Sit, used to, and dream of fame and billions - so that Hottabych would suddenly fly on a carpet-plane and donate either money, or, already ready and carefully calculated, a start-up with willing investors. But it is not in vain that they say: "He who seeks will always find." Opportunities to increase your capital, in fact, are before our eyes. You just need to be able to combine history and modern technology.
The most, in my opinion, an excellent example illustrating these words is ... the Vienna chair! But this is an ordinary chair familiar to us.
From ancient times
The technology for the manufacture of household items from bent wooden rods has been known since ancient Greece. But only one person guessed to apply these skills and knowledge for the manufacture of home furniture - such a trivial chair now. This person was Michael Thonet, a Viennese cabinetmaker.
At the beginning of the 19th century, he was the first to make traditional Viennese chairs. The first copies were made by the master himself, and his sons and apprentices helped him. But, having won recognition and awards at an exhibition in London in 1851, Thonet finally set up mass production of much-needed, convenient and affordable home furniture, and sales became already wholesale.
Moreover, the chair was sold disassembled and consisted of six parts. This is the legendary model number 14. Compactly packed, the chairs were convenient and cheap to transport, which contributed to the growth of their popularity outside of Austria-Hungary.
Chair for coffee houses
But the first large customer of Viennese bent-wood chairs was the Daum cafe in the center of Vienna in 1849. This model has become a classic and still bears the name "Chair cafe Daum." Seeing the convenience and durability, evaluating the cheapness of Michael Tonet's products, the owners of Vienna cafes and restaurants began to buy chairs of this model. In addition to bent wood, embossed plywood and a net from Viennese straw, woven in a special way, were also used in the manufacture.
Further, the models became more and more comfortable - they began to make Viennese chairs with soft backs and seats, with armrests also from a bent beech rod.
In less than 100 years, the branches of the company, opened around the world, have produced more than 50 million chairs. The catalogs of the Gebrüder Thonet company consisted of drawings and more than 1200 photos of a Viennese chair and various models of beech furniture bent in different directions.
Supply - Demand - Competition
At the same time, the same family company, J. & I. Kon (Jacob and Joseph Kon), began to develop, which by the beginning of the 20th century had become a worthy competitor to the founder of the Viennese chair both in popularity and in terms of production. Although viewing the first catalogs with their products took only a couple of minutes.
Jacob & Josef Kohn could not just adopt the technology of manufacturing wooden Viennese chairs, but improved it, expanded the range of bent wood interior items, the list of materials used, began to attract professional architects. They were the first to produce products in the modern style.
They say that there was even a case when a Viennese chair was thrown from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and he remained completely intact, apart from a couple of scratches. Which modern furniture makers will dare to demonstrate the quality of their products in such a decisive way?
Vienna phenomenon in the Russian Empire
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 20 manufactures in Russia producing furniture from bent wood, including the famous Viennese chair. The manufacture and sale of this sought-after interior element was also made by Russian artisans. They began to use not only beech. The oak, birch, maple, ash, ash and mountain ash popular in our country were used.
In 1870, the Polish company Wojciechow quite actively entered the Russian furniture market with the offer of chairs made of bent wood under steam and quite successfully existed until 1917. But only the Viennese chairs manufactured by The Thonet Brothers were delivered to the Tsar’s Court in Russia.
After the October Revolution, all the stockpiles of Viennese furniture makers dispersed to the newly formed institutions, canteens, cafes and newly formed communal apartments. The life of the Vienna chair continued on a new round of Russian history.
Until now, these restored, become classic, chairs can be purchased either by accident due to ignorance of the former owners of the true price, or at auctions where the price of one rarity starts from 8,000 rubles.
Eco-friendly and beautiful without frills
Vienna chair is an interior item that will always be relevant. Materials, forms will change, but the manufacturing principle and design features will be preserved for centuries. And this is not just pathos. Few people want to sit on an uncomfortable bench or transfer from place to place at the arrival of guests a bulky 18th-century armchair. Why torment your body, which asks for warmth and comfort, if there are beautiful Viennese soft chairs. You sit and gratefully recall the one who invented this ergonomic miracle.
It is worth stopping by at any cafe, bar, restaurant, banking office, to neighbors, flying to the other end of the country, to another continent to see all the same Viennese chairs, but made of modern materials, with new design refinements. Especially diverse are the colors in which the chairs are painted. But, as before, the color of natural wood - from dark to light shades - is the most popular. Woody colors are suitable for any interior, such chairs will be appropriate in the office, and in the dining room, and in the living room.
Hot Pricing Issues
The distribution of bent furniture around the world has been and remains triumphant. Until now, few furniture makers have been able to anticipate the era with their invention. Well, perhaps modern transformers, which, incidentally, were expected. Now designers are striving to bring fiction to life in the most incredible ways. And often they succeed, but the price itself becomes fantastic.
But Michael Thonet did the exact opposite. From an expensive piece of furniture, initially available only to very solvent gentlemen, he created a chair that was bought even by people with a very average income. As they say, the topic is to think newfangled designers.
Fidelity to tradition
Modern models are not much different from the first chairs. In stores, catalogs of manufacturers, of which there are many, and they successfully diversify the assortment, there is a large selection. Here you can find a metal Viennese chair for the interior in high-tech style or this chair with high legs to the bar; a rocking chair made of bent wooden rods of various species of wood, a cute and comfortable Viennese chair.
A wide range of modern materials is also used - plastic, metal alloys, and genuine leather, its substitute, and fabrics are also upholstered.
It is difficult to immediately navigate the variety of offers and choose what fits perfectly into the modern interior of an apartment or a country house. Buy a classic Viennese chair made of bent beech - the right decision!