
Cesca Chair

The Cesca Chair was a chair design in 1928 by Marcel Breuer, using tubular steel. It was named Cesca as a tribute to Breuer’s adopted daughter Francesca (nicknamed Cheska). In 1968 the chair was purchased by Knoll Associates (today known as the Knoll Group). Since then, approximately 250,000 of the chairs have been purchased. The three official manufacturers of the chair were: Thonet (from 1927), Gavina (1950s), and Knoll (1960s).
In 1928, it was the first such tubular-steel frame caned seat type of chair that was mass-produced. It was among the 10 most common such chairs. One of the original ones from that time sits in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. Associate Curator at the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, Cara McCarty, referred to the chair as being “among the 10 most important chairs of the 20th century.”