cabinet model B290 – Bruno Weill (BeWe) for Thonet-Paris, ca. 1930

The cabinet offered here is the original Model B 290, designed around 1930 by Bruno Weill (BeWe) for Thonet-Paris. At that time, Weill served as artistic director of Thonet’s Paris branch and played a decisive role in opening the company’s programme to the emerging French design avant-garde.

The 1930/31 Thonet card index catalogue introduced furniture by leading architects and designers such as Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Émile Guyot, establishing a direct connection between modern architecture and the Thonet product line. In parallel, Weill developed around thirty independent furniture designs, of which only a small number are documented today.

The B 290 cabinet represents this creative exchange between Bauhaus Modernism and the French avant-garde. Its construction unites a tubular steel frame with a two-tone lacquered wooden corpus, comprising a cabinet section, two drawers and two shelving elements. A characteristic feature is the use of large Bauhaus-style cylindrical handles, which underline the progressive and sculptural expression of the design. The original Thonet manufacturer’s plaque is present.

The cabinet has been professionally restored and maintains the authentic visual character of the early 1930s.

This piece marks an important chapter in design history, where Thonet-Paris translated the impulses of modern architecture directly into its furniture programme.

Literature: Alexander von Vegesack, Deutsche Stahlrohrmöbel, Munich 1993, pp. 85 / 119.