Steltman Chair

In 1963, a jeweler named Steltman commissioned Rietveld to redesign his shop on Noordeinde in The Hague. Rietveld was 75. He designed two chairs — mirror images, arm left and arm right — and placed them at the glass counter where couples chose wedding rings. Viewed apart, each reads as an asymmetrical puzzle of flat planes. Placed together, they resolve into a unity. It was his last design. The solid oak version came only after Rietveld's death in 1964, and is now the one the world knows.