416 Model Chair by Wim Rietveld & André Cordemeyer for Gispen, 1957

Want to Know More About A.R. Cordemeyer?

André R. Cordemeyer was born in Bussum in the Netherlands in 1924. After studying mechanical engineering at Amsterdam’s Technical College he started his career as a draftsman. In 1952 the bed manufacturer Auping hired Cordemeyer as a technician. There he would concentrate on his own design work and had his first success with the Cleopatra Bed. In 1954 Cordemeyer resigned from Auping and became a member of The Hague’s industrial design circle Kring Industriële Ontwerpers.

A.R. Cordemeyer’s Collaborations and Career

A.R. Cordemeyer collaborated with Wim Rietveld and together they introduced the use of plastic at the furniture manufacturer Gispen . Their designs included armchair No. 416, which was one of the first industrially manufactured plastic chairs in the Netherlands. Following Rietveld’s resignation from Gispen in 1957, Cordemeyer worked in a design team with Van Osselen and L.J. Hollowman. Between 1956 and 1975 Cordemeyer designed many pieces of furniture for Gispen. In 1961 he designed a series of seating units including conference chair No. 1431 and armchair No. 1432 as well as sofas No.1704 and No.1715. Cordemeyer is noted for his innovative use of new materials and the mechanized production process. His designs are celebrated for their robust nature and high functionality. His furniture is adaptable, featuring removable arm rests and cushions and can thus be modified according to personal preference.

A.R. Cordemeyer at PAMONO

Pamono’s carefully curated collection is hand-picked to guarantee we source the highest quality pieces from the best dealers. Our collection includes many Cordemeyer pieces that were designed for manufacturer Gispen. Not only does Pamono’s collection include his iconic chairs but it also includes Desks and storage units. Cordemeyer’s designs come in all shapes and sizes but all demonstrate exemplary craftsmanship. By buying your A.R. Cordemeyer piece through Pamono you are not only guaranteed safe online payment and worldwide shipping but also a truly unique item of the highest quality.

The History of Wim Rietveld

Wim Rietveld was the youngest son of the world famous architect and design innovator Gerrit Rietveld. Though Wim Rietveld initially went to school to study to become a tool maker, in 1950 he started to attend evening classes in industrial design at the Hague Academy. Rietveld then got a job as a designer at Gispen after W.H. Gispen left the company, and introduced the concept of 'Furniture for a Simple Interior' as part of the Good Living style. Mainly designing office furniture and lighting, the 1407 chair he created with Andre Cordemeijer received the top prize at the 10th Milan Triennale in 1954. His ethos, in regards to his designs, was 'well shaped, solid, practical and cheap’. This impressed the Technical University in Delft, so in 1973 they offered him the position as an 'extraordinary academic' with the department for Industrial Design.

How to Spot a Wim Rietveld

Wim Rietveld’s furniture is simple, functional and elegant - be it the classic school-style Gispen 116 chairs, which is practical, sturdy and aesthetically appealing, or the artistic Industrial Reply stool and desk set, which plays on the notion of empty space and traditional design. Mostly working in neutral tones of metal and wood, Wim Rietveld occasionally introduced flashes of blues and reds - whether it's the blue and black 1407 chair or a simple red Armchair. While the Panama lamp no. 4050 is metallic and simple, his Table lamp features a yellow body and red shade - with the early Gispen storage system also showcasing a range of different shades.

Wim Rietveld’s Notable Designs

One of Wim Rietveld most recognizable pieces is the Pyramid chair, which is a highly sought after example of modernist industrial design.. Beyond office and domestic furniture and lighting, Wim Rietveld was also a renowned designer of machinery, boards, trains and household appliances. He actually considered himself an industrial designer, rather than a designer. He also designed agricultural machinery for Vicon and stoves, hot plates and a coffee maker for Inventum.

Willem Hendrik (W. H.) Gispen, a pioneer of Dutch functionalism, was born in Amsterdam in 1890. Prior to the outbreak of World War I, he studied architecture at the Academy of Visual Arts & Technical Science in Rotterdam. In 1916, he set up an eponymous metalwork shop dedicated to ornamental iron, brass, and bronze decorative arts. During these early years, Gispen produced objects in Expressionist and Art Nouveau styles.

In the 1920s, however, through encounters with influential theorists and practitioners of modernism—such as De Stijl architect J. J. P. Oud, Deutscher Werkbund architect Hermann Muthesius, and Purist architect Le Corbusier—Gispen’s firm increasingly moved toward mechanized production and rational, economical, minimalist designs. His geometrically reduced Giso Light (1926/7), now considered one of the Netherlands’ greatest design icons, was the culmination of his newfound commitment to functionalism. It was quickly followed by his first cantilevered, tubular steel chair, inspired by the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Mart Stam. Gispen’s marketing and advertising arms also adopted the vanguard spirit of the day through cutting-edge typography and collaged photos by the likes of graphic artist Paul Schuitema and photographer Jan Kamman.

Gispen’s successes in the 1920s were followed by years of hardship. The 1929 Wall Street Crash and the resulting Great Depression nearly sent the company into bankruptcy. In response, Gispen was reorganized, and naval architect W. van Osselen was brought in as co-director to develop a promising office furniture line in steel. Multiple patents lawsuits—from Stam and van der Rohe in particular—further hampered the company’s growth in the 1930s. Then, in the 1940s, W. H. Gispen was imprisoned for protesting the Nazi Kulturkammer censorship policies. In 1953, he resigned from his own company due to mounting artistic tensions with van Osselen.

Gispen flourished in the 1950s and '60s, even after its founder's departure. In particular, the company found great success with the minimalist, rationalist designs of A. R. Cordemeyer and Wim Rietveld. Standout designs from the Gispen collection in the postwar era include the 1407 Armchair (1954) by Cordemeyer and Rietveld, Model 663 Storage System (1954) by Rietveld, Model Giso 4050 Lamp (1956) by Rietveld, 217 Chair (1957) by Rietveld and his father Gerrit Rietveld, 1262 Chair (1959) by Cordemeyer, and 1637 Swivel Chair (1963) by Cordemeyer.

W. H. Gispen's design career did not end upon his departure from the company. he went on to found another design manufacturing company, called Kembo, in 1953 and taught at the Koninklijke Academie in The Hague, among other design ventures.

Today, Gispen operates under the name Gispen International BV. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam organized the first exhibition dedicated to Gispen in 1981, which focused primarily on lamp designs from 1916 to 1949. The Giso Model 404 Piano Lamp (1927/28), designed by Oud and Gispen and produced by the Gispen firm, can be found in a number of museum collections, including the Cooper Hewitt and MoMA in New York and the Wolfsonian in Miami.

*All images courtesy of Gispen