Bruno Paul for Vereinigte Werkstatten, a rare oak and glazed two door 'Typenmöbel'

Bruno Paul for Vereinigte Werkstatten, a rare oak and glazed two door 'Typenmöbel' cabinet, German, c.1908, design no. T.549, 192cm high x 105cm wide x 33cm deep together with two associated single door cabinets, design no. T547, 192cm high x 53.5cm wide x 33cm deep, brass trade label to reverse - VEREINIGTE WERKSTATTEN F. KUNST I. HANDWERK A.G. BERLIN BELLEVUE STR. 5A,

Notes: Illustrated 'Bruno Paul' by Alfred Ziffer 1992 page 181 illustration 325.

Bruno Paul was an architect, interior designer, furniture designer and a satirical cartoonist. He was one of the most important designers of modernism in the twentieth century, his involvment with the Vereinigte Werkstätten (United Workshops) Berlin brought his designs to a wider public. His Typenmobel (Unit Furniture) of 1908 was far ahead of its time, it was not until 1925-6 that Marcel Breuer developed a similar idea at the Bauhaus. By 1906 Paul had established himself internationally as designer having won gold medals at the Paris International Exposition 1900 and Louisianna Exposition of 1906.

He moved to Berlin from Munich in 1906 where became the director of the applied art and design museum he also carried on work as a designer producing a prolific output of work. Paul's most historically significant furniture design was the Typenmöbel of 1908, the first example of modern, unit furniture conceived to allow for an unlimited number of combinations of standardized, elements. The Typenmöbel range was widely published in contemporary professional journals, many examples are now in museums.