An unidentified 1950’s kitchen cabinet with a stunning patina.
After the WW2 many new houses had to be created in Europe, efficiently and cost effectively. To create space, storage became one of the great concerns for post-war interior design. Already before the war, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky created a revolutionary, standardised kitchen. In the Netherlands, Piet Zwart designed the famous Bruynzeel kitchen, associated with the principles of De Stijl. And in France, Charlotte Perriand stated that: “storage is a priority: it may or may not be incorporated in the architecture; since it responds to the greatest needs of equipping, it must be resolutely industrialised”. This cabinet was clearly made in the same spirit.
The doors playfully slide into different compositions, revealing the heavily patinated wood behind them. Their colours are typical of the era, but probably not applied like this in the factory. They were painted by brush, possibly right when it was installed. In the Netherlands, the influential designer / architect Gerrit Rietveld would advocate the idea of painting your own furniture. So this is a unique piece, with colours reminiscent of those used by Perriand and Prouve. It has plenty of scratches and dark rings on the inside, but it is fully functional and the patina as a whole is amazing.
