A rare bentwood armchair

AFTER A DESIGN BY JOSEF HOFFMANN FOR THE PURKERSDORF SANITORIUM 1904, MANUFACTURED BY J. & J. KOHN, MODEL 322F, CIRCA 1905

Details
A rare bentwood armchair
After a design by Josef Hoffmann for the Purkersdorf Sanitorium 1904, manufactured by J. & J. Kohn, model 322F, circa 1905
Central back panel pierced with two rows of circles, tall arms applied with flat panels, padded and covered with original Backhausen upholstery, upholstered seat
38½in. (97cm.) high
Painted number on the back of the seat 10, and original label concealed by the padding beneath the seat

Lot Essay

It is quite possible that this armchair was specifically Hoffmann's design and not merely a commerical variation by Kohn of Hoffmann's Purkersdorf side chair. There is a precedent for Hoffmann himself developing a side-chair into a seat with arms: he is credited as the designer of a two-seat bench with arms (shown at the Kunstschau, Vienna in 1908), which was a development of his 1906 design for a side chair, (which in turn was offered as a single armchair variant in the Kohn catalogue of that same year, model no. 371F).
Cf: Ostergard (ed.), exh. cat. no. 54, p. 255, the relationship between the Kunstschau bench and its sidechair and armchair variants discussed.

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