The chair was part of the eleven-piece living room set produced by Gambs furniture workshop in Saint Petersburg. The chair is shaped after a French fauteuil, a padded armchair with open-sided armrests. This almost feminine shape had a huge impact on the design of chairs all across the world because it offered maximum comfort.
This chair was made of light chestnut and originally upholstered in chintz. Altogether, the living room set had six padded chairs with tall backs with textile framed by curved lines of polished wood.
The set was originally part of Empress Consort Maria Alexandrovna’s living room in the old Livadia palace. The set was apparently transferred to Massandra museum in as early as the 1930s – it can be seen in the museum photos of that time. After the end of WW2, Massandra museum was abolished and the furniture moved again to the State Dacha (a dacha is a Russian summer country house). In 1956 the museum was re-established, so the furniture set was exhibited in the Chinz Room of the Vorontsov Palace, and then nine items from the set were moved to the Royal Bedroom in Alexander III’s palace to represent the furniture of the Imperial family.
Mentions of the Gambs furniture are frequently found in contemporary Russian literature: in ‘Fathers and Sons’ by Ivan Turgenev, in ‘The Precipice’ by Ivan Goncharov, and even in an unfinished ‘We spent the evening at the cottage…’ by Alexander Pushkin. Today, the name of Gambs workshop is commonly known from ‘The Twelve Chairs’ by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, although it does not explicitly involve Heinrich Gambs.
Heinrich Gambs, the founder of Gambs workshop, first arrived in Saint Petersburg from Germany along with his teacher, a famous cabinet-maker David Roentgen. The two of them were accompanying a large batch of furniture commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great. Gambs was so fascinated by the beauty of the Russian imperial capital and by the prospects of the Russian market that he moved to Saint Petersburg and started working there in 1790. Having partnered up with an Austrian merchant Jonathan Ott, Gambs opened a large furniture workshop in the capital.
Top quality and design of the furniture made Gambs workshop one of the most fashionable brands in Saint Petersburg. The company kept operating for over sixty years, first ran by Gambs himself and later on by his sons.
In 1841, Ivan Pushkarev wrote in his Saint Petersburg guidebook: ‘Gambs was a fine artist… his furniture was famous for its elegance and integrity. All the novelties that appeared in Europe, appeared immediately in his shop as well’.
This chair was made of light chestnut and originally upholstered in chintz. Altogether, the living room set had six padded chairs with tall backs with textile framed by curved lines of polished wood.
The set was originally part of Empress Consort Maria Alexandrovna’s living room in the old Livadia palace. The set was apparently transferred to Massandra museum in as early as the 1930s – it can be seen in the museum photos of that time. After the end of WW2, Massandra museum was abolished and the furniture moved again to the State Dacha (a dacha is a Russian summer country house). In 1956 the museum was re-established, so the furniture set was exhibited in the Chinz Room of the Vorontsov Palace, and then nine items from the set were moved to the Royal Bedroom in Alexander III’s palace to represent the furniture of the Imperial family.
Mentions of the Gambs furniture are frequently found in contemporary Russian literature: in ‘Fathers and Sons’ by Ivan Turgenev, in ‘The Precipice’ by Ivan Goncharov, and even in an unfinished ‘We spent the evening at the cottage…’ by Alexander Pushkin. Today, the name of Gambs workshop is commonly known from ‘The Twelve Chairs’ by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, although it does not explicitly involve Heinrich Gambs.
Heinrich Gambs, the founder of Gambs workshop, first arrived in Saint Petersburg from Germany along with his teacher, a famous cabinet-maker David Roentgen. The two of them were accompanying a large batch of furniture commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great. Gambs was so fascinated by the beauty of the Russian imperial capital and by the prospects of the Russian market that he moved to Saint Petersburg and started working there in 1790. Having partnered up with an Austrian merchant Jonathan Ott, Gambs opened a large furniture workshop in the capital.
Top quality and design of the furniture made Gambs workshop one of the most fashionable brands in Saint Petersburg. The company kept operating for over sixty years, first ran by Gambs himself and later on by his sons.
In 1841, Ivan Pushkarev wrote in his Saint Petersburg guidebook: ‘Gambs was a fine artist… his furniture was famous for its elegance and integrity. All the novelties that appeared in Europe, appeared immediately in his shop as well’.
