Sandows Chair

100% Made in Italy. Chromed or lacquered steel frame. Seat and back with elastic cord covered in cotton black (also available in other colours on demand). Exhibited for the first time at the Salone d’Automne in Paris in 1929, the “Sandows Chair” - which is extraordinarily modern even today - is a splendid example of René Herbst’s approach to industrial design and the innovation he carried into. An architect and interior decorator in love with modernity, Herbst earned the nickname of “man of steel”, being the first to use industrial metals, the materials of the modern world. According to the dictates of Functionalism, he believed that form should follow function and not vice-versa. The chair has a simple structure of steel tubes and the seat and back are made with a material that had never been used before (but absolutely modern and functional): the elastic strings that were used for holding packages on bicycles. It was probably manufactured by the Etablissements René Herbst firm, which the architect founded in Paris. On permanent exhibit at MoMa in New York.