We have A DOZEN reasons for you to check out this listing!!! This is a GORGEOUS set of TWELVE Modern Thonet Bauhaus or Art Deco style armchairs comprised of chrome tube cantilever frames and cognac leather seats & backs, and they are in the style of the Brno chair by Mies van der Rohe, & Lilly Reich. What a history this chair design holds!! The actual construction & design for the Brno chair by Thonet, Mies van der Rohe, & Lilly Reich began in 1928 and was completed by 1930. Some say that the true inspiration behind the design leans more with Lilly Reich but because of being a woman in those times, she was unrecognized in her accomplishments during her lifetime. Obviously, a lot has changed over the years AND since we weren’t there, we will give credit to everyone, but you should do some research on that, it’s fascinating! This iconic style is still produced today and the “official” holder of the license to produce the Brno chair is Knoll; however, many claim the design is in the public domain and able to be produced by anyone… And they do. But rest assured, one of ours retains its original Thonet tag, are of a vintage era, and they are in EXCELLENT condition! Not to mention the cognac color leather next to the chrome tube frames really POPS!! It’s phenomenal! This set of twelve armchairs will look incredible surrounding a large dining table, a conference table at the office, in a waiting area, in a game or family room, or extra seating in ANY room of your home.
Thonet was founded by Michael Thonet. Michael was born in 1796 and was apprenticed by his father to a cabinetmaker. Shortly after he married, Michael opened his one-man cabinetmaking shop creating furniture and cabinetry in the traditional manner by carving the needed parts and then joining them together. In 1830 he began experimenting with bending wood into curved shapes and thus began a successful furniture company that has remained continually in operation for nearly 200 years. Thonet’s early work was very Biedermeier in style and not made for the common man. Gradually his designs became more Art Nouveau. In 1951 his chairs for the Crystal Palace at the London World’s Fair won a prize medal and by the late 1950s he began to make his first “consumer” chair. In 1875, a year before Michael’s death, Thonet’s five factories made 620,000 chairs. Then in 1876 after his death the company became Gebruder Thonet. But all was not roses. In 1869 the Thonet patents lapsed and by 1893 there were 52 bentwood companies in Europe. However, Thonet persevered. They branched out. They merged. They added designs by Le Corbusier and Breuer and alternative materials such as tubular chrome in place of bentwood to their offerings. Business boomed and waned through the years and there was even a Thonet revival, so to speak, beginning in the 1940s on into the mid-20th century. Till today, in the 21st century, Thonet is still a furniture company to be reckoned with almost 200 years later.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies on March 27, 1886, in Germany. He was commonly referred to as Mies. He changed his name to reflect a higher societal standing. He is considered one of the pioneers of modernist design in both architecture and furnishings. Early in his career he worked in his father’s stone carving shop and several design firms. Then, moving to Berlin, he worked alongside Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. He was director of the famed Bauhaus, an influential school of modern design. But in 1932 fled Germany and the Nazi regime, along with their opposition to modernism, by moving to the United States and Chicago specifically where he headed the architecture school at the Armour Institute of Technology now the Illinois Institute of Technology. Some of his famed architectural designs are the Barcelona Pavilion, 1929; Villa Tugendhat, 1930; Crown Hall on the IIT campus; IBM Plaza, Chicago; 860-880 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago; the Farnsworth House; and many more. He is credited with the design of the Barcelona chair and table, the Brno Chair, and the Tugendhat chair. Mies died after a successful career on August 17, 1969.
Lilly Reich was born in Berlin in 1885. In 1908 using her expertise in embroidery she went to work for the Wiener Werkstatte, a visual arts production company of designers, artists, and architects, of the famed designer, Josef Hoffmann. By 1911 she returned to Berlin and began to design furniture and clothing and work as a window decorator. That was the beginning of a full and successful career which included work at the Deutscher Werkbund, a group similar to the Wiener Werkstatte; designing a working-class flat in the Berlin Gewerkschaftshaus; becoming the first woman elected to the governing board of the Deutscher Werkbund; and working at the Messeamt in Frankfurt organizing and designing trade fairs. It was at the latter where she met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the two began a collaboration on many projects together including the Barcelona Pavilion and the Tugendhat House along with their furnishings. Lilly was very talented but, according to the times because of being a woman, unrecognized in her accomplishments during her lifetime. She had a personal relationship with Mies but did not immigrate to the United States staying in Germany. Consequently, after the bombing of her studio in 1943, she was sent to a forced labor organization where she remained until 1945. She was released at the end of the war and began working on the revival of the Deutsche Werkbund but died in 1950, due to complications of her internment, before she saw its re-establishment.
Iconic Maker, Supreme Comfort, and Superior Style. This set of 12 cognac leather & chrome tube cantilever chairs by Thonet is EXACTLY what the designer ordered! Don’t let this delightful dozen go to someone else’s home or office! Make them YOURS!!!
