Robert Haussmann RH-304 'UNESCO' Dining Chairs for De Sede, Set of 4

The RH-304 — a model also known as the 'UNESCO' — is one of those rare designs where engineering and comfort arrive at the same elegant conclusion. Drawn by the Swiss architect Robert Haussmann in the mid-1950s and built by De Sede, it distils post-war Swiss design to its essentials: a single sweep of steel, a deep cushion of tufted leather, nothing wasted. This is an original vintage set of four.

The character lives in the contrast. A slender chrome-plated cantilever frame springs from the floor in one continuous line, giving each chair a gentle flex and a floating, weightless stance. Above it sits a generously button-tufted seat and back, the capitonne leather drawn into deep, even diamonds that soften every angle. Finished in warm cognac aniline leather, the surfaces are tactile and inviting, catching the light across each padded square.

As a vintage set, these four chairs wear their years honestly. The cognac leather has taken on a rich, lived-in patina, and in places it shows fine craquelure — the delicate surface cracking that comes with decades of use — which only deepens its character (see the detail photos). There is no structural damage: the hides remain intact and the chrome frames stay bright and sound, retaining the characteristic spring that makes a cantilever chair such a pleasure to sit in.

Robert Haussmann was a defining voice in Swiss modernism, an architect who treated furniture as a question of honest construction. His RH series for De Sede — the Swiss house celebrated for uncompromising leatherwork — became a benchmark for the marriage of tubular-steel rationalism and sensual upholstery. The RH-304 belongs to the same mid-century lineage as the great Bauhaus cantilevers, yet its tufted warmth keeps it unmistakably De Sede.

Gathered around a dining table or set along a wall as occasional seating, this quartet brings a grounded, tactile luxury that rewards daily use. Each chair is hand-selected by VINTZ and shipped worldwide in a custom wooden crate, fully insured — so the patina you see is exactly what arrives at your door.