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| George C. Mulhauser, Jr. |
Later in the 1950s Mulhauser developed molded fiberglass
chairs for Paul McCobb and contributed to the design of an office desk system
for Stendig. He also taught furniture design at Pratt and 3-D design at the
Newark School of Fine & Industrial Arts.
In 1955 he moved his family to the suburbs of New York City
and started working out of his home studio. Here he created the Mr. Chair, the first reclining lounge
chair formed from a single sheet. It was manufactured by Plycraft in Lawrence,
Massachusetts. The Mr. Chair was
followed by a smaller armchair called the Jr.
Mr. Chair. His MC 500 series for Directional was a group of chairs all produced
from a single molded shell, and the Fancy Free line featured curlicue plywood
moldings.
Later designs included cast urethane pieces made by Singer
in Canada, the one-piece injection molded polypropylene Stack-Chair by Overman
in Sweden, and the tubular steel Paper Clip chair for Design Institute of
America.
From georgemulhauser.com
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| Coconut chair pratt.edu |
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| Fiberglass chairs for Paul McCobb 1stdibs.com |
-001.jpg) |
| Mr. Chair vandm.com |
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| Plycraft lounge chairs danishmodernla.com |
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| Kangaroo lounge chair modernlove20.com |
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| Plycraft rocker designaddict.com |
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| Fancy Free chair antiquehelper.com |
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| Pod chairs for Overman homeanthology.com |
We've sold several Plycraft chairs since we opened the store, but this is my favorite.
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| Plycraft chair, presumably by Mulhauser, that we sold at the store |
Is there an Aussie on earth that wouldn't want one of Mulhauser's Kangaroo Chairs in their home?! It's a new addition to my covet list, that's for sure!
ReplyDeleteIsn't that just the coolest little chair ever? I'd love to have one too!
DeleteDana --
ReplyDeleteThanks for the furniture lessons! I'm always a little amazed at how you guys know all the pieces and makers. I guess it's just a matter of doing your researching and training your eye. Is there one definitive source/book/site that would be good for me to learn up on? Cheers - CT
Yes, my SIL and I spend hours and hours every day in front of the computer doing research. We also have over 100 books (and the collection is constantly growing)that we refer to. After a while, though, you're right that you do train your eye to recognize the main characteristics and general feel of the major designers.
DeleteProbably the best books to have are 50s Decorative Art and 60s Decorative Art by Charlotte and Peter Fiell, along with 1000 Chairs by Charlotte Fiell. Also, it's good to have a couple of books on Herman Miller and Knoll furniture, since so much iconic mid-century furniture was produced by those companies.
The Eames Lounge knockoffs were also produced under the Mr Chair name, correct? Personally, I think that the version in your post is much better looking,though the only ones that I've found around here have been in vinyl.
ReplyDeleteYes, Nick...there seem to have been numerous incarnations of the Mr. Chair, which has always been confusing to me. I started to include one of the Eames knockoffs in this post, but I thought that would just confuse everyone else too.
DeleteThose chairs are exquisite!
ReplyDeleteI saw the coconut chairs exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute, such a design statement.
The deeper I get into mid-century design, the more I learn about "the men behind the men"...people like Mulhauser and Irving Harper who quietly went about designing for the big names like George Nelson and Charles Eames and getting almost no credit for their work. Interestingly, there were a number of "women behind the men" too, and I'm sure they'll get their own posts in due time.
DeleteTheir work was so important to 20th century design, and they deserve to be recognized now for some of the gorgeous pieces of furniture they gave us.
You should have included the plycraft lounge chair that looks a lot like the Eames lounge. I would not have been confused because I own the recliner bye George mulhauser with the rare pop out footrest beautiful and very uncommon.
ReplyDeleteI have the chair that looks like the Eames lounge (dare I say it looks better?). Haven't been able to find much history on that one.
Delete