THE chair costs $45 at the Door Store, $59 at the Workbench, $312 at Palazzetti or $813 from the Knoll Group, and yet, to the average person, all the chairs look the same. The chair, based on a 1920's design by Marcel Breuer, has a tubular-steel frame and a caned seat and back. It was the first such chair mass-produced, starting in 1928. "It's among the 10 most important chairs of the 20th century," said Cara McCarty, associate curator, department of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art. It's also among the 10 most common. Since 1928, when Michael Thonet manufactured model B32, as the Cesca chair was then known, for about $24, it has become Breuer's "most famous and now ubiquitous seating design," Christopher Wilk says in his book "Marcel Breuer: Furniture and Interiors" (Museum of Modern Art, 1981). The design was never patented. Breuer signed a contract with the Knoll Group, but his design has always been in the public domain, said Carl Magnusson, the group's vice president of design.
An original 1928 chair is in the Museum of Modern Art. In various versions, cheap and dear, the chair decorates homes and offices everywhere. But can anybody tell the original from the knockoffs? Two people who might took a kind of tour of Cesca chairs in Manhattan: David Hanks, a curatorial consultant to the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts in Canada, and Marilynn Johnson, a professor of museum studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Of the chair at the Museum of Modern Art, the two found that the beech had a warm golden patina, and that the back and seat were each made of a single bent piece. The back has a marked curve. The caning was done by hand and sewn into the bentwood frame. The front edge of the seat inclines gently. The curves of the tubular steel frame are even. When steel tubing is bent, it flattens at the bend unless sand or a mandrel are used to preserve the shape. Mr. Hanks and Ms. Johnson noticed that the bolts seemed large for the tubing. Thonet produced the chair until World War II.
In the 50's Dino Gavina, a furniture manufacturer in Foligno, Italy, started making the chair with Breuer's permission. The name also changed; its namesake is Breuer's daughter Francesca, or Cesca. "It was Dino who named the chair after her," Constance Breuer, the architect's widow, said in her Manhattan home. Breuer died in 1981. In 1968, Knoll Associates, now the Knoll Group , bought the Gavina factory, which continues to produce the chair. About 250,000 Cesca chairs have been sold since 1968, said David Schutte, a product manager at Knoll. But Breuer, who worked with both Gavina and Knoll, made some design changes over the years. The curve of the chair's back became shallower and its bentwood frame was two pieces rather than one, for strength; the seat's front edge does not slope as much as it did; the bolts are smaller.The hand-caning, the chrome-plated steel caps on the tubing and the rods to sustain the tube shape. Cheaper chairs are based on the Knoll version, not the original 1928 design.
"We spend considerable time and money to get the exact detailing, but these monies are gone when people plagiarize us and change the details," Mr. Magnusson, the Knoll Group official, said. Sergio Palazzetti, a copyist, said, "Why charge a client for something not paid for?" He offers a machine-caned chair for $312 and a hand-caned chair for $362. The curve of the metal near the bottom of the chair's back is slightly sharper than that of the Knoll Group's chair. The caps of the tubes are brazed -- the metal is annealed with heat -- and a mandrel is used."It's a quite good reproduction," Mr. Hanks said. At the Workbench , hundreds of thousands of copies of the Cesca chair have been sold since 1955. "At one point the price was down to $39," said Warren Rubin, the store's founder. The current price is $59. The two visitors noticed that the curve of the Workbench chair's back was shallower than the Knoll Group's chair and the seat extended farther forward. The chair is stiff when it should be springy.
The seat rises at the back instead of being parallel to the floor. Mr. Rubin explained the design shortcuts and how he sells the chair so cheaply. The seat is machine-caned, and the caps on the steel tubing are metal-colored plastic inserts. He plucked one out with a finger. "On the original, the caps were brazed chromed steel," he said. "It's a lot of work." The holes for the bolts on chairs made by Knoll and Palazzetti are drilled and sunk. On the Workbench chair, the holes are punched so the tubing is bent where the bolts are screwed in. The tubing flattens a little at the bends; a mandrel is not used. Mr. Rubin cheerfully defended the shortcuts. "Cutting cost is what Breuer wanted," he said. At the Door Store , a machine-caned Cesca chair sells for $45. Ms. Johnson said, "The back isn't as curved, the seat projects forward and there is a decided angle in the back -- the steel frame rises a little bit." The caps on the tubing are metal but not flush. "From a distance, the caps and tubing look like they are one piece, but they're not," said Michele Cifarelli, the manager of the Door Store at 1 Park Avenue (33d Street).
Among the four Cesca chairs for sale, there is a significant difference in price but not in comfort. Mr. Hanks said, "It's democratic that this design is available to many people at many different prices." A Cesca Checklist Are the chair's back and seat machine-caned or hand-caned? Does the steel tubing flatten where it is bent? Does the seat seem to pitch forward? Were the bolts drilled in or pounded in? Is the back comfortably curved or a little too shallow? Is the seat springy or stiff? Photo: Thonet B32, now accepted as Cesca chair, is examined by Cara McCarty (left), David Hanks and Marilynn Johnson. (Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times) 670/671 Lounge chair & ottoman glides. injection moulded nylon glides to fit the European version of the Eames lounge chair & ottoman. The Stool 60 Giveaway. Sign up for our emails and a chance to win this ingenious stackable stool.Selected But Not Shown Ships same or next business day if ordered by 3pm CST If you are one to multi-task, we’ve got a way for you to burn calories and energize yourself at work.
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