A very rare set of six dining armchairs designed and produced by Joaquim Tenriero (1906 - 1992) and his own firm Tenreiro Móveis e Decorações (also known as Langenbach & Tenreiro Ltda) in Brazil between 1958 and 1960.

About the designer
Joaquim Tenreiro was born in Melo, Portugal to a family of woodworkers in 1906. By the late 1920s, he fully moved to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to study fine art before returning to his roots and taking a woodworking job with 'Laubisch Hirth', a firm specialising in reproducing furniture in gothic and Louis XVI styles. His time with this company would be especially transformative and important in the development and discovery of his own style.

By the early 1940s, Tenreiro had started producing work which rejected these 'heavier' styles and instead prioritised 'lightness' and functionality. He managed to merge his origins with his surroundings by translating European modernist furniture into a product regionally aligned with his Brazilian environment.

During this period in around 1942, Tenreiro's work was selected for the house of Francisco Inácio Peixoto; a project designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. In Niemeyer, Tenriero not only found one of his best clients, but an intellectual and aesthetic colleague in arms. Like Niemeyer, he pushed architectural forms and used local hardwoods, such as jacarandá and imbuia, alongside cane and wicker to create furniture unseen before in South America.

In 1943, Tenreiro opened Langenbach & Tenreiro Ltda, his own production company which had studios in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Unlike his contemporaries in Europe, his work was generally produced on a commission basis and is therefore today rather uncommon. He is considered one of the forefathers of Brazilian Modernism.

In 1967, Tenreiro would abandon his work with furniture and dedicate himself towards sculpture and painting.

Tenreiro died at the age of 86 in 1992 in São Paulo.