The first steel tube furniture of Japan

Prospectus of the manufacturer Yokohama Senkyo 横浜船渠 (est. 1889) and the sales company Tanbaya 丹波屋 (est. 1913).

Published probably between 1930 and 1933.

Leporello format folded 21 x 14.5 cm; unfolded 21 x 44 cm printed on both sides.

sold

Very rare Japanese sales brochure for tube steel furniture.

The design of the furniture is by Takehiko Mizutani 水谷武彦(1898-1969), who studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1927 to 1929.  An accompanying text in the brochure by Gaijiro Fujishima (藤島亥治郎, Fujishima Gaijirō) (1899 – 2002), a Japanese architectural historian of the time, indicates that the furniture offered in the brochure are the first industrially produced steel tube furniture in Japan. Furthermore, the text in the brochure emphasizes the completely Japanese design of the steel tube furniture offered here.  However,  Marcel Breuer is credited as the pioneer of steel furniture design.

Except for small brown spots very well preserved.