A Set of Six Biedermeier Chairs

This exquis­ite­ly ele­gant set of chairs in fine mahogany veneer is a won­der­ful exam­ple of the mag­nif­i­cent design and exe­cu­tion of the court­ly and aris­to­crat­ic fur­ni­ture from the Bie­der­meier period.

The fan-shaped, slight­ly cam­bered back­rest flows into the slight­ly back­ward swept legs. The seat’s enclos­ing frame, tra­di­tion­al­ly uphol­stered with belts and laced met­al springs, horse­hair, and sea grass, ter­mi­nates into the slight­ly con­i­cal­ly shaped front legs.

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, clear design lan­guage gives a time­less, mod­ern look to these objects. The char­ac­ter­is­tic 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. The chairs, we present here, are an excel­lent exam­ple of the remark­able 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. The set of chairs comes from an impor­tant Vien­nese collection.

Fresh­ly uphol­stered, ready for a cov­er fab­ric of your choice. We are hap­py to assist incl. the final uphol­stery with a cov­er fab­ric in our inhouse-workshops.