Han Pieck LaWo lounge chair, The Netherlands 1946

Important Dutch modernist chair, the LaWo1 chair designed by Han Pieck for Lawo Ommen, The Netherlands 1946. The LaWo1 chair is brilliantly designed and made from several layers of birch plywood. The rear legs are fixed to the seat back by brass brackets.
Han Pieck developed the chair during WWII during his study in Amsterdam. His teacher Mart Stam, was a former Bauhaus teacher. After the war, Han Pieck intended to produce 2000 Lawo chairs in the factory in Ommen that he had established for this purpose, with ao financial support from the Marshall Fund. Postwar conditions and shortages of materials meant that only ca 1200 examples were produced before the operation went bankrupt, forcing Pieck to sell his proprietary manufacturing process to Morris & Co. a company from Glasgow UK, which then produced Pieck’s second design, the Bambi dining chair.
As a result of the limited production, Lawo chairs are today quite rare. The number of remaining chairs is estimated at only fifty chairs. This piece is stamped at the bottom with number 1156, which implicates this is one of the last chairs ever produced. The Lawo is now regarded as one of the most important Dutch modernist chair designs.

This example is in very good, fully original condition and has a beautiful patina. The chair has tremendous character, with a tangible sense of history. The production number is 1156 on the chair. Like most of these early plywood chairs show, the back of this LAWO chair is also slightly bent.

Literature: Stoelen Nederlandse Ontwerpen 1945-1985 by Peter Vöge and Bab Westerveld, Meulenhoff/Landshoff, Amsterdam 1986, front cover and page 70. Stoelen by Delft University Press, Delft 1980, page 104.