{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O113578"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O113578/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KB0935/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KB0935/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017KB0935","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0938","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0939","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0941","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0944","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0945","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0946","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB1549","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AU8227","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O113578","accessionNumber":"W.15-1989","objectType":"Chair","titles":[{"title":"Thinking Man's Chair","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"This chair is one of the earliest furniture designs by Jasper Morrison (b.1959). He was inspired to design a chair comprised only of structural elements after he saw an antique example with its seat missing. He originally called this piece the Drinking Man's Chair, and the little metal disks at the end of the arms were intended to hold drinking glasses. He renamed it the Thinking Man's Chair. The more sophisticated name was inspired by the slogan 'The Thinking Man's Smoke' that appeared on the packet of pipe cleaners he bought to make a model of the chair. \r\n\r\nThe use of tubular steel recalls chairs of the 1920s and 1930s, and Morrison was an admirer of Modernist design of that period. With the early tubular steel furniture, functionalism dictated the structure. With this chair, the structure is more to do with free form. Nor did Modernist designers of the 1920s and 1930s paint their metal chairs in colours like this. Morrison's early prototypes included the dimensions of different steel elements painted onto the chair as a kind of decoration. The Italian firm of Cappellini made the production versions of the chair, like this one, but omitted the writing.","physicalDescription":"Tubular steel and strip steel chair, powder coated in a pale green colour. The tubular front legs rise to form the side rails of the seat and the sides of the back, which are joined by a curved tubular steel back rail.  The rear legs and arms are continuous serpentine curves of tubular steel, finished with circular metal disks. Steel strips run from the front rail of the seat back to the rear stretcher, and two wider horizontal strips create the back.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Morrison, Jasper","id":"A1076"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Cappellini","id":"C1457"},"association":{"text":"manufacturers","id":"AAT25230"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"sheet steel","id":"x34619"},{"text":"tubular steel","id":"x30255"}],"techniques":[{"text":"welded","id":"AAT53958"},{"text":"painted","id":"AAT161986"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Welded and powder coated tubular steel and strip steel","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2017KB0935","2017KB0938","2017KB0939","2017KB0941","2017KB0944","2017KB0945","2017KB0946","2017KB1549","2006AU8227"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"SR014","id":"THES341155"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Armchair","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1986","earliest":"1986-01-01","latest":"1986-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"1989","earliest":"1989-01-01","latest":"1989-12-31"},"association":{"text":"manufactured","id":"x29350"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Aram Designs Ltd","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"700","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"630","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"930","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"340","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"seat height","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Taken from departmental register, based on Aram Designs catalogue","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Tubular steel and strip steel chair, painted pale green","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Jasper Morrison, 'Everything but the walls', Lars Muller publishers, 2002, p.7"}],"production":"Jasper Morrison made the first editions of this chair at a metal workshop in Kentish Town, London. The London-based furniture retailer Aram Designs exhibited Morrison's versions and a few years later the Italian furniture brand Cappellini took on the production. Aram retailed Cappellini's versions, such as this one.\r\n\r\nNB published sources give the date of design and production as 1986, whereas the museum register has the date of design as 1987 and production from 1989.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"For the Furniture Gallery 17/07/17:\r\n\r\nThinking Man's Chair\r\n1986\r\nJasper Morrison (born 1959)\r\n\r\nEngland\r\nManufactured 1989 in Italy by Cappellini\r\nWelded tubular steel and strip steel, powder coated\r\n\r\nGiven by Aram Designs Ltd\r\nMuseum no. W.15-1989\r\n\r\nThis chair comprises both tubular and strip steel. As it is made almost entirely by hand, assembling the pieces requires great precision. The perfectly smooth surfaces were achieved by high quality welding and powder coated paintwork. The designer wanted to create a chair that was ‘all structure and no closed surfaces’, having been inspired by an older chair without its seat cushion.\r\n","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}},{"text":"103-6\r\n\r\n'THINKING MAN'S CHAIR'\r\nDesigned by Jasper Morrison (British, born 1959), 1987\r\nMade by Cappellini S.p.A, Italy, 1989\r\nTubular and strip steel, powder coated green\r\n\r\nMorrison's designs often combine simple geometry with freehand curves. He pays as much attention to the spaces within and around the object as to the form itself. For those reason the critic Peter Dormer compared Morrison's designs to typography. These characteristics are also evident in this chair. \r\n\r\nGiven by Aram Designs\r\nW.15-1989","date":{"text":"2006","earliest":"2006-01-01","latest":"2006-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["W.15-1989"],"accessionNumberNum":"15","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1989,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-13","recordCreationDate":"2005-06-29","availableToBook":false}}