sold / Chrome and leather Canasta chair for Arrben Italy, 1970s

After so many accomplished designs of the cantilever chair in the 1920s and 30s by Marcel Breuer, Mart Stam and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, more designers followed. During an intermezzo of a few decades, first the popularity of the four-legged chair was revived and other new leg structures were invented. But in the 1970s the chair without back legs returned. Perhaps its comeback was fueled by Verner Panton’s bold experiments with plastic to create a single-form chair. The free structure of the revolutionary, plastic Panton chair (1960) without back support clearly reminds of the tubular steel swingers of the Bauhaus avant-garde.

Chromed tubular steel, sturdy saddle leather and the sexy swinger principle. Combining these three ingredients in the 1970s, Arrben Italy launched its design for the Canasta chair that immediately gained immense popularity. Their popularity is still felt today by the many replicas that circulate. These four chairs are impressed with their maker’s mark on the seat bottoms.