Max Gottschalk

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Max Gottschalk (b. ????, d. 2006) was a little-known American mid-century modern interior designer who worked with leather and "industrial" materials such as steel and aluminum to create furniture from the 1950s to his death in 2006, living and working in his studio in Tucson, Arizona. He is known as an "industrial designer" because, much like Harry Bertoia, his work continued beyond the mid-century modern era. His distinctive logo appears on all of his products.

He was born in St Louis, Missouri, and educated at Washington University in St Louis. During the late 1930s he moved to the colony of Newfoundland where he worked as Chief Technical Advisor of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Reconstruction. The Newfoundland government assigned him the task of designing furniture for a workshop in the agricultural community of Markland. His designs combined modernist principles with the use of natural materials. With the start of World War Two the Government abandoned its economic reconstruction programs, and did not renew Gottschalk's contract. He returned to the United States.

Gottschalk is survived by a brother, a doctor who now owns his estate but has not been located.

His main interest was in combining "natural" materials like leather with industrial materials such as aluminum tubing, steel and other modern components. Gottschalk often worked with materials that were less than perfect before being tanned and sometimes dyed, allowing imperfections like natural stains in the leather to become part of the natural aspect of his creations, offsetting his use of industrial materials.

Max Gottschalk Home Page.

Photo of Max Gottschalk playing chess.

Here is a gallery of one of Gottschalk's chairs (restored):

1950 Leather & Steel Chair (1950) - pair	1950 Leather & Steel Chair (1950) - closeup	1950 Leather & Steel Chair (1950) - feet	1950 Leather & Steel Chair (1950) - front
1950 Leather & Steel Chair (1950) - back w/logo	1950 Leather & Steel Chair (1950) - side