PREBEN FABRICIUS (Denmark, 1931 - 1984) for KNOLL. ‘Conversation Chairs’, model 710. Designed in 1972. Dark cromed steel frame, loose cushions with black leather upholstery. Armrests with leather details. Underclothing with logo. Manufactured at Walter Knoll, with makers labels. Measurements: 78 x 72 x 78 cm. Seat height 42 cm. Minor marks from use. As a genuine classic, Fabricius tells the story of furniture. The "Conversation chair" combines Scandinavian design tradition and functional aesthetics with the charm of casual seating comfort. Precise metal processing, superior surface quality: the armrests and the supporting structure frame the sliding seat. The result is lightness and simplicity. Whether as a soloist or as an ensemble, it was made for lounges, foyers and living rooms. Preben Juul Fabricius was trained as a cabinetmaker with master carpenter Niels Vodder and also studied at the School of Interior Design under Finn Juhl in the mid-1950s. There he also met cabinetmaker Jørgen Kastholm, who later became his long-term partner. The two shared a common vision of furniture design, based on minimalism and quality and inspired by the creations of Charles Eames and Mies van der Rohe. Their quest was to achieve an ideal that, by its simplicity, would be timeless. In 1961 they set up a studio together in Gentofte, and four years later they presented their first designs at the Fredericia Furniture fair, where they attracted the attention of the German furniture manufacturer Alfred Kill. The latter offered them a lucrative contract that allowed them to work freely, so Kastholm and Fabricius moved to Stuttgart with their first designs to start production in Kill's factory. Shortly afterwards, they made the international breakthrough at the 1966 Cologne trade fair, where they showed a complete series of home and office furniture, developed from ten of their original designs. The two designers worked together between 1961 and 1968, a period of seven years in which they produced numerous designs that are now considered classics, such as the Tulip Chair FK 6725, the Grasshopper FK 87 and the Scimitar. During this period, their furniture also formed part of important international exhibitions, held in such prominent centres as the MOMA in New York (1967) and the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris (1967). Today, designs by Kastholm and Fabricius can be seen at the MACBA in Barcelona, the MOMA in New York, the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Ringling Museum in Florida, the Art Museum of Brasilia, the Design Center in Stuttgart, the Haus Industriform in Essen, the Neue Sammlung in Munich, the Staatsgemäldesammlung Bayer in Munich, the Kunstindustrimuseum in Berlin, the Kunststofmuseum in Düsseldorf, the World Import Mart Museum and the History + Folkways Museum in Japan and the Museum für Angewandte Kunstgeschichte in Cologne.