Dining Chair by Elmar Berkovich for Zijlstra Joure, 1950s

Elmar Berkovich Chair made by Zijlstra te Joure with new seat cushion. Elmar Berkovich is a very important interior architect and furniture & fabric designer from the early to mid 20th century. He had a diverse career as an interior architect and designer who also published and advised/consulted. Between the wars he worked for Metz & Co (Amsterdam) the most important shop for avantgarde furniture; after WWII he worked for Philips (Eindhoven) designing large office, factory and hospital interiors. Although only a few of his pieces went into wide production he is represented in many a museum design collection worldwide. We have been fortunate enough to acquire a whole suite of custom-made (home) furnishings from 1950. There are 15 pieces plus a floor-lamp (which came from the same house but we’re not sure it’s by Elmar). (or 16 if you count the nightstands separately) They all have similar details, edging and are all made of matching Sapeli-Mahogany. Even the floor-lamp has a base of Sapeli-Mahogany. (or sapele mahogany?) ———————————————– Pages from the book: “Elmar Berkovich 1897-1968 meubelontwerper en interieurarchitect” by Harry Broekman and Madeleine Lim, pub: Bonas NAi In illustration OCB_185 (pg 136) we see the armchair, sofa, coffee table, sideboard with bookcase, dining chair with armrest and even a corner of the dining table. These were designed for the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM) (now part of Shell) for their employees who were temporarily stationed in the tropics. Made by Zijlstra te Joure (Netherlands) the entire furniture suite was initially flat-packed and assembled on site. This very rare set made it back to the Netherlands. This was clearly Elmar’s favourite chair, since first designing it in 1947 he brought it back in numerous projects, see the diverse pages; vintage, mid-century modern, 50s, 1950s, fifties, seating