When last we heard of the great grandfather of the design world’s avant garde—the iconic Pierre Paulin—he’d just authored the alluring and under-played Flower Armchair. Sadly, the Maestro left us last month when he died on June 13 in Montpelier, France. He will certainly be missed…

F 444. Designed by Pierre Paulin and re-editioned by M2L.

Paulin’s passing makes M2L‘s re-release of his vaunted F444 armchair (Artifort, 1963) all the more poignant. The re-issue is one of five revived products (Paulin’s piece has the esteemed company of work by Walter Knoll and Patrick Norguet) that form M2L’s rigorous effort to “preserve iconic pieces that define the modern aesthetic and protect the intellectual property of these design masters.”

As with other recent re-issues (see Edwards by Tuttle and Cassina’s Cab Chair), I’m inspired by the effort. M2L’s devotion to the roots of contemporary design is admirable—I’m reminded of Scorsese’s mission to preserve and refurbish the original prints of 20s era films; or The Boston Museum of Fine Art’s conservation studio, tasked with conserving all Western paintings in the Museum’s collections. M2L not only recognizes that we owe Maestros like Paulin a perpetual aesthetic debt, but also realizes that—to put it crudely—there’s still a market for this stuff (nothwithstanding the $4,462 price tag).

And the piece itself? Like the aforementioned Cab Chair, the F444 is a paean to saddle leather, though it suggests a somewhat contrasting interpretation of the material’s personality. While the Cab Chair’s leather is strung tight, the F444 lets it drape luxuriously between the stainless steel frame. The choice gives the chair its structural integrity as well as its aesthetic: the scooped seat created by the excess material is both a comfy repository for fatigued posteriors and a persistent lesson in how to expand one’s design palette—for who other than Paulin could have used a length of casually slung cowhide to define the aesthetic of the age? As M2L so eloquently says, “a sublime example of the furniture created during the inventive period of the nineteen-sixties, the now-famous design is a truly unique armchair… the F444 will now acquire a place in the heart and home of a new generation of buyers who appreciate fine design.”