Marcel Breuer B12 table, under Thonet license by “Wschód”, Zadziele, Poland

The iconic B12 console or side table, made from tubular steel and veneered wood, designed by Marcel Breuer in 1928. This model is no longer in production. The distinctive feature of the B12 is the fact that the lower shelf is longer than the upper shelf.

This table dates from just after the second world war. It bears a metal plate of the Polish factory in Zadziele (formerly Mücke Melder). The company Mücke-Melder produced licenced Thonet furniture from the 1930s. Just after the war the factory was nationalized and the name changed to Wschód Zadziele. They kept their license.

The condition is very good considering its circa 80 years of age. The table has not been restored nor touched up, as collectors of these pieces often like them to be original. There is a small piece of veneer missing and the top has some slight scratches and marks.

Background information Marcel Breuer

Marcel Lajos Breuer (21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-German modernist architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United States in 1937 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1944. Marcel Breuer trained at the Bauhaus, a radical arts and crafts school that Walter Gropius had founded in Weimar just after the First World War. Gropius soon recognized his talent and placed him at the head of the Bauhaus workshop. From 1925, Breuer started expanding his skills from woodworking to combining wood with tubular steel. His inspiration for using the new material is said to have been bicycle handlebars. In a short period of time, Breuer designed a whole collection of furniture, furnished the new Bauhaus building and Walter Gropius’ Master Houses. He established a business named Standard-Möbel in Berlin which dealt with the production and distribution of tubular steel furniture.

Breuer felt that revolutionalry tubular frame and wood designs were the key to make a room look more modern. These pieces of furniture look almost just ''sketched'' into a room and don't block the view nor hinder movement. And how right he was. A lot of his designs are still loved and fit in stylish contemporary interiors with a minimalist touch. As does the B12.

To own a Marcel Breuer table is especially desirable for Bauhaus enthusiasts and interior designers. It makes one feel connected to the bold and groundbreaking ideas that emerged from the Bauhaus movement. Marcel Breuer's vision still inspires to embrace the spirit of modernism and the harmonious blend of art and function. Breuer was also greatly influenced by the Dutch De Stijl group (Gerrit Rietveld. Mondriaan etc)

The B12 design is documented in: Thonet tubular steel furniture catalogue, 1930/31; M. Droste, M. Ludewig, Marcel Breuer, Bauhaus Archives, Cologne 1992, p. 93, p. 154

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