Lot Details
Lot 153
Gerrit Rietveld Beechwood Elling
Sideboard
Designed by Gerrit Rietveld, circa 1919, for Architect Piet Elling, made by Gerard van de Groenekan, circa 1960
Branded marks HGM, G.A. vd Groenekan, de Bilt Nederland on verso. Height 41 inches, width 6 feet 6 3/4 inches, depth 17 inches.
Similar examples are in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, the Kirkland Museum, Denver, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
A sideboard of this date and model sold Christie's, London, November 3, 2015, lot 236, and another sold Sotheby's, London, Pioneering 20th Century Design: The Torsten Bröhan Collection, March 8, 2005, lot 139.
Provenance:
Barry Friedman Ltd., December 19, 1997
Literature:
Peter Voege, The Complete Rietveld Furniture, Rotterdam, 1993, p. 52.
Originally executed in 1919 for architect Piet Elling, the original was lost in a fire. Van de Groenekan produced another example in 1951 for the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and then only ten additional models were made, which presumably includes the present sideboard.
Created just two years after Rietveld's iconic Red-Blue chair, the Elling sideboard is a masterpiece of furniture created by the artists of the De Stijl movement just after the First World War. Under Rietveld's direction the sideboard becomes an abstract piece of art, where normally hidden inner components are exposed adding interest and bringing drama to the work.
C A Private Collection of Important Design
Additional Notes & Condition Report
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