BAMBERG METTALLWERKSTÄTEN
Priesliste für Stahlmöbel von Mies van der Rohe
und Lilly Reich
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich: BAMBERG METTALLWERKSTÄTEN [Priesliste für Stahlmöbel von Mies van der Rohe und Lilly Reich]. Berlin, Bamberg Mettallwerkstäten, 1931. Original edition. Printed vellum sheet. Light edgewear and single- folded as issued. A very good example.
11.75 x 16.5 illustrated pricelist for Mies van der Rohe’s and Lilly Reich’s steel furniture first manufactured by Bamberg Mettallwerkstäten in 1931. Illustrated in Bauhaus-Möbel Eine Legende wird Besichtigt [Berlin: Bauhaus Archiv, 2002, page 307].
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 – 1969) began his career in architecture in Berlin, working as an architect first in the studio of Bruno Paul and then, like Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, for Peter Behrens. In 1927, a housing project called Weissenhof Siedlung in Stuttgart, Germany, would bring these names together again. Widely believed to be one of the most notable projects in the history of modern architecture, it includes buildings by Gropius, Corbu, Behrens, Mies and others.
In 1928, Mies and his companion and colleague, the designer and Bauhaus alumna Lilly Reich, were asked to design the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona. The purpose of the Pavilion was to provide a location that could be visited by the king and queen of Spain during the opening of the Exposition. With that in mind, Mies designed a modern throne – known today as the Barcelona Chair – for their majesties. In the following year, Mies designed another notable chair, the Brno, with a gravity-defying cantilevered base.
In 1930, Mies succeeded Walter Gropius as the director of the Bauhaus, where he stayed until the school closed in 1933. In 1937, Mies emigrated from Europe to the United States, and a year later became the director of architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The rest of his career was devoted to promoting the modernist style of architecture in the U.S., resulting in rigorously modern buildings such as the Farnsworth House and the Seagram Building, designed with Philip Johnson.