MARCEL BREUER. “Isokon Long Chair”, lounge chair, Isokon Furniture Co., England 1930s, designed 1936, laminated birch plywood.

Labelled with ISOKON FURNITURE Co. ISOKON LONG CHAIR PAT NO 478138 REGD. NO 812856 Made in England, height 77, width 62, length approx. 135 cm.

HISTORY
“Scientific relaxation to every part of the body” — this is promised by The Isokon Long Chair in a 1936 catalogue from the London-based Isokon Furniture Company. The furniture company had been founded the year before by Jack Pritchard (1899—1992) with the aim of promoting modern furniture design in England. Pritchard saw a clear role model in Bauhaus design principles and aesthetics, and on the recommendation of Bauhaus School founder Walter Gropius (1983—1969), who had moved to London in 1934, Gropius's former colleague Marcel Breuer (1902—1981) is hired in 1935 as designer for the newly founded furniture company. Through Pritchard's connections to the plywood industry, as well as partly inspired by Alvar Aalto's success at the “Wood Only” exhibition in London in 1933, his ambition was for Isokon — and thus also steel tube pioneer Marcel Breuer — to concentrate on furniture making in plywood.

The Isokon Long Chair was Breuer's first assignment for Isokon and was based on an aluminum recliner designed by Breuer for the Swiss Embru-Werke in 1932. The cooperation between Breuer and Isokon continued until Breuer's move to the United States in 1937; in the context of World War II and a hampered import of plywood from Estonia, Isokon is forced two years later to shut down its furniture production. In 1963, the company and parts of its production are again resumed by Pritchard.

The Isokon Long Chair is currently represented in numerous museum collections, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Swedish Museum of Furniture Design.

LITERATURE
Wilk, Christopher, Marcel Breuer. Furniture and interiors, Architectural Press, London, 1981, pp. 115-118, 126—133.
Peter, Ursula, “Marcel Breuer. Sitzmöbel für lsokon”, in: MonaTsanzeiger 127:1991, p. 1013ff.
Derek E. Ostergard (ed.), Bent wood and Metal furniture 1850 — 1946, American Federation of Arts, Washington, D.C., 1987, p. 321.

For questions and condition report please contact ulrika.ruding@auktionsverket.se or christofer.wikner@auktionsverket.se.