Original Edition Nagasaki Chair by Mathieu Mategot, France, 1954

This original Mathieu Mategot "Nagasaki" chair designed in 1954 is one of his best known creations. It incarnates the innovative techniques Mategot is famous for: a unique three legged model built with perforated sheet metal giving it an impression of airiness and an everlasting modern feel to it. It is exposed at the Vitra Design Museum permanent exhibition. We have deliberately decided not to restore the piece in order to maintain its historic feel. 

The one we have on show is an original 1st edition.  

 

Born and educated in Budapest, furniture and tapestry designer Mathieu Mategot moved to France in the early 1930s, where he worked as a window dresser and women’s clothing designer. He learned metalworking techniques as a prisoner of war in the 1940s, and upon his release began designing furniture, pioneering many of what we now identify as midcentury design tropes, like metal-mounted rattan, steel tubing, and perforated sheet metal. By the 1970s, Mategot returned to producing tapestries, many of which evoke Abstract Expressionist paintings.