On behalf of Oedekoven Design, Cremer & Cremer, known for producing prototypes for international designers, produced the Leda chair.

The curved element of Angela Oedekoven’s chair is made of birch veneer and the seat area of lacquered wood.

It can be seen in the Vitra Schaudepot as well as published in the “Atlas of Furniture Design” of the Vitra Design Museum.

It was to be produced in an edition of 150 pieces. 50 pieces were produced. This chair bears the number 004 of 150.

From the private collection of Peter Schmitz, acquired directly from Angela Oedekoven at the time.

Inscribed on the underside.

The original certificate is available.

H 87 W 40 D 50

LEDA
With momentum through the decades

Angela Oedekoven designed the Leda object chair in 1983. The first model was exhibited in the same year at the Essen Design Fair in Haus Industrieform, the forerunner of the Design Zentrum NRW, and was honoured with numerous publications in magazines such as md, form, Schöner Wohnen, Möbelkultur. In 1984, the first prototype in grey-yellow lacquer was created. The interpenetration of the material elements and the contrast between the rigid angle and the undulating flowing form made Leda unmistakable. In October 1984 Leda won 1st prize in the international furniture competition at Interieur 84 in Kortrijk, Belgium (K) and was featured in all the relevant international architecture and design magazines from Tokyo to New York. In 1986 a new prototype followed, the body of which was veneered and the curved part was made of anodised aluminium, to which was added the side table and thus the rowable function.

Leda took part in many exhibitions, for example in 1986 with ‘Emotional Collages – Living by the Senses’. This show presented European avant-garde furniture design of the time at the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf and the Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht. The International Design Congress Erkundungen in Stuttgart showed Leda in the accompanying exhibition in 1986, after which the chair toured the 19th Biennale in Sao Paulo, Brazil (K) in 1987.
Rolf Fehlbaum of Vitra acquired the prototype in aluminium and the model in grey-yellow lacquer in 1987 for his collection. Postcards were published for the opening of the Vitra Design Museum in 1989, including those of the furniture design of the 1980s; Leda represented the decade with eleven other chairs. Weil am Rhein included the chair in its 89 yearbook.

In the 1980s and 1990s, design galleries emerged in Germany that represented unique furniture and small series. Angela Oedekoven met Ernst Cremer from ‘Cremer & Cremer’ in Eschweiler, who ran the carpentry and experimental workshop for the prototyping of international designers. In 1990, Cremer & Cremer produced the Leda chair on behalf of Oedekoven Design and initially manufactured 50 pieces, the beginning of a limited, numbered edition of 150 pieces, with a number embossed, for example 001-150 under the seat. The chair was made in birch veneer with an eye and lacquer colours in the seat area. Design galleries such as Designer’s Düsseldorf, möbel perdu Hamburg, art to use Frankfurt, Artcep Nürnberg, Mille Sedia Frankfurt presented and distributed Leda.
This was followed in 1990 by the chair exhibition at Galerie Blau, Freiburg and in 1991 by ‘Sitz-Avandgarde’ at the Design Zentrum NRW, Essen. (K) The exhibition ‘Vom Nutzen der Dinge’ (Of the Usefulness of Things), organised by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, was shown in Hamburg and Shanghai in 1992-1994. (K dt/en)

Further museum acquisitions for the design collections were made in 1992 by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg and in 1994 by the Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart.
`German Design 1949-1989. Two Countries, One History` the history of design in East and West Germany, jointly curated by the Vitra Design Museum and the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. From 2021 to 2022, the exhibition was shown at the Vitra Design Museum and then at the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau in Dresden. (K dt/en) With the exhibition design by Konstantin Grcic, the chair was given its place on the pedestal in an 80s context next to the Apple computer, Braun calculator, Sapper kettle and Tizio lamp, and on the wall pictures such as the cover of the band Kraftwerk.
Here We Are! Women in Design 1900-today’ is another exhibition by the Vitra Design Mueum, which covers 120 years of women’s design history with the help of eighty biographies. For the 2021 exhibition, designs by women from the collection were marked neon yellow in the Vitra Schaudepot and a special exhibition showed furniture by women designers. (K dt/en)

In 2019, the Atlas of Furniture Design was published by the Vitra Design Museum, which was compiled in 20 years of research with over 70 experts worldwide and summarised into a 1000-page basic work on the history of modern furniture design, from the early 19th century to the present day, presenting 1700 designs by 500 designers from the collection. The book is available in German and English.
Perhaps not Leda’s last stop, but an enduring one.

Text: Angela Oedekoven