Just got my copy of the 2001 edition of Peter Drijver and Johannes Niemeijer's How to construct Rietveld Furniture; it's pretty sweet. There are designs and plans for 38 pieces, including four kid-specific designs: two high chairs and two toys, the wheelbarrow and the wagon, or Beach Buggy. Great stuff, especially if you have a kid and a table saw.
What caught my eye, though, is the photo above, of yet another children's chair, accompanied by a playtable. The photo, which dates to around 1925, is credited to "A.H.R. Hoogezand." I'm guessing that's someone related to J.R. Hoogezand, the furniture factory manager whose son was the recipient of a Rietveld-designed wagon [according to a tiny citation from a 1991 article from the Journal of Design History I'd love to read, "Carpentering the Classic: A Very Peculiar Practice. The Furniture of Gerrit Rietveld"].
I'm sure the scholars at the Design History Society are perfectly content knowing they can just pull down Küper Marijke & Ida van Zijl's 400-page, Gerrit Th. Rietveld 1888 - 1964. The complete works, published on the occasion of the big 1992 Rietveld retrospective at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. For the rest of the world, though it seems high time for a comprehensive look at Rietveld's kid-related designs. Throughout his career, he made rooms full of furniture and toys for his own kids, his friends' and co-workers' kids, and for the kids of clients. Why, he's practically the patron saint of dad-driven modernism.
Buy Peter Drijver and Johannes Niemeijer's How to construct Rietveld Furniture for around $43 at amazon [amazon]
Marijke & van Zijl's Gerrit Th. Rietveld 1888 - 1964. The complete worksis out of print, but is available in hardcover for a lot of money, or softcover for a little less [amazon]
