First designed in 1951 for his New Haven, Connecticut home, Marcel Breuer's Pecs desk (named after the Hungarian town where he was born) exudes modernist Bauhaus ideals. Its neat form, composed of rectangular components that alternate between voids and solids in various sizes, brings to mind the De Stijl aesthetic that influenced Breuer early on. Dino Gavina, founder of famed Italian midcentury furniture manufacturer Simon, met Breuer in 1961 and put Pecs into production in 1963, eventually signing the exclusive rights to produce Breuer's better-known tubular steel designs: the Cesca chair, the Wassily armchair, and the Laccio side table. After Gavina's passing in 2007, Italian brand Cassina acquired Simon, and in its mission to research and revive its trove of midcentury masterpieces, presented Pecs this week at Milan's Salone del Mobile, where it made a handsome companion to another recent revival, Charlotte Perriand's 1943 Indochine swivel chair.
First designed in 1951 for his New Haven, Connecticut home, Marcel Breuer's Pecs desk (named after the Hungarian town where he was born) exudes modernist Bauhaus ideals. Its neat form, composed of rectangular components that alternate between voids and solids in various sizes, brings to mind the De Stijl aesthetic that influenced Breuer early on. Dino Gavina, founder of famed Italian midcentury furniture manufacturer Simon, met Breuer in 1961 and put Pecs into production in 1963, eventually signing the exclusive rights to produce Breuer's better-known tubular steel designs: the Cesca chair, the Wassily armchair, and the Laccio side table. After Gavina's passing in 2007, Italian brand Cassina acquired Simon, and in its mission to research and revive its trove of midcentury masterpieces, presented Pecs this week at Milan's Salone del Mobile, where it made a handsome companion to another recent revival, Charlotte Perriand's 1943 Indochine swivel chair.