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Law, Design, and Market Value: Lessons from the Cantilever Chair, 1929–1936

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2017

TOBIAS VOGELGSANG
TOBIAS VOGELGSANG*
Affiliation:
Tobias Vogelgsang is a trained art historian and economic historian. He holds a PhD in economic history from the London School of Economics and works as a business intelligence executive. E-mail: t.vogelgsang@mailbox.org.
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Abstract

The cantilever chair is both a modern classic and a tradable commodity. Iconic designs, such as those by Marcel Breuer, are part of museum collections and are being produced for the contemporary furniture market. Moreover, there are countless other variations of the cantilever principle on the market. This article explains the emergence of the upmarket segment for iconic designs through historical sources. The focus is on the role of intellectual property rights and their interaction with management, branding, and pricing activities in the early 1930s. The article establishes that legal and perceived authenticity of cantilever designs were necessary but not sufficient to establish the upmarket segment. A substantial premium could only be charged once customers revealed that they had a high willingness to pay for authentic furniture that was chrome-plated.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 536 - 565
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2017. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. 

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Bruchhäuser, Axel, ed. Der Kragstuhl: The Cantilever Chair. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1998.Google Scholar
Günther, Sonja, Vegesack, Alexander von, Gerhard, Karin, and Dylla, Sabine. Thonet-Stahlrohrmöbel: Steckkartenkatalog: Erste vollständige Zusammenstellung der deutschen und französischen Ausgabe von 1930–1931. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Publishing, 1989.Google Scholar
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Lueger, Otto, ed. Lexikon der gesamten Technik und ihrer Hilfswissenschaften, vol. 1, 2nd ed. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1904.Google Scholar
Möller, Werner. Mart Stam 1899–1986: Architekt, Visionär, Gestalter: Sein Weg zum Erfolg 1919–1930. Tübingen: Wasmuth, 1997.Google Scholar
Möller, Werner, and Máčel, Otakar. Ein Stuhl macht Geschichte. Munich: Prestel-Verlag & Bauhaus Dessau, 1992.Google Scholar
Mumford, Eric. The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928–1960. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Osterrieth, Albert. Das Kunstschutzgesetz: Das Urheberrecht an Werken der bildenden Künste und der Photographie, Gesetz vom 7, Januar. Berlin: Carl Heymann, 1907.Google Scholar
Osterrieth, Albert. Die Geschichte des Urheberrechts in England. Leipzig: C. L. Hirschfeld, 1895.Google Scholar
Plumpe, Gerhard. Der tote Blick: Zum Diskurs der Photographie im Zeitalter des Realismus. Munich: Fink, 1990.Google Scholar
Rasch, Heinz, and Rasch, Bodo. Der Stuhl, edited by von Vegesack, Alexander. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Publishing, 1992.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Verbraucherpreisindizes für Deutschland: Revisionsbericht 2002. Stuttgart: Metzler-Poeschel, 2003.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1932, 51. Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1932.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1933, 52. Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1933.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1938, 57. Berlin: Paul Schmidt, 1938.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Vierteljahreshefte zur Statistik des Deutschen Reichs, 40, no. 2. Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1931.Google Scholar
Stradtmann, Friedrich Heinrich, and Schmidt, Dieter. Stahlrohr-Handbuch, 7th ed. Essen: Vulkan-Verlag, 1973.Google Scholar
Teilmann-Lock, Stina. British and French Copyright: A Historical Study of Aesthetic Implications. Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2009.Google Scholar
von Vegesack, Alexander. Das Thonet Buch. Munich: Bangert, 1987.Google Scholar
von Vegesack, Alexander, Pauley, Brigitta, and Ellenberg, Peter. Thonet: Classic Furniture in Bent Wood and Tubular Steel. New York: Rizzoli, 1997.Google Scholar
Wilk, Christopher. Thonet: 150 Years of Furniture. Woodbury, NY: Barron’s, 1980.Google Scholar
Wilk, Christopher, and Stewart Johnson, J.. Marcel Breuer: Furniture and Interiors. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1981.Google Scholar
Benton, Tim. “‘Building Utopia.” In Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939, edited by Wilk, Christopher, 149–223. London: V&A Publications, 2006.Google Scholar
Cacciola, Donatella. “Etablierte Moderne–Die Möbel von Marcel Breuer in der Produktion von Gavina und Knoll International.” In Marcel Breuer: Design und Architektur, edited by von Vegesack, Alexander and Remmele, Mathias, 150–165. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum, 2003.Google Scholar
Cannatelli, Benedetto, Pedrini, Matteo, and Grumo, Marco. “The Effect of Brand Management and Product Quality on Firm Performance: The Italian Craft Brewing Sector.” Journal of Food Products Marketing 23, no. 3 (2017): 303–325. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10454446.2014.949989 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Gorman, Carma. “Law as a Lens for Understanding Design.” Design and Culture 6, no. 3 (2014): 269–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, Zachary, and Kaiser, Aviva Meridian. “Proliferating Platforms, the Logical Layer, and the Normative Language Gap: Contemporary Conflicts in Creativity and Intellectual Property.” Design and Culture 6, no. 3 (2014): 303–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Klassenloses Sitzen.” Der Spiegel 44 (1986): 260–262.Google Scholar
Lodder, Christine. “Searching for Utopia.” In Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939, edited by Wilk, Christopher, 23–69. London: V&A Publications, 2006.Google Scholar
Máčel, Otakar. “Avant-Garde Design and the Law: Litigation over the Cantilever Chair.” Journal of Design History 3, no. 2–3 (1990): 125–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCollam, Phil. “Redefining Design Ethics: Why Graphic Design Needs Professional Self-Regulation.” Design and Culture 6, no. 3 (2014): 315–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plumpe, Gerhard. “Eigentum–Eigentümlichkeit: Über den Zusammenhang ästhetischer und juristischer Begriffe im 18. Jahrhundert.” In Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte, vol. 23, edited by Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Ritter, Joachim, and Gründer, Karlfried, 175–196. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann, 1979.Google Scholar
Pouillard, Véronique. “Keeping Designs and Brands Authentic: The Resurgence of the Post-War French Fashion Business under the Challenge of US Mass Production.” European Review of History: Revue européenne d’histoire 20, no. 5 (2013): 815–835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schliephacke, Fridtjof Frank. “Erinnerungen an Hans Luckhardt–Erfinder, Konstrukteur, Architekt.” In Brüder Luckhardt und Alfons Anker–Berliner Architekten der Moderne, edited by Wendschuh, Achim, 98–112. Schriftenreihe der Akademie der Künste. Berlin: Akademie der Künste, 1990.Google Scholar
Teilmann-Lock, Stina. “Danish Design: Legal Restrictions and Creative Responses.” Design and Culture 6, no. 3 (2014): 291–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teilmann-Lock, Stina. “The Fashion Designer as Author: The Case of a Danish T-Shirt.” Design Issues 28, no. 4 (2012): 29–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilk, Christopher. “Sitting on Air.” In Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939, edited by Wilk, Christopher, 225–247. London: V&A Publications, 2006.Google Scholar
Wilk, Christopher. “What is Modernism?” In Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939, edited by Christopher, Wilk, 11–21. London: V&A Publications, 2006.Google Scholar
Woodmansee, Martha. “The Genius and the Copyright: Economic and Legal Conditions of the Emergence of the ‘Author.’” Eighteenth-Century Studies 17, no. 4 (1984): 425–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Belleissue Lourie, Ariane. “Mass-Produced Aura: Thonet and the Market for Modern Design, 1930–1953.” Ph.D., diss., New York University, 2008.Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “100 Jahre Thonet Frankenberg 1889–1989.” Frankenberg: Thonet GmbH Germany, 1989.Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “S32/S64: Design Marcel Breuer.” Frankenberg: Thonet GmbH Germany.Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. Thonet Stahlrohrmöbel Katalog 1935, reprint. Frankenberg: Thonet GmbH Germany, 2005.Google Scholar
Cool Designworks Trading Ltd., www.the-designlover.com Google Scholar
IKEA website, “Inter IKEA Systems B.V.,” www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20115038 Google Scholar
Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf, “Urheberrechtsschutz für Mart-Stam-Stuhl von 1926,” http://www.beck.de/cms/main?sessionid=9872AD5E6639498686042F9817648772&docid=287627&docClass=NEWS& site=JuS&from=JuS.root Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt Wiesbaden (consumer price indices from 1924 to 2000; consumer prices since 1881). doi: 10.4232/1.8290. dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/sdesc2.asp?no=8290&db=e&doi=10.4232/1.8290 Google Scholar
Steelclassic. “Marcel Breuer, Cesca Chair,” http://uk.steelclassic.com/marcel-breuer-cesca-chair.html Google Scholar
Steelclassic. “Original or Copy,” http://uk.steelclassic.com/original-or-copy.html Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “Echtheitsbestimmung,” www.thonet.de/service/echtheitsbestimmung.html Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. Mediendatenbank. mediendatenbank.thonet.deGoogle Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “Shop: S33.” http://de.shop.thonet.de/webshop/wohnen/programm-s-33-online-kaufen?a=580 Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “Shop: S32/S64: Design Marcel Breuer,” http://de.shop.thonet.de/webshop/wohnen/programm-s-32-s-64-online-kaufen?a=580iker/programm-s-32-s-64?orderId=&a=526.Google Scholar
Bauhaus Archive, Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
Otakar Máčel Archive, Delft, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Archive Germany, Frankenberg.Google Scholar
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany.Google Scholar
Bruchhäuser, Axel, ed. Der Kragstuhl: The Cantilever Chair. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1998.Google Scholar
Günther, Sonja, Vegesack, Alexander von, Gerhard, Karin, and Dylla, Sabine. Thonet-Stahlrohrmöbel: Steckkartenkatalog: Erste vollständige Zusammenstellung der deutschen und französischen Ausgabe von 1930–1931. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Publishing, 1989.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. Kritik der Urteilskraft, vol. 10, edited by Weischedel, Wilhelm. Werkausgabe. Frankfurt (Main): Suhrkamp, 1974.Google Scholar
Lueger, Otto, ed. Lexikon der gesamten Technik und ihrer Hilfswissenschaften, vol. 1, 2nd ed. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1904.Google Scholar
Möller, Werner. Mart Stam 1899–1986: Architekt, Visionär, Gestalter: Sein Weg zum Erfolg 1919–1930. Tübingen: Wasmuth, 1997.Google Scholar
Möller, Werner, and Máčel, Otakar. Ein Stuhl macht Geschichte. Munich: Prestel-Verlag & Bauhaus Dessau, 1992.Google Scholar
Mumford, Eric. The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928–1960. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Osterrieth, Albert. Das Kunstschutzgesetz: Das Urheberrecht an Werken der bildenden Künste und der Photographie, Gesetz vom 7, Januar. Berlin: Carl Heymann, 1907.Google Scholar
Osterrieth, Albert. Die Geschichte des Urheberrechts in England. Leipzig: C. L. Hirschfeld, 1895.Google Scholar
Plumpe, Gerhard. Der tote Blick: Zum Diskurs der Photographie im Zeitalter des Realismus. Munich: Fink, 1990.Google Scholar
Rasch, Heinz, and Rasch, Bodo. Der Stuhl, edited by von Vegesack, Alexander. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Publishing, 1992.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Verbraucherpreisindizes für Deutschland: Revisionsbericht 2002. Stuttgart: Metzler-Poeschel, 2003.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1932, 51. Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1932.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1933, 52. Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1933.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1938, 57. Berlin: Paul Schmidt, 1938.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, ed. Vierteljahreshefte zur Statistik des Deutschen Reichs, 40, no. 2. Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1931.Google Scholar
Stradtmann, Friedrich Heinrich, and Schmidt, Dieter. Stahlrohr-Handbuch, 7th ed. Essen: Vulkan-Verlag, 1973.Google Scholar
Teilmann-Lock, Stina. British and French Copyright: A Historical Study of Aesthetic Implications. Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2009.Google Scholar
von Vegesack, Alexander. Das Thonet Buch. Munich: Bangert, 1987.Google Scholar
von Vegesack, Alexander, Pauley, Brigitta, and Ellenberg, Peter. Thonet: Classic Furniture in Bent Wood and Tubular Steel. New York: Rizzoli, 1997.Google Scholar
Wilk, Christopher. Thonet: 150 Years of Furniture. Woodbury, NY: Barron’s, 1980.Google Scholar
Wilk, Christopher, and Stewart Johnson, J.. Marcel Breuer: Furniture and Interiors. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1981.Google Scholar
Benton, Tim. “‘Building Utopia.” In Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939, edited by Wilk, Christopher, 149–223. London: V&A Publications, 2006.Google Scholar
Cacciola, Donatella. “Etablierte Moderne–Die Möbel von Marcel Breuer in der Produktion von Gavina und Knoll International.” In Marcel Breuer: Design und Architektur, edited by von Vegesack, Alexander and Remmele, Mathias, 150–165. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum, 2003.Google Scholar
Cannatelli, Benedetto, Pedrini, Matteo, and Grumo, Marco. “The Effect of Brand Management and Product Quality on Firm Performance: The Italian Craft Brewing Sector.” Journal of Food Products Marketing 23, no. 3 (2017): 303–325. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10454446.2014.949989 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Droste, Magdalena. “Die Möbel von Marcel Breuer.” In Marcel Breuer Design, edited by Droste, Magdalena, Ludewig, Manfred, Hahn, Peter, and Archive, Bauhaus, 6–35. Cologne: Benedikt Taschen, 1992.Google Scholar
Gorman, Carma. “Law as a Lens for Understanding Design.” Design and Culture 6, no. 3 (2014): 269–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, Zachary, and Kaiser, Aviva Meridian. “Proliferating Platforms, the Logical Layer, and the Normative Language Gap: Contemporary Conflicts in Creativity and Intellectual Property.” Design and Culture 6, no. 3 (2014): 303–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Klassenloses Sitzen.” Der Spiegel 44 (1986): 260–262.Google Scholar
Lodder, Christine. “Searching for Utopia.” In Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939, edited by Wilk, Christopher, 23–69. London: V&A Publications, 2006.Google Scholar
Máčel, Otakar. “Avant-Garde Design and the Law: Litigation over the Cantilever Chair.” Journal of Design History 3, no. 2–3 (1990): 125–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCollam, Phil. “Redefining Design Ethics: Why Graphic Design Needs Professional Self-Regulation.” Design and Culture 6, no. 3 (2014): 315–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plumpe, Gerhard. “Eigentum–Eigentümlichkeit: Über den Zusammenhang ästhetischer und juristischer Begriffe im 18. Jahrhundert.” In Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte, vol. 23, edited by Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Ritter, Joachim, and Gründer, Karlfried, 175–196. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann, 1979.Google Scholar
Pouillard, Véronique. “Keeping Designs and Brands Authentic: The Resurgence of the Post-War French Fashion Business under the Challenge of US Mass Production.” European Review of History: Revue européenne d’histoire 20, no. 5 (2013): 815–835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schliephacke, Fridtjof Frank. “Erinnerungen an Hans Luckhardt–Erfinder, Konstrukteur, Architekt.” In Brüder Luckhardt und Alfons Anker–Berliner Architekten der Moderne, edited by Wendschuh, Achim, 98–112. Schriftenreihe der Akademie der Künste. Berlin: Akademie der Künste, 1990.Google Scholar
Teilmann-Lock, Stina. “Danish Design: Legal Restrictions and Creative Responses.” Design and Culture 6, no. 3 (2014): 291–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teilmann-Lock, Stina. “The Fashion Designer as Author: The Case of a Danish T-Shirt.” Design Issues 28, no. 4 (2012): 29–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilk, Christopher. “Sitting on Air.” In Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939, edited by Wilk, Christopher, 225–247. London: V&A Publications, 2006.Google Scholar
Wilk, Christopher. “What is Modernism?” In Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939, edited by Christopher, Wilk, 11–21. London: V&A Publications, 2006.Google Scholar
Woodmansee, Martha. “The Genius and the Copyright: Economic and Legal Conditions of the Emergence of the ‘Author.’” Eighteenth-Century Studies 17, no. 4 (1984): 425–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Belleissue Lourie, Ariane. “Mass-Produced Aura: Thonet and the Market for Modern Design, 1930–1953.” Ph.D., diss., New York University, 2008.Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “100 Jahre Thonet Frankenberg 1889–1989.” Frankenberg: Thonet GmbH Germany, 1989.Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “S32/S64: Design Marcel Breuer.” Frankenberg: Thonet GmbH Germany.Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. Thonet Stahlrohrmöbel Katalog 1935, reprint. Frankenberg: Thonet GmbH Germany, 2005.Google Scholar
Cool Designworks Trading Ltd., www.the-designlover.com Google Scholar
IKEA website, “Inter IKEA Systems B.V.,” www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20115038 Google Scholar
Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf, “Urheberrechtsschutz für Mart-Stam-Stuhl von 1926,” http://www.beck.de/cms/main?sessionid=9872AD5E6639498686042F9817648772&docid=287627&docClass=NEWS& site=JuS&from=JuS.root Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt Wiesbaden (consumer price indices from 1924 to 2000; consumer prices since 1881). doi: 10.4232/1.8290. dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/sdesc2.asp?no=8290&db=e&doi=10.4232/1.8290 Google Scholar
Steelclassic. “Marcel Breuer, Cesca Chair,” http://uk.steelclassic.com/marcel-breuer-cesca-chair.html Google Scholar
Steelclassic. “Original or Copy,” http://uk.steelclassic.com/original-or-copy.html Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “Echtheitsbestimmung,” www.thonet.de/service/echtheitsbestimmung.html Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. Mediendatenbank. mediendatenbank.thonet.deGoogle Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “Shop: S33.” http://de.shop.thonet.de/webshop/wohnen/programm-s-33-online-kaufen?a=580 Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Germany. “Shop: S32/S64: Design Marcel Breuer,” http://de.shop.thonet.de/webshop/wohnen/programm-s-32-s-64-online-kaufen?a=580iker/programm-s-32-s-64?orderId=&a=526.Google Scholar
Bauhaus Archive, Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
Otakar Máčel Archive, Delft, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Thonet GmbH Archive Germany, Frankenberg.Google Scholar
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany.Google Scholar