Marcel Breuer Cesca Cane Side Chair – Black Wood

Marcel Breuer designed the Cesca Chair in 1928 with the interest of comfort in mind. He chose to use one continuous steel tube in a cantilever style, a style that many designers at the time were using, including Mart Stam and Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. He rounded the front edge of the Cesca seat so as not to cut into the sitter’s legs. Breuer’s version with a beech wood seat and back was nevertheless a brilliant solution to the structural stiffness of a cantilever frame. The chair was named “Cesca” as a tribute to Breuer’s daughter Francesca. 

The Cesca was never patented, notes a 1991 New York Times article. “While Breuer signed a contract with Knoll Group, his design has always been in the public domain,” said the group’s vice president of design at the time. Marcel Breuer, the designer of the Cesca Cane Chair, is considered one of the fathers of Modernism. During his career, he was an architect, teacher, and furniture designer. As a student and teacher at the Bauhaus School, Breuer focused on the integration of technology, materials, and art.

Many of Marcel Breuer’s first furniture designs were used at the Bauhaus-Dessau. The tubular steel B1 was used as ganged theater seating. The Laccio nesting tables, which are still popular today, were initially used as stools, in the building’s canteen. Tubular steel side chairs were used throughout the building, though most of them were never put into mass production.

Made by Italy’s last producer of the Cesca, this is a particularly high value at a great price.

Made in Italy.

Dimensions: H 31 3/4″   D 19 1/2″   W 18 1/2″   SH 18 1/4″   (Seat: 18.5″ W x 16.5″ D)

Material: Steel tubular structure, chromium-plated. Seat and back in inset natural woven cane with black stained beech edge.  Fully assembled.