1950s Stool K & S Metal Products USA

WALTER N. KRAUS   A rare and intriguing folded steel stool finished in brushed brass enamel. Designed by Walter N. Kraus, a manufacturing engineer who served as a tool and die maker for Aircraft Mechanics during the second World War. After the war, he founded K & S Metal Products in 1946 in his hometown of Colorado Springs, which he owned and operated until 1983. A clear parallel can be seen in this stool to the works of Jean Prouve, in both aesthetics and use of materials, particularly in the folded steel legs that seem to echo many of Prouve's pieces. However it is not known whether Kraus was influenced, or even aware of Prouve at all. The similarities between their designs may have been purely coincidental. Nevertheless, this rare stool remains emblematic of wartime ingenuity in post-war society, which defined so much of the American Modern Movement. SOLD