{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O372083"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O372083/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018KX6172/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018KX6172/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018KX6172","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KX6173","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O372083","accessionNumber":"CIRC.74-1970","objectType":"Armchair","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Chromium nickel-plated steel tube frame, forming cantileaver support and arms. Natural cane seat and back with black bent-wood frame. Black wooden arm rests. For this chair Breuer used a heavier (25mm) tubing than had previously been available.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Breuer, Marcel Lajos","id":"A3027"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"steel","id":"AAT133751"},{"text":"cane","id":"AAT11864"},{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"}],"techniques":[{"text":"plating","id":"AAT53991"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Chromium nickel-plated steel tube frame; natural cane seat and back; bent-wood frame.","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2018KX6172","2018KX6173"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES342359"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Armchair","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Germany","id":"x28873"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1928","earliest":"1928-01-01","latest":"1928-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"ca. 1970","earliest":"1965-01-01","latest":"1974-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"78.74","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"55.88","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"57.15","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from SF MoMA. https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/99.627/","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Cesca chair. German 1928. Designed by Marcel Breuer. Furniture designer and architect, born Pecs, Hungary 1902. Trained at the Bauhaus Weimar 1920-24, head of the cabinet-making workshops Dessau 1924-28. Worked in England 1935-37 with F.R.S. Yorke. Partnership with Gropius at Harvard, Graduate School of Design 1937-41. Chair designed in Berlin, immediately after leaving Bauhaus 1928. Reproduced by Cassina, Milan since 1965. Originally called the B64. Both it and the B32 (armless version) were named the ‘Cesca’ after Breuers daughter, from 1960 onwards.\r\n\r\nDescription of V&A object from Hollis, R. 1970. Modern Chairs:1918-1970. The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London:\r\n\"‘A piece of furniture is not an arbitrary composition: it is a necessary component of our environment. In itself impersonal, it takes on meaning only from the way it is used or as part of a complex scheme. A complete scheme is no arbitrary composition either, but rather the outward expression of our everyday needs; it must be able to serve both these needs which remain constant and those which vary. This variation is possible only if the very simplest and most straightforward pieces are used; otherwise changing will mean buying new pieces. Let our dwelling have no particular ‘style’ but only the imprint of the owner’s character. The architect, as producer, creates only half a dwelling; the man who lives in it, the other half.’ Marcel Breuer \r\n‘the new interior should not be a self-portrait of the architect, nor should it attempt to fix in advance the personal environment of the occupant. And so we have furnishings, rooms and buildings allowing as much change and as many transpositions and different combinations as possible. The pieces of furniture and even the very walls of a room have ceased to be massive and monumental, apparently immoveable and built for eternity. Instead they are more opened out, or, so to speak, drawn in space. They hinder neither the movement of the body nor of the eye. The room is no longer a self-bounded composition, a closed box, for its dimensions and different elements can be varied in many ways. One may conclude that any object properly and practically designed should ‘fit’ in any room in which it is used as would any living object, like a flower or a human being.’ Marcel Breuer in das neue Frankfurt 1927\"\n\nDescription of Craftsman from Hollis, R. 1970. Modern Chairs:1918-1970. The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London:\nFurniture designer, architect. Born 1902, Pecs, Hungary. Trained Bauhaus, Germany 1920-24. Master of woodwork shops at Bauhaus 1924-28; own office as architect, Berlin 1928-35; worked in England, 1935-37, with F.R.S. Yorke; Partnership with Gropius at  Harvard, Graduate School of Design, 1937-41; continued at Harvard, 1941-46; own office, New York, Paris, from 1956. See: Peter Blake, Marcel Breuer Museum of Modern Art, New York 1949; Marcel Breuer Sun and Shadow London, New York 1956; G.C.Argan, Marcel Breuer 1921-62 Stuttgart 1962; Cranston Jones, Marcel Breuer 1921-62 London 1962","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"German; designed 1928, made ca. 1970, Marcel Breuer, cromed steel & cane. B34 model, aka Cesca (after 1960)","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CIRC.74-1970"],"accessionNumberNum":"74","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1970,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-01","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}