Lot 60
ATTRIBUTED TO ROBIN DAY (BRITISH 1915–2010)
BENCH
Auction: The Ursula & Gordon Bowyer Collection | Lots 1 to 79 | Thurs 30 October from 5pm
Description
slatted wood, possibly makore wood, with enamelled metal frame
Dimensions
32cm high, 228.5cm long, 45.75cm deep (12 5/8in high, 90in long, 18in deep)
Provenance
The Collection of Gordon & Ursula Bowyer.
Footnote
Literature:
see Jackson, Lesley, Robin & Lucienne Day: Pioneers of Contemporary Design, Mitchell Beazley, London, 2011, pp. 60–61 and 106, for examples of slatted benches with two supports produced by Hille.
This bench, featuring a distinctive slatted seat and triangular end supports, closely relates to designs by Robin Day, with whom Gordon and Ursula Bowyer collaborated and shared a long-standing friendship. Originally conceived as a bench, low table, or cabinet support within the Interplan range, it was produced by Hille in a smaller format with two triangular supports on each side. No documented examples with three supports are known, though its height of 32 cm and depth of 45.75 cm correspond to the smaller model.
A two-support version of this bench was exhibited at the Milan Triennale in 1954 and at British Design Today in Frankfurt in 1958.