The MR10 has become an iconic chair often used to illustrate the exemplary times from which it originates. Mies van der Rohe embraced the advances of industrial material production and elegantly exploited its unique characteristics. The MR series of chairs, though iconic, were not the first to employ tubular steel or even a cantilever in chair design. Marcel Breuer was the first to use tubular steel in his designs, first of all for the Bauhaus canteen at Dessau followed by the skeletal B3 / Wassily armchair. Controversially Mart Stam is said to have brought the idea of a cantilevered tubular steel chair to a meeting at the Bauhaus Werkbund in 1926 and Mies van der Rohe was so taken by the idea that he immediately jumped straight into developing his own version of the concept.

First produced in 1927 by Berliner Metallgewrbe, the MR-10 was showcased at the Die Mode der Dame exhibition in Berlin and installed at Mies’s model apartments in Stuttgart. The cane version of the chair came in 1928 after the original leather-slung chairs of the previous year. They were included in the exposition at the Barcelona World's Fair of 1929 where the famous pavilion was installed. Thonet took over production in the early 1930’s and the MR chairs were the most expensive in the catalogue.

The set we have here, we deduced from the original owner, are from the 1977 reissue by Knoll which was in conjunction with MOMA’s exhibition Mies in New York City.

4 available