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Object Timeline

-0001

1983

  • Work on this object began.

1991

  • Work on this object ended.

1992

  • We acquired this object.

2001

2014

2015

2020

2025

  • You found it!

Consumer's Rest Armchair Chair

This is a chair. It was designed by Frank Schreiner and Stiletto Studios and manufactured by Gebrüder Siegel. It is dated Designed 1983, this example produced 1991 and we acquired it in 1992. Its medium is zinc-plated steel wire, plastic. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

The shopping cart is the icon of modern consumerism. This chair is made of the same bent, chromed wire used to make shopping carts around the world. In addition to playing with image and function, the chair offers an editorial comment on the role of consumerism in the 1980s, becoming a document of a decade. The chair was originally created as a unique work of art—it is with great irony that this highly-charged critique of consumerism has since become a consumer item itself. (August 14, 1991)

This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled A Rest for the Weary Shopper?.

It is credited Museum purchase from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund.

  • Chair
  • nickel-plated steel, aluminum.
  • Courtesy of Thom Browne.
  • 74.2015.2

Our curators have highlighted 1 object that are related to this one.

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 103.3 x 72 x 75 cm (40 11/16 x 28 3/8 x 29 1/2 in.)

It has the following markings

On metal plate attached to rear of chair back. Stamped in red enamel within rectangular red border: [1] Logo: SIEGEL within red rectangular lozenge / MODERNE— / —SB-GERÄTE * [2] 8874 LEIPHEIMˑTel. 0 82 21/709-0ˑTelex.531 133 [3] Hergestellt Datum / 07/91 [impressed] [4] Bestell-Nr. / 25/100 [impressed] [5] Modell / SER 2 [impressed] [6] CONSUMERS REST [impressed] [7] Stiletto (in script) [impressed]

Cite this object as

Consumer's Rest Armchair Chair; Designed by Stiletto Studios, Frank Schreiner (German, founded 1959); Manufactured by Gebrüder Siegel; Germany; zinc-plated steel wire, plastic; H x W x D: 103.3 x 72 x 75 cm (40 11/16 x 28 3/8 x 29 1/2 in.); Museum purchase from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund; 1992-112-1

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18638675/ |title=Consumer's Rest Armchair Chair |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=13 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>