A Pair of Biedermeier Fauteuils

The extra­or­di­nar­i­ly craft­ed arm­chairs with very fine mahogany veneer are a beau­ti­ful exam­ple of the ele­gant design and exe­cu­tion of the court­ly and aris­to­crat­ic fur­ni­ture from the Bie­der­meier period. 

The seat, back­rest and arm­rests are fresh­ly and tra­di­tion­al­ly uphol­stered with belts and laced met­al springs, horse­hair, and sea grass. The curved shapes of the design is espe­cial­ly intrigu­ing. The uphol­stered arm­rests flow into the slight­ly swept back­rest with the fine­ly elab­o­rat­ed mahogany frieze on the out­side. The hand-made seat rests on the chair frame, ter­mi­nat­ing in con­i­cal shaped, swept legs with brass-shoes and castors. 

The hand-stitched uphol­stery with the pre­cise, almost sharp edges under­lines the clear exe­cu­tion of this remark­able draft. Fur­ni­ture from this peri­od made of this high-end qual­i­ty and in Mahogany veneer was only reserved for the very wealthy, aris­to­crat­ic soci­ety. Exot­ic mate­ri­als such as mahogany came from the colonies via Eng­land to the con­ti­nent at this time and, there­fore, were very expen­sive due to the long ship­ping routes. Napoleon’s ​“con­ti­nen­tal bar­ri­er,” which crum­bled already 1813, caused some addi­tion­al com­pli­ca­tions for transport. 

The sophis­ti­cat­ed design lan­guage with its clear shapes gift­ed us with impres­sive objects — fur­ni­ture with a time­less, mod­ern look, still today. The char­ac­ter­is­tic, curved shape inspired the Art Deco style more than 100 years lat­er. We find sim­i­lar designs in the drafts of Josef Dan­hauser, which today are part of the MAK col­lec­tion in Vien­na, in the​“Geymüller Schlös­sel” col­lec­tion, and the impe­r­i­al fur­ni­ture col­lec­tion (“Hof­mo­bilien­de­pot”) in Vien­na. Also, Arch­duke Carl com­mis­sioned com­pa­ra­ble, fine­ly craft­ed fur­ni­ture by Josef Dan­hauser from 1822 – 1825. Dan­hauser man­u­fac­tured new fur­ni­ture in mahogany for the entire palace, today’s Alberti­na muse­um, and the mar­quetry for the state rooms. 

These arm­chairs, we present here, are an excel­lent exam­ple of the extra­or­di­nary style and ele­gance of the Vien­nese drafts, mas­ter­ly craft­ed in the first 3^rd of the 19^th Cen­tu­ry, by arti­sans with excel­lent sense for pro­por­tion and design. In most cas­es, these objects were made with the great­est atten­tion to detail for aris­to­crat­ic clients. 

Our arm­chairs come from an impor­tant Vien­nese col­lec­tion. Parts of this col­lec­tion are now owned by the Repub­lic of Aus­tria and are on dis­play in the Muse­um of Applied Arts and Geymüller Schlös­sel in Vien­na. The chairs got ren­o­vat­ed with the utmost care in our work­shops. We are hap­py to assist with the cov­er fab­rics and offer uphol­stery ser­vices in-house.