FSB 1058 Lever Handle by Johannes Potente

What it is

FSB 1058 is an interior door lever designed in 1958 by Johannes Potente, the in-house designer at FSB (Franz Schneider Brakel), the German door-hardware maker founded in 1881 and based in Brakel, Westphalia, since 1909. FSB’s own catalog says 1058 was “Potente’s favorite model,” a redesign of his earlier FSB 1051 that “conspicuously does away with the triangular styling over the pivotal axis.” FSB’s product page says it “was installed in millions of homes during the late 1990s.”

MoMA holds it in its Architecture and Design collection as Door Handle (model FSB 1058), 1958, aluminum, object number 211.1998, a gift of the manufacturer. FSB’s history page says four Potente levers (1020, 1046, 1051, and 1058) entered MoMA’s permanent collection in the late 1990s.

Specs (FSB North America lever catalog + FSB Manual 13):

• Lever projection about 2-9/32 in (58 mm), length about 5-3/32 in (129 mm). MoMA’s record gives the object as 1-3/8 × 5-1/4 × 2-3/4 in (3.5 × 13.3 × 7 cm).
• Materials: gravity-die-cast solid aluminum (anodized after casting) or stainless steel (V2A, 1.4301). Bronze is not listed for 1058 in FSB’s catalogs.
• Finishes (FSB North America catalog stock list): aluminum in Natural (0105), German Silver color (0205), Brass color (0305), Bronze color (0405), Dark Bronze color (0704), or powder-coated in RAL colors. Stainless in Satin (6204), Mirror Polished (6205), Matte (6206), or Brass-color PVD (6210). FSB’s current FAQ lists only two standard stainless finishes (fine-brushed matte and polished), so confirm the full finish list at quote.
• Family: lever/lever sets, lever/knob sets, bathroom (privacy) sets, and matching window handles, all under the 1058 number.
• Bearing: FSB ASL (a maintenance-free Grivory plain bearing with a two-way return spring and up to a 45° turn), which FSB recommends for light-to-medium-duty interior doors and residential use. FSB AGL (the heavy-duty compensating bearing) is the step-up for high-traffic doors.
• Warranty: FSB’s Manual 14 offers five years on mechanical function when professionally installed and used as intended.
• Made in Brakel, Germany.

US price: FSB doesn’t publish a consumer price; its FAQ says the price list is sent by email on request. The one US retail figure we found is from dealer 27estore: $124.54 sale / $153.75 regular for a passage set with two 1058 levers, two 55 mm roses, a passage latch, and a spindle, marked out of stock on 2026-10-19 and not specifying aluminum or stainless. Treat it as a floor, not a quote. Stainless, PVD, privacy sets, and North American lock integration will cost more.

This opens the empty interior lever lane on Luxury House List. Hardware coverage so far is two entry sets (rocky-mountain-hardware-element-entry-set-lever, baldwin-estate-gramercy-knurled-handleset) and one cabinet pull (armac-martin-cotswold-cup-pull). It pairs naturally with the mid-century furniture already listed, like herman-miller-eames-lounge-chair-ottoman, knoll-saarinen-dining-table, and classicon-adjustable-table-e1027.

Who it’s for

Homeowners, architects, and designers doing modern or mid-century houses who want every interior door to wear the same quiet, well-shaped lever, and who would rather spend on authorship than on weight. It’s strongest on whole-house schedules, where a low per-door price across 20 to 40 doors adds up, and on projects that want the lever, the bathroom privacy set, and the window handles to match.

Skip it if you want the heavy, solid-brass feel of Baldwin Estate or Rocky Mountain (aluminum is light in the hand), if the scheme is traditional or ornamented, or if the project needs ANSI-graded hardware. FSB’s FAQ says it doesn’t make hardware to ANSI standards by default, and you have to go through its North American office for that. Also skip it if the door supplier won’t deal with European-style rose and latch prep. The 27estore passage set is sold for non-drilled doors with 65 mm roses, so confirm the latch, backset, and door prep with the dealer before anyone bores a door.

Standout details

• Specs that matter: about 58 mm projection × 129 mm length · solid cast aluminum or V2A stainless · ASL bearing standard, AGL available · 5-year mechanical-function warranty · made in Germany
• Design signal: a 1958 Potente lever in MoMA’s collection (211.1998), and the designer’s own favorite of his handles, per FSB
• System: lever, knob, bathroom, and window versions in one family, so the whole house can match
• Finish reality: anodized aluminum resists scratches and won’t rust, but FSB’s FAQ says the oxide layer can show visible wear in very high-traffic settings like schools. Stainless is the safer choice for hard-used doors, and FSB’s own manual suggests stainless or bronze for heavily used doors on its related 1102 model.
• Tradeoffs: light in the hand compared with forged brass; not ANSI by default; European door prep; FSB publishes no consumer price, so dealer quotes vary; finish availability by region needs confirming

Who’s specifying

FSB’s own reference projects list The Opus in Dubai by Zaha Hadid Architects (developed 2012–2020), fitted with FSB 1058 and FSB 4253 levers plus FSB 23 0811 knobs, all in dark-bronze anodized aluminum. That’s a commercial and hotel building, not a private home. FSB also says 1058 went into “millions of homes” in the late 1990s, which tells you it’s a proven everyday lever rather than a showpiece. We found no credited private-residence tour naming 1058, so we don’t claim any celebrity or named-home placements.

Honest verdict

Luxury House List had no interior door lever, and FSB 1058 is the honest first one for the modern side of the lane: a museum-collected 1958 design from the company that has made it for decades, at a price that makes sense across a whole house. House Score 4. Design and value are top-tier, and the craft is serious German industrial production rather than hand-forged brass. That’s the tradeoff. Aluminum feels light, the hardware isn’t ANSI-graded by default, and the door prep is European. Draft until greenlit. Specify stainless (6204 satin) for bathrooms and hard-used doors, natural or dark-bronze anodized aluminum where the look matters more than wear, and confirm the latch and prep with the dealer before the door order goes in. A heavy forged-brass interior lever for traditional houses should come later as a separate entry, not a reason to downgrade this one.