Model ST14 thumbnail 1
Model ST14 thumbnail 2
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images
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Furniture, Room 135, The Dr Susan Weber Gallery

Model ST14

Chair
1929-1930 (designed), 1930 (manufactured)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

So accomplished were the first Modernist cantilevered chairs designed by Mart Stam, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, that it became difficult for others to design cantilevered chairs that seemed anything other than either pale imitations or outlandish attempts at novelty. Yet Hans Luckhardt's design, which approached the borders of novelty, went beyond even Mies van der Rohe's in its rejection of anything like right-angles. Like other cantilevered chairs, it relied on the tensile strength of extruded steel tube to achieve its minimal structure. However, it made use not only of a cantilevered frame (like previous designs), but also of a cantilevered seat of extraordinarily thin plywood, which seemed to float in the middle of the frame despite being attached at two points by steel flanges. The chair proclaimed itself as a triumph of industrial materials and contemporary design over the laws of nature.

DESTA (Deutsche Stahlrohrmobel), founded by Anton Lorenz, manufactured a single model of chair from 1930. Although credited in contemporary magazines, manufacturers' catalogues and later accounts to the brothers Hans and Wassili (1889-1972) Luckhardt, and also sometimes to their architectural partner Alfons Anker, the furniture designs were apparently exclusively the work of the younger Luckhardt, Hans. DESTA was formally liquidated in 1933, though it may have stopped trading in 1932. The Luckhardt brothers were at the cutting edge of German architectural practice after the First World War. As members of the Novembergruppe, the Arbeitsrat für Kunst, Der Ring and Die Gläserne Kette, they worked in an Expressionist mode until around 1924 when, after they set up in practice with Anker (1872-1958), they generally embraced the rectilinear geometry of the leading architects of the period, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleModel ST14 (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Chromium-plated tubular steel, painted plywood
Brief description
Chair model ST14, designed by Hans Luckhardt, 1929-30, manufactured by DESTA, Berlin, 1930, for the Music Room in the palace of the Maharajah of Indore.
Physical description
Cantilevered chair of chromium-plated tubular steel with black painted plywood seat and back. The extruded tubular steel is bent into a curving, flowing line avoiding any right-angles. Two small lines on the tube part forming the bottom curve could indicate braze points. The cantilevered seat of thin plywood appears to float freely in the form. The half-moon shaped back of even thinner plywood is completely adapted to the curve of the tubular steel back. It is attached to the frame with four metal screws. The seat is attached at the two front corners by steel flanges. The flanges support seat and frame with a right-angled corner piece on each side which extends into a flat bar to the back. The seat has a straight, slightly dished front and a rounded, slightly raised back.
Dimensions
  • Height: 87.5cm
  • Width: 54cm
  • Depth: 61.5cm
Measured LC 15/11/10
Style
Gallery label
  • Chair, Model ST14 1929-30 Hans Luckhardt (1890-1954) Germany Manufactured by DESTA, Berlin, 1930 Part of the original furnishings for the Music Room in the palace of the Maharajah of Indore Chromium-plated tubular steel with painted plywood seat and back V&A: W.49-1984(01/01/2006)
  • Chair, model ST14 1929–30 Hans Luckhardt (1890–1954) Germany Manufactured by DESTA (Deutsche Stahlrohrmöbel), Berlin Frame: chrome-plated tubular steel Seat and back: 5-ply plywood, probably birch, painted Museum no. W.49-1984 Although made from industrially produced, extruded tubular steel, this chair was produced partly by hand in a small factory. Either one or two lengths of tubular steel were bent into shape on a workshop jig, one bend at a time. They were then joined together using internal metal sleeves. Chrome plating covers the joins. (01/12/2012)
Object history
Part of the original furnishings of the Music Room of the Palace of the Maharajah of Indore, 1930
The chair was exhibited at the Berlin Building exhibition in 1931.
Summary
So accomplished were the first Modernist cantilevered chairs designed by Mart Stam, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, that it became difficult for others to design cantilevered chairs that seemed anything other than either pale imitations or outlandish attempts at novelty. Yet Hans Luckhardt's design, which approached the borders of novelty, went beyond even Mies van der Rohe's in its rejection of anything like right-angles. Like other cantilevered chairs, it relied on the tensile strength of extruded steel tube to achieve its minimal structure. However, it made use not only of a cantilevered frame (like previous designs), but also of a cantilevered seat of extraordinarily thin plywood, which seemed to float in the middle of the frame despite being attached at two points by steel flanges. The chair proclaimed itself as a triumph of industrial materials and contemporary design over the laws of nature.

DESTA (Deutsche Stahlrohrmobel), founded by Anton Lorenz, manufactured a single model of chair from 1930. Although credited in contemporary magazines, manufacturers' catalogues and later accounts to the brothers Hans and Wassili (1889-1972) Luckhardt, and also sometimes to their architectural partner Alfons Anker, the furniture designs were apparently exclusively the work of the younger Luckhardt, Hans. DESTA was formally liquidated in 1933, though it may have stopped trading in 1932. The Luckhardt brothers were at the cutting edge of German architectural practice after the First World War. As members of the Novembergruppe, the Arbeitsrat für Kunst, Der Ring and Die Gläserne Kette, they worked in an Expressionist mode until around 1924 when, after they set up in practice with Anker (1872-1958), they generally embraced the rectilinear geometry of the leading architects of the period, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius.
Bibliographic references
  • Decorative Art, 1933, & '32
  • Moderne Bauformen, 1931, Vol XXX, p.390
  • Innendekoration, 1931,XLII, pp.265 and 267
  • Modernism. Designing a New World 1914-1939, ed. by C.Wilk, 2006, p.241
Collection
Accession number
W.49-1984

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Record createdMarch 22, 2006
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