AIC's 45th Annual Meeting

Gebrüder Thonet was an Austrian based furniture manufacturer established in the 19th century. Often credited with the invention of bentwood furniture, the company in fact developed the first mass manufacturing processes for harnessing the unique tensile properties of wood to efficiently produce affordable bentwood furniture. While many reproducible models were originally manufactured by standard molds, missing elements of bentwood furniture can be a challenge to replicate. This paper will focus on the treatment of a Gebrüder Thonet rocking chair and the process employed to create a reproduction of the rocking chair's missing back splat. Technical challenges faced when creating this back splat included the back splat's compound curvature and the fact that the intact joinery of the crest rail, stiles, and lower rail physically locked out the insertion of an intact replacement piece. Research determined that the chair's original back splat was constructed out of veneered ply, and a custom mold was built to form the reproduction piece out of bendable plywood and and beech veneer. In addition to the missing back splat, which served as a major component of the chair's aesthetic continuity and intended function, substantial areas of the finish were stripped and the surface was sanded, leaving newly exposed bare wood visible on nearly half of the chair. Decisions regarding the overall treatment, which were informed by the existing wear on remaining elements of the chair, will also be discussed. Given the degraded and worn appearance of the remaining finish, as well as the damage incurred through partial stripping, the owner was also interested in learning more about the possibility of the presence of original finish. Little is published on the original finishing techniques employed by the Gebrüder Thonet Company, and it was decided that an investigation of the finish on the rocking chair in comparison to the available literature may shed light on the nature of the finish and its potential originality.