Barcelona Chair Leather Lounge Accent Chair Bauhaus Statement
SOLD
Shopping at Vinterior
- 100-day return guarantee
- Outstanding customer service
- Verified sellers
- Trees planted for every order
- Ready to ship
- Trusted delivery partners
![](https://assets-vinterior-0.vinterior.co/static-assets/value_message_pdp.jpeg)
Did you know?
Item details
Height
77.0 cm
Width
75.0 cm
Depth
77.0 cm
Wear conditions
Good
Wear conditions
Excellent
Shows little to no signs of wear and tear.
Good
May show slight traces of use in keeping with age. Most vintage and antique items fit into this condition.
Average
Likely to show signs of some light scratching and ageing but still remains in a fair condition.
Apparent Wear and Tear
Visible signs of previous use including scratches, chips or stains.
Please refer to condition report, images or make a seller enquiry for additional information.
Description
A fine and handsome Barcelona chair in brown aniline leather just in from Rome and being one of two just listed. Dated to the 1990s.
This is a good quality seat that exudes its quality visually and indeed physically when you are seated. If you have ever sat on a cheap imitation Barcelona chair you will perhaps wonder what all the fuss is about. The difference in comfort between a premium Barcelona chair and one of the aforementioned replicas is like that of night and day. This chair is high quality and a joy to sit on.
The combination of this chairs first class condition, sheer quality and its super warm and gentle use patina make this a “hard to find example” that will not be around for long.
HISTORY OF BARCELONA CHAIR
The Barcelona Chair is one of the most recognisable and iconic designs of the last century. Still frequently used in interiors, the chair epitomises elegance and embodies its creator Mies van der Rohe’s famous maxim “less is more”
This distinctive chair was designed by modernist titan Mies in 1929 in collaboration with fellow German architect and designer Lilly Reich, a long-time colleague and felow modernist.
It was originally created for Mies’s German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona Exposition, which has become known as the Barcelona Pavilion. Mies sought to create an object that complimented his pavilion’s radical open design and free-standing walls. He pointedly designed a lounge chair with no arms and a wide seat. The resulting chair was deliberately unornamental in look, yet was highly sophisticated and luxurious.
Unlike many of his Bauhaus contemporaries, who were focused on pared-down design for the everyman, Mies designed the Barcelona Chair with royalty in mind. He knew that the king and queen of Spain would be visiting the pavilion, and thus he endeavoured to make a seat fit for a monarch.
The design was inspired by ancient Egyptians and Roman folding stools – known as a curule chairs – and by neoclassical seating from the nineteenth century.
In profile, two chrome-plated steel curves cross in a distinguished X under the seat. The back rest and front legs in a single arch crossing the s-shaped curve of the back legs and seat. The seat itself is artfully cantilevered. Only two chairs were created for the Barcelona Pavilion and the chair only went into mass production in the late 1940s.
Mies’s early, hand-made prototypes found their first permanent homes within Villa Tugendhat, a private residence designed by Mies that echoed many of the elements of the Barcelona Pavilion. The Villa featured two fully glazed facades and a free-flowing open-plan interior. The chair, which many agree symbolises Mies’s particular aesthetic and attention to detail, remains one of the most recognisable design objects from the twentieth century.
HISTORY OF MIES
“[I]t is logical for architecture to
change as the way we live also changes.”
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
One of the leading lights of modernist architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created a body of work—ranging from tubular steel furniture to iconic office buildings—that influenced generations of architects worldwide. From domestic spaces like the Villa Tugendhat in the Czech Republic to large, elaborate office towers like New York’s Seagram Building, he imbued his buildings with a fluid spatial harmony reflective of his oft-quoted aphorism, “less is more.” While this quote may seem to reflect an overriding interest in achieving minimalist perfection, his passion for rich materials, surfaces, and texture reveals a creative mind equally preoccupied with the minutiae of architectural space, or, as in another quote attributed to him: “God is in the details”.
Mies’s career took off in the fertile atmosphere of Berlin after the First World War, where leading artists and intellectuals were forming a community that would draw the brightest talents from across Europe. His visionary submission for the 1921 Friedrichstrasse skyscraper competition, while not a winner, was an unprecedented embrace of the new materials of steel and glass that later defined modernist architecture. As the decade progressed, he received larger and more prominent commissions, culminating in the offer to design the German pavilion for the 1929 World’s Fair in Barcelona. The small structure he built, with its flowing spaces, rich marble walls, and custom-designed furniture was an enormous success. It was around this time that Mies formed a highly fruitful partnership with the architect-designer Lilly Reich, with whom he collaborated on numerous projects. Their partnership lasted until his emigration to the United States in 1938.
Nearly as important as the legacy of his buildings is Mies’s impact as a teacher of architecture. In Germany, he served as the final director of the influential Bauhaus school until its closing under pressure from the Nazis in 1933. Shortly after his arrival in the United States, he was offered the directorship of the Armour Institute in Chicago (later renamed the Illinois Institute of Technology), where he shaped a curriculum that influenced a generation of American architects.
America afforded Mies opportunities to work on a far larger scale than he had in Germany, as evidenced by the collection of sleek, glass-skinned office and apartment towers that populate cities across North America. Though in the period after his death many architects rejected his strict formalism in favor of the more eclectic language of postmodernism, his legacy continues to inform the teaching and practice of architecture today.
Condition report:
Refurbishment included -
Full frame polish using power tools to remove scratches.
Leather nourished and sealed.
All belts intact.
No rips.
No tears.
No bits missing.
A1
Cancellations
We offer free cancellations and full refund for orders cancelled before dispatching. View full policy.
Returns
We have a 14-day return guarantee for orders from individual sellers, within the UK and European Union. View full policy.
Estimated delivery time
Less than one week
Free collection available
Yes
Similar Lounge Chairs
Similar Lounge Chairs
You may also like
You may also like
Choose a Wish List
Create Wish List
- Selling at Vinterior since 2021
- 88 sales
- Ships from Gayhurst, United Kingdom
Seller Reviews
Cancellations and Returns
Last updated: 13th August 2024
Our Terms of sale were designed to treat both Customers and Vendors (including Professional Vendors and Non-Professional Vendors (as defined in the Site Terms)) fairly, in order to make the shopping/selling experience with Vinterior just as exceptional as the items.
To protect our Customers from disappointment or the unexpected, we strongly encourage them to closely inspect item photos, descriptions, and details before purchasing anything on the Site, and then again upon delivery or pickup.
If the Customer is unsure about an item's condition, dimensions, quantity, or description, they can send their questions to the item's Vendor by clicking on Ask the seller on the listing page of the Site.
Customers shall receive the same level of consumer protection on purchases irrespective of whether they are buying from a Professional Vendor or Non-Professional Vendor.
Should you have any questions regarding your transaction, please contact the Vendor in the first instance.
Can I cancel an order?
If a Customer changes their mind or decides for any other reason not to purchase the Goods before they have been dispatched, they can cancel the order on the Site and receive a refund.
The right to cancel does not apply to the following types of goods, which are non-refundable: items that are personalised, bespoke, or made-to-order according to the customer's specific requirements. If in doubt, the Customer can contact the Vendor via the Site.
If the Customer cancels an order after an item has already been marked as dispatched for delivery, the delivery costs are non-refundable.
To cancel the order, the Customer must follow the cancellation procedure on the Site by clicking on Create Cancellation on the order page.
Can I return an item?
All items at Vinterior are special and unique, and we understand that once they are at the Customer's place, they might not fit the space or just don’t feel right. This is why we offer a market-leading 100-day returns policy for purchases from Professional sellers after goods have been received by customers based in the UK and European Union. This means Vinterior customers can return their items for any reason up to 100 days from the day they were received.
If purchased from an Individual seller, a 14-day return policy applies from the day it was received.
Types of returns and responsibilities
Change of mind return
Consumers can return the goods due to a change of mind. Once a return is requested, the buyer is in charge of shipping the goods back to the seller and should organise it as soon as possible. Shipment costs to and from buyers are non-refundable.
Item not fit for purpose
Acting under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, customers may return faulty Goods that are damaged or the listing on the Site is materially inaccurate, misleading, or misrepresents the Goods. In these cases, the Customer must provide photographic evidence to Vinterior and the Vendor or reject the delivery on arrival.
Damage in transit
Vinterior must be informed of any damage in transit. If Proovia delivered the items, Vinterior will then raise an insurance claim on behalf of the Vendor with the delivery company. If the seller organised a delivery, they would be asked to raise a claim with their courier. Once the claim is resolved and any relevant decision regarding the insurance has been made, any applicable refunds will be processed.
How to request a return
To initiate a return the customer needs to log in to their Vinterior account and click Create a return on the order page. In the return request, the reason for the return must be included along with photos of any damage of the Goods, if faulty.
How you will be refunded?
Once the item is returned to the Vendor in the same condition, the Vendor will confirm receipt of the item, and Vinterior will refund the original payment method.
If an item is returned to the seller damaged or in an unsuitable condition, Vinterior will not be able to process the refund, and the seller may have to send it back (and ask you to cover the delivery costs). All items are inspected on return.
What can't be returned?
As with cancellations, the right to return an item does not apply to the following types of Goods, which are non-refundable: items that are personalised, bespoke or made-to-order to the Customer's specific requirements.
Please note that vintage items are not sold as new and are likely to show signs of wear and tear. This is not sufficient grounds for a refund.
Vendors may refuse a return of an item if the Customer has altered it in any way.
Neither Vinterior nor the Vendors are liable for any damages or loss sustained in transit via third parties.