The residents of Tyumen in the 19th century followed the fashion trends of Saint Petersburg. Therefore, European furniture quickly appeared in the homes of wealthy citizens, including Viennese chairs, which were popular in the capital.
Buyers especially loved Viennese chairs. They looked seamless in any space and were also among the most hard-wearing wooden chairs. Once such a chair was dropped from the Eiffel Tower in Paris as an experiment, after which it simply bounced off the paving without any damage.
The chair in the exhibition was made at the “Jacob & Josef Kohn” factory. It was founded in the Austro-Hungarian capital in the second half of the 19th century and produced bentwood Viennese furniture.
Austrian Jacob Kohn founded the furniture factory in 1849. In 1878, his son Josef joined his father’s business and the company was renamed to “Jacob and Josef Kohn”. The motto of the Joint-Stock Company was the Latin saying “Semper Sursum”, which translates to “To be one step ahead”.
Jacob and Josef Kohn improved the technology of making furniture. In their factory, beechwood was bent with hot steam in just a few minutes. In the production of their direct competitor, furniture maker Michael Thonet, this took two hours.
The company “Jacob and Josef Kohn” was one of the first to produce furniture in the Art Nouveau style. Its owners quickly realized that professionals needed to be involved in the design of new models. Therefore, they began to cooperate with the famous young architects of the Vienna Secession (a group of progressive artists): Josef Hoffmann, Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Koloman Moser, and Gustav Siegel. The products of the firm quickly gained popularity and international recognition. At the Paris exhibition of 1878, the salon armchair of the firm took first place for the design of the legs.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the Joint-Stock Company “Jacob and Josef Kohn” supplied about one and a half thousand models of the bent Viennese furniture a year to Russia. The firm had its production in Russia, as well as representative offices and stores.
Buyers especially loved Viennese chairs. They looked seamless in any space and were also among the most hard-wearing wooden chairs. Once such a chair was dropped from the Eiffel Tower in Paris as an experiment, after which it simply bounced off the paving without any damage.
The chair in the exhibition was made at the “Jacob & Josef Kohn” factory. It was founded in the Austro-Hungarian capital in the second half of the 19th century and produced bentwood Viennese furniture.
Austrian Jacob Kohn founded the furniture factory in 1849. In 1878, his son Josef joined his father’s business and the company was renamed to “Jacob and Josef Kohn”. The motto of the Joint-Stock Company was the Latin saying “Semper Sursum”, which translates to “To be one step ahead”.
Jacob and Josef Kohn improved the technology of making furniture. In their factory, beechwood was bent with hot steam in just a few minutes. In the production of their direct competitor, furniture maker Michael Thonet, this took two hours.
The company “Jacob and Josef Kohn” was one of the first to produce furniture in the Art Nouveau style. Its owners quickly realized that professionals needed to be involved in the design of new models. Therefore, they began to cooperate with the famous young architects of the Vienna Secession (a group of progressive artists): Josef Hoffmann, Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Koloman Moser, and Gustav Siegel. The products of the firm quickly gained popularity and international recognition. At the Paris exhibition of 1878, the salon armchair of the firm took first place for the design of the legs.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the Joint-Stock Company “Jacob and Josef Kohn” supplied about one and a half thousand models of the bent Viennese furniture a year to Russia. The firm had its production in Russia, as well as representative offices and stores.
