Sedia 118, base tubo acciaio cromato, impilabile

The following interesting story revolves around the stackable chair 118 from the Kleinkopf company, a chair that has often been considered as a copy of the classic SE 68 SU chair created by Egon Eiermann:

In order to satisfy the post-war demand for furniture many European designers and manufacturers developed simple and inexpensive furniture. Egon Eiermann, one of the most important German architects of the post-war moderns and even more well-known furniture designer, accepted a professorship in architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 1947 and developed during that time period a whole collection of very basic furniture like the familiar table base and also many chairs like, for example, the SE 68 for the Wilde + Spieth company. Rudolf Kleinkopf, a skilled wainwright, began during the same period in Ötigheim near Karlsruhe to produce basic furniture for schools, hospitals and state agencies.

At the beginning of the 1950´s, both Eiermann and Kleinkopf were inspired by the plywood chairs designed by Ray and Charles Eames to develop their own chairs which were likewise made from chromed steel-tube frames and two moulded wood shells. Whether there was a kind of mutual influence between the two designers as a result of their geographical proximity is not clear. What is clear is that the Kleinkopf company of today has in its possession catalogues from 1952 which prove that the 118 chair was the result of an independent development and not the result of copying the Eiermann design. As a result, the Kleinkopf company is the only one that is allowed to produce an “Eiermann-like” chair (even if this characterization is unjustified because what we are dealing with is really an original on its own). Other companies, against whom the charge of copying has been raised and who have therefore been sued by the manufacturer of the Eiermann chair, Wilde + Spieth, have been prohibited from further production.

Irrespective of the historical background, it is our opinion that the 118 chair from the Kleinkopf company is an independently created chair that is both very comfortable and sturdy and one that need not shy away from comparison to other designs.