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Rare Pierre Chapo Set of Eight S11 Dining Chairs in Sipo Wood and Leather

Sale price$44,000.00

Pierre Chapo, rare set of eight dining chairs, model S11, sipo wood, leather, France, circa 1966 

A set of eight chairs in solid sipo wood, which makes this set so rare, with cognac leather seating and back, designed by French designer Pierre Chapo. These chairs have a cubic design of solid wood with a naturel leather back and seating. They show absolutely stunning wood joints and were created as a result of the pioneering 48 x 72 assembly ratio. The thick saddle leather is lightly patinated during use and age and shows interesting stitching. 

Pierre Chapo (1927-1987) was born in a family of craftsmen and trained as an architect in Paris. After spending many years traveling through South and North America he and his partner Nicole set up Société Chapo, an architectural research consultancy and interior design firm. In 1958 they opened their famous gallery at 14 Boulevard de l'Hopital. Chapo's work originated by means of special commissions that could later be adapted to universal needs. Chapo was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's balanced lines, Corbusier's research on proportions and the ideas of Bauhaus. Société Chapo was a design workshop and gallery in one where Nicole presented ceramics, textiles and other design by the great designers of the day. The three principles that motivated Pierre Chapo were 'material, form, and function.' He measured his furniture by means of golden ratio and used elmwood as his preferred material. 

Product Details

  • condition Good
  • creator Pierre Chapo (Designer)
  • date of manufacture 1960s
  • dimensions Height 31.1 in. Width 17.72 in. Depth 18.11 in.
  • dimensions Height 79 cm Width 45 cm Depth 46 cm
  • material Leather Wood
  • period 1960 - 1969
  • place of origin France
  • barcode 50108548
Pierre Chapo
Pierre Chapo (1927 – 1987)
The maker

From Clamart to the Luberon

Chapo's path into furniture ran through architecture, not craft school. At the Beaux-Arts he met his future wife and collaborator Nicole Lormier, and their travels together — through Scandinavian workshops, an Arizona cabinetmaker's shop, Central America and Germany during his military service — sharpened an eye for structure that owed as much to the Bauhaus as to the American masters he encountered on the road.

In 1957 the couple opened a gallery in Paris's 5th arrondissement and a manufacturing workshop in the suburb of Clamart, showing Chapo's furniture alongside sculptors such as Isamu Noguchi. Samuel Beckett commissioned the so-called Godot bed in 1959. In 1966 Chapo moved the workshop to Gordes in Provence, where he kept refining his technique until his death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in January 1987 — by then he had patented the Chlacc laminated-wood system (1979) and was developing 'Go', a construction built from flat panels of solid wood.

More about this designer

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