The Cesca chair (/ˈtʃɛskə/) is a chair design created in 1928 by the Hungarian-American architect and designer Marcel Breuer. It consists of a tubular steel frame and a rattan seat and backing.[1][2] The design was named as a tribute to Breuer’s adopted daughter Francesca (nicknamed Cesca).[3] One of the original chairs designed by Breuer is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.[4]
The design was purchased in 1968 by Knoll Associates. Since then,[as of?] approximately 250,000 of the chairs have been purchased.[5] The three official manufacturers of the chair were Thonet (from 1927), Gavina (1950s), and Knoll (1960s).[6]
In 1928, the Cesca chair was the first such tubular-steel-frame, caned-seat chair to be mass-produced.[7] It was among the ten most common such chairs. One of the original ones from that time sits in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.[8] Cara McCarty, a curator at the museum, referred to the chair as being "among the 10 most important chairs of the 20th century".[9]