German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) is without doubt one of the pioneering masters of Modern architecture: The contemporary cityscape betrays his influence at every turn. Equally significant, though smaller in scale, are his adventures in furniture design. Like any good architect, Mies knew that architecture and furniture inevitably slip into dialogue and affect one another (he brought his knowledge of recent industrial technologies to bear on many of the chairs and tables he produced) and consequently, his earliest designs, beginning in the mid-1920s, were conceived for...