Pair of Children's Chairs thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at Young V&A
Design Gallery, Designing for Change section 1, Case 2

This object consists of 2 parts, some of which may be located elsewhere.

Pair of Children's Chairs

1859 (designed), after 1866-1896 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Thonet was the first company to mass manufacture furniture designed specifically for children. The first examples appeared in their 1866 catalogue. This particular chair is derived from the adult-size version of Thonet's 'Chair no 14', which is also known as 'The Bistro Chair' and the 'Coffee Shop Chair'. Available from 1859, it was Thonet's most commercially successful model, and it is said that 50 million of them were made just between 1859 and 1896. It has remained a popular design and has been in constant production, and has been widely copied by other manufacturers, sometimes in other materials such as metal.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.
(Some alternative part names are also shown below)
  • Chair
  • Side Chair
  • Chair
  • Side Chairs
Materials and techniques
Bentwood and cane
Brief description
Pair of Child's bentwood chairs with canework seats, made in Austria probably by Thonet, after 1859
Physical description
Pair of side chairs, the child-sized version of Thonet's Chair No 14 but without the hoop stretcher (and therefore made from five pieces of wood rather than the adult style's six). Each chair is made of bentwood (steamed wood), stained brown and varnished: the open-frame back and the back legs are made of a single bow of wood, with a three-quarter circle bentwood splat which is pegged and glued within it. The bow is bolted to the circular bentwood-edged canework seat and secured within by two nuts; the front legs are glued into holes in the underside of the seat. All the legs are splayed to give a firmer base.
Dimensions
  • Part 1 chair only weight: 1.95kg
Production typeMass produced
Object history
Bought at auction at Christie's South Kensington (RF 80/629).
Summary
Thonet was the first company to mass manufacture furniture designed specifically for children. The first examples appeared in their 1866 catalogue. This particular chair is derived from the adult-size version of Thonet's 'Chair no 14', which is also known as 'The Bistro Chair' and the 'Coffee Shop Chair'. Available from 1859, it was Thonet's most commercially successful model, and it is said that 50 million of them were made just between 1859 and 1896. It has remained a popular design and has been in constant production, and has been widely copied by other manufacturers, sometimes in other materials such as metal.
Collection
Accession number
MISC.76:1, 2-1980

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Record createdJanuary 19, 2009
Record URL
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