Bentwood café chairs, Mundus, circa 1914-1923
• Dimensions: 88x43x50
• Type: café / bistro dining chair
• Manufacturer: Mundus
• Style: Art Nouveau
• Material and Techniques: Bentwood beech
• Place of origin: Poland
• Production period: 1914-1923
• Condition: Original. Patina consistent with age
• Identification signs: label, stamp
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From Vienna to Warsaw - café culture of an era
The bentwood café chair shaped the face of urban culture at the turn of the twentieth century. They stood in coffeehouses of Vienna, Kraków, Warsaw, Lviv, Prague and Budapest. Light, strong, easily stackable - they were the ideal solution for cafés, restaurants, hotels and clubs across Central Europe. The Kohn-Mundus Polish factories supplied furniture not only to local markets. Through the American representative office Astra Bentwood in New York, chairs stamped "Made in Poland" reached the US market, where they were being sold as antiques as early as the 1920s.
Classic café chair in bent beechwood, dark brown finish. Straight back with vertical spindles and a horizontal top rail. Rounded-trapezoidal solid pressed plywood seat with characteristic surface texture. Four curved legs - the rear legs continue upward to form the back stiles, the front legs are connected by a shaped stretcher. The chair retains its original dark finish and the natural patina of over a century of use. The structure is intact. The marking is clearly legible on the underside seat rail.
