Rough sketch of a fold-up chair with S-bend frame on the back of a piece of note paper of Désert et Gray 11, rue Guénégaud, blue ballpoint pen on paper, Eileen Gray, France, ca. 1965-70

Rough sketch in ballpoint pen of the side elevation of a fold-up chair with S-bend frame and suspended single-piece seat, on the back of a piece of note paper of Désert et Gray 11, rue Guénégaud.

Given by Prunella Clough

This sketch is a reworking of the folding chair, often referred to as the 'S-bend chair', Gray designed in the 1930s that is held in the V&A collection (CIRC.579-1971). Gray reworked many of her designs during the 1960s, including this one. The reason for this redesign is unknown but it may have been for versions of the chair that were produced in the 1970s by Geoffrey-Lyn Todd or Max Ott for the artist Frank Stella (see Johanna Agerman Ross, 'Fold-up Chair' in The Lives of the Objects, Tristram Hunt (ed.), V&A: London, 2019, p. 171).

E.1121-1983