The history of Wagemans Maastricht Ltd., the manufacturer of Artifort furniture, goes back to 1890 in Maastricht. Trading under the name of Artifort since the 1920’s to reflect the qualities of the upholstered furniture - good design (art) and durability (fortis).

After World War II the Artifort collection became more and more modern under the impact of new ideas, materials and techniques. In the fifties the collection included not only designs by Theo Ruth, including his design for the easily dismantled armchair Congo (1952), but also contemporary pieces of furniture by foreign designers and by the architect Gerrit Rietveld. Rietveld's designs - the only upholstered chairs in his oeuvre - were specially designed for the Dutch pavilion in the Expo '58 World Exhibition in Brussels.

Artifort's own design policy got under way with the appointment of the (interior) designer Kho Liang le as aesthetic advisor. Contact was soon established with various foreign designers, including Pierre Paulin (Parios) and Geoffrey D. Harcourt (Great Brittain). The team comprising these designers and Kho Liang le was successful in making the Artifort collection an international phenomenon in the 1960s. The striking sculptural furniture by Pierre Paulin attracted publicity at home and abroad.

A number of Paulin's designs received design awards in the 1960s and have been included in many museum collections, including that of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The carefully conceived functional seating systems and luxury desk armchairs by Geoffrey Harcourt are eminently suitable for contract projects.

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