Galerie44: near Lyon, vintage twentieth century design

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alerie 44 is a vintage furniture gallery, which deals in twentieth century design with a focus on furniture from the ‘50s to the ‘70s, as well as Mid-century modern icons. Slightly off the beaten track, Galerie 44 represents a new type of business model successful in the Internet era: virtual visibility with a well-structured and user-friendly website, and a physical presence with a showroom/ warehouse where customers can see everything for themselves.

An area of the showroom with vintage chairs by Charles & Ray Eames. Modulor by Le Corbusier is sketched on a feature wall painted in blackboard paint.

The website is for placing reservations only, and within 24 hours prospective buyers will be contacted by the gallery to discuss details. Gallery 44’s young founding member David Brunon has managed to capitalize on his experience as a commercial manager in the furniture trade. He wants to bring together the benefits of having an online presence with fostering personal client relationships: “I serve others as I would like to be served, just that”.

David Brunon is Galerie 44’s founding member. David both enjoys and has a passion for hunting for vintage finds. Right-hand side, the showroom entrance. The garage renovation has preserved the building’s industrial appeal.  

About 40 kilometres north of Lyon, France, Galerie 44 is located in the village of Fareins, known for its wonderful early seventeenth century castle, open to day-trippers. Close by, David found a 200 sqm warehouse built in the fifties, an old industrial-style garage with concrete floors and glass panes inset in an iron frame, ideal for a showroom. 

A living room scheme with the timeless DSW chair. Designed in 1950 by Charles & Ray Eames, DSW is still being manufactured to date by Vitra.

Passionate about design and the constant search for vintage pieces, or the hunt as he refers to it, David has built partnerships with skilled craftspeople, who lovingly restore the furniture he finds in Europe and the United States. David works with a cabinetmaker, upholsterer, painter, stone cutter, framer and welder. All of them “on point”. 

A corner set up as an old-style office, plant included. On the console table, an old golden arches McDonald’s sign, the iconic fast-food chain set up in the United States in the 40s.

Left-hand side, functional minimalist chairs designed by Pierre Paulin for Thonet. Right-hand side, sofa and armchair by Claude Vassal and a real icon: P40 armchair in yellow by Osvaldo Borsani, all pieces from the ‘50s. 

A modern pair from the last century: sofa by Egon Eiermann and the Gras 205 lamp in a nickel finish on a coffee table in Carrara marble.

The name Galerie 44 was inspired by Le Corbusier’s work, who one hundred kilometers away built one of his most beautiful masterpieces, the convent of Sainte Marie de La Tourette. Le Corbusier famously stated that a person must be able to move freely in his own home. So, in 1944 he invented the Modulor, which has since then become a way of measuring domestic spaces. David Brunon thought this concept to be key, therefore he wanted to include the publication year in the gallery name: 1944. 

Store Infos

GALERIE44
Design du XXième Siècle
59, Montée du Moulin 
Fareins, France
Tel: 00 33 (0)7 81 80 24 18
Email: david.brunon @ galerie44.fr
www.galerie44.com

Open by appointment only 

Photos:
Courtesy Galerie44