The collection of the Tomsk History Museum contains examples of furniture of different periods. Here, you can find items in the Art Nouveau style, which was characteristic of the turn of the 20th century, as well as furniture from the preceding period, the late 19th century.

In those years, Austria set the fashion in interior and furniture design. Viennese bentwood tables and chairs with polished surfaces that accentuated the wood’s texture were considered to be a sign of good taste. This made Viennese furniture very popular and highly demanded both in the Russian capital and in other parts of the country, including Siberia. Photographs of Tomsk interiors of the early 20th century depict these chairs in houses of merchants, officials, and bourgeois alike.

The famous No. 14 chair was designed by the Austrian furniture maker Michael Thonet. He revolutionized furniture production in the mid-19th century. Thonet decided to replace unwieldy designs with more practical furniture and received a royal patent “to bend any type of wood, even the most brittle, into the desired forms and curves by chemical and mechanical means.” In Russia, this type of chair is called “Viennese, ” as it was first produced in Vienna.

The designer”s idea paid off, and he quickly found his market. Michael Thonet founded a furniture manufacturing company, and soon after, his new chairs took over the world, appearing not only in Europe, but also in Russia and America. At first they were made from beech, but later the furniture maker began to use other wood species as well. These products were manufactured with the use of a special technology that involved treating wooden elements with hot steam. This allowed to achieve perfectly smooth curves and shapes, while the products themselves became highly durable. The designer found a peculiar way of demonstrating this famed strength: threw one of his chairs off the top of the Eiffel Tower, and it simply bounced off the pavement without breaking.

One of these chairs is displayed in the merchant”s drawing room. Its back and seat are decorated with Art NouvEAU carvings with flowing soft curves and ringlets. Art Nouveau was inspired by organic forms found in nature.