This morning I've come across a set of four (4!) MR Chair (armless, cognac leather, thick cowhide sling seat with leather laces), identical to the Knoll one shown in the picture.
The chairs were in quite good vintage condition, and I was sure that the chairs were made by Knoll, but... all four carried an unknown Bononia sticker/label. Since the name meant nothing to me, I passed along and I didn't even ask about their price. But once at home, I've found in internet this (one and only!) unespected info:
http://antiquari.tumblr.com/post/51795871603/designer-spotlight-marcel-breuer-1902-1981
Although the author of the story speaks about the Breuer's Wassily B3 chair and not the Mies MR (or MR40) chair, nevertheless, IF the information is true, I think it is invaluable, and sheds new light on the debated topic Gavina, Knoll, Kiga, etc..
Is there someone who knows more about this misterious Italian firm, Bononia?
And, since next week I can go back to the store that is selling the chairs, if they were genuine licensed 1960s pre-Knoll chairs, in your view what would be a fair price to pay for the four chairs?
http://www.knoll.com/product/mr-chair%3Fsection=Design
Gavina & Bonomia
Dino Gavina sold his company,Gavina SpA to Knoll in 1968. Gavina had signed a license agreement with Marcel Breuer in 1962 and produced the Wassily Chair and four other models of Breuer. However,Dino Gavina never produced any of the Mies models. Dino Gavina is justly considered the "father" of Modern furniture design in Italy. He was a great editor of modern design and the collection of furniture that he produced as Gavina SpA and the collection of lamps that he had promoted and produced as the founding partner and leading spirit behind Flos Spa.created the reputation of Italy as leader in advanced Modern Design. So important was the reputation of Gavina SpA.that Knoll Associates after acquiring that company changed its name to Kiga SpA. Dino Gavina had agreed to sell his company with the idea that he would be allowed to continue to develop the collection and would continue as the design director. However, he soon discovered that Knoll was only interested in the company without any contribution or interference from him. Gavina, who was a volcano of creative ideas, felt that Knoll had betrayed him and bitterly regretted selling his company to them. In particular, Gavina detested Giulio Sangiorgio, the Knoll executive who directed the operation in Italy. The owners of Bonomia were friends and collaborators of Gavina. Although he could never publicly admit it, Gavina was the inspiration behind the Bonomia operation which began in the 1970's and became obsolete during the mid 1980's. However, Gavina could not be officially connected with Bonomia for legal reasons. The probable motive behind Bonomia was to continue to supply Stendig and other former clients of Gavina SpA with the Wassily chair.
The MR series was considered less important from a commercial point of view and Knoll only began to produce them in the 1970's when they expanded the Mies collection.
The bonomia models were produced by Metalcensi Inc. in Umbria which continued to supply Stendig with the Wassily chairs after the Bonomia operation was phased out. Later, Dino Gavina together with Maria Simoncini founded Simon International which was from the point of view of design the continuation of the original Gavina SpA. In the opinion of many, the Simon collection was one of the most beautiful collections of modern furniture ever produced.
He also founded a company called Sirah as a successor to Flos. Gavina died in 2007 (85 year old).
Nilo, first of all I congratu...
Nilo, first of all I congratulate you for the knowledge of the subject, I can only guess that you are someone who has worked in the Italian furniture industry. I'm Italian, maybe you are too?
From what you write, is it therefore possible to say that these MR chairs are official licensed & authorized products, or that the chairs of van der Rohe are a pirate underhand production? In other words, I wonder if these chairs (among other very beautiful and well done) represent a kind of absolute rarity just because of the vicissitudes of which you write, or if these productions made by the company Bononia (by the way, the correct name is Bononia or Bonomia?) are considered a by-product of little importance.
Bononia
I was writing the name incorrectly, because not having seen the name for more than 30 years the m sounded better than the n. Having been on friendly terms with Dino Gavina I was aware that Bononia was a behind-the-scenes operation aimed at getting even with Knoll. It was an extraodinarily small and limited operation. Nevertheless,Dino Gavina was one of the finest and most competent manufacturers of modern furniture that Italy ever produced. He never produced anything that wasn't of the highest quality and he was more concerned with the cultural and aesthetic validity of the models than with their eventual commercial success. Consequently, the mere association (even secretly)of Bononia with the person of Dino Gavina is more of a guarantee than any license agreement.
All of this business of equating the "authenticity" of a classic model with the presence of the label of a company that advertises an exclusive license to produce the model is the result of an aggressive campaign of commercial propaganda and misinformation geared to create a monopoly by discrediting and disqualifying all competion simply by defining it as "piracy". In the USA, England and up until the recent Bunga Bunga period in Italy, furniture design was not a category protected by copyright and consequently all of the famous models of Mies, Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer etc. were all public property and any company could produce them without being accused of piracy. I might add that if a company produces a model of furniture in the right quality and sells it at the right price, no company will copy it. In reality,the companies that claim to possess an exclusive copyright almost always use this "exclusivity" as an excuse to charge sometimes as much as double the correct price of the article. Add to this the fact that in a country such as Italy (where the average quality level is high)there is little or no significant difference in quality between the "authorized " and "unauthorized" producers and to the fact that the alleged "authors" usually receive no royalty at all or a ridiculously small amount, makes the situation grotesque. In other words, these companies, on the one hand don't pay the author's heirs because the models are public property which the company bought years ago at a low price because it would soon be public domain and ,on the other hand,they now demand from the public an exorbitant price by pretending that the models are still protected by copyright. Nor is it true that the "official" models are historicaly correct. Cassina SpA has not only modified the upholstered models of Le Corbuseier to the point that they no longer conform to the proportions and to the detailing of the originals but they have also put into circulation a falsified history of the furniture to justify the addition of new models to the Le Corbusier collection which he had not designed.
Fair price
Your competence and in deep knowledge of the 'behind the scenes' history of Italian furniture design amazes me. Tomorrow morning I will go to the antique shop to take a look once again at 4 chairs and ask about the price. Considering that cognac leather has some darker stain here and there, and there are quite many rust spots around the legs, what would be a fair price in your opinion?
price estimate?
I must admit that I am not at all into the thrift shop,fleamarket,garage sale scene. I would never describe a piece of used furniture as "vintage" since this term is now often used not only to justify the poor condition of a used modern chair or a table but also to transform obvious defects into an "added value." Consequently, I have no idea as to the "market value" of used furniture because it is a market that has never attracted my attention.
I assume that you would like these chairs for your own personal use rather than with the idea of reselling them at a higher price. If they are in good condition,you can clean the chrome with "e-nox shine"(Walter)
I would add that being a heretic, I would not judge a piece of furniture by the label. I can also assure you that professionals in the furniture business and serious architectural firms that specify furniture for their clients normally base their choice upon the quality of the furniture and its price rather than the name of the manufacturer. When dealing with the furniture of Mies, Breuer ,Le Corbusier, an architect will judge the authenticity in terms of the correspondence of the reproducton to the original proportions and detailing and tend to be completely indifferect to license agreements.
In your case, these models of Mies are still produced by many companies. I would check the prices of the new models before buying used chairs. With models of furniture which are still in production I would expect that the used chairs should cost less. Finally, if you are interested in models of US designers not in production I would ask a reliable dealer such as Chris Fillichio in Florida or 50/50 in New York to find examples that are in perfect. condition. In Europe, it is more difficult because the French and Northern European dealers and the auction sales of classic European furniture unknowingly offer a high percentage of fakes.
MR20
I followed your conversation and I'm happy having received some answers. First of all, thank you for the informations.
One year ago, I bought an MR20 across the border in Switzerland. It's a wunderful chair of real high quality. On the back there is only a small label: "Made in Italy". The man (someone who deals with old Eames/Bertoia/Panton-goods) I bought this chair from told me, that it had been in a swiss bank for more than 30 years and it was an reissue by Gavina. I trusted him and I'm really happy, not to have an edition by Knoll, because I don't like their interpretation of van der Rohes design. In fact, the quality was more important for me than having a chair with the label of the big companies as Knoll or Thonet. Now I can imagine, that my MR20 could be (indirectly) one of Gavina-Models.
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