Knollstudio awarded trademark for 250LC Barcelona Chair

The Barcelona chair was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the Barcelona Pavillion in 1929.

In 1946 Hans and Florence Knoll worked with Mies van der Rohe to detail the chair for manufacturing so it could be commercially produced for the first time.

In 1948, in recognition of the quality and integrity of Knoll’s design and manufacturing abilities, Mies granted Knoll the worldwide manufacturing and marketing rights for the Barcelona® Collection.

It has long been publically recognised that Knoll was the only supplier of the original Barcelona® Chair. It is now legally recognised and Knoll has been awarded US and Europe wide trademark protection.

In Germany, Knoll has been enforcing its rights vigorously and successfully for the designs of Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer for some years, and is now taking further steps across Europe to protect what it believes to be its intellectual property.

Knoll hand produced the 250LC Barcelona® Chair to the specification agreed with Mies van der Rohe in 1948. It takes 2 days of welding grinding and polishing to produce a Knoll 250LC Barcelona® chair frame, each one buffed by hand to a mirror finish, and a further 2 days to cut and sew the 126 individual pieces of leather to hand produce the cushions that follow the subtle curve of the frame.

Only when finally assembled and checked is the chair given its unique serial number and certificate of authenticity with the KnollStudio and Mies van der Rohe names embossed into the frame.

And only a chair bearing these signatures can call itself the KnollStudio 250LC Barcelona® Chair. For further information, visit knolleurope.com.