Two revolutions
These events were truly revolutionary in nature. Previously, things were made to order and were very complex in their design. Bentwood furniture is ingenious in its design, combining simplicity and strength.
In addition, the Viennese wooden chair, like jeans in fact, is in absolute harmony with the human body, it does not restrict his movements and makes it possible to remain at ease. It is likely that it was precisely because of this invention that the Levis and Thonet companies did not become history; they are still relevant. Most likely, everyone sat on such chairs, and there is nothing to say about jeans - who didn’t wear them?
Wooden Viennese chairs
Like all furniture for sitting, relaxing or working, wooden Viennese chairs were hard, semi-soft, soft, spring, and also with seats and backs woven from rattan mesh. The most widely used products are those with seats made of embossed bent plywood, as they are the most economical and easy to use. The seat was made by gluing together several 4 or 6 layers of rotary-cut veneer. Then, in a special press, when the glue had not yet had time to completely harden, it was brought into the required shape. Often, an embossed design was applied to the seats at the time of pressing. On plywood seats without a pattern, small holes were drilled to form some kind of ornament or pattern.
The direction of the wood grain of the top veneer sheet of a plywood seat is strictly from the back to the front drawer. In any other case (diagonally or transversely), the strength of the structure is reduced.
Cabinetmaker's invention
Viennese chairs began their history with the advent of wood processing technology called bending: wood soaked in boiling water or steamed with water steam was bent in various directions, thus giving it all sorts of shapes. At different times, sleighs, skis, boats, barrels were made from bent wood, but it was Michael Thonet, a Viennese cabinetmaker, who developed such a technique for the production of furniture and used it in factory production.
The German Thonet opened his workshop on the Rhine in Boppard in 1819, and 11 years later began his first experiments in the production of strong and lightweight structures (bending and gluing layers of plywood) instead of conventional carpentry made from solid wood. So, at some industrial exhibition, Metternich (the Austrian Chancellor-Prince) drew his attention to the Viennese wooden chair of Toneta and invited him to settle in Vienna, designing the interiors for his huge palace. A few years later, Thonet was able to open his own workshop in Vienna.
Iconic chair
Michael Thonet founded his own company in this city, which introduced the Viennese chair in 1850. With his own hands he assembled it from bent beech elements.
Thonet launched it into mass production in 1859. The item was called “chair 14”. In addition to its attractive appearance, it is surprising in its perfection of technology, because the number of parts was reduced to an absolute minimum, there are only six left. The pieces were held together with small screws rather than glue.
The Viennese chair not only managed to survive to this day, it also had a great influence on the development of design.
The furniture genius was able to guess that screw connections, and not carpentry, make it possible to make the furniture collapsible, therefore, he will no longer need to “carry air.” Thonet transported furniture completely disassembled in packs (for example, 36 dismountable chairs occupy a space of 1 m2).
First clients
Immediately there were clients who liked the Viennese chairs. The designer delivered the first batch to a cafe in Vienna, and they served there for 26 years! Another 400 chairs went to the Hungarian city of Pest in the same year to a hotel called the Queen of England.
From the moment the Viennese chair was invented, its production has never stopped. In addition to 22 models, tables, rocking chairs, cradles, beds, entire furniture sets and dressing tables, toy, children's and garden furniture, skis, sleighs, and tennis rackets were also created. And special chairs with raised seats designed for croupiers. At the beginning of the last century, Thoneta's catalogs included more than 1,200 models, while factories produced almost 2 million products every year.
Frame restoration
First of all, if the chair was somewhere in the attic, then it needs to be washed and cleaned of dust and dirt. After this we can begin to disassemble the chair.
- First, remove the seat and backrest. In old chairs they are mostly attached with screws.
- Next, we disassemble the entire chair one by one: we check each connection and, if it is loose and weak, then it needs to be disassembled. It is better not to disassemble connections in which the parts are held tightly.
It is better to mark all disassembled parts so that there are no problems during assembly later.
- Once the chair is disassembled, we can take sandpaper and sand the parts.
Sanding is needed to remove as much old varnish as possible. This way we prepare the parts for further painting. - Now you need to inspect the places where the parts are glued. If the legs fit into a groove on the seat board, then, for greater density, it is worth wrapping the top of the legs with a bandage in several layers, and all layers must be treated with glue.
It may happen that the leg wobbles a lot in the socket, then you need to cut a slot at the end and drive a small wedge into it. This way we will increase the width of the end, and the leg will fit snugly in the socket
In the designs of chairs with drawers, when the seam is loosened, you can drill a small hole from the inside and apply glue into the hole with a syringe.
When loosening the spike, you can use matches treated with glue, which we insert into the socket when assembling the product.
To make the structure more durable, trapezoid-shaped blocks can be screwed to the drawers.
The ends are adjusted to the side frames as precisely as possible, since even a small gap can lead to skew of the entire chair.
- Now we completely assemble all the parts of the chair into a single product. We glue all tenon joints well, and remove any exposed glue with a damp cloth.
- After this, we leave the chair for a day so that the glue finally sets. You can place a weight on the seat or, alternatively, a bucket filled to the top with water to better secure the parts.
After a day, when the glue sets and dries, we can begin the next stages of restoration.
Furniture out of style
Amazingly, the Viennese chair in a minimalist style was created during the eclectic period. At that time, massive, elaborate products with a huge number of details a la Louis, a la Rococo, etc. were typical. At the same time, Thonet ignored all modern trends and made a chair out of style. And he was right about this: his furniture, having bypassed all further fashion trends, remained modern to this day.
In the 19th century, bent furniture became an indispensable part of Russian and Western interiors. With the advent of the Art Nouveau period, many European architects tried to create furniture for mass production that was at the same time affordable, beautiful and simple, as Carl Mang, an Austrian art critic, wrote about. But they failed to do this. The only exception was the products of the Toneta company.
The perfect chair for a large or small kitchen
Thanks to its neat design, this type of furniture can be placed even in a very small space. And at the same time keep the space light, airy and bright.
It is best to choose models with low backs. It is also worth noting that bar stools of this type look extremely interesting and intriguing.
They will be a great addition to a modern or country style kitchen. A square or trapezoidal seat shape will also help to emphasize that it belongs to these types of decor.
Chairs with drop-shaped backs look good in the kitchen. Their frame itself usually remains rigid, but in the middle there is a soft insert of a rectangular or any other shape.
They imbue a room with graceful lines and flow and can be placed around a round or traditional square table.
There are also chairs whose backs are a complex composition of intertwined parts. These patterns look so natural and alive that it becomes difficult to believe that they are made of wood.
For the kitchen, it is best to choose chairs with upholstery that can be washed or wiped clean.
It would be good if it was a material that does not absorb odors and is functional.
In this case, you won’t have to worry too much about its safety, which is important. After all, as you know, kitchen chairs quickly deteriorate and lose their freshness and luster.
Therefore, a chair with a leather seat is perfect for such a room.
It looks stylish, it is comfortable to sit on such chairs, but they require minimal maintenance.
This option also looks great with a metal frame; such models are chosen for rooms with a calm interior in light colors. They can be placed around a table with a marble top and make your kitchen more aristocratic.
Viennese chairs in the interior, photos of which always confirm their sophistication and chic, fill the room with soft or, conversely, more strict lines.
If they are made in vintage style, then they make the room incredibly noble. And they allow you to significantly expand your understanding of these interior elements.
After all, they can look like simple stools from a tavern, or like brilliant armchairs with gilding and embroidery from the best European salons.
"Thonet Brothers" in Russia
had 2 factories in the Russian Empire - in Novo-Radomsk and Revel. Furniture was sold through our own warehouses and stores in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Kyiv, and at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. This furniture was incredibly popular in Russia.
The bent beech Viennese chair, which came into general use, was then sold in many stores, as reference books of those years noted. The largest store of this furniture in Moscow was located on Kuznetsky Most, while in St. Petersburg it was at the intersection of Bolshaya Morskaya and Nevsky.
Numerous rocking chairs, chairs and other bent products were able to fit into eclectic merchant interiors, into the modest homes of ordinary townspeople, and into the elegant apartments of aristocrats.
In Russia, the activities of representative offices ended in 1917, warehouses and stores were closed. At the same time, millions of Viennese chairs have managed to firmly establish themselves in our country. They survived the revolution together with people, then the war, then the construction of socialism and the period of stagnation and lived peacefully in living rooms and kitchens until today, remaining a familiar and familiar object to everyone. It is not for nothing that such a service as the restoration of Viennese chairs is so popular today. They waited for their newly-made brothers. The latter have flooded modern furniture stores and cafes under the former name - “Viennese chair”.
And into the feast and into the world
Loved by all walks of life.
Drawing analogies with modern times, we can say that the popularity of the Viennese chair from the second half of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century is comparable to the popularity of furniture from IKEA stores today. At the country dachas of artists, in the salons of important persons, in fashionable cafes, theater and exhibition halls, everywhere, right down to the orchestra pits, there was a Viennese chair. The popular piece of furniture is also immortalized on the canvases of famous artists (for example, Picasso and Dali) and on film (the film “Cabaret”).
Leader of reissues.
Le Corbusier believed that there is nothing “so elegant in form, quality in design and practical in construction” than the Viennese chair. Today the Viennese chair is a recognized leader in the number of reissues. The reasons are obvious: ideal shape and technology with a minimum number of parts.
The Thonet factory and other manufacturers still produce their interpretations of the Viennese chair.
Chair OA024 from Grange factory.
Stable and unpretentious.
With its refined and graceful form, the Viennese chair has all the necessary qualities for daily use: it is stable, easy to handle and easy to care for.
Good in any interior.
A Viennese chair can complement, decorate and highlight almost any interior: be it a dacha stylized at the beginning of the last century, a country house decorated in a pre-war style, or a completely modern home.
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On the picture:
Whatever style the interior is made in, the Viennese chair will make it sparkle with new colors with all its inherent delicacy and softness.
