Germany
1930s
New shearling upholstery, leather buttons
35” high x 33” deep x 30” wide (seat height 15 1/2”)

Adolf Schneck began his education as an apprentice saddler and upholsterer in his parents’ workshop, then worked as a journeyman, mastering other skills along the way–as a wallpaperer, a cabinetmaker and decorator. It seems inevitable that he began to design buildings. And though his architectural training was never awarded a diploma (he hadn’t ever completed high school), he is now considered an important figure in the birth of Modernism in design.

Schneck was an early member of the Deutscher Werkbund, an association of artists, designers, architects and industrialists whose work together led to the establishment of the Bauhaus School (where Schneck was for a time a teacher). Josef Hoffmann was among the founders of the Deutscher Werkbund, and other notable members were Eliel Saarinen and Mies van der Rohe. The group eventually comprised nearly two thousand members and hosted seminal exhibitions in France and Germany.

This wonderfully cozy wingback chair is from the 1930s.