International Style: The Boyd Collection 
7 November 2019
International Style: The Boyd Collection 
178

Hans Coray

Early and Rare Landi chair

P.W. Blattmann Wadenswil
Switzerland, 1938
anodized aluminum, aluminum, rubber 29¾ h × 20 w × 27 d in (76 × 51 × 69 cm)
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $3,000
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Signed with impressed manufacturer’s mark to underside 'Switzerland'.
provenance: Collection of Michael and Gabrielle Boyd
exhibited: Sitting on the Edge: Modernist Design from the Collection of Michael and Gabrielle Boyd, 20 November 1998 - 23 February 1999, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
literature: Swiss Furniture and Interiors in the Twentieth Century, Ruegg, pg. 158 Sitting on the Edge: Modernist Design from the Collection of Michael and Gabrielle Boyd, Antonelli, Betsky, Boyd and Garner, pl. 45 illustrates this example

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This is a rare variation of the Landi chair in red anodized aluminum. The design was first introduced at the 1939 Swiss National Exhibition or Landesausstellung, which was affectionately shortened to Landi. 

Attendees seated on Landi chairs along the bank of Lake Zürich during the 1939 Swiss National Exhibition.
© Hans Baumgartner / Fotostiftung Schweiz

Hans Coray 1906–1991

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Hans Coray was born in Zürich in 1906 and studied romance languages, receiving his doctorate in the field in 1929. Coray was also interested in arts and design and established himself the following year as a furniture designer in Zürich. He is most famous for his 1938 Landi chair, an all-aluminum stacking chair that debuted as the official seating for the grounds at the Swiss National Exhibition of 1939. Landi was the first design of Coray’s to be put into production, after he had spent much of the 1930s experimenting with the use of sheet metal and industrial processes of production.

Coray was also associated with the Art Concret movement, founded by Theo van Doesburg in 1930 and continued after his death in 1931 by artists such as Hans Fischli and Max Bill. Art Concret focused on art being universal, anti-impressionistic and without “lyricism, drama, symbolism and so on.” These maxims guided Coray in creating works of collective appeal, functionality and simplicity. In the 1950s, Coray returned to figurative art and passed away in 1991 in his native Zürich.

Auction Results Hans Coray

Hans Coray

Landi table

estimate: $1,500–2,000

result: $4,375

Hans Coray

Early and Rare Landi chair

estimate: $3,000–5,000

result: $2,500

Hans Coray

Landi armchairs, set of six

estimate: $2,000–3,000

result: $1,875

Hans Coray

Landi chairs, set of eight

estimate: $2,000–3,000

result: $1,872

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