Eileen GRAY (1878-1976) Lot n° 7

Safari" armchair with cylindrical base forming a grey painted wood structure. Armrests, seat and tilting back in leather. Unique piece made around 1932. H : 77 / W : 60 / D : 60 cm. Provenance : - Sale of the Eileen Gray collection, Monaco May 1980. - Private collection. Bibliography : - Peter Adam Eileen Gray architect/designer revised edition, Harry N. Abrams Inc, 2000 pp 124-125. - Peter Adam Eileen Gray Leben und Werk by Peter Adam, Schirmer/Mosel edition, 2009 page 287. Similar model reproduced in color in Eileen Gray Leben und Werk by Peter Adam, Schirmer/Mosel edition, 2009 p 287. Lot presented and reproduced in the catalog of the sale Sotheby's Parke Bernet Monaco S.A Collection Eileen Gray furniture, objects and projects of its creation May 25, 1980 Sporting d'Hiver, Monte Carlo under the number 260. Exhibitions : - Eileen Gray, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, February-May 2013. - Eileen Gray, Irish museum of Modern Art, Dublin, October 2013 to January 2014. Background: The chair model we present, dated 1932, comes from the personal collection of Eileen Gray within the Villa E-1027 in Roquebrune Cap Martin as well as in her apartment in the Rue Bonaparte in Paris. It belonged to Miss Eileen Gray until the dispersion of its collection organized by Sotheby's Monte Carlo on May 25, 1980. We find our armchair under the lot number 260 before passing within a private collection in Paris. Designed for the coachbuilder Jean-Henri Labourdette and purchased from the Galerie Jean Désert in the early 1920s to match his collection of African art. This model is a variant with the use of a plain leather divided into four parts by a double stitching and not a black and white checkerboard as on the original model. As such, another variant of this model had aluminum posts and not wood. It draws its inspiration from the so-called "safari" chairs used by British officers during colonial expeditions.