Venesta

Designed in 1936, this example executed in the 1930s.
Birch laminated plywood.
Each table branded 'MADE IN ESTONIA' to the underside.
Produced by Venesta, Estonia, for Isokon Furniture Company Ltd., London, United Kingdom.

Provenance:
Acquired by Leslie Martin and Sadie Speight in the 1930s;
Thence by descent.

Measurements:
Big: h.37,5 w.61 d.46 cm
Medium: h.35 w.61 d.42 cm
Small: h.33,5 w.61 d.39 cm

Furniture

Set of Three Early Nesting Tables

History:
This model was designed in February 1936, around the same time as Breuer was perfecting the Long Chair (ref. 1010269). The earliest models were made by Venesta in Estonia. Later, the production moved to England. 

Architect Leslie Martin (1908-2000) and his wife, designer Sadie Speight (1906-1992) played leading roles in twentieth-century architecture, design, and progressive art. In 1938, Herbert Read commissioned Martin and Speight as joint authors of 'The Flat Book', which was published the following year. It is now considered a reference book about the 1930s Modernist aesthetic. Amongst the items featured in the ‘Living and Sleeping Space’ section was a ‘Nest of tables, by Marcel Breuer, birch, £3 13s 6d (Isokon Furniture Co)’ (p.116). 

Martin and Speight acquired these three nesting tables in the 1930s, and they became a key feature in their house thereafter.