Thonet no 1!
Have to feature the Thonet no 1
Photo by G. VanHoutte
Category: famous chair
Monobloc Chair: Joe Colombo and Vico Magistretti
Stacking Chair Universale by Joe Colombo
Photo by Midcentury Modern ZA
Selene Chair by Vico Magistretti (Photo Designboom)
What’s the world’s most famous chair?
The anonymous, cheap, light-weight, portable, waterproof, stackable, easy to clean, plastic patio chair, manufactured from one (ca. 2 kilogram) piece of polypropylene in a single process, or the Monobloc Plastic Chair, produced in millions
In a post Designboom describes the history of the (in)famous monobloc: After Joe Colombo designed the first all plastic chair, Stacking Chair Universale, a chair with two types of add on legs to make its hight adjustable, the Selene Chair by Vico Magistretti was the first all plastic chair in one piece.
Designboom should know, as its co founder Birgit Lohmann, worked for Vico as his personal design assistant for 15 years.
Eames Side Chair in Gold
Charles & Ray Eames’ Side Chair re-invention by Reha Okay of OkayArt.
Materials: Gold Leaf , Fiberglass, Laquered Metal
Einstein and Thonet
Albert Einstein
leaning against a Thonet or Thonet alike bentwood chair in Madrid, 1923.
I received this photo today as a nice surprise for publication here from one of our Spanish readers, Álvaro de la Cruz-Dombriz. Thank you Álvaro!
The big question for me is now: “Is it a Thonet chair, and, if so, what model?” Note the leg ends resting in copper or zinc pods.
Excellent for our Chairchez L’Homme series.
Update
Álvaro suggests in a comment this is the Thonet no. 20. However, I’m not sure or just headstrong . My first reaction when seeing the photo was: “Not a Thonet”, because if you compare the diameter of the back with the body of Einstein, the bentwood back is almost arm thick. Usually a back of a Thonet Chair is much thinner. However it is very well possible: I’ve checked Swiss Thonet expert Dieter Staedeli’s gallery of Wiener Moebel: He comments:
Thonet No.20 chair of Vienna, around 1872. The model went into production 1870-71. The early 20s are made in a very strait and not very comfortable back design. But this very chair form is exemplary for the first production models and are sought after collectibles. At about 1875 found in all models of Thonet chair gradually switching to ergonomic back forms
Update 2: A Thonet or not a Thonet?
Further to the comment of Geert, I found a nice Bentwood dedicated blog which featured a Thonet (Halb?)fauteuil no 20:
Update 3: Chairvertizing
I’ve added this post to our Chairvertizing series. What is better than to use a famous person to make your chair (more) famous, or the other way around: Take a famous chair to become (more) famous yourself;-)
Last edited by Guido J. van den Elshout on December 15, 2011 at 5:36 PM
The Barcelona Day Bed in Chocolate… Real Chocolate
As Apartment Therapy rightfully mentions, most of the time we’re trying to keep chocolate off of our furniture. But once at a cake tasting hosted by Kreemart and American Patrons of the Tate, it was the other way around – a slightly miniaturized cake replica of the iconic Mies van der Rohe’s leather Barcelona day bed was offered as an edible treat for guests!..