A Pair of Viennese Salon Fauteuils, end of the 19th century

A pair of very ele­gant­ly craft­ed salon arm­chairs, pro­duced by one of the most sig­nif­i­cant fur­ni­ture man­u­fac­tur­ers and inte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tors of the Aus­tro-Hun­gar­i­an Empire, in the Baroque style that was high­ly pop­u­lar at the time.

The curved hard­wood frames are fine­ly carved, paint­ed white, and dec­o­rat­ed with gold leaf. The seats, back­rests, and arm­rests are upholstered.

The chairs have been care­ful­ly restored and new­ly uphol­stered in our work­shops and cov­ered with an ele­gant dec­o­ra­tive fab­ric. Salon chairs of this kind were pro­duced in Vien­na by Por­tois & Fix for aris­to­crat­ic and dis­tin­guished clien­tele. Today, these chairs fit seam­less­ly into an ele­gant inte­ri­or but also serve as an inten­tion­al coun­ter­point in con­tem­po­rary settings.

We also have a sin­gle salon fau­teuil from Por­tois & Fix avail­able, click HERE.

Por­tois & Fix:

Johann Fix found­ed an uphol­stery work­shop in 1842 in Vienna’s 4^th dis­trict, at Heumühl­gasse 20, which was tak­en over in 1872 by his son Anton Fix (1846 Vien­na – 1918 Vien­na). It could be said that the company’s gold­en era began with the con­struc­tion of the grand palaces along Vienna’s Ringstrasse, for which they pro­duced many fur­nish­ings and inte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tions.

In 1873, Anton Fix par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Paris World Exhi­bi­tion, return­ing home with numer­ous awards. It is believed that Fix met the French entre­pre­neur August Por­tois (1841 Brus­sels? – 1895 Nice) dur­ing the Vien­na World Exhi­bi­tion of 1873. How­ev­er, it is very like­ly that the two had met before this event. Some sources place their first encounter in 1880. Auguste Por­tois worked for a trad­ing com­pa­ny on Boule­vard Hauss­mann in Paris — a busi­ness that pro­vid­ed com­plete inte­ri­or fur­nish­ings for wealthy clien­tele.

Togeth­er with Isidor Blum, Por­tois found­ed the Société Com­mer­ciale de Paris in 1869, based in Paris. A branch office was locat­ed in Vien­na at Kolowratring 7 (today’s Schu­ber­tring), named after the famous Aus­tri­an com­pos­er Franz Schu­bert. In 1874, Isidor Blum left the com­pa­ny, and August Por­tois con­tin­ued the busi­ness inde­pen­dent­ly in Vien­na.

That same year (June 30, 1874), August Por­tois was appoint­ed Pur­vey­or to the Impe­r­i­al and Roy­al Court. At that time, he oper­at­ed a work­shop in Vienna’s 9^th dis­trict. Even Empress Elis­a­beth com­mis­sioned the Société Com­mer­ciale de Paris in 1874 to redec­o­rate her rooms on the ground floor of Schön­brunn Palace. Sev­er­al pres­ti­gious com­mis­sions fol­lowed, includ­ing the apart­ments of Crown Prince Rudolf at Prague Cas­tle, the vil­la of Katha­ri­na Schratt, ships of the Impe­r­i­al-Roy­al Danube Steamship Com­pa­ny, and impe­r­i­al rail­way car­riages. Por­tois also took part in the Vien­na World Exhi­bi­tion in 1873 and became a mem­ber of the Vien­na Guild of Cab­i­net­mak­ers in 1877.

In 1881, Anton Fix and August Por­tois found­ed their joint enter­prise, ​“Por­tois & Fix,” and from then on offered com­plete inte­ri­or design ser­vices. The offi­cial reg­is­tra­tion as a fine arts and fur­ni­ture work­shop fol­lowed in 1884.
The company’s rapid rise over the next ten years was great­ly influ­enced by August Por­tois, who had by then acquired Aus­tri­an cit­i­zen­ship.
Por­tois & Fix’s first major pub­lic appear­ance took place at the Inter­na­tion­al Elec­tri­cal Exhi­bi­tion in Vien­na in 1883, gain­ing the com­pa­ny inter­na­tion­al acclaim. On the gallery lev­el of the Rotun­da, they pre­sent­ed sev­er­al ful­ly fur­nished salons and rooms illu­mi­nat­ed with Edison’s new­ly invent­ed light bulbs. This result­ed in many inter­na­tion­al com­mis­sions from Rus­sia, Egypt, Turkey, Switzer­land, Ger­many, and beyond.

Sub­se­quent­ly, branch offices were estab­lished in the fol­low­ing cities: Lon­don, Paris, Milan, Budapest, Bucharest, Karlovy Vary, Wro­claw, Con­stan­tino­ple, Turin, Cairo, and Bom­bay. From the 1890s onward, Por­tois & Fix col­lab­o­rat­ed close­ly with artists, espe­cial­ly archi­tects and design­ers asso­ci­at­ed with the Wiener Werk­stätte (Vien­na Work­shop). The com­pa­ny pro­duced designs by Otto Wag­n­er, Josef Hoff­mann, Adolf Loos, and Kolo­man Moser in their own work­shops. By 1900, Por­tois & Fix had become one of the most impor­tant fur­ni­ture man­u­fac­tur­ers of the so-called ​“Vien­nese Mod­ernism.”

Fur­ni­ture cre­at­ed by the Wiener Werk­stätte and the design­ers of this era can now be found in muse­ums and pri­vate col­lec­tions world­wide. When August Por­tois with­drew from the com­pa­ny due to ill­ness on Novem­ber 30, 1894, Anton Fix became the sole pro­pri­etor. August Por­tois passed away at the age of 54 in Nice. Between 1899 and 1901, based on plans by the archi­tect Max Fabi­ani, a new com­pa­ny head­quar­ters was built at Ungar­gasse 59 – 61 in Vienna’s 3^rd dis­trict.

Strong­ly influ­enced by the mod­ern archi­tec­ture of Otto Wag­n­er, Max Fabi­ani cre­at­ed one of the most advanced com­mer­cial build­ings of its time. Born in Slove­nia, Fabi­ani worked in Otto Wagner’s City Rail­way stu­dio, where he not only designed the Por­tois & Fix head­quar­ters on Ungar­gasse but also the Artaria Pub­lish­ing House on Vienna’s Kohlmarkt, the Ura­nia Obser­va­to­ry, and much more. Between 1905 and 1914, Fabi­ani also served as an advi­sor on archi­tec­tur­al and art-his­tor­i­cal mat­ters to Crown Prince Franz Fer­di­nand.
From 1903 to 1904, he was a mem­ber of the Vien­na Seces­sion and, along­side Josef Plečnik, is regard­ed as one of the most impor­tant Sloven­ian archi­tects. For the recep­tion salon at the Paris World Exhi­bi­tion in 1900, Por­tois & Fix exe­cut­ed a design by Max Fabi­ani — the so-called ​“Emperor’s Room” — for which Fabi­ani was award­ed the Grand Prix.

In 1903, Anton Fix’s son Robert Fix joined the fam­i­ly busi­ness, bring­ing fresh cre­ative impe­tus through his designs and ensur­ing the company’s con­tin­ued suc­cess. On August 14, 1907, ​“Por­tois & Fix” was con­vert­ed into a joint-stock com­pa­ny. Fol­low­ing the death of his father in 1918, Robert Fix left the com­pa­ny to pur­sue a career as a painter. With­out doubt, ​“Por­tois & Fix” was one of Vienna’s most sig­nif­i­cant fur­ni­ture pro­duc­ers at the turn of the cen­tu­ry. Strate­gic expan­sion, prod­uct diver­si­ty, inno­va­tion, crafts­man­ship, and mod­ern think­ing all con­tributed to the company’s tremen­dous suc­cess.
Its clien­tele includ­ed: Impe­r­i­al and Roy­al Hous­es, aris­toc­ra­cy, bankers, indus­tri­al­ists, man­u­fac­tur­ers, the upper bour­geoisie, and entre­pre­neurs.

In addi­tion to count­less exhi­bi­tions at home and abroad, the com­pa­ny par­tic­i­pat­ed in many inter­na­tion­al exhi­bi­tions, includ­ing:

- The Vien­na World Exhi­bi­tion in 1873
- The Paris World Exhi­bi­tion in 1900
- The Impe­r­i­al-Roy­al Aus­tri­an Exhi­bi­tion in Lon­don in 1906

Many of the works cre­at­ed by Por­tois & Fix were — both then and now — pub­lished and wide­ly doc­u­ment­ed. Below is a small selec­tion of pres­ti­gious ref­er­ences from the com­pa­ny Por­tois & Fix:

- Hunt­ing Lodge May­er­ling, Low­er Aus­tria, com­mis­sioned by Crown Prince Rudolf
- Café-Con­fec­tionery Demel, 1^st Dis­trict, Kohlmarkt 14
Stadt­bahn Pavil­ion of His Impe­r­i­al and Roy­al Majesty’s Court (Archi­tec­ture: Otto Wag­n­er), Hiet­z­ing, 13^th Dis­trict, Schön­brun­ner Schlossstraße
- Jew­el­ry store A. E. Köchert, 1^st Dis­trict, Neuer Markt 15
- Men’s out­fit­ter Knize, 1^st Dis­trict, Graben 13, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Adolf Loos
- Flag­ship store of the tex­tile com­pa­ny E. Braun & Co., 1^st Dis­trict, Graben 8
Loos­bar (Amer­i­can Bar), 1^st Dis­trict, Kärnt­ner Durch­gang 10, togeth­er with Adolf Loos, 1909
- Restau­rant and Del­i­catessen Zum Schwarzen Kameel, 1^st Dis­trict, Bogn­er­gasse 5, designed by Adolf Loos
- Palais Salm-Vet­sera, 3^rd Dis­trict, Sale­sian­er­gasse 11, which was demol­ished around 1916

In the 20^th cen­tu­ry, the com­pa­ny increas­ing­ly spe­cial­ized in cus­tom com­mis­sions, work­ing — among oth­ers — for the Vien­na State Opera, the Burgth­e­ater, the Aus­tri­an Par­lia­ment, the Span­ish Rid­ing School, banks, and oth­er pub­lic insti­tu­tions. Por­tois & Fix was also com­mis­sioned for work at the Roy­al Palace of Aman.

Lit­er­a­ture:
• Ste­fan Üner: Por­tois & Fix, in: Wag­n­er, Hoff­mann, Loos und das Möbelde­sign der Wiener Mod­erne. Kün­stler, Auf­tragge­ber, Pro­duzen­ten, hrsg. v. Eva B. Ottill­inger, Ausst. Kat. Hof­mo­bilien­de­pot, Wien 20.3. – 7.10.2018, S. 145 – 147, ISBN 978−3−205−20786−3.
• Géza Hajós / Walther Brauneis: Die Pro­fan­baut­en des III., IV. und V. Bezirkes. Wien: Schroll 1980 (Öster­re­ichis­che Kun­st­to­pogra­phie, 44.2), S. 172 f.
• Andreas Lehne: Jugend­stil in Wien. Architek­tur­führer. Wien: J & V Ed.2, 1990, S. 55 f.
• Bun­des­denkmalamt [Hg.]: Dehio-Hand­buch. Die Kun­st­denkmäler Öster­re­ichs. Wien. II. bis IX. und XX. Bezirk. Wien 1993, S. 134
• Felix Czeike: III. Land­straße. Wien [u.a.]: Jugend & Volk 1984 (Wiener Bezirk­skul­tur­führer, 3), S. 68 f.
• Ottokar Uhl: Mod­erne Architek­tur in Wien von Otto Wag­n­er bis heute. Wien [u.a.]: Schroll 1966, Register
• Friedrich Achleit­ner: Öster­re­ichis­che Architek­tur im 20. Jahrhun­dert. Ein Führer. Band ³⁄₁: Wien. 1. – 12. Bezirk. Salzburg: Res­i­denz-Ver­lag 1990, S. 132
• Diet­mar Stein­er: Architek­tur in Wien. 300 sehenswerte Baut­en. Wien: Mag­is­trat 1984, S. 142
• Paris­er Esprit und Wiener Mod­erne – Die Fir­ma Por­tois & Fix. Mit Beiträ­gen von Eva B. Ottill­inger, Peter Haiko, Ulrike Schol­da und Bernadette Decristo­foro; Ausstel­lungskat­a­log, 2008.
• Vera J. Behal: Möbel des Jugend­stils. Samm­lung des Öster­re­ichis­chen Muse­ums für ange­wandte Kun­st. Pres­tel Ver­lag, Wien 1988, ISBN 3−7913−0547−6.
• Ingrid Haslinger: Kunde – Kaiser. Die Geschichte der ehe­ma­li­gen k. u. k. Hofliefer­an­ten. Schroll, Wien 1996, ISBN 3−85202−129−4.
• Dorothee Müller: Klas­sik­er des mod­er­nen Möbelde­signs. Otto Wag­n­er, Adolf Loos, Josef Hoff­mann, Kolo­man Moser. Key­ser­sche Ver­lags­buch­hand­lung, Wien 1984, ISBN 3−87405−166−8.
• Maria Rennhofer: Kolo­man Moser – Leben und Werk 1868 – 1918. Brand­stät­ter, Wien 2002, ISBN 3−85498−123−6.