The armchair is an early and rare example of Michael Tonet’s innovative technology made of bentwood
• Dimensions: height - 90cm, width - 46cm, depth - 75cm
• Designer: Michael Thonet
• Model: n.1
• Manufacturer: Thonet
• Style: Art Nouveau
• Material and Techniques: Beech, Rattan
• Place of origin: Austria
• Production period: 1880-1919
• Condition: Good. Age-related patina, wood and rattan are in good condition.
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It has a characteristic curved beech frame and a seat and backrest made of wicker rattan.
The armchair is an early and rare example of Michael Tonet’s innovative technology made of bentwood. It has a characteristic curved beech frame and a seat and backrest made of wicker rattan. Model №1 was designed to rest by the fireplace or use as a deck chair. Model №1 was designed to rest by the fireplace or use as a deck chair. The chair has a complex design, making it one of the first examples of “flat-pack design” that is easy to transport. By the late 1800s, Gebrüder Thonet had production facilities across Central Europe and had already established itself in cafés, restaurants and theatres across the continent. The folding lounge chair belonged to an entirely different category - one that was never intended for public space. It was made for the private interior.
The prosperous bourgeoisie of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Western Europe - industrialists, landowners, bankers. People who maintained both a city residence and a country estate. This chair appeared in winter gardens, libraries, and on the terraces of summer villas. Places where time moved at a different pace.The folding mechanism had real practical value: the chair could travel. From the city to the country house, from one room to another. At a time when furniture mobility was still a rarity, this was a genuine advantage.
The cane material, rattan, was imported from Southeast Asia, primarily Indonesia. Its strength and elasticity made it comfortable to sit on without a cushion. In 1888, Thonet supplied folding bentwood chairs to the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna - the first theatre in the world to be fitted with folding bentwood chairs. At the time, the folding mechanism was regarded as a feat of engineering. The Thonet mark on this chair is impressed directly into the wood - not a paper label, not a sticker. This is a characteristic feature of early original pieces, predating the introduction of paper labels.
