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This is a reproduction of the very first version of the Chaise Longue of Le Corbusier. This was the version that Le Corbusier used in the Villa Church. Unlike the later versions, the upper carriage is not formed of what appears to be a continuously curving, unbroken line of tube supported by two arcs. In this prototype, the curved side bars are welded at the head and foot to a thicker straight tube. From a technical point of view, this solution can be considered more primitive in that it involves more handwork and less camplicated bending equipment. This upper carriage of the prototype could have conceivably been made by an artisan while it is highly improbable that the later version would have been attempled by a metal shop without fairly accurate mechanical equipment capable of both right and left hand bending. The base of the prototype was made with the same eliptical airplane tube as Le Corbusier’s famous table. A base made with ovoid airplane tube is also extant. It seems as though only a single example was made, the ovoid tube being rejected in favour of the eliptical tube. While the upper carriage of the prototype was modified to the continuous tube version present in the first Thonet France catalogue and in the production version shown at the Salon d’Automne of 1929, the eliptical tube base remained unchanged until 1959 when it was modified by Heidi Weber. Le Corbusier was notoriously thrifty and had the habit of recycling his prototypes. Just as one of the Grand Confort prototyped was later forced upon a somewhat reluctant client, Raul Le Roche, one of these Chaise Longue prototypes was sold to the Maharajah of Indore who used it in his palace with a mattress covered in leopard skin.
Base structure pained black, tubular element chrome-plated or painted. Padded uphostery, Headrest in leather.
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