BRUTALIST IRON AND ROPE "BARBARE" CHAIR IN THE MANNER OF GAROUSTE & BONETTI

Forged iron chair with a hide sling seat and back, laced to the frame with rope. The frame is hand-hammered with visible tool marks and tapered, slightly irregular legs. The two back stiles end in curved horn-like finials tipped with brass. The hide is laced through the frame with heavy rope, and a second set of rope loops hangs down the sides below the seat. The design follows the Barbare chair by Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti, created in Paris in 1981. The original was produced by Neotu, Paris, as a limited series of 100. Mattia Bonetti has said he does not know whether all of them were made. Originals are in museum collections, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Cooper Hewitt in New York. Genuine examples are typically marked with the BG monogram and a manufacturer’s stamp, which this chair does not have. This chair is not by Garouste & Bonetti and is not an edition piece. It is a later interpretation of the model by another maker, attributed to the Netherlands and made in the late 1980s to early 1990s. It has been on the market for a couple of decades. One of the two chairs we have carries the maker’s mark R.B.; the maker has not been identified. We have two of these chairs available, each listed separately. They differ in details. This chair has lighter rope and brass tips on the horn finials; the other chair has darker rope and brass on the finials where these ones are black. Dimensions: W 57 cm, D 55 cm, H 121 cm, seat height 40 cm. Vintage condition with signs of age and use. The iron frame is stable. The rope shows wear consistent with age. The hide is unevenly patinated and stained, with a ragged front edge. These are part of the character of the piece.