Pastoe

Dutch furni­ture masters Pastoe spent the 20th Century proving that good design should not only be acces­si­ble, but adapt­able. Its roots as a carpen­try shop in the 1910s provided a solid base for crafts­man­ship, and by mid-century Pastoe had devised inge­nious cabinet systems like 1948’s Oak and 1950’s Birch, which asserted a geomet­ric aesthetic which clients could mix and match to their liking. Pastoe went a step further in 1955 with their ​“Made-to-Measure” series, which consumers could assem­ble and customize themselves. 

While Pastoe’s 1950s Wire chairs by Braak­man and Adriaan Dekker would rival Bertoia in its deft, airy struc­ture, the company’s true genius remained evident in its storage systems. A pinna­cle of the High Tech move­ment of the 1970s, the A’dammer series by Aldo van den Nieuwe­laar trans­formed parking bollards into cool columns with domed tops and tambour doors, coated in ever-updat­ing palettes of lacquer. And Karel Boon­za­ai­jer + Pierre Mazairac’s Vision, like that of the company itself, looks time­less, with seam-free boxes and open shelv­ing ready to be arranged in any form imag­in­able. Context Gallery has been a trusted partner with Pastoe for over a decade.