S 43 Classic

The cantilever chair S 43 by Mart Stam was one of the first chairs designed without back legs and is in many ways now considered the archetypal Bauhaus classic. Inspired by car, plane and train seats, for which partly cantilevered tubular steel frames were already being used, Mart Stam's 1925 creation further developed and evolved the principle of the Thonet cantilever chair. Produced since its creation by the manufacturer Thonet Mart Stam's S 43 without arms was after the Thonet S 33 one of the precursors of the cantilever chair, the rigid nature of its construction meaning a resilient, giving, seat was missing. The S 43, was used in the 1927 in the exhibition "Die Wohnung" in the Weissenhofsiedlung Stuttgart, where Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was also represented with a cantilever model. In the following years Stams model was further developed by different designers and as a concept quickly gained in popularity. Consequently from the very early days there was confusion about the authorship of the Bauhaus chair, and although in 1932 the Supreme Court awarded Mart Stam artistic authorship of the cantilever chair today the debate still rages as to whether Mart Stam or Marcel Breuer is the real spiritual father of the cantilever chair.
Mart Stam gave his design a cubist inspired form. The strict concentration of the S 43 Thonet chair design on a simple geometric construction is characteristic of a work developed by minimalist reduction. The elasticity of the steel tube allows the frame of the Thonet S 43 to remain flexible and resilient and thus respond to the movements of the user. Upholstery is unnecessary due to this elasticity, and so the seat and backrest could be made ??from simple moulded plywood. In addition to the S 43 Classic Stam also developed the S 43F, a version with armrests. With its economical aesthetic the S 43 is today considered as an outstanding example of a furniture design in the spirit of modernism that combines comfort and a minimalist design language.

S 43 designer Mart Stam

Manufacturer

Originally founded in 1819 by Michael Thonet in Boppard am Rhine, Germany as a joinery firm, the company quickly developed into a world renowned furniture manufacturer and for all one which made a name for itself through the use of new technologies and outstanding designs. Beginning with the bentwood chairs of the 19th century and continuing over to models such as the S 43 Thonet chairs are characterised by a special combination of technical innovation and novel design. For their famous bentwood chairs Thonet developed a n