Category: chair history

Gents Collection of Bicachair


Bicachair revives the Portuguese Chair, designed by Gonçalo Rodrigues dos Santos and Master Serafim, in the mid-1950s. The Portuguese chair became a national symbol.

A New Chair with 60 years of History

Created in the mid-1950s, the Portuguese chair is a national cultural symbol. Known on every terrace in the country, it is now reborn and ready for indoor spaces with BICAchair displaying collections with various styles and personalities.

The GENTS Collection combines an unquestionable aesthetic with a superior level of comfort, resulting in a one of a kind chair. The outcome of a high density foam, covered by a smooth leather. That’s how the Gents chair has to be.

The diamond shape pattern gives this collection an elegance and character that makes it unique. A design icon now reborn and a tribute to those that have a little bit of gentleman inside of them. It’s a piece that will bestow elegance in anyplace and without a doubt an extension of it’s owner’s personality.

Social responsibility cannot be optional and that is why we associate ourselves with causes according to each collection’s characteristics. The Movember Foundation is the only charity that deals with men’s health, on a global scale and throughout the whole year.

BICAchair joins fundraising for Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride, which celebrates a worldwide charity tour every year.

Henry Fisker passed away

Henry FiskerHenry Fisker

Fisker with WegnerFisker with Wegner

I found this in memoriam today on the FaceBook page of PPMoebler

A legend in Danish woodworking has left us.

Cabinetmaker Henry Fisker was born February 21, 1928 in Vejen, Denmark, and in his childhood he got a close friend in the neighbor’s 5 year older boy Ejnar Pedersen. Henry was trained cabinetmaker from Schou Andersen in Vejen and then moved to Allerød, north of Copenhagen, to work with Ejnar and Ejnar’s big brother Lars Peder Pedersen. They first worked at Knud Willadsen’s workshop at Gl. Lyngevej, where Henry and the two brothers were a major driving force. But when Knud’s workshop burned down and had to close, Ejnar and Lars Peder founded PP Møbler on the corner of Toftevej and Vestvej. Shortly after the new small workshop was completed, Henry was recruited and developed a unique lifework by thoroughly and stubbornly building a craft culture with an uncompromising attitude to quality and a relentless appetite to solve all kinds of craft challenges – including those apparently impossible.

Wood was the fascination for Henry, and he meticulously analyzed the properties of each type of wood in order to obtain the optimal utilization of their qualities and adapt his machine layouts to perfect the processing of each item. Understanding wood and how it behaves when working with it was the objective, and for Henry, machinery was the tool, and he worked intensely and ambitiously to find the best technical solution to a craft challenge. His work was very tangible, but the ideas behind was always innovative and imaginative, and when he worked with the most difficult tasks, Henry often wished he could get around the laws of gravity.

Henry has made a great number of prototypes and productions of furniture designed by designers, artists and architects such as Poul Kjærholm, Finn Juhl, Gunnar Aagaard Andersen, Nanna Ditzel, Ole Gjerløv Knudsen and many others, but most of his work has been focused on development and production of furniture designed by Hans J. Wegner, with whom Henry enjoyed a lifelong friendship. Wegner and Henry had a deep mutual understanding of the craft and a common fascination of wood both as an element of nature and as a material for the craftsman.

Henry, or Fisker as he was called, worked at PP Møbler continuously for more than 50 years and in 2004 he received the Queen’s honorary medal for faithful service. Henry was stubborn and always told his opinion straight, also to the management, and he generously shared his knowledge. He has been a key driving force in building the exceptional quality for which PP Møbler has become world-renowned, and he stands as a brilliant representative of the very spirit of the workshop.

Despite his immense experience, however, he never stopped learning, and he continued to allow himself new insight; as he said: “I’ll never be done with wood. Being a skilled woodworker is a lifelong education”.

Henry Fisker died at the age of 91.

Vitra beats Kwantum in DSW look alike case

Vitra Eames DSW

Recently, in a Dutch court, a preliminary dispute between Vitra and Kwantum Vitra had put a lien and sequestration order on DSW look alike chairs brought on the Dutch and Belgian market by Kwantum under the name Paris. The court, in a preliminary court order, ordered in favor of Vitra. The lien was not lifted until the principal court case in this matter would be settled. The following excerpt demonstrates how Vitra got part of its rights from Eames.

1.
Preamble
1.1.
Lucia Eames is the daughter of Charles Eames and the stepdaughter of Ray Eames. She is the Executrix of the Estate of Ray Eames, the trustee of the Ray Eames Revocable Trust, and heiress of both Charles and Ray Eames.
1.2.
Charles and Ray Eames designed furniture exclusively for Herman Miller, Inc., of Zeeland, Michigan, U.S.A. The parties believe that it was the understanding of Charles and Ray Eames and Herman Miller, Inc. that Herman Miller Inc. owned certain rights in the designs of the following products, to the extent that their designs were protected by the laws of the countries in which they were marketed: (i) 1951 Wire Chair, (ii) 1954 Soft Compact, (iii) Lounge Chair and Ottoman from 1955/1956, (iv) Aluminum Group from 1958/1959, (v) 1969 Soft Pad Group, (vi) 1969 La Chaise, (vii) 1984 Teak and Leather Sofa, (viii) 1962 Chicago O’Hare Tandem Sling Seating, (ix) 1964 Segmented Base Table, and (x) Executive Chair/Time Life Chair from 1960 (collectively, the “HM Products”)
1.3.
It is further the understanding of the Parties that Herman Miller, Inc. transferred as of May 31, 1984, all of its ownership in the HM Products for Europe and the Middle East to Vitra Collections AG, Basel.
1.4.
It is further the understanding of the parties that to the extent any of the design rights in the HM Products, including copyrights, were never owned by Herman Miller, Lucia Eames transferred any remaining copyrights to Vitra Collections AG, Basel, pursuant to that certain Declaration dated February 14, 1992.
1.5.
The parties note that adverse parties have challenged their understanding regarding the ownership of the HM Products as set forth above. To eliminate any future doubt and challenges, the Parties wish to reconfirm Vitra’s ownership of rights by now transferring all rights to the HM Product – if any – that have not been effectively transferred previously to Vitra.
1.6.
The parties desire to convey similar rights as transferred pursuant to Clause 1.5 in additional products as more particularly set forth on Annex 11 (which includes the HM Products) (collectively, the “Products”).
2.
Transfer of ownership of rights.
For valuable consideration, receipt and sufficiency of which are hereby acknowledged, Lucia Eames and Vitra agree that Lucia Eames assigns and transfers to Vitra the entire rights, titles and interests in and to the copyright and any other intellectual property right or legal protected positions under any laws of unfair competition which exist according to the national, supranational and/or international laws in and regarding the Products (the ‘Work”) and in and to all products based upon, derived from, or incorporating the Work, and in and to the exclusive rights to the tr
ademarks EAMES and EAMES COLLECTION for the Products and in and to all causes of action, either in law or in equity for past, present, or future infringement based on the copyrights and other intellectual property rights and legal protected positions under any laws of unfair competition, and in and to all rights corresponding to the foregoing for the territory defined in Annex I. As far as La Chaise is concerned, this transfer of ownership of rights is worldwide and not restricted to the territory defined in Annex I.
3.
Miscellaneous
3.1.
This transfer and assignment shall take effect retroactively as of February 19, 1992.
3.2.
lf the retroactive effect of this Agreement is found to be null or unenforceable, this Agreement will be construed as to take effect from the earliest date possible after February 19, 1992. In any event, this Agreement will take effect from the date it has been signed by both parties.
4.
Applicable Law and Dispute Resolution
4.1.
This Agreement is exclusively governed by Swiss Law.

Vitra Eames DSW under
Source court order: Boek 9 (in Dutch pdf format)

Source images: Nest Co Blog

The Acapulco Chair

Chair Blog is 7,5 years old. This blog might as well be the biggest online chair encyclopedia out there. Is it any surprise that when I need info on a certain chair I first turn to Chair Blog?

Now imagine my surprise when even 7,5 years of blogging about chairs didn’t prove to be enough to return any items on my “Acapulco chair” search. I just had to step in and add this one to the collection!

acapulco1The brief history memo on the Apartment Therapy website shares the following:

Legend has it that a French tourist was visiting Acapulco in the ’50s and was uncomfortably hot atop a solidly-constructed chair in the Mexico sunshine. Inspired by the open string construction of traditional Mayan hammocks nearby, he designed a chair fit for the modern tropics.

So the first Acapulco chair was produced in the ’50s. It’s usually made of vinyl cords on a metal frame and has most commonly been used as outdoor lounge seating. However, the designers of today have been producing many variations on the classic, changing the shape of the frame and using other materials such as leather and cotton cord. Today the Acapulco chair is successfully used indoors, too.

acapulco2

I love how one can easily customize their Acapulco chair by using their favorite thrown on or a pillow or even by weaving over it. Search for the Acapulco chair on Pinterest, find your preferred version and you might just fall in love!

N.B. Let’s be fair though and mention that Guido happened to unknowingly add a glimpse of the Acapulco chair just recently. This post from October 21st features Claudia Cardinale posing in a… what appears to be an Acapulco chair! Great minds think alike, eh?

P.S. Yes, I’ve effectively stepped down from being a regular contributor to this beloved online publication a few years back due to a new demanding job (and therefore lack of time). I, however, have continued to help out with the Facebook page whenever I stumbled upon a worthy chair related piece of information.

Images via vtwonen.nl

The Chair that Grew by John Krubsack

The Chair that Grew by John Krubsack

The Chair that Grew by John Krubsack

A banker and a farmer John Krubsack in Wisconsin is believed having created the first chair grown, rather than manufactured. In 1903 he started to grow this chair and it was “harvested” in 1914. It has a remarkable story.

John Krubsack:

After I had planted 32 trees, all box elders, in the spring of 1907, I left them to grow in their new home for a year until they were six feet tall, before beginning the chair. In the spring of 1908 I gradually began the work of training the young and pliable stems to grow gradually in the shape of a chair. Most of this work consisted in bending the stems of these trees and tying and grafting them together so as to grow, if possible with all the joints cemented by nature. This was largely an experiment with me and it was with a great deal of interest that I watched and assisted nature in growing piece of furniture.

The first summer’s growth found all the joints I had made by tying and grafting grown firmly together. Some of the trees I found, however, grew much faster than others. To overcome this, I began to cut the stems of those trees that to my notion had grown large enough. This did not kill these trees but simply retarded their growth so as to give the weaker trees a chance to catch up.
In this manner I let these trees grow for seven years. During the last two years I had only four trees growing from the root. These were the four that consisted the legs of the chair and all the other stems kept alive from these four stems because they were grafted to them. After the seventh year all the trees were cut, making in all eleven years from the time the seed was sown until the chair was finally completed

Is it still around?

The chair, eventually dubbed the “Chair That Grew,” had its first big public showing in a natural history exhibit at the 1915 World’s Fair, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, held that year in San Francisco, California.[3] Hugo assisted his father in all aspects of the living chair project and went on to promote it in many ways, including contacting Robert Ripley, who ran it in his “Believe It or Not” column[4] and later filmed John standing beside the chair explaining all about it. The film ran in the weekly newsreels of the time in theaters across the US. The Lloyd Mfg. Co. at the Chicago Furniture Mart subsequently showed the chair during a large trade show for furniture manufacturers. The “Chair That Grew” was displayed on a golden pedestal at the entrance. Krubsack’s chair garnered many offers (one was $5,000) from would-be buyers over the years, but John, and later Hugo, turned them all down. Hugo had no heirs and simply could not bear to see it in the hands of others. He maintained possession of it until he let his nephew Gerhard A. Krubsack buy it for a token amount to use in advertising his furniture business, Noritage Furniture of Embarrass, Wisconsin.

In 1988 the chair was summoned to make another appearance, this time to be sat upon by an actor in the costume of Mickey Mouse, at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, on the occasion of the character’s 60th birthday. Currently the chair sits inside a special Plexiglas case at the entrance of Noritage Furniture, the furniture manufacturing business now owned by John Krubsack’s descendants, Steve and Dennis Krubsack.

Sadly it seems that Noritage Furniture has been closed in the meantime.

Via John Krubsack – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

On the positive site however I’ve found a site Tree Shapers featuring several similar grown chairs.