6 chairs 222 / MS05 – Robert Mallet-Stevens

• These steel chairs by Robert Mallet-Stevens are stamped RMS under the seat, and were manufactured during the 1980s.
• H 83 CM X D 53 CM X W 39 CM X Seat height 45 CM.
• 5 leather seat cushions available (on 6 chairs)

Chair 222 / MS05 – Robert Mallet-Stevens

The 222 chair by Robert Mallet-Stevens, also known by the reference MS05, is one of the iconic creations of French modernism. Designed in the early 1930s, it illustrates a rational approach to furniture: bent metal tube structure, lacquered sheet metal seat, and backrest composed of vertical iron bands. Reduced to the essential, this stackable chair adopts a simple, functional construction designed for economical production.

The original model was published before the war by Tubor, holder of the manufacturing patent. The first versions featured two vertical bands on the backrest, before the addition of a third element reinforcing the visual and structural balance. The chair was notably presented at the Paris Salon des arts ménagers in 1935 and furnished the kitchen of Villa Cavrois.

Examples from the 1930s are distinguished by their colored lacquers, sometimes contrasting between structure and seat. Certain variants, produced for specific commissions, present differences in the composition of the backrest or in the materials used.

From 1978, Andrée Putman, founder of Ecart International, relaunched the production of several Mallet-Stevens models, contributing to the rediscovery of French modernist furniture.

The six Mallet-Stevens chairs offered here are in very good condition, stable and solid. They are marked “RMS” under the seat and appear to be independent of Ecart production.

Refined, stackable and immediately identifiable, the 222 / MS05 chair remains a major piece of French modernist design.