chair:
Collection of the Moolenbeek Family
Christie’s Amsterdam, June 7, 1988, lot 402
Phillips New York, December 4, 2000, lot 95
table: 
Collection of the Moolenbeek Family
Private Collection, Amsterdam
Sotheby's Amsterdam, November 18, 2002, lot 253

Peter Vöge and Bab Westerveld, Stoelen: Nederlandse Ontwerpen 1945-1985, Amsterdam, 1986, p. 67, no. 8
Marijke Kuper and Ida van Zijl, The Complete Works of Gerrit Rietveld, Utrecht, 1992, pp. 206, no. 327-328 (for two related tables from the estate of C. Moolenbeek) and 214, no. 345 (for the chair)
Peter Vöge, The Complete Rietveld Furniture, 1993, p. 125, pl. 244 (for the chair) and 245 (for the table)
Ida van Zijl, Gerrit Rietveld, London, 2012, p. 145 (for the armchair)

Sotheby’s would like to thank Rob Driessen and Jurjen Creman for their assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.


Rietveld’s refusal to enroll in the state-approved trade guilds during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands restricted not only his access to projects, but also to basic materials now increasingly redirected to the war effort. The present armchair formed part of a brief series created specifically for branches of the Amsterdamsche Bank in The Hague and in Amsterdam, and was produced by Moolenbeek & Partners during 1942-1943. With only slender slats of basic timber available, Rietveld skillfully creates an effective and efficient load-bearing structure. The accompanying side table was executed during this same period, for the personal use of the Moolenbeek family.

- S. A.