A very beautiful and mon chair {chaise}, built by UMS Pastoe, in the Netherlands / Holland, around 1950. This particular Dutch modern dining chair is rare, as I haven’t seen another one like it on the internet. Excellent European craftmanship and design.

Solid beech {hetre} frame and legs; plywood seat back covered in beech veneer; steel spring and strap seat suspension; cross shape seat frame; blue and white upholstery on seat and back. Beautiful detail on this Mid-Century Modern {milieu du siècle moderne} chairs are the solid beech legs and backrest made of beech veneer. The back and seat are upholstered in blue / grey / white wool fabric, which fits nicely with the colour of the wood {bois}.

Possibly designed by the renowned Dutch designer Cees Braakman. After World War II, Cees Braakman visited the United States and learned the plywood techniques at the Herman Miller factory. Back in Holland {Hollande} he was at the head of the famous Dutch {Néerlandais} pany Pastoe, and designed a wide variety of minimalist modern furniture {meuble} . This chairs is clearly inspired by the Charles and Ray Eames chairs.

Very good vintage condition. From a non-smoking house. Some wear of the upholstery. Structurally sound.

Stamp under seat: UMS Pastoe Utrecht.

Dimensions: 19” W x 34” H x 22” D; Seat height 19”; Seat depth, useable 16”

Asking $115, or best offer. Price reduced from $245. Can deliver within Ottawa / Gatineau / Montreal area.

Chair is located at the Nostalgia Warehouse (Antiques, Collectibles and Oddities) shop, at 233C Armstrong Street, Ottawa, ON, just west of Parkdale Avenue and the Carleton Tavern, and north of the Parkdale Market.

Regular shop hours: Open 5 days per week, from Wed to Sun: noon to 5pm; Mon and Tue closed Shop phone: 613-695-1966. Please call before heading over, to confirm opening hours, especially during Covid-19 restrictions. Curb-side pick up available.

On Instagram, you can visit nostalgiawarehouse.

You can view my other ibuyca furniture and vintage ads. As well, you can check out some of my items on Instagram, at “underwoodforest”.

History Dutch designer Cees Braakman was born in Utrecht in 1917. At the age of 17, he began working at Pastoe, a Utrecht-based furniture manufacturer, where he learned the trade. His father, D.L. Braakman (1885-1966), was then pany’s head draftsman and manager. In 1948, following the Second World War (during which time the factory was dismantled), Braakman followed in his father’s footsteps, taking on the role of Pastoe’s manager and designer, where he would remain until 1978.

In 1947, Braakman was sent to the United States to observe other manufacturers’ designs and practices. He was particularly inspired by the Herman Miller Company and by Charles and Ray Eames. Upon his return to the Netherlands, he began experimenting with bent plywood and created Pastoe’s first modern furniture line. He went on to develop several lines of popular furniture, marked by clean, elegant lines and a sense of proportion tailored to smaller living spaces. During the 1950s and ’60s, Braakman placed particular emphasis on modular storage solutions. In 1955, Pastoe launched Braakman’s Made-to-Measure cabinets, which allowed customers to choose from a variety of woods and configurations and self-assemble them. In 1957, the teak version of the Made-to-Measure furniture system earned a silver medal at the 1957 Triennale in Milan. In 1958, Braakman introduced the more formal, similarly clean-lined U+N cabinet series (this collection, in contrast, was not meant to be assembled by the end user). Notably, Braakman’s Mobilo (Model PE03) cart (1953) is included in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. He passed away in Utrecht in 1995.

Pastoe’s story began in 1913 in Utrecht, when German-Dutch businessman Frits Loeb (1889-1959) decided to produce chairs in a traditional cabinetmaking workshop to sell in his own shop. His atelier—named Utrechtsche Machinale Stoel-en Meubelfabrik (UMS) at the time—quickly grew and in 1917 moved into a large factory facility, manufacturing furniture for a range of retail outlets. In 1918, the factory was moved again to the Rotsoord area in Utrecht, where it is still located today. While the early furniture lines produced by UMS were intended for a general audience, pany—under the direction of designer-manager D. L. Braakman (1885-1966)—was one of the first in the Netherlands to adopt a more austere, minimalist aesthetic expressed in then-novel materials like tubular steel and bent plywood. The Dutch market was slow to respond to these designs, so it was all the more audacious when UMS, in 1947, became dedicated to producing only modernist furniture. To reflect the new mission, pany’s name was changed to Pastoe.

In 1948, Cees Braakman (1917-1995), D. L.’s son, took the helm as designer and director and furthered pany’s modernist aims, advocating for low-cost, modular designs inspired by the likes of Charles & Ray Eames and Alvar Aalto—the latter of which created the first series of Pastoe geometric cabinets at the end of the 1940s. During the 1950s, pany focused on developing flexible cabinet systems that could be assembled by the consumer, which led to the highly customizable, highly successful Made-to-Measure storage system (1955). In 1957, Made-to-Measure furniture was awarded a silver medal at the 11th Trienniale in Milan and crowned with the Le Signe d’Or in Belgium.

Today Pastoe continues to manufacture formally simple, high-quality furniture, including cabinet systems, storage pieces, chairs, and more. Many of Pastoe’s designs have attained an iconic status, such as Cees Braakman’s SMO5 Chair (1958), one of the first stools to be entirely fabricated in steel wire, and Studio Pastoe’s L-Series Cabinet (1979). Recent collaborations include projects with the late, great Belgian designer Maarten Van Severen, German designer Konstantin Grcic, and rising-star Dutch studio Scholten & Baijings.

Pastoe’s objects have been exhibited in galleries and museums broadly, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and the in Amsterdam.