{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1458096"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1458096/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PC6660/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PC6660/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PC6660","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6670","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6669","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6668","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6667","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6666","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6665","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6664","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6663","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6662","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6661","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6659","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6658","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6657","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC6656","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3491","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3494","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3495","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3496","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3498","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3499","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3500","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3501","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3502","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3504","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3505","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3506","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3507","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MR3508","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1458096","accessionNumber":"W.14-2019","objectType":"Armchair","titles":[{"title":"","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"This armchair was part of the furniture designed by the architect Berthold Lubetkin and his wife Margaret Lubetkin for their penthouse flat at Highpoint II. A sofa and two additional armchairs of the same design were also part of the living room interior.\r\n\r\nHighpoint I and Highpoint II in North London (1935-36, 1936-38) are among the most famous modernist buildings in the UK. Designed by the London firm of Tecton, the leading light of which was the Russian/Georgian-born architect Berthold Lubetkin, the Highpoint blocks of flats were part of a sequence of ground-breaking modernist buildings by Tecton which included the Penguin Pool and Round (Gorilla) House at London Zoo (1934), the Finsbury Health Centre (1935-38) and the Spa Green Estate (1935-39, 1946-49). ","physicalDescription":"Armchair with a rustic pine frame, large seat cushion and backrest pivoting on a chromed metal bar","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Berthold Lubetkin","id":"AUTH347009"},"association":{"text":"Designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Lubetkin, Margaret","id":"AUTH361678"},"association":{"text":"Designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pine","id":"AAT12667"},{"text":"hide","id":"AAT11844"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"The seat cushion is stuffed with vegetable fibre (probably coir) and has three layers of stuffing cover in hessian, canvas (probably cotton) and linen. Sparce edge stitching anchors the vegetable fibre stuffing to the bottom hessian cover. There is horse or hoghair wadding between the bottom hessian and middle cotton layers, and cotton(?) wadding between the two outer layers. The outer layers may be a later addition with the cotton wadding added to correct for compaction through use. The inner layers are all hand stitched whereas the linen layer is machine stitched and hand finished at the corners.\n\nThe top layer is closed on the cushion underside with a leather patch that sits in contact with the webbing and reduces slippage and wear when the cushion is in place. Although this shows evidence of use, the wear is not excessive, also suggesting that the outer layer may be later addition.\r\n\nThe backrest padding is probably constructed in a similar manner with similar materials but does not appear to have the final linen layer.\n\nThe bolster cushion (W.28-2024 acquired separately) also has a similar construction with an outer cotton or linen canvas cover over cotton wadding, hesian and hog or cut horsehair. The core has a 'crunchy' feel consistent with coir fibre. The similarity of the textiles and the lock stitching used to close cushion layers indicates that the cushion is original to the suite although the cover appears to be a later addition.\n","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2025PC6660","2025PC6670","2025PC6669","2025PC6668","2025PC6667","2025PC6666","2025PC6665","2025PC6664","2025PC6663","2025PC6662","2025PC6661","2025PC6659","2025PC6658","2025PC6657","2025PC6656","2020MR3491","2020MR3494","2020MR3495","2020MR3496","2020MR3498","2020MR3499","2020MR3500","2020MR3501","2020MR3502","2020MR3504","2020MR3505","2020MR3506","2020MR3507","2020MR3508"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"76","id":"THES49548"},"free":"","case":"PL28","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"76","id":"THES49548"},"free":"","case":"PL28","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Chair base and backrest","id":""}],[{"text":"Seat cushion","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1937-1938","earliest":"1937-01-01","latest":"1938-12-31"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"68","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"117","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"86","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"910","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/05/2024","earliest":"2024-05-20","latest":"2024-05-20"},"part":"seat cushion linen cover: front width","note":"linen cushion cover dimension not cushion dimension as cushion has been distorted by use"},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"730","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/05/2024","earliest":"2024-05-20","latest":"2024-05-20"},"part":"seat cushion linen cover","note":"linen cushion cover dimension not cushion dimension as cushion has been distorted by use"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"820","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/05/2024","earliest":"2024-05-20","latest":"2024-05-20"},"part":"seat linen cushion cover: back width","note":"linen cushion cover dimension not cushion dimension as cushion has been distorted by use"},{"dimension":"Thickness","value":"180","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/05/2024","earliest":"2024-05-20","latest":"2024-05-20"},"part":"seat cushion linen cover: front thickness","note":"linen cushion cover dimension not cushion dimension as cushion has been distorted by use"},{"dimension":"Thickness","value":"120","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/05/2024","earliest":"2024-05-20","latest":"2024-05-20"},"part":"seat cushion linen cover: back thickness","note":"linen cushion cover dimension not cushion dimension as cushion has been distorted by use"},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This chair was part of the furniture designed by Berthold Lubetkin and his wife Margaret for their own penthouse flat at Highpoint II, a building designed by Berthold Lubetkin and his architecture firm Tecton.\r\n\r\nThe chair is one of five known lounge chairs of this type, three were designed for the penthouse flat and the other two for the lobby to the apartment block.  Its design represents a crucial moment in the history of Modernism when many architects, designers and artists embraced what could be called a ‘turn to nature’, and a gradual abandoning of 1920s, hard-edged, machine age aesthetics. The penthouse’s use of rustic furniture, rough-hewn pine wall panelling, and a barrel-vaulted ceiling within a more expected white concrete architectural box exemplified the alternative possibilities in modernist circles after 1929.\r\n\r\nThe design is intended to invite a range of highly informal seating postures, a point made explicit in a drawing by Lubetkin’s colleague Gordon Cullen in an Architectural Review supplement from July 1939. The chair suggests a defiance of convention in both its form and use, as well as a desire to surprise and perhaps shock those viewing it within the modernist building.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Lounge chair by Berthold and Margaret Lubetkin","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["W.14:1-2019","W.14:2-2019"],"accessionNumberNum":"14","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":2019,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-03","recordCreationDate":"2018-08-10","availableToBook":false}}