Breuer's Cesca: the real thing, the licences, the copies

Marcel Breuer's Cesca, 1928, is everywhere — flea markets, restaurants, feeds. It is also one of the most copied chairs in the world. Telling the authorised piece from the copy comes down to a few precise details.

Who makes what

Knoll holds the so-called official edition (around 800-1,000 € a chair), Thonet produces its own versions of the model in Germany. The rest — the vast majority of what circulates online between 100 and 250 € — is unlicensed copy.

The details that speak

The cane on a serious Cesca is natural, tightly woven, set into a frame of solid steam-bent beech. Copies often use plasticised cane, flat screwed frames, a thinner tube that flexes when you sit down. Weight is a good judge: the real one is dense.

Vintage, the real bargain

Decades of production under various licences have filled the flea markets with sound Cescas at 80-200 € apiece. Cane to be redone sometimes — cane can be rewoven, a bent tube cannot. That is where the value for money is unbeatable.

A Cesca in front of you? Scan it on Beyit to place the edition and the price.