Pricing

Cassina in Italy has been the manufacturer of the licensed reproduction Zig Zag chairs since 1973. They negotiated with the Rietveld estate and have become the exclusive manufacturer of the chair since then.

It's hard to put a price on fine Italian craftsmanship. Well maybe not that hard. In this case it's exactly $1704 USD (1270e). That's a lot of money. Don't get me wrong, I've seen the Zig Zag chair before, and it's absolutely beautiful, very precise build, and meticulous finishing. But $1704 is a LOT of money.

If you look around the Internet you'll see loads of reproduction Zig Zag chairs. They are almost all different in some aspect,  either the back is 90 degrees instead of 98, or the proportions are all wacky, etc. It surprised me that nobody has a reproduction that is just like Cassina's. But then I suppose if it was too identical they would be sued for copyright infringement.

To me a big part of the fun is actually building a chair, and seeing if I can complete it, just as well as Cassina does. The other part is saving some money. Here is the breakdown:

Cassina: $1704 (plus tax and shipping)

My estimate:

Cherry wood, 8 ft, cut and jointed      $125

Stain    $10

Rubber feet for the base    $5

Dowels    $6

Glue    $3

Top coat (Polyurethane, etc.)   $10


So hopefully it will end up in the range of $160.

This of course, is just and estimate. I haven’t figured in the cost of hospital visits, surgery, bandages, etc.

The labor of course is where all the expense comes in. I estimate around 30 hours to put everything together. In reality it will probably come in around 6,870 hours. But that’s ok. I'll have fun doing it, and learning a few new things in the process.