René Herbst - Design New York Wednesday, December 14, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Eaton’s, Toronto
    Acquired from an employee of Eaton’s in the 1980s

  • Literature

    Solange Goguel, René Herbst, Paris, 1990, p.176
    Charlotte and Peter Fiell, 1000 Chairs, Cologne, 1997, p. 207
    Guillemette Delaporte-Idrissi, René Herbst: Pioneer of Modernism, Paris, 2000, pp. 51-53

  • Catalogue Essay

    By the 1880s, the T. Eaton Company, Ltd., or Eaton’s as it was known, had installed Toronto’s biggest plate glass windows, an elevator, and electricity—the first for a shop in that city. From humble beginnings as a dry-goods and haberdashery in 1869, Eaton’s at the turn of the century boasted of “Canada’s Greatest Store.” With a booming mail-order business and flagships in Toronto, Winnipeg, and later Montreal, Eaton’s employed nearly 20,000 people by the First World War and maintained buying offices in London and Paris. Within its sprawling space at Yonge Street, Eaton’s “Seven Seas Shop”, a décor boutique, offered clients the latest decorative arts from Europe including works by the Weiner Werkstätte, Venini, and Fontana Arte, as well as prominent designers such as Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Edgar Brandt, Alvar Aalto, Gio Ponti, and René Herbst, among many others.

    The present model chair was first exhibited at the 1928 Salon des Artistes Décorateurs at the Grand Palais, Paris.

PROPERTY FROM A CANADIAN COLLECTION

112

Armchair

ca. 1928
Nickel-plated metal, fabric.
25 in. (63.5 cm) high
Possibly produced by Les Élablissements Siegel et Stockman Reunis, France.

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $30,000

Design

14 December 2011
New York