- Product:
- "BETA" CHAIR
- Manufacturer:
- Sotheby´s
- Architonic ID:
- 4107744
- Launched:
- 1934
- Country:
- United Kingdom
- Category:
- Furnishings
- Address
- Telephone
- Website
Key facts
Product description
Painted tubular steel and leatherette
Manufactured by Howell Manufacturing Company, Geneva, IL
27 3/4 in. (70.5 cm) high
As a designer and inventor, Nathan George Horwitt was among the pioneers of industrial design. He was born in Romania in 1898, and heimmigrated to the United States at a young age. After studying in New York at the City University, New York University, and the Art Students League, his first job was in advertising. Horwitt decided to leave that career, and in 1931 he and several partners founded Design Engineers, Inc. The company’s core business, he stated, was “commodity creation” and its slogan was “BEAUTILITY: Without use there is no beauty/without beauty—what is the use.” Among the various ideas that were designed but never produced were the “Fanny Parker” (a chair with an inflatable seat), the “Cyclox” (a clock resembling a Cyclops), and the “Rotor” (a refrigerator with a rotating interior).
The “Beta” chair was only slightly more successful. The cantilevered chair with its “B”-shaped profile was Horwitt’s response to the Bauhaus. He envisioned the Beta chair with three “body styles” defined by their tilts and upholstery (see mock-up of “Beta” chair ad). In May 1933, Horwitt filed for both design and utility patents on the “Beta,” and they were granted on July 18, 1933, and February 11, 1936, respectively. As stated in the utility patent, the “main object of this invention is to provide a graceful, sturdy and comfortable chair, economical in construction and conforming to modern methods and standards of manufacture, maintenance and utility.”
Unfortunately, Horwitt had difficulty securing a manufacturer for the “Beta.” He tried to interest Lloyd Manufacturing Company in hiring Design Engineers to help them develop a brand identity, using the “Beta” as their centerpiece, but he could not convince them that there was a market for metal furniture. Still, Horwitt was taking orders for the chairs, including one from a member of his own company who requested six chairs in green upholstery in September 1933. Shortly after the disappointing outcome with Lloyd, Horwitt had turned to Howell Manufacturing Company of Geneva, IL, and in a letter dated September 28, 1933, he confirmed their agreement to “make up an initial limited number to provide for orders now on hand, and for sampling purposes” during a six month trial period. Two models were produced in 1934, but the exact number of resulting chairs is unknown.
While the “Beta” chair was having difficulty finding acceptance in the market, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, included it in the Machine Art exhibition in 1934, and illustrated it alongside Le Corbusier, Perriand and Jeanneret’s siège à dossier basculant and Marcel Breuer’s cantilevered chair. The exhibition catalogue stated that the piece was manufactured by the Howell Company, distributed by Brown & Nightingale, New York, and available at department and furniture stores for $30. However, Howell never marketed the chair and apparently ceased production after the initial run. In 1936, Horwitt tried to interest the Bunting Glider Company in manufacturing the chair, but to no avail.
Only one of Horwitt’s many designs achieved astounding popularity, although Horwitt himself never profited much from it. In 1947, he designed a blank watch face with only a single disc at the top and hour and minute hands. Again, the Museum of Modern Art acknowledged and praised his design, accessioning a model of the watch into its permanent collection. Eventually the Movado Watch Corporation acquired the design and trademarked the name “Museum Watch.”
In the 1940s, Horwitt moved to Lenox, MA, where he became an organic farmer and developed a talent for, among other things, identifying many varieties of mushrooms. However, he did not stop inventing, designing, or filing patents which numbered no less than 24 by the time he died at the age of 92 in 1990.
Before his death, in 1985, Horwitt donated one of two Howell prototypes to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where it was exhibited in the Machine Age in America exhibition. The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, which houses the Horwitt archives, has a miniature model of the “Beta” chair in their collection. The chair offered here is one of two unearthed in the mid-1990s. The other one was sold at Phillips, dePury & Luxembourg in June 2001.
Sotheby’s would like to thank the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum for access to the Nathan George Horwitt archive.
Literature and References:
Museum of Modern Art, Machine Art, exh. cat., New York, 1934, no. 282
"Designer's Choice," Creative Design, Summer 1935, p. 27
Richard Guy Wilson, ed., The Machine Age in America, New York, 1986, p. 309
John Fleming, "The Semiotics of Furniture Form," Canadian Society of Decorative Arts, Spring 1989, p. 4
Manufactured by Howell Manufacturing Company, Geneva, IL
27 3/4 in. (70.5 cm) high
As a designer and inventor, Nathan George Horwitt was among the pioneers of industrial design. He was born in Romania in 1898, and heimmigrated to the United States at a young age. After studying in New York at the City University, New York University, and the Art Students League, his first job was in advertising. Horwitt decided to leave that career, and in 1931 he and several partners founded Design Engineers, Inc. The company’s core business, he stated, was “commodity creation” and its slogan was “BEAUTILITY: Without use there is no beauty/without beauty—what is the use.” Among the various ideas that were designed but never produced were the “Fanny Parker” (a chair with an inflatable seat), the “Cyclox” (a clock resembling a Cyclops), and the “Rotor” (a refrigerator with a rotating interior).
The “Beta” chair was only slightly more successful. The cantilevered chair with its “B”-shaped profile was Horwitt’s response to the Bauhaus. He envisioned the Beta chair with three “body styles” defined by their tilts and upholstery (see mock-up of “Beta” chair ad). In May 1933, Horwitt filed for both design and utility patents on the “Beta,” and they were granted on July 18, 1933, and February 11, 1936, respectively. As stated in the utility patent, the “main object of this invention is to provide a graceful, sturdy and comfortable chair, economical in construction and conforming to modern methods and standards of manufacture, maintenance and utility.”
Unfortunately, Horwitt had difficulty securing a manufacturer for the “Beta.” He tried to interest Lloyd Manufacturing Company in hiring Design Engineers to help them develop a brand identity, using the “Beta” as their centerpiece, but he could not convince them that there was a market for metal furniture. Still, Horwitt was taking orders for the chairs, including one from a member of his own company who requested six chairs in green upholstery in September 1933. Shortly after the disappointing outcome with Lloyd, Horwitt had turned to Howell Manufacturing Company of Geneva, IL, and in a letter dated September 28, 1933, he confirmed their agreement to “make up an initial limited number to provide for orders now on hand, and for sampling purposes” during a six month trial period. Two models were produced in 1934, but the exact number of resulting chairs is unknown.
While the “Beta” chair was having difficulty finding acceptance in the market, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, included it in the Machine Art exhibition in 1934, and illustrated it alongside Le Corbusier, Perriand and Jeanneret’s siège à dossier basculant and Marcel Breuer’s cantilevered chair. The exhibition catalogue stated that the piece was manufactured by the Howell Company, distributed by Brown & Nightingale, New York, and available at department and furniture stores for $30. However, Howell never marketed the chair and apparently ceased production after the initial run. In 1936, Horwitt tried to interest the Bunting Glider Company in manufacturing the chair, but to no avail.
Only one of Horwitt’s many designs achieved astounding popularity, although Horwitt himself never profited much from it. In 1947, he designed a blank watch face with only a single disc at the top and hour and minute hands. Again, the Museum of Modern Art acknowledged and praised his design, accessioning a model of the watch into its permanent collection. Eventually the Movado Watch Corporation acquired the design and trademarked the name “Museum Watch.”
In the 1940s, Horwitt moved to Lenox, MA, where he became an organic farmer and developed a talent for, among other things, identifying many varieties of mushrooms. However, he did not stop inventing, designing, or filing patents which numbered no less than 24 by the time he died at the age of 92 in 1990.
Before his death, in 1985, Horwitt donated one of two Howell prototypes to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where it was exhibited in the Machine Age in America exhibition. The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, which houses the Horwitt archives, has a miniature model of the “Beta” chair in their collection. The chair offered here is one of two unearthed in the mid-1990s. The other one was sold at Phillips, dePury & Luxembourg in June 2001.
Sotheby’s would like to thank the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum for access to the Nathan George Horwitt archive.
Literature and References:
Museum of Modern Art, Machine Art, exh. cat., New York, 1934, no. 282
"Designer's Choice," Creative Design, Summer 1935, p. 27
Richard Guy Wilson, ed., The Machine Age in America, New York, 1986, p. 309
John Fleming, "The Semiotics of Furniture Form," Canadian Society of Decorative Arts, Spring 1989, p. 4