Cassina - Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret - Armchair - LC1 - Leather, Steel

The activity of the atelier began in 1922, in rue de Sèvres in Paris, which Le Corbusier with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, a young architect who took over in 1927, would give shape to a vast collection of furnishings.
From this collaboration began the design of pieces of furniture, which continued until 1937 and which led to the creation of furniture with which the three designers addressed the problem of "l'équipement d'intérieur de l'habitation".
In this context the LC1 was born, designed in 1928 also known as Fauteuil à dossier basculant.

The lot up for auction consists of a Cassina LC1 with tricolor pony skin covering dating back to the Cassina productions of the 1980s.
The armchair is in excellent used condition.
The chromed steel structure is still perfectly intact with only slight signs of age.
The tricolor ponyskin lining is in perfect condition with no obvious signs of use.
The leather armrests are intact and sturdy with only slight signs of use.
There is the Cassina brand printed on the frame and the initials LC1 stamped alongside with serial number.
An excellent piece therefore in terms of integrity ready to be placed in prestigious displays to last another fifty years.

Armchair dimensions in cm:
Height 60
width 65
Depth 60

Our company ORVETT offers free shipping insurance.

Today it would be called ergonomic, but in 1927 there was no definition for an idea as simple as it was revolutionary: furniture must adapt to the human body, not vice versa. This is the concept behind the seats of the LC Collection, designed by Le Corbusier to adapt to different positions.
The master's intuition came to fruition thanks to the collaboration with his partners: Pierre Jeanneret and above all Charlotte Perriand. In fact, it was the French designer who took charge, created the furnishings and assembled the first prototypes. And it was always she who insisted and believed in the goodness of the project, despite the first refusals.
Thus, in 1928, the Fauteuil grand confort, grand et petit modèle armchair (now known as LC2) , the iconic tilting chaise longue (LC4) , the Fauteuil dossier basculant armchair (LC1) were born, to which the Fauteuil swivel armchair was added. pivotant and the Tabouret pivotant and Tabouret de salle de bains stools, previously created by Perriand alone.
1930-65: THE MARKET DOES NOT APPRECIATE
The range of furniture has been produced by the Thonet company since 1930 under the name "Le Corbusier, P. Jeanneret, Ch. Perriand". But success doesn't come. The furniture is considered too futuristic, difficult to mass produce. The truth is that the public is not ready yet. The market is missing.
In 1959 the gallery owner Heidi Weber launched a re-edition of the models but the diffusion remained very limited.
Everything changed in 1964, when Weber decided to entrust production to the Italian Cassina. The Meda company understood the revolutionary value of the seats and started them for industrial production.
It was a global success: the extension of exclusive rights for manufacturing and sales extended first to Europe, then to the Americas (1967) and finally to the entire world (1971) .

The “Amedeo Cassina” of the brothers Cesare and Umberto Cassina was born in 1927 in Meda, Brianza. The main activity is woodworking, within the company, for the production of coffee tables. Over the years the company expanded, especially in the post-war period, also thanks to collaborations with external architects who brought their expertise and research.
In the 1950s Cassina moved from artisanal to serial production, adopting the logic of industrial design. A change also induced by the commission of furnishings for the interiors of large cruise ships. Furthermore, in this period some of the company's best-known products took shape: the 646 chair and the 699 chair, known as the "Superleggera", both designed by Gio Ponti.
In 1963 Vico Magistretti joined the company team of designers, creating the Carimate armchair. In the following year, the re-edition rights of 4 models designed in 1928 by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand were acquired, to express the company's desire to build a collection according to the principles of modernity. In 1966, the company C&B, Cassina & Busnelli was established to identify new manufacturing processes for injected polyurethane foam and more generally to encourage experimental and innovative product research.
In 1968 Cassina launched the Ciprea armchair by Afra and Tobia Scarpa, the first example of a single volume in expanded polyurethane, and opened the showroom in via Durini in Milan, a project by Mario Bellini which would be followed by those by Vico Magistretti, Clino Trini Castelli , Achille Castiglioni, Giancarlo Tintori, Piero Lissoni and Patricia Urquiola.
In the seventies the Soriana project by Afra and Tobia Scarpa won the Compasso d'Oro.
In 1972, Cassina participated in the “Italy: the new domestic landscape” exhibition at the Mo. MA in New York with the Kar-a-sutra car prototype designed by Mario Bellini. In the same year the Bracciodiferro experimental laboratory was founded with Gaetano Pesce and Alessandro Mendini.
In 1973 Cassina presented the Maralunga sofa by Vico Magistretti, also winner of a Compasso d'Oro, and structured the Cassina I Maestri Collection.
Four years later the company launched, with Mario Bellini, the La Rotonda table and the Cab chair, which became part of the permanent collection of the Mo. MA in New York thanks to its self-supporting leather structure.
In the 1980s Cassina introduced the Wink armchair by Toshiyuki Kita (1980) and the Feltri armchair by Gaetano Pesce (1987) , with which a new production technique for felt furniture was developed, for which an international patent has been registered.
In 1989 the corporate structure changed with the sale of 80% of the capital to the French group Strafor.
In 1991 Cassina won the Compasso d'Oro for its contribution to the culture of design and in the same year it inaugurated the collaboration with Piero Lissoni which gave life to the Met sofa.
In 1998, L. W. S. was born from the collaboration with Philippe Starck. Lazy Working Sofa.
The last decade of the century ends with the acquisition of Cassina by another French group, Fimalac, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The new millennium coincides with the production of Charlotte Perriand's furnishings for the Cassina I Maestri Collection. In 2008, the production of Franco Albini's furnishings began, the first Italian master included in the collection.
In 2005 the company returns to Italy: it is acquired by the group led by Poltrona Frau, controlled by the private equity fund Charme Investments.
In 2006, the reconstruction of the interior of Le Corbusier's Cabanon built in Roquebrune Cap-Martin in France in 1952 was presented. The project, presented at the Triennale Milan, was later also exhibited in other museums, such as the Mo. MA in New York .
In 2008, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of the company, an exhibition was created at the Triennale Milano and the monograph "Made in Cassina".
In 2010 Cassina, in collaboration with Gaetano Pesce, celebrated the 150 years of the Unification of Italy with Sessantuna, a work composed of sixty-one tables which together form the characteristic boot.
In 2011, Franco Albini's Veliero bookcase was put into production for the first time, thanks to research and development work together with a team of experts, designed and created only in a single example in 1940.
Two years later the company acquired the Simon brand and therefore entered the furniture catalog of architects and designers such as Carlo Scarpa and Kazuhide Takahama. In the same year the worlds of design and fashion came together, with a photographic collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld.
In February 2014 the group led by Poltrona Frau was acquired by the American company Haworth. Also in 2014, Piero Lissoni and Cassina present the Otto sofa.
In 2015, Lady by Marco Zanuso was reissued and included in the Cassina I Maestri Collection. In the same year, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the start of production, a revision of the collection of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand was proposed, according to a renewed principle of authenticity.
In 2016, Cassina appointed Patricia Urquiola as Art Director of the brand. In the following year the company celebrated its 90th anniversary with an exhibition at the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation in Milan and with the book "This Will Be The Place".
In 2019 Cassina supports the exhibition "Le monde nouveau de Charlotte Perriand" at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris where, for the first time, "l'Equipement intérieur d'une habitation" is reconstructed.
In the same year, Cassina LAB was founded, born from the collaboration between the Cassina Research and Development Center and POLI. design of the Polytechnic of Milan to rethink the future of design: a path that expresses Cassina's commitment to reducing the impact environmental thanks, for example, to the identification of circular materials to be used in the creation of products and the development of projects capable of offering functionality for the well-being of people.
In 2021 Cassina relaunches Soriana by Afra and Tobia Scarpa with circular materials. In the same year, it presented the Cassina Pro collection to meet the design needs of the hospitality and workplace sectors.