... and wondered if they were real. Well, I got my answer today when I found a vintage Kevi chair by Jørgen and Ib Rasmussen. One could spot the clean lines from quite a distance, and upon closer inspection, the condition is excellent (save a few light water spots on the seat). This one appears to most likely be a 1970s vintage, but possibly earlier. Seat and backrest are in a really nice teak veneer plywood.
Even more interesting, is that these twins are the original designers of the double caster plastic wheel (which is on the chair, and about a billion other products at this point). Wish I could keep it, but I have been given the edict by the wife: "No more chairs" .... until I get rid of a few at least.
Edit: added the marking. If anyone is familiar with the iterations of these chairs and vintage by marking, I would be interested in what year(s) this actually is. My aging by general appearance, has not been very accurate lately...
This might be part of the Kevi line made by Fritz Hansen for Herman Miller sold in the early to mid 1980s. There was an earlier version also for Herman Miller called the MKD (?) line from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s and most were upholstered on black plastic. There was an earlier version from the late 1960s for Knoll also upholstered but with an oval/elliptical shape seat and back and a swag base on castors. The current version I believe is made by Fritz Hansen. The earliest I had seen by Fritz Hansen had a more rectangular back and usually stamped Kevi of Copenhagen under the seat and Kevi on the castors and the base does have a different shape.
I will take another Kevi chair for its simplicity and straight forward design and my jaw dropped too when someone abandoned 6 Leggera chairs by Gio Ponti in an alley in Venice Beach, CA.
Wow, thanks Minimoma. Like I said, my dating has been pretty poor lately, so I certainly wouldn't rule out it being from the 80s. I also found the Kevi mark on the bottom of the cast metal base. It is part of the casting, and has "KEVI" as well as the kevi logo of 4 squares.
Also a little label with "67.14" or "87.14," hard to say.
No marks on the bottom of the wood, nor does it look like there ever was one. Suppose maybe I should start and ID thread on this....
eta = edited to add
also, AGH, you're quite right! It's Spinetto by Charivari
http://www.pamono.com/spinetto-chairs-from-otto-gerdau-1950s-set-of-10
One of those photos is a detail of the incised mark.
These are just like the one I have except that mine has four rungs on the back and the Spinetto has three. So I'm thinking that the Gerdau version (mine) is a knockoff of this Spinetto by Charivari. Maybe. I dunno.
Sorry for all the confusion!
Meanwhile, I started on the seat and decided to do the rush style weave instead of the Danish style basketweave, since the seat rungs are of different heights. The seat is deeper than it is wide, so I'm doing that variation with the double figure eights in the first bunch of rounds, which is fun. (same weave as on the chairs in the link above, though I'm doing paper cord.) It's a little faster too.
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